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September 02, 2005
New Orlean's after Katrina
I'm not the first to say this, but it's amazing that the images coming from New Orlean's are of a city in the richest country in the world. It looks like Bangladesh.
Forgetting for a minute that officials and the Army Corp of Engineers have been warning various levels of governments for years that the levees could fail, could aid have reached the people in New Orleans any faster than it has? FEMA was prepared to deal with the results of a hurricane but didn't count on a flood. It's not like there is a branch of the army just sitting around in one place waiting to deal with this sort of catastrophe. Plans have to be made and people have to be mobilized. Equipment has to be moved into place. That takes a certain amount of time. I'm sure there was action on some level from the beginning of the crisis but on a scale that wasn't obvious. While lessons can be learned from earlier storms or disasters, each crisis is different and has to be dealt with as it arises. No doubt bad decisions were made, but I'm sure mostly people who were there did all they could do as soon as they could.
Having said that, it would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall as Bush and cronies were discussing their response. Did it matter to them that most of the affected people were poor? Did they hold off sending aid or support while trying to find a way to do it on the cheap? Was having so many troops in Iraq have an affect on the kind of response they could make or the speed they could make it? I'd like to think that the welfare of the victims was paramount in the minds of officials and bureaucrats, but who knows.
Posted by John at September 2, 2005 04:59 PM
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Comments
...apparently Kanye West (sp?) doesn't think enough is being done. I saw a clip on CNN of him doing one of those celeb. relief promo spots and he said "President Bush doesn't care about black people." They cut him off at that point and broadcast a disclaimer saying that his opinions are his own and not of the network - that he had deviated from the scripted comments prepared for him... blah blah... but it seems to me that they didn't have to broadcast his comment at all! :P I'll never understand american media.
Posted by: Kerry at September 3, 2005 11:02 AM
Apparently that show was live on the east coast but delayed for the west coast. On the second showing they cut him off.
In my initial comment I thought I was being reasonable but it does seem now that the federal government was dragging its feet in getting support down there. The immensity of the destruction caught them off guard. Another black eye for Bush and Co.
Posted by: John at September 7, 2005 07:35 AM
...too bad there are 3 more years before the next Federal election in the states. Although I've heard murmerings of impeachment. hmmm...
How's Amsterdam! Friends of mine were there and I just got a postcard... red light district, of course. haha
Posted by: Kerry at September 8, 2005 01:45 PM