Who cares what people say?
As Madeline wrote earlier, today we're going to be asking if Americans should care what the world thinks of them, following a ´óÏó´«Ã½ survey which found a lot of negative feeling towards the country. We'll also be talking to people in Lebanon after a violent day of clashes there. And we'll be asking if the South African government are right to forcibly detain patients with TB.
You can read emails and text messages here, and of course post your own comments as well.
Lebanon:
Hussein in Beirut
I support these protests, they are definitely a part of democracy, since democracy does not have to be the western version
Toni, Beirut
Spilling Christian blood again in times of peace has tainted the hands of the "Lebanese" opposition. Nasrallah can end this just like he started it, if not, it will be in the hands of the army to avoid a full-scale civil war.
Al, Cairo, Egypt
As a Lebanese engineer working abroad to survive, I see that Hezbollah and its ally Syria are keeping my dream of coming back to Lebanon impossible.
Should America care what the world thinks of it?
Debbie, who writes the Debbie Does Politics blog, is causing some controversy...
Kim - US
Seriously, stop having this Debbie woman on your show. As an American, she's embarrassing me!
E. Winkelman
Debbie is not representing so many Americans. Please turn her mic off.
Lee
Debbie?
She does not represent the truth but rather what the US Government want the people of the world to hear and think, although there is no truth to the answers of the worlds current events.
Sonia
I can't believe Debbie Does Dallas is still talking!!!!! What are you
trying to do? I don't mind hearing her comments, but to have her on for
the entire program when she was one of the most uninformed, ignorant people who called in. What was the point?
Allen
As for Debbie. She is like every other world citizen. Intelligent about what she knows and illiterate on everything else. It takes all of us in every country working together as equals to make this world a better place.Unfortunately many people in the world like Hugo Chavez and George Bush thinks they know it all and other opinions don't matter!
Alan an American and World citizen!
Rodriguez writes
I think it's very important that americans finally know how the world feels about them. they have been kept in a patriotic bubble ever since 9-11.
Mark, Philadelphia
Every place has its positives and negatives, but for my friends who've moved here from Europe, the tables turned once they settled here, and they see that the citizens of the world simply don't understand us or know the truth about America.
DR UMEGE.NIGERIA.
i get goose pimples whenever i contemplate the fate that would befall the world in the event of an end to american influence on the world. we would be left with two governments-China and Russia.
CHINEDU CHIOKE, Maiduguri, Nigeria.
US's foreign policy has been beneficial in securing a peaceful world. Only those who sympathize with terrorists criticize them.
TB:
Ace from Manchester thinks all people coming into Britain from all african/asian countries should be screened for TB and other diseases before being allowed into Britain.
Tadj from Geneva doesn't want to catch a deadly disease because someone wants to share his germs with others....Take example from chinese or japanese they wear a face mask when they have a cold.
Ryan from Orlando, USA
When dealing with bird flu we didn't just dispose of 1 or 2 chickens, we destroyed all of them. We cannot let a few people jeopardize the majority of the population.
Biko in Kenya believes that when national interest is at stake personal interests should take a back seat. These people should be culled and their movements restricted.
Ivor Oke in Bangkok says
Get real, how many innocent victims of XDR-TB must DIE before the masses are entitled to protection.
Chris from Lusaka, Zambia
To fight multi-drug-resistant TB, stronger drugs do exist that have proven to be 80% effective. The question is whether or not the South African government is willing to contain the outbreak by providing free drugs to fight the disease.
Munya Munochiveyi from Minnesota thinks that medically quarantining patients for whatever disease is a form of medical apartheid. Sincere specialists concerned with this XDR-TB must explore other alternatives, especially in a country like South Africa whose history is badly scarred by countless historical instances of medical apartheid, whereby Africans were often viewed as carriers of disease. We are sick and tired of this sort of bio-medical hegemony that puts bacterial or viral issues before human issues.
SUSANNAH
I think with the high rate of AIDS in S. Africa a quarantine is a necessary measure. It's not a matter of respecting rights, it's a matter of protecting life. The lives of the majority trump the rights of the minority.
Mukul Dayton,OH
Shift the next world cup outside of S. Africa before it is too late to find alternate venue.
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