The list is long of resignations and irresponsibilities that lead from “laissez-faire” to “let die”: in one week, the whole world, including American citizens, were able to discover it live in what was until recently the richest country in the world.
(Excerpts from “Katrina: Ouragan sur le néo-libéralisme” (Katrina: Hurricane on neo-liberalism) – Franck Biancheri, 07/09/2005)
What is at issue is not only the incompetence of the authorities, the heavy bureaucracy, the lack of coordination between the different levels of the constitutional structure, but the vision of American society of itself. It seems that it is not rampant racism, endemic corruption, which explains the lack of political interest in the inhabitants of the disaster areas, [nor the clichés spread by New Orleans films and jazz in American public opinion], but the autism of the wealthy people and their political representatives. Where did these unfamiliar blacks come from, who disturbed the reassuring image of a liberal America, where everyone had a chance to live the American dream? They were not refugees but Americans in distress.
(Excerpt from “CHRONIQUE D’ACTUALITE : LE TSUNAMI AMERICAIN ET LA PROSPECTIVE” (American tsunami and prospective) – Franck Biancheri, 13/09/2005)