Whose Desire Would Burn the World

Whose Desire Would Burn the World

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - Speechless. The television remains off, I can't take it today. In print, the rolling misery of America, its veneer scraped as effectively as the Superdome's roof, revealing all many have known all along; but, seeing it is something else again. And behind this ghastly production, George W. Bush and his now infamous coterie stand in the wings, authors of this through their insatiable cravenous, poised to profit the calamity.

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Whose Desire Would Burn the World

C. L. Cook

PEJ News
September 4, 2005

Just a week before commemorations of September 11, 2001, America is suffering a blow the effects of which render that horrendous day's happenings as "trifling" by comparison. In exact manner as witnessed deployed across the globe these last bloody years, what is happening today in the, if not heart, then the navel of the nation, is being experienced by Americans; experienced not from the comfortable distance via CNN, etc., but in the first person. And, like in those unpronouncably far-flung places, vultures are aloft.

Halliburton, it was recently revealed, signed a massive contract for the reconstruction of New Orleans almost a week ago. The ink on that deal dried considerably sooner than any actions to alleviate the devastated populations caught in the eye of the maelstrom were undertaken by the "president," or by any of his nearest friends.

Talk of blame, or worse what's coming from around the planet, talk of KARMA, is currently in the hands of the legions of government PR doctors, corpo-hacks, et al. It seems inappropriate, officially, to point fingers at the massive neglect that cannot be said to be simply benign, on the part of George W. Bush's administration.

Of course, George may yet blame Bill Clinton, a risky PR move given the Southern Governor's high profile, alongside Du Dubya's daddy, George. But there is no avoiding the criminal omissions of this federal administration, which starved the agencies trying to avoid precisely this disaster, and repeatedly warned against, of funds required.

Now, thousands (?) of corpses ply the water-swollen avenues of America's cultural jewel, just so much fodder for the alligators.

It's a real pity Mr. Bush needn't again stand for election. But who voted for him, anyway?



Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada. He's also a contributing editor to PEJ News. You can check out the GR Blog here.