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The stench of abandonment: the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrine cannot be passed over as an 'act of God' that sits outside human control.

Article Excerpt
The dead were left adrift in the flood, snagged in debris, slumped outside the 'shelters'. More than 1200 people died as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Reports from overwhelmed emergency workers repeat the story of having to disregard the dead in the ad hoc scramble to assist the living. After Katrina made landfall on 29 August, those 300,000 or more displaced persons huddled on freeway overpasses or crammed into the Louisiana Superdome and Convention Centre waited five or six days to be properly housed. The dead had to wait too. Their neglect is a mute accusation that should be joined with the criticisms of the failure to provide basic care for the vulnerable.

What is owed to the dead? It is a sign of deep social trouble when the living cannot fulfil their responsibilities to the dead. It marks a break in the assumption of trust and mutual respect that must underpin community. And, as Antigone reminds us, respect for the dead is also a test for the legitimacy of power, running as deep as human community itself. A social or political order that...

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