In the tsunami region, disbelief over U.S. woes

By Seth Mydans International Herald Tribune

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2005

BANGKOK In Aceh, where a tsunami last December hit hardest in Asia, the first reaction to the disaster in New Orleans was sympathy, said Azwar Hasan, a social worker in the Indonesian province where at least 126,000 people died.

"Is there any food there?" he asked. "Any water? I'm really sorry to hear what has happened."

But then he made a statement that is being repeated around Southeast Asia, where America is remembered with gratitude and admiration for its fast, well-organized assistance to victims of the tsunami.

"America is the best-developed country in the world," Azwar said. "This kind of thing shouldn't be happening in America. We are wondering what is going on in America, and why."

Around the region, people have watched the televised scenes from the United States of suffering and chaos with sympathy, with horror and with bewilderment at America's inability to take care of itself.

For some, the scenes from Hurricane Katrina seem to be shaking fundamental ideas about the country's strength and competence. Many of the comments, in telephone interviews around the region, came in the form of puzzled questions.

"How is it possible?" asked Aristedes Katoppo, an Indonesian journalist. "How is it possible that in an advanced society like the United States it is so difficult to provide help or rescue people? How is it possible that this breakdown in law and order could happen?"

He said he felt uncomfortable criticizing a nation in the midst of suffering, but he found comparisons with America's forceful role in Iraq unavoidable.

"Let's just say that it is noted that America sends troops to try to maintain order in distant places, but it seems to have difficulty to do it in their own back yard," he said.

Some people, like F. Sionel Jose, a novelist in the Philippines who has had a long and enthusiastic relationship with America, seemed crestfallen.

"It's very disappointing," he said. "It's something people like me don't expect. Somebody told me they're shooting at helicopters! And looting."

Paulynn Sicam, a government official in the Philippines who has studied and lived in the United States, also sounded disappointed, and angry.

"It's so heartbreaking to see how helpless America has become," she said. "You're not strong any more. You can't even save your own countrymen and there you are, out there trying to control the world."

She said there was no excuse in a nation like America for the suffering and apparent incompetence she had seen on television. "Why are people hungry?" she said. "That really bothers me. Why are they hungry? The first thing you do, you feed them."

She added: "The other thing that bothers me is how capitalism continues its merry way in the light of a disaster like this, with gas prices going up sky high. It's so opportunistic. Is this America? Is this the American way?"

Several people were struck by the social and racial divisions that have come to the surface, a side of America that clashes with the common view of a rich, advanced nation.

"It came to my mind that I didn't see that many whites on television," said Anusart Suwanmongkol, the managing director of a hotel in Pattani, Thailand.

"What you saw was the helpless, the infirm, the poor and the old - mostly black, the underclass," he said. "It's quite a powerful image on television." Like many people, he has followed the coverage closely on local television channels, CNN and satellite feeds of American networks.

"It was quite incredible that President Bush, I think on 'Good Morning America,' was smiling, and that didn't go well with me," he said. "I thought he would project a serious image - the nation needs help."

American hubris may have contributed to the disaster, said Supara Kapasuwan, a college dean in Bangkok who spent more than five years in the United States earning a master's degree and a doctorate.

"I can't say I was surprised," she said, speaking of the failure to evacuate the city.

"Americans - not all of them but many - seem to have this attitude that they are invincible, that nothing's going to happen to them," she said.

Newspapers around the region reflected these views, sharing sympathy while expressing shock and amazement at this unusual view of what one called "the planet's most powerful country."