was a natural disaster now a humanitarian catastrophe

[Guest NickInTheNorth]

Watching the continued coverage of the appalling events in the gulf coast area, I am absolutely appalled at what is happening - or what is not happening.

 

There are people there starving and without water. There are bodies lying around and floating around. By all accounts there have been rapes and murders in the superdome.

 

By day 4 after the tsunami there was at least the start of a serious aid effort.

 

And what is happening in New Orleans? The governor is sending in "battle hardened national guard troops that are not afraid to open fire!" They are going to shoot looters. People trying to get food and water are going to be shot! Apparently 30000 national guard are going to be mobilised to help to restore order. Why not try helping people rather than intimidating them!

 

Why weren't 30000 national guardsmen mobilised when it was obvious what was going to happen in the area. Why weren't they on standby to provide aid.

 

Newt, you took us all to task here for ignoring the possible plight of your countrymen, and rightly so, as we did not seem to have taken on board the scale of the possible disaster threatening.

 

I am afraid that your governments, state and federal, are the ones that have really failed you and your countrymen.

 

Sorry for the rant, but when I see what is supposedly the most developed and richest country in the world reduced to the state of a third world country in the aftermath of a civil war it makes me very angry.

 

I hope that the effort is put into the aid effort real soon, and that the people there have their suffering ended as soon as possible.

[Leon Roskilly]

Is this America?

 

Anarchy

 

 

I'm stunned

 

 

Tight Lines - leon

 

[ 02. September 2005, 11:17 AM: Message edited by: Leon Roskilly ]

[corydoras]

I agree with you 100% Nick. When I was in the Merchant Navy, (many years ago now ) New Orleans was one of my favourite runs ashore. I have fond memories of the place. To see it reduced to a stinking quagmire that no one in authority seems to be willing or able to do anything about leaves me with a strange mixture of emotions; angry, saddened and bemused all at once.

 

I was listening to radio 4 this morning. Reports from some British folks who had being seeking 'refuge' in the Superdome made my blood run cold. It sounds like hell on earth in there.

[corydoras]

Leon Roskilly:

...I'm stunned

Stunned is an understatement. I am just at a total loss.

 

 

My old Grandad told me once, when I was about 10 years old, that civilisation was a very thin and fragile veneer. It looks as if he was correct.

 

[ 02. September 2005, 11:41 AM: Message edited by: corydoras ]

[poledark]

I think that if you read down the page there is some good news.

 

There does seem to be an inordinate amount of reporting the bad things, several mentions of rapes and shootings well to the top of the report, you have to work quite a long way down to see the bit about "several thousand being looked after in Houston"

 

Yes Leon it is America and the same would happen here if we had a similar disaster, I for one would be prepared to "loot" in order to get water and food...you don't seriously think that Americans are any different to the looters that appeared after the Tsunami do you?

 

Of course there weren't so many "reporters" and media men/women looking for something sensational to report.

 

In desperate situations people seek desperate remedies, and it is probably worse for people from highly modernised societies who are only used to getting all their supplies at the local store, or simply turning a switch or a tap to get water and light/heat. 48 hours without and you begin to panic a bit I would think.

Christ, I know lots of people in this country who can't cope when a train is a few minutes late.

 

Den

[Guest NickInTheNorth]

quote:

---

FEMA director Michael Brown said the agency just learned about the situation at the convention center Thursday and quickly scrambled to provide food, water and medical care and remove the corpses.

---

FEMA is the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

 

Even I knew about the situation on wednesday!!

 

What are those guys doing?

[Guest NickInTheNorth]

Hi Den

 

I don't have a problem with folks looting to get food and water, and other essential (I don't really have too big a problem with idiots that are prepared to loot other stuff too, where are they going with it?!).

 

But I do have a problem with a legitimate government shooting folks for doing so!

 

Yes I'm sure that had it happened here we would have problems too, but I doubt that the governments first response would be to use the army to shoot folks, but rather to help them.

[argyll]

'There does seem to be an inordinate amount of reporting the bad things'

 

Well perhaps thats because an inordinate amount of bad things are happening. You can forget Houston as a 'good thing' The Astrodome is now full to capacity with 11,000 people inside and now has the ability to turn into a bad thing overnight if the Houston authorities don't provide proper care.

 

The thing that occurs to me about all of these people with nowhere to go, is that the vast general population of the USA that have spare rooms, space, food, water, beds, clothes could and should be mobilised into helping 'one on one' In the nineteen forties in the UK it was called 'the wartime spirit' Perhaps thats one of the major differences between the UK and the USA. If this tragedy had been one that engulfed Brighton, there would be a queue of people on the A25 with cars and spare bedrooms back home getting families instantly out of a jam. Not that I doubt that the authorities would have had a workable contingency plan to deal with a crisis.

 

Perhaps the citizens of Houston and all of those other wide open spaces should right now be opening up their homes and taking care of their neighbours instead of sticking them in a sports stadium with inadequate toilets, food, water and dignity. Its not just the US government who right now should be suitably ashamed of their 'too little too late' attitude, its also every family with a nice lifestyle and more room than they need, who perhaps need to share a bit of it for a few weeks with their less fortunate fellow citizens.

 

'I know, lets hold a benefit concert next week' Yea right, find a whole bunch of stars with flagging careers who need a boost and write a catchy tune that they can all sing, but not actually subscribe to (I'm thinking of the 'We Are The World lyrics}. Enter Michael Jackson (I suppose that I should rephrase that) at some point soon. There are more immediate and less cringeworthy ways of getting people to send money. The various over subscribed sunami appeals proved that.

 

'I know, why dont I open my fat chequebook right now and give a million dollars that I'll never get to spend anyway and then open up my 14 bedroom southern californian mansion to a dozen needy families' Now that would make me go out and buy one of your records. But then pigs might fly.

 

I echo the views of those that point out that it seemed relatively straightforward to find the money and initiative to mobilise a force to invade a country in the caribbean, middle east or south east asia, but then fail badly to deal with a tragedy on their own doorstep.

 

If some important heads don't roll in the aftermath of this tradegy, then if I was living in the southern states, I think I'd be forgiven for feeling and expressing a sense of rage.

 

[ 02. September 2005, 12:44 PM: Message edited by: argyll ]

[corydoras]

argyll:

...If some important heads don't roll in the aftermath of this tradegy, then if I was living in the southern states , then I'd be forgiven for feeling a sense of rage.

If I was a Southerner, I would be after independance.

[poledark]

Argyll, don't be fooled by all the romantic memories of WW2 and the wonderful way that people responded when their neighbors were in trouble.

 

I was "bombed out" by a doodlebug and the salvage people got all the stuff out of our shattered home and piled it up in the street outside...good for them...but...within a couple of days almost everything had been looted/stolen whatever you care to call it.

 

And it was all done by "neighbors"

 

Law and order are a priority in times of crisis...even happened after the tsunami.

 

 

Den