Disasters
People keep telling me that whatever horrible ailment has stricken me over the past 48 hours or so is not, in fact, the dread bird flu. Let's hope so, a worldwide outbreak doesn't sound very pleasant, the bird form of the disease is still spreading and apparently we're not properly funding efforts to contain it. In other news, this earthquake in Pakistan really makes Hurricane Katrina look small by comparison. As Justin Logan reminds us these kind of disasters are both opportunities for the US to do some good around the world and also to reap some public diplomacy gains. Let's hope we seize those chances.
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Disasters seem to be increasing in deadliness, and in number. Depending on how you define "disaster", we could include the melting Arctic. Maybe because so few people live there, it doesn't have the heft of Katrina, or the sheer numbers of today's quake. Not to mention the tsunami.
And the last two elections.
Get well, Matthew.
October 9, 2005 12:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
<span class="Apple-style-span">"People keep telling me that whatever horrible ailment has stricken me over the past 48 hours or so is not, in fact, the dread bird flu"</span><span class="Apple-style-span">
</span><span class="Apple-style-span">But were you sick enough to be signed by Isiah Thomas? </span>
October 9, 2005 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
If it is really the bird flu, you might want to check out Fafnir's suggested cure. Even if it's not the bird flu, you might want to check it out. You probably don't want to try it though.
Get well soon!
October 9, 2005 6:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Think building code differential. Kobe Japan (1995, 6.9, 5400) versus the all too appropriately named Bam Iran (2003, 6.5, 43000).
October 10, 2005 4:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Would it be good or bad publicity for blogs if Yglesias was the first case in which the bird strain of the disease "made the leap"?
October 10, 2005 8:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Mathew,
I agree completely about seizing opportunities to change our rather tarnished image. It is a reminder of just how strange the Bush years have been. Immediately following the attack on the World Trade Center Bush had more than one path he might have followed. One would have been to capitalize on a then sympathetic world but instead he chose the path of mendacity, an opportunity missed.
Bush under funded the no child left behind program, cut promised funds to New York City, has tried to cut military pay, gutted monies for the Army Engineer Corps, just a few examples from a long list that belie his idealistic claims. It gets right back to your point about democracy and legitimacy which I agree with.
Our own problem is legitimacy; we have lost it because of Iraq and may, at least in part, also contribute to the perception that any government we help install in Iraq will not be viewed as legitimate.
What is irritating about the democracy in Iraq plan is that who in the heck signed up for that? I seem to recall the mission was to dispose of WMD but many seem to have forgotten that little point. So now we are subjected to the idea that democracy is a magic pill that will appease the insurgents. This is just another clear indicator as to extent of the non-planning that went into our little venture in Iraq. When we went in Bush had no plan for democratizing Iraq, he had no plan for the post-war Iraq at all.
Missed opportunities, under funding of his programs, not delivering on promised goods all lead to the same thing, a loss of American legitimacy the world over.
October 11, 2005 1:20 AM | Reply | Permalink