China

Recently China's had a huge amount of bad luck, which is really quite ironic considering this year is supposed to be its luckiest, with the Olympics, growing economy and number eight and all. First the winter storms, then the incident with Tibet, then the earthquake and now the flooding! It makes me feel sick to think of all the earthquake victims in Sichuan. Leehom talked about helping the victims in his birthday video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1s5xBJOoLs
Compared to Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina, China was really very adept. China's response to the earthquake was positive for three main reasons: it dampened the criticism they were receiving about Tibet, it showed the world that China was becoming less restricted (especially compared to the Gang of Four's glaringly different actions in 1976 in the Tangshan earthquake), and it showed that they were able to effectively handle disasters and that they cared about the public. Wen Jiabao's actions were in particular very touching. I just hope that nothing worse happens to China before the Olympics.