Exposing America: some unnatural disasters
November 12th, 2005

Graphic reflections on Hurricane Katrina.

Graphic reflections on Hurricane Katrina.

It has become clear that the cultivation of genuine solutions for this ravaged region require that leaders and the public address complex questions. It is particularly important to understand the G8 in relation to Africa’s tumultuous history. The origin of great conflict is rarely found mixed with current vocals, but can always be found rooted in the twisted politics of the past.

On a quiet, pleasant block of Fuzhou Road along the Huangpu river in Shanghai stands a business whose existence would have been unheard of ten years ago, and would have been grounds for imprisonment as recently as twenty five years ago. It is, perhaps, the single greatest monument to a burgeoning capitalist society—a business that services few save the intellectual, the hip, and the wealthy: the contemporary art gallery.

For two weeks, the media was awash with coverage of the hurricane that devastated large parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, exposed a much-ignored level of poverty in the south, and raised the bar for free speech. What follows is a small sample of some of the hilarious, misguided, atrocious, inflammatory and plain old stupid things that columnists, radio hosts, politicians, their wives, policy hacks and other public figures have said in the aftermath of Katrina.

Katrina holds up a shattered mirror to the racism and hypocrisy of U.S. institutions.

When uncertainty is the only thing to be sure of.