Geo-Political Security Meltdown?
All movements that start with religious connotations tend to end up far removed from their original aims and objectives. While religious activism is quite deep-rooted in religion, it can be manipulated by motivated interest. Through the ages charlatan-ism is endemic among the leadership cadre of such movements, pure unadulterated motives are easily overwhelmed by those who do not share the same altruism. Muslim protest, which started in sincere earnest against the publishing of the Danish outrage, now seems to be provoked by motivated interests to become an outrage by itself because of the violence it has given birth to. To add to this, the desecration of a most holy muslim shrine in Samarra in Iraq, has started another strife, this time sectarian between the Sunni and Shia communities. It has portents of spilling over the borders of Iraq to all the territories inhabited by the Muslim Ummah, crossing an already fragile fail-safe line that holds the balance between peace and strife.
Coping With Disaster
The TV images from New Orleans were unreal. Was this really happening? And in the first world? With ample warnings days before Hurricane Katrina actually hit the US Gulf Coast, why were effective steps not taken to anticipate the impending disaster? Why was relief not pre-positioned, why was a possible law and order problem overlooked, particularly when a million residents had evacuated the city by road? Problems compounded in the affected cities because of the breakdown of the city’s dykes, causing flooding, destruction of electricity and sewerage facilities, lack of potable water and medical facilities, etc further aggravated by looting by armed gangs and the administration’s inability to remove corpses. Far beyond the capabilities of the States of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, the Federal relief effort did not go into full gear until riding a severe tide of criticism from friend and foe alike US President George Bush belatedly visited the affected area 5 days after the storm. His “political damage control” effort included calling the Federal relief response “unacceptable”.