Hurricane Katrina - An American Disaster

Empty, ruined and desperate

Workers begin to retrieve bodies

Killed by Contempt by Paul Krugman

Receding floodwaters expose the dark side of America - but will anything change? Jonathan Freedland sees a country waking up to injustice and high-level incompetence

I am shocked at how a hyperpower like the USA can fail its citizens so miserably. The Bush Junta has shown it does not care for ordinary people, they have proven to be a deeply backward-looking, dishonest and cruel right-wing administration doing its best to shore up American capitalism while fulfilling some of its ideological mandate from the puritanical Right. New Orleans is suffering because of Bush's incomptence and general laziness.

Meanwhile the Bush Junta passes the blame onto the mayor Ray Nagin and the Governor of Louisiana Kathleen Blanco despite both of them begging for help and asking for assisstance with the evactuation. Somehow the Bush Junta ignores this and starts attacking the local government.

Bush meanwhile prances around the hurricane deverstated areas looking for a bloody photo opportunity.

FEMA has proven unhelpful and in some cases obstructionist as they turn away groups like the Red Cross and prevent supplies like water and gasoline getting through.

Hurricane Katrina has laid bare the darker side of American life and the emptyness of the American dream in Bush's America. The fact inequality has never gone away, bigotry is still about and race remains a contentious question. America may well be a mighty powerful nation but it has much poverty and inequality, which has been exposed with the after effects of Hurricane Katrina

I had read certain comments on the BBC Have Your Say Section from Americans complaing the world isn't helping them, well thats a load of bollocks many nations have offered help including:

· The Ministry of Defence in London said yesterday a consignment of 500,000 military ration packs will be flown to the devastated region today. The armed forces meal boxes contain a 24-hour supply of high energy food

· Kuwait announced it was donating $500m (£270m) worth of oil products and other humanitarian aid

· President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has offered $100,000 in aid

· In Rome, a plane packed with aid was scheduled to take off last night. The military transport plane was carrying enough blankets, cots, bed supplies, inflatable dinghies, water purifiers and first aid kits to benefit about 15,000 people, said Luca Spoletini, spokesman for the Civil Protection Agency

· Australia has promised A$10m (£4m), with the bulk going to the American Red Cross

· $5m in aid has been offered by the Chinese, as well as rescue workers, including medical experts

· The Cuban president, Fidel Castro, offered to fly 1,100 doctors to Houston with 26 tonnes of medicine to treat victims

· Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez, a vocal critic of the United States, offered to send cheap fuel, humanitarian aid and relief workers

· A German army Airbus landed in Florida on Saturday with 10 tonnes of food rations to be transported to the disaster area; a second plane loaded with emergency food rations took off yesterday and was expected to land in Pensacola, Florida, late last night with 15 tonnes of rations on board

· Japan will provide $200,000 to the American Red Cross and will provide up to $300,000 in emergency supplies if it receives requests for such assistance

· Singapore's armed forces, responding to requests by the Texas army national guard, has sent three Chinook helicopters to Fort Polk, Louisiana

· South Korea has pledged aid and is waiting for a response

· Sri Lanka will donate $25,000 to the American Red Cross

· Canada offered to help in any way it could and its navy is preparing a ship full of emergency relief supplies to be sent when a request comes

· Mexico is sending 15 truckloads of water, food and medical supplies via Texas, and the Mexican navy has offered to send two ships, two helicopters and 15 amphibious vehicles

· France's prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, said France was ready to offer help. "We have rescue teams based in the Caribbean and we are naturally ready to provide aid to the Americans, and that is what we have told them," he said

· The Netherlands will provide teams for inspecting dykes and for identifying victims if there is a formal request from the United States. It will also send a frigate from Curacao to New Orleans to provide emergency assistance, the government said

· Russia has offered to help with rescue efforts, but is still awaiting a reply from Washington

· Spain expects to receive a formal request to release gasoline stocks to the US and is prepared to grant it, an industry ministry spokesman said.

· In Sweden the Rescue Authority said it was on standby to supply water-purifying equipment, healthcare supplies and emergency shelters if needed

· Iran has offered to send humanitarian aid to the US even though President Bush has labelled the country part of the "axis of evil". "The victims have complained about the lack of timely assistance and we are prepared to send our contributions to the people through the Red Crescent," said Hamid Reza Asefi, a foreign ministry spokesman

· Saudi Refining, a Houston-based subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's state oil firm, Saudi Aramco, will donate $5m to the American Red Cross to support relief efforts.