American Tensions With India on Global Warming Put Hillary Clinton Back in News
By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
So Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's first major trip abroad in her new post has finally shone the spotlight on her, and shifted it away from her always-camera-ready commander in chief. But is this a good thing? Last week the Web world was agog over suspicions that President Obama was purposely stealing center stage from his very popular secretary of state—as his own public approval ratings were beginning to tumble. But in the middle of her Indian tour, ripples in the normally smooth U.S.-Indian relationship began to appear over climate change:
But the clash between developed and developing countries over climate change intruded on the high-profile photo opportunity midway through Clinton's three-day tour of India. Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh complained about U.S. pressure to cut a worldwide deal, and Clinton countered that the Obama administration's push for a binding agreement would not sacrifice India's economic growth.
So maybe staying out of the limelight has been a good thing for the secretary?
While major media outlets focused on the tussle over climate change, I was more interested in her remarks on U.S.-Indian relations and food security. She praised India for making progress in establishing food security.
Remember when American parents told their children to clean their plates because children were starving in India? Starvation in India is no longer the problem it once was. And Secretary of State Clinton made it sound as if India could become the food production capital of the world. But that doesn't mean starvation is gone forever. Far from it. The BBC reported earlier this month on severe water shortages in Mumbai.
There's a drought in Mumbai and nearby. But in India's so-called Bread Basket, Punjab, water tables have been dropping precipitously for years as farmers drill ever deeper to meet agricultural water needs. Many acres of prime farm land have turned to dust due to overuse of fertilizer, and eco-experts predict food shortages may soon revisit India in a big way.
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Tags: India | State Department | Hillary Clinton | foreign policy
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Reader Comments
Klunkin' Hillary Stumbles Yet Again!
Egad! 'The Hilly' has "dumm-it" again!
She is SO thoroughly AWKWARD! It's the only conSIStent character-trait I've observed since her 1st dummmie remark, "I don't bake cookies," got her CREAMED all over the country(!); CERTAINLY by all those very proud Arkansas 'Mom-n-Gramma-Bakin'-Homemakers!' One foolishly hoped, THEN, that Klunkin' Hillary would've "gotta BIG picture" & learned a little "decorum!" (Alas, NO!)
I think a permanent 'Broken Ankle' AND 'Broken Elbow' have FOREVER occupied the right side of her mindless brain! Her 'faux pas' are legendary! AND embarrassing! The only 'race' in which she "ompetes" is for the "1st Place Ribbon" amoung the stupidist choices made by her desparate "boss," so far!
How very tiresome has become "Klunkin' Hillary's" predictable slop, no matter WHERE she happens to "splash-down!"
As she continues to ratchet up her gaffs & UN-professional conduct all over the planet, the MERCY nature of her cabinet 'appointment' has not only become CLEER but it NOW glistens like a sweaty wrestler on a losin' STREAK!
"PeeYuu" on the Klunkin' Hill! [And I DO mean that in every available PUN!)
<3 th'Net!
Drought
The Indian drought brings to mind California's current predicament. Its agriculture feeds the world, its economy is the fifth (seventh by now?) largest in the world, and the water wars remind one of the frontier wars fought over water.
Poor Hilary didn't even get a sympathy bump for her arm; she was upstaged again by Ms. Sotomayor's ankle. Guess she's getting used to being one-upped by now.
When Clinton, Obama, Gore, and the rest of the pols pretend they believe
or try to convince us they believe something that is at best debatable (although Al Gore says that there is no debate left), WATCH OUT!!! Did they ever think that India and China and the rest of the growing world would buy into this sanctimonius garbage??? I promise that were this 1850 and were Britain, France, Italy, Russia, and Japan trying to convince us to buy the same thing we would tell them to pound sand.
This Administration is trying to convince us and the rest of the world that even without India, China, and Africa buying in, punishing the US for succeeding in leading in R&D, food production, technical innovation, and avoiding having folks starving in the streets, the US and Europe and Japan and Australia and New Zealand alone can make temperatures drop, waters become prisine, and trees grow. They pretend not to understand that India's and China's governments act in their self-interest while our folks commit suicide.
India will at least call "B.S." on this and tell Hillary that her attitude is insulting and will be ignored. China are wise enough to not even respond to this condesecending hokum. And then China locks up the usual suspects.
Their populations continue to grow and their need to exploit resources---on their land and water and everywhere else---grows. .
Al Gore goes to Australia and sings about pigtail flourescent lights (that seem to be manufactured mostly in China) and little automobiles (that will be coffins on mixed use highways in the US). Waxman shines his pate. Clinton goes to India to bully.
Pathetically---but not surprisingly---Waxman and others sold their colleagues and other assorted nits on an energy plan and did not have the integrity to allow debate or even suggestions of alternatives because he and his West Coasters want only to make the rest of the nation suffer as California suffers.
Why not demand that Pelosi and Reid go home on Greyhound, the reps and sens give up their gas pumps in their office buildings, go on a six months' schedule and turn off air conditioning in their offices and in the bureaucratic offices, and go home from May to the end of October. And do the same thing at the White House. Let them all get jobs at tossing burgers, sweeping streets, birthing babies, answering 911 telephones, quit kissing Obama's tuchas, and stop junketing on my dime. In other words, stop acting like Hamiltonian royalty.
But Bonnie, they won't because they don't have to.
Olbermann, Cooper, Couric, Harry (a non sequitur) Smith, Williams, Limbaugh, Hanniepie, the NYT management, WAPo management, the Cox Sisters, and the rest of the pretend journalists, (who could never hold Cronkite's bedpan or spell "Huntley, "Brinkley," "Morrow," "McGill" could go home and shut up.
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