Sri Lanka is a tiny place. Maybe that’s given us a Napoleonic Complex, maybe we’re tired of being compared to snot. Throw in the war, the tsunami, the suicide rates…we know we can’t play with the big boys. Ain’t no way we can show them up.
Until now:
President Chandrika Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka, in China on a state visit, sent messages of sympathy to Washington while her government contributed $25,000 through the American Red Cross.
So sure, it might not seem like much to our corporate-dough-raking readers. (coughmyannualsalarycough.) But that would be missing the point:
In a turnabout, the United States is now on the receiving end of help from around the world as some two dozen countries offer post-hurricane assistance. Venezuela, a target of frequent criticism by the Bush administration, offered humanitarian aid and fuel. [link]
But Condi, FEMA and the Prez seem to have differing views on accepting the aid:
With offers from the four corners of the globe pouring in, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has decided “no offer that can help alleviate the suffering of the people in the afflicted area will be refused,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday.However, in Moscow, a Russian official said the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency had rejected a Russian offer to dispatch rescue teams and other aid.
Still, Bush told ABC-TV: “I’m not expecting much from foreign nations because we hadn’t asked for it. I do expect a lot of sympathy and perhaps some will send cash dollars. But this country’s going to rise up and take care of it.”“You know,” he said, “we would love help, but we’re going to take care of our own business as well, and there’s no doubt in my mind we’ll succeed. And there’s no doubt in my mind, as I sit here talking to you, that New Orleans is going to rise up again as a great city.”
As the news reports and first-person accounts roll in, it looks increasingly, incredibly clear that we have not been taking care of our own business well. Not well at all.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (who crossed party lines to support Bobby Jindal for Governor) exploded with frustration in a local radio interview last Thursday:
I told him [the President] we had an incredible crisis here and that his flying over in Air Force One does not do it justice.[link]
As I’ve watched the news over the past week I’ve started to consider if I should purchase a gun. I hate guns. I’ve only held one once. I have had one too many dreams where I was not only shot, but mutilated by gunfire. I’ve convinced myself that I must have died from a GSW in my past life and so I’ve wanted nothing to do with them. Indian families don’t really own guns. Am I wrong? Maybe I am just sheltered but I just don’t know any Indian families that own guns. Most of my first generation relatives have never even mentioned gun ownership. In India my family didn’t own a gun…well except for an air gun which they used to shoot geckos off the wall. I could imagine that South Asian hoteliers, convenience store owners, and wannabe thugs are probably packing, but outside of that I’d be surprised. How many South Asians do you know that either hunt or are members of the NRA? Not many I’ll bet. Recently I tried to talk my younger brother into buying a weapon. In the state in which he resides you aren’t a man without a piece. People wear them in plain sight on their waist he tells me. Two weeks ago a man in a pick-up truck pulled up beside him as he walked along the road and asked if he was packing. “No,” my brother replied. “You should be,” advised the man. It isn’t only bears and wolves but some crazies (everyone tells him so) where my brother lives that makes a gun a good idea.
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