Disgusted of Morningside

Expressions of outrage are ten a penny and often a waste of time, energy and breath. However, the human tragedies played out in this week in Baghdad and in New Orleans are appalling in their scale and upsetting in their media portrayal.

What's concerned me most is the culture of victim-blame attached to both, and the failure to recognise social/political contributants to either. The stampede in Baghdad was overwhelmingly attributed to fear of suicide bombers in the Shia crowd. The notable exception was Fisk's article in the Independent, which reported the mortar fire that sparked panic. Their frontpage photo of a beach of marooned sandals tells a terrible tale- each lost shoe emptied of an owner dragged away on a human tide. If those dumb Iraqis would just accept they're liberated and safe, no problem would have arisen, we hear. Also that Iraqis collectively are themselves to blame because they harbour insurgency and because they in their panic were their own murderers.

Only over the last 24 hrs has the culture of victim blame of the New Orleans refugees (for such they are) sofened somewhat, as the true scale and life-and-death horror of that 'natural' calamity emerges. For the first 3 days there were only stern warnings against the 'looting' (of food, drink and clothing by the hungry, thirsty and dirty), and public disbelief that so many people had 'disobeyed' evacuation instructions. It seems unbelievable that there was no emergency plan to deal with those with difficulties in evacuating themselves, through lack of transport, money, foresight or places to go.

The long shots of the central streets and Superdome show overwhelming brown and black faces, and the closeups a high proportion of wheelchair users. The poor, disabled or weak abandoned to their own fate. It appears that many people died not from the storm but from exhaustion, lack of medicines and dehydration as they endured a futile wait for rescue. Some of the worst stories emerging so far are from nursing home and hospitals, including pleas from the Charity Hospital. And there will be many more appalling stories. And again there's collectivisation of punishment and blame, with failures to deliver aid to the Superdome blamed on refugees shooting at helicopters. While this isn't a smart thing to do, a crimewave could've reasonably been expected and there appears to have been no contingency plan. And its nowhere near over yet. There's a million people and more now seeking new homes, new jobs in an already fucked economic climate, and there's no safety net to catch them as already amply demonstrated. Richest country in the world, and quite pitiless. And much as I would wish it, Bush won't even suffer for this, because it'll be blamed on the victims, the mayor and the state, and not on the system.