THE VALUE OF KATRINA, RITA, PAKISTAN, INDIA, KASHMIR

THE VALUE of these events and places is that they display the power of nature, and the nature of power.

News of the current earthquakes resounds in the same words and terms as the New Orleans dilemma. Aid is offered and refused. Aid is expected and not forthcoming. Parties blamed.

One government is afraid to accept aid or offer to cooperate with another. The one thing absent, thank goodness, is FEMA, thusly reducing the incidence of incompetence.

No one expects a FEMA to do anything in Pakistan, which is a huge advantage over having hope where none lurks. FEMA has actually become the saboteur of the neediest NOLA survivors, making almost no low cost long term housing available to them. Even the existing housing inside the NOLA disaster has been delayed, obviously to avoid reestablishing the former residents in the Jewel of the South.

Racism and class resonate with the earthquake area, also. 'Nuff said.

The whole world needs separate and several governments in order to operate. To provide infrastructure, order, and peace. That is what none of us can rely on, because none can seem to deliver peace. The rest can't happen because it is too expensive: it is too expensive because of distrust, war; military expenditure.

The thing that is meant to provide, prevents.

Kashmir, if Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana must fend for themselves, may just as well be on its own. Foreign aid is better than federal aid, because no foreign government can sabotage and misdirect internal aid the way a local Kabul or Tom DeLay and Karl Rove can.

The idea here is that some day, when a section or an island or cultural group sees the need and opportunity to become legitimately autonomous, it should become sovereign. That is the only hope for the peace, to mind and allow others to mind each unto himself, their own damn business.

It means that Louisiana and Kashmir need support, not order or orders. Racism is not a thing to be tolerated by anyone, anywhere. States rights notwithstanding. Order proceeds from peace, not war, not dysfunction. So much for idealism.

Draw your own conclusions, and hope for the near impossible.

-30-bobby