ATLANTA, Georgia (BNW) -- Since the terrorist attacks of 911, most Americans are still asking themselves why the whole world hates the US so? We are a loving and forgiving country most Americans like to think.
Right! And that’s why the world hates US? No so!
People around the world perceive the United States as "too arrogant" and "too self-centered" because the country doesn't do enough to alleviate poverty and other social ills in the developing world, former President Jimmy Carter said in an interview to air Friday.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was asked by CNN's Larry King why he believes so many people in the rest of the world hate the country he once led.
"I think there is a sense that the United States has become too arrogant, too dominant, too self-centered, proud of our wealth, believing that we deserve to be the richest and most powerful and influential nation in the world," Carter said. "I think they feel that we don't really care about them, which is quite often true."
He added, "They all know -- the ones that are educated -- that among the developed, industrialized nations on earth, the United States is at the bottom, way at the bottom, in providing humanitarian aid for peace and for human rights and for housing and for health and education."
Carter, who will receive a the Nobel prize on December 10 in Oslo, Norway, also noted that the United States gives only one one-thousandth of its gross national product for international assistance, while the average European country gives four times as much.
"For every time an American gives a dollar, a citizen of Norway gives $17," he said. "Foreign aid in this country has a bad name, but in other countries, it's a right thing for the government to do. And that's where we at the Carter Center quite often have to turn."
The Atlanta-based Carter Center, founded 20 years ago, now operates humanitarian projects in 65 countries, the former president said.
N. Korea nuclear weapons 'serious mistake'
Carter also said that recent admissions by North Korean officials that they have pushed ahead with developing nuclear capability came as a surprise to him. However, Carter said he does not believe the North Koreans actually have, or want to build, nuclear weapons.
"My belief is ... that it is primarily a kind of a threat to bring attention to themselves as a negotiating ploy," said Carter, who visited the Communist dictatorship in 1994 to broker an agreement that was supposed to end its nuclear program.
"It was a serious mistake on their part, and from every information that I have, the North Koreans would like to get out of this problem and have some genuine negotiations with our country and others."
Carter, who also helped broker the historic Camp David accords in 1979, said he is "very disturbed" about the recent breakdown in the Middle East peace process.
"I don't see any hope for progress in the altercation between Israelis and Palestinians with the present leadership," he said. "I would personally like to see a change in the Israeli government and in the Palestinian community."
Carter also expressed concern about the contest for control of Israel's governing Likud party between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which he characterized as "each one trying to outdo the other about how they can be most abusive toward the Palestinians and avoid any relations of a negotiating nature with [Palestinian leader Yasser] Arafat."