Everyone's watching...

Obviously, the news about Katrina went around the world, and so now everyone is able to observe the incompetence of this administration. Many countries have offered money and/or assistance, some have said they'll help if the US asks, saying the US is the best at handling this kind of situations (nice way of getting out of actually pledging to help,) all expressed sorrow and sympathy for the victims.

Only few had the guts to say what many were probably thinking. In the Netherlands, much of which lies below sea level as in New Orleans, and where massive hydraulic sea walls known as the Delta Works were installed after devastating floods in 1953, there was some consternation that the Louisiana city was so poorly prepared:

"I don't want to sound overly critical, but it's hard to imagine that [the damage caused by Katrina] could happen in a Western country," Ted Sluijter, press spokesman for Neeltje Jans, the public park where the Delta Works are exhibited, was reported as saying by AP.

"It seemed like plans for protection and evacuation weren't really in place, and once it happened, the coordination" was poor.

He sees it too. I guess I'm not totally paranoid.