Some comments from the
World's newspapers in awe at the scale of the Hurricane Katrina
Disaster and the chaotic response from the world's last superpower.
The underlying tone is that the current administration has failed to
take 'global warming' into the thinking on current changing weather
patterns.
Also many are hinting that the Bush administration is too stubborn and
obsessed with its own world view and not open to alternative views of
the crises that the world faces.
Australia's The Daily Telegraph
Katrina has wrecked not only the
physical corporality of civilization.
Now there are unmistakable signs in the hurricane's aftermath of the
collapse of ordered society. Communication has become virtually
impossible. There is no power, no fuel, no food. And looters are at
work. This in the United States, the most
powerful nation that has ever
been. 
Hong Kong's Ta Kung
Pao
This Katrina hurricane is a
'warning' by God over President Bush's
reactionary behaviour on the Kyoto Protocol. The
US government should
wake up from this big disaster, truly take up its responsibilities as a
great nation, and become the forerunner in protecting the global
climate.
Israel's Ma'ariv
The American meteorological service
provided real-time precise
information but the leadership failed in
preparing for the anger of the
weather...What is scary after Katrina is to see the biggest superpower
in the world helpless, even if temporarily.
Germany's Sueddeutsche
Zeitung
But if he [Bush] fails to get a
grip on the chaos within a few days, his words
could become his undoing.
Germany's Die
Tageszeitung
The fast and
safe evacuation was white, leaving behind poor black
people, as if time had stood still between the racial unrest of the
sixties and today.
Romania's Gardianul
Bush's desperate efforts to redress
the situation did not stop the
virulent criticism aimed at his
'indifference'... on the first day of
the hurricane [he] was still on holiday.
Spain's ABC
What is certain is that the tragedy
has that has razed to the ground
the states of Louisiana and Mississippi has shown up the weak flanks of
a country which, taken up in the last few years with its imperial
adventures, has ignored matters that are much more important for the
well-being of its citizens.
Israel's Yediot
Aharonot
Scores of 'mini' blunders in the giant American blunder that included
loss of control, lack of a chain of command, heavy fog with all that
has to do with the distribution of powers and the chatter-stricken
elected public figures.
Palestinian Al-Hayat
al-Jadidah
We sympathize with the American
people in their predicament after
Hurricane Katrina. But the real hurricane is the
Iraqi resistance that
does not target innocent [Americans].
Brazil's O Globo
One of the pillars of the Bush era
has been his ability to connect with
middle America. Will Bush be thrown a lifeline,
thanks to the
hurricane? Or, disconnected from his popular support base, will he limp
on as a governor that does not govern - the lame duck of American
political jargon - until the end of his term?
Australia's The
Sydney Morning Herald
Though its death toll is much lower [than the Asian tsunami], in one
respect Katrina may be more shocking: the
possibility that human
activity contributed to the hurricane's strength... Even small changes
in temperature can produce disproportionately large weather events.
South Africa's Mercury
There must be
truth to the adage that when the United States of America sneezes, the
whole world will catch its cold.
El Salvador El Diario
de Hoy
It is difficult to make light of one
fact: that
climate changes are at
play, which are causing increasingly violent events... Katrina was just
a warning.
Of interest read: Climate
Change Witch Hunt
The Lessons of The
Storms-Whitley Strieber
[Katrina]
[New
Orleans]
George
Bush]
