New Orleans and Katrina in the French media
I don’t read all the press, I am biased, and I don’t spend my time in front of the TV, so my take on the French media is only partial.
An American friend asked me how the French press was reporting about Katrina and La Nouvelle Orléans, and whether there was a particular attention given to this former French colony. What I’ve seen and read so far didn’t carry any special pathos towards the Cajun connection. I seem to remember one short segment on Cajuns, the French language [and lack of practice thereof] and that’s about it. The rest is basically what you would expect from any other Western country about a tragedy happening abroad. Lots of personal tragedy segments, with interviews of people, or background images of the devastation in New Orleans, Biloxi and elsewhere. I’ve read and heard more often words like Somalia, National Guard, looting and related than Cajun… Here’re a few headlines taken from Le Figaro [told you I’m biased] :
- La tragédie américaine The American Tragedy
- Des pénuries aux effets dramatiques Scarcity [of resources, food, etc] with dramatical consequences
- George W. Bush sous le feu des critiques George W. Bush under heavy criticism
- La rupture des digues était prévisible the collapse of the dikes was foreseeable
- Les plus pauvres, premières victimes de Katrina Katrina’s first victims were the poorest people
- La superpuissance contrainte d’appeler à l’aide A superpower forced to call out for help
- L’économie américaine déstabilisée American economy destabilized
- L’Amérique à l’épreuve America: the ordeal
- Le bilan s’annonce très lourd, Bush admet des erreurs Death toll very heavy; Bush admits mistakes were made
- La communauté internationale tend la main aux Etats-Unis The international community reaches out to the US
- Coup dur pour le marché de l’emploi américain US job market hit hard
- Washington mobilise ses réserves de pétrole Washington may dip in oil reserves
I hope my clumsy translation of these headlines didn’t make it look like Le Figaro is gloating. Not at all. There’s a lot of compassion in the French media, especially on TV – and allow me to be slightly cynical here: tragedy sells well – but at the same time I see a recurring undercurrent of criticism for Dubbya and the government, most of it done by quoting American sources. I’ve no idea whether The Texas Clown and His Goons, or any other band of politicos for what matters could have done better. Today in El Fig was a small map of the area, with a map of France next to it. Apparently, the area hit by Katrina is almost half as big as France [43%, or so they say]. The scale is just too big to be human.
Then again, I read that the Navy has hired Houston-based Halliburton Co. to restore electric power, repair roofs and remove debris at three naval facilities in Mississippi damaged by Hurricane Katrina, which is prolly a coincidence, again. Mr. Cheney’s legacy lives on. Humans at work. I guess it was too much to ask Katrina to hit Washington instead…