Billions With a ‘B’

Hurricane Katrina has brought out, once again, Bush ankle-biters in the Irish Voice.

John Tighe’s diatribe “A National Disgrace” in the September 7-13 issue was to be expected, but I was shocked to read misinformation propounded by the normally sensible John Spain in the same issue titled “The Humiliation of America.” Maybe he’s trying to repair his reputation among your socialist readers.

Spain’s ignorance of the priorities in governmental responsibility in this country, like that of the Irish Independent, hardly excuses his rants in public.

Local governments are primarily responsible, with the federals called in by invitation. This the New Orleans mayor and the Louisiana governor refused to do until too late.

Spain asked why “fleets of busses from all over the U.S.” weren’t sent in, evidently unaware that several hundred school buses sat idle in New Orleans, immobilized by order of a bumbling and confused Mayor Ray Nagin.

I was in Gulfport, Mississippi during the 1969 Hurricane Camille (with winds much stronger than Katrina). It was days before any help arrived. Too bad President Bush wasn’t around to blame.

Spain declared, “The Bush Administration and the wealthy people of America have failed the test of compassion,” and criticized the “selfishness” of “powerful Americans” as “nauseating.”

Well, Spain, does the $62 billion (with a “B”) so far for relief that Congress has been asked for sound selfish? Talk is of another $100 billion — and that’s only from the federal government.

Richard Doyle, Forest Lake, Minnesota

We Are Selfish

Niall O’Dowd has gotten it right about our token aid to recent hurricane victims in America. The anti Americanism creeping in here in Ireland is frightening given their friendliness towards us down the centuries.

When next I hear GOAL founder John O’Shea appealing for aid for some countries in Africa, am I to assume that such states are paragons of democracy and fairness, rather than some tin pot dictatorships that dispense money in buying arms?

We did not question the abuse of human rights in those countries in Asia after the recent tsunami there. I have in mind the mysterious death of 80 Muslim prisoners who died from “exhaust fumes” while being transported in Thailand.

Also the fact that Irish journalist Vincent Browne says it was wrong to send such aid justifies, for me, the correctness of that decision.

Brendan Cafferty, Ballina, Co. Mayo, Ireland

Geldof’s Irish Joke

Bob Geldof getting the Freedom of Dublin has to be an Irish joke.

This is a man who for all of his life has been critical of his homeland and hasn’t been slow to speak of the Irish in a most disparaging manner.

Perhaps an apology from Sir Bob would be more appropriate at this time, rather than Dublin giving him another forum from which to attack us.

Robert O’Sullivan, Bantry, Cork, Ireland

Don’t Excuse Bush

Firstly, to Ms. McGrath in Albany, you need to put Spain’s assessment into context. This was one Irish-based journalist expressing his own opinion of the failures of the U.S. administration on the plight of its own citizens following the disaster.

To imply that his views are representative of a ubiquitous anti-U.S. sentiment in Ireland shows that you don’t pay much attention to the rest of the Irish media. Most people back in Ireland were abhorred at the aftermath of Katrina, and have supported the relief effort in multiple ways.

As for your plea to American businesses to stop investing in Ireland, I think you miss the point that the most important reason why they’re there is that it is economically beneficial for them to do business in Ireland, gateway to the EU market. It’s a win-win for both countries. So please, take a deep breath, and relax!!

Now to Mr. Rogers (no slight intended). I agree that Spain didn’t have all his facts straight about who was responsible for what before and after the hurricane struck.

But simply excusing the president for the inept federal response by hiding behind the “red-tape” argument, smacks of a lack of willingness to criticize the government when it is merited.

We’re talking about the most powerful politician on the face of the planet who seems to have no problem persuading world leaders like Tony Blair to support an ill-conceived and self-interested “regime change” in Iraq, yet cannot pressure an incompetent Democratic governor to act decisively in the interests of her own people.

While Mr. Bush was finishing up his five week vacation in Crawford, his political appointee with no emergency managerial experience (Michael Brown) was making a mess of the relief effort. And to top it all off, he praised Brown for a job well done! Duh.

I’m sorry, but as Truman once said of the U.S. presidency — the buck stops here! And if Mr. Rogers doesn’t agree with that assessment, then I fear partisanship doesn’t just exist in Washington.

Perhaps if Louisiana and Mississippi were “swing” states, the Republican administration might have acted faster — they probably felt that they have nothing to worry about in such staunch Republican strongholds. We’ll see if that assumption holds up in the next mid-term elections!

Dermot Murray, Mount Vernon, New York

SDLP Real Winners

Constitutional Nationalists and Democrats across Ireland should be celebrating the decommissioning of IRA weapons.

John Hume, Seamus Mallon, Mark Durkan and constitutional nationalism are the real political winners. Despite murder and mayhem, dismay and disappointment, in the face of triumph and setback, the SDLP and others kept faith in the primacy of politics and non-violence.

As Senator Maurice Manning said in the Irish Seanad on October 25, 2001, following the first act of IRA decommissioning, “What we are witnessing is a victory for constitutionalism and peaceful democratic politics of the type practiced by the SDLP for 30 long, difficult and unrewarding years.

“In a real sense everyone is a victor today, but if there is an ideological or philosophical winner, it is the mainstream parties, especially, as I have said, the SDLP because its brand of politics has triumphed. In all the spinning and euphoria it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the advocates of physical force, as they call it, have yielded and conceded to the old fashioned advocates of democratic constitutional politics.”

There is also a clear message to those Loyalist and Unionist politicians who in recent weeks have said that violence works. The lessons from the IRA campaign are clear.

You cannot solve difference by creating divisions. You cannot create peace by using violence.

The violence of the IRA, Loyalist paramilitaries and state forces did not protect civil rights but undermined human rights. Their violence did not secure justice but inflicted grave injustice.

In reality, the IRA were forced to stop the killing because John Hume convinced them that political dialogue was the only way in which all outstanding concerns could be shared, understandings reached and a new agreement secured.

The tragedy is that 1,771 people had to die at the hands of the IRA before the provisional movement recognized that more could be achieved for Republicans through exclusively peaceful and democratic means.

The urgent task now is for all parties throughout Ireland to restore the political institutions under the Good Friday Agreement and build an inclusive democracy and a lawful society.

SDLP Councilor Tim Attwood, Belfast, Northern Ireland