Poor In The USA

Aside from the sheer graphic horror of televised suffering, death and violence in the wake of Katrina, and aside from the political horror of watching those responsible do nothing of value for days and days on end, one of the great shocks (to international viewers, in particular) was the sheer poverty on display in Bush's USA.

Some GOP types are now joking that the poor in New Orleans did not evacuate because they were waiting for their welfare cheques. As Josh Marshall reports, even if that is a very tasteless joke, there is some truth in it: welfare payments were due at the start of the month, so had Katrina hit a few days later many of these people might have at least had the money to evacuate, if they chose to do so.

I remember being shocked, when I visited the USA way back in the 80's, at people walking around with plastic bags tied to their feet because they couldn't afford shoes. But US citizens are used to a certain level of poverty in their midst and have learned to tolerate such scenes. Moreover, there is a tendency (very much on display right now) to blame the poor for their predicament.

It's all part of the American Dream, right? Work hard, make it big. Business is business, you do what ya gotta do, etc, etc...

Unfortunately, the American Dream is a nightmare for far too many. From the NYT:

The U.S. Census Bureau reported a few days ago that the poverty rate rose again last year, with 1.1 million more Americans living in poverty in 2004 than a year earlier. After declining sharply under Bill Clinton, the number of poor people has now risen 17 percent under Mr. Bush.

If it's shameful that we have bloated corpses on New Orleans streets, it's even more disgraceful that the infant mortality rate in America's capital is twice as high as in China's capital. That's right - the number of babies who died before their first birthdays amounted to 11.5 per thousand live births in 2002 in Washington, compared with 4.6 in Beijing.

Indeed, according to the United Nations Development Program, an African-American baby in Washington has less chance of surviving its first year than a baby born in urban parts of the state of Kerala in India.

The national infant mortality rate has risen under Mr. Bush for the first time since 1958...

Those are shameful figures for a nation that pretends to gallop around the world spreading it's "values" and the supposed economic benefits of it's patented "democratic" politics.

Before you remove the splinter from your brother's eye...