When a Photo Op won't do - criticism from around the world
The NY Times reports that Bush and the Republicans are worried about growing American resentment over, gee, what is it? Oh, yeah:
- the Iraq war
- gas prices
- health care prices
- the state of our environment
and, of course:
- the government's mishandling of the Katrina relief.
The usual approach, gloss it up with a photo op and vapid promises, is wearing thin.
At a party last night, someone made an announcement about where to send relief dollars. A friend from Bangladesh interrupted and asked, "Is America no longer the richest country in the world?"
There was silence. He continued, "It makes sense for Americans and the world to support relief efforts in Sri Lanka or Indonesia where they might need more money. But here?"
I got what he was saying. I have felt it too. In the richest country in the world the government should've been down in the delta on Tuesday. Heck, they should've spent the money to pay for the levee repair. It would've been insurance. Now, we are expected to pay for this administration's muck ups.
Someone remarked that a relative in Canada (who happens to study the oil industry) cannot understand why the price of oil in his country rose with disaster in Gulf coast. That is a sentiment mirrored in some European countries as well.
I figure Bush now has to balance giving gifts to oil buddies, molding his legacy, and laying the ground for another republican administration. But the state of the war, the price of gasoline and health care, the inaction on Katrina relief are all things that have already happened. The latest news, the growing frustration across the country (feelings felt across the world for some time) are exposing what us on the left have always known: this president and the neo-con right need to go so that we can heal and start planning for a future that is more inclusive, egalitarian, nurturing, and forward-thinking. Sure, these things can be mimicked in a photo op. But New Orleans has now ripped open the facade. Hopefully, Americans are taking a good look inside.
3 comments:
I had a similar experience last night. Americans are digging deep to send relief money but where is the relief effort paid for in advance via tax dollars against just this kind of eventuality? Squandered in a war to gain access to oil. All the lives lost, Iraqi, American, and other (more than a thousand in that stampede that happened at the same time as the hurricane) were lost due to senseless mismanagement. No one ordered up a hurricane. No one “orchestrated” a stampede—though the blame must be laid at the destabilization of Iraq by exterior forces—but at the end of all this unimaginable tragedy, the oil companies will profit. And the bloated bodies in the floodwaters and the crushed children half a world away will fade from memory.
Greg,
Since the last election--in which the neo-con mismanagement of the country was just as apparent as it is today, as was George W. Bush's status as a war criminal--I have completely lost faith in my nation's ability to govern itself.
Yes. I have lost hope in this country's ability to choose effective and humane leadership.
There's a sense in which I think we deserve all of the pain and suffering that this criminal and criminally negligent administration foists upon us.
Don't get me wrong. I don't think that we deserve the destruction of Katrina. (Were that we lived in a universe in which the deity's justice was worn so openly on its sleeve. Katrina wouldn't have been necessary. The human suffering in Mississippi and Louisiana is on a scale that boggles the mind. That the majority of the victims are poor and black cannot be a coincidence.) I do think we need to see how our choices in the last election are causing more suffering than is necessary.
GW has bungled every job he's ever had. Daddy and friends always bailed him out. His legacy as governor of Texas is a record number of executions. Well Daddy and his friends aren't able to save him now.
The worst president ever.
Meanwhile my country languishes in a moral stupor that's not been seen on this planet for quite some time. City on a Hill my keester. Model democracy my arse.
We deserve this aftermath. We elected him. May the World Court bring GWB and his infernal minions to trial one day. I'd like to see him wearing the same shoes that Saddam's wearing today.
I'm loathe to even call it my country anymore.
Dennis
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