The massive hurricane was one thing - there’s little we can do about natural occurrences of this scale - but the response or lack of it that we’re witnessing on our television screens is shocking. The deep dividing line between the wealthy and the poor of America that we rarely see when we watch American television or films has been brought starkly to light. The inability to provide basic necessitates to survivors, and the break-down of law and order, remind us all how precarious our existence really is, even in the richest country in the world.
Roger Darlington puts it more succinctly than I can, but the news coverage on Channel 4 last night is pointing to drastic cut-backs in maintenance of the Levies that kept the sea back from New Orleans over the last few years, and the administrations focus on the so-called “war on terror” rather than closer to hope provisions, makes me think we are only seeing the beginning of a huge humanitarian and political crisis. I really won’t be surprised if, in the analysis of the preparation for, and response to this storm, many Americans will look to hold a number of senior politicians to account.
My thoughts are with those people caught up in all of this, and I hope that the relief and evacuation effort gets properly underway very soon.
