Europe falls from grace in the eyes of the world

May 13, 2012

London, May 13: Europe and the EU have seen their influence around the world wane over the past 12 months due to the worsening financial crisis in the region, according to a BBC World Service Poll.

Just 48 per cent of people from around the world surveyed for the 2012 Country Ratings Poll said the EU had a “mostly positive” influence. In 2011 poll, 56 per cent rated the EU as a force for good.

While the EU has seen its reputation crash, China has risen remarkably during the same period. The survey shows that 50 per cent now rate China as a positive influence, up four points from 2011.

Sam Mountford, director, GlobeScan, which conducted the poll with Pipa, told Khaleej Times that Europe is no longer seen as “the bastion of stability” that it once was. “It's a remarkable shift but not all that surprising considering what's happened over the last year.”

At the other end of the scale, Iran and Pakistan were the two lowest-rated countries that featured in the survey. Last-place Iran was viewed to have a “mostly negative” influence by 55 per cent of respondents. Pakistan was looked at unfavourably by 51 per cent.

India recorded little change in 2012, keeping a 40 per cent positive view rating and a 27 per cent negative result, down one per cent.

The US, a country that had shown steady growth in the poll since 2007, saw its popularity wane this year. Positive views on US influence dropped one per cent from 2011 down to 47 while negative views climbed two points to 33.

The poll was conducted among 24,090 people who were asked to rate the influence of 16 countries and the EU as “mostly positive” or “mostly negative”.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

Trump’s associates told to avoid racist language making them ‘look like Nazis’

News Network

November 18,2024

Advisors to US President-elect Donald Trump have instructed his allies and associates to refrain from using the inflammatory language they previously employed when discussing issues related to migrants and the deportation of asylum seekers, in a bid to avoid “looking like Nazis.”

US media reports said that Trump’s associates had been asked to stop using the word “camps” to describe potential facilities that would be used to accommodate migrants rounded up in deportation operations across the country.

The reports said the US president-elect’s allies had been ordered to stave off such charged terms as they would bring to mind “Nazis,” and be used against Trump.

“I have received some guidance to avoid terms, like ‘camps,’ that can be twisted and used against the president, yes,” one Trump ally told American monthly magazine Rolling Stone.

“Apparently, some people think it makes us look like Nazis.”

The presidential advisers also cautioned surrogates and allies to keep racist terms, which have dogged Trump’s campaign, out of their remarks.

They said with Trump’s heated rhetoric that used to compare undocumented immigrants to “animals” and his slight that they are “poisoning the blood of our country,” detractors did not need to reach too far to find parallels to Nazi Germany.

Stephen Miller, who Trump tapped to be his deputy chief of staff of policy, specifically used the word “camps” to describe holding facilities that he hoped the military could put together for immigrants.

Tom Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is chosen by Trump to be in charge of the US borders, was no stranger to such language.

“It’s not gonna be a mass sweep of neighborhoods,” he said in an interview earlier this week. “It’s not gonna be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous.”

Becoming a little more forthright about the new government’s aggressive deportation plans, Homan likened the early days of the Trump administration to the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“I got three words for them – shock and awe,” he said. “You’re going to see us take this country back.”

Trump made immigration a central element of his 2024 presidential campaign but unlike his first run, which was mainly focused on building a border wall, he has shifted his attention to interior enforcement and the removal of undocumented immigrants already in the United States.

People close to the US president and his aides are laying the groundwork for expanding detention facilities to fulfill his mass deportation campaign promise.

The businessman-turned-politician deported more than 1.5 million people during his first term.

The figure do not include the millions of people turned away at the border under a Covid-era policy enacted by Trump and used during most of Biden’s term.

Comments