The Emperor has no cloth on…

Winston Churchill once said “Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing...after they have exhausted all other possibilities”. Five days into the Hurricane Katrina disaster, President Bush finally showed up at the seen of the flood, first to get his feet wet and a grip of the enormous damages of the Hurricane, if Cindy couldn’t get him out of Crawford, Katrina did. However the well rested president found out the naked truth; the Emperor has no clothes on. After addressing the victims with some pep talk “our hearts and prayers are with our fellow citizens” …  “help is on the way” the Mayor of New Orleans C. Ray Nagin lashed out at the Bush officials “Get off your asses and do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country”.

          Disaster and national crisis historically manage to tears away the fabric of our civilization and reveals the masks of our national pretences. If 9/11 disaster with the mistreatment of Moslem Americans has exposed our pretence that we are the champion of civil rights, Hurricane Katrina disaster has exposed our pretence of racial and economic equality with the mistreatment of the poor folks of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi who happened to be mostly blacks.

          President Bush and his ideological contempt to the role of government has been looking only after his base, giving a reckless deep text cuts for the haves, and starving federal agencies like FEMA who mostly help the have nots in time of need. He eagerly and hastily sent poor Americans to fight a war of choice to save the Iraqis from Saddam’s monstrous regime. And slacked out and stuttered in helping the Americans poor from the monstrous Katrina Hurricane. The outspoken frustrated rapper Kanye West reflected live on NBC with his outburst: "George Bush doesn't care about black people" and said America is set up "to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible."

          “I’m ashamed of America” vented the black congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-Georgia). We all should be ashamed that the richest and most powerful nation on earth upended the very same poor families at home whose sons and daughters are fighting and dying for freedom abroad.  The poorest of the poor in America always get the shaft both in peace and war time. Our compassionate president seems to be living in a fantasy world among his noble band of the neo-cons who have been lying to the Emperor for the longest time that he has new clothes. Now everyone can see otherwise. The hurricane may have washed away much of the great city of New Orleans, along with the Emperor’s new clothes. However, great cities can be built again with the will of its people, but it is impossible to build a great nation with a naked Emperor.

AHMED THARWAT
Producer & Host of the Arab American TV show Belahdan
Airs Sundays on MN Public TV at 10:30pm
952-933-6825
www.belahdan.com