theSun | TUESDAY NOVEMBER 3 2009
news without borders
A year later,
Obamamania
takes a beating
WASHINGTON: A year on from a historic elec-
tion, the spirit of popular goodwill that yielded
America’s first black president has retreated to
tepid support for Barack Obama as he presses his
change agenda.
Since the Nov 4 poll, Obama’s visage has been
everywhere, conspicuously on the streets of the
nation’s capital where millions of foreign and
domestic tourists have visited over the past year,
many of them snatching up poignant souvenirs.
A quick look around downtown Washington
confirms that the Obama trinkets are still for sale,
but more than one strategically placed street
hawker have found little point in displaying the
T-shirts, posters, and “Yes We Can” buttons bearing
the new president’s image.
Indeed, Obama’s honeymoon with the Ameri-
can people lasted less than six months.
After his inauguration in January, his approval
rating soared to 70%. Early on, he tested Ameri-
cans’ faith by diving headlong into controversial
programmes to rescue the economy, including bail-
ing out sinking auto manufacturers and unleashing
a US$787 billion (RM2.75 trillion) stimulus plan.
In late April, at the end of the first 100 days in
office, Obama still enjoyed more positive reviews
than his predecessors in the previous 20 years.
In July, his popularity dipped even below that of
predecessor George W. Bush in the same period of
his presidency. Since mid-October, it has hovered
just above 50%, according to Frank Newport, editor
in chief of the Gallup Poll.
High or low as it may be at home, Obama’s
popularity abroad is irrefutable, argues Professor
Clyde Wilcox of Georgetown University in Washing-
ton. He is “the first African-American president, a
young man who has won many honours and done
great things. He is a cultural phenomenon in the US
and around the world,” Wilcox said. – AFP
11
Poser as swine flu
about 1km long before the place was even
open. There were many, many hundreds
arriving by the second,” Salzberg said.
Last week, as child deaths spiked
well above the annual toll for kids from
seasonal flu, vaccination clinics in the
county that includes Rockville were
vaccine runs dry in US
abruptly cancelled.
The county’s supply of vaccine had
run dry.
So what if this had been the next “big
one”, a flu on the scale of the pandemic
that killed tens of millions around the
globe in 1918? After all, the strain of flu
WASHINGTON: Mothers with young H1N1 influenza and should be first in that caused the 1918 pandemic was also
children and pregnant women are being line for innoculation. But after rolling out H1N1, the grandfather of today’s swine
turned away from swine flu vaccination the vaccine last month, the authorities flu pandemic.
clinics in the United States, some in tears, ran into a problem: There wasn’t enough “If we had a really virulent highly
many utterly frustrated by the shortage to go around. infectious influenza strain today, it could
Next of vaccine. “The National Institutes of Health easily be as bad as 1918,” said Salzberg.
step But it could have been much worse. and Centers for Disease Control and But David Beshai, associate professor
The new strain of H1N1 flu could have Prevention have done a very good job at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School
forward been much more virulent, and it could of emphasising the importance of get- of Public Health, said progress in health
pg 27 even have been bird flu, which, because ting vaccinated. But then there’s no care and nutrition mean “a replica of
of the way the United States produces flu vaccine,” said Steven Salzberg, director 1918 is not in the cards.
vaccine, could wreak havoc. of the Center for Bioinformatics and “When you really need vaccine
Months back, when a swine flu vac- Computational Biology at the University quickly, we just can’t do it, and this has
cine was still just a glimmer in scientists’ of Maryland. now been demonstrated,” Salzberg said.
eyes, US health officials were driving Salzberg’s wife and younger daugh- He said changing the way the United
home the message that children, and ters were among thousands who queued States makes flu vaccine was too costly
especially those with underlying health last week in Rockville, a suburb of for companies to put in place and would
conditions like asthma and pregnant Washington, for swine flu vaccinations. have to come from the highest political
women were at great risk of dying from “They left when they saw the line was levels. – AFP
Two fined for dresses over four months in 2007, by Tulip Lab of India. in the US, police confirmed.
the Department of Internal Affairs “Current estimates suggest that Post-mortems were continu-
international spam reported. Shane Atkinson was fined around 120 billion spam messages ing, police said, but there were
WELLINGTON: Two New Zealand- NZ$100,000 (RM250,600) and Ron- are sent every day,” officials said. initial indications some of the
ers have been fined for their roles in ald Smits NZ$50,000 (RM125,300) – dpa victims’ had been strangled.
the biggest pharmaceutical spam- in the Christchurch High Court last The first two bodies were
ming operation in the history of the week, the department said. Six corpses found found on Thursday when police
internet, officials said yesterday. The operation paid affiliates came to arrest Anthony Sowell,
They were part of a business around the world to send spam in rapist’s house 50, on a rape charge at his house
based in Christchurch that sent emails marketing Herbal King, Elite WASHINGTON: A total of six in Cleveland, Ohio. A third was
more than two million unsolic- Herbal and Express Herbal branded bodies, some of them badly de- found a day later and police
ited emails promoting Indian-made pharmaceutical products, which composed, have now been found have now confirmed three more.
herbal products to New Zealand ad- were manufactured and shipped at the home of a convicted rapist – dpa