Katrina Shakes Faith in U.S. Around the World

[Sapphire Blue]

Katrina Shakes Faith in U.S. Around the World
News Analysis, Pueng Vongs,
Pacific News Service, Sep 14, 2005

Editor's Note: News media worldwide are shocked by images of the superpower United States reeling from Hurricane Katrina.

SAN FRANCISCO--Readers and commentators from abroad are watching images of chaos and despair in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and are wondering how a country so mighty could have fallen so far.

"Nature Lays a Superpower Low" reads the headline of an editorial in The Hindu, a daily in Chennai. Arvind Sivaramakrishnan, commenting in another article in the paper, writes that Katrina exposed "squalor that would shame a Third World country, as well as racial and political divisions reminiscent of apartheid South Africa."

"It is astonishing that these cruel indignities are happening today in one of the richest countries in human history," writes Dr. Firoz Osman in South Africa's Business Day.

<snip>

Observers from around the world were united in their outpouring of empathy for victims of the hurricane. Many countries, rich and poor, sent aid. Kuwait gave a half a billion dollars. Uganda sent $200,000. Bangladesh sent tea, Namibia sent canned fish and Thailand sent rice. Others expressed their admiration for American citizens who helped each other. "The response from American leaders seemed to lack political intelligence and sympathy, but the response of ordinary citizens was quick and compassionate," writes Liu Tian in the World Journal.

Continued @ http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=7c71f2d770eafaf412fd0626e60a4f96

[blossomstar]

1. how low can we go with W in charge...

[Sapphire Blue]

4. His is a legacy of shame that stretches from Abu Ghraib to New Orleans.

[Melodybe]

9. Kuwait gave half a billion!?! where the hell is that going?

[Southsideirish]

2. I saw things I NEVER thought I would see in the U.S. - like that old woman

floating face down -I'll never get that image out of my head. Its the thing I will always "see" when I think of Katrina.

[Sapphire Blue]

6. So many haunting images... the babies, oh, those precious babies.

[expatriate]

3. I can say that folks in Australia

have been pretty stunned - the ones I've spoken to since Katrina.

We get some American TV shows down here. Stuff like Friends, Kramer, Ally McBeal. Then Australian TV mimics a lot of American shows like Survivor and American Idol. The image I find that many Australians have of America is as this wonderful place where everyone is well to do and lives a really glamorous life.

When the people I've spoken to saw those people begging for help at the Superdome and Convention Center, scenes out of the Third World, babies and old people dying and dead, they were completely and utterly stunned. Looked like they'd been smacked in the face with a dead flounder. You mean there are poor people in America? How can that be? We've always been told it's the Greatest Nation On Earth!

If you tell them the federal minimum wage in America is only $5.35, they can't believe it. If you tell them that 45 million and more people in America have no health insurance, they can't believe it. That doesn't happen in Australia.

They've been seduced by the TV shows to believe that America is so much better, more advanced, more enlightened and fun than Australia - when they're actually living in a much better place!

So if the shaking-up I've been seeing is going on around the world - yeah, confidence in that ol' American Dream is rapidly going down the shitter.

[Sapphire Blue]

5. Think about immigrants coming into this country, believing in...

... that 'American Dream', hoping to become a part of it... only to be hit with the reality of what this country has become... the American nightmare.

The mask is off... as stated in the UN report, parts of America are as poor as a Third World Country.

[expatriate]

7. There are a lot of immigrants that come into Australia

who tried America first! They come here saying that America was just impossible to live in - they couldn't get ahead, no matter how hard they worked - and some of those people are more than willing to work eighteen hours a day.

While I was still in America, I met a lot of immigrants who were planning on going home, after tasting the reality of the American Dream. Minimum wage jobs, no medical coverage, and being treated like crap because they were from another country.

This is the story I hear again and again from people who immigrate to Australia from America after having immigrated to America from some other nation.

I grew up in Louisiana - yes, parts of it, indeed, much of it, is as poor as a Third World Country. And so many places in other states as well, in urban centers too.

[ladylibertee]

8. I'm torn inside......I'm conflicted

Part of me loves this country and I still get teary eyed when I sing the National Anthem. Then, I remember I am black. Then I remember I am a woman.Them I remember the truth. I am not welcome in my own home.

[FormerOstrich]

11. You're welcome in my home.....

they may weld power. they may have money. they may make you feel your not welcome in your own home but, despite what they may think, it's your home and they have only the say that is allowed to them.

I thought your words were very powerful and I believe I sensed your sadness. I am struggling to find the words to say what I am trying to convey. Thus, I'll abandon the effort. Don't let them get you down!

[BonjourUSA]

10. Faith… What faith ?

The USA wouldn't be a country like any one else ? If someone thought anything else Katrina came and brought the true.

[Karenina]

13. Hallo Bonjour!!!!

Sehr lang nicht gesehen! :hi:
Lots of Schadenfreude in the air these days... What faith? Ha-ha!!!

[justiceischeap]

12. What's sad

Is that for the first time, I think even some Americans saw that this nation isn't all it's cracked up to be. I'm stupified at how many American's were shocked at the level of poverty in NO. Do they not know anything about this nation? I suppose they live in their own little bubble, not caring to look outside of it.