Hurricane aid pours in

From Sri Lanka to France, emergency relief is sent, but tinged with criticism of US handling of the disaster.

By Peter Ford Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

PARIS – Governments around the world rushed aid and relief teams to America's stricken southern states on Monday - some repaying past favors the United States has offered them to recover from natural disasters - while their citizens continued to express amazement and dismay at the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In a dramatic reversal of usual roles, small nations such as Sri Lanka - badly hit by last December's tsunami - have extended their hands to the most powerful country on earth. And after initial ambivalence, American officials were accepting offers of help from over 50 countries with thanks.

... Commentators have returned time and again to the fact that the vast majority of flood victims, left to fend for themselves, are poor African-Americans. "America has been forced to wake up to the racial injustice that has been its historic curse," Jonathan Freedland wrote in Monday's edition of the left-leaning London daily The Guardian.