amidst all the dismay and disgust felt by people worldwide, i feel i should give my 2cents worth about hurricane katrina and the bush administration's inappropriate reactions.

it really saddens me to see stuff like this happen. everytime a natural disaster or crisis occurs, we're all suddenly supposed to feel more blessed than usual and when the disaster loses its newspaper appeal, we slip back into our lives of indifference and folly. 9/11 happened today. does anyone really remember - more importantly, does anyone care? i remember a few years back, everyone was struck with fear and clips of smoking and collapsing buildings were making their dutiful rounds on the internet. but after a few months, the commotion died and we were back to our 'lives'.

it is one thing to move on with our lives but it is a completely different issue to forget about it like it has never happened. these things are so real. they affect our lives, the world, humanity. can we truly say we care if we only feel flashes of emotion everytime these things happen and lead our lives otherwise when they don't?

the only thing i know about new orleans is from watching Anthony Bourdain eat fried chicken and fried johnny cakes [their version of our hum chim bang, kind of] on his 'A Cooks Tour' tv show. kanye west recently made controversial statements about how Bush 'doesn't care about the black people' to justify the ridiculously slow action. frankly, while i recognize it is a sensitive issue for him, i don't think it's true. i think Bush is indifferent to anyone and everyone. when 9/11 happened, he remained in a classroom of a school he was visiting. why? maybe he didn't want to frighten the children, but he could have excused himself calmly - the kids aren't going to question his actions and the adults present would definitely understand later when they learn about the crisis. as if that wasn't bad enough, he had to do it again. he was still on vacation two days after hurricane katrina struck. why?! i seriously can't comprehend this. i asked myself this question today - why do i so badly want to go to the states to study when the majority of the country is silly enough to vote such an incompetent person in?

honestly. i don't have anything against Bush personally. people make fun of his grammar mistakes and his 'chimp-like' appearance but i don't think any of that is important. it's only when he demonstrates his immense indifference and incompetence that i get annoyed. wage an unnecessary war? fail to deal with crises effectively? make personal statements about hussein? donate a measly sum to the tsunami fund when America is the 'world leader'? so, he's only human. but he chose to campaign, he chose to take up this responsibility. sure, he'll make mistakes that humans make - but to remain on vacation while a hurricane hits America? that is just plain wrong.

i'll say this though. one of the virtues of the American system is freedom of speech and freedom of expression without legal repercussions. he may make plenty of mistakes, but he can't prevent open criticism unlike the PAP who would most probably ship Kanye off to Siberia if he was placed in the singaporean context.

the world isn't perfect, but we can try.

+ posted by M @ 5:36 PM