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![]() Hurricane of inhumanity: five years after Katrina
Mamoon Alabbasi argues that, five years after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the principal lesson from that disaster – the need to put humanity above prejudice and greed – has still not been learnt, and greed and inhumanity can be found in the responses to the Haiti earthquake and the Pakistan floods.
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Wednesday, September 1,2010 12:31 | |||||||
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Five years after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans – a natural disaster with unnatural responses – led to the death of an estimated 1,800 people and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of others, the lesson has not yet been learned. Enemies of the stateWitness accounts show that there was almost a sense of official contempt for the people of New Orleans that often went beyond criminal negligence. Some residents felt that they were being treated like enemies in a war zone and not as Americans in distress.
Protecting businesses has become more important than saving lives, even though most of the products in those shops were doomed to destruction by the rising level of water that covered most of the city. Symbolically, it looked like a determination to protect the “market” even when trade has ceased, where the “capital” can perish as long as it does not reach the people in need. Poor infrastructureEven today, there is still little mention of the poor infrastructure of New Orleans which magnified the effect of the hurricane. Apart from alternative media outlets such as ‘Democracy Now!’ and others, even less mention is given to those who might be held responsible. The Iraq-God connectionAmong the many sad ironies in this bitter ordeal is the link to Iraq and God, two concepts that are now strongly intertwined in English (and Arabic) language usage, thanks to former US President George Bush.
One irony is that the US troops serving in Iraq would have better served their country and people had they been present within their national borders when they were most needed, instead of outstaying their 'unwelcome' in Iraq. Another irony is that while some Evangelicals were preaching that the people of New Orleans got what they deserved as a punishment from God, other Christian fundamentalists were selling the Iraq war as the fulfilment of the wishes of God. So, the logic went that American soldiers invaded Iraq in a “mission” or a “vision” to carry out God's work there, while that same God personally got down to business in New Orleans. Floods of the damnedThus, the lessons from Katrina were never learned as can be seen in Haiti and now Pakistan. Some people would rather have millions of lives wrecked in Pakistan than let the Taleban or some extremist-linked or suspected charity anywhere take the credit for helping them. And when aid does come – late as it is – it comes in a bid to outmatch those extremists. Mamoon Alabbasi is an Iraqi journalist based in London. He can be contacted at [email protected]. Source: Redress Information & Analysis (http://www.redress.cc). Material published on Redress may be republished with full attribution to Redress Information & Analysis (http://www.redress.cc) |
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tags: Haiti / Pakistan / Obama / Bush / Iraq / Muslim Americans / / Obama Administration / Bush Administration / Katrina / Floods / US Government /
Posted in Other Issues |
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