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By Ramiro Andrade Terán

October 12, 2005

Original Article (Spanish)

Madame President?

Like a typical third-world nation, the United States is now a great carnival of contracts to reconstruct New Orleans and other areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. In the press and on television the disgusting business has been denounced. It is compromising the Government, which is practicing influence-pedaling by awarding contracts to companies that it favors. All the beneficiaries have one common denominator: they financed the electoral campaigns of Republicans. Over $3.5 billion has already been spent in the first phase [of reconstruction], and similar sums will be expended to raise one of America’s most beautiful cities out of ruin and desolation.

Has Bush Paved the Way for the Hillary?

The scandal has reached the Congress, which has named a commission to investigate what happened.  In the United States - unlike in Colombia - the legislature serves, works, is respected and has immense power. High level officials in Washington have been compromised by their connections with companies awarded multi-million dollar contracts. The cost projections of projects doubled and in many cases tripled, and a long list of former advisers to President Bush have been awarded deals. With remarkable cynicism, a Republican leader, who was at one time the inspector general of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, answered an interrogator's question by declaring: "the abuse cannot be prevented. The question is, what can we do to reduce it ... " Something similar to that which has been said in this country [Colombia]: "to reduce corruption to its proper proportions." In other words: rob with moderation, and without much noise. But, and yes, without pause.

The United States is passing through a dark time. Its society is badly affected by the phenomena of corruption, waste and cronyism. Great newspapers such as The New York Times have published information that has left millions of Americans overwhelmed. They inhabit an opulent society, but one that is palpably in the process of ethical decomposition.

Thurow: 'Corruption Must Be Rectified'

As Lester Thurow - the dean of MIT’s Sloan Business School - wrote recently in The Times of London, Americans will have to take advantage of the next election to rectify the vice and corruption that has so dramatically increased. This will begin "a process of adjustment that will be painful, difficult and prolonged." But indispensable. A nation with the role of the United States on the global scene cannot degrade itself in this manner. In a consumer culture where money is king, it is also necessary to maintain elementary norms of probity and decency in the management of public affairs as devastating as the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, of which thieves without scruples took gross advantage.

With all that is going on, it is becoming clear that the next occupant of the White House will be a Democrat. It would be good for her country and the world if Hillary Clinton became a candidate and assumed the Presidency. The rest of the world needs America’s rehabilitation and she has the talent and energy to devote to the task.

President Bush has done the necessary thing by ensuring the defeat of his party - the frequent mistakes of his government have fattened the electoral stock of the Democrats.