It’s amazing how quickly the Americans want to blame “somebody” for the terrible devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Blame – is it a cultural thing? Is it the American way?

Whatever it is, early attribution of blame seems to the order of the day, as reported in today’s Guardian: Bush team tries to pin blame on local officials. I don’t think anybody could have predicted the scale of the devastation, so why bother trying to blame somebody now? Just get on with solving the problem, that’s the real order of the day.

However, there is the other side of the coin, and it manifests itself in a plea to postpone attribution of blame. Good call, I’d even go a step further and postpone it until after the rebirth of New Orleans and the other affected townships.

Early attribution of blame isn’t going to help anybody. Instead of pinning blame on somebody, greater focus should be made to solve the problems of the moment: rebuilding the land-based infrastructure, creation of jobs, restoration of law and order and an examination of the damage done to the offshore facilities that provide America with much of its oil. It’s basic project management, solve the problem before going into post-mortem mode (even then, is it really worth it for all projects?)

On another related note, I read with interest a letter in today’s Guardian:

Donald Rumsfeld declared the looting in Iraq following “liberation” to be the consequence of “the pent-up feelings that result from decades of oppression”. We await his wisdom on New Orleans.
Chris Mazeika, London

My interest stems from wondering just how Mr Rumsfeld might answer were he asked to comment on this letter that quotes him to the letter.

Whilst it’s not the best news to read, I’m glad to see that blogs are rapidly playing their part in news provision: Hurricane Katrina – blogs and links