| Date: | June 1, 2004 / year-entry #216 |
| Tags: | non-computer |
| Orig Link: | https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040601-00/?p=39083 |
| Comments: | 56 |
| Summary: | They choose fast food, fat people, and Bush in a tank. In January, a cartoon festival was held in the town of Carquefou, just outside of Nantes in the northwest corner of France. Students of all ages competed in a contest to illustrate their vision of the United States. They drew obese Americans devouring Coca-Cola... |
They choose fast food, fat people, and Bush in a tank.
(I love the drawing of ravenous overweight superheroes.) The French image of the United States as the land of hamburgers and obesity extends beyond the minds of schoolchildren. It's also one of the salient features of "Belleville" (a thinly-disguised New York City) in the Academy Award-Nominated animated film The Triplets of Belleville. (Note: I saw Triplets and found it unsatisfying.) (In another case of blog synchrony, Eric Gunnerson discussed the frustrating trend of "size inflation".) |
Comments (56)
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hmm I want to see the rest of the pictures – they only have two up there.
I dislike bush policies but I draw the line at repeating his name in the same breath as hitler .. and I am discouraged that a french child can have been taught that this might be true.
What currently disturbs me about france is things like French hotel owners in Normandy have elevated their prices for those who are re-visiting the place they liberated 60 years ago. This shortly after the descration of war graves in Northern France, and plans to demolish another.
France (and it’s citizens) needs to look at it’s own faults before it starts going at other’s with it’s faux intellectual gravitas.
Disclaimer: Not french but married to a french lass 8′)
Hmm that may have come across as a bit harsh. 1000 years of war (off and on) must have left it’s genetic mark on me. Didn’t mean to be so offensive.
One thing the kids got wrong is the cigarettes. The amount of smokers in US is probably one of the lowest in the world and certainly way less than in France.
I just got back from the US, and I have to say that although we Europeans have our share of lard-asses American fatties are in a league of their own. I was down near Miami, which has a strange split in the population between uber-fit South Beach-dwelling examples of what you can look like with a little care, and people whose butt-cheeks were each bigger than my entire waist, and the odd "normal" size person.
Being on the tall-and-thin end of the spectrum (6’2", 160lb) I find it incredible that anyone could get that big without thinking "What the hell have I done to myself?" Seriously, if my waistline ever got above 35", I’d take stock of my eating habits quicksmart, so how people can get to triple figures in the waistband department is almost unbelievable…
Like Stan said, "Dude, when people see you they go ‘God Damn, that’s one FAT ass!’"
We should have someone draw Jacque Chirac with a forked tongue or something.
"Europeans have always thought the rest of the human race was a bunch of idiots"
No, no, no. Just americans :)
"This European attitude about Americans is hardly news"
The problem is not just in Europe. I spoke to some South Americans; hatred for the United States is growing all over the world. To just say "no, this is nothing new, no problem" — doesn’t help the situation, it just makes it worse.
When one reads the drivel in the linked article, one can hardly be surprised at the degree of animosity.
<troll>
Yes, yes, Bush is an idiot, but you’re forgetting the main point of the discussion — you’re all fat, and also stupid. :)
</troll>
In florida where it’s too hot to be outside 9/10s of the year and wasn’t habitable before A/C you expect people not the be fat?
Um, my focus was on the fat people, with secondary emphasis on the hamburgers.
All that "article" tells me is that France has stereotypes about Americans. Big deal, we do the same thing. How many jokes did Leno, Letterman, et al do about how the French smell bad and would surrender to a 10-year-old with a water pistol?
It’s all a big waste of time.
A selection of racial stereotypes:
Irish/Polish people are stupid.
The French smell.
Germans have no sense of humour.
Italian women are very hairy, and the men are all gangsters or lotharios.
The Scots are all penny pinching alcoholics or heroin addicts.
The English are all repressed and have bad teeth.
Americans are all fat and stupid.
Spaniards are all greasy.
Russian women all look like powerlifters.
The Chinese all work in laundries or restaurants.
The Japanese are inscrutable.
Greeks are all homosexual.
The Welsh/Kiwis all have sex with sheep.
Australians are all called Bruce or Sheila.
And so the list goes on…
Hm, I must say i totally envy the French for being able to eat all day and all that lovely, delicious food and still keep their slim figure and a healthy body.
To mat: I think you’ve got one thing really wrong in you comment, the so called "French propaganda". Just take a look at what we receive from the USA: cigarets makers, junk food, blockbuster movies, the worst argued decisions for years, and many documentaries about your fatties (USA documentaries, not European) and more arrogance than French themselves (this one is particulary hard to achieve). This is not a portray, it’s what the USA sell and spread outside, there is no need for propaganda.
Of course inhabitants of the USA are very diverse and it’s a very rich mix of cultures and opinions. But the point is not in the reality, the point is in the USA public representation, either through foreign politics or through companies.
Never forget that since the 50’s, Europeans are raised with the USA’s comics, cartoons, movies, food, drugs as foreign references, and sometimes taking the place of national references. If their is hate, it’s not for the sake of hating, it’s really far from being in the top priorities.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports on a drawing contest for French school children: In January, a cartoon festival was held in the town of Carquefou, just outside of Nantes in the northwest corner of France. Students of all ages competed in…
This European attitude about Americans is hardly news, much less a pressing emergency. It’s been going on for centuries, with minor alterations in the rhetoric (e.g. we weren’t always the scapegoat for all the world’s ills, but we *were* always fat greedheads ("greedy" being what you call the guy who grabs the goodies you were reaching for yourself)). They’ve been courageously clobbering the same strawman since the seventeenth century; why get worked up over it now? Europeans have always thought the rest of the human race was a bunch of idiots (more so than Americans do, is the impression I get). They’ve always thought they knew how to run other people’s countries better then the people who lived there did (where exactly do they think us awful colonials got the idea from, eh?) and I’m sure it doesn’t help their self-image that they did such a rotten job when they tried it, any more than in the long run we’ll feel good about having done no better.
What they probably don’t realize is that by burying their few valid criticisms under a mountain of nationalistic hostility, they’ve persuaded a heck of a lot of Americans to regard everything they say about us as meaningless noise. Nobody takes a fishwife seriously. Then again, like any good fishwife, they probably don’t much care.
Throughout most of the posts on the subject of Americans here and elsewhere we are routinely villified for war mongering, the spread of fast food, our own obesity, and the production of vapid entertainment. People the world over decry our morals as too strict or too lax, belittle our efforts in foregn countries as doing too little or being to ham-fisted.
The funny part about this is that at the same time the rest of the world constantly emulates us. Thousands people from around the world brave huge hardships to legally and illegally penetrate our borders every day. Hundreds of millions buy the products produced by our industries, use the medicinces we give away for free and take handouts from us to the tune of BILLIONS of dollars in financial aid packages.
Shame on all of you. If you hated our culture as much as you say, if you reviled our success and wealth as much as you claim we would never see a pair of Levis blue jeans outside of the U.S. There would be no Britney Spears World Tour, there would be no AIDs relief in Africa, no American soldiers would die in Afganistan, Mogadishue, Iraq and a thousand other places around the world.
When you quit eating our food, wearing our clothes, listening to our music, violating our borders and most of all, when you get your greedy hands out of our pockets, we’ll know you truly hate America. Until then, everything but your words say you’re lying.
Shame on all of you.
To say that hating America has been going on for centuries is just plain wrong. At the end of Clinton administration everything was fine and dandy; USA’s economy benefited the rest of the world enormously (the explosive growth of the Internet) and we loved you for it. We loved Clinton otherwise too, I don’t know a single person here in Europe who disliked him just because he got some "action" while in office. Bush’s election was bad news, but we still had hope. Especially after 9/11 USA had all the world’s sympathy. If you would have told me back then that a single person can wreck all that through his decisions (yes, of course there are strategists and stuff but at the end it comes down to Bush), I would not have known how to answer to that. It would have been unheard of. But it happened.
Now please point out which part of this is Europeans’ nationalistic hostility. Are you calling us nationalistic because of bad decisions by *your* leader? USA alienated the rest of the world, not the other way around.
When I was a kid, I really thought USA was a dreamland. And it was. But seeing your current problems, there is no choice but for us (Europe) to stand on our own, especially because the current administration in USA disregards all criticism, even on the international level (UN security council).
Hey, ease up on the frenchies will you? After all, they did do most of your fighting against the english a couple of hundred years ago.
mat: In the words of Richard Clarke: Nowhere on the list of things that should have been done after September 11 is invading Iraq.
And finally, Raymond, the superheroes using their superpowers to reach the supersized meal… Thanks for pointing me to it.
OK, let’s get one thing straight. France is a country, just like the USA. France has been a battlefield for most of human history there, and for the most part -save Pearl Harbor- was something that Americans in the 20th century could not imagine as a part of America. We never fought on US soil; we have always gone to the ends of the Earth to fight our battles. That includes France, and on more than one occasion. France has been a US ally for a very long time. They at times helped us when we needed them for our independence, and we spilled our blood when France was a Nazi state.
Now for the first time in almost 2 centuries, the battle was brought on US soil. We had not been overrun, but the US was not about to sit still when we were attacked. Where were the French, when we were in a time of need? Sitting on a fence, being "multinational".
I really don’t want to say that the war has been executed to a graceful conclusion. The way things have been handled since the "end of combat" have been difficult, especially given the fact that we don’t ever see all of the positives with the disturbing negatives. But the decision to go to war is not something that’s terribly debatable. From the US position, it sent a message to all those who would harbor criminal elements, and that was that there shall be no safe haven. A stateless enemy shall remain as such, and find no comfort within borders. Terrorism is the enemy of any civilization, and it is not always wrong. However the terrorism that has been perpetrated in the last 20 years by everyone in the Middle East has been far from a revolution or uprising, but rather guerilla tactics design to suppress populations and scare them instead of rising for freedoms.
So blame Bush. Goodness knows here in Seattle they don’t have any problem with it here. But what does that give you? You want John Kerry? You think he’s going to be different? Or is it the fact that French propaganda is slanted away from one of her most staunch allies in the last 230 years? Anti-americanism is jealousy. But for all of you who want some Anti-Frenchism, we don’t teach our children that the French are barret-wearing bread-wielding panzy passifists. However, a case could be made for it *in the same way that the case is made that the US is evil and fat and terrible and kids should color bad stuff about us*. Do you think a kid thinks we’re evil?? Of course not. It’s parental and adult influence, like always.
Is there a weight problem here? Yes. A collective "no s***" on that one. But "fat" doesn’t mean we’re all stupid. Does one snobby Frenchman make France snobby? Careful how you answer that, given the logic that has been presented so far.
I hope the EU grows up. It needs to. It could be a fine place. And while you’re at it, enjoy the problems with languages and cultures and economics, and fairness, and all of the crap we went through the last 200 years. You might find a lot more similarities with the present EU and the USA circa 1780 if you look carefully.
Take a deep breath, and take those pictures for what they are — adult-manipulated politics.
"Are you calling us nationalistic because of bad decisions by *your* leader?"
And look at what Jacques Chirac does for the world. He invited Robert Mugabe, one of the most horrific tyrants in the world, on an official state visit. This was in spite of his status of "international house arrest," imposed by–you guessed it, the U.N.
You know, the same body to which the U.S. is supposed to pay heed at all costs?
And he had no problem literally telling most of Eastern Europe to "be quiet" when they disagreed with the French/German stance on the war, and sided with the U.S. But of course, they must not count in "world opinion."
If the French (its people and its leaders) want to criticize Bush, they should carefully consider whether their own shit stinks. To do otherwise _is_ nationalism by definition.
Steve: It’s possible to love and hate at the same time you know? And non-english often use (strong word) when they do not quickly come up with more appropriate word – I know I do. Chatting on the net with other europeans it takes no time to find how common words can bear different weights here.
Steve wrote: "we are routinely villified for war mongering, the spread of fast food, our own obesity, and the production of vapid entertainment."
Oops I guess we forgot the amount of pollution you generate. Which I’ve been led to believe is more than China :)
I guess the US media has probably put a bad spin on the Kyoto Agreement because it seems to have negative connotations to most americans I’ve spoken to, but if you want to be a well-liked super-power you need to live up to your responsibilities.
Steve: just because someone hates the US doesn’t mean he hates *everything* about the US. Nor does it mean he his jaleous.
Then they should choose another word to describe their problem with the U.S., "disagree" maybe. We the word *HATE* is used it’s pretty much all inclusive.
6/1/2004 5:13 PM Steve Sheppard
>Thousands people from around the world brave >huge hardships to legally and illegally >penetrate our borders every day.
Some of whom are escaping regimes that have been propped up by the US government,or from militia armed by the world’s greatest arms-seller:the USA. In the war on drugs the US pressures countries like Colombia to eradicate certain crops. In the war on war we should ask the US to close down its arms-farms.
> Hundreds of millions buy the products >produced by our industries, use the >medicinces we give away for free and take >handouts from us to the tune of BILLIONS of >dollars in financial aid packages.
The US uses trade agreements to strongarm even its staunchest allies e.g. allowing USA pharmaceutical lobby to draw up sections of trade agreements to alter medical benefits in Australia.
Individually, most Americans are nice… but collectively their governments and corporations run roughshod over the sensibilities of even many of their overseas admirers like a bull in a china shop
Steve is right.
We should nuke all you sorry asses, you stinky French, you pompous British, and you ignorant inbred Germans. And the guy who likes Kyoto needs to realize that he might not like fast food, but he sure is lapping up bullshit – it is obvious he has no idea behind the real motivations of Kyoto – it’s not just about "pollution" it’s about trade, and who gets affected.
Dip shits.
A troll wrote: "And the guy who likes Kyoto needs to realize that he might not like fast food, but he sure is lapping up bullshit – it is obvious he has no idea behind the real motivations of Kyoto – it’s not just about "pollution" it’s about trade, and who gets affected."
Actually I love fast food – in moderation :)
Kyoto and pollution control which you believe is about trade is actually about a bigger issue – survival. Whilst you might be quite happy that your children and grandchildren inherit a wasteground, damaged atmosphere and a horrendous climate just so you can drive a big SUV around town – some of us care what happens when we are dead and buried. I don’t buy the attitude that it is SOP, its everybody’s problem – and it needs addressing. Withdrawing from every reasonable attempt to limit damaging emissions just because you don’t want people upset about the cost is to me unbelievable – the real potential cost is more than you could possibly buy.
Sure the Kyoto agreement is not perfect, but it’s a start – Let’s see the US goverment do something about pollution. I feel quite safe in saying this because I know they won’t – it’s all about the money, money apparently spent in killing other peoples children and mothers.
Anyway, sorry to preach, but ignorance of environmental issues really winds me up :|
The US contains 4% of the world’s population but produces about 25% of all carbon dioxide emissions.
http://www.vexen.co.uk/USA/pollution.html#Pollution
I think you are all retards !!!
As someone said at the begining of the thread, I would also like to see the other 250 drawings…..
to the a-hole who says "we should nuke your asses" you are the biggest retard of all, France alone has the nuclear power to destroy the entire planet..
Now to all of you, this article was stupid…and if it has a little bit of truth about the view of Europeans about Americans, it is because of people like all those who answered stupid shit in this thread like :
"let’s nuke them"…"At least he didn’t invade them"….
Grow up and open your eyes people
Please read some skeptical papers about global warming. It isn’t near as cut and dry as people would leave you to believe. The IPCC is basically a joke. Media outlets such as the BBC love to report on the latest environmental disaster paper while totally ignoring the real science.
Ever hear about the NASA paper which showed that the positive feedback from water vapor has been almost universally overestimated thus increasing the predicted warming? Ever hear of the review of Mann’s hockey stick report that corrected all the statistical flaws in the paper using the original data? The funny thing about the Mann report is that it failed to show the little ice age. How can people take Mann’s model seriously when it doesn’t even match historical proxy data? Have you ever looked at how global warming models have historically been very poor and have almost universally been predicting higher temperatures? Did you know that we have three methods for measuring the earth’s temperature? Two of the three show little temperature increase while only one shows a significant increase. The one that shows the significant increase has been known to have major problems with urbanization and poor maintenance. The countries that are recognized as having the best maintained systems show little temperature increase. Satellite and balloons have been an excellent source of temperature readings while ground stations have always been problematic. The fastest increase in the world temperature was during WWII. Not because of the evil bombs, but because nobody had the time or desire to properly maintain the stations around the world. Thus as dirt collected on the units, they quickly started giving higher and higher readings. (Note: Nature recently ran an article showing that if the satellite temperatures are interpreted in a certain way, then they show an increase in temperature. However, leaders in the field dismiss this paper on the grounds that they tried the same techniques 15 years ago and found it to be technically flawed. You can’t play with the data until you get the results you want.)
Doing Kyoto because we have to do something has to be one of the most mindless and reactionary things I have heard in ages. We don’t understand things well enough to know how to properly fix them (or even if they need to be fixed). It would be different if the global warming people had some scientific credibility, but they have historically been very wrong when it comes to predictions and characterizations. Heck, just recently they discovered that the Sun has a major influence on global temperatures (like DUH). People have been saying for years that solar output correlates much better with global temperatures than CO2 (which correlates very poorly). As Bjorn Lomborg tried to point out, if we took the money we are irrationally spending on the environment and used it to solve world hunger, we could quickly eliminate hunger.
I recently read one paper which admitted that his CO2 warming estimates where wrong because they didn’t include the influence of El Nino’s. So he went back and adjusted his data to account for El Nino. Once the El Nino’s influence was removed, he said with a straight face that it is obvious that all remaining temperature changes are caused by CO2. Huh? Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. You actually have to give credible evidence why CO2 is the cause. Sure, the CO2 influence is a theory just like evolution is a theory. However, evolution has a huge amount of compelling evidence. When you look at this whole CO2 global warming stuff you have a mixture of a lot of good pro and con science being deluged by a mass of bad politically driven science. (i.e. IPCC).
BTW: CO2 contributes only a TINY amount to global warming. Water vapor dwarfs CO2’s contributions.
Steve, please take a look at USA’s international trade. Last time I checked (and this is well documented), USA has a trade deficit, ie. it imports more than it exports. Foreign money is not flowing into the American economy; it is the other way around. Claiming that the world emulates America based on the dollar values is silly, since by that argument America is emulating the rest of the world.
When you stop having a trade deficit, we’ll know you truly care. Until then, shame on you too.
So Tim, are you telling me there is no hole in the ozone layer?
Next you’ll be telling me that we have an unlimited supply of oil that will last for a few more centuries :)
The Triplets of Belleville.
I find it funny that you use the "Triplets of Belleville" on the front page to further your point. This movie isn’t French, it’s Canadian. Oh it is French-Canadian, but has nothing to do with the French. This error is the same as saying that Americans movies are British.
Ah, I thought it was French because the story takes place in France and "Belleville".
"mat: In the words of Richard Clarke: Nowhere on the list of things that should have been done after September 11 is invading Iraq. "
Richard Clarke is wrong.
"I guess the US media has probably put a bad spin on the Kyoto Agreement because it seems to have negative connotations to most americans I’ve spoken to, but if you want to be a well-liked super-power you need to live up to your responsibilities. "
Our responsibilities? You mean like trying to control a dictator that France sold nuclear parts to? Look, the US isn’t perfect. It can’t be. But like someone else said, France’s poo doesn’t smell like roses. In fact, this whole thing seems to be a play with France and Germany attempting to strong-arm the EU their way. I seem to recall that in 1940, there was a strong relationship between France and Germany…
As for entertainment and trade, as vacuuous as some of it is, the whole world buys it. Except here, where at least we have the RIAA worried with P2P. =)
The trade deficit? Do you think it’s a good idea to start buying American only? I sure don’t. We’ve tried that one. But my question is that if there is such a terrible trade deficit, why do we still have all of the money to keep buying overseas stuff with? Chew on that one for a while.
This is silly to partake in a debate about how the French perceive the US. The fact is the US is the big dog on the block and everyone will try to take out the big dog (no matter how nice it is).
For those to decry that US is a warmonger because they enforced US resolutions on a dictator that killed hundreds of thousands of his own people is very disingenuous. If Bill Clinton did this they’d be praising him. It all comes down to morality. Our current President sees things in in terms of good and evil/black and white. Liberals hate this and will fight against it tooth and nail. But instead of letting the world know their true intentions they hide behind issues that they can exploit.
Mikasa nailed it quite well.
Liberals and leftists love ambiguity and "grey". This leaves everything open to interpretation at all times.
But they don’t see they are really screwing themselves and the future for the children as they manipulate stability and freedom right out from under their own feet.
No, no.
Politicians love gray.
Statesmen see black and white.
The nice thing with democracies is that you only have to deal with dictators for four years.
The part of this article that stands out for me is that French parents teach their children this stuff. Guess they want to make sure the ‘anglo-saxon’ dislike is carried on to the next generation.
Couldn’t have any of their kiddies liking America when they grow up I suppose.
And I mean what is it with the French, how many Americans took the time to tell their kids how awful the French are?? lol It’s rather lucicrous isn’t it?…Who even talked about the French AT ALL before the Iraq war. But, maybe that is what is behind this, the French wish for us to give them attention, whether it be good or bad, it matters not.
The French seem to be behaving like brats, and isn’t that what they accuse their neighbors to the east of?
Mat, you ignorant slut.
France supported us in attacking Afghanistan. 150%.
They didn’t support us in attacking Iraq. Neither did many other countries. And you know what? They were right.
Because you are the one liberating countries in the name of some higher morality.
"TS: The part of this article that stands out for me is that French parents teach their children this stuff. […] And I mean what is it with the French, how many Americans took the time to tell their kids how awful the French are?"
Where do you see that they teach that to their children? French children hear what surround, the same for USA children. And to answer your second question, how many Americans let their kids listen to the news at that time? Ever heard of French bashing?
"Hanya: The posters who point out that children generally do not know hate yet disply such animus to the US are correct when they add that it indicates children are taught that. Have YOU, the anti-Americans ever countenanced that you could be wrong?"
Once again "taught" is a mis-reading. The writer is only reminding us that children thoughts are under influence, it should not be a surprise. It doesn’t imply that there is a will to teach those things (simply because this is not the case). Who are those "anti-Americans" you’re talking about?
Another point of view: http://thomasmc.com/0121tr.htm
The contest results (the subject is "draw what the USA makes you to think about"): http://www.mairie-carquefou.fr/ridep/concours.htm
http://www.mairie-carquefou.fr/ridep/ce1.htm ( 7 yo)
http://www.mairie-carquefou.fr/ridep/cm1_cm2.htm (9-10 yo)
http://www.mairie-carquefou.fr/ridep/6.htm (11 yo)
http://www.mairie-carquefou.fr/ridep/5.htm (12 yo)
http://www.mairie-carquefou.fr/ridep/4.htm (and so on…)
http://www.mairie-carquefou.fr/ridep/3.htm
http://www.mairie-carquefou.fr/ridep/2.htm
http://www.mairie-carquefou.fr/ridep/1.htm
http://www.mairie-carquefou.fr/ridep/Tale.htm
I find it amsuing that people who say they hate the US and call us greedy then say:
Steve: just because someone hates the US doesn’t mean he hates *everything* about the US. Nor does it mean he his jaleous.
So the thing you like about us is our seemingly unending stream of revenue that we pump into your governments. You say we run at a trade deficit and shame on us (you’ll take us more seriously when we run in surplus I believe one person said), yet when we offer aid no one seems to have enough scruples to turn it down. (Heck, last I heard France still owed the US unpaid debt from WWII). We pump SO much money into the World Bank and directly into countries in the form of aid, yet you can find nothing redeeming in us as a culture? Would such horrible people try to do so much for so many? Even countries like Egypt, (which doesn’t do nearly enough to squash the vitriol of imams that fuels anti-Americanism), receives 2 billion a year alone (although I believe that is a result of the Camp David accords).
The posters who point out that children generally do not know hate yet disply such animus to the US are correct when they add that it indicates children are taught that. Have YOU, the anti-Americans ever countenanced that you could be wrong? Why is it the US is always wrong, but no other country can be arrogant, selfish, manipulative and brash?
And now for the maddox style response http://www.kkow.net/etep/rants/french_kids.html
Mat wrote: "You mean like trying to control a dictator that France sold nuclear parts to?"
Actually you should rephrase that to "You mean like trying to control a dictator that France sold nuclear parts to *and the US and UK sold weapons to*".
Guns vs. Nukes. Apples and oranges.
I haven’t been called an ignorant slut before, but it sorta has a ring to it.
BTW, Tenet’s resignation is interesting. But despite everything, if the UN wants some credibility, you can’t just say that "yelling" at a country for 12 years is enough. If you like acting multinationally, you might want to start accepting what the UN says as having teeth. Try again. This time without the namecalling, son.
To Tim who wrote about global warming: Some people choose to only listen to the articles that don´t sound threatening: But it was your job (like it is mine) to read lots of studies and articles about this, you would see that in the last couple of years, abnormal weather changes multiplied – every year, we break a new strange record when it comes to floods, droughts and so on, and breeds of animals who live on earth longer than we do, are eradicated. For fear to be taken for a Greenpeace activist, I won´t continue the list (although I could go on forever). And the ice poles do melt, by the way. Even if we can´t say for sure yet what implications our reckless exploitation of nature will have for our children, we can´t, with a little realism, estimate? And you would also see that there are already lots of alternatives, like renewable energy, which are not that costly.
Industrialized nations could afford that, no problem. And they could also afford funding further research, which in a couple of years could give us alternatives even the "too costly"-economy could live with. But this short-sighted "hey, I´m not yet concerned"-attitude means that we´re not ready to pay for our futre, and that not only Bush, but politicians all over the world do what the oil lobby wants them to, and nobody´s interested.
And concerning Iraq: Do you believe your fellow Americans die for the Iraqi people? That Bush really believes that Al-Quaida terrorists were hiding in this – fairly moderate – muslim country? Or that Hussain had weapons of mass dectruction? Or do you just not care for the real reasons for this war?
Iraq – the U.S. (and Britain – just a quick note for those who speak of "the Europeans") did the right thing for the wrong reasons. The world is a better place without Saddam Hussein in power but it is not if a superpower decides that might makes right and goes about invading whichever place it damn well pleases.
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