Fellow Yuckers - what did you make of Chimpy's comment

[mr blur]

in his bullshit speech about Katrina that the area devastated was "about the size of Great Britain"? This was a speech to his own citizens about the disaster - wouldn't you think he would have given a reference point that meant something to the average American? How many in the US are aware of the size of GB? How many freepers even know where it is? This is not a dig at Americans - how many in the UK would have known where New Orleans was?

It was rather like Blair going on TV to talk about a disaster in Britain and saying that it covered "an area the size of Cleveland".

Or was it meant for people in the UK for some reason, seeing as we have such a special relationship with him through Blair's willingness to help him kill Iraqis?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. It was meant for dumb Americans

who have no clue how big Great Britain is, imho.

[katmondoo]

2. He has no idea of the size of the UK

[Kipling]

3. That comment was odd.

Saying that the area devastated was the size of an entire country seems peculiar, given that many people blame him for it. And BTW, I think a fair number of Brits would at least know that NO was in the middle of the south coast, near the Mississippi delta. Note that they don't know how to spell Missisippi. Mississipi?

[Taxloss]

4. It was certainly an exaggeration.

He was probably referring to the total land area of the counties that were subject to a state of emergency - that state was declared before the hurricane hit and the worst-affected areas make up a tiny amount of that area.

I thought Bush's comment was a weird one. Sounded like he wanted to suggest that we would have been destroyed by a disaster of a similar magnitude, which is patently untrue. It was yet another example of his administration's insensitivity towards Britain throughout this, but that's frankly one of the least significant of their fuck-ups considering the gravity of the others, so ...

For American readers, Great Britain is about the size of Idaho.

[Guy_Montag]

5. I thought the SI unit of area was

Wales.

e.g. an iceberg 3 times the size of Wales...

An area of Forest 5 times the size of Wales...

etc.

[moggie]

6. That's right

Though for smaller areas, one uses the football pitch. There's no exact relationship between the two, since the latter isn't completely standardised.

The unit of volume is the double-decker bus, understood to refer to the London Routemaster. Which is odd, since these come in two sizes.

[mr blur]

8. Wales? Reminds me of the story told

by the once-demure Welsh singer Charlotte Church. She recalls meeting/singing for the Chimp and he said to her "Wales? Now what state is that in?". She replied, (she says), "It's a country. Right next to England".

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Not since the EU abolished Wales

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/3715512.stm

[mrfrapp]

7. It was dumb

It was a dumb statement IMO. All it did was draw attention to the fact that Federal assistance was needed and not given.