Unpublished letter sent to the Toronto Star
Re: Ottawa unveils $1B fund to battle pandemic. March 12, 2020.
While the COVID-19 pandemic spreads worldwide causing irreparable damage to the economy and society there have been no reports in the media about the cause or assigning blame for this global disaster. This pandemic was not an accident, it was entirely avoidable and preventable.
Chinese authorities are the perpetrators in this case not the victims. While China has a long and glorious history of advancement and innovation, the fault rests directly on China’s slow contemporary modernization of their ancient cultural practices in their rush to advance technologically in the shift from communism to capitalism.
This general attitude has led to a society that appears modern and highly advanced militarily but where most of the country is still destitute and possessing limited education. This has led to slow cultural advancement that still allows cruel, unregulated live animal street markets that will slaughter any animal you request on the spot mixing blood and human food together. These barbaric practices were the source of the COVID-19 outbreak that has placed the world in a serious dilemma. This is not about racism or cultural discrimination, it is about acknowledging that certain cultural practices are out of step with the modern world and should be banned. Every society has these cultural deficits that require their attention. While China has made huge advances as a nation there are still many areas of their country’s practices that need to be abandoned. The controlling Chinese leadership and their restrictive and authoritarian socialist culture that wants to manage every aspect of people’s lives to the point of shutting down the revelation of this new disease exacerbated the problem. China’s leadership should invest more time and money into developing modern cultural practices and educating their people instead of simply building a bigger military and better cities.
This pandemic is actually rooted in authoritarian narrow-mindedness and cultural deficits, not in some random accident of nature. We are all paying the price.
China needs to be held to account. Everyone affected needs to send the bill to China.