The Katrina Effect: A German View
On the anniversary of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Americans were forced to remember the horror of the event. Althought the Emperor sought to put the emphasis on the progress made in mitigating the devastation, many in the Gulf Coast are still without reliable sources of electricity, water, sewers, and all of the other parts of a functioning infrastructure. There weren't too many sunny faces in Biloxi or New Orleans. Katrina was a natural disaster, and the regime can't be blamed for that, but it surely can and has been blamed for the extent of the disaster.
An interesting op-ed piece in Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung has a rather nice analysis of just what the true Katrina Effect might turn out to be.
After 9/11 a picture burned itself into the heads of Americans: the President bullhorn in hand promising security for his country amidst the smoking ruins of the World Trade Center.
But only a year ago, that image was replaced by another: The man thousands of meters high aboard Air Force One, idly watching the downfall of an American metropolis.
George W. Bush gained stature as the nation's leader after the terrorist attacks. America wanted a dependable Commander-in-Chief, and Bush filled this role convincingly. Katrina changed all that. The storm cost Bush his credibility as guarantor of the country's security. Americans noticed that the government had simply not taken enough precautions for the emergency, although their President had been telling them otherwise for years.
A still more frightening kind of horror was reveled after the flood. Katrina exposed a measure of poverty and racism that people in this country [Germany] could scarcely believe possible. It was above all Black people who for days had to beg for help from the roofs of their houses. It was Blacks who were cooped up by the thousands in the Super Dome and convention center. The New York Times wrote despairingly of the "third-world country that appeared suddenly on America's Gulf coast."
...Since then the impression has hardened that the Commander-in-Chief can't be relied upon - even in matters of national security. A majority of U.S. citizens no longer trust the government to provide for their safety. [Emphasis added]
That the current regime was staffed by ill-qualified appointees who got their jobs via campaign donations soon became painfully obvious. The results were horrific, yet the Emperor still felt compelled to praise those who just didn't do the job they were hired for. "Heckuva job, Brownie" has now entered the national lexicon.
The German article suggests the picture of the president flying high above the disaster, thereby insulating himself from the horror, is an apt icon of the government's failure. I would suggest that another shot is just as apt: the president clumsily holding an expensive guitar given to him by a country singer. Nero would have appreciated all that this picture conveyed.
An interesting op-ed piece in Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung has a rather nice analysis of just what the true Katrina Effect might turn out to be.
After 9/11 a picture burned itself into the heads of Americans: the President bullhorn in hand promising security for his country amidst the smoking ruins of the World Trade Center.
But only a year ago, that image was replaced by another: The man thousands of meters high aboard Air Force One, idly watching the downfall of an American metropolis.
George W. Bush gained stature as the nation's leader after the terrorist attacks. America wanted a dependable Commander-in-Chief, and Bush filled this role convincingly. Katrina changed all that. The storm cost Bush his credibility as guarantor of the country's security. Americans noticed that the government had simply not taken enough precautions for the emergency, although their President had been telling them otherwise for years.
A still more frightening kind of horror was reveled after the flood. Katrina exposed a measure of poverty and racism that people in this country [Germany] could scarcely believe possible. It was above all Black people who for days had to beg for help from the roofs of their houses. It was Blacks who were cooped up by the thousands in the Super Dome and convention center. The New York Times wrote despairingly of the "third-world country that appeared suddenly on America's Gulf coast."
...Since then the impression has hardened that the Commander-in-Chief can't be relied upon - even in matters of national security. A majority of U.S. citizens no longer trust the government to provide for their safety. [Emphasis added]
That the current regime was staffed by ill-qualified appointees who got their jobs via campaign donations soon became painfully obvious. The results were horrific, yet the Emperor still felt compelled to praise those who just didn't do the job they were hired for. "Heckuva job, Brownie" has now entered the national lexicon.
The German article suggests the picture of the president flying high above the disaster, thereby insulating himself from the horror, is an apt icon of the government's failure. I would suggest that another shot is just as apt: the president clumsily holding an expensive guitar given to him by a country singer. Nero would have appreciated all that this picture conveyed.
posted by Diane at 4:50 AM
1 Comments:
That is a great article. I only wish that their speculations on what the majority of Americans do and don't think is correct.
(And Nero didn't really do that -- how absurd is the image a Roman Emperor playing an 18th C musical instrument anyway?)
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