From the SMA: Statement on Hurricane Katrina
The Society for Medical Anthropology (SMA), the nation's largest organization of medical anthropologists, expresses its heartfelt concern and support to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. While the SMA recognizes that the disaster began as a natural event, it is clear to us that it rapidly became a humanmade disaster of horrific proportions.
As medical anthropologists whose professional focus is human life and well-being, we conclude that the catastrophic extent of the damage was the result of inadequate planning and preparedness to meet a major natural disaster that had been predicted for years beforehand, and when it occurred, insufficient attention to and resources for many tens of thousands of people. These people - primarily poor, black, sick, in nursing homes, elderly, and/or disabled - were not provided with basic human rights and essentials, such as clean water, food, medical care, and decent shelter for days on end after the storm had ended.
People died waiting for help that never came. Despite the billions of taxpayer dollars that have been spent in recent years on homeland security, weak links in the infrastructure of American cities have been neglected, now with tragic results in New Orleans and the region. The vulnerability of New Orleans was widely known and generally ignored by those who hold responsibility to protect and serve the American people.
The SMA recommends that officials at local, state, and national levels, in combination with concerned citizens, assure that those at fault be subject to full legal consequences. We also call for a national examination of the response failures, social and environmental vulnerabilities, and lack of compassion exposed by Hurricane Katrina, including the role of both active and passive racism and disregard for poor, aged, disabled, and working people in this tragedy. The SMA urges our government to define homeland security in terms of adequate prevention as well as response, and to include ALL the American population, regardless of age, class and ethnicity, in its promise of security.
The SMA asks our members and affiliates to consider the multiple ways that they may contribute to mitigating the social, economic, and health effects of the disaster. It is critical that we, as a community of concerned scholars, committed to the relevance and applicability of our discipline, get involved. Such activities may involve donations, offers to house displaced students, faculty, researchers or practitioners, or volunteering in relief efforts.
Many organizations have established websites with information for those wishing to help. To access links to this information, please consult the SMA’s website (www.medanthro.net), the website of our parent organization, the American Anthropological Association (www.aaanet.org), and the Katrina relief site maintained by the American Public Health Association (www.apha.org/preparedness/Katrina_relief.htm).