Monday, September 05, 2005
Eat the Poor
The pictures and stories coming out of the Gulf Coast are horrific. New Orleans may never be rebuilt and the body count is unknown. Even more horrific than the natural disaster is the environment created by federal and local government both before and after the hurricane. With disaster prevention spending cut, and a third of the Louisiana National Guard in Iraq, the Federal government have been criminally negligent towards the people of the Mississippi, Biloxi, New Orleans and greater Louisiana. Even the Cubans have offered to help but I somehow doubt Bush will accept help from such lowly neighbours.
The cries of racism grow louder in America - if anything will topple Bush, it will be this. That is, if they count the black votes this time around. I wonder what would have happened if Utah had flooded. It's pretty white, and pretty Right, and pretty Christian up that way. Truth is, they would have moved a hell of a lot faster. Every face you see on the news is black. In the initial stages of the evacuation, those most in need were ignored while they evacuated the Hyatt. Not a bastion of the lower classes, I assure you. If you're poor in America, life is hard; if you're poor and black, well, you're quite fucked.
We saw the tsunami on Boxing Day, and saw an area with a high degree of poverty facing something they were totally unprepared for. Indonesia and Thailand lacked a high-tech early warning system that would have given them maybe 5 or 10 hours warning of a tsunami.
New Orleans had five YEARS of warning. They had reports, they had technicians. They had levees that were not maintained, they had a Superdome (the allocated disaster area) without any water - and the Governor turned off the drinking water to force people to evacuate.
Initially, I found it hard to be sympathetic to a nation that flouts international law at every turn and has created so much destruction in other countries. But the people who are suffering there are the ones who always suffer. Low education, low income - low priority.
It would have been so easy to evacuate the ill and the young before the storm struck - at the very least, clear out the hospitals and assist the elderly. But nobody moved because nobody could pay. And nobody really cared.
Michael Moore has written an open letter to George Bush that pretty much sums it up. Looking at the news coming out of the States, the actions of the federal government go beyond a blunder to being a willing accomplice to wholesale murder.
Comments:
<< Home
Hey manda,
I thought I would comment on something.
The results of Katrinagate were expected, sadly. The looting, the guns, the racism and the slow response are all symtomys of American culture and the political system.
Looting - a society based more on want rather then need. People first took items like tv's and steros.
Shooting - the US is a gun culture. When in trouble, shot first ask questions later.
If you combine the two you get people been shot out for trying to survive.
Racism - shock horror!
Slow response - everybody throught someone else was in charge. A problem with federlism?
This on top of poor planning and you have a 1st world disaster.
Post a Comment
I thought I would comment on something.
The results of Katrinagate were expected, sadly. The looting, the guns, the racism and the slow response are all symtomys of American culture and the political system.
Looting - a society based more on want rather then need. People first took items like tv's and steros.
Shooting - the US is a gun culture. When in trouble, shot first ask questions later.
If you combine the two you get people been shot out for trying to survive.
Racism - shock horror!
Slow response - everybody throught someone else was in charge. A problem with federlism?
This on top of poor planning and you have a 1st world disaster.
<< Home
