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Luke Lieberman
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Katrina
September 2, 2005 - 02:06 AM
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Before I get into this topic I just wanted to comment my amazement at the fact that no one else has addressed it until now -
I have been getting a number of emails from members asking me what happened to the level of dialogue on this website - no important topics are being discussed - "why are teachers mean" "what's my favorite color" this is the petty level of debate that has been occuring - it is completely underusing the website.
I know people who have left the site because is basically has become lame - "softball".
What I always liked about it was that we got to the heart of the matter and discussed major topics - even if we don't always agree.
Katrina is the greatest natural disaster to befall a powerful country in a hundred years.
There are good ordinary people who are starving, babies dying of dehydration, 80% of a major city is underwater.
These are not the wealthy and powerful stranded on rooftops as flood waters reach 15 feet high - these are poor southern people - I might mention that 2/3 of New Orleans residents are African American.
The governments response has been a day late and a dollar short.
there has been a collapse of law and order and the city has turned into a demiliterized zone.
foreign governments are offering "aid" packadges which are basically a joke - Japan offered $200,000 - I feel like throwing it back in their face - such a meaningless sum.
I think that is what we should spend on the military defense of their country next year and I am going to write to my Senator to that effect.
even on this website after the Tsunami there were no end to the articles and outpouring of sympathy.
I have noticed such sympathy is greatly lacking where the victims of Katrina are concerned - as though this had anything to do with international politics - instead of having everything to do with simple human suffering.
if you really care about humanity you don't get to pick and choose which suffering humans to care about.
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nGr8
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Re: Katrina
September 2, 2005 - 03:04 AM
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The world sympathises, but the event is recent and reliable information is hard to come by. The American media covering the event did a poor job of initially underestimating the damage and continues to do a poor job of assessing the situation. Even though news filters out, it is still not possible to get any idea of the scope of the problem. And it is difficult for people to talk about something when one still has little idea what is happening.
Re: Japan, others.. Since the US govt has been slow to assess their own needs, many countries who would like to help have had their offers ignored. Make sure you don't take your frustrations with the storm (or your own government) out on others.
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Luke Lieberman
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Re: Katrina
September 2, 2005 - 04:58 AM
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I'm sorry but Japan offering up 200,000 is basically just an insult - I should make more than that MYSELF in the next 2 years and I'm a 26 year old kid.
It was clear that a major city was flooded to the roof tops.
I would say that the media has been dealing with it as best they can - it is not an easy situaiton -
and frankly I have been enheartened to see members of the media really laying into politicains in a way I have never seen before in this country.
watching Anderson Cooper yelling at a Senator and even conservative newspapers really taking it to Bush - now the politicians are scrambling to get ahead of the situation.
And it is a difficult situation to stabilize - there is an Oil spill in the Gulf now too because the Hurricane cracked some major Oil tankers.
More later - I have to run.
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Udara
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Lets Stop Blaming Each Others!
September 2, 2005 - 07:18 AM
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Guys, I will be in the hurricane stricken areas in few hours and will let you know updates once i return from Mississippi. Right now, lets stop putting the blame on others but lets try to do something conducive, shall we?
cheers,
Udara
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Luke Lieberman
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Re: Katrina
September 2, 2005 - 08:18 AM
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Udara - thank you for your help - it is amazing that you will come so far to help strangers -
I am in your debt.
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Matt
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Re: Katrina
September 2, 2005 - 08:25 AM
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you shouldnt say the 200000 from Japan is a joke, really. i am sure the people in the affected area are not going to be insulted if $200000 of food was somehow able to get to them...
" if you really care about humanity you don't get to pick and choose which suffering humans to care about. "
i think most people may think that the USA is "rich, and can look after themselves" whereas the tsunami left many poor areas even poorer..?
and i heard somewhere that the government cut emergency relief spending by 40% to spend it on the war in Iraq? is this correct???!?!?!?!
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Jose Menacho Galiano
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My support to Katrina's Victims
September 3, 2005 - 01:40 AM
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I was very impressed of what I watched on TV news about "Katrina's Hurricane"... images describes the dissaster and the desperately survivors. All what I try to transmit is my close condolences and support to americans in those difficult days and thinking on how world is so fragile.
Lot of voices claimed of some environmmental crimes into the mexican gulf... dissapearing natural defenses like the islands in front of New Orleans and the global heating.
Is hard to see those childrens, and oldest faces with hungry, or mothers claiming help. At this point any kind of society could be a probably victim of any tragedy and in those cases we need the support and cooperation between all countries.
In spite of the fact, USA acts - for lot of world population - like the sheriff or emperaor of the planet, now they need an extend helping hand of any of us. News report the aid in medicines, food, oil and doctors, of countries like Cuba, Rusia, Mexico or Venezuela and in the opposite way the not reaction of allies like Europe.
Perhaps, western world confused Bush with USA, but the real thing is that real people ( most of them poors ) are the main victims of this dissaster. Americans, their people, are really cool for me, than any people of any corner of the world.
I hope musical stars gave their aid too with some benefit concerts. Blues and jazz originated in Missisipi and New Orleans regions, and hope to see big names like BB King, Eric Clapton, Rolling Stones making something and why not Sting honoring "Bourbon Street". Is time to return something to this city and specially to the victims ( Childrens and olders )
With regards and sympaties,
Jose
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Michael Furdyk
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Katrina
September 3, 2005 - 02:36 AM
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First of all, there have been a few discussions on the site already... in different boards  there are still too many I think because it is easy for things to get lost.
Two things to me are really pretty embarassing for the US in this situation:
1) Really, how could there not be a better, faster response to this? Where are the resources that something like this should immediately (or even beforehand) have allocated to it.
2) Seriously, people are actually shooting at police/hospitals/other people. I couldn't believe this.
I think the interesting thing that's happening here is that the real extent of inner-city poverty in North America is being exposed... how desperate people actually are and how there really has been no social net or support that they feel loyal to or even have basic regard for.
Basically, this is what happens when you don't have a fair (or even reasonable) enough balance of rich and poor.
I'm not talking about people breaking in to stores to get basic needs, but seriously, stealing from hospitals and shoe stores?
I think that rather than look at the amount of external aid being given (because really, so much happens on a local level anyway in this type of case - for example, in Canada our airline is flying down supplies and providing free flights to relief workers), we need to look at the bigger picture of the need for more investment domestically in "aid" -- higher minimum wages, better education, affordable houses... instead of things like tax breaks & defense spending.
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Desert ROSE
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Re: Katrina
September 3, 2005 - 03:25 AM
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well i was just reading a local newspaper here and it says that Senator David Vitter says and expects that the victims of Hurricane Katrina are going to be more than 10 thousands in Louisiana alone ,they also mentioned that governor Kathleen Blanco critisized the delay in sending what's needed for the ppl there she also asked ppl to pray for them and to turn to God for strength so let's atleast pray to God to help these ppl because they really need our prays
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Cherrie
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Re: Katrina
September 3, 2005 - 05:03 AM
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Images on CNN show quite a desperate and abandoned scene. I am shocked by the lack of response and that in America, people are lying around on broken bridges with dead relatives around them with no help. I am sure that this is not the case today (as this image was yesterday), but very shocking. But the news also said that the apparently slow response was due to the decision to quarantine the place to make sure that diseases don't spread and that the toxins from nearby plants aren't causing any problems.
I think what shocks me the most is the huge gap between the America on TV (as in "Desperate Housewives" and even "reality TV" and the actuality of these people in New Orleans. Nobody expected to see such high levels of poverty. Apparently, 40% of people in New Orleans were already in poverty. I forget where the threshold was, but CNN quoted this. It is hard to understand how a country can be in such a state when it prides itself in prosperity, opportunity and equality?
But to be honest, apart from CNN on cable TV, there has not been a lot of coverage on the news here. Don't get me wrong, it is the main story every night, but it doesn't feel as urgent and sad as it is. Unfortunately, I cannot compare to the coverage of the "Asia Tsunami" as I was actually in Asia at the time and it was VERY urgent there... basically every news article brought me close to tears.
I guess it is confusing for me to observe from such a distance... the news interviews the people on the ground, asking them how they have been surviving. They also concentrate on the words of George Bush. There seems to be information missing about the actual relief effort. I did not know about the help from Canada nor the help from Japan. Surely any help is something!!! I think we should be grateful for any help... just think, in these past few days we saw the best and worst of people... we try to concentrate on the good of course, but at least there is awareness...
Over the past 1165 days, 4 042 030 people died of cancer in North America...voiceless...
So I don't think any help is a joke. At least they are helping and not turning a blind eye. If you laugh at someone trying to help, that might deter others from helping in the future...
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Luke Lieberman
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Re: Katrina
September 3, 2005 - 07:43 AM
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Matt - 200,000 is of course helpful - any money is helpful - even if it be $1
That said - Japan is a major trading partner who does 100's of Billions of $ with the US every year. They are a very wealthy country.
200,000 is less then the value of 1 home.
It's kind of like someone cuts your arm off and you buddy is handing you a bandaid - their supposed to be your buddy, they should be calling an ambulance.
mfurdyk - I hear what you are saying about exposing poverty.
I don't think that New Orleans is a normal North American City in that respect - they had high poverty and crime rates - it is in the deep south - to put it simply, people in places like Mississippi and Louisiana are poorer then the average North Eastern or Californian city - or Canadian City.
that said your point is well taken.
I think it also drives home a rather stark point about gun control - I think if I had a family in that situation I would want a handgun to protect them, but it is equally obvious that civilians have NO BUSSINESS weilding AUTOMATIC WEAPONS.
It does not need to be a right to own an AK 47 just because you want to hunt and protect your family.
The lowest point in this that I have seen is the sniper shooting at Hospital staff and patients who were trying to evacuate.
The national guard blew his head off - good.
I think 2 things become clear from this -
1 - The US is trying to stabilize and recreate a nationa in the middle-east which is completely foreign - how does Bush expect to secure Fallujah if he cannot even instill order in New Orleans.
2 - this natural disaster was on our radar for a week - a nuclear attack would not have any warning at all - the Feds are obviously not prepaired to deal with such an emergancy.
But ultimately there was a fundamental lack of leadership - there was not really a lack of rescources so much as a lack of command and control - the dept of Homeland Defense is a joke, and nothing seemed to be able to reach its destination.
America can drop food into African conflict zones, but not the Superdome.
The bus drivers were scared to go to the Superdome for fear of violence from looters -
give them an apache hellicopter escort - some guy tries to jack a bus - take him out - these looters are just jokers, they are not going to take on the military, one or two of them goes down and the rest will back off.
get the innocent people out of the city, by whatever means neccissary - so some leadership, have some courage and get it done.
The last thing I'll say before I jump off is that Bush mised a golden opportunity politically - his ratings were the lowest ever because of Iraq - but when the disaster hit no one was talking about Iraq anymore -
had he simply been on top of the situation he would have made his second term.
Instead he was late reacting and even conservative Republicans are questioning his leadership.
he is in a deep hole - forget his "Agenda" - he is not going to be allowed to posit any "new" ideas unless they directly alleviate the disaster.
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Common-Man
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Re: Katrina
September 4, 2005 - 01:32 AM
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Well! It's very sad.
At July end we had floods in Mumbai, which collapsed the entire system here.Everybody blamed the local government for inaction and inadequate disaster management. The media was busy talking about how such a situation would have been handled by USA, about how efficient the US disaster management is. But now I feel that our confidence and optimism about having conquered the nature does not allow us to expect things to go so bad. That is why the Maharashtra govt. failed to deliver and probably that's why the Bush administration too wasn't upto the expectations.
But what I feel to be still worse is how people take opportunity of such disasters. The media especially bakes its own bread on these things. And things like rapes of infants are horrible beyond imagination.
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clarita zarate
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Bush's political opportunism
September 4, 2005 - 02:54 AM
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Bottom line is that Bush and the politicians had knowledge that something really bad was predicted to happen sooner or later and they made NO effort to take the preventative measures that might have made this disaster a lot less harmful. they could have spent money strengthening the levies so that the water would not have totally washed out the entire city of new orleans. They could have done something in advance. But instead they are just trying to look good and capitalize politically on the situation.
The fact is, most of the people in New Orleans and the surrounding areas are black and poor. And Bush and his crowd have never cared about those people and never will. Everything else is political posturing.
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Matt
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Re: Katrina
September 4, 2005 - 05:36 AM
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i find it strange how slow the government is reacting.
Even if there was an effort before the hurricane struck, most of the people there would not have been able to leave because they do not own cars, cannot afford transport out of the area... they were doomed from the start.
i cannot comprehend how there are people going hungry in the cities... surely it is not hard to airlift food in. The superdome has a roof? maybe that is confusing them? The army managed to get there, so whats the problem?
The bigger picture? Is that there does need to be a more $$$$ spent on education etc... and the military is a good source of wasted money...
Its just a shame that something like this needed to happen to expose poverty (the extent) in the US to the rest of us. Maybe now there might be more initiatives to deal with it.
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Lewis Best
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Re: Katrina
September 4, 2005 - 06:07 AM
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What I find very disturbing is the fact that the US Administration had at least a week's warning about Katrina. In a week, they have enough time to perform actions that may have made the disaster easier to handle.
And other than that, it doesn't cast a bright light over the US ability to respond to disasters, natural or otherwise.
I just hope and pray that lives will be saved. Even the hospitals are flooded, no power, and no supplies. Doctors can only guess what some patients need, and as aresult, some have died.
God be with those in New Orleans. At the moment, that is all that they can hold onto!
Besty
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