The massive earthquake which struck southern China last month was a major disaster, destroying hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses, damaging infrastructure such as roads, rail lines and power distribution systems, and killing perhaps 80,000 people.

The Chinese government response was immediate and intensive. Premier Wen Jiabao was on the scene in Wenchuan county within two days, and President Hu Jintao, out of the country at the time, hurried to the stricken area immediately upon his return.

More than 100,000 soldiers were dispatched to the quake area, many of them walking in over blocked highways. Police, medical, health and financial aid workers were also on hand within days. Army and EMT helicopters arrived in scores, hospital tents were set up in several cities and counties.

In the weeks that followed, tens of thousands of tents were provided for those made homeless by the quake, and temporary shelters are even now being constructed throughout the area. Barrier lakes are being shored up and closely monitored, while roads, rail lines and airports have nearly all been restored to service.

Contrast this to the paltry, some might even say criminally negligent, relief efforts the US federal government provided to the inhabitants of New Orleans and the Gulf states following Hurricane Katrina.

On hearing the news, President Bush, vacationing at his ranch, stayed where he was, while FEMA director Michael Brown sat in a stylist's chair, getting a haircut. When the emergency management agency finally did contract to provide mobile homes to the tens of thousands who had lost nearly everything, the greater portion of them sat parked in "holding areas", where many of them remain today. Some of them were also found to be contaminated with formaldehyde and unsuitable as housing.

Following a page straight out of Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels' book, President Bush said publicly of Secretary Brown, "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job", just two days before bowing to public pressure to fire him.

It should have surprised no one that "Brownie" turned out to be thoroughly incompetent. Like so many other members of Dubya's administration, he got the appointment solely on the basis of past loyalty. His qualifications for the position appear to be absolutely nonexistent. Prior to his appointment he had been a judge at horse shows.

Polls reveal that the huge majority of Americans disapprove of the job being done by the current administration. Let's hope the results of this fall's election provide a meaningful change. That would be real disaster relief.

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