My colleague Dan Lak has been to some real shitholes during his career.
Yet even he has been shocked by what he has seen in the southern United States over the past week.
As Dan reflects for "From Our Own Correspondent":
"There are...ways...in which this crisis is worse than many I have seen in the developing world.
"In India, where I spent many years covering natural disasters, there is a greater sense of resilience and urgency.
"It did not take long for huge field hospitals and vast camps of toilets and clean water tanks to be set up in southern India for example, after the tsunami hit there last year, whereas here in Mississippi, the authorities are still begging people to boil their water and watch where they go to the toilet, lest they give or receive some water-borne disease.
"And politicians in India, often cursed by their constituents for flocking to disasters to show their concern, compare rather well with a US president whose first big gesture after Katrina's damage became evident is to cut a five-week vacation short by two days to give the matter his full attention."
When the developing world is judged to have done better than the United States in dealing with a humanitarian crisis you know something's gone seriously wrong.
Yet even he has been shocked by what he has seen in the southern United States over the past week.
As Dan reflects for "From Our Own Correspondent":
"There are...ways...in which this crisis is worse than many I have seen in the developing world.
"In India, where I spent many years covering natural disasters, there is a greater sense of resilience and urgency.
"It did not take long for huge field hospitals and vast camps of toilets and clean water tanks to be set up in southern India for example, after the tsunami hit there last year, whereas here in Mississippi, the authorities are still begging people to boil their water and watch where they go to the toilet, lest they give or receive some water-borne disease.
"And politicians in India, often cursed by their constituents for flocking to disasters to show their concern, compare rather well with a US president whose first big gesture after Katrina's damage became evident is to cut a five-week vacation short by two days to give the matter his full attention."
When the developing world is judged to have done better than the United States in dealing with a humanitarian crisis you know something's gone seriously wrong.
posted by Stuart at 23:28
2 Comments:
It's clear quite a lot of things have gone seriously wrong. The trail of deliberate incompetence stretches back a long way. Much official response reminded me of 9/11, both the lack of action before, and the lack of accountability afterwards. The quote "Nobody could have foreseen the levees would break" eerily reminiscent of Condi Rice's infamous comment.
I thought Dan Lak's commentary was right on the money. I am a Brit who has lived in the states for 25 years now. I admit to have been completely flabberghasted that when a Hurricane would hit Florida the talk radio shows in the mid- west were often focused on how it wasn't our problem and the folks down South had better live somewhere else or take the consequences.
There is a sense among some of the better off folks here that God chose them to drive big comfy cars and live in oversized houses. Many believe that if they have good health insurance it must be a moral failing to lack it and that having made a success of the American way of life they owe nothing to those less fortunate. These folks are among Bush's biggest supporters. So in a country where the poor get poorer and are often invisible the fact that the evacuation was based on driving out of town, even though perhaps 20% or 25% of the population of New Orleans had no cars is a symptom of a wider disease.
If the city hit had been 65% white instead of black I cannot help believing that help would indeed have come faster, I hope I am wrong about this, but it fits everything I have seen here over the years.
Our Government are inept and incompetent, but have a great PR machine which is in full swing right now. Barbara Bush's comments about how poor New Orleans residents got a lucky break from the storm in being able to relocate to Texas are an example of the way many think here. Blame the victim is a religion second to none!
Of course no one is saying the words Global Warmimg here as it would be really tragic to give up our SUVs! But I can't help believing that we deserved this in some way as a country as we have so much responsibility for the lack of real action to slow the impact of climate change. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that warmer oceans may produce more and bigger hurricanes!
End of rant.
Dr. Robert in Michigan.
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