A little whisper in the dark

Katrina

The largest ever operation by the International Red Cross has just kicked off in the wake of the hurricane that has just given the soft belly of the United States a good hard kick. New Orleans, among other coastal cities over there are swimming in water, anarchy is rife, and hundreds of thousands homeless, and around 50 people are dead.

On the same day, a stampede in Iraq kills more than 600. I'm just being cynical again, and its easy to be the armchair critic when I'm lying nice, dry and warm in bed with laptop balanced on my stomach, and say that the Americans over there don't deserve this much aid. Since when are American lives worth more in the eyes of the International Red Cross than in Iraq, or the cleansing operation going on in Zimbabwe, or one of dozens of human tragedies going on at the same time elsewhere in the world?

Have we elevated the US to such a pedestal, that when the great equalizing factor of Mother Nature comes along to remind the world's last superpower that they aren't all they are crocked up to be, the rest of the world scrambles to put the US back to the top?

How the mighty have fallen.

posted by Chung Leong @ 1:48 AM