Water, water everywhere: Britain’s Katrina…?

New British Prime Minister Gordon Brown must feel fated to suffer the perils of Pauline during his tenure. After all, within days after he succeeded Tony Blair a few weeks ago (on June 27), Brown had to contend with terrorizing attempts by wannabe al-Qaeda martyrs to set off car bombs in London and Scotland. And now he’s having to play the role of a latter-day Noah to help Britons escape floods of truly biblical proportions.

But, with casualties rising even faster than flood levels, widespread looting, panic buying and forecasts of worse (in all respects) yet to come, Brown will need a miracle to restore calm to much of the affected areas.

The irony is not lost on me, however, that media coverage of the desperate and abandoned (white) souls who are treading water for dear life in England today, is eerily similar to the media coverage of the desperate and abandoned (black) souls who were doing the same in New Orleans (after Katrina) in 2005.

But conspicuously absent from the coverage in England is any commentary about Britons merely using the floods to vent their predisposition for looting and other kinds of depraved behavior. By contrast, recall how such (racist) commentary characterized the heroic efforts of black Americans trying to survive the desolation and deprivation Katrina left in her wake. Never mind that the only thing racist about the way people behaved was the failure of Bush Administration officials to appreciate the suffering of black folks and render timely humanitarian aid.

Meanwhile, no one should be surprised that just as people did what they had to do to survive Katrina, so too will they do what they must to survive these floods. Nor, for that matter, should anyone be surprised that a few white thugs will exploit this situation just as a few black thugs exploited the crisis in New Orleans.

Nevertheless, let’s hope that British officials perform their duties and responsibilities with far greater urgency and due care than their counterparts did in America. Although it does not bode well – given yesterday’s London Times report that: