Unethical world – Covid pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities of Asia and Africa

Mukesh Devrari

Are we living in the most unethical era of human history? Unfortunately, the answer to this question is in the affirmative. The Covid has again reminded us how ‘selfish’ human beings are. Perhaps the states in the modern world have jettisoned their cruelty in dealing with their own citizens, but much has not changed beyond that. In the late 20th century the western society argued that the emergence of globalization and liberalization will bring freedom, liberty and prosperity across the globe.  

The west swore by the virtues of globalization and its imminent advantages. Paeans have been written about the benefits and inherent efficiency of the interconnected and globalized world. As life on this planet is controlled by western nations. The ideas pushed by the west followed in other continents as well. They decide the ethics, contours of conscience, morality and preach that we are living in a rule-based order. It looks appropriate that there should be a rules-based world order, but those rules must not be backed by the ruthless economic and military strength of the United States and other western powers. It must be powered by ethics.

Though it is still a utopia. It cannot happen because the education introduces globally trained people to work as intellectual militia. These intellectual mercenaries mostly created by western educational institutions and think tanks use their skills to protect the empire and advance its interests. The Asian counterparts of these western tools are almost as unscrupulous as their western ones. Otherwise, the world is a simple place where we all are born perhaps with some sense of moral right and wrong. That is the reason the minimal voices pertaining to justice and ethics are still alive.

During my two years in New Zealand, I learned a lot about the collective nature of western societies by observing people around. Earlier I believed in the myth propelled by the westernized Indians and international think tanks that India and western nations are natural partners and allies as they are tied by the modern man’s commitment to rights, democracy and rule-based world order. The purpose of the narrative around natural allies is to subjugate India’s collective consciousness. Nothing can be further from the truth. Maybe the nation-states have some similarities, but that cannot be extended to people. India and western societies have nothing in common. Both might have elections to choose their government but similarities end at the point. There is nothing common beyond that, which is not common between Chinese, North Koreans with westerners, meaning people living in democracies and non-democracies 

This popular narrative also flies on the face of the lived experience of Indians abroad. It is essential to outline that Indian communities cannot attain any dignity globally unless India is counted as one of the poorest countries on the planet. Western societies are highly materialistic. How much various communities are valued in the west could be directly proportionate to their economic status in the comity of nations. India's first Prime Minister Nehru perhaps understood the natural alliance between populations of the East as achieved by westerners among themselves later on through the conceptualization of the European Union and other forms of cooperation.

Currently, entire Africa and Asia are suffering immensely due to Covid-19, but the United States refused to waive patents on vaccines or supply vaccines to poor nations until the entire west is vaccinated. The United States kept the price of vaccines at such a level that poor countries can barely afford it. The vaccine developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca, which is less effective, was used as a cover to indulge in profiteering by the western countries and their pharmaceutical companies. While China offered help to all countries to manufacture their Covid vaccines to generate goodwill for itself. Not only that, the United States stopped the supply of raw material to India to halt the manufacturing of Covid vaccines in the country as Modi govt. was using the contract manufacturing of Oxford-AstraZaneca vaccine by Serum Institute, the largest manufacturer of vaccines globally, to promote itself globally. 

But all of this did not even initiate a proper debate about the role of the United States in stretching the impact of the Covid pandemic globally. Why public intellectuals, journalists, authors, government officials, politicians in the global south are simply incapable of underlining the western contempt and disdain for the lives of people in third world countries. The vaccine for Covid has been developed in the US, but countries like India, China, Brazil, Nigeria can reverse engineer it in months if not in weeks. But the United States insisted that western pharmaceutical companies have the right to profit from the pandemic.  

We did not see any discussion on this issue in our national media? The international media is obviously controlled by western powers, but did you see the raging debate in your national media, forget about the outrage against the US for patent terror. What happened to our self-respect and dignity? While our parents, grandparents, friends, relatives, acquaintances, and family members facing life threats due to the resurgence of the Covid pandemic, the US-led by Joe Biden, not racist Donald Trump, refused to make vaccines accessible.

The most disappointing aspect of this crisis is the failure of India to express the global outrage towards western behaviour. The Indian public intellectuals and political class behaved like pliable domesticated canine of the west. What is more troubling was the ruling regime calls itself nationalist. Like the slaves of the past, the master will throw the leftover food from his plate in the rubbish bin, then the slaves survive by eating it. It has come down to this level. The behaviour of the United States must open our eyes in the East. It has brought the role of naked power in full public display in fixing the rules for governing human society. 

The west used its brutal power to shape the world and camouflaged it as a system run by ethics. The nationalists in India should carefully observe the world and must understand that our long term well-being lies in the strength of our country. Modi government appeared clueless, helpless, confused, uninformed, inefficient and incapable amidst Covid crises. It indulged more in rhetoric and propaganda than in any substantial efforts to confront the challenge. India must learn a lesson from the pandemic and ensure in coming years that we must remain dependent on the West for essentials.  

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