President Duterte castigated the wealthy nations before the UN for their selfishness in sharing Covid-19 vaccines to poor nations. He said, it was wrong and immoral.
How can it be wrong when it was the people themselves in poor countries who, due to their cowardice and stupidity, have selected their leaders or allowed them to exploit and impoverish them? Most of these countries are actually rich in resources and business opportunities, but these are cornered by the powers-that-be and their cronies, called oligarchs.
And these had been allowed by the people who kept the powerful where they are time and time again. By dint of the latter’s intelligence and money– with the backing of the oligarchs– they had repeatedly hoodwinked the masses into voting for them every time they went to the polls.
There are also those who ascended to power by the barrel of the gun. They stayed and continued to stay where they are due to the inability of the people to boot them out. It can be due to cowardice or stupidity or both.
In the Philippines, the President and those who came before him, have time and again berated the oligarchs but they continue to remain where they are. The berating always proved useless in flashing out their wealth to buy vaccines and other basic needs of the people.
The President is right though in saying that the selfishness is immoral. A moral society is where the more intelligent and powerful act as the weaker ones’ big brothers and keepers. To take care of them, not to further exploit them. Or not to further deprive them of their just share from the world’s wealth which is a birth-right. Such include entitlement to proper medical care against deadly viruses.
But what has Pres. Duterte done towards this end? Our poor country had all the chances to acquire the vaccines, but somebody dropped the ball. And yet he remains in a powerful position under the protection of the President. He is safely ensconced there, with control over billions of public funds for the country’s covid-19 response, or “non-response.”
Well, big money under one’s control in government means big business.**