The BBC has a compelling column entitled Survival of the Fittest by Harold Evans discussing the social and political after effects of Hurricane Katrina.
After so many years of Social Darwinism, Hurricane Katrina could reawaken the American people’s appetite for compassion in government.
I sincerely hope that he is right.
I have wanted to post my thoughts, feelings and reaction to Hurricane Katrina and it’s aftermath but have struggled to clarify them enough to put pen to paper.
The hurricane itself was terrible but what followed was in many ways much worse.
There was the institutional arrogance of America, Americans and American Govt. that told itself it won’t happen to us… despite being warned in explicit detail that it would. Oh and building a city between a lake and a river that you have to hold back via levees seems a bad idea to me.
There was George Bush’s spectacular failure to lead (again) but even more importantly to care. Kanye West said it best when he said George Bush don’t like black people. It seems clear to me, as to the entire intelligent population of the free world I’m sure, that if this disaster has hit the East Coast (Connecticut, the Hamptons, Boston etc.) that the aid and help would have arrived much quicker.
The rapid breakdown of law and order that followed and particularly what took place inside the convention centre stunned and shocked me. At a time when the people should have rallied together and cared for one another they instead descended into looting, murder and rape. The right to bear arms is marvellous huh…
When Bush eventually appeared he missed the point and talked not about what they would do then to save people but about how they would rebuild New Orleans and even mentioned the Governor building a great new house. WTF?
Now we see the contracts to rebuild being awarded to Bush’s cronies such as Halliburton as happened in Iraq. How can this be legal and how can the US people allow this to happen.