Several people from home have asked me how Chinese people are reacting to Hurricane Katrina and the ensuing chaos. So far no Chinese, student or colleague, has asked me about the disaster. Granted, I am new to the community, but that generally doesn't stop people's curiosity. I'm also still in touch with my host family in Chengdu, and they've haven't commented, either. I would venture to surmise that this reflects a general disinterest in American domestic affairs among most of the Chinese population, not unlike the average American's disinterest in Chinese domestic issues. It is tough to tell how much news coverage they are seeing around the whole disaster, as well. I was moving/at the hotel during the build-up and worst of the storm and so didn't see any local TV news. I can't read the Chinese newspapers (yet), but the English newspaper, China Daily carries AP and Reuters articles on the hurricane. So, from what I've seen in my corner of the country, there really hasn't been much reaction at all among everyday people.

I really only have insight on my own reaction to the way the disaster was mis-handled, as a watcher from abroad. As I read about the ongoing bungling of emergency response, I am increasingly saddened and ashamed. A large part of my job here is to just be American. Disasters that show our citizens and governing structure in such a negative light make that job tougher, even if only in my own mind. Watching New Orleans sink into a bedlam of seeming-anarchy, while the government sifted through paperwork--its been awful. I'm pretty helpless from so far away. All I can offer is my voice of outrage at the governmet that didn't protect its citizens, my thoughts of support for the victims, and my hopes for positive change in the aftermath of such devastation.