That the poor, the frail, the sick and the elderly were left behind to fend for themselves and that this is a shameful disgrace to America. New Orleans were depending on a so called Good Samaritan policy, where those who had cars would help those who did not. A fantasy. In a land where self reliance means looking after number one, there were few Samaritans helping those that could not escape.

But it seems that some Americans, not all, consistently bury their heads in the sand and throw insults rather than addressing the very real issues that this disaster has raised. Some relevant quotations from todays papers might help such people understand my dismay and yes anger at this tragedy.

'We went to a convetion centre where the NG ws based but they just turned us away and said we would have to fend for ourselves' [Michelle Andrews - Wales]

Estimates of the death tolls in NO are now in the vicinity of 10,000 people. Whatever the number, many would be alive today if the federal government had given minimal priority to evacuation of those who had no way of exiting the city. [Norman Soloman, US]

Government failed utterly, Homeland security secured nothing, FEMA managed nothing. Bush finally tearing himself away from his vacation, first dawdled and then dithered while people died. Only after a week of tragedy, suffering and shame did government begin to respond...The poor black people of NO, portrayed on Fox and CNN as pathetic beasts or savage animals stood forth with all the strength and self-respect that makes us proud to be oart of the race, the human race. The conservative media interpreted the crisis in NO as rat race America at its worst. Those who were left behind were said to have stayed behind. Foraging for food became looting...Some 57,000 households did not own a car... There were no buses, trains or ships for those that could not drive [Dan la Botz - US]

Foreigners...have focused on the ugly reality exposed by the hurricane: that its main victims are black and poor and have been left in conditions more familiar from the worst scenes of 3rd world deprivation than from the richest country on earth...its only a short step to the thought that an administration that has spent billions on a disastrous war in Iraq seems utterly incapable of protecting its own most vulnerable citizens...sympathy for the plight of ordinary Americans is one thing. But their president and politics are different matters [leader - Guardian newspaper]

Pictures of impoverished black Americans...being coralled into the Super Dome like cattle; portrayed in the American media as as looters, armed thugs, murderers and rapists...all sharp reminders that for all the rhetoric and crap the US spouts about democracy, freedom and opportunity...racism and class inequality remain the pillars upon which this twisted country is built upon [Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor - US]

We must ensure that the national nightmare that was Katrina never happens again...my feelings went from concern to grief to anger and then to embarrassment [Joe Lieberman, DEM]

'And so many of the people in the arena here were underpriviliged anyway, so this is working very well for them. What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is that they all want to stay in Texas' [Barbara Bush]

All the vaguely sane world understands that the poor of NO, whether because of their race or their class got the worst of it [Michael Neuman US]

'Instead of relying on a 'Good Samaritan' policy - the fantasy in NO that everyone would take care of their neighbours...' [John Tierney IHT]

'If it's shameful that we have bloated coprses on NO streets, it's even more disgraceful that the infant mortality rate in America's capital is twice as high as in China's capital...11.5 per thousand in Washington compared to 4.6 in Beijing...the US ranks 43rd in the world in infant mortality according to the CIA world factbook. [N.Kristoff US]

'...the burden falls heaviest on Bush. The sick, the elderly, the newborn left to die in squalor without food or water as gangs rape, loot and kill - these images from the world's richest nation are not quickly forgotten. The US, like the rest of the world, is shocked. But is angry too....Bush is looking less and less like a leader for a crisis' [Sydney Morning Herald]

'The shock has been palpable...Germans now feel reinforced in their attachment to our social solidarity and are asking if this is what the American economic model produces. The fact that Bush is widely disliked has added to the questioning' [Richard Hilman - German political analyst]

We've been telling people around the world how to run democracy and civil society...and now we have the bloody guts of our own society - its suffering underclass - revealed to the world, many of them hardly literate, and its another terrible blow to our reputation. [Philp Gordon Brokkings institute Washigton]

'Stuff happens' [Rumsfeld on Iraq looting]

'Outrageous' [Rumsfeld on New Orleans looting]

 yechydda,