Why?
- Thread starter Fit_mommy
- Start date
I don't know Wendy, maybe they think they can sort out their own problems without any outside help? And I'm pretty sure my country wasn't the only one to offer help. The Brits did too.
This whole thing has really upset me. I'm watching news reports from FOUR different countries (Dutch TV, the UK, Germany and Belgium). What I see could be news reports from some African third world country like Somalia or something.
The question that is being asked today more and more is why do we only see Afro-American people who were left behind and dying? Why are the only white people we see reporters or aid-workers? Is the money divide a racial divide? To be fair, it is mentioned in most news reports that the Afro-Americans were a majority in cities like for instance New Orleans.
I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone here. I really don't mean to, so if the reports that I've seen are in any way bias, please let me know. It's just that this specifically has been a topic in the office today and the neighbourhood and it's been on my mind for a while now. I have to admit I'm not sure whether I should post this at all.
Dutchie
This whole thing has really upset me. I'm watching news reports from FOUR different countries (Dutch TV, the UK, Germany and Belgium). What I see could be news reports from some African third world country like Somalia or something.
The question that is being asked today more and more is why do we only see Afro-American people who were left behind and dying? Why are the only white people we see reporters or aid-workers? Is the money divide a racial divide? To be fair, it is mentioned in most news reports that the Afro-Americans were a majority in cities like for instance New Orleans.
I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone here. I really don't mean to, so if the reports that I've seen are in any way bias, please let me know. It's just that this specifically has been a topic in the office today and the neighbourhood and it's been on my mind for a while now. I have to admit I'm not sure whether I should post this at all.
Dutchie
nancy324
Cathlete
I agree Wendy. A NY Times opinion today stated:
Before 9/11 the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed the three most likely catastrophic disasters facing America: a terrorist attack on New York, a major earthquake in San Francisco and a hurricane strike on New Orleans. "The New Orleans hurricane scenario," The Houston Chronicle wrote in December 2001, "may be the deadliest of all." It described a potential catastrophe very much like the one now happening.
So why were New Orleans and the nation so unprepared? After 9/11, hard questions were deferred in the name of national unity, then buried under a thick coat of whitewash. This time, we need accountability.
First question: Why have aid and security taken so long to arrive? Katrina hit five days ago - and it was already clear by last Friday that Katrina could do immense damage along the Gulf Coast. Yet the response you'd expect from an advanced country never happened. Thousands of Americans are dead or dying, not because they refused to evacuate, but because they were too poor or too sick to get out without help - and help wasn't provided. Many have yet to receive any help at all.
There will and should be many questions about the response of state and local governments; in particular, couldn't they have done more to help the poor and sick escape? But the evidence points, above all, to a stunning lack of both preparation and urgency in the federal government's response.
Even military resources in the right place weren't ordered into action. "On Wednesday," said an editorial in The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss., "reporters listening to horrific stories of death and survival at the Biloxi Junior High School shelter looked north across Irish Hill Road and saw Air Force personnel playing basketball and performing calisthenics. Playing basketball and performing calisthenics!"
Maybe administration officials believed that the local National Guard could keep order and deliver relief. But many members of the National Guard and much of its equipment - including high-water vehicles - are in Iraq. "The National Guard needs that equipment back home to support the homeland security mission," a Louisiana Guard officer told reporters several weeks ago.
Second question: Why wasn't more preventive action taken? After 2003 the Army Corps of Engineers sharply slowed its flood-control work, including work on sinking levees. "The corps," an Editor and Publisher article says, citing a series of articles in The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, "never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security - coming at the same time as federal tax cuts - was the reason for the strain."
In 2002 the corps' chief resigned, reportedly under threat of being fired, after he criticized the administration's proposed cuts in the corps' budget, including flood-control spending.
Third question: Did the Bush administration destroy FEMA's effectiveness? The administration has, by all accounts, treated the emergency management agency like an unwanted stepchild, leading to a mass exodus of experienced professionals.
Last year James Lee Witt, who won bipartisan praise for his leadership of the agency during the Clinton years, said at a Congressional hearing: "I am extremely concerned that the ability of our nation to prepare for and respond to disasters has been sharply eroded. I hear from emergency managers, local and state leaders, and first responders nearly every day that the FEMA they knew and worked well with has now disappeared."
I don't think this is a simple tale of incompetence. The reason the military wasn't rushed in to help along the Gulf Coast is, I believe, the same reason nothing was done to stop looting after the fall of Baghdad. Flood control was neglected for the same reason our troops in Iraq didn't get adequate armor.
At a fundamental level, I'd argue, our current leaders just aren't serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don't like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice.
Yesterday Mr. Bush made an utterly fantastic claim: that nobody expected the breach of the levees. In fact, there had been repeated warnings about exactly that risk.
So America, once famous for its can-do attitude, now has a can't-do government that makes excuses instead of doing its job. And while it makes those excuses, Americans are dying.
Before 9/11 the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed the three most likely catastrophic disasters facing America: a terrorist attack on New York, a major earthquake in San Francisco and a hurricane strike on New Orleans. "The New Orleans hurricane scenario," The Houston Chronicle wrote in December 2001, "may be the deadliest of all." It described a potential catastrophe very much like the one now happening.
So why were New Orleans and the nation so unprepared? After 9/11, hard questions were deferred in the name of national unity, then buried under a thick coat of whitewash. This time, we need accountability.
First question: Why have aid and security taken so long to arrive? Katrina hit five days ago - and it was already clear by last Friday that Katrina could do immense damage along the Gulf Coast. Yet the response you'd expect from an advanced country never happened. Thousands of Americans are dead or dying, not because they refused to evacuate, but because they were too poor or too sick to get out without help - and help wasn't provided. Many have yet to receive any help at all.
There will and should be many questions about the response of state and local governments; in particular, couldn't they have done more to help the poor and sick escape? But the evidence points, above all, to a stunning lack of both preparation and urgency in the federal government's response.
Even military resources in the right place weren't ordered into action. "On Wednesday," said an editorial in The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss., "reporters listening to horrific stories of death and survival at the Biloxi Junior High School shelter looked north across Irish Hill Road and saw Air Force personnel playing basketball and performing calisthenics. Playing basketball and performing calisthenics!"
Maybe administration officials believed that the local National Guard could keep order and deliver relief. But many members of the National Guard and much of its equipment - including high-water vehicles - are in Iraq. "The National Guard needs that equipment back home to support the homeland security mission," a Louisiana Guard officer told reporters several weeks ago.
Second question: Why wasn't more preventive action taken? After 2003 the Army Corps of Engineers sharply slowed its flood-control work, including work on sinking levees. "The corps," an Editor and Publisher article says, citing a series of articles in The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, "never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security - coming at the same time as federal tax cuts - was the reason for the strain."
In 2002 the corps' chief resigned, reportedly under threat of being fired, after he criticized the administration's proposed cuts in the corps' budget, including flood-control spending.
Third question: Did the Bush administration destroy FEMA's effectiveness? The administration has, by all accounts, treated the emergency management agency like an unwanted stepchild, leading to a mass exodus of experienced professionals.
Last year James Lee Witt, who won bipartisan praise for his leadership of the agency during the Clinton years, said at a Congressional hearing: "I am extremely concerned that the ability of our nation to prepare for and respond to disasters has been sharply eroded. I hear from emergency managers, local and state leaders, and first responders nearly every day that the FEMA they knew and worked well with has now disappeared."
I don't think this is a simple tale of incompetence. The reason the military wasn't rushed in to help along the Gulf Coast is, I believe, the same reason nothing was done to stop looting after the fall of Baghdad. Flood control was neglected for the same reason our troops in Iraq didn't get adequate armor.
At a fundamental level, I'd argue, our current leaders just aren't serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don't like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice.
Yesterday Mr. Bush made an utterly fantastic claim: that nobody expected the breach of the levees. In fact, there had been repeated warnings about exactly that risk.
So America, once famous for its can-do attitude, now has a can't-do government that makes excuses instead of doing its job. And while it makes those excuses, Americans are dying.
I, too, am deeply saddened and frustrated by the images on tv, news, papers, etc. I keep asking 'why' and wish I could do something. I just wanted to put in a word for being gentle and focusing on help, not blame. It just seems disrespectful to worry about pointing fingers and assessing blame when there are thousands of people in danger, dying and in desperate need of help. I know it's a reaction borne of frustration and helplessness, it's just not helpful, that's all. I'm trying to channel into productive things, but realize that may not be everyone's choice.
I understand from some friends who are involved in relief efforts that part of the problem is getting the necessary people and supplies in to the areas that need it most with the flooding and crippled transportation systems. It's not like they can air drop boxes of needed items and count on the crowds to distribute them equally... :-( If there isn't an organized system to provided food and water, the old and weak will certainly not stand much of a chance at getting anything, at least that's how it seems.
I understand from some friends who are involved in relief efforts that part of the problem is getting the necessary people and supplies in to the areas that need it most with the flooding and crippled transportation systems. It's not like they can air drop boxes of needed items and count on the crowds to distribute them equally... :-( If there isn't an organized system to provided food and water, the old and weak will certainly not stand much of a chance at getting anything, at least that's how it seems.
Fit_mommy
Cathlete
"Is the money divide a racial divide?"
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Dutchie:
From what I can tell by the news reports the people that were "left behind" were the poor who had no means to get out of the city and the majority of them just so happened to be black. I don't really think it's racial personally although I can understand why one might think that. No matter what, though, the fact remains that it is awful what these people are going through...
Tonight I heard on the news that the folks at the convention center (I believe) are being FORCED to stay there! The military will not let them leave!!! Some want to go off on thier own as they think they may fair better but are unable to get past a certain point! WTF? I guess it's because they are afraid that these people will use unlawful means to get what they need (quite possibly even turn violent) and there is certainly no need for anymore of THAT but it just seem so cruel considering the reported conditions that they are currently living in...
I almost started to cry tonight as I was watching some of the reports...It's just HORRIBLE! ;(
Hopefully they will get these folks out of there sooner rather than later!!!
************************
Dutchie:
From what I can tell by the news reports the people that were "left behind" were the poor who had no means to get out of the city and the majority of them just so happened to be black. I don't really think it's racial personally although I can understand why one might think that. No matter what, though, the fact remains that it is awful what these people are going through...
Tonight I heard on the news that the folks at the convention center (I believe) are being FORCED to stay there! The military will not let them leave!!! Some want to go off on thier own as they think they may fair better but are unable to get past a certain point! WTF? I guess it's because they are afraid that these people will use unlawful means to get what they need (quite possibly even turn violent) and there is certainly no need for anymore of THAT but it just seem so cruel considering the reported conditions that they are currently living in...
I almost started to cry tonight as I was watching some of the reports...It's just HORRIBLE! ;(
Hopefully they will get these folks out of there sooner rather than later!!!