The US trillion dollar spending economy keeps rolling on

How the little countries with tight economies or no economies at all, like in Syria and Yemen, must be staring at the spending figures being produced in the US and Britain and throughout Europe to counterweight the coronavirus pandemic and realising that they are in a different universe. It really is the Us and Them planet right now. Not that it wasn't always thus. But at this moment in time, the contrasts are so huge that it's embarrassing to see how lucky and privileged we are when compared with countries where it is desperately hard to survive, with or without Covid. Especially the children suffering from or dying of malnutrition in Yemen. I think of them when I see how US Congress has finally approved the $1.9 trillion stimulus package which includes a gift of $1,400 for every taxpayer. Joe Biden will sign the package into law on Friday. Biden has also announced he is ordering another 100 million of doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. Biden has got the Boris bug. Boris Johnson ordered every vaccine going before anyone else and the UK has ended up with a huge surplus of vaccine doses to make sure everyone can get two jabs with tons left over. Yet in many countries, governments are struggling to get enough vaccines. And while the US and UK, and to a lesser extent the rest of Europe, are beginning to lift restrictions and are heading for greater normality from the summer, other nations, such as Brazil, are facing a huge new surge in infections. So we have globalisation but no global policy on the pandemic to ensure that every nation has the same rights to the same vaccines. It's the way the world is and it's very very sad. Especially for those kids in Yemen with their huge eyes and distended stomachs. It makes you weep.