Bush Response Racist?

07/09/2005| IslamWeb

Africa has slammed the Bush administration's slow response to the disaster wrought by Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans saying it revealed the "racist" character of American society. "Washington, in a bizarre display of uncaring aloofness in their hour of need, appeared unable to respond to the crisis until days later," the Johannesburg-based The Star newspaper said yesterday.

"The disaster also revealed the racial fissures in American society. Most of the hapless survivors who filled New Orleans Superdome were black, with the more affluent white residents able to flee before Katrina brought her misery," it added.

"The fact that New Orleans is a southern town predominantly populated by African-Americans... explains why Bush did not see the need to cut short his holiday... being in America does not make a black man an American," Zimbabwe's Herald daily said.

Zimbabwe's acting information minister, Chen Chimutengwende, said "the position of the black people (in the US) has always been a very sad case".

"This hurricane has once more exposed the racism of the administration against black people because if it had been white people affected they would have moved faster and there is no reason why President George Bush could not have done so in his own country," Chimutengwende said.

In Rwanda, opinion was divided, with some linking the slow response to racism while others believe it was because the New Orleans population was poor.

"My initial reaction is that there was a racist element," a government official said.

Angolan radio interviewed academic Mario Pinto de Andrade who said the sluggish relief effort was a serious indictment against Bush, especially since his government knew that New Orleans was geographically more at risk to be hit severely.

The African Union expressed concern at the disaster, saying the aftermath would be hard to deal with.

Meanwhile, engineers struggled to pump out the flooded city as authorities braced for the horrors the receding water would reveal.

It's going to be awful and it's going to wake the nation up again, Mayor Ray Nagin said and added it would take three weeks to remove the water and another few weeks to clear the debris. It could also take up to eight weeks to get the electricity back on.

The White House has rejected any talk of replacing top emergency response officials widely criticised over Katrina, calling any such suggestion an effort to play "the blame game."

But asked whether Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff or Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Mike Brown had offered to resign, McClellan replied: "This is all looking at the blame game."

"We're not going to engage in the blame game. We're going to remain focused on what the most important needs are right now, that is helping people," McClellan said.

l Britain is still trying to find 96 of its nationals in the US, feared missing in the wake of Katrina.

A Foreign Office spokesman said that it was still trying to track down the whereabouts of 96 people following the August 29 disaster, but there had been no reported casualties so far.

PHOTO CAPTION

Rapper Kanye West, right, speaks during a news conference while Adam Levine, of the group Maroon 5, looks on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005, in Los Angeles. (AP)