The US is on the verge of a breakdown; Europe can and must avoid it at all costs

I published this column on Medu

The US is on the verge of a breakdown; we must avoid it in Europe at all costs

Melissa Chemam

Apr 11

by Melissa Chemam

On Friday, I woke up early, read the news and come across this surprising headline:

“California governor Gavin Newsom Declares It a ‘Nation-State’ — basically Declares Independence From Trump’s Coronavirus Plans”

States seceding from the great American nation. That’s what I had imagined in a novel I was writing in 2010, while based in Nairobi.

(read here https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-04-09/california-declares-independence-from-trump-s-coronavirus-plans).

I was then posted in East Africa as a freelance reporter for the BBC World Service, but the poverty I had previously seen in the US shocked me in a very different way. It was — or at least it was supposed to be — the richest nation the world had ever seen emerge…

I had moved to the United States early in 2008 to cover part of the presidential election, and I had chosen to settle in Miami, thanks to one of my primary collaborators, the Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck (since 2006, I had worked for him as a researcher on his Karl Marx and James Baldwin film projects).

Florida is a state that often had troubles with presidential polls and it’s closer to the Caribbean, so it made it possible to cover Cuba and Haiti as well. From there, I worked mainly on migration issues, with migrant communities from Latin America and Haiti. As I was not driving, I was forced to take public transports regularly, with what I soon discovered was the poorest members of society, from any of the local communities. I came back from the US in December 2008, not thrilled by Barack Obama’s victory, but shocked by the depth of inequalities and the state of abandonment some people were living in. They couldn’t afford healthcare, and sometimes not even a proper home.

It was also the year of the “hunger strikes” all over the world, and the financial crisis, the “subprime” crisis had begun. But at that time Miami saw multi-storey buildings mushroom all over town… A classic result of money influx from Latin America, and a stark irony in this time of crisis. While so many citizens were losing their homes.

This was what decades of lack of public services did to a community. And this is why the USA is suffering more than other countries in the current crisis.

12 years later we see the US hit even harder, while governed by a leader in denial.

We cannot afford to let Europe and the UK follow that example.

Here in the UK, divisions are rife. And the past 10 years have led the country in the same direction: with reduced healthcare, less access to free education, privatisation of public transports, etc.

The British government, like the American government, is not active enough, nor are city councils. They have no plan to support health workers or homeless people, no extra budget for hospitals. For ten years, the authorities have privatised healthcare and now the NHS is paying the price big time.

Instead of coming up with emergency budgets, British MPs have been given an extra £10,000 to work from home… Money that comes on top of the existing £26,000 MPs can claim each year to cover the costs of their offices. Some city councils have also increased their mayor’s, deputy mayors’ and councillors’ pay in March. Meanwhile, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Sunday 7 April that “the time was not right to discuss salary and conditions of living of the health workers.”

But what we urgently need to rethink are public services. Here in the UK, and inside a European solidarity project.

This week, the British government even encouraged its citizens to denounce their neighbours if they’re seen going out for no reason. Here in Bristol people have received notes saying they’ve been seen driving without their NHS or driver’s uniforms… See this tweet: https://twitter.com/wood5y/status/1248488262852685829

How insane, antisocial and incredibly risky is it to ask people to randomly denounce others? This government is irresponsible; it doesn’t want to be in charge of police and other services that require civil servants. It lets the private sector and charities run the show. But if this crisis lasts for a few more months, this will only fuel futher the mismanagement of hospitals, the food supply chain and other vitally needed sectors.

In Brussels however, on 8 April, the European Commission and the High Representative set out plans for a “robust and targeted EU response” to support partner countries’ efforts in tackling the coronavirus pandemic. And the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, apologised to Italy, for not stepping in soon enough. The overall package is of €15.6 billion, and €3.25 billion will be channelled to help affected African countries, including €1.19 billion for neighbouring Northern Africa.

(link: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_20_604)

For now, the Covid-19 has killed about 100,000 people worldwide. Almost 8,000 in the UK; and in the whole of Europe around 50,000.

In Europe, this is still fewer deaths than, for instance, the 2003 heat wave that led to the hottest summer on record since at least 1540, with a death toll of more than 70,000 people. But Covid-19 has already halted the world’s economy, put millions on unemployment and hijacked the news 24/7.

And a study showed that the UK is about to the become the most affected country in Europe (link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/07/uk-will-be-europes-worst-hit-by-coronavirus-study-predicts ). The public response is just inadequate. We cannot let people in a Western country rely on themselves in such a level of panic and turmoil. Unlike African and Asian countries, in the past 70 years, they have not been used to deal with crises; they have been used to stability and safety.

This is what my 2010/11 unpublished novel predicted for the US: poverty matching racism and “colour lines”, a complete meltdown, states breaking away from central power and, in the end, a new civil war.

With Brexit, the UK is more divided than ever. The Prime Minister is still in “power” from his hospital bed. And the responses are not strong enough, not inclusive enough, not protective enough for the most vulnerable people.

We cannot keep on begging billionaires for donations. We must rethink altogether an economy that allows some to become super-rich and others — workers we know see as “key” — to be given a few dollars a day or a week!

Solidarity in between classes, and above all a public government-led response is the only way out of this crisis. This is why the governor of California is breaking away from Trump’s leadership. In what is treated as the worst social crisis since 1945, we must avoid becoming the US at any cost. Let’s not watch this happen, helpless, on our continent.