Liar Liar, don’t put our pants on fire
I have come to accept that politicians can lie as easily as they breath, and the most blatantly ambitious ones do it almost as often. I suspect many people who live in democracies would agree. But when they do it in an international setting, they make all of us liars. And that is not acceptable.
Covid vaccines are one of the more extreme and to me, unforgiveable examples. At the height of the pandemic, Western leaders made much of how it was “global”, we were “all in it together”, and any other platitude one dared to dredge up.
In reality, according to the latest figures from Oxfam and the People’s Vaccine Alliance: “Less than half (49 per cent) of the 2.1 billion COVID vaccine donations promised to poorer countries by G7 countries have been delivered.”
If the missing doses had been shared out in 2021, some 600,000 lives – the equivalent of one every minute – could have been saved in low and middle-income countries.
It’s not stretching a point to say they were condemned in our names.
Given the chance to waive intellectual property on vaccines, treatments and technology that would have enabled developing countries to produce their own generic vaccines, rich nations instead successfully forced the World Trade Organisation to adopt text that added more bureaucratic hurdles.
That’s in spite of the fact that available data indicates so-called First World countries may already have secured the majority of the NEXT generation of Covid vaccines. No one should be shocked to note the move also serves to protect the hugely profitable monopolies of firms such as Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
That’s a sinister weave of lies and broken promises. And as Robert W. Service rhymed in his epic poem The Cremation of Sam McGee: “Now a promise made is a debt unpaid…”
(If you’ve never read it, I urge you to click here)
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the worst reprobates are the UK and Canada, followed closely by the U.S., so-called “Team Europe” (meaning the EU) and Japan.
I’m not complaining about being privileged. I caught Covid because I was rash enough to go to the UK at the height of an omicron spike. Thanks to being tripled vaccinated, the effects were on a level with a mild chest cold.
If it was on the basis of being necessary to protect those they are elected to serve and lead, government obfuscation over vaccine-sharing might be acceptable, albeit immoral.
Promises of climate change action put the lie to that as a justification, however.
UNACCEPTABLE AND THEN SOME
The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate action was announced to applause and optimism. Those who affixed our name to the legally binding international treaty pledged to; limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, achieve a level of greenhouse gas emissions that trees, soil and oceans can naturally absorb and provide funding to help poorer countries adapt to climate change.
But…”Current scientific predictions suggest the Glasgow commitments, if realised, would still result in a 2.4 degree global temperature rise, leading to catastrophic impacts in all countries”. The 2009 promise of $100 billion per year in climate mitigation finance by 2020 for vulnerable countries hasn’t come close to that in pledges, never mind contribution levels.
Granted, forums and summits historically under-deliver on promises. In other words, our leaders routinely lie in our name. Last fall, some 110 of them signed onto the Global Methane Pledge, a vow to cut methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030. The reverse has happened.
To be charitable, the goals and pledges might have been over-optimism. To judge by their records so far, however, it’s almost certainly a blessing for them that none of the politicians who posited them are named Pinocchio.
JUST AS BAD
It’s bad enough for us that we have two named Boris and Justin, a duo who apparently think that schoolboy taunts – “We all have to show that we’re tougher…show them our pecs” (Britain’s Johnson), and “Bare-chested horseback riding,” (Canada’s Trudeau) will intimidate or embarrass Vladimir Putin.
Instead, the macho man of Moscow noted that if either of the two leaders got undressed “above or below the waist,” it would be “a disgusting sight.”
I realise it’s quaint, but I do think we, and those who must rely on our nations for help and support, deserve better — on all counts.
Perhaps it would help if the mood music in the next forum where our leaders are tempted to make empty promises in our name is The Eagles: “You can’t hide your lyin’ eyes/and your smile is a thin disguise.”
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2 thoughts on “Liar Liar, don’t put our pants on fire”
Your research into our profligacy, like the cold in Service’s Yukon, “stabs like a driven nail”.
I think you know my views and I do agree with much of what you say here. However, as a someone living in Oxford and immensely proud of the Oxford vaccine which has already saved tens of thousands of lives, maybe more, it pains me to read of the many millions of AZ vaccines being dumped by Canada. I am not saying the UK is blameless, far from it, but AZ were the victims of a campaign to down it virtually as soon as it became available to the world at cost price. Too much of a threat to greedy American pharmaceutical companies making obscene profits. With such a large proportion of the world unvaccinated this is a tragedy that could have been avoided. Shameful.