Drishtikone
For the record: German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder offered his condolences to US President George W. Bush for the Hurricane Katrina disaster that has hit the Gulf Coast. Both he and his fellow Germans, Schröder wrote, feel “great sympathy for the fate of those people affected by the hurricane.”
Nice words to be sure, but that was it. No pledges of aid money, no announcements of immediate help — although finally, two days later, the German interior minister did manage to come out with a hesitant offer of assistance. And let’s be honest, the crisis region this time around isn’t in the Third World, but is in the United States of America. There really isn’t much of a need for German helpers — experienced as they may be from aid missions from Kosovo to Afghanistan — because the American authorities are already doing as much as can be done.
Nevertheless, German aid money delivered to American aid agencies would surely be welcome on the other side of the Atlantic. But apparently, people over here believe that the Americans over there don’t really need help. Strange. The same people who normally spend their time pointing their holier-than-thou fingers at the ghettos and slums in the US, the same ones who describe America as an out-of-control capitalist monster, are now, when the Americans could really use a bit of help, oddly quiet.
Cold and malicious
Apparently the Americans had it coming: “The American president has closed his eyes to the economic and human damage that natural catastrophes such as Katrina — in other words, disasters caused by a lack of climate protection measures — can visit on his country.” Who wrote this? None other than Jürgen Trittin, Germany’s minister of the environment.
to read more.. go to the Source
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In