If any film director had made a film about how a hurricane could destroy and flood an American city, you would have thought this is just another fantastical doom and gloom Hollywood movie.
The city has turned on itself – dead bodies float past in the street, they have no power, looting is rampant and martial law has been ineffective.
Last Christmastime we were all shocked by how tranquil islands were flooded and destroyed by the waters of a tsunami in Asia. We watched in horror as the death toll rose. We saw fragile economies destroyed in a matter of minutes.
But how could this have happened in the most powerful and wealthiest democracy in the world? How can a city like New Orleans and the surrounding areas have been destroyed so quickly? And why does the relief effort appear so weak?
The whole civilised democratic world is still on edge after 9/11 in New York and 7/7 in London. Yet once again, nature has shown how it can wreak the worst devastation, from which we perhaps cannot protect ourselves.
Or can we? Did America ignore the warnings over New Orleans? I recently heard a US commentator squarely blaming President George W. Bush, saying that Bush had the information and the funds to strengthen the levées (flood protection banks) that have been breached, but he chose to ignore it and pour the multi-millions needed into the Iraq war instead.
It is a harrowing tale. Experts had warned that this was an accident waiting to happen. It was known that the levées were weak, but nothing was done.
If this information turns out to be true, it may well be that this disaster in New Orleans will blacken George W. Bush’ s reputation among Americans in general, and black Americans in particular, far more than Iraq ever did.
The pictures from New Orleans are
unreal, and you have to prod yourself to remember that this is an American city, not some old backwater in South East Asia.
The media has perhaps not helped by showing images of mainly black people looting and pillaging, while white people are portrayed as victims. Black America is not only angry that the response has been so weak, but that black people have been portrayed badly in much of the footage.
Who would want to be heading the relief effort, though? They have to evacuate the city. They have to rebuild those protective levées before they can even start the delicate process of rebuilding the city and, most difficult of all, rebuilding lives.
The international response has also been weak. Whereas after 9/11, the tsunami and 7/7 there were information lines for people with relatives in that area from abroad, in this instance they have been unable to access any information.
Sky News has been full of British families who don’t know where their children are! One called from the large sports dome in New Orleans where she was seeking refuge, and said it was scary. The atmosphere was intimidating.
New Orleans, I guess, is not a popular destination for the Maltese. It’s a shame. Their carnival is one of the best ever. It is or was an amazing city to holiday in. And yet while after the tsunami or 7/7, we heard reports of no Maltese or some Maltese injured, with this we have heard almost nothing.
It should be major front page news but we are not interested. Katrina flexed her muscles and we’ve turned around in boredom, as we do when we watch these male body building contests. All that strength, all that devastation and, in Malta at least, it’s hardly front page news (except for The Malta Independent).
Katrina it seems, like most women, is a second class hurricane.