The Math of the Aftermath
Comedian Chevy Chase, when he anchored the first Saturday Night
Live faux-news desk, had a running joke that satirized,
post-mortem, the endless medical updates provided by the public
relations machine of a dying dictator ...
"Here's a bulletin from Spain: Doctors are reporting that
Generalissimo Francisco Franco is holding fast in his valiant
fight to remain dead!"
The point, of course, was that neither the Spanish public nor
the global public at the time was ever fooled by the propaganda
of Franco's terminal condition during his last days. The tweak
also carried undertones that no government could overcome the
forces of nature, no matter what it announced.
That brings us to the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Anyone who has been to the Gulf Coast says that the media images
of the devastation there --- no matter how hard they try ---
just cannot convey the scope of the disaster. Vast segments of
the region have literally been blown back a couple of centuries,
to a time when electricity, telephones, running water and the
like were either a luxury or a futuristic concept. Usual
conveniences such as food shopping are still a major challenge
to many. Some jobs may have left with Katrina; like her, they
may never return.
This doesn't look like it's going to get much better anytime
soon, either.
I thought of this while taking a second look at the pages on the
Longer Life site, all of which include the American Red Cross
public service ad which appeals for donations to their hurricane
relief fund. The appeals are just as urgent and relevant today
as they were when they were first posted. I sometimes wonder,
though, if those who view them don't get so accustomed to their
presence that they ultimately look past them. I know the plan at
the Longer Life site is to keep them in place until all needs
are met, which in my opinion, means the Red Cross will be a
fixture on their pages for a long time to come.
The American government recently released over 100,000 pages of
documents which dealt with their handling of the crisis. It's
notable in the impression that they didn't give the matter much
more attention than they would have if the affected area was a
third-world country. Having said that, the sheer volume of funds
required to repair and rebuild is staggering.
For example, it's been cited in the Los Angeles Times that the
costliest public works project to date was the shift of freeways
in Boston to an underground route. The price tag was $14.6
billion, the time factor was 14 years and the object of the
exercise was to move just under eight miles of roadway into a
tunnel.
The Gulf Coast reclamation is going to involve much more than
eight miles of tunneling.
It's been reported that the federal commitment to this task has
already exceeded $62 billion. One third of that amount has
already been deployed and it can fairly be said that its effects
are hardly noticed. This total will be added to the federal
deficit, of course, right along with the billions being spent to
do whatever it is they currently say they're doing in Iraq. If
the current administration holds fast to its pledge against
raising taxes, the implication is that a host of cuts in other
programs are inevitable.
Thus, Americans won't have to be located along the Gulf Coast to
somehow share in its devastation. Among other things, some
interest groups are now taking a close look at how funds are
being utilized and allocated. Allegations of misappropriations
and the like are sure to follow.
Contrast this state of affairs with the recent earthquake in
Pakistan. The magnitude of that disaster was similarly
breathtaking. If you missed it, the Richter scale measured the
quake at 7.8 and an estimated 87,000 people were killed. Their
government already depends upon the USA for much of its
additional aid. It may be a while before they see anything
significant to assist in this natural tragedy.
One city there will have additional help. It's coming in the
form of lottery winnings. A gentleman named Ishan Khan hit it
big while working in the USA as a taxi driver. He nailed a $55
million jackpot and took his winnings up front, netting over $32
million. Mr Khan moved back to his homeland, where that amount
of money can spend like $1 billion and where he instantly became
one of Pakistan's most wealthy private individuals.
It's obvious to Mr Khan that private assistance is necessary for
relief efforts there to have any immediacy. His village,
Batagram, lost 4500 citizens in the 8 Oct quake and surely, a
good number of those were known to him. Here's the Associated
Press account of his response to date:
"Just days before the earthquake, Khan was elected district
nazim, or mayor, of Batagram. After the quake hit, he helped
pull survivors from the rubble, and paid to get the most
seriously injured to regional hospitals. He told pharmacists he
would pay them later for dispensing all the medicine on their
shelves. The bill came to 10 million rupees, almost $200,000.
"Khan has bankrolled a program to supply roofing materials to
rebuild shattered homes. He bought 150 tents, some of which
occupy land just outside his mansion with panoramic views of
snowcapped peaks.
"Most important, Khan has emerged as a colorful and outspoken
critic of local government corruption. In recent days, the
blue-eyed nazim -- who refers to himself simply as Khan -- has
dismissed the town's police chief and fired another official.
Khan promises to continue the housecleaning. 'We have a calamity
and people are lazy, unable to move,' he says. 'So I started
firing people.'
"Relief workers are impressed. 'He's a take-charge person,' says
Aziuddin Ahmad, who works with a Malaysian aid group."
With that record, I'm sure there would be a good number of towns
along the Gulf Coast that would elect him to public office, too.
With so much money required, both public accountability and
private incentive are imperative if the effects of these
disasters are to be overcome. Let's hope that interest groups in
both the USA and Pakistan monitor the former closely and with
the greater good in mind.
Meanwhile, let's not let those Red Cross ads blend into the
background. As Mr Khan has exemplified, there is no more
effective actions than those taken by personal incentive. Do
whatever you can do to make sure your governmental
representatives understand that accountability in dispersing
relief funds is important to taxpayers and can shear years from
the completion date of reclamation projects. More directly,
anytime --- now or whenever, as this effort is going to take
years to accomplish --- you have a bit of funds to spare,
forsake the costs of a night on the town or its equivalent and
click on the Red Cross ad.
Perhaps your donation won't come from winning the lottery, but
the knowledge that you've helped a disaster victim in need will
make it feel like you did.