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OpEdNews Op Eds    H4'ed 2/25/21

The US Loves to Accuse Other Nations of Being Unable to Cope in a Crisis, but---

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Venezuelans calmly collected spring water (as last week Texans collected water from a public park tap), but Western media spun this, falsely claiming they were collecting wastewater.

I went to the area in question and saw residents collecting clean water, bathing in it, and feeling insulted by media allegations that it was filthy.

In another area, I saw government-supplied water tankers filling up, prioritizing water delivery to hospitals first and then around the city.

The government's subsidized food box delivery program (CLAP), reaching six million of Venezuela's poorest families, continued to function, providing ridiculously inexpensive food to people who can't afford supermarket prices.

But the media didn't report this. They were determined to paint Venezuela as a failed state, in chaos.

A Univision anchor even went as far as to film men allegedly "eating out of" a garbage truck, claiming the scene was "near", "close to", and "minutes from" Venezuela's presidential palace, when in fact he was in a wealthy eastern Caracas district roughly 7 km away. I went to that district to film it and show that it was decidedly not "close to" Miraflores and that the journalist was lying.

No Western media or pundits that I am aware of reported on the deadly and immoral sanctions imposed on Venezuela, which are a major factor determining the quality of life of the same Venezuelans the pundits pretend to care about. In 2017-2018, the sanctions were estimated to have caused 40,000 deaths

American highways vs. Syrian highways

Syria has been warred upon for ten years now, with America openly backing terrorists there, and under increasingly brutal sanctions that hurt the Syrian people and target reconstruction. And yet, it might surprise readers to know that the main highways are well-maintained and smooth - in contrast to many, if not most, of America's.

Ever since going to Syria in early 2014, I have marvelled at how the country maintains smooth roads (even ones routinely attacked by terrorists), repairs destroyed electrical towers and lines soon after an area is cleared of terrorists, maintains garbage collection (which neighbouring Lebanon might envy, with their repeated garbage crises), and has continued to provide massively subsidized bread, as well as free health care and higher education.

In fact, when a few days ago snowfall closed some roads in the southern city of Dara'a, Syrian soldiers delivered the bags of subsidized bread by tractor.

This is all while Syria is under increasingly brutal sanctions by the US and allies.

Meanwhile, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 2017 Infrastructure Report Card gave US infrastructure a D+. As per a 2019 Business Insider article, the ASCE "estimates the US needs to spend some $4.5 trillion by 2025 to fix the country's roads, bridges, dams, and other infrastructure."

In 2007, a Minneapolis bridge collapsed, killing 13 people. "Rush-hour traffic that was stalled on the bridge went into free fall; as dozens of vehicles plummeted into the Mississippi River," an article on the collapse noted.

Knowing America's poor infrastructure report card, it is sadly quite likely more will fail. Search "bridge collapse America" and you might be surprised how many deadly collapses there have been and how many are at risk.

Prior US Disasters and Neglected Infrastructure

The August 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster displaced over a million people and led to the deaths of over 1,000.

Since then, there have been many criticisms of how the crisis was handled, including that "government officials neglected their duties to prepare for a forewarned catastrophe," that there were flaws in construction of the levees, with two major drainage canals failing at their foundations, and that "none of the relevant government agencies had a plan for responding to a levee breach" (although the Department of Homeland Security was aware of the likelihood).

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Republished from Eva Bartlett In Gaza:  Eva is a Canadian independent journalist and activist. She has spent years on the ground covering conflict zones in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Palestine. She is a recipient of the International Journalism Award for International Reporting. Visit her personal (more...)
 

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