The most vulnerable members of society will suffer the worst consequences, of the COVID-19 and accompanying economic crises particularly those who live in the places which lack even basic health services. How can a billion people dwelling in over-crowded slums with minimal sanitation practice social distancing or to wash hands .
The pandemic prospects are terrifying for the millions of migrants and displaced people, those in prison, the homeless and those who already live in disaster-prone areas. Not only are they most exposed to infection, but they are least able to access quality healthcare, and who will most impacted by the loss of income because of a lock-down. No government support packages can be expected by the world’s millions of refugees left to fend for themselves in camps.
For many developing low-income countries, the current coronavirus crisis could become a ‘double whammy’ that exacerbates existing humanitarian challenges, such as conflicts, droughts, the locust plague or endemic poverty. Healthcare systems are already overburdened in such countries, especially where austerity cuts have been imposed on government public services. Scores of countries have endured waves of fiscal cut-backs and curtailed labour rights for those in the informal work sector. The consequences are predicted to be devastating for under-resourced governments that are reeling from other humanitarian catastrophes.
The journalist, John Pilger, has reminded us, deaths from Covid-19 still pale in comparison with the 24,600 people who unnecessarily die from starvation every day, or the 3,000 children who die from preventable malaria. Not to mention other diseases of poverty like tuberculosis or pneumonia, or the cholera crisis in Yemen, or the countless daily deaths due to economic sanctions in countries like Venezuela and Iran. No pandemic or global emergency has ever been declared for these people.
Will Covid-19 therefore awaken us to the stark inequalities and injustices of our world, or will it simply represent a new cause of impoverishment for vast swathes of humanity who have long been disregarded by the public’s conscience?
The developing world is already in turmoil due to the drop in price of commodity prices and fall in foreign direct investment, a collapse in tourism and the weakening of their own domestic economies.. Already heavily indebted to global lenders, with reduced exports, lack of foreign currency reserves and now an expected increase in borrowing costs, raising the prospect of a new debt crisis for south-east Asia, Latin America and Africa these regions could descend into chaos.
We have created abundance for all but capitalism has manufactured scarcity.
Adapted from here
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