Has the left here in the UK tried to make political capital and spite from events in America?

DAILY EXPRESS - 05/09/2005, Leo McKinstry Political commentator Communities must take responsibility for the savagery after Katrina, AMERICA has just suffered the greatest natural disaster in its history.

"Amid scenes of apocalyptic devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, the death toll may rise to over 10,000. Throughout the Mississippi delta, the fabric of society has been torn apart. But instead of invoking sympathy this catastrophe has led to a repugnant outbreak of Americabashing in Britain, especially among Left-wing voices in the media.

In the coverage of the unfolding horror there has been a gloatingtone of condescension, a vicious delight in the struggle of the USauthorities to cope with the scale of the destruction. "Humbling of a superpower", screamed one headline. The BBC's website rejoiced over the end of the US's "home spun myth about invulnerability". George Bush's large army of British critics has lined up to prattle on about Iraq,federal budget cuts, the Christian Right and racism, demonstrating barely amoment of compassion for a nation in shock. Grotesquely, Bush has beenturned into a scapegoat for the calamity.

One self-satisfied columnist evenexpressed the hope that a voodoo witch-doctor from New Orleans might put a curse on the President. This hysterical, ideologically driven inhumanity reminds me of the dark days after 9/11 when too many Britons preferred to score points about US foreign policy rather than show solidarity with a people under the scourge of murderous terrorism. IN RECENT days it has been common here to talk about "the shaming of America".
What is truly shameful has been the response of a large section of theBritish media to this almost Biblical tragedy. If much of our country hadbeen hit by a disaster like this, with cities such as Newcastle and Sheffield under water, it is doubtful that American commentators would gleefully attack the Labour government, sneer about the incompetence of ourmunicipal authorities, drone on about the inequalities in our society ordemand that a voodoo curse be placed on Tony Blair.

There is a profound double standard at work here. When the tsunami hit Asia, bringing terrible havoc in its wake, there was nothing but anguish and concern. A huge international relief effort immediately got under way, with record-breaking sums raised in Britain. The governments of Indonesia and Sri Lanka were not subjected to a torrent of criticism over the way they handled the crisis. But that mood of empathy and understanding has been utterly absent with America.
In all the smug condemnation of the US government, what has been missing has been any recognition of the logistical nightmare of trying to help hundreds of thousands of people across a vast region, much of it under water. In many places the essential infrastructure of roads and electricity no longer exists. The idea that America, simply because of its wealth, should be able to resolve such problems in a matter of hours is just absurd.

So is the glib talk about lack of planning. No one can plan for an entirecity like New Orleans being flooded so heavily and suddenly. In the lastdesperate days before the hurricane struck all the city could do was to urgeits citizens to leave ? and 200,000 chose not to. Similarly, it is nonsense to believe that chaos might have been averted if more of the National Guard had been in America rather than Iraq. In fact just 10 per cent of the guard is in Iraq, with more than 750,000 men still based in the US. But perhaps the most repellent argument is that the US government's responsehas been driven by anti-black racism. It has been widely alleged that if thedisaster had occurred in a mainly white area, rather than around New Orleans where 67 per cent of the population is black, the state and federalmachinery would have reacted much more quickly. Jesse Jackson has even said that the crushing hell of the Superdome, where 20,000 people took refuge, was reminiscent of "the hull of a slave ship".

Afro-American leaders should instead be asking some hard questions about the behaviour of many of their own people. The knee-jerk accusation of racism cannot hide the truth that the humanitarian effort has been cruelly hampered by the brutal anarchy that has descended on the region. Rescue helicopters have been shot at, snipers fired at hospitals, medical supplies buses have been hijacked and children raped, and looting has been rife. Because of the breakdown in law and order the police and military have been diverted into combating mass criminality.
"I cannot believe how my own people are acting, " said one black New Orleans resident with a sense of shame. BUT THE absence of the normal codes of civilisation existed in New Orleans long before Katrina. This was a city riven by poverty, drug-taking and violence, with a murderrate 10 times the US average.

And that has been the tale of black urban populations throughout America. Unlike other immigrant groups who shared in the American dream by integrating and prospering, too many blacks have remained trapped in the endless cycle of deprivation, crime and fecklessness.

A young US black man is more likely to go to jail than college, while 70 per cent of black children are brought up by lone mothers.All this is not George Bush's fault, as some have been claiming. Blackcommunities have to take responsibility for their own lives, instead ofopting for permanent victimhood. America has been such a phenomenal success story over the last two centuries because its society is built on freedom, personal responsibility and patriotism. But when those values disappear and the vacuum is filled by lawlessness and savagery, it is impossible for any civic institution to function, no matter how compassionate its instincts."