Are you looking to the left or the right? It really doesn’t matter!

What is it about political agendas that suddenly appear confusing? For example, take a look at the proposed budget plans of the US Administration and the media reporting of their implications. Some Republicans (US) have suggested that Bush’s stance of tax cuts for the rich will enable entrepreneurs to help generate more jobs. Yet, opponents argue that this policy fails to provide help where it is needed. The following line is particularly ‘cutting’: Hurricane Katrina has blown away the veil of poverty that exists in the South today’.

Data from the US Census Bureau shows that more people are struggling just to make ends meet.
The nation’s poverty rate rose to 12.7 percent of the population last year, the fourth consecutive annual increase. Overall, there were 37 million people living in poverty [in 2004], up 1.1 million people from 2003…The last decline in overall poverty was in 2000, when 31.1 million people lived under the threshold — 11.3 percent of the population.

Another suggestion is that the Bush administration had been ineffective in its response to planning against the Katrina disaster. Alternative viewpoints suggest that know one considered that the New Orleans levees would be compromised. However, Democrats searching for a way to blame President Bush for Hurricane Katrina are circulating a report that claims the Bush tax cuts and the Iraq war drained funding from New Orleans flood-control projects. Currently Michael Moore, the renowned documentary maker is considering making a film about this whole awful episode.

Statistical results on Bush’s popularity reveals that he is dropping in popularity stakes. Although many suggest that this may recover in time for next years mid-term elections.

My other concern is the way that people are being treated. Reports suggest that the process of handcuffing and gun pointing are being used as a way of evacuating the city of New Orleans. Is this an implication that those that remaining are holding out in some kind of civil war of ownership? Or, are these tactics being used as a last resort? Whatever happened to treating people with humanity? Whatever your political persuasion we must agree that everyone is entitled to dignity. These people have lost everything and deserve better.

The aim of this article is not be critical. As I commented during my previous column (Katrina hits Hard w/e: 9th September), people need help now without the consideration of cost. It is good that the Bush administration have committed large funds running into the billions. But we need communities to be closer to how these funds will be channeled.

With many homeless now temporarily residing in surrounding US states, some reports show that communities are getting closer together, removing race and financial barriers. This is a lesson for what we could do worldwide for each other.

It really should not matter if you are looking to either the east or west, left or right, we have to agree with one fundamental thought – We are one world and there is a desperate need to recognize the human race as one.

Maybe we need a new kind of politics. Not one that blames each other or sits on chosen political bleachers / stands. Instead it aims to work on a concept of collaborative communities working towards common good. We need new innovative ways of organizing ourselves, to remove complex layers with priorities centred on the value of life not capitalist drivers.