-Caveat Lector-
from:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=003791872820752&rtmo=qx9KseK9&atmo=rrrrrrr
q&pg=/et/00/11/10/wpres110.html
Click Here: <A
HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=003791872820752&rtmo=qx9KseK9&atmo=r
rrrrrrq&pg=/et/00/11/10/wpres110.html">The world mocks as America squirms</A>
-----
The world mocks as America squirms
By Anton La Guardia
Gore refuses to accept vote recount
THE world's newspapers revelled in the embarrassment of the American
political system yesterday, making comparisons with "banana republics",
"spaghetti westerns" and the endemic corruption of Indian and Italian
politics.
The most caustic mockery came from countries whose democratic failings have
been criticised by Washington. For many writers America had received its
comeuppance for holding itself up as a model for others to emulate.
Nepotistic dynasties, a dead man elected and scandals over ballot boxes were
not just confined to the Third World, they said. A "great victory for
democracy, desi-style (India style)", is how the Times of India gleefully
described the debacle.
The Indian Express, noting the vicissitudes of the Bush and Gore dynasties,
urged readers to stop "moaning about how we alone in the world have been
loaded with politicians whose fathers or grandfathers, mothers or
grandmothers, uncles or aunts, great-uncles or great-aunts or plain cousins
also happen to be politicians".
La Reference Plus, published in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said the
chaos in Florida only encouraged African dictators. It asked: "If this
happens in the United States, how do you want everything to be clean and
transparent in the poor African continent?"
Zimbabwe's state-controlled daily, The Herald, said: "Analysts questioned
whether the Americans would have accepted a recount in African elections if
the ruling party candidate had been beaten, as happened in Florida."
Iraq, which had previously dismissed both the American presidential
candidates as equally pro-Israeli and hostile to Iraq, yesterday took the
side of George W Bush. It said the delay in announcing the result was a
Jewish plot to control America through Al Gore.
Babel, a newspaper controlled by the eldest son of President Saddam Hussein,
Uday, said the Jews in America wanted Mr Gore to win in order to give more
support to Israel in its confrontation with the Palestinians. Babel said in a
front page editorial: "If they (the Jews) succeed in making Gore win the
election they will become the real leaders of America."
Italians, whose own politics have been compared to an "opera buffa" after 58
post-war governments, had a field day.
The Rome daily, La Repubblica, ran the mocking headline: "A Day worthy of a
Banana Republic". The columnist Bepe Severgnini wrote in Milan's daily
Corriere della Sera: "The other night when I went into a restaurant in Santa
Monica, there was one president - Clinton.
"When I ordered a pizza there was another one - Gore. When I paid the bill
there was a third president - Bush. When I walked out on to Ocean Boulevard
there was no president because Bill is now the husband of a senator from New
York."
German newspapers were more sanctimonious, with several arguing that
America's electoral system was outdated and undermined the legitimacy of the
eventual winner. Sueddeutsche Zeitung said the next president would be "a
king without a kingdom."
The conservative Die Welt said: "This is not a cheap novel, not a soap opera
but a debacle that may reach the level of comedy and will be, in hindsight,
an anecdote of a time in which politics had to painfully grasp how unfair it
is to voters.
"What a macabre spectacle: a giant empire with 280 million citizens sends
voters to the polls to decide who should be the next American president and
both candidates remain in a dead heat in a way we have not even seen in
elections in Uzbekistan or Switzerland."
In Moscow, an elections official said the disarray in America demonstrated
the superiority of the Russian system. Alexander Veshnyakov, chairman of the
Russian Central Election Committee, told the business daily Kommersant: "I
think we should never adopt their electoral college system . . . Russian
elections are more democratic and easier to grasp for the voters."
Cuba's President Fidel Castro did not pass up the opportunity to lampoon
America. State television showed him walking along the beach in his olive
green uniform and boots. He ran into an unidentified American tourist and
told him: "Like the majority of Americans, you have gone to the beach."
The Lebanese daily, Al-Safir, had to apologise to its readers for incorrectly
reporting that Mr Gore had won, but used the occasion to needle Arab
dictators who stage overwhelming election victories for themselves.
The paper's owner and editor Talal Salman wrote: "We offer our apologies to
our readers for deciding on something that was still under way. Perhaps it is
because of our deep-rooted experience of Arab democracy, particularly in
Lebanon, where results are given before the poll, which is then held only to
confirm the correctness of the declaration."
� Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2000.
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
