Hurricane Katrina blows away grandma's underpants

There is that famous quote that the Gulf of Tonkin resolution was like grandma's underpants... because it covered everything. (LBJ said it didn't he?)Long covered social issues and problems in parts of the USA have been revealed by Hurricane Katrina, it has blown away the grandmas underpants image of prosperity, freedom and equality and laid bare deep rooted problems for the world to see.I'm going to try my best to make this not sound ranty or whatever, but it is hard because everyone out there holds a strong opinion about this situation.OK, first of all I think that the relief effort has been disasterous. There is no one in charge, and as a consequence, people are confused and things are not working effectively. For example, the police told people they could loot for food and water (which I think is totally justified considering the circumstances, store owners would be covered by insurance anyway you would expect) but then the guard came and were making women drop food and tampax that they had looted in the street.I also cannot fathom how the world's wealthiest country could not get food and water to people. You may blame the people shooting at planes, and yes, what idiots. However if this thing had been handled correctly from the beginning people wouldn't have reached the state of crazed frustration where they would be shooting at those who are trying to help them.Also, it may be a cheap dig, but American's whole "right to bear arms" thing does come back to bite them on the ass quite frequently indeed. If this kind of thing happened in Australia, people wouldn't have guns to shoot at humanitarian helicopters... and I would like to think that even if we did bear arms we wouldn't shoot.The confusion still exists at the moment... police won't let people out of the city. They seized buses that hotels had paid to come rescue them. They are allowed to shoot to kill, and the place is turning more and more and more in to a war zone every day. I hear words like insurgency used, which is pretty crazy indeed.The whole thing is a debacle... and argue with me all you like but I stand by my belief that the relief effort by the government has been absolutely piss weak and hopeless. You only need to look at the USAs budget to see that they have the finances and resources to deal with this situation better. They are turning their backs on their own people and letting them suffer.Why are they doing this you may ask? Perhaps it is because those that remain in N'orlens are the underbelly of US society. They are the underclass... the poor. Has anyone noticed the concerted effort by the government and authorities to turn our sympathies against those that remain in N.O.? The constant talk about riots and crime has been set rolling by the primary definers- the police, government, military etc. This has been in an effort to turn the greater public against those that are suffering by making them seem "bad"... by doing this the primary definers were hoping to deflect criticism of their handling of the event.This is not only about a hurricane, it is about race issues and the huge issue about the growing American underclass... in the land of plenty there are a lot of people who go without any, and you don't often get to see them... but this disaster has bought their faces to the forefront.To me this disaster has bought forward the worst sides of human nature and American culture. The culture of materialism and greed which either meant people had no way out, wanted to stay to protect their personal belongings, or fire shots at people who are looting for food, is crazy. It also shows the government's neglect of the poor and struggling. In Australia we have a welfare system which means even those who are down on their luck have a relatively acceptable standard of living- this is the same in many other countries overseas.There is heaps more that I want to write about this but I have things to do, so maybe I will make a second posting about it later. Feel free to comment and reply no matter what your opinion is, I am up to hear it all.