The effect of a politicized disaster.

...Interesting meeting last night, concerning some charitable work in this community (in California). Everyone there both volunteers and makes regular donations to charitable causes. Some of them make very significant donations. What was "interesting " was how some of the attendees admitted that they were "sitting out" the relief efforts for Katrina.

The reason these regular donors were sitting on their wallets? Politics. Katrina is no longer a simple natural disaster, it has become a political event, which drives some of the potential donations and volunteers away. The reaction came from both sides of the political spectrum. One of the more significant donors is so frustrated and angry at the government that she "doesn't want to jump in and do his job." One guess who the "him" is. Others were turned off, and turned away by the ugly racial angle. "Playing the race card" was a powerful disincentive to these (mostly) white potential donors. The need of the victims was apparent, but the relief effort had acquired the bad taste of racial politics, and they felt they would rather find other ways to contribute.

When disaster strikes there are people so obsessed with greed that their first thought is not, "how can I help", but rather, "how can I profit from this". The disaster scams and even legitimate money making schemes that sprout up after every such storm are properly abhorred by the decent people of the country. Why then do we tolerate those who are obsessed with political gain while other citizens are suffering? It is a different sort of greed but it springs from the same self-absorbed world view and cares nothing for the true impact on the victims. High-profile news anchors and movie stars rush in looking for publicity and fame, politicians rush to cameras to spin the storm to their political benefit. At best they distract from the important work of rescue and relief, but more than that they tarnish what ought to be a community-building time when Americans drop their differences to come to the aid of storm victims. There is a time and place for anger over bureaucratic inefficiency that increases the suffering of a suffering people. There is also an appropriate level of response. By the end of the first week of disaster response legitimate anger and frustration had given way to the Kabuki theater of modern politics. I strongly suspect the sincerity of these outbursts. I know that they are hurting the relief effort.