New job description for PM
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.
Facebook
Twitter
We have the situation in Australia that nobody accepts personal responsibility, and government owes us. We have lost the ethos of self-reliance and look after your brother/sister.
For too long politicians have pandered to the people, we will help you and one only needs listen what Beazley and other ‘Opposition spokesmen” like Rudd are spruiking. The problem is any public (media) criticism, or direct mail to politicians is dumped with contempt.
No bloody wonder we’re a developing the “Up you Jack attitude!”
I was embarrassed to watch the TV news and hear the fit, healthy young people whining about how “the government” abandoned them.
It shows that the entitlement mentality is alive and well in these young people, and that nothing is ever their fault, and that “the government” is a surrogate Mummy and Daddy, that will put a band-aid on them when they fall over.
I would have been far more impressed if these young people had lined up to volunteer to help the sick and injured, instead of sitting on their arses whining about “me, me, me” and demanding preferential treatment.
Sickening.
I hope one day that they realise just how craven and cowardly were their actions in New Orleans in 2005.
The Oz editorial this morning is worth a read. But I have to disagree with your suggestion re a DFAT brief to the PM.
First, it’s not DFAT’s responsibility to track what each and every mature and responsible Australian doing of their own free will. And I don’t think the alternative, goverment dictating where Australians can and can’t go for their own good, would cut much ice. People have to take responsibility for their own actions.
Second, DFAT acts at the level of government, not the individual. As the Oz points out, there is a limit to what governments can do (and should do). Thus DFAT should work at that level to try and provide the best support for citizens, and that means achieving not perfect outcomes, but what Herbert Simon called satisficing needs.
Third, realistically, what would such a briefing achieve? The PM already has to cope with a mountain of paper each day. It is the responsibilities of officials to ensure he has targetted briefings, to the point & succinct, about issues he needs to know now. (And in any case, DFAT’s briefing likely would be typically wordy, and cut off at the pass.)
Fourth, where in the world is ‘safe’ these days? Washington? New York? London? New Orleans? Tokyo in the run up to a September 11 general election? With other Australians’ in Bali? That would mean a brief necessarily would need to cover all contingencies. And in many respects, CNN etc have taken over such general reporting from DFAT–which couldn’t access New Orleans until yesterday.
Qoz…you missed the sarcasm tags in the last sentence but having said that your comments are welcome as it builds on my point.
Sorry, Kev–I realised at perhaps 2am that I was taking you literally. I seemed to have lost my sense of irony while chewing the carpet over the sheer stupidity of various commentators. Mt bad–and a pertinent reminder to take five before pressing publish.
“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.”
Excuse me, I was about to go to bed (it’s last night here) and I read this. What “US expert” told them that two days before Katrina struck New Orleans that the hurricane “NOT going to be a threat to the Gulf Coast”??? One of the drunks that hang out in the Vieux Carre? That statement — I can’t stress this enough — is absolute and utter bollocks, bilge, bullshit, hot steaming alligator excrement and whoever told these people (if true) that everything would be a-okay for their NOLA trip while the rest of the US was watching the tv showing Katrina blossoming from a shy little category 1 storm that only killed a few people in Miami Florida on Thursday August 25 to a rampaging cat 5 beast that slammed into the Gulf Coast on Monday August 29th. People were evacuating New Orleans two days before the storm, the same Saturday these people arrived. They must have arrived as people were beginning to leave.
Oh and by the way if I were in Australia and got caught in a storm I wouldn’t expect George Bush to send the cavalry to rescue me. But I’ve seen a globe so I know where both our countries are situated on Earth.
Hi Kev
Couldn’t let this one go. I read Andreas response re the Hurricane.
The expert was the National Hurricane Centre. The girls arrived Saturday at 4.56amCDT.
New Orleans came under a Hurricane watch at 10.00amCDT.
And they survived the hurricane fine. It was the violence that followed that was the concern.
David, the National Hurricane didn’t tell anyone a mere five hours before a hurricane watch that “the Hurricane was NOT going to be a threat to the Gulf Coast.” It had moved into the Gulf of Mexico by that time. No “expert” would dare say with confidence that the hurricane wasn’t going to hit somewhere on the US part of the Gulf Coast at that point. It sounds more like someone misinterpreted the weather report, or perhaps, disregarded it the way so many people do who don’t have any experience in dealing with hurricanes.
There was an evacuation order issued 48 hours before Katrina hit- if they claim they were informed it was safe, they’re either lying or were getting their info from some wino. Perhaps the deposit on the hotel room was more important than personal safety/responsibility? These people are retarded.
PB…In all respect, 4.56am Saturday morning (flight actually left Vegas at 2200 nite before) is
still by my junior school maths, outside the 48 hour evacuation period.
Perhaps overall responsibility lay with the US carrier who uplifted them??
Or is it normal in the US for a anirline to fly folk into a potential hurricane zone?
Who was looking after who’s investment?
and PB, ‘retarded’, what clever use of the English language.
So the hurricane was going to miraculously dissipate in the Gulf of Mexico after giving Florida a touch-up? It’s track hardly varied, but this is beside the point of the idiocy of going into a town that is below sea-level when it’s about to be subject to a major inundation. I can understand some ignorance of such things a storm surge from residents of southern Australia, but it’s not as if Cyclones are unheard of south of the Tweed. I support Wilson Tuckey’s statement on the matter- let’s face it, anyone with the means and the brains got out of Dodge.