Sunday, September 11, 2005
More aid withheld by US government. posted by Richard Seymour
San Antonio journalist Carlos Guerra sends me news that FEMA diverted aid from Mexico intended for hurricane victims in New Orleans, to San Antonio:Among the 195 men and women who came are teams specialized in disaster medicine. But the Mexicans also brought the capacity to provide two basic necessities that often vanish after disasters: hot food and drinking water.
They brought two huge field kitchens, three mess tents (with tables and chairs), water treatment plants and ingredients for serving three hot meals to 7,000 people daily for 20 days. And if more is needed, Brig. Gen. Francisco Ortiz Valadez said, he will send for it.
Three hot meals for 7,000 people a day over twenty days, Carlos says, is 420,000 meals. So, why did it end up in San Antonio when "San Antonio has some of the nation's cleanest water ... and all the evacuees who came here have been served hot meals since they arrived"? A FEMA spokesperson says he'll check. He does, and refers the matter to the State Department. They in turn refer him to a press briefing by State Department spokesperson Shawn McCormack, in which he says: "As far as I know, they're part of a transportation convoy. As for how the aid gets distributed on the ground, I think the folks at (Department of Human Services) and FEMA or (Department of Defense) would be in a better position to answer that".
Bear in mind that the original position on the withholding of aid was that, as the DoD explained in a press briefing on September 3rd, they were building up sufficient troops around the city to "retake" it and quell the "insurgency". But this aid arrived on Thursday 8th September, and has been sitting in San Antonio ever since. Never mind. Carlos notes a bouyant and pretty-haired television reporter asking the Mexican consul-general: "Why would Americans want water from Mexico?"
Could be because they've been deprived of home and livelihood, told they're on their own by the mayor and local government, and then refused aid by the federal government for days, while 'looters' were shot at and those who tried to escape turned back at roadblocks. Could be because Mexico is making more of an effort to help the victims than the US government has to date. Merely a suggestion.