The headline here is actually “Noam Chomsky on Trump’s Disastrous Coronavirus Response” but I felt that might offend some people. That is why I changed it. The interview is by Democracy now. When looking through these tasks you are encouraged to form your own opinion on the situation today.
How did the United States — the richest country in the world — become the worldwide epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, with one person dying of COVID-19 every 47 seconds?
Listen to the transcript of the interview and answer the questions below.
Noam Chomsky is a world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author, laureate professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Arizona, Tucson, professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he taught for more than 50 years. Democracy Now
Answer the following questions:
- How did the USA become the epicenter of the virus outbreak?
- Health care and free college education. How does the US compare with the rest of the world?
- What is the Doomsday Clock?
- Read the transcription of the interview and write a comment on this grim description of the status quo in the USA today. Do you agree? Is it really this bad?
- Look at the footage from the hospitals and describe what you see there.
- What does it mean that hospitals have no spare capacity, privatized, for-profit healthcare system.
- Compare how people in other countries like Norway file for unemployment assistance. See the picture below.
- What does it mean when, millions of people across the country are risking their health to wait in tense, sometimes desperate, new lines for basic needs as the economic toll of the virus grips the country, to stock up on groceries, file for unemployment assistance, cast their ballots and pick up boxes of donated food. Source: The New York Times.
- How does the way Trump is handling this crisis compare to countries in Europe? Do you think Forbes is right to think female leaders are handling this better?
