Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Lake New Orleans

What an overwhelming disaster brought by Katrina. I can't imagine how New Orleans will ever get drained, dried out, and rebuilt. It seems like it will take years. It must be very difficult for all of those families who have lost their homes, and I wonder what percentage of them had insurance that will actually cover their losses and temporary housing. Most people can't buy flood insurance, so unless people in Louisiana and Mississippi are exceptions, I'm guessing a huge number will be without their homes and jobs and possibly ruined by Katrina.

The political stuff is so disappointing. RFK Jr. apparently blamed Bush for Katrina. He certainly has shamed his father, let alone the rest of the nation in playing politics with such a tragic disaster. Let's hope there aren't more stupid leftist Bush-haters that start in on him, but instead everybody needs to pull together regardless of political stripe to help the people recover and rebuild.

An interesting observation is the lack of response from our so-called "friends" around the world. Over the years, whether it's earthquakes or tsunamis or famine or disease, who's there first with food, medicine, and money? We are. But I recall after the Tsunami, where both the American people and their government were overwhelmingly generous to help in the recovery, there seemed to be more criticism than thanks from the world. So I sort of wonder, now that we've had our own major disaster, where is everybody?

Maybe I'm premature, and we'll see an outpouring of assistance and support from Europe, Russia, and our #1 trading partner, China. But somehow I don't think it will happen, because aside from Great Britain, I'm beginning to believe that most of the rest of the world are not friends of the US. They want our trade, they want our protection, they want our money and medicines, but they really resent our superpower status and enjoy seeing us suffer.

I hope I'm wrong.

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