I spent part of the week after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans in Washington, the US capital. It was one of those lazy, laid-back summer weeks, when Washington was bathed in sunshine, the days were long and people sat on the sidewalks of restaurants in easy conversation over drinks or coffee.

Sir Ronald Sanders

But this easy calm belied deep problems in the US society; problems which have been unearthed by the turbulence of Katrina and which will have effects on America and, more than likely, the world.

First among these problems is the deep divide between rich and poor that in the American body politic. It does not help that many of the poor are not white. America is yet to deal definitively with its problems of class, and more importantly its problems of race.

Second, is the equally huge divide between the ruling Republican Party and the opposition Democrats. Bipartisanship, which was injured after the first dubious presidential election win by George W Bush in 2000, and which suffered an even more enormous blow after his more convincing return to office in 2004, may be tossed on the winds of Katrina.

Battle lines have been firmly drawn for some time. Unfortunately, the Democrats have been sidelined if not pushed aside, while the Republicans and their supporters rule the roost and enjoy the fruits of power. Now the Democrats are awaiting their turn, and every event, especially Katrina, is a cause to expose the failures of the Republican administration.

The Democrats have been quick to blame the inefficiencies and ineptitude of the federal government for the incredible loss of life and destruction of property in the world's richest and most powerful country. They are as shocked and amazed at the wretchedness of the scenes of New Orleans transmitted worldwide by television cameras as are people of developing nations who could not believe their eyes. Can these awful scenes really be in America?

And since these awful things are happening in America, why are they happening? The disappearance of any semblance of a bipartisan approach to addressing the problems of America, has weakened this great nation. And given the bitterness that now exists between the two parties and their backers, its governance will weaken still further.

Katrina exposed the depth of America's black underclass.

On the issues of class and poverty, Nicholas Kristof, writing for the New York Times, points out, "poverty rose again last year with 1.1 million more Americans living in poverty in 2004 than a year earlier. After falling sharply under Bill Clinton, the number of poor people has now risen 17 per cent under Bush".

Stating that it is shameful that there are bloated corpses on New Orleans' streets, Kristof lamented that "it is even more disgraceful that the infant mortality rate in America's capital is twice as high as in China's capital".

On the race aspect, he cities a UN Development Programme Report which reveals that "an African-American baby in Washington has far less chance of surviving its first year than a baby born in urban parts of the state of Kerala in India".

These are almost unbelievable statistics. The fact that they are true not only wounds the image of America abroad, it points to the urgent need for the US government to allocate greater resources to bridging the gap between the rich and poor in its own society.

The allocation of such resources is now being vehemently urged not only by the Democratic Party but also by ordinary Americans - black and white - who are angry and dismayed that their own people could have suffered as they have in New Orleans.
Of course, there are those who have identified the war in Iraq as sucking the resources of the country.

President Bush will clearly have great difficulty convincing the mass of the American people that continuing involvement in Iraq and other adventures of this kind are in the interest of America.

This development may be a good thing for the world if it causes the present US administration to curtail its unilateralist behaviour in dealing with global issues.

For while it is a fact that many parts of the world rely on a US presence for peace, a retreat from a militaristic United States intent upon imposing the will of its government upon the world would probably make the globe a safer place, particularly if the US were to use its strengths to bolster a multilateral approach to managing and dealing with international issues.
We have to hope it will happen.

What we have to hope does not happen is a return to US economic nationalism and protectionism on the basis that low-skilled and low-paid workers are suffering because the US is opening its doors to foreign products as well as reducing subsidies to American agricultural production.

There is already in the US a strong sentiment that has been whipped up against China. The calls for limiting China's access to the US market could possible grow more shrill in the post-Katrina environment, triggering a period of increased global tension, even beyond the issue of trade.

The international community also has to hope that one of the salutary lessons of Hurricane Katrina for the Bush administration is that it cannot go on pretending that global warming is not happening and is not contributing to the frequency and intensity of hurricanes.

There clearly is a link. And the United States will feel it again and again in the coming years. The cost of clean-up and recovery will also increase, probably at a rate far greater than it would cost now to comply with those aspects of the Kyoto Protocol from which the present US administration resiled.

Even if the administration is not converted to the merits of the Kyoto Protocol, it could at least see the virtue in protecting the US from further massive and destructive storms by giving leadership to the world in reducing both oil dependence and greenhouse gas emissions.

It is obvious now that the fury of Katrina has ripped open the cupboards in which the problems of class and race were hidden. Television cameras have revealed the problems not only to Americans, but to the world.

America must tackle these problems not only because they deserve urgent attention, but also because, to the rest of the world, America does not appear as mighty, as moral, and as just as it would like to be seen. The US needs to re-establish the world's confidence in it.

It must do so in ways that continue to enjoy the respect of the international community, for the world needs a strong United States - one that can give leadership in peace-keeping, religious tolerance, racial harmony and international justice.

Trousers in Denim

Cream of the 'Crop'

Cheeky's World