Muddled Media and Anger

Well, this is the second "political" blog I have posted since my site opened only a week ago. Determined not to make this site a forum for my local and world political views, I promise that i will try and keep them to a bare minimum. I figure that while I am here in my comfortable home, with my comfortable job and sense of family, I should avoid throwing criticism at anyone's direction, unless I am prepared to go directly to the source and attempt to change it. To do otherwise would be a form of procrastination - by sitting here, wanting to do something, but not making the effort to change it. Given that it seems to be a common characteristic of the average human being, I too suffer from a degree of procrastination, hence the reason why I try to keep my political views to myself. I will continue to do so until I am prepared to do something about it.

Notwithstanding this, I feel like I have to blog today about the subject that is consuming the television, radio, and internet forums - Hurricane Katrina. I write this knowing full well that I cant go to the direct source and do something about it. So I approach the topic very carefully. I cant go to New Orleans and assist. Why? I am in Australia. I can't approach the US Government and ask them all of the questions that I want to ask. Why? The information that i have about what is going on is only what I have gained through the media - a source of information that I am wary to trust at the best of times.

If I was able to go to the United States, approach the US Government, with the information that I have gained, knowing that the information I have is accurate, then I would ask the following:

1. Why, after five days, are there continued reports of people not being assisted?
2. Why, when a disaster has occured in the richest country, hasnt appropriate assistance been given to ALL residents of the southern states affected by the disaster?
3. Why, after only five days, are the media and even the government officials of these very states already pointing the finger at who is to blame for the lack of assistance, or the speed at which it is coming?
4. Why arent these government officials spending their time co-ordinating a rescue effort that one would expect from a country who can co-ordinate the invasion of a country in the Middle East, in their own country?
5. Why are we spending time even contemplating who is to blame, before we are assured that every displaced person is out of an area which is at risk of descending into further chaos, and further destruction?

What frightens me the most is that i have no idea what the United States needs to do in order to ensure that everyone is safe and properly looked after. I do not have any ideas. But the questions I ask are not that of a person criticising a government of which I have no involvement. These questions are asked by just a twenty five year old girl that worries about her fellow human beings.

*kate hops down off her soap box*

No more grips.

I promise.

K