Citing Inadequate Response, Oxfam Aids Puerto Rico
Oxfam America is a global anti-poverty organization. Recently, they’ve decided to step in with a disaster at a first-world nation:
“Oxfam has monitored the response in Puerto Rico closely, and we are outraged at the slow and inadequate response the US government has mounted in Puerto Rico,” Oxfam America president Abby Maxman said in a statement on Tuesday. “Clean water, food, fuel, electricity, and health care are in desperately short supply and quickly dwindling, and we’re hearing excuses and criticism from the administration instead of a cohesive and compassionate response.”…
“In the United States, as in most wealthy and frankly even middle-income countries, we assume that the government will lead in any disaster response, and that civil society will work together with the government and fill the gaps and hold the government accountable,” Paul said.
“And in a country like the United States which has incredible resources and a really great infrastructure for disaster response, our presumption is that we won’t need to respond. So as we watched this unfold, we were hearing more Puerto Ricans saying that things weren’t being dealt with, heard from our own staff who had families who were telling them that the response was really pitiful, and on that basis we decided to launch a response.”
For a successful disaster response, Paul noted, “there are two basic elements: you need technical expertise and you need political leadership.” The latter, he said, just wasn’t there.
This, of course, will suck up resources that could be used elsewhere. The fact that America can’t be bothered to take care of its territories is disgusting. That a significant number of our population is happy with this is disgusting.