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Irene


Dooney & Bourke

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This article makes me feel embarassed.
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World stunned as US struggles with Katrina



By Andrew Gray 54 minutes ago LONDON (Reuters) - The world has watched amazed as the planet's only superpower struggles with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with some saying the chaos has exposed flaws and deep divisions in American society.


World leaders and ordinary citizens have expressed sympathy with the people of the southern United States whose lives were devastated by the hurricane and the flooding that followed.

But many have also been shocked by the images of disorder beamed around the world -- looters roaming the debris-strewn streets and thousands of people gathered in New Orleans waiting for the authorities to provide food, water and other aid.


"Anarchy in the USA" declared Britain's best-selling newspaper The Sun.


"Apocalypse Now" headlined Germany's Handelsblatt daily.


The pictures of the catastrophe -- which has killed hundreds and possibly thousands -- have evoked memories of crises in the world's poorest nations such as last year's tsunami in Asia, which left more than 230,000 people dead or missing.


But some view the response to those disasters more favorably than the lawless aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.


"I am absolutely disgusted. After the tsunami our people, even the ones who lost everything, wanted to help the others who were suffering," said Sajeewa Chinthaka, 36, as he watched a cricket match in Colombo, Sri Lanka.


"Not a single tourist caught in the tsunami was mugged. Now with all this happening in the U.S. we can easily see where the civilized part of the world's population is."


SINKING INTO ANARCHY


Many newspapers highlighted criticism of local and state authorities and of President Bush. Some compared the sputtering relief effort with the massive amounts of money and resources poured into the war in Iraq.


"A modern metropolis sinking in water and into anarchy -- it is a really cruel spectacle for a champion of security like Bush," France's left-leaning Liberation newspaper said.


"(Al Qaeda leader Osama) bin Laden, nice and dry in his hideaway, must be killing himself laughing."


A female employee at a multinational firm in South Korea said it may have been no accident the U.S. was hit.


"Maybe it was punishment for what it did to Iraq, which has a man-made disaster, not a natural disaster," said the woman, who did not want to be named as she has an American manager.


"A lot of the people I work with think this way. We spoke about it just the other day," she said.


Commentators noted the victims of the hurricane were overwhelmingly African Americans, too poor to flee the region as the hurricane loomed unlike some of their white neighbors.


New Orleans ranks fifth in the United States in terms of African American population and 67 percent of the city's residents are black.

"In one of the poorest states in the country, where black people earn half as much as white people, this has taken on a racial dimension," said a report in Britain's Guardian daily.

Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, in a veiled criticism of U.S. political thought, said the disaster showed the need for a strong state that could help poor people.

"You see in this example that even in the 21st century you need the state, a good functioning state, and I hope that for all these people, these poor people, that the Americans will do their best," he told reporters at a European Union meeting in Newport, Wales.

David Fordham, 33, a hospital anesthetist speaking at a London underground rail station, said he had spent time in America and was not surprised the country had struggled to cope.

"Maybe they just thought they could sit it out and everything would be okay," he said.

"It's unbelievable though -- the TV images -- and your heart goes out to them."



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Andrea Julia


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Interesting article.  It is alway humbling to see what the rest of the world thinks of us.  I do have a problem with this sentence, though:


"Not a single tourist caught in the tsunami was mugged. Now with all this happening in the U.S. we can easily see where the civilized part of the world's population is."


Is that even true?  And they said tourist, not citizen.  I'm pretty sure I remember reading articles about citizens being robbed, killed, kidnapped and raped in the chaos of the tsunami.  How quickly people forget...



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dc


Dooney & Bourke

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Maybe this will make you feel better.  It did me. 


******************


World leaders offer sympathy, aid



LONDON, England (CNN) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair led world leaders' pledges of aid to hurricane-stricken areas of the U.S. Friday with an offer to help "in any way we can."


"The whole of this country feels for the people of the Gulf Coast of America" who have been hit "by what is a terrible, terrible natural tragedy," he said.


Blair's comments added to a growing catalog of prayers, messages of condolence and pledges of money and aid that have been offered from countries across the globe in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.


Britain's Queen Elizabeth II sent a message to the White House offering her sympathy and the Vatican sent a telegram to say that Pope Benedict XVI was "deeply saddened" by the disaster and that he was praying for the victims and rescuers.


Australia on Friday said it would donate A$10 million (US$7.7 million) immediately to the American Red Cross as well as sending a team of emergency management specialists to identify what other help could be offered and providing services where most needed.


Japan donated $200,000 to the Red Cross and would also provide up to $300,000 in aid supplies such as tents and power generators, The Associated Press quoted officials as saying.


The European Union said it was ready to offer any assistance in the wake of "what is perhaps the greatest civil emergency in U.S. history."


Several countries had already been approached by the U.S. to release oil reserves and would do what they could, EU security affairs chief Javier Solana said on Britain's Sky News network, AP reported. (Schroeder backs reserve release)


NATO said help was available but it would need to know more about what could be needed.


Germany also said it would offer aid or money if requested by Washington, though officials said the U.S. was well equipped to deal with natural disasters.


German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder sent a telegram to President George W. Bush saying he was "deeply shocked" by the news.


"Many Germans know and love the City of New Orleans and feel deeply the great worries the people there and in the region have regarding their safety and future," he wrote.


French President Jacques Chirac -- an opponent of Bush over the issue of the Iraq war -- added a handwritten "Dear George" to his letter of condolence to the U.S. in which he expressed France's "deepest condolences" and solidarity with those affected.


At the United Nations, the official spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the U.S. was the country best prepared in the world to deal with such a natural disaster.


But he added that the sheer size of the catastrophe meant outside help might be useful.


"The American people, who have always been the most generous in responding to disasters in other parts of the world, have now themselves suffered a grievous blow," he said.


The U.N.'s humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, said Katrina was one of history's most damaging natural disasters. He said it had caused more destruction than last year's December 26 tsunami that killed an estimated 180,000 across southern Asia, AP reported.


In the Netherlands, much of which lies below sea level as in New Orleans, there was some consternation that the Louisiana city was so poorly prepared, AP reported.


The nation installed massive hydraulic sea walls known as the Delta Works after devastating floods in 1953.


"I don't want to sound overly critical, but it's hard to imagine that [the damage caused by Katrina] could happen in a Western country," Ted Sluijter, press spokesman for Neeltje Jans, the public park where the Delta Works are exhibited, was reported as saying by AP.


"It seemed like plans for protection and evacuation weren't really in place, and once it happened, the coordination" was poor.


'Solidarity' among nature's victims

But from others hit by national disasters, there was more sympathy.


Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga said she and her fellow citizens felt solidarity with those affected.


"Having experienced the fury of nature ourselves during the December 26 tsunami, the people of Sri Lanka and I fully empathize with you at this hour of national grief," she said in a message to the U.S.


And while the small island nation is still recovering from the tsunami disaster, it also pledged $25,000 to the American Red Cross, the AP reported.



Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.



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~ dc "Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination" - Oscar Wilde
Irene


Dooney & Bourke

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Ah, thanks DC. I can always count on Tony Blair to make me feel better. I wish he could run for PResident. I'd vote for him!!  :)

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