It is rather astonishing that in most European countries the success of the East and South East Asian countries and Australia/NZ in conquering covid are largely uncovered in their local media. It appears like these countries wilfully close their eyes from looking at other countries doing better. Why is this?
(Leaving aside U.S. intentionally since the U.S. has always been more insular and covid is highly politicised there)
In UK news I have seen lots of stories about Taiwan’s success. Gordon Brown (former UK Prime Minister) even referred to Taiwan as a country when discussing the topic.
Cause the behemoth that started this shit is lying!
Cause the behemoth that started this shit is lying!
That is the typical reaction in Europe re China. And Taiwan is seen as a strange exception. But the Asian/Oceanian success story is really much bigger. Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand… And most of these are pretty transparent countries where the numbers are not all forged. But I do not see this widely covered in the European media…
Because Europeans are very guilty of what they say Americans do, they’re very Eurocentric and know very little outside of Europe. There just happens to be more counties in Europe, so they think they know more of the world. But most Europeans I talk to know very little outside the way they say Americans are.
Outside of big cities, many Europeans literally think I’m from some rice patty village and are surprised to understand how Taipei is.
Success doesn’t fit the narrative of fear.
I feel like western media in general only reports negative stuff from anywhere outside the western world, especially relative to China. And in this case, the better response to Covid in Asia demonstrates how the West is declining. That isn’t something the western media is going to report accurately. They prefer to stick to stereotypes.
What’s a rice patty? Those rice burgers from the Seven?
Paddy. You can obviously make sense of autocorrect mistakes?
I don’t use autocorrect. I’m a native speaker.
Cool. Were you always this grumpy or is that something that happened when you got old?
You edited that comment after I liked it 
I liked the first paragraph. Don’t think the second one is true, based on what I know.
Have you spent much time outside of major cities in Europe? They know almost nothing about asia. I
Europe is a diverse place so I guess the imagination varies. I spent 3/4 of my life not in a major city in Europe and I knew East Asia is highly urbanized, I mean anyone who has a TV knows that, right?
Maybe it depends on where exactly in Europe you are talking about?
That’s not my experience in Europe, outside of the major cities, very few people think the quality of life in places in Asia could be better when I’ve talked to them. I’m sure it’s gotten better with the younger generation.
Southern Europe seems that way to me.
Interesting the way that people imagine the world varies from place to place. And how people in general imagine far away places. Only way to find out is to go and actually experience.
But anyway, yea, good point on the Eurocentric perspective while simultaneously poo pooing the US centric view.
Yeah that is totally true. There are some who are more educated and less ignorant but so many Europeans are so out of touch it’s laughable. They have no idea how behind they are on so many things. I am still offended by this Irish moron who thought Taiwan was still stuck in the stage of producing garbage clothes sold at Primark. He is like the poorest person I know and lives the most depressing life.
They also love calling America racist and Americans stupid which is just lol.
Do you disable it on your phone?
Predictive text is awesome, and when swiping the keyboard autocorrect can occasionally be helpful.
It’s jealousy.