Hellova job, Chu Kow

Contrasting the earthquake in China with the hurricane in Louisiana and Mississippi may seem silly since the United States is the most technologically advanced, wealthiest and efficient nation on earth while China is a nation struggling to keep its people fed under a communist dictatorship while also battling outmoded machinery and top-heavy bureaucracy. Right?
After an aftershock frightened survivors of a major disaster, the Chinese government managed to evacuate 800,000 people from the threatened area while still searching for possible survivors and laying out plans for rebuilding three weeks after the tragedy. In New Orleans, after three years, hundreds (the luckier ones) are still living in tent cities while thousands have been forced out of their makeshift mobile homes by poisonous amounts of formaldehyde. While hundreds of thousands of Chinese young people are giving up free time to administer aid to the homeless of Sichuan province, organization or provision for help by U.S. students was late, listless and lax.
President Bush's man on the job (several days after) was political appointee Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown. Just preparing a list of screw-ups by Mr. Brown would require another column, but before he was removed from the scene, (not fired), the president made his immortal comment, "Bronie, you're doing a hellova job." This was while some bodies still had not been recovered.
So does this mean that China has finally succeeded in rubbing our noses in our own inferiority, or does it signify that we had a lousy leader and, with someone competent, we sould have done it as well as the Chinese? The Bogus Economist, as usual, has a view.
First, I have to concede Goerge W. Bush's response to emergencies is about as fast as reaching Customer Service. On September 11, 2001, he spent seven minutes in a semi-daze as he continued reading "A Pet Goat" to a bunch of kindergartners. When Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, he decided to continue his vacation, visiting the Pueblo El Mirage RV and Golf Resort in El Mirage, Ariz.
The Chinese don't work that way. "Losing face" is an unforgiveable thing to do, so if for no other reason, Chinese leaders had to act - and act fast - to convince the people they knew what to do and how to do it. Apparently, in the U.S., our leaders don't feel the need to convince people except around election time. As far as losing face, they can always blame it on somebody else. This is one reason why Congress has an approval rating of 11, twelve points under President Bush.
Another factor is what happens to crooks in China as opposed to over here. We've seen countless instances of manipulation, kickbacks, fraud and graft with the only consequences being a slight slap on the wrist, a golden handshake or two and good old Chapter 11. In China, when the government says, "Heads will roll," one gets the feeling they aren't kidding.
Now, the Bogus is not advocating mass executions for the weasels who ignored scientific data about the New Orleans levees or the sloppy work done by overpaid private contractors to milk every possible buck out of the taxpayers. I would be happy, though, if some of them were wearing numbers across their chests. I'm not holding my breath.
I'd be even happier if we were living in a country where contractors, builders, doctors, teachers, mechanics and major corporations set aside their drive for money and said. "It doesn't matter where the disaster struck - it's part of my country."
That was a quote I heard last night from a Chinese high school girl.
Maybe we've been innoculated so many times with the confusion between money and virtue, we no longer can tell the difference. You'll remember how America was #1 in the estimation of the world after 9/11 and you may reflect on where we are now. In response to the Chinese disaster, the United States has contributed under three billion dollars. Saudi Arabia has given over fifty billion. If we spent one-tenth of the money we're spending on killing people to help people, we might earn the respect of the world as China, with the echo of its Tibetian policy still fresh in our minds, is doing now.
Hell of a job, China.