Afraid of fraud

Being afraid, being very afraid* is almost a mantra in the western world today. And sometimes it seems that what we are most afraid of is someone else getting more then she/he deserves. As a reply to our tendency to be afraid, be very afraid, the angel sits in the tomb and says: "Do not be afraid." And he goes on and tells us why: "Jesus is not here; for he has been raised."

There are so many thoughts that catch one’s mind, being here in Louisiana. Not all of them are directly connected to the floods. But are rather parts of my cultural experience. Tonight we met a political scientist at his home and spoke about the situation in Pre- and Post-New Orleans, Church Camps, and crocodiles. In the discussion I got stuck, thinking about being afraid of fraud.

It caught my attention when I moved to this country, how people are afraid of fraud. Even College Football coaches can stop the game, and let a panel of judges look on TV-screens to see if the referees on the field made the right call. Being wrong, shall be avoided by all means. In the days after the storm, part of the police was sent out to watch that people were not stealing TV’s. We have picture of soldiers with machine guns walking in the water, ready to fight the injustice while bodies waited to be found in other parts of town.

We see it also in the work of FEMA. It seems to be as important to stop people that don’t deserve having a trailer to life in, as to get a trailer to those who need one. For a foreigner it looks like that the possibility of misuse of the system is more money and time consuming than the cost of the misuse of someone undeserving. Thoughts of the "terrible" people misusing the system are understandable. The free riders cost the government money. But it is claimed in the 25. Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that

everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and
well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing, and
medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the
event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of
livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

And according to this it seems that anyone at the Gulf should be allowed live in one of the FEMA-trailers waiting at I-59, even without proper paperwork. At least it can be said that the circumstances here are still surely beyond control. And is it a real problem that someone misuses the opportunity to live in a 30’ trailer for a long time? I assume that most people would try to stay in the trailer for as short as possible, and if not, they are probably in circumstances beyond one’s control, and need the help anyway.

* From the movie The Fly (1986)