The Curmudgeon

YOU'LL COME FOR THE CURSES. YOU'LL STAY FOR THE MUDGEONRY.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Wind in the South

Asked how the richest country on Earth could not meet the needs of its people, Bush said: "I am satisfied with the response. I am not satisfied with all the results."
Associated Press

A mere four days into the New Orleans disaster, encouraging news: according to Senator Mary Landrieu George W Bush "is starting to grasp the magnitude of the situation". Although this promptitude of responsivity may surprise the cynical, it seems predictable enough. He's had to cut his holiday short, after all.

Bush spent a whole day touring Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, in the fine fast tradition of the stereotypical American tourist who believes he can see St Paul's Cathedral, the Lake District and the Isle of Skye in a couple of hours. Having given the devastation one day's attention, Bush said, "I understand the devastation requires more than one day's attention." This is certainly an encouraging sign.

After a stroll through a devastated area in Mobile, Alabama, Bush said that where it wasn't working right, he and his colleagues would make it right; and that where it was working right, he and his colleagues would duplicate the rightness elsewhere. Hopefully, this will mean a steady spread of rightness, abetted by market forces and the demise of those undeserving poor whose demise God's will decrees. Bush also recommended stabilising the situation and making sure that food and medicine was given to people who need food and medicine. His sense of priority has certainly improved since 11 September 2001 and My Pet Goat.

Though he apparently felt it would be a breach of taste to walk upon the flood waters, Bush dispensed compassionate-conservative comfort and valuable down-home advice to a couple of women in Biloxi, Mississippi. "He kissed both women on their heads and walked with his arms around them, telling them they could get help from the Salvation Army." He expressed understanding of their plight and told them to "hang in there".

Bush also rejected suggestions that the USA cannot afford to continue colonising Iraq while cleaning up after Katrina. "We've got plenty of resources to do both," he said, meanwhile urging people to make charitable donations to the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. The resources may be there, but it would be foolish to spend them needlessly - especially when, however unsatisfactory the results, the response has been going so well.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home