Thu, 01 Sep 2005

New Orlean's shame

This is self-explanatory.

When I saw the images of what's going on in New Orleans, the first thing I thought is that if the news had been talking about Asia or Africa, I would have very well believed those images were shot there. It's obvious that when it comes to extreme natural disasters like Katrina, the first and third world are quite alike.

I hope all our community people in the area are ok, even if not thanks to dubya. Some day he'll realise that saying "God bless you" isn't enough.

Jordi: People are dieing everywhere. There is never a time you can smile, laugh, sing a song, go for a run/cycle/swim or anything else that someone isn't starving, being raped, swindled, or murdered.

Sorry, that's the real world and I think think a greater tragedy would be to let the bad things eliminate joy from the world all together. Refusing to be miserable is not evil.

--Rob

Posted by Rob J. Caskey at Thu Sep 1 15:15:26 2005

Rob, if I have posted this is because it seemed to me Bush hasn't done much to prevent the hundreds or thousands of deaths. It reminds me of the goat book reading in Florida 4 years ago.

Sure, this is a major hurricane and nobody can do anything to avoid it. You can try to minimise the impact. Playing a guitar doesn't.

A big US city has been destroyed. Where is he now?

Posted by Jordi at Thu Sep 1 15:19:33 2005

God bless America!! ¬¬

What about Kyoto protocol?

Posted by Juan José at Thu Sep 1 15:43:18 2005

A lot of this reminded me of another natural disaster: the New Years Tsunami disaster. 

America had the advantage of advanced warning systems and an intially low death toll (would have been horrific in a third world country) but the cleanup would be difficult in any country.  I am amazed so many people choose to live in known disaster areas but there is only so much control ordinary people have over where they live and the decades of government (not just Bush) have a lot responsibility for mismanagement and disaster prevention. 
It is a very tough situation and no less tragic than an act of terrorism but declaring War on nature is not a vote winner.

Posted by Alan at Thu Sep 1 16:17:05 2005

I feel that this blog entry is either misguided or the result of ignorance.  Why not redirect these negative energies to something more helpful?  I suggest contributing to the red cross at http://www.redcross.org.  Thank you.

Posted by Dennis at Thu Sep 1 18:08:07 2005

Dennis, sorry, but watching that boingboing link generates some anger on me. I'm not American and I don't care more about New Orleans that I care about the ongoing famine in Niger that the media is ignoring.

The difference between Niger, the tsunami and New Orleans is that with the resources available in the US, the impact of Katrina shouldn't be so big. I suspect that all your money, including the one needed to fix the dams or make them stronger is somewhere in the middle east right now.

Alan, I'm not calling for George Bush to declare war on the atmosphere or something. I just believe somethings can be done better so the results are not so devastating. Read above.

Posted by Jordi at Thu Sep 1 18:35:45 2005

> Alan, I'm not calling for George Bush to declare war on the atmosphere or something.

Attempting to address problems of Climate change, even admitting there is a problem would be a start which is what I was getting at. 

From what I have seen in the news Katrina has hurt American Oil production and sent petrol prices even higher (bet they are still cheaper than in Europe) so market forces will also be working hard to get things back up and running fast and I expect predictions may be overly pessimistic at the moment. 

Much as I dislike Bush I'm not ready to blame him for acts of God (not yet, but I've seen some funny jokes which have) and America has spent a massive amount of money on the military for a long time.  I think mismanagement over many goverments contributed to the problems rather than any any malice or lack of funds.

>> What about Kyoto protocol?

I'm pretty sure Clinton wouldn't have signed it either or at least would have done so knowing Congress would reject it because of the impact higher enviromental standards would have on the economy.

Posted by Alan at Thu Sep 1 19:12:44 2005

Kyoto protocol is not a economical thing.
Kyoto protocol is not a political matter.

Kyoto protocol is a bet for life, and someday, people in USA will have to think more in nature and less in market. The faster the better. While USA not continues accepting Kyoto protocol, world becomes more contaminated, and is more difficult to go back.

Ah, I don't believe in God. I believe in people that do things the best they can.

Posted by Juan José at Thu Sep 1 20:37:56 2005

>> Rob, if I have posted this is because it seemed
>> to me Bush hasn't done much to prevent the
>> hundreds or thousands of deaths.

Bullshit, nobody can stop the hurricane and New Orleans has ordered people to evacuate. Even they have a few huge shelters. Did they listen? Go figure, Jordi... However, Bush did declared Louisiana a state of emergency before the storm arrived, allowing more than 4,000 national guards to take up positions where they would be best placed for recovery efforts.

To get Bush's feet land in New Orleans isn't going to get New Orleans get better. Bush isn't God or Jesus. Therefore, life goes on...

Posted by Joe at Thu Sep 1 21:34:51 2005

Geez, thanks for pointing this out, where is his cape? Where is his suit? Is it just that he can't find a phonebooth, or that he doesn't car? He could be out there right now freezing the flood waters with his breath, and carrying them away to the antartic where the additional ice could prevent global warming.

WTF do you want? A staged, fake, photo op where he is personally feeding the displaced?

Posted by Russ at Thu Sep 1 22:45:01 2005

At least GWB hasn't gone to China in the middle of the crisis.

Posted by Miguel at Fri Sep 2 00:15:57 2005

>Bullshit, nobody can stop the hurricane and New >Orleans has ordered people to evacuate. Even they >have a few huge shelters. Did they listen?

don't be naive. most of the people who stayed did stay because they couldn't afford financially to go.
as usual, the poor are the ones who will suffer the most. natural selection, the american way.

Posted by emmanuel at Fri Sep 2 17:56:50 2005

Really? I was under the impression that most stayed because of the sheer number of hurricanes that were expected to hit New Orleans, but did not. I'm unaware of any issue with anyone who could not be evacuated to shelters but could not because of their finacial situation.

Posted by Russ at Fri Sep 2 19:51:25 2005

If people was not evacuated because of his financial situation, then USA government is STUPID.

What is cheaper: evacuate all people for free OR let people with money evacuate by therselves and after hurricane rescue all the remaining people?

Government has killed thousands of citizens by omission of help. This is INSOLIDARY.

Posted by Juan José at Sat Sep 3 11:48:35 2005

Jeesus H Christ people, how stupid can Bush apologists get? Nobody, NOBODY is claiming he's a superhero that should be out there in the water, "freezing the flood waters with his breath".

However, he is, or at least SHOULD be a leader, and a job of the leader consists of COORDINATING others, he SHOULD be sitting in office or somewhere building up a big picture from all available information sources and commandeering the operations accordingly.

Hell, if he's incapable of doing that, he could at least try to PRETEND to be sad and care about what's happening, instead of singing and dancing.

Posted by Juha S at Sun Sep 4 09:17:02 2005

this is the most stupidist thing ever especially for people who believe in God you are messed up people

Posted by katherina at Mon Dec 17 23:27:11 2007

this doesnt even teach anything for people who want to learn about hurricanes

Posted by katherina at Wed Dec 19 01:35:53 2007

this doesnt even teach anything for people who want to learn about hurricanes

Posted by katherina at Wed Dec 19 01:35:58 2007