Well it's that time of the week again and, until above ten minutes ago, I have been unsure as to the obvious choice for this week's Swine. The first two holders of this dubious distinction were annoying, irritating but today things have gone a little further than that.

To quote the mayor of New Orleans: "I am pissed." Now I had a post in mind for tomorrow concerning yet another specific reason why world opinion of the US is so low but it has been overwhelmed by the subject of this post instead.

Tomorrow's would-be post was inspired when I heard that some people over there were calling Hurricane Katrina, 'their Tsunami'. I was immediately reminded of when the site of the world trade centre attacks was dubbed 'ground zero', that being the term used to describe the impact sites of the two nuclear weapons the US dropped on Japan.

Such ignorant insensitivity gets right on my tits and I was intending to suggest and subsequently dismiss the kind of 'Flowers for Algenon' argument that might be used to defend this. This argument would run that having had a more comfortable lifestyle, physical hardship and tragedy are even harder to bear. Of course this assumes that the majority of mankind not lucky enough to be pampered like us, are somehow more suited to pain and death.

I was thinking about this as I turned on Channel 4 news today and saw what was happening on the Gulf Coast of the US. I'll be honest, I was almost driven to tears by what I saw. Children, the sick and the elderly are dying in the streets, police are abandoning their posts and armed mobs are running riot in the disease ridden streets. It's as if a whole city of people has been plunged into some post-apocalyptic future hell.

Despite how low my opinion of the US is, or rather it's administration and practices, not the people, I was still stunned that such a rich and powerful nation could allow such a situation to arise. The mayor of New Orleans's impassioned and aforequoted radio interview pointed out that when it came to attacks on New York or the war in Iraq, money and action appeared pretty much at the click of the President's fingers.

It's almost a week since this crisis began and the federal government has still not even made a dent on the problem. Troops are now apparently 'on their way' to relieve the crumbling police forces but their main role is to be to shoot dead anyone seen looting. Will this apply to those stealing food and supplies or trying to break into hotels for shelter? Probably.

I also wondered, given that almost every suffering person on my TV was poor and black, (traditionally a Democrat voting demographic,) would such a thing have been allowed to happen if the devastation had been reeked on Florida with its rich white people and retired nazi war criminals. I have to say I think not.

Now you have to wonder, given the number of regular army and national guard reservists in Iraq and the vast amounts of money being spent there every single day, not to mention the quite horrific state of the US economy, has Bush left the US without sufficient resources to respond to the situation?

Whatever the reasons, Bush is giving the same old speeches, stumbling over his words and smirking while claiming that his Airforce1 'flyby' on the way home from his summer holiday has given him first-hand experience of the situation.

Now Bush could well be this week's Swine but then he could probably claim the title every week if we let him. No, it's a wider hog net this week so let's change the subject to better define the catch. A video statement from one of the London bombers was aired recently in which he asserts that his immediate motive for the attack was British foreign policy in Afghanistan and Iraq.

How many times has Blair told us that the London bombings are not connected to Iraq? No, no, they're just mental, that's all, it's a sinister brainwashing plot on the part of 'twisted Islam' honest, nothing to do with the war for which I will always be remembered. Well, with all due respect, fuck you Tony, it's about time you took your fingers out of your big jug ears.

While our war against the people of Iraq is illegal and amoral it certainly does not in any way excuse the London bombings. It does, however, quite clearly now explain them. The whole issue of the nature of Islam is a red herring because what this comes down to is something far more wide ranging: there is only a certain amount of shit that people will eat.

Now I don't agree with this guy's justification for his actions and not simply because I am a pacifist. He said that we are all responsible for the deaths of Muslims at the hands of our democratically elected government. Well I didn't vote for this government and I protested in a variety of ways against the war as did, quite literally, millions of other people in this country, in London in particular.

The mistake I feel this guy made was to believe that the governments of the UK and the US accurately represent their people. However it has arisen, our current situation is that the self righteous politician in his(1) suit and tie runs the country from an ivory tower and is either unwilling or unable to recognise and engage with the world the rest of us have to live in.

So whether it's Bush ambling about while his countrymen quite literally die in shit, or Blair desperately trying to make something true by repeating it often enough, despite blatant contrary evidence, this week's Swine of the Week are those self righteous politicians who believe that their democratic credentials give them the right to choose who should live and who should die. Shame on them.

footnotes

(1) Yes his. Women may have the vote and claim to have won equality in the west, but are 50% of the MPs in the commons, or any other parliament, female?