Posted on 09/05/2005 12:13:37 PM PDT by saquin
World press: Katrina 'testing US'
In newspapers across the world, commentators believe Hurricane Katrina marks a profound change in the way the US is perceived at home and abroad.
Some speak of the American "myth" being shattered by the poverty and racial divisions which they say the disaster has revealed.
Others hope the floods will douse US "arrogance" over its refusal to ratify the Kyoto accord on climate change. An Italian paper, however, jumps to President George Bush's defence.
Michael Streck in Germany's Die Welt
Hurricane Katrina will bury itself into the American consciousness in the same way 9/11 or the fall of Saigon did. The storm did not just destroy America's image of itself, but also has the power to bring an end to the Republican era sooner than expected. America is ashamed.
Stephan Hebel in Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine
Bush's people will say that the moment of need and willingness to help should not be poisoned by political manoeuvres. Maybe this will serve them well enough in a media world where images of victims and heroes are valued more highly than complex background. But then the lie would have won - against the desire to understand things so as to avoid them.
Jean-Pierre Aussant in France's Figaro
This tragic incident reminds us that the United States has refused to ratify the Kyoto accords. Let's hope the US can from now on stop ignoring the rest of the world. If you want to run things, you must first lead by example. Arrogance is never a good adviser!
Philippe Grangereau in France's Liberation
Bush is completely out of his depth in this disaster. Katrina has revealed America's weaknesses: its racial divisions, the poverty of those left behind by its society, and especially its president's lack of leadership.
Robi Ronza in Italy's Il Giornale
Everything can be used in Europe to badmouth Bush, so it may be worth clarifying a few key points: New Orleans was below sea level even before drilling for oil began. Second, there is no certain proof that the increase in the mean global temperature is a consequence of the emission of so-called greenhouse gases. Finally, the federal government has no specific responsibility for the post-hurricane chaos.
Yildirim Turker in Turkey's Radikal
The biggest power of the world is rising over poor black corpses. We are witnessing the collapse of the American myth. In terms of the USA's relationship with itself and the world, Hurricane Katrina seems to leave its mark on our century as an extraordinary turning point.
Editorial in Iran's Siyasat-e Ruz
Hurricane Katrina has proved that America cannot solve its internal problems and is incapable of facing these kinds of natural disasters, so it cannot bring peace and democracy to other parts of the world. Americans now understand that their rulers are only seeking to fulfil their own hegemonistic goals.
Editorial in Iran's Jomhuri-ye Eslami
The devastating waves of Katrina have unmasked the real face of America's profoundly corrupt society, and proved that under the beautiful surface of modern American life, there are decadent thoughts that always try to exploit the situation to fulfil inhuman goals. Although Bush and his team proved their inefficiency in dealing with the disaster, its aftermath proved that America's corrupt system is the main culprit.
Shen Dingli in China's Dongfang Zaobao
Katrina is testing the US. Katrina is also creating an opportunity for world unity. Cuba and North Korea's offer of sympathy and aid to the US could also result in some profound thinking in the US, and the author hopes that it will not miss this opportunity.
Editorial in Malaysia's Berita Harian
What's more saddening is that there have been riots and looting in New Orleans. It turns out that in a developed country with the most powerful economy in the world, some of its citizens are not much different from the poor in Third World countries.
Xiong Shu Li in Malaysia's Sin Chew Jit Poh
Co-operation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can no longer be delayed, but there are still countries - including the US - which still do not take the issue seriously. However, faced with global disasters, all countries are in the same boat. The US hurricane disaster is a "modern revelation", and all countries of the world including the US should be aware of this.
Editorial in Media Indonesia
The superpower United States has finally succumbed to nature's wrath. The US must eventually admit that it is unable to deal with the victims itself. Something has changed: Hurricane Katrina has destroyed some of the US's arrogance.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, quoted in El Nacional
The rich were able to leave, the poor stayed there, and it is now that they are evacuating them, four, five days later. That is the model they want to sell us. Racial segregation - the mayor of New Orleans said it - is a question of social classes; the rich were able to leave, the poor were left, enduring the hurricane. It is capitalism, in its extreme individualist phase.
Nevermind the fact that they are seeming to revel in a natural disaster that killed thousands of people (and not even trying to hide their glee), their hopeful belief that it will "douse" our "arrogance", that this spells the end of the "American myth" and that it "destroy[ed] America's image of itself" is so far off the mark as to be laughable. Their hope that it will "bring an end to the Republican era sooner than expected" shows that they are lapping up the U.S. media spin which, thankfully, the U.S. public is smart enough not to buy. (Witness the ABC poll)
They really don't understand us at all. They are suffering from a sickness called "anti-Americanism" and it has turned them into nasty, small-minded people.
But we will show the truth, whether they want to see it or not. And they will gnash their teeth as they see us emerge stronger from this, as we did after 9/11.
I have wondered if Al Queda had any hand in breaching a levee?
It would be easy and leave few clues.
http://www.freerepublic.com/^http://www.wabcradio.com
Come to live thread in Katrina.
Does all this mean no more foreigners will want to live here? Will this ease the flow of illegal immigrants?
...and we will not be found wanting.
It's never a matter of getting the job done. It's only a matter of getting the job done while also fending off the naysayers and naredowells.
"Those who say it can't be done, should get out of the way of those who are doing it." - Joel Arthur Barker
Arrogance Arrogance, who are the arrogant ones?
The media elite, or the entire country of the US with all its citizens?
Editorial in Malaysia's Berita Harian
What's more saddening is that there have been riots and looting in New Orleans. It turns out that in a developed country with the most powerful economy in the world, some of its citizens are not much different from the poor in Third World countries
This one commentator is actually correct. And the reason we have third world-type populations consisting in our urban centers is because that is where the liberals have power and are able to apply their thirld world-type socialist policies.
The Democrats and media may be ashamed, everyone else is pulling together.
'Zactly.
How many major metro areas are Democratically controlled? How many are healthy areas?
Note that Conservatives generally shun those urban areas where Liberalism thrives. Those Liberal Urban Meccas are the last to be self suffient and accountable, but the first to get in line for handouts.
Everything can be used in Europe to badmouth Bush, so it may be worth clarifying a few key points: New Orleans was below sea level even before drilling for oil began. Second, there is no certain proof that the increase in the mean global temperature is a consequence of the emission of so-called greenhouse gases. Finally, the federal government has no specific responsibility for the post-hurricane chaos.
Yildirim Turker in Turkey's Radikal
Actually that one is from from "Robi Ronza in Italy's Il Giornale". The names of the commenters are above the comments.
I know. I did both.
My blue-collar father died when I was a child.
I worked my way through more than 12 years of college-level education.
My wife and I lived on $195 a month (WHICH I EARNED AT THE TIME!!!); slept on box springs supported by concrete blocks, cooked on a hotplate, ate on a card table (ALL OF WHICH I BOUGHT WITH THE MONEY I EARNED); postponed having children for 9 years (WHICH WAS NOT EASY)!
After that I toiled for years putting in sometimes 17 hours a day 7 days a week--at work I didn't like doing!
We never went into debt. If I didn't have it, we did without, and we did without plenty. We could not afford to buy a magazine or a stick of chewing gum. A movie ticket was absolutely out of the question. We ate what we would afford--and it wasn't good!
My mother was the same. She finished college the summer I finished high school!
She and I took my first two college courses and her last two together.
She didn't think she could pass chemistry or physics. I had had them both in high school. So I said, "I'll get you through them." I did. Every night, we sat together at the kitchen table. I read a paragraph, then explained it to her; then she explained it to me.
I put my wife through four years of college and each of my children through college THREE TIMES; I was glad to do it.
When I finally started making money, I set up a college scholarship fund to help the needy get through college--WITH NO REGARD TO RACE, RELIGION, NATIONAL ORIGIN, GENDER, SEXUAL PREFERENCE OR ANYTHING ELSE!
I succeeded because I was self-reliant and willing to work hard and say focused. Anybody else can do the same.
Maybe in other countries people are trapped in hopelessness and can not get an education or become prosperous, but in the United States, ANYBODY can become both educated and prosperous!
Anybody who says that ANYONE cannot get an education or get rich in the United States is either stupid or lying or both!
AND THAT GOES FOR YOU, HUGO CHAVEZ, AND THE REST OF YOU MARXISTS!!!
Marxism destroys self-reliance, delivers power to psychopaths, presupposes an oppressive totalitarian state, and destroys the incentive of the people to succeed.
People who rely on government instead of themselves will be poor and will stay poor. Race has NOTHING to do with it!
Excellent I hope the world press really piles on big time, then maybe we can get back to an America first agenda here at home and screw the rest of the world.
Only the Arabs and Europeans have the answers to everything.
Perhaps the US and China should combine in a joint policy to support each other.
The remainder of the planet can be free to run itself in Europe, South America, Africa and the Middle East. They already have the essential free press reporters.
Are there really no larger font sizes, Savage Beast?
Just kidding. Your story is truly inspirational and more people ought to hear it.
"Your story is truly inspirational and more people ought to hear it."
Well, actually, I think most people have already heard it. I've told it to everybody--to some many times.
Think of my poor wife and children. Somebody once said that what a man really wants in a woman is somebody who'll listen to the same story over and over and over.
Love to all!
~The Beast~
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