The Wealthiest Nation on Earth
News continues to reveal the crass stupidity of mankind. In this most recent edition of idiocy we see a State, Louisiana, and a country, the United States, unable to function in the most civilized of ways in aid of a disaster-stricken population.
Correct me if I'm wrong: isn't it only third-world, poverty-stricken countries for whom natural disasters become truly disastrous, and then conscious-stricken wealthy countries attempt to make amends by rushing to the rescue? To its vast credit, the United States has always been first and foremost among the rescuing countries, doing its utmost to more than pull its weight in bringing relief to the poor, to ameliorate the suffering of countless millions in emerging economies.
Well, what happened? Earth and weather scientists both within the United States and without have known for an awfully long time that a disaster like the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina would pose the most real danger of catastrophe for the city of New Orleans. As the saying goes, it was only a matter of time: not if, but when. Piddly little sandbag dikes worthy of almost-futile attempts by have-not countries were thought to suffice for the time being.
The solution found for the city whose tenuous existence has been celebrated for its tenacity, its very physical existence where swamp should be, and for its celebrated joy in life, its music, its night life, its focus on the arts was pitiful, but accepted. The question is write large: why? Why would a clearly inadequate system of dikes and levees be acceptable when a far more effective solution was possible, albeit infinitely more costly? Don't we believe, universally, that human life is more precious than mere lucre? The funds were not made available, simple as that. Funding agencies at the federal and state level obviously had far more important enterprises to look after. No money to be made in saving lives?
How is it that the Netherlands could do it? In that country fifty percent of the population lives below sea level. There has been a long and fabled history of the bravery of its people in the face of the tenuousness of their daily lives. They've kept their proverbial finger in the dike and have survived. Decades ago, after a costly disaster where thousands of lives were lost as a result of the incoming seas following a storm, that country brought in a massive system of hydraulic sea walls. Costly yes, but it worked, it works. The Dutch have peace of mind.
Any thinking people living in New Orleans must have been aware that it was only a matter of time. Short-term memories and expedience have cost thousands their lives in the immediate aftermath of the storm. What's worse, and is even more mind-boggling is the utter inefficiency of the country's emergency relief system. It is there in name, perhaps in spirit, but it is most obviously now absent in reality. Survivors who were plucked from the rooftops have been left by their rescuers in that water-besieged city to find their own way on foot out of the dilemma. Good luck. It's not that the rescuers are hard-hearted and don't care, it's that they are too few, and remain determined to continue their efforts to rescue other stranded survivors.
Time is running out, and quickly. Stranded and desperate people in the city of New Orleans are frantically searching for food, for potable water surrounded by a sea of muck and filth. These are elements of the population who hadn't the wherewithal; funds, vehicles, to spirit themselves and their loved ones out of the Hurricane's destructive path. They would wait things out and hope for the best. Trouble was, the best never did show itself, the worst certainly did. And continues to, in the form of looters and hoodlums threatening survivors and rescuers alike.
Where is the army? Where are military helicopters and troop carriers to airlift these desperate people, not all that far from starvation and dreadful germ- and bacteria-borne illnesses to safety? Where are the hospital-medical ships which could offer help to the beleaguered health care workers in the inoperative hospitals? Where are all the civil defence agencies whose job now should be to secure life and limb of a helpless population? Are they expendable because they're mostly black, mostly poor?
Where is the conscience of the rest of America? Are people elsewhere clamouring for more effective, more immediate action from their government, no matter the cost? Where is the world whom the U.S. has always aided, without question, under like situations?
What will be the final upshot of this situation in the U.S.? Will the American electorate finally realize what it is that they have elected to lead them? Will they demand a more accountable and equitable solution to their national problems? Will this be the death knell for George W. Bush's 'legacy'? If not, why not?
posted by Pieface @ Friday, September 02, 2005
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