2020
October
20
Tuesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

October 20, 2020
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Mark Sappenfield
Senior global correspondent

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal asks an interesting question: Why is the West having so much less success handling COVID-19 than East Asia? Cases are spiking again in Europe, and America has long made little headway in containing the pandemic. Meanwhile, in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, “bars and restaurants are bustling, subway trains are packed and live concerts and spectator sports have resumed,” the Journal notes.

At the heart of the discrepancy, it seems, are differing views of liberty. Western views of liberty have for decades driven an unprecedented expansion of freedom worldwide, showing the power of human rights to uplift societies. But the coronavirus is showing how, in Asian democracies, citizens are using those liberties differently. They are putting their own personal preferences aside to serve a larger goal.

Francesco Wu, an Italian Chinese restaurant owner who grew up in Italy, tells the Journal: “Here we are used to having so many liberties – and that’s a great thing. But we are not as used to discipline, to self-sacrifice.”

As one office worker in Seoul, South Korea, tells the Journal, he hates wearing a mask, but “I would rather make sacrifices.” In that way, East Asia is seeing COVID-19 restrictions not as an imposed burden, but as the expression of a genuine desire to act effectively together.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
A woman waits to cast her ballot as early voting begins at Mason District Governmental Center in Annandale, Virginia, Oct. 14, 2020. Voters across the political spectrum are expressing a range of reasons to be concerned about this general election.

With two weeks to go, most Americans are worried about the presidential election, polls suggest. But what worries them differs – and speaks to the nation’s different lenses.

U.S.-Iran relations have vexed many presidents, but whoever manages them during the next four years will face more than just the nuclear question.

Liam Taylor
Lina Zedriga, a Ugandan activist and lawyer, stands outside the offices of the National Unity Platform party in Gulu, Uganda, Oct. 1, 2020. Ms. Zedriga is deputy principal of the party, whose leader Bobi Wine is running for president.

Can an upstart rapper-turned-politician defeat one of Africa’s longest-serving autocrats? That could depend on people like Lina Zedriga, who’s tasked with changing minds across Uganda.

As colleges see students with basic needs beyond just education, many are trying to help in creative ways.

Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
Detroit Lions fans cheer in the stands during the first half of an NFL football game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Oct. 18, 2020, in Jacksonville, Florida. The thrill of victory can be real, but is it lasting?

Human beings’ persistent inability to judge what will make them happy affects everything from political polarization to the pandemic, research suggests. But a little perspective can help.


The Monitor's View

AP
On Oct. 18, protesters commemorated the one-year anniversary of the start of mass demonstrations triggered by a rise in subway fare.

Over the past 120 years, 163 governments in Latin America have been overthrown. More often than not, one coup d’état led to another. In 1955, Argentina had three. Between 1920 and 1982, Bolivia had one on average every three years. The recovery from such anti-democratic actions can take decades.

Now Chile is poised to embark on what may establish a model for countries grappling with the long-term effects of such political earthquakes. On Sunday voters will decide in a referendum whether to draft a new constitution. The question follows nearly a decade of mass protests over various inequities from tuition fees to health care. It is expected to pass with overwhelming support. That will start a two-year national process leading to a new political framework and social compact.

It is potentially a remarkable experiment in peaceful evolution for a country whose people tend to avoid talking openly about a recent violent past. In 1973 military and police forces overthrew the socialist government that had been elected barely three years earlier. What followed was “a wrenching tragedy,” in the words of a truth and reconciliation commission established after Chile’s return to democracy in 1990. In the first three months following the coup by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, more than 250,000 Chileans were arrested or detained. During the next 16 years, the total number of people killed, tortured, or imprisoned rose to 40,018.

Designing a new constitution would once again put General Pinochet’s legacy under scrutiny – not just his human rights abuses, but even more his economic policies. Chile’s transition back to democracy was managed under a constitution drafted by the military regime and designed to entrench market-oriented priorities that helped Chile achieve success on a continent not known for economic and political stability. Since 1980 Chile has gone from being the poorest country in Latin America to having the highest total economic output. It is a haven for foreign investment and notably free of corruption.

Chile has been one of the region’s most effective countries in addressing economic inequality. But perhaps because of such rising expectations, Chile has seen waves of mass protests that reflect a society convinced of the opposite. Demonstrations over the past year finally forced the government to call the referendum.

Public perceptions of inequality are not unfounded. Cities across the country, and particularly in the south, have seen a rapid expansion of tightly packed low-income neighborhoods. One Pinochet-era oddity in particular captures why ordinary Chileans feel aggrieved: All water resources are open to private ownership. As a result large national and international companies own exclusive rights to volumes of water flowing through the country’s many rivers, posing environmental threats and resulting in water emergencies in areas where 67% of the population is concentrated.

The Sunday referendum, delayed six months by the pandemic, has raised expectations that a new balance can be found between individual and collective prosperity. “There is a lot of hope surrounding the referendum,” writes Chilean activist María Jaraquemada. “Chile’s current constitution lacks legitimacy. The process to create a new constitution could enable a renewal of Chilean democracy and establish a new pact with the government in which citizens finally participate actively.”

If Chile can reinvent itself with a new constitution, it might help put an end to violent overthrows in a region still struggling to operate through consensus and equality.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

Each weekday, the Monitor includes one clearly labeled religious article offering spiritual insight on contemporary issues, including the news. The publication – in its various forms – is produced for anyone who cares about the progress of the human endeavor around the world and seeks news reported with compassion, intelligence, and an essentially constructive lens. For many, that caring has religious roots. For many, it does not. The Monitor has always embraced both audiences. The Monitor is owned by a church – The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston – whose founder was concerned with both the state of the world and the quality of available news.

No matter what we may see or hear – either in our own experience or on the news – there is a truth we can all hold to that does more than make us feel better. It helps us detect and bring out the spiritual force of divine good that is able to effect change.


A message of love

Franklin Park Zoo/Reuters
A male western lowland gorilla baby rests on Oct. 14, 2020, after delivery at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston. He's the first baby gorilla born at the zoo and officials say he and his mother, Kiki, are resting and bonding together away from visitors.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris and Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thank you for spending time with the Monitor today. Please come back tomorrow when our Whitney Eulich looks at how Mexico is wrestling with the line between protest and disorder. Seeking progress against rape and femicide, protesters are pushing boundaries.

For a summary of some of today’s top headlines, remember to check our First Look page.

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2020
October
20
Tuesday

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