The Netherlands’ approach to the Coronavirus reveals painful issues that would rather not be faced, let alone discussed. That does not make these issues any less essential in a new smaller world where viruses can prevail without authority for world powers, piles of money or a sense of superiority.
From the very first images and reports from Huwan it must have been clear that this virus was coming. Even if you have never heard of Bill Gates, I bet there were virologists who sounded the alarm, to at least warn about the possibility of the pandemic that is now a reality. Just like President Obama did in 2014 (see video).
Noteworthy was the laconic response from the Netherlands, which seemed neither alarmed nor to take any measures.
President Obama in 2014 on preparing for a pandemic
Chinese are dirty, it's their own fault
Obviously I didn't read all the posts, but the pieces I did receive and read all trivialized the disease and what was happening on the Asian side of the world.
There was no need to worry. Like Trump, people seemed to think that the virus would disappear on its own.
With some gathered statistics it was substantiated that many more victims died of flu every year and that Corona was therefore not that bad. The statistics of how differently and quickly the virus spread were conveniently left out.
The sad thing about all these articles was that they were riddled with stereotypes and racism that personally made me feel really bad.
The picture that was painted was simply, Chinese are dirty and they eat dirty, insinuating that this was not only the cause of the virus outbreak, but also China's own fault. Therefore, one did not have to worry. Corona would really not spread to the West.
The fact that the virus originated in Wuhan made it even easier to play on racist stereotypes and blame the victims. The video “People in Wuhan eating bats” predictably went viral on social media, reinforcing the stereotypical racism that the Chinese are really, really dirty. The world went into meltdown, not realizing that the video was filmed in Vietnam in 2016 for a Chinese Travel show.
Watch this video of how Taiwan handled it.
Failed policy
Western food chain
The fact that the French eat cheese with maggots, frog legs and foie gras, enlarged livers of geese that have been compulsively fattened for months, was of course not mentioned, because that is after all called “haute cuisine”. The fact that the hormone-infused industrialized “clean” meat industry not so long ago had to deal with mad cow disease was also conveniently omitted. Irrelevant also seemed to be the pesticides and fertilization methods developed in laboratories that are used en masse, but in retrospect often enough lead to consequences such as cancer.
It's not even about who does it better or worse. That you can't look at other cultures respectfully is one thing, but manipulating information for a purpose raises the serious question of how objective the media is.
Own responsibility
What makes it all predictably complete is the tendency now to hold China responsible for this pandemic. The fact that in Taiwan and other surrounding countries the virus was contained before it could really break out is not taken into account for a second.
Taiwan had as much information as the rest of the world. With the same experience that China is a communist country and no country is as open as they demand of other countries, they did not wait a moment. They got to work right away. I have not seen that happen in the Netherlands and as far as I can see, Europe.
Even if you look further at how President Obama handled the Ebola and H1N1 outbreaks, you see more or less the same non-response from European countries. Under President Obama, America had tested a million people within a month and set up a pandemic center similar to Taiwan, to contain such outbreaks in the future. Trump has dismantled this center for reasons that only he knows, but even then Europe failed to take adequate preventive measures. Was it because it concerned Africa or Mexico? Another stereotype or just far removed from my bed show? In any case, it seems to be a recognizable pattern.
This is what went wrong in America in a nutshell
If the Netherlands and probably Europe had acted more decisively, the crisis could have been contained, just as in Korea and Taiwan.
Neither Korea nor Taiwan has had to shut down their economies to contain the virus. That is a hard lesson that hopefully will be well received.
If opinion makers who shape the government's opinion cannot see beyond the stereotypical valves they wear, the future looks very bleak. Supporting stereotypes with incomplete statistics is not just dangerous, it is lethal, as it turns out. Not just for a flourishing economy, but literally lethal.