The Right wing blogs are apparently bemoaning the lack of sympathy the rest of the world appears to have for the fate of the US following hurricane Katrina. While this has been focussed on material help (and that says a lot about these "folks"' values) maybe there is an even more worrying background atitude coming through.
There seems to be two things that are getting to the emotions. The first is the plight of those who were already at the bottom of the pile who are now totally dependent "on the kindness of strangers" and the rest is grieving over the cultural loss.
For the rest of the loss, the suffering is comparatively minor compared to other disasters in the past few months. Another view is also coming through as we get to know more about the causes of the large material loss. This has not quite reached schadenfreide but in terms of the local and federal government there is certainly an undercurrent of "well it's you own fault for not listening"
Yet there may be another reason - are we being wary over extending our emotional support for the human loss when we know how that was manipulated after 9/11? In short, has the USA lost any goodwill it enjoyed and the rest are now willing to let you go hang?
The first signs of this atitude were of course apparent in the period between the start of the revenge on Afghanistan over 9/11 and the machinations over Iraq and its supposed "WMD". While some disagreed with the overthrow of a government because of terrorists using their country as a base (by that calculation, Britain should have nuked Dublin presumably) ther were other aspects of the Talliban regime that at least muted the opposition. How many Americans and those in the US adminsitration were outraged by the destruction of the giant stone Bhuddas months before 9/11? How many were taking notice of the human rights abuses?
But of course the Iraq frauds made people realise that the administration was full of those gibbering hooligans who chant "USA AOK" without having passed over a state border except to visit a theme park or buy cheap booze and cigarettes at the Indian reservation, let alone actually seen any other country or even read much about them. The USA was the only global power. It has the greatest economy. Its standard of living is the best in the world and of course its medical care facilities are the finest. Not "My country right or wrong" because these thugs knew that their country was never wrong.
Look, we were reasonable and asked you to reduce the amount of CO2 you pump into the atmosphere and your President refused because it would adversely affect the US economy (no comment about how much Katrina will have). We warned an oil-based economy was precarious and you bought SUVs. Many including your own scientists and local politicians cautioned against the eroding coastlines and you flocked to casinos floating off artificial beaches and you demanded high rise hotels with luxury accommodation next to those beaches or dreamed of a home where you could hear the surf moving that trucked in sand.
A fair proportion of the affected populations can stay safely with family in other areas or have given up and are relocating to other areas where they can find a job. Maybe there are a million displaced people but most are not in danger. Maybe a 100,000 or 200,000 will have nothing and will have to be housed while they re-establish themselves. So we should at least be sympathetic to them and give everything we can to help them? Well........
I may be flammed for saying this but in the scheme of thing even the million displaced is not much of a problem for the richest country on earth. A half of one percent of your total population. Very similar in actual number to the numbers displaced in Darfur but those in the US have not been driven from their homes after a group of gunmen who burned down their homes and killed the adult males they could find and raped the women and girls. Despite the lawlessness in the Dome and around the shopping centres, they are not in fear of rape every time they leave to try to find firewood.
Should we feel as much sympathy for the corn fed, burger stuffed obese Americans who complain they have not had their sugar fix for 24 hours when the babies of Sudan are silent, too starved to even cry at their hunger and pain?
Things may be dire and conditions bad in New Orleans at the moment but there is the expectation that in a few days there will be relief. No relief though for the hundreds of thousands recently displaced by Mugabe's "clean out the filth" campaign or starved and oppressed by his Zanu militias over the years.
What were those right wing bloggers doing when any European countries had already raised tens of millions from the public for relief for the Tsunami victims? Complaining that it is always the USA that pays out when Bush first announced his intial meagre droppings from his Christmas table. Now we have women phonning in CNN asking where all the help is from the rest of the world that the USA has been so generous to in the past (with maybe a real development aid budget of 0.02% of GDP once you take off the fake aid in kind that is merely subsidy to US businesses)
Well lady, the plight of some of your citizens is upsetting to see. What did you do about their conditions when they were forced into the poorest housing in the lowest part of New Orleans? What are you doing about the slums in rural and urban USA where your underclass of black and hispanics are condemned to live? If you could not give a fuck providing dear Mr Bush gave you a tax cut and you could fill your SUV with gas, why should we bother to care for you?
</rant>
Yep, I am afraid that the actions of the Bush junta and their acolytes has numbed the world to the real sufferings of those worst affected. Bush has achieved what decades of exasperation at previous administrations failed to do. He has soured the milk of kindness and expunged the ordinary humanity of others to the plight of these unfortunates.