COVID-19 Accountability
Once the dust settles on the unprecedented COVID-19 phenomenon and the world grapples with rebuilding nations, economies, businesses and the lives of individuals, I have only one question:
How will Canada specifically, and the West generally:
- hold China accountable for this health care travesty that will likely involve trillions of remediation dollars and thousands of casualties world-wide; and
- hold Saudi Arabia and Russia accountable for their rapacious and predatorial onslaught on the West's (i.e. Alberta's) Oil and Gas sectors during these calamitous times?
Sadly, given that Canada is led by a Prime Minister who, only a scant few years ago identified China as his most admired nation because they could "...turn on a dime...", and who is beholding to Quebec / SNC Lavalin and Montreal / maritime harbor union contractual interests, I fear that the Liberal go-forward will be ... 'business as usual'.
Independent Architecture & Urban Design Consultant
4 年Tom, neither China, nor the West were prepared for a new virus (see Gates at TED in Vancouver 2015 warning about it). Viruses emerge in various locations: Mers in the Middle East, HIV in Africa, many of our seasonal flu viruses happily evolve among us (and already killed over 10,000 people in North America this year). China's initial response was slow because of the lower officials, so it may be legitimate to be critical of a system where information must look good before it's past to the superiors - I've seen this system in action, too. However, once the central government became involved they pulled off all the stops and took very decisive action (as the West was watching and not at all ramping up for the hit) and shared all the medical data. Thanks to the disciplined and conscientious population they fully arrested the spread of the virus - they should be praised for that. I believe the nation could be blamed here, only the system which made the lower officials afraid to report bad news. To blame "China" is too broad and may be offensive. There are other viruses carried by bats in Asia and monkeys in Africa, so more is coming in our hyper-connected world... Stay safe!