Haves vs. Have Nots

So, the boyfriend and I had a little argument this morning about the whole situation in New Orleans. Now, I’m absolutely horrified by the suffering and mishandling of the situation – as is he. We have different points of view, though, concerning donating money. I just don’t see myself giving money.

Not because I don’t care or because I believe the United States is some evil empire. Suffering is suffering regardless of where in the world it takes place.

I won’t donate for the same reason I didn’t donate during 9/11 – the States doesn’t need my money.

You may think I’m cold, but this is my reasoning: The U.S. is a super rich nation and there is more than enough money to help the people in the Gulf of Mexico. Right now, the U.S. governments are going a piss poor job of getting aid to the people and evacuating, but it’s not due to a lack of money.

It’s due to a lack of planning, maybe some uncaring people – I’ll get to that in a minute (see the quote below) – and more than not, it's due to an overwhelming natural disaster. I've got to big up the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin. That brother is stressed out trying to help the people in his city and he's telling the truth, the feds need to "get off their asses" and help the people.

I would expect and encourage the Canadian government to do all it can to help: send troops to aid in evacuation, peacekeeping, food and water distribution, etc. That’s what it looks like the people in New Orleans need from the images I’ve seen on CNN.

News media was another part of our heated discussion. Before I say anything, I do believe it’s a terrible situation, for real and because it’s on TV all day and all night, it’s really affecting viewers. Unfortunately, when disasters aren’t on TV, we don’t remember and little help is given to those people. Case in point: the famine in Niger where millions of people will die if foreign aid is not secured to buy food.

One of my girlfriends who works as an editor at a newspaper said that we expect disaster and disease in foreign lands, so when we hear about it, it doesn’t really affect us. And it's not shown on the news -- there may be one story, but then, enough is enough.

I think I may have seen a line on CNN’s ticker and one story from the Toronto Star.

The boyfriend said New Orleans is in our backyard and of course it’ll be the predominant story in the American news media. He makes a good point, but it’s no more horrible or important than millions of people starving whose suffering is pretty much ignored by the global community because we aren’t seeing it.

Yes, there were the Live 8 concerts, but those were to raise awareness, not money, for poor countries and to have rich countries forgive debts and give more financial aid.

Sigh. It’s a terrible situation all around. I'm not comparing disasters, I'm comparing media coverage. It's sorta like when a white woman goes missing (i.e. Natalee Holloway) we hear about it day and night. When a Black woman goes missing, it's no big deal. Wise Diva wrote a great blog about that. When something terrible happens in a developing nation, it's no big deal -- that in itself is wrong. Humanity is humanity regardless of geographics.

The boyfriend and I did come to a conclusion: Black folks are the ones – at least from the images we’re seeing, whether it’s Niger or New Orleans -- who are suffering and it’s a constant thing.

I don’t want to make this a race issue, but if the people dying in the streets of New Orleans were predominantly white, would the U.S. government have been so slow to respond? If the people going hungry in Niger were white, would the global community have ignored them?

Somehow, I don’t think so.

The boyfriend dug this up from a link a friend sent. I don't know who the comment came from, but it's a good one:

It’s obvious both racism and bias exists and was very evident tonight when the director of FEMA was asked why the refugees in the Superdome had not gotten food/water. (There was film footage and verbal testimony showing people dead, lying on the ground, in wheelchairs, etc, covered in sheets, from DEHYDRATION of all things-right outside the doors of the Superdome.) He stated that he thought all "they" where doing was looting and so there was basically no hurry to get those necessities to them. He then says that they are doing "the best they can" even though they've apparently known about the Superdome situation for days now. I'm disgusted with his racist statement but not surprised because whenever it is black people needing help, whether it be here or Africa, the request is always put on the back burner and there's always a crappy "valid" explanation.

That’s not because of no money, that because of ignorance and cold-heartedness.

Sigh.

Praying for you folks down south and in Niger – hopefully, help gets to both places fast enough to stop the situation from getting any worse.