- It started the day after the US presidential election
with one student posting a picture of himself on the internet holding up
a sign reading: "Sorry world (we tried) - half of
America".
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- Within just a few days, the website
www.sorryeverybody.com,
set up by James Zetlen, had 27 million hits, he said.
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- The site features more than 2,200 pictures of contrite
Americans holding up placards expressing their sorrow at the victory of
George W. Bush. There are 1,000 more pictures waiting to be posted.
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- "It was mind-boggling the amount of emotion the
website has triggered," said the 20-year-old neuroscience student
at the University of Southern California.
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- Not all the emotional responses have been positive,
however.
Mr Zetlen's site for rueful Americans has spawned at least eight websites
for people who say they are not at all sorry that Mr Bush beat Democratic
candidate John Kerry.
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- Mr Zetlen said the reaction from outside the US has been
overwhelmingly positive. "The international community is absolutely
mortified at what has happened," he said.
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- About half of the more than 3,000 e-mails he received
came from abroad. The worldwide reaction included responses from Germany,
France, Italy, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, South Africa,
Senegal, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Chile, Brazil, China and South Korea.
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- The German daily newspaper Der Spiegel wrote about the
website and the French daily newspaper Liberation called the number of
penitent people "impressive".
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- All the pictures share a common theme, asking forgiveness
for the re-election of Mr Bush.
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- "Sorry everybody, the inmates are running the
asylum.
AGAIN! Please don't hate half of us."
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- "Dear World. We are so sorry! It makes no sense
to us either."
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- One man's sign reads: "This one of the 55,902,001
Americans that voted against Mr Bush would like to apologise for the
59,422,689
idiots who did."
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- Several talk of leaving the United States. "We are
so sorry that we are moving to your country." One man is holding up
an SOS distress call, spelled out in Morse code. Another pictures a toddler
wearing a T-shirt saying: "If I could vote, I'd vote against
Bush."
One picture shows the American eagle with the words: "Sorry
everybody."
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- Some non-Americans have posted supportive photos and
messages on the site. Stefan from Germany said: "On behalf of my
country
I accept your apology. I know you tried hard."
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- Mr Zetlen said he was surprised at the number of
submissions
and traffic the site attracted. The University of Southern California had
to ask Mr Zetlen to take the site off their server because it was taking
up 82 per cent of the traffic.
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- He now hosts the website privately, which he estimates
will cost US$6,000 to US$7,000 a month. He has received almost as much
in donations.
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- http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu
- /article.asp?parentid=16653
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