It’s bad enough that Howard is castigated for not giving his undivided attention to the self inflicted troubles of all the Aussie druggies in SE Asia, he is now expected to save individuals from their own folly or misfortune whilst travelling.
The disaster that is Katrina is so huge, so devastating that the US themselves are having trouble tagging tens of thousands of their own citizens without the Australian and other governments barging in and demanding preferential treatment.
A Brisbane woman, Ms Fiona Seidel was caught in the disaster area and allocates blame for her presence and slower than instant excavation.
“I have mixed emotions about John Howard,” Ms Seidel told the Seven Network from the US.
“I’m a good Australian, I pay my taxes, I work, I own a home, I do the right thing, I don’t commit crimes and he pretty much wasn’t there for me when I needed him.”
Nothing mixed about that.
I do however have mixed feelings about MS Seidel.
The report says she arrived in New Orleans two days before Katrina struck having been in the US for a week or two. How could you possibly be touring through the US and not be aware that Katrina was about to strike New Orleans. Don’t you think that that knowledge would have caused Ms Seidel to think, just for a moment…..should I go there?
And then, after she had decided to ignore all warnings and found herelf in an imminent diaster area, did she heed the calls to evacuate?
It appears not.
And, would she, for example, still have mixed feelings about Howard even if he flew over personally and saved her.
I think so.
Husband Andrew Glendinning says
… both the Australian and US governments have been very supportive of his attempts to get them home, but the scale of the devastation has outstripped all contingency plans for the category five storm.
Maybe Fiona and Andrew could have a chat when she gets home about who put her in the bad situation to begin with.
I do of course have pity for her but am still having trouble with this ‘Blame Game’ mentality. All unsavoury outcomes in life can be, it appears, sheeted home to the government.
Whatever happened to adults being responsible for their own decisions or, the fact that sometimes in life you occupy unfortunate time and space and it really isn’t anyones fault.
John Howard clearly needs to lift his game and have DFAT brief him every morning on the million odd Aussies overseas who may, or may not be in danger.
UPDATE: I received an emaill from a reader and post it in it’s entirety.
Having been invloved from the start with the Seidel case, I need to clarify a few points; 1. They arrived on the Saturday, 2 days before the Hurricane. The news they were given by US experts was the Hurricane was NOT going to be a threat to the Gulf Coast 2. They attempted to evacuate, but there were no hire cars nor buses available. The airport had closed by this time 3. Contact with what was happening was through us here in Australia. It was us who had to put pressure on DFAT to actually call Ms Seidel and Ms McLean. They were in a Hotel Room with telephone connection. There is no excuse DFAT took 4 days to finally call them. They had complete details as set out in Smart Traveller, room number, phone number. Yet 2 radio stations here in Australia managed to speak with them on a daily basis. And DFAT’s Excuse is…?????
So when 2 young ladies have seen and experienced what they had, and were rescued by a Sheriff from another county, what do you think they are to say of our own government? Oh, and was there a DFAT official at the airport to meet them when they returned? What do you think?
I would actually expect a sherriff from the host country to rescue them…how the hell could Australian authorities do so. I think the young ladies had an unreal expectation of what their country could or should do for them in the first couple of days. The readers says DFAT were phoned exhorting them to phone the ladies – to what end? They, like the officials of every other country with nationals in the disaster area, couldn’t do anything until the US had control of the situation.
I was overseas in Vietnam when the Tsunami struck and returned home in a plane full of victims. They were suffering minor injuries and were processed, very efficiently I thought, on landing at Brisbane by authorities including DFAT. I can’t see how DFAT would change their protocols in a matter of months so can only assume as the young ladies weren’t injured there was no welcome. I wasn’t welcomed (other than by my family) and didn’t expect to be – there was nothing wrong with me.
I cannot begin to imagine how any US Expert could say, on Saturday, that Katrina was not going to be a threat but in light of the apparent confusion/ineptitude and politicking I can almost believe it but suggest the expert may have been less than informed . Sat was the day when evacuations were ordered and Katrina was predicted as having a 45% chance of hitting NO as a cat 4 or 5 blow.
I repeat, I do feel sorry for the young ladies but the blame game is not the answer and I think it’s a long bow to draw to sheet the blame home to Howard. So long that I think a ‘pre-trauma don’t like Howard’ syndrome existed.
I believe the reader believes the events happened as he states but each of us view such events from a different perspective with some expecting all and others doing all they can for themselves.
I certainly wouldn’t think to blame Howard for my location in a given disaster area for some days. I would look at other aspects.
But then I’m not a young lady.