More focus on our own countries and our own local communities is needed.
Everything has a price.
And you’re seeing the price of endless globalization now, as the Coronavirus spreads around the world.
It started among just a few people in China, and is now across the planet, infecting and killing people in a growing number of countries.
In Canada, our politicians have shown so much obsession with open borders that they aren’t even stopping flights from virus hot zones, putting Canadian lives at risk.
The idea of endless travel back and forth, open borders, a totally interconnected economy, and reliance on other nations has somehow become unquestionable, and the consequences are growing.
Coronavirus should have been a local problem in China. Instead, it’s a problem for the world. Canadians are likely going to die because of a virus that was caused in China.
That alone should be a wake-up call.
But it gets worse.
With much of China’s economy strangled due to the virus, we’re now realizing that much of our own medicine is reliant on that country:
“Very few of Canada’s drugs are actually made domestically, said Dr. Jacalyn Duffin, a hematologist and medical historian, and professor emerita at Queen’s University.
Duffin, who runs the website canadadrugshortage.com, said that many of the raw materials in the drug supply are made in China.
“Drugs get put together rather like cars get put together, from parts made all over the world,” she said. Even when the drug is assembled in North America, “The raw materials for making those drugs do come in a large proportion from China.””
This is unacceptable.
It’s now a national security risk.
Certain things, like military production, raw material production, energy production, food production, and medicine production, must be handled domestically. We must not be reliant on other nations.
We also need to have the common sense to be tough and ban travel when a virus is spreading, and look at encouraging more people to travel within Canada and within North America – while still of course protecting the right to travel freely (aside from when viruses are spreading).
The overly-connected world has also hurt people on a very profound level. Many have lost their sense of community, their sense of connection to a national identity, and loss of good, well-paying jobs that provided meaning and dignity.
Bringing things back more local would help address those problems, and bring our nation back together, while reducing the spread of global pandemics, protecting us from the mistakes of foreign countries.
It’s time for us to really question the assumption that endless globalization is inevitable, and start pushing for Canada to be more self-sufficient, self-reliant, and secure here at home.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
