In some cultures (I\’m thinking specifically of Australia and the UK), when something really horrendous happens on a huge scale, the people don\’t point the finger of blame; they point the finger of shame. For shame! Shame on you! While accountability is needed, we have seen too often in the past five years accountability without ignominy. People in the administration(s) taking the blame but little of the burden. It\’s time for the disgrace. They need to not just be told they did wrong; they need to be made to understand and to feel it. Their actions as well as their positions need to be condemned.

Federal Detachment

Katrina makes landfall on August 29.


August 29: Bush shares Sen. John McCain\’s b\’day cake as the first levee is reported as having broken.


August 30: with the storm raging past landfall, Bush plays the guitar backstage at a Veteran\’s commemoration party.


August 31: George Bush in his Presidential aircraft, aloof above the disaster.


September 1: No one managed to catch a photo of the actual event, but it is rumored that Condoleeza Rice spent the first post-hurricane days laying down thousands of dollars for some Ferragamo shoes for herself. Guess she heard that NoLa was in need of some pumps. The Red Cross says that it can feed an evacuee family of four for a week with $100, and Condi spent several thou on her feet–nice one.


September 1: Wearing their expensive suits at the safe haven of a Washington press conference, Clinton-Jr-Bush address the nation\’s need to raise funds for the evacuees.

No pictures available, but during the above three days Donald Rumsfeld attended a San Diego Padres\’ baseball game and Dick Cheney went mansion shopping for a $2.9 million, nine-acre estate at exclusive bay-front town, St Michaels, Maryland.

Meanwhile, back in the States of Emergency…


Money buys the security of a Bourbon Street bar while other residents converge at the Superdome.


An American Red Cross ambulance stranded in the flooding.


Coffins falling out of the crypts, post-storm.


Survivors chopped holes in their attics in order to get above the rising flood waters.


During their rescue, a woman from a nursing home falls on top of one of her fellow nursing home residents.


Choose your own adventure: make footwear out of Keep Moving cigar boxes and rubber bands, or \’loot\’ some Nikes? There is poetic justice in this photograph.


After spending three hours playing in a pool, my mum would tell me I was turning into a prune as my fingertips would be wrinkly. This woman was trapped in the water for three days: these are her hands after being rescued. Water logged. This photograph is a poem, period.


More than a week without fresh water or food, some animals are still left to fend on their own. Maybe they should have just driven out; those dumb dogs, why didn\’t they have cars?


A week after being separated, a woman is reunited with her dogs. She was forced to leave them upon evacuation.


Animals from the local zoos and aquariums were also victims to the storm. Here, a sea lion from a nearby aquarium didn\’t make it.