• Home
  • About Us
  • Contact
Friday, September 22, 2023
News On Spot
  • Home
  • News
    International Passports

    Immigration Cleared 60,000 Passports Backlog In 4 days, Says FG…

    Chief Akintola Williams

    Akintola Williams: From Sir Clifford To Tinubu, How Lifetime Of A Centenarian Traversed Tenures Of 10 Governors-General, 16 Commanders-in-Chief…

    Sexual Violence

    Sexual Violence Against Women, Girls Rising In Communities – Survey…

    NYSC

    It’s Wrong To Be Tinubu Minister While Serving – NYSC Tells Musawa…

    Multi-storey Building

    Just In: Many Feared Dead As Multi-Storey Building Collapses In Abuja…

    Enugu State

    Enugu Govt Inaugurates Committee To Probe IMT Finances…

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    • All
    • Gaming
    Rema

    Photos: Rema Wins Inaugural Afrobeats Awards At MTV VMA’s…

    Bolanle Ninalowo

    Just In: Popular Nollywood Actor Splits From Wife After 18 Years…

    Nuel Asii

    New Release: Rescue by Nuel Asii.

    Senator

    Senator To Meet Cycling Davido’s Fan, Pledges To Sponsor His Music Career…

    Sinéad O'Connor

    Irish Singer Sinéad O’Connor Dies Aged 56…

    Cynthia Okereke

    Veteran Nollywood Actress Cynthia Okereke Dies At 63…

  • Health
  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Food
    • Travel
    Genevieve

    Nollywood Actor, Genevieve Nnaji Spotted Holidaying With Friends In Italy…

    Yourself

    Ten Ways To Take Care Of Yourself…

    Phone Charging

    Avoid These When Charging Your Phone To Prolong Its Lifespan…

    Peace Mass Transport

    Peace Mass Transport, Chairman Undertakes To Bear Cost Of Fuel…

    Indomie Noodles

    Indomie Noodles Banned Over Cancer-Causing Substances That Kills…

    Frank Artus-Actor

    ‘I Didn’t Marry Age’, Actor Frank Artus Hits Back At Wife’s Critics…

    Trending Tags

    • Golden Globes
    • Game of Thrones
    • MotoGP 2017
    • eSports
    • Fashion Week
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Tech
    • All
    • Apps
    • Gadget
    • Mobile
    Elon Musk

    Elon Musk Unveils New Name, Logo For Twitter…

    LagRide

    LagRide Drivers Push For Lower Daily Repayments…

    Apple iPhone

    Apple’s ‘My Photo Stream’ Service Shutting Down in July 2023…

    Twitter

    Twitter Received 16,000 User Data Requests From Governments In 6 Months…

    Jack Dorsey

    Ex-Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey Launches Alternative App On Android…

    Loan And Bank Apps

    FG Bars Palmpay, OKash, Other Loan Apps From Accessing Customers’ Contacts, Photos…

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    International Passports

    Immigration Cleared 60,000 Passports Backlog In 4 days, Says FG…

    Chief Akintola Williams

    Akintola Williams: From Sir Clifford To Tinubu, How Lifetime Of A Centenarian Traversed Tenures Of 10 Governors-General, 16 Commanders-in-Chief…

    Sexual Violence

    Sexual Violence Against Women, Girls Rising In Communities – Survey…

    NYSC

    It’s Wrong To Be Tinubu Minister While Serving – NYSC Tells Musawa…

    Multi-storey Building

    Just In: Many Feared Dead As Multi-Storey Building Collapses In Abuja…

    Enugu State

    Enugu Govt Inaugurates Committee To Probe IMT Finances…

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    • All
    • Gaming
    Rema

    Photos: Rema Wins Inaugural Afrobeats Awards At MTV VMA’s…

    Bolanle Ninalowo

    Just In: Popular Nollywood Actor Splits From Wife After 18 Years…

    Nuel Asii

    New Release: Rescue by Nuel Asii.

    Senator

    Senator To Meet Cycling Davido’s Fan, Pledges To Sponsor His Music Career…

    Sinéad O'Connor

    Irish Singer Sinéad O’Connor Dies Aged 56…

    Cynthia Okereke

    Veteran Nollywood Actress Cynthia Okereke Dies At 63…

  • Health
  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Food
    • Travel
    Genevieve

    Nollywood Actor, Genevieve Nnaji Spotted Holidaying With Friends In Italy…

    Yourself

    Ten Ways To Take Care Of Yourself…

    Phone Charging

    Avoid These When Charging Your Phone To Prolong Its Lifespan…

    Peace Mass Transport

    Peace Mass Transport, Chairman Undertakes To Bear Cost Of Fuel…

    Indomie Noodles

    Indomie Noodles Banned Over Cancer-Causing Substances That Kills…

    Frank Artus-Actor

    ‘I Didn’t Marry Age’, Actor Frank Artus Hits Back At Wife’s Critics…

    Trending Tags

    • Golden Globes
    • Game of Thrones
    • MotoGP 2017
    • eSports
    • Fashion Week
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Tech
    • All
    • Apps
    • Gadget
    • Mobile
    Elon Musk

    Elon Musk Unveils New Name, Logo For Twitter…

    LagRide

    LagRide Drivers Push For Lower Daily Repayments…

    Apple iPhone

    Apple’s ‘My Photo Stream’ Service Shutting Down in July 2023…

    Twitter

    Twitter Received 16,000 User Data Requests From Governments In 6 Months…

    Jack Dorsey

    Ex-Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey Launches Alternative App On Android…

    Loan And Bank Apps

    FG Bars Palmpay, OKash, Other Loan Apps From Accessing Customers’ Contacts, Photos…

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
News On Spot
No Result
View All Result
Home Features

Africa does not need saving during this pandemic…

newsonspotadmin by newsonspotadmin
April 13, 2020
in Features
Reading Time: 5 mins read
0

In fact, Africa and the Global South can teach the rest some lessons by Robtel Neajai Pailey

It was inevitable that racism would rear its ugly head.

Having previously documented the long and shameful history of unethical drug testing on communities of colour across the globe, I was not surprised earlier this month when two French doctors proclaimed on national television that Africa would be the most appropriate location for a coronavirus vaccine trial. Never mind that this continent has the lowest recorded number of cases regionally.

For bigots who operate under the appalling assumption that black, brown, and other non-white bodies are easily expendable during times of crisis, COVID-19 presents the perfect storm. Yet, instead of expending energy on denouncing the doctors’ asinine comments, as so many have already done, we should be reflecting on what Africa and other regions of the so-called Global South have to teach the world in this collective moment of reckoning.

Call me naive in the heyday of apocalyptic projections about infections and deaths to come, but I prefer to focus on the silver lining. This is in some ways why I have been rolling my eyes at countless doomsday commentaries published by Western media outlets in which so-called Global North “experts” have argued that Africa, a continent of 54 diverse countries rumoured to be the final frontier of coronavirus, desperately needs saving. My response? Puh-lease!

Ordinary Africans, and their counterparts in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, are not navel-gazing or waiting around for the “mighty” Global North – itself in the bullseye of the virus – to come to the rescue. Even in the midst of constraints unheard of in Europe and North America, Global South folks are exemplifying the kind of ingenuity, generosity, solidarity, empathy and civility from which we all must learn. We should be borrowing from this playbook, not casting it aside.

Let’s start with my own country, Liberia, once destabilised by a 14-year intermittent armed conflict in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. During the deadliest ever Ebola outbreak of 2014-2016, which killed more than 11,000 in West Africa alone, 22-year-old Liberian student nurse Fatu Kekula single-handedly treated three family members at home when they fell ill. She transformed rubbish bags into aprons, gloves and masks which became her very own retrofitted personal protective equipment (PPE) – a technique that resource-strapped healthcare workers in Europe and North America are now replicating.

Indeed, the Global South has both exported innovation and disseminated much needed “staff, stuff and systems”. While critiques abound, Cuba’s late March deployment of 52 medical workers to Italy was a stark and important exemplar of “South to North” medical humanitarianism. Once vilified for its socialist leadership and harshly sanctioned by the West, this island nation has a long history of dispatching health missions in times of calamity and tranquillity.

In keeping with Cuba’s efforts in Italy, Somalia followed suit by sending 20 doctors to aid the southern European country. Lest we forget, this Horn of Africa nation is recovering from protracted warfare, including current threats from al-Shabab armed fighters, which makes its intervention all the more admirable.

Though the United States has tightened sanctions against conflict-affected Iran and slammed crisis-prone Venezuela with narcoterrorism charges, countries across the Southern hemisphere have extended olive branches of support while the pandemic nears its peak.

Having faced virulent forms of Sinophobia as the initial epicentre of coronavirus, China has begun a global campaign to distribute medical supplies and expertise to African countries such as Algeria and Nigeria, with plans to deploy personnel to Europe, the Middle East and the Gulf in due course. Although not without controversy, such is the beauty of “South-South” cooperation.

Whereas others parroted early on the racist edict that COVID-19 was exclusively a Wuhan epidemic, Chinese philanthrocapitalist Jack Ma, of tech giant Alibaba fame, was one of the first billionaires to spring into action when he pledged $14m in late January to develop a vaccine to tame the virus. Regional heavyweight South Korea also proved its mettle by getting ahead of the curve with nation-wide testing and quarantining, earning international plaudits in the process.

In the likeness of South Korea’s proactive approach to virus prevention, Zimbabwe’s universities have shown that necessity is the mother of all inventions. As the country battles a chronic economic recession, including hyperinflation, with healthcare workers striking across the country, universities are manufacturing gloves, masks and hand sanitizers amidst a 21-day lockdown. Farther east, a factory in Kenya now produces 30,000 surgical masks a day to meet heightened national demand.

South Africa also has important lessons to impart. Because of the country’s experience researching and testing for HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases, it has started developing locally-made COVID-19 tests and will embark shortly on a clinical trial for a vaccine.

It has been said a disease transported by upwardly mobile jet-setters – who have the wherewithal to huddle at homes and the resources to practice physical distancing when necessary – is now killing the poor and sedentary, who do not.

Yet, Global South traders in the so-called “informal sector” have defiantly dictated that one-size-fits-all coronavirus prevention measures will not work everywhere, that they hurt vulnerable populations in low-income countries, and that “top-down”, militarised lockdowns cannot be imposed on poor people without advanced warning or social protection schemes.

While some leaders in the Global South have unleashed physical brutality against their citizens under the guise of battling COVID-19, or blindly borrowed protocols from the North without understanding that context must drive policymaking, others, like Nigeria’s senators or senior members of Rwanda’s executive branch of government, have donated portions of their salaries for relief to poor households.

As Global North leaders jockey for power, undercutting each other in a bidding war over respirators, the Global South is unassuming in its instructions about the necessity of civility. Because whether rich or poor, black, brown, or white, young or old, man or woman, we are all in this existential catastrophe together. And while some of us may be more equipped than others to tackle it, the virus’ visa-free obliteration of borders and orders proves that no one is exempt from its ferocity.

Africa and other regions of the Global South have already demonstrated that they are far from passive centres for medical experimentation. Rather, they are the sites of home-grown solutions which should be transmitted globally.

As the celebrated Indian author and activist Arundhati Roy reminds us, coronavirus has not only exposed nature’s wrath against the crudeness of capitalism, but also forced us to imagine a better world beyond flattened curves, and, might I add, racist vitriol.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robtel Neajai Pailey

Robtel Neajai Pailey is a Liberian academic, activist and author of two anti-corruption children’s books.

ShareTweetShare
Previous Post

Lockdown extension will further make or mar Buhari’s government…

Next Post

Once we start, no going back until Boko Haram is defeated – Buratai assures troops…

newsonspotadmin

newsonspotadmin

Related Posts

Best Sleeping Positions
Features

Positions To Sleeping In If You Really Want To Live Long…

August 17, 2022
Features

WORLD FIGURES CONCUR WITH TB JOSHUA’S 2020 PROPHECY ON HUMILITY, SAY COVID-19 HAS BROUGHT US TO OUR KNEES…

June 25, 2020
Features

Dele Momodu at 60: a brotherhood made in paradise By Olabode Opeseitan…

May 13, 2020
Features

Covid-19: THE HEALTH CHALLENGES & NIGERIA’S HEALTH SECTOR…

May 2, 2020
Features

A SICK NATION AND AILING MEDIA…

May 2, 2020
Features

The Raging ‘‘Third World War’’: Why Covid-19 May Defeat the Contractual Rights of Force Majeure – Sola Adeyemo…

April 24, 2020

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Uber

Uber Driver Drops Passengers Off At The Airport, Returns Back To Rob Their Home…

September 27, 2022
Lagos State Governor-Sanwo-Olu

Lagos Govt Declares 4-day Public Holiday…

January 19, 2023
Bitcoin Chief

Bitcoin Chief Defies JAMB, Insists On Sponsoring Mmesoma Abroad Despite Forgery, Reveals Why…

July 9, 2023
Amarachi Okechi

Transformation Of The Widow, Who Was Tied, Flogged Over Witchcraft Allegation…

September 10, 2022

Bill Gates steps down from Microsoft board to focus on philanthropy

0

Overlooked No More: Ni Gusti Ayu Raka Rasmi, Balinese Dancer

0

Nigeria vs Sierra Leone, other AFCON 2019 qualifiers cancelled

0

Osinbajo‘s convoy involved in accident, VP loses police outrider

0
Wema Bank

Wema Bank hosts Hackaholics Digital Summit 2023…

September 20, 2023
Fidelity Bank

Mayor of Houston Texas endorses Fidelity Bank’s Trade Expo (FITCC)…

September 20, 2023
GTCO Fashion Weekend

Africa’s Finest: 6th Edition of GTCO Fashion Weekend Holds In November…

September 19, 2023
Mr. Tony Ejiogu

APGA Remains the Only Credible Alternative for Imo People – Ejiogu…

September 18, 2023

Recent News

Wema Bank

Wema Bank hosts Hackaholics Digital Summit 2023…

September 20, 2023
Fidelity Bank

Mayor of Houston Texas endorses Fidelity Bank’s Trade Expo (FITCC)…

September 20, 2023
GTCO Fashion Weekend

Africa’s Finest: 6th Edition of GTCO Fashion Weekend Holds In November…

September 19, 2023
Mr. Tony Ejiogu

APGA Remains the Only Credible Alternative for Imo People – Ejiogu…

September 18, 2023
News On Spot Logo

Browse by Category

Archives

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact

© 2022 | Crafted with ❤ by Claridan - Adsvance Digitals.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Entertainment
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Health
  • Sports
  • World