TexProdigy

Help Where It Is Needed?

On my way drive home from work on Friday, I looked to my left and noticed the Mexican flag flying over a field on Kelly USA. It turns out that the Mexican government sent a contingent of their military to help out with the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

Carlos Guerra, of the San Antonio Express News gives details and commentary about why 47 military vehicles and 195 men and women of the Mexican military were in San Antonio. It turns out that this group is specialised in humanitarian aid, especially in providing clean drinking water and preparing hot meals.

The problem, though, is that San Antonio’s water system is not compromised in anyway. On top of that, the evacuees have been receiving hot meals since they arrived in San Antonio.

Guerra writes of the run-around FEMA and the State Department gave him:

But San Antonio has some of the nation's cleanest water, I told FEMA press officer Christopher White, and all the evacuees who came here have been served hot meals since they arrived. Why wasn't Mexico's specialized help sent to the hurricane-battered area, where entire towns have been flattened and where 73 drinking water systems in Alabama, 555 in Mississippi and 469 in Louisiana are compromised or nonfunctional?

“Good question," he said, and promised to check. He called back to say that the State Department is handling all foreign relief help.

State Department press officer Jeanne Moore, however, hadn't heard of the Mexican convoy, and after checking into it, called back.

But she could only refer me to a press briefing by State Department spokesman Shawn McCormack.

Asked by a reporter Thursday what help the Mexican convoy would provide, McCormack replied: "As far as I know, they're part of a transportation convoy. As for how the aid gets distributed on the ground, I think the folks at (Department of Human Services) and FEMA or (Department of Defense) would be in a better position to answer that."

Left Hand, let me introduce you to Right Hand. You should talk before you embarrass us even more.

Considering the bungling of the relief efforts that have happened with the Gulf Coast victims, this is just par for the course.