Answer if you aren't a US citizen and don't live in the US, please.

[raccoon]

What did you think about the Katrina disaster and how the government dealt with it?

[bdamomma]

1. how about if you're an ex pat and don't live in the US.

[raccoon]

2. I was hoping to hear from Canadians, Brits, whatever, but

what are the natives saying about it where you are?

[bdamomma]

10. I thought I was watching another country, this was totally

uncalled for, but again, this was on Bush's watch, and funds were cut to improve those levees, also there was much talk and even on Spike Lee's documentary people heard explosions, I wouldn't put it pass this administration or whoever they got to pay off to do something like that to save the rich man's businesses, and to hell with the local poor people.

[uppityperson]

3. kick

[wake.up.america]

4. I was aghast the American government would allow it's own people to drown...

because of improper coordination and supplies.

No apologies many months late from Bush.

We do not think ANY Country's people deserve GWB's stupidity and racist attitude..

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. "Surreal" hardly begins to express it.

The whole world was able to share the horror of seeing what gave every appearance of being deliberate genocide, unfolding before their eyes. A stadium was used as a vast prison for African Americans (from which drinking water, life's most basic necessity, was witheld in the teeth of universal protests).

While Causcasian folk were at liberty to leave the stadium and the State, African Americans were shot at by the POLICE and Army (was it the National Guard?). If somehow they did escape and make it to the border of another State, entry to it was sealed off from them, again by police - the very panoply of State.

The operation to rescue people from flooded houses should have been massive. Instead, people died before their house was reached.

I hope someone will correct me, if I have any of this wrong.

[Bjornsdotter]

6. I can answer

....however I live here but travel often to Sweden to visit family.

At my cousin's wedding this past fall I spent much of the time answering questions and Katrina was one of them.

In general they wanted to know how we could let our citizens die, that they had always thought better of us and they just couldn't understand how we could elect * a second time. They had no beef with most of the American people, just the same loonies most of us have issues with.

Bottom line, they just couldn't understand why....why it happened the way it did, why we didn't rescue people immediately, why we didn't provide aid, why people are still displaced and why do people here believe in *. They also couldn't believe that the government wouldn't help these people get back on their feet and that the victims of Katrina could lose their homes.

Cheers

[baby_mouse]

7. It was almost as if they were deliberately attempting to foment revolution

The knee jerk control freakery and total obliviousness to the suffering of innocents made me wonder if they were actrually attempting to bring about an uprising.

[jdlh8894]

11. So I gather

that the Moors are overtaking St. Andrews? The state of LA is appox 2/3 the size of Scotland w/ appox. a 60% Black Population. The city of New Orleans was/is appox. 80% black. So, please don't buy into the media hype! David

[Spazito]

8. Appalled and disgusted

as were most Canadians. Still am appalled and disgusted.

[Lautremont]

9. I thought it was disgraceful, naturally.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. I didn't see the news while the hurricane and levee break happened

so the first I knew about it was when it was already becoming clear it was a disaster caused by incompetence and neglect.

I think the main problem, which is prototypical Republican behaviour, is that they put cronies in charge of government departments, try to spend the minimum possible, and assume that everything will be OK - which, for disaster management, is literally fatal. This easy-going attitude is exemplified by Bush's behaviour in the video conference we've seen. And attitudes like that can spread from the top.

I don't think they neglected things with the purpose of killing people, or driving them out of N.O. permanently; and I do think the state and local government could have handled things better sometimes (such as the apparent refusal to let people cross that bridge, and perhaps the school buses that were stranded - though it's possible the drivers were never available). I also don't think it was racism, but neglect of the poor, that meant they didn't do more to get proper help there when things started to go wrong. They assumed that everyone could have evacuated if they had chosen to - so they thought the people still in N.O. had caused their own problems - and the Republican way is to leave people to help themselves.