New Orleans
The disaster, which struck the Gulf Coast of the United States and the city of New Orleans in particular this week, was on a scale that no one could have imagined. We were transfixed in front of our TV sets as a flood of biblical proportions destroyed everything in its path, with no ark at hand to deliver people to safety. For day after day the poor of New Orleans looked in vain for somebody to come to their aid. The administration appeared to be totally paralysed by the scale of the destruction. The media quickly began looking for somebody to blame and to ask why other nations were not stepping in to help. One bewildered CNN reporter trying to make sense of the situation asked a representative of the United Nations committee that deals with such matters, “Is nobody coming to help us because of our involvement in the war in Iraq?”
The war has little to do with the world’s reaction, but certainly we have become so familiar with America’s self-assurance, with its confidence in technology, with its ruthless pursuit of its own economic and industrial interests, and as the only current superpower, its penchant for telling other nations how they ought to be living their lives, that many of us assumed that American technology and resources would cope with the crisis. It manifestly failed to do so, and the Administration’s request to the European Union this morning that it assist by supplying food, blankets and water tankers has unexpectedly reversed that trend of the poor, cap in hand, beating their path to America’s door. The experience of the world’s most powerful nation discovering itself to be vulnerable and powerless may be no bad thing if it can take to heart the lesson that today our global culture calls for mutual interdependence rather than a ‘go it alone’ mentality.
Naive theology often declares that humanity is powerless in the face of natural disasters, sometimes erroneously referred to, particularly by insurance companies, as ‘Acts of God’. But bad planning and human negligence have played their part. I was impressed with a pastoral letter issued by Bob Ihloff, the Episcopal Bishop of Maryland with whom I was a fellow student in Cambridge Massachusetts in the 1960’s. He said, “We know that hurricanes and tornadoes are increasing in number and severity because of global warming. Most scientists agree that global warming is the result of irresponsible human treatment of the environment. Yet, we, especially, as a nation, have refused to enter into global agreements which would over time eliminate greenhouse gasses and possibly reverse the trend. We selfishly are preoccupied with oil consumption to the point that even this most recent and particularly devastating tragedy gives way to our perceived need for more oil and our concern about its price!” While Americans may have been particularly resistant to giving environmental concerns priority over economics, there is a message here for all of us. Our lifestyles too have contributed to this disaster and we must accept a degree of responsibility for it.
Of course the President of the United States also has to acknowledge a degree of personal accountability. This morning’s British press revealed some sobering information. Work on the maintenance of the flood protection system around New Orleans is an ongoing budgetary item. So is preparation for evacuation of citizens in the case of flooding. Under the headline ‘Warnings went ignored as Bush slashed flood defence budget to pay for wars’ the Independent claims that vital measures to protect New Orleans from flooding were scrapped by the Bush administration to pay for its wars on terror and the war in Iraq. Funding was slashed by 80% and work on strengthening the defences protecting the city was halted for the first time in 37 years. Similarly, plans to provide emergency shelter for flood victims in the Superdome were abandoned when the funding dried up. And back in 2001 the Federal Emergency Management Agency warned the administration that ‘a hurricane hitting New Orleans would be the deadliest of the three most likely catastrophes facing America’.
So by all accounts the administration has a great deal to answer for. At the outset of the disaster the President declined to interrupt his holiday for 48 hours and spoke of the results of the hurricane as a temporary phenomenon. The Vice President still remains on holiday. Condoleeza Rice went shopping for a $7,000 pair of shoes in Manhattan. Meanwhile two of the world leaders high on the list of those the USA most despises were offering help. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela offered $1million via the Red Cross, and Fidel Castro of Cuba offered to send 1100 doctors and 26 tons of medicine.
The most shameful thing to emerge from the disaster is the blame-the-victim mentality displayed by some officials who claimed that people did not leave New Orleans when advised to do so. Middle class families climbed into their 4-wheel-drive vehicles and set off to stay with friends or relatives. British television reported other families booking into hotels and their children playing happily in the swimming pools. But the poor, mainly Black population bereft of transport, had no way of making it to safety, and it is they who have borne the brunt of the suffering. There was a dramatic moment on USA television yesterday when one young black man dared to articulate the words which were no doubt on the minds of many: “President Bush”, he said, “doesn’t care about black people”.
The war has little to do with the world’s reaction, but certainly we have become so familiar with America’s self-assurance, with its confidence in technology, with its ruthless pursuit of its own economic and industrial interests, and as the only current superpower, its penchant for telling other nations how they ought to be living their lives, that many of us assumed that American technology and resources would cope with the crisis. It manifestly failed to do so, and the Administration’s request to the European Union this morning that it assist by supplying food, blankets and water tankers has unexpectedly reversed that trend of the poor, cap in hand, beating their path to America’s door. The experience of the world’s most powerful nation discovering itself to be vulnerable and powerless may be no bad thing if it can take to heart the lesson that today our global culture calls for mutual interdependence rather than a ‘go it alone’ mentality.
Naive theology often declares that humanity is powerless in the face of natural disasters, sometimes erroneously referred to, particularly by insurance companies, as ‘Acts of God’. But bad planning and human negligence have played their part. I was impressed with a pastoral letter issued by Bob Ihloff, the Episcopal Bishop of Maryland with whom I was a fellow student in Cambridge Massachusetts in the 1960’s. He said, “We know that hurricanes and tornadoes are increasing in number and severity because of global warming. Most scientists agree that global warming is the result of irresponsible human treatment of the environment. Yet, we, especially, as a nation, have refused to enter into global agreements which would over time eliminate greenhouse gasses and possibly reverse the trend. We selfishly are preoccupied with oil consumption to the point that even this most recent and particularly devastating tragedy gives way to our perceived need for more oil and our concern about its price!” While Americans may have been particularly resistant to giving environmental concerns priority over economics, there is a message here for all of us. Our lifestyles too have contributed to this disaster and we must accept a degree of responsibility for it.
Of course the President of the United States also has to acknowledge a degree of personal accountability. This morning’s British press revealed some sobering information. Work on the maintenance of the flood protection system around New Orleans is an ongoing budgetary item. So is preparation for evacuation of citizens in the case of flooding. Under the headline ‘Warnings went ignored as Bush slashed flood defence budget to pay for wars’ the Independent claims that vital measures to protect New Orleans from flooding were scrapped by the Bush administration to pay for its wars on terror and the war in Iraq. Funding was slashed by 80% and work on strengthening the defences protecting the city was halted for the first time in 37 years. Similarly, plans to provide emergency shelter for flood victims in the Superdome were abandoned when the funding dried up. And back in 2001 the Federal Emergency Management Agency warned the administration that ‘a hurricane hitting New Orleans would be the deadliest of the three most likely catastrophes facing America’.
So by all accounts the administration has a great deal to answer for. At the outset of the disaster the President declined to interrupt his holiday for 48 hours and spoke of the results of the hurricane as a temporary phenomenon. The Vice President still remains on holiday. Condoleeza Rice went shopping for a $7,000 pair of shoes in Manhattan. Meanwhile two of the world leaders high on the list of those the USA most despises were offering help. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela offered $1million via the Red Cross, and Fidel Castro of Cuba offered to send 1100 doctors and 26 tons of medicine.
The most shameful thing to emerge from the disaster is the blame-the-victim mentality displayed by some officials who claimed that people did not leave New Orleans when advised to do so. Middle class families climbed into their 4-wheel-drive vehicles and set off to stay with friends or relatives. British television reported other families booking into hotels and their children playing happily in the swimming pools. But the poor, mainly Black population bereft of transport, had no way of making it to safety, and it is they who have borne the brunt of the suffering. There was a dramatic moment on USA television yesterday when one young black man dared to articulate the words which were no doubt on the minds of many: “President Bush”, he said, “doesn’t care about black people”.
posted by MichaelElliott @ 7:02 AM
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