The Virus of Lies Helps Undemocratic Governments

China is not that successful in fighting the coronavirus either, but it has acknowledged it under pressure from the world public. Russia has long claimed to have a minimum number of cases by early April when it imposed emergency measures and entered the top 10 countries with the highest number of cases

Author: Ljubomir Kostovski

“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for everyone else,” Winston Churchill once said. From that point of view, the countries with a democratic structure may have had problems initiating some major actions and changes, especially in their own organization for acting in emergency situations, because there is always that political instinct to pay attention to possible endangerment of citizens’ freedoms. In this context, it should be noted the possibility that some countries show “selfishness” when it comes to including defence mechanisms against aggression, in the case of defence against an invisible enemy such as Covid-19, and then in showing solidarity to other countries. But the assessments of what a country has done or assessed should be given over a period of time and should be based on the harmony of its actions with a democratic procedure.

Therefore, in such situations, it is much easier for those countries where things are resolved when the leader nods the head (whatever that function is called) or by pointing to the direction things should move in the country and how they should be displayed inside the country and out. Crises like this with the virus create fear, and fear requires a “firm hand.” This has been shown many times. There are countries that should not invent the “firm hand”.

MOSCOW DEFENDS BEIJING

The reason for such a reflection is the text published in the Serbian “Sputnik”, an extension of the Kremlin’s wider global propaganda network entitled “Russia: America propagates beastly egoism in a time of the pandemic.”

The reason for this unsigned text, which in its form resembles an editorial comment, refers to Washington’s announcement that it will sue China for the coronavirus, and the term “beastly egoism” has been used by the Chairman of the Committee on International Relations of the Russian Duma (Parliament) – Leonid Slutsky.

The United States continues to propagate beastly egoism during a coronavirus pandemic. As soon as the curve of the disease flattened, they began to talk about possible responsibility or even punishment of China for the outbreak of Covid-19.

It is a fact that many countries, not just the United States, are talking in that direction (for example, Australia, Japan, etc.), but in the end, it is a disease that has “turned the world upside down.” Most of the countries are also exposed to huge human casualties, to the depletion of many sectors, but also to the destruction of the economy and entering into heavy credit obligations to save public finances and the existence of citizens! In the United States, more than 50,000 people have died from the corona virus. That is far more than the number of people killed in the Korean War (35,000 soldiers), and the Vietnam War has killed 58,000 members of the US military. As shown by the death spiral of Covid-19, it is very likely that this figure will be exceeded, claims CNN. A country with so many victims cannot remain indifferent to the fact that it has been plunged into great misfortune and has the right to doubt how and why the epidemic occurred, especially if there are rumours that the disease may have originated in a laboratory. The clash between the US and the WHO came at a time when the latter party shook its hand (the arguments of this organization, which seeks to keep the current concentration of expertise in the fight against infection should be taken into account) even though we are witnessing that China, which is very important for the dimension of the crisis from a legal point of view, refuses to accept an international expert group for inspection. This is the point of contention between the White House and Beijing, which is at the heart of Sputnik’s comment.

A SITUATION AS THE KOREAN AND VIETNAM WAR HAPPENING TOGETHER

Certainly, the issue of the source of the infection is not a naive thing at all, because, for most of the world, the situation is entering a long-term and unpredictable economic destruction! The previous US President, Barack Obama, needed almost two terms to reduce unemployment in the country by 9 percent and make it bearable, and now in a few weeks, the economy in the most powerful country has been reduced to that same percentage?!

According to Bloomberg estimates, “the economic crisis could trigger recessions in the United States, the eurozone and Japan, the slowest growth ever in China, and a total loss of about $ 2,700 billion for the world’s gross domestic product. This is the worst possible scenario, out of four scenarios developed by the Bloomberg Economics team, based on experiences in China, simulations in other countries, risk assessments for global supply chains and simulation of the world economy model.

But with so many unanswered questions in terms of the epidemic, as well as the reactions of governments and businesses, these predictions cannot be considered extremely accurate. They are only trying to offer a way of tracing the potential effects in countries and industries, as well as predicting the magnitude of the quake.

IS IDEOLOGY BEING EXPORTED OR IS HELP BEING PROVIDED?

If we look at the presence of the pandemic in the world as a global conflict of the most powerful countries, the fact is that China is showing “ultimate hypocrisy” when they tried, together with Russia, to export its own ideology in the form of aid. China is doing this primarily by providing assistance with its medical professionals, who, despite their experience with the virus, have shown minimal respect for prevention in their country at the epidemiological level, as several other pandemics have already originated and spread from China as well. Fortunately, they had a shorter life span.

The fact is, for example, that China, with the exception of medical staff – advisers in Italy, very selectively applies assistance of another kind. Realistically, in the Balkans, their aid has reached to countries where there is already strong political closeness, which must not be the basis for solidarity. Serbia is the one that received the most aid from Beijing in the form of two full planes from the promised ten shipments by air. Belgrade has been displayed with posters praising President Xi Jinping. This prompted European Foreign Minister Josep Borrell to call for equal treatment of billboards in Belgrade.

BILLBOARDS IN BELGRADE

The European official said there was a “battle of narratives” in the Western Balkans and that billboards could be seen on the streets of Belgrade, thanking only China for fighting the coronavirus. “It’s strange that I’ve never seen a billboard thanking the EU for its help. And we have been very helpful to Serbia and other Western Balkan countries before and during the crisis,” Borrell said and stressed that European aid and commitment had not been taken into account, while China’s assistance was considered much more important.

The message sent by Moscow with the help for the Balkans is even stronger, which has reached only Belgrade and Banja Luka. But this is far less important than the lie that both countries have shown in the past months! This is the truth that connects us to Churchill’s definition of democracy at the beginning of the text.

GREATER PRESSURE ON THE INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC

Beijing has belatedly acknowledged that the real price paid by China in the war with Covid-19 has been hidden. “The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus first appeared, has raised the death toll to 1,290, amid growing international suspicion of China’s transparency. Updated figures show that the death toll in Wuhan is 3,869, or two-thirds of the confirmed cases in China. The additional deaths were “misreported” or completely dropped, city officials said” – writes Radio Free Europe.

That fact, whether true or not, destroys the respectability of Chinese medicine when it imposes its methods as the only ones that are relevant, but it also shows that it is very difficult to believe in the picture portrayed by Beijing about China and its ideological advantages. Many followers of coronavirus events will simply wonder – when is actually Beijing telling the truth?

Russia has long concealed the number of people infected with the coronavirus. They later claimed that the numbers were minimal, as Putin said at the end of March, and was reported by CNN. But since 1 April, the whole country has been shut off (nothing is functioning and work is prohibited), and Russia is among the top ten countries in terms of the number of infected. Where did Luxembourg go?

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