Personal Perspective
By Richard Oestreich
I had the
privilege of being overseas In Denmark and Thailand
during
the Katrina hurricane. It was
interesting to see the different perspectives that various news
agencies in
other countries had while reporting on the incident.
The front page of many of the Danish
newspapers at the time showed the destruction of the flooding, as well
as the
human element associated with the disaster.
I remember vividly the headline which read “This could be Bangladesh” with accompanying images of
people
wading through waist high water, people stranded without food or water,
and the
looting that was taking place in New Orleans.
I think for many
people outside America
there were two main
realizations. In Europe it appeared
that there was almost a sense of satisfaction in seeing America
crippled. Our International reputation
was at an all time low, and the War in Iraq
was still being highly discussed, and in some cases actively protested
within much
of Europe.
I think there was some satisfaction given our perceived
hubris since
09/11. The phrase “clean up your old
backyard before knocking on your neighbor’s door” summed up the
sentiment I experienced. Many people felt
the United States was too
quick to tell other countries how they should be run, especially given
our apparent
inability to run our own in times of crisis.
In less developed
countries, there was a different
perception. For many developing
countries, the idea of the “American Dream” is still commonly held. I think many see America as a place where
everyone
is wealthy. I think Katrina came as a
shock (and maybe even a lasting paradigm change) that America was not
made up
solely of wealthy inhabitants who had multiple cars and giant houses,
and that
it faced some of the same poverty related issues 3rd world
countries
face.
To some degree I
think that these same revelations were observed
within the US
itself. For many people it came as a
shock the level of poverty that some people live in, even within our
own country. Especially for those people
who live in relatively
wealthy urban areas, it is hard to imagine the levels of poverty that
exist. Certainly Katrina did highlight
the relative cluelessness of many politicians in this regard,
especially in the
insensitive remarks of Barbara Bush and various members of the senate.
I think, although
Katrina was a huge disaster, it could have
brought about some much needed social change.
For a brief time I think it did revive uncomfortable
conversations about
race and poverty, that as a country we had avoided for a long time. As time passes from the disaster it seems
that the momentum to fix the physical damage of Katrina, as well as the
chance
to fix the social problems illuminated by Katrina have both diminished
and seem
unlikely at this time.