What is happening in India is unimaginable. It is a system overwhelmed.
It affects us all, not just because we care about them, but because this new spike in the pandemic is a breeding ground for new variants that can sweep right back through the world.
India's health care system is in a state of collapse with bed shortages, oxygen shortages, and people just dying while waiting for treatment. Whereas in February they had just 10K new cases a day (small for a country of 1.3 bilion), today they have 300K new cases a day.
Tonight, thanks to @bluebelle, (also @lovendures and @deetoo) I saw these two beautiful YouTubes of Indian doctors and health care workers brightening up the mood amidst their crisis:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CNpKtmxBAap/?igshid=c5eoank2u1dz
Do you see this crisis as the nail in the coffin for PM Modi, just like how COVID cost Trump his second term?
@enkasongwriter Wasn't he the one who decided to lift the restrictions and allow non socially distanced election rallies, religious holiday celebrations and sports events? He set off the worst humanitarian crisis in India's history, and the worst Covid crisis since the pandemic began. I think you know the answer!
@jeanne-mayell @enkasongwriter there is an article by Arundhati Roy about that in today's Guardian. It is one of the most disturbing things i have ever read, so click carefully: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/apr/28/crime-against-humanity-arundhati-roy-india-covid-catastrophe
@Unk-p's article from the Guardian is worth reading. It was the very article that prompted me to start this thread, but I didn't link it because I thought it was too grim for this community to read, given how sensitive we all are and what we've already been through for five years with Trump.
But @Unk-p's infinite wisdom has prevailed and I agree that it is good to read the article. We need to understand the lessons that Covid is teaching us all. We need a new paradigm of a government and an economy for the care of the people, not profits for the few. Seems obvious, but given 2,000 years of patriarchy, and profiteering, we are going to need some strong evidence in our daily lives if we are to change.
@enkasongwriter's post that the Indian Covid catastrophe may expedite the end of their Trumpian Prime Minister, Modi, is another case in point. Modi is Trump incarnate as is Brazil's president - all bombastic strong authoritative men who exist to make themselves and their sponsors wealthy. All three countries have suffered extraordinary levels of Covid because of policies that suck the money out away from the public good into the hands of a few.
This section of @unkp's article is worth a read. It reminds me of our years with Trump. Reminds me of the U.S.'s market place healthcare system that benefits the rich over the health of the people. Only in India, the system is much worse because there is more poverty:
"Under Modi, India’s economy has been hollowed out, and hundreds of millions of people who were already living precarious lives have been pushed into abject poverty. A huge number now depend for survival on paltry earnings... It is impossible to expect that families on the verge of starvation will pay most of a month’s income to have themselves vaccinated. In the UK, vaccines are free and a fundamental right...In India, the main underlying impetus of the vaccination campaign seems to be corporate profit.
As this epic catastrophe plays out on our Modi-aligned Indian television channels, you’ll notice how they all speak in one tutored voice. The “system” has collapsed, they say, again and again. The virus has overwhelmed India’s health care “system”.
The system has not collapsed. The “system” barely existed. ...This massive privatisation of India’s healthcare is a crime."