From the outset, the pictures of New Orleans’ devastation by Hurricane Katrina reminded me of many disasters the world has witnessed, especially those in Africa and Asia. Our government took a long time to respond, and official America’s reaction can best be described by one word: indifference. Indeed, Wal-Mart was able to get its trucks to the needy long before the Federal Emergency Management Agency was aroused from its bureaucratic torpor.
As I watched the many haggard black faces of the hungry sleeping on highway overpasses or waving signs for help from rooftops, it was clear these were people outside the power structure who don’t take part in or decide the direction of America’s future. It was also obvious that, if the powerful in America can ignore the tragic fate of many citizens of a major American city, it’s easy for them to ignore the far-away poor, in places out of sight – many in African jungles, deserts and forests.
It took America an amazingly short time to raise money for the Asian tsunami victims and a few days to assemble and transport help to them. For a week, the world watched as the crush of humanity in the Superdome suffered untold indignities. Why is there this difference in our response?
Africa is precious and close to my heart. I have watched America’s response to different crises there with great dismay and sadness. Even as we sent billions to the Asian tsunami victims, more than 100,000 black Africans had already been killed and 2 million displaced in Darfur by Sudanese Arabs. Logic leads me to reason that our reluctance to help Africa is racial, just as our delayed response to New Orleans’ victims was racial.
Help is now underway for those in New Orleans. We will look back and remember those who died because of a callous government delay. America must look at its soul and uproot the malady of racism that hunkers there like a beast.
In Africa, it’s different. There are no TV cameras, no lights to record the dead and dying. There are no voices of protest; no news conferences to decry the tardiness of government agencies. The New Orleans tragedy, really, is small compared to the magnitude of many African crises. They occur, Westerners hear about them, and they’re soon forgotten. More often than not, America’s reaction is a shrug of the shoulder; at best, we send a few tons of food.
I have complained about this reaction to African tragedies, but now, after seeing the nation’s initial reaction to Katrina’s devastation and our government’s reaction to the suffering, I think I understand. The poor, black American underclass is invisible. Similarly, our reaction to Africa is born of indifference. They’re too far away and don’t count. The idea of terrorism preoccupies us, without understanding that poverty and famine are the best incubation media for it.
The U.N.’s expressed desire is to reduce poverty in Africa by half by 2015. Toward that end, world leaders are to meet later this month. The only wrinkle is the United States. John Bolton, the new U.S. ambassador to the U.N., wants to scuttle this plan. After watching this government’s reaction to New Orleans, Bolton’s intentions aren’t surprising.
Luckily, private donations have helped the victims of Katrina and those in Africa. Unfortunately, there are things that only government agencies can do. Americans who open their hearts to help Africans often presume that their government’s conscience is as acute and as sensitive as their own. The tragedy unleashed by Katrina should teach all of us that the reaction of our government is as good as the men at the helm.
It’s imperative that our government works to alleviate poverty and destitution. We should hold our government to a higher humanitarian standard when it comes to African tragedies.
Sadly, I now know that in the eyes of my government, my people in Africa aren’t much different from the many drowned by the Gulf’s waters in New Orleans. I also know that as a people, Americans can do better, and can be better.
Pius Kamau of Aurora is a thoracic and general surgeon. He was born and raised in Kenya and immigrated to the U.S. in 1971. His column appears on alternate Thursdays.
