Stuart MerrillLaura Bush’s Candy Coated Bubble
I have always thought First Lady Laura Bush to be a kind lady in every sense of the word, but the NPR report on her visit to the Nelson Mandela Elementary School in Bamako, Mali was the most outrageously reprehensible thing I have ever heard. My best friend and I stayed in the car to hear this report to its end. We were shocked and shamed beyond words.
To put this in perspective let me ask you a question; can you imagine Princess Diana visiting a school in one of the poorest countries in the world and having her emissaries precede her visit to spruce things up “for her comfort� For Mrs. Bush they covered the mud on the walkway, installed electrical outlets, a generator and fans, painted only the entrance of the building, leaving everything she didn’t see in utter squalor. Once Mrs. Bush left they removed the fans, furniture, generator, even the electrical outlets from the walls. As if this display of opulence was not vulgar enough she actually arrived in a limousine. Who raised the people who planned this trip? Has their crude xenophobia no bounds of decency?
When we did volunteer work in the South Africa’s Townships, we of course made a point to underplay our good fortune as any decent human being would. Have they no sense or shame?
July 3rd, 2007 at 10:40 am
I wouldn’t characterize what she did as playing up her good fortune. I’d characterize it as her spitting on their way of life and current living conditions.
Changing the environment to accommodate her visit reflects poorly on her and the country that didn’t elect her husband. Outside some medical need, such accommodations are reflections of arrogance and ignorance.
July 3rd, 2007 at 10:51 am
I think the real reason Scooter didn’t have to suffer jail was that the ‘improvements’ were simply taking toooo long to get right. Yes the paint at the entrance was done but the bars weren’t candy yet and it was expected to drag on like til forever. No other jail would have done and they couldn’t stand the thought of Lewis squealing.
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:38 am
That’s kind of the way it is with White House visits. I was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas years ago and we had soldiers painting stuff for a week to prepare for a four-hour visit by President Carter. Of course, in Mali the contrast between a first lady in a limousine (probably flown in from Washington) and impoverished schoolchildren is going to be extreme.
There’s more about Laura Bush’s Mali visit on DailyKos.
July 3rd, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Conspicuous Consumerism makes me want to vomit. This makes me want to give up my citizenship.
July 3rd, 2007 at 9:28 pm
WHAT ABOUT PARIS? She did her time, and without sprucing up the prison for her comfort.
July 4th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Eight months in S. Africa in ‘88 was, for me, the most humbling of all my sojourns. I only learned of the state-of-emergency status after I got there, so, more fun was in store than I’d originally anticipated. But, that’s another story………How anyone could visit any depressed or impoverished area and not feel humbled to their core is truly beyond me. I rode first class on a train once before I realized that the ride is in third class with the most wise and patient folks from the tribes of Black, Indian, Malay, Cape Coloured, Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Soto and others I can’t recall. I, too, tried to give MsDubya the benefit of the doubt; but, this really is telling of the whole White, deftly-facaded MobileHome in D.C. of late. To state the obvious, Busha is either completely oblivious to the suffering of others, en toto; she’s just hung out with Dub for so long that his “truth” is now her truth as well, she has to go along to get along; or she’s a closet bigot. I have to say, that as little as I know of this First Woman, a moment like this can, at times, tell me all I need to know about a body……………………….