View from Abroad

Cracks reader K sent along this BBC wrap-up of views around the world (largely dismay) at the handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Here are a couple samples:

Pakistan's The Nation To augment the tragedy, the government of the world's richest nation defied the general expectation that at the first sign of the storm it would muster an armada of ships, boats and helicopters for the rescue operation. For nearly three days it sat smugly apathetic to the people's plight, their need for food, medicine and other basic necessities. Ambrose Murunga in Kenya's Daily Nation My first reaction when television images of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans came through the channels was that the producers must be showing the wrong clip. The images, and even the disproportionately high number of visibly impoverished blacks among the refugees, could easily have been a re-enactment of a scene from the pigeonholed African continent. France's Le Progres Katrina has shown that the emperor has no clothes. The world's superpower is powerless when confronted with nature's fury.

And then there's this from an NYTimes article on foreign offers of aid to the US:

The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez - who often says the Bush administration wants to overthrow his government - offered soldiers, firefighters and other disaster specialists, fuel and $1 million in cash. But he also criticized President Bush's handling of the emergency. "For four days there were warnings that the hurricane was going to make a direct hit, and the king of vacations at his ranch only said, 'You must flee,' " Mr. Chávez said Wednesday. "He did not say how."

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice also noted in that article:

...that at least 59 countries and international organizations have offered aid to the United States. But what will actually get delivered, she added, will have to wait until needs are identified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Based on what I've read so far about FEMA's management prowess, I'm not holding my breath. More on that later.

Laura Rozen over at War and Piece has also been documenting what's been showing up on European TV news, which

Dutch viewer Frank Tiggelaar writes: There was a striking dicrepancy between the CNN International report on the Bush visit to the New Orleans disaster zone, yesterday, and reports of the same event by German TV. ZDF News reported that the president's visit was a completely staged event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time. The people in the area were once again left to fend for themselves, said ZDF. [...] German TV reports. Thanks to readers FD and DZ for the links and translations. From DZ: German TV channel "ZDF" video (in German): http://www.heute.de/ZDFmediathek/inhalt/23/0,4070,2370903-5,00.html It´s the video called "Verzweiflung in der Anarchie" ("Desperation in Anarchy"). Bush visit coverage in Biloxi starts around 3:15. A short summary of her comments are also mentioned in this ZDF article: http://www.heute.de/ZDFheute/inhalt/23/0,3672,2370967,00.html starting with: "Raeumarbeiten nur für Bush?" [My translation:] "Clean-up operation only for Bush? Where the US President visited the disaster area, aid units cleaned up the area. But only there. Reporting from Biloxi, ZDF correspondent Claudia Rueggeberg cited desperate inhabitants [of Biloxi telling her] Bush should have transported aid materials inside his limousines instead of a bunch of body guards and media correspondents. [Now citing Claudia Rueggeberg directly from the video:] Along his [Bush] travel route aid units removed debris and recovered corpses. Then Bush left and along with him, all aid troops left too. The situation in Biloxi remains unchanged, nothing has arrived, everything is still needed." (I don´t know if aid units is the right term. The German word "Hilfstruppen" could be literally translated as "aid troops" or "recovery or support troops/units". It means here units trying to help after a disaster.) ------- German TV channel "ARD" video (in German): http://www.tagesschau.de/video/0,1315,OID4700936_RESreal256_PLYinternal_NAV_BAB,00.html with a good translation here: http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/9/3/22494/85287/77#77: On the last state of things here's Christine Adelhardt live from Biloxi 2 minutes ago the President drove past in his convoi. But what has happened in Biloxi all day long is truly unbelievable. Suddenly recovery units appeared, suddenly bulldozers were there, those hadn't been seen here all the days before, and this in an area, in which it really wouldn't be necessary to do a big clean up, because far and wide nobody lives here anymore, the people are more inland in the city. The President travels with a press baggage [big crew]. This press baggage got very beautiful pictures which are supposed to say, that the President was here and help is on the way, too. The extent of the natural disaster shocked me, but the extent of the staging is shocking me at least the same way. With that back to Hamburg. Both channels are public broadcasting TV channels. Independent of each other and competitors thus both have their own teams there. And both have a very good reputation for news reporting.