Food for thought

“A year after Katrina, New Orleans remains submerged in bureaucracy, paralysed by failed politics, and alarmingly vulnerable. Much of the money needed to repair essential infrastructure has not yet materialised, and some $2 billion has vanished in fraud or waste. The city is operating on about one quarter of its pre-Katrina revenue because so many businesses remain closed and only half the city’s residents have returned. […]Katrina exposed rank inefficiency, some traditional corruption and an apparent lack of concern summed up in President Bush’s words to his emergency management director Michael Brown — “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job” — just before he was sacked. Above all, it exposed the disproportionate suffering of the poor and black residents of New Orleans, vividly reflected in Spike Lee’s angry new documentary, When the Levees Broke. Many blame the US Corps of Engineers for failing to design and maintain adequate defences. Those with longer memories blame the French for building a city on a swamp, much of it below sea level. The excuses and recriminations will continue to ebb and flow. Guilt and innocence are never clearly defined in the vaporous atmosphere of New Orleans. What is inexcusable, amid the shifting responsibilities and accusations, is the failure to address with sufficient urgency how the city should be protected in the future.” Ben Macintyre in the London Times.