A healthy dose of modesty needed against cultural blinkers

MANY people would agree that there's a lot to be said for being open to other cultures than one's own. That goes for culture in the broadest sense, as well as with the narrower meaning attached, in particular, to music and art.

In the West, those whose first language is English may be especially prone to having a blinkered vision of other cultures. English is the main language used in international communication and there is a wealth of easily accessible literature and research material, both written in English and in translation from other languages. Whereas people from a relatively small linguistic community may feel that they need to learn English in order to gain access to this bounty, many English speakers feel no need to acquaint themselves well with other languages (particularly non-European ones) or seek deeper knowledge of works written in them.

This can leave them unaware of achievements in fields of interest to them that are expressed in an unfamiliar language. The consequences can sometimes be quite serious: for example, much of the research on tropical diseases that has been undertaken by locals in African countries and published in an African language may well not come to the attention of most researchers in developed countries and yet it could have great value in deepening knowledge of those diseases and informing responses.

During this Covid-19 outbreak, there have been times when the blinkered vision of many in Europe and North America has meant that they have failed to learn from Asian experiences. As the infection gathered pace in Europe in March and April, there were suggestions, including from people regarded as experts, that the disease might fade out as the warmer weather of summer approached. It was as though they were completely oblivious to the facts that there had been novel coronavirus infections in Singapore and that Singapore is a country whose climate is hot all year round. It should have been obvious, in this case, that hot weather on its own would not suppress Covid-19.

CIRCUIT BREAKER

In September, there were calls in Britain, since implemented in Wales and now England, for a "circuit break" lockdown aimed at dramatically reducing the Covid-19 infection rate. There seemed to be little awareness among politicians or the media that there was another island nation that had already come up with and successfully implemented a similarly named measure. Common sense would have suggested that it would have been worth examining closely what Singapore did during its circuit breaker period, including the problems encountered, how the measures were presented to the public and what were the ingredients that made them successful, but if anyone in authority had taken the trouble to consider the Singaporean experience, it has not been evident.

There have been a few experts who have referred to achievements in South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore in testing and contact tracing, but in much of the West, the authorities seem to have given what they did scant attention. Britain opted to farm out testing and contact tracing to private companies that failed to deliver: actual testing repeatedly fell below targeted numbers, results could take two or more days to be produced, and contact tracing and isolation was followed up in a totally inadequate way.

Even a superficial acquaintance with what had been tried and tested in the aforementioned Asian countries would have provided a pretty good guide to action elsewhere, but their example does not appear to have been studied, let alone acted upon, in most other regions of the world.

A Eurocentric and blinkered approach to the experience and knowledge of the rest of the world may, during the Covid-19 outbreak, have cost lives and blunted efforts to contain and suppress a deadly disease. Historically, Western countries were keen to commend their learning to the rest of the world, sometimes showing an interest in "traditional" cultures in exchange, but the post-colonial period has seen a huge expansion in research and creativity in other regions. Some catching up and a dose of modesty is overdue.