What Must the South Koreans Think?
All writers (I suppose) look for the words, the style -- even a gimmick -- to draw attention to their ideas so as to make people see what they see. Thousands upon thousands try. Very, very few succeed. Lacy J. Dalton explains it best as she twangs her way through "16th Avenue":
"Like a miracle some golden words roll off of someone's tongue."
Those golden words will never roll if you don't at least open your mouth. So let me try.
The United States of America's response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been disastrous. A calamity. A catastrophe. Our Federal Government has failed us. We blew it. We choked. We have utterly and completely failed. The costs will be myriad and incalculable
In looking for a way to make people understand the magnitude of this failure, I've cobbled together a few numbers from various places. (Mostly Wikipedia.) You can quibble with them all you'd like. You can rant about the accuracy of Wikipedia. It really doesn't matter. The scale of our failure is so monstrous, the sniping won't change anything. Stomp on the piss ants all you want. The herd of elephants has already stampeded through our campground.
South Korea and the Untied States of America discovered COVID-19 in their backyards at the same time. On the very same day. As you might expect, that generated a dozen news stories comparing the USA to South Korea -- like this one from Reuters.
"The United States, whose first case was detected the same day as South Korea’s, is not even close to meeting demand for testing. "
But comparing South Korea to the United States hardly seems fair. Especially to those that don't want to hear the message saying, "The United States of America has failed." So I'm not going to do that. I'm going to compare South Korea to just one State. My State. Georgia. One of the original thirteen colonies of these United States of America.
To start, here's a map of Georgia compared to South Korea. (I could spend days at MapFight. I've been addicted to it for years.)
I gathered these statistics on March 14, 2020. (Again, mostly from various Wikipedia entries.)
South Korea: Area -- 38,750 square miles
Georgia: Area -- 59,425 square miles
South Korea: Population -- 51,709,098
Georgia: Population -- 10,617,423
South Korea: GDP -- $1,629,532 million
Georgia; GDP -- $619,818 million
Georgia: GDP per capita -- $58,896
South Korea: GDP per capita -- $31,246
South Korea: Cases of COVID-19 -- 10,991
Georgia: Cases of COVID-19 -- 35,977
South Korea: Deaths -- 260
Georgia: Deaths -- 1,545
Say what? Just look at those last three statistics alone. Georgians are richer than South Koreans (58K vs. 31K), we're a lot more spread out than South Korea, but we have 3 times as many cases and 5.94 times as many deaths? How can this be?
Complete and utter failure of the Federal Government of the United States of America. That's how that be. And the man in charge -- the place the buck stops -- is one Donald J. Trump. Bearing in mind that he didn't get to be President by himself (he had help, lots of help) his lap is where this disaster -- this catastrophe -- lands. We all know he'll try to blame someone else for his destruction of our Government.
Here a a couple more comparisons using data from nCoV2019.live on May 16, 2020
Georgia: Cases -- 36,772 Deaths -- 1,588
Germany: Cases -- 175,699 Deaths -- 8,001
Georgia: Cases -- 36,772 Deaths -- 1,588
Japan: Cases -- 16,203 Deaths -- 713
You might wonder why I chose those three countries (South Korea, Germany and Japan). Those that have read my ramblings before already know. The United States of America rebuilt those three countries from the ashes of war. We had a lot to say about what kind of government they would have in the future. For instance, thanks to Ed Luce (and Deep State Radio), I learned this just the other day.
That's the opening of Germany's constitution. Sort of the 1940s version of:
I'll leave it to you to look up the Japanese and South Korean Constitutions. I'm not done contemplating how it came to be that the United States of America, under the leadership of Donald J. Trump, failed to defend the Life of so many of it's citizens -- thereby denying them their Liberty and pursuit of Happiness. I can't imagine what the Germans, Japanese and South Koreans think.
Don Brown
May 16, 2020
"Like a miracle some golden words roll off of someone's tongue."
Those golden words will never roll if you don't at least open your mouth. So let me try.
The United States of America's response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been disastrous. A calamity. A catastrophe. Our Federal Government has failed us. We blew it. We choked. We have utterly and completely failed. The costs will be myriad and incalculable
In looking for a way to make people understand the magnitude of this failure, I've cobbled together a few numbers from various places. (Mostly Wikipedia.) You can quibble with them all you'd like. You can rant about the accuracy of Wikipedia. It really doesn't matter. The scale of our failure is so monstrous, the sniping won't change anything. Stomp on the piss ants all you want. The herd of elephants has already stampeded through our campground.
South Korea and the Untied States of America discovered COVID-19 in their backyards at the same time. On the very same day. As you might expect, that generated a dozen news stories comparing the USA to South Korea -- like this one from Reuters.
"The United States, whose first case was detected the same day as South Korea’s, is not even close to meeting demand for testing. "
But comparing South Korea to the United States hardly seems fair. Especially to those that don't want to hear the message saying, "The United States of America has failed." So I'm not going to do that. I'm going to compare South Korea to just one State. My State. Georgia. One of the original thirteen colonies of these United States of America.
To start, here's a map of Georgia compared to South Korea. (I could spend days at MapFight. I've been addicted to it for years.)
I gathered these statistics on March 14, 2020. (Again, mostly from various Wikipedia entries.)
South Korea: Area -- 38,750 square miles
Georgia: Area -- 59,425 square miles
South Korea: Population -- 51,709,098
Georgia: Population -- 10,617,423
South Korea: GDP -- $1,629,532 million
Georgia; GDP -- $619,818 million
Georgia: GDP per capita -- $58,896
South Korea: GDP per capita -- $31,246
South Korea: Cases of COVID-19 -- 10,991
Georgia: Cases of COVID-19 -- 35,977
South Korea: Deaths -- 260
Georgia: Deaths -- 1,545
Say what? Just look at those last three statistics alone. Georgians are richer than South Koreans (58K vs. 31K), we're a lot more spread out than South Korea, but we have 3 times as many cases and 5.94 times as many deaths? How can this be?
Complete and utter failure of the Federal Government of the United States of America. That's how that be. And the man in charge -- the place the buck stops -- is one Donald J. Trump. Bearing in mind that he didn't get to be President by himself (he had help, lots of help) his lap is where this disaster -- this catastrophe -- lands. We all know he'll try to blame someone else for his destruction of our Government.
Here a a couple more comparisons using data from nCoV2019.live on May 16, 2020
Georgia: Cases -- 36,772 Deaths -- 1,588
Germany: Cases -- 175,699 Deaths -- 8,001
Georgia: Cases -- 36,772 Deaths -- 1,588
Japan: Cases -- 16,203 Deaths -- 713
You might wonder why I chose those three countries (South Korea, Germany and Japan). Those that have read my ramblings before already know. The United States of America rebuilt those three countries from the ashes of war. We had a lot to say about what kind of government they would have in the future. For instance, thanks to Ed Luce (and Deep State Radio), I learned this just the other day.
Article 1
[Human dignity – Human rights – Legally binding force of basic rights]
[Human dignity – Human rights – Legally binding force of basic rights]
(1) Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority.
(2) The German people therefore acknowledge inviolable and inalienable human rights as the basis of every community, of peace and of justice in the world.
That's the opening of Germany's constitution. Sort of the 1940s version of:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
I'll leave it to you to look up the Japanese and South Korean Constitutions. I'm not done contemplating how it came to be that the United States of America, under the leadership of Donald J. Trump, failed to defend the Life of so many of it's citizens -- thereby denying them their Liberty and pursuit of Happiness. I can't imagine what the Germans, Japanese and South Koreans think.
Don Brown
May 16, 2020
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