New Orleans. By Martin Friel
Over the last week our television screens and newspapers have
been dominated by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, particularly the
devastation she caused in New Orleans. All other news has been sidelined to
accommodate this story. An endless stream of slack-jawed journalists take us
through these completely ravaged streets, past the floating corpses, past the
wailing and desperate survivors and the driftwood that once made up a proud and
historical city. The scenes inside the Superbowl where thousands sought refuge
made me think of a post-apocalyptic land with armed looters in control, robbing
and raping at will, with the police force completely overwhelmed and helpless
themselves. As far as can be ascertained from the footage I have seen the
majority of these refugees are African-American. I am not sure whether this
reflects the racial makeup of the city or whether these people represent the
poor of New Orleans, the ones who had nowhere to go when the order to evacuate
was issued. How can you evacuate when your whole family live in the city and
you have no money to pay for hotels or motels? It appears that the poorest had
no option but to stay put and hope for the best. The scenes I have witnessed
have made me think of two things neither of which bode well for the future of
America.
The first is that Bush, as a political force in his own country,
is fucked. It has long been argued that the federal government of America has
no concern for its black citizens. They have, since slavery was abolished,
occupied the lowest stratas of American society; the underclass; the
dispossessed and the forgotten. The majority of people who live on, or more
often, below the poverty line are black. They are the ones who inhabit
Americas sprawling inner city projects, the places where
there is no hope. Black people have claimed for years that this represents an
active policy of marginalisation and indifference to their plight; a policy of
ghettoisation. Now when you look at the faces of the survivors of Hurricane
Katrina you can see pretty clearly that, on the whole, these people are the
poor and dispossessed, the ones who simply could not afford to flee the
imminent carnage. You can see it in their eyes, in their faces and in their
very demeanour. These are a people who for generations have been trampled
underfoot but somehow manage to go on. They are also predominantly black. So
Ill get to my point. I think Bush is fucked. Well the fact that it took
so long for any aid or rescue missions to get to the affected areas is seen by
many as a clear example of the American governments indifference to the
plight of the black populace. The scenes on television show mainly black people
homeless, hungry, thirsty and above all angry. I dont think that this is
selective reporting on behalf of the journalists. I think that they are
reporting exactly what they see. From what I can gather from interviews, black
people see this obvious disregard for their plight in the wake of Hurricane
Katrina as a physical and clear representation of what they have believed was
the case for generations. I imagine that even those who held on to the hope
that this was not the case have had their illusions shattered; the American
government really does not give a shit about black people. I saw what was
supposed to be an orchestrated and rehearsed appeal from
celebrities giving their usual sugary platitudes go horribly pear-shaped for
the organisers. A black guy who was only described as a prominent rap
star calmly waited his turn to speak and promptly bellowed:
George Bush does not care about black Americans!
Aside from the joy of watching Mike Myers, who was standing next
to the guy, squirming at this unrehearsed outburst, I could not help but notice
the potential significance of this. If this rap star is indeed as
influential as was intimated before his outburst, it may well act as a rallying
cry to the millions of sidelined African-Americans who feel that they have been
abandoned. Think about it for a second. Do you really think that if the
majority of the survivors were middle-class white people that it would have
taken so long to get help to them? I suppose its impossible to know but I
doubt it, strongly.
So through his criminal inaction Bush has finally confirmed to
the black people of America the existence of a governmental attitude of
indifference if not outright hostility towards them. They have made this
attitude clear to the rest of America and indeed the world. No matter what you
may think of white America and its politics, I find it hard to believe that
they could watch their television screens at night and not feel shame and
remorse for the way the survivors in New Orleans have been abandoned. Usually
when there is a natural disaster it is impossible to find anyone to blame apart
from mother nature. This time however, people have a scapegoat. Step up
President George Bush. The collective guilt of the nation for not taking this
disaster seriously enough in the first place will, I believe, be deposited at
the doorstep of the Whitehouse. They have someone to blame for this one;
someone to vent their anger upon and I think ol Georgey boy is going to
get both barrels. Bet he regrets spending those extra few days at the ranch
now!
The second problem I think this situation highlights is that it
appears that despite all the hyperbole surrounding September 11th, America has
learned nothing. They have set up countless new departments, conducted various
investigations and poured billions into Homeland Security yet they
still seem completely dumbstruck when faced with a major disaster. They have
had nearly four years to learn from the awful events in New York and learn how
to confront disasters in the most efficient way possible, minimising the loss
of life in any way they can. However, in New Orleans last week people were
dying due to dehydration and thirst. Surely it was not beyond the power of the
worlds leading nation and all its resources to have at least some bottled
water airlifted in. I just dont understand that one. No-one is expecting
them to perform miracles and evacuate everybody immediately and have the city
spick and span within days but surely being able to get water to the thousands
that required it is not too much to ask of your nation. Many of them were
grouped together anyway. Its not like they needed to deliver it like milk (a
bottle here, two there, none this week thanks - gone on holiday). No, they just
needed to send a few helicopters laden with bottled water and emergency rations
and drop it in. OK it might not be the most efficient and orderly process but
for fucks sake, people were dying of thirst!
Dying of thirst in the
richest nation in the world.
The streets also apparently descended into anarchy, the local
police forces being overwhelmed. Even if they did arrest people there was
nowhere to put them. The jails had to be evacuated. The fact that local
authorities received no support for the best part of a week is scandalous. At
the time of writing it is being reported that two local police officers have
committed suicide under the strain and a further two hundred have walked out of
their jobs. It appears that it was simply too much to take. Now this was a
hurricane. Bush and his little friends are always eager to warn us of the
threat posed by weapons of mass destruction. God help them if a dirty bomb does
go off in a major city. If this is how they deal with disasters then they have
no hope when faced with a potentially far greater threat. It just worries me,
it really does.
So although that might sound like a Yank-baiting exercise it was
not intended that way. After seeing all those images and inaction, I just had
to get it off my chest. On both fronts though I think that Bush is going to
take some serious flack and it may be that he wont recover from it. I can
but hope.
(Apologies to any nice Americans who may read this and be
offended but its not my fault that your government is loathsome and
incompetent.)
© Winamop. September 2005
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