As an American living abroad, Vatican correspondent John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter reports on the European reaction to Hurricane Katrina and the U.S. response.
"Americans who lived overseas at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York remember vividly the massive wave of sympathy for the United States that followed those events. The most common headline in European papers the next morning, including Corriere della Sera, the flagship paper in Italy, was, ‘We are all Americans now.’
"International reaction to Hurricane Katrina, at least from this vantage point, somehow feels different.
"In the early hours after the storm there was similar concern, especially since Katrina triggered memories of the recent Asian tsunami. As events unfolded, however, many observers were quickly dumbfounded by how ill-prepared American authorities seemed to be; this is not how the richest and most powerful country in the world is supposed to function.
"Then, as images of chaos played out on television screens, the inescapable fact that many of the hardest-hit victims are poor, minorities, and the elderly began to reinforce some of the worst stereotypes many overseas observers already harbor of America.
"Critics have long charged that the United States is a cut-throat culture with little sense of community, one in which the poor and minorities are largely left to fend for themselves. Here, it seemed, was dramatic proof of the point, as large pockets of already vulnerable people appeared to be literally abandoned."
I’ve been wondering why there was an apparent dichotomy between the European sympathy following 9/11 and the European tsking following Hurricane Katrina. Seeing the European perspective articulated in this report did make it easier to understand the European viewpoint. Especially interesting was Allen’s note that sub-sea-level urban centers in Europe, such as in Holland, are regularly protected against catastrophic flooding. I can’t help but wonder why New Orleans was left all but defenseless.
This is why New Orleans was so unprotected. The environmental lobbyists wouldn’t allow it.
It seems that an awful lot of problems can be traced directly to at least one major source: Political bickering.
While I think you should stick by your beliefs or else they aren’t good for anything in the first place (some people call that partisan), when the situation becomes so detrimental as to be manifested by nobody’s ability to admit fault or cooperate for a common good, that is more obviously detrimental partisanship, and I think it’s evil plain and simple.
There will always be bad seeds, I know. People will always be free to act on their own. But we can beg for graces for our leaders to see the difference between those two behaviors.
Some people have lost the line between standing up for what you believe in, and treating their political party like a can-do-no-wrong favorite football team.
I started up saying the rosary with the intention of reversing this. I feel obliged to. Please join in if you are so inclined. I’ve seen a couple of small answers to my prayers so far.
Bush marks Sept. 11 with moment of silence
President Bush on Sunday marked the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by observin
The Europeans are certainly no more shocked than I was, but they should not make the mistake of thinking that the chaotic aftermath was the result of Americans simply not caring for the poor.
As with many things, the chaos was the result os a combination of factors, from a corrupt local government (Mayor Nagin has not been seen in days, for the very good reason that he has moved to Dallas) to a timid federal response. The locals must also take some responsibility for their own behavior.
I must quote from the 2000 edition of the southeast Louisiana evacuation plan on page 13, paragraph 5:
“5. The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating.”
Seeing the pictures of all those buses underwater in New Orleans would really seem to be a damning indication that the municipal gov’t failed the most in this instance. Yet, Gov. Blanco, Mayor Nagin, and various celebrities and politicians still want to point the finger at Pres. Bush. BTW, I don’t know if anyone saw Gov. Blano on foxnews with Chris Wallace, but I thought she was really disgraceful with her scapegoating.
“Critics have long charged that the United States is a cut-throat culture with little sense of community, one in which the poor and minorities are largely left to fend for themselves. Here, it seemed, was dramatic proof of the point, as large pockets of already vulnerable people appeared to be literally abandoned.”
Clearly this is a matter of Europeans gleefully looking for the splinter in their brother’s eye while happily ignoring the log firmly implanted in their own. Or has everyone forgotten the 15,000 who died in France during with the massive heat wave in the summer of 2003, many of the victims being elderly who had been left alone during the vacation season? How prepared was the French government for that fiasco?
Good point Robert, I hadn’t thought of that. I also wanted to point out that the “low-lying European cities which are protected from flooding” aren’t subject to being hit by hurricanes. New Orleans would have been fine otherwise. Huge cyclonic storms tend to make flood prevention more difficult, so it’s not really a good comparison.
People should also not lose sight of the fact that this was (is) the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, in terms of the poulation and area affected. It was no run-of-the-mill hurricane. Money and technology does not make us immune to disasters.
The History Channel aired a neat special last night on the disasterous Galveston hurricane of 1900, which was monstrous, killing more than 6000. We may look back and marvel that so few died in New Orleans.
How does 150 people dead in a hurricaine compare with 15,000 French citizens dead from the heatwave in Paris? – old people, dying neglected in a major city while the people responsible for them were on their month-long vacations and couldn’t be bothered.
The Netherlands were flooded more often by a fiercer seas than NO, that’s why their dike system is better. It took them a massive death toll in the 50’s to erect them though.
So, I’m sorry, but national bigotry does not need to apply.
Augustine, what I read about the Netherlands 1953 flood indicated that it was due to an 11-foot storm surge. (By comparison, there was an estimated 25-30 foot surge of Katrina on the Mississippi coast.) No doubt North Sea storms are bad too, but the kind of localized ocean swell that occurs in a tropical hurricane does not occur there as far as I can tell. The point is, the engineering problem is different from Europe’s and so the solution (if there is one) also must be.
The Netherlands don’t have much chance of facing a Force 5 hurricane.