Tuesday, September 20, 2005

No wonder the rest of the world thinks we are arrogant jerks.

Credit story to Buzzflash.

Just in case anyone thinks that since the President took responsibility for the Katrina disaster, the Federal Government has become any more responsible: a story in the Mirror says otherwise: Hundreds of tons of British food aid burned.

According to the article, HUNDREDS of tons of British food aid shipped to America for starving Hurricane Katrina survivors is to be burned.

US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees.

Instead tons of the badly needed Nato ration packs, the same as those eaten by British troops in Iraq, has been condemned as unfit for human consumption.

And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for incineration.

One British aid worker last night called the move "sickening senselessness" and said furious colleagues were "spitting blood".

The food, which cost British taxpayers millions, is sitting idle in a huge warehouse after the Food and Drug Agency recalled it when it had already left to be distributed.

Scores of lorries headed back to a warehouse in Little Rock, Arkansas, to dump it at an FDA incineration plant.


Apparently the Food and Drug Administration recalled the food because of regulations in place regarding the importation of meat from Britain following a mad cow (BSE) scare several years ago. The aid worker addressed that issue directly :

"If they are trying to argue there is a BSE reason then that is ludicrously out of date. There is more BSE in the States than there ever was in Britain and UK meat has been safe for years."

The aid worker went on, "This is the most appalling act of sickening senselessness while people starve.


"The FDA has recalled aid from Britain because it has been condemned as unfit for human consumption, despite the fact that these are Nato approved rations of exactly the same type fed to British soldiers in Iraq.


"Under Nato, American soldiers are also entitled to eat such rations, yet the starving of the American South will see them go up in smoke because of FDA red tape madness."


So it is good enough for our soldiers in Iraq, but not for people on cots at evacuation centers. If that is true, then it looks even worse for this government.

The aid worker summed it up better than I could: "There will be a cloud of smoke above Little Rock soon - of burned food, of anger and of shame that the world's richest nation couldn't organise a p**s up in a brewery and lets Americans starve while they arrogantly observe petty regulations.


"Everyone is revolted by the chaotic shambles the US is making of this crisis. Guys from Unicef are walking around spitting blood.


And here is the kicker: After they spent all those millions donating aid to us that we decide is banned by regulations in America, then instead of burning it, couldn't we at least send it back to them?! Or if not that, then put it on the next plane to Sub-Saharan Africa or someplace else where people don't have enough to eat?

Boy, we have a bunch of pinheads running our government, and firing Michael Brown didn't solve the problem.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pinheads is right! I thought big government bureaucracy was smart enough to know that they are only supposed to enforce their rules when its not really important that they break their rules.

Common sense and big bureacracy rarely go together.

Get your food supply and don't wait for FEMA.

Maybe the Mayor will release the school buses to come get us. Nope. It's against the rules.

Mark

dorsano said...

When we elect people who think governemt can't do much good, it seems sort of silly to expect them to do much good when they govern.

russellkalltheway said...

I'm surprised that we accepted the food at all. Wait for the day when we beg for this kind of aid. What will our allies say to us then?