The Hurricane
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, have we learned any lessons?
I watched a report on the BBC news with a professor clucking his tongue and wagging his finger at Americans during this time of tragedy. He said all these poor people who were starving and in need of food, water and medical attention were more concerned about looting goods such as television sets in an atmosphere where they cannot use it nor carry it to safety. He said this is typical of American self-centeredness and we have our priorites screwed up and should worry about our own "third world" country in the South before we try to interfere with other countries.
While part of me is inclined to agree with part of his statement, I could not help but feel outrage at such a blanket condemnation of the whole society. Did he just not see what I saw? I saw churches, businesses, and individuals reach out to help those they could. People who have opened their homes up to total strangers. People lined up to donate food, money and blood.
Did he just not have a clue about how big the United States is and to reach these people at the beginning was impossible? Sure, the government could have acted a bit faster, but the neighboring states did what they could when handling the incoming refugees as well as dealing with the damage has done to its own states. It wasn't just New Orleans that was hit. The devastation was the size of the United Kingdom. The ones who were not submerged underwater could leave the area and get help. Unfortunately, there were many who did not walk away from it.
To say that Americans are all self-centered is unfair. Americans will line up and rally around people in need at a drop of the hat. They wouldn't be interfering in other parts of the world if they did not think in the beginning they were doing it to help others. The government may have hidden agendas when entering into others affairs, but the people supporting the cause are doing it for a purely humanitarian reason. The typical American is not profitting from this interference, but often are the ones laying their lives on the line and many times for no good reason, even if they were duped into it.
There was a criminal element among the suffering trapped in New Orleans. In any big city there will be a criminal element. In this particular situation, they were trapped for days without food or water. Of course those trapped in a criminal mindset were going to take advantage of the situation. This is not just a condemnation of the US, but it could happen anywhere in the world when people are desperate, think they are going to die and cut off from all forms of communication.
Yes, parts of the South are like a third world country now that it has been levelled by the storm. To compare it in normal operation to a third world country is also unfair to those who actually live in a third world country. In the United States a safety net for the poor and disadvantaged. It may not be much of one, but it is there. A third world country does not have it at all.
What we should learn from this event is no one is more powerful than the forces of nature. If something happens to these storm chasers, don't make them into heroes. This is just stupid.
Every city, especially the bigger ones, need to have and rehearse disaster plans before such incidents occur. Many could not leave New Orleans because the traffic was so backed up that no one could move. A better evacuation plan would have save a lot more lives.
Why rebuild a city that is that far below sea level? This is throwing money down the drain. The insured homes will mostly get very little money back because most policies do not cover flood and some do not cover hurricanes. Any future insurance policy will either be so expensive or non-existent. With people setting fires to their homes, fires will probably also be excluded under certain circumstances. A hurricane or a flood will happen again in this region. Due to lack of funds in the national budget, money was already cut which made the system of pumps in New Orleans ineffective to handle the overflow of water. 80% of the city is underwater now. Anything in those areas are completely ruined. With only 20% still standing and in utter chaos, one has to ask, why rebuild there?
As for the rest of the victims in the path of the storm, they will again face hurricane forces as long as they live along the coasts. They knew that when they moved there and built their homes. There is nothing to be done to stop the hurricanes from coming, but they are doing all they can to plan better evacuation techniques and setting up shelters to house people in need.
Americans, as a whole, are a good lot. We have our elements that are downright awful and some evil, but don't blanket over everyone as being the same.
The Preciousness Of A Fleeting Existence
I watched a report on the BBC news with a professor clucking his tongue and wagging his finger at Americans during this time of tragedy. He said all these poor people who were starving and in need of food, water and medical attention were more concerned about looting goods such as television sets in an atmosphere where they cannot use it nor carry it to safety. He said this is typical of American self-centeredness and we have our priorites screwed up and should worry about our own "third world" country in the South before we try to interfere with other countries.
While part of me is inclined to agree with part of his statement, I could not help but feel outrage at such a blanket condemnation of the whole society. Did he just not see what I saw? I saw churches, businesses, and individuals reach out to help those they could. People who have opened their homes up to total strangers. People lined up to donate food, money and blood.
Did he just not have a clue about how big the United States is and to reach these people at the beginning was impossible? Sure, the government could have acted a bit faster, but the neighboring states did what they could when handling the incoming refugees as well as dealing with the damage has done to its own states. It wasn't just New Orleans that was hit. The devastation was the size of the United Kingdom. The ones who were not submerged underwater could leave the area and get help. Unfortunately, there were many who did not walk away from it.
To say that Americans are all self-centered is unfair. Americans will line up and rally around people in need at a drop of the hat. They wouldn't be interfering in other parts of the world if they did not think in the beginning they were doing it to help others. The government may have hidden agendas when entering into others affairs, but the people supporting the cause are doing it for a purely humanitarian reason. The typical American is not profitting from this interference, but often are the ones laying their lives on the line and many times for no good reason, even if they were duped into it.
There was a criminal element among the suffering trapped in New Orleans. In any big city there will be a criminal element. In this particular situation, they were trapped for days without food or water. Of course those trapped in a criminal mindset were going to take advantage of the situation. This is not just a condemnation of the US, but it could happen anywhere in the world when people are desperate, think they are going to die and cut off from all forms of communication.
Yes, parts of the South are like a third world country now that it has been levelled by the storm. To compare it in normal operation to a third world country is also unfair to those who actually live in a third world country. In the United States a safety net for the poor and disadvantaged. It may not be much of one, but it is there. A third world country does not have it at all.
What we should learn from this event is no one is more powerful than the forces of nature. If something happens to these storm chasers, don't make them into heroes. This is just stupid.
Every city, especially the bigger ones, need to have and rehearse disaster plans before such incidents occur. Many could not leave New Orleans because the traffic was so backed up that no one could move. A better evacuation plan would have save a lot more lives.
Why rebuild a city that is that far below sea level? This is throwing money down the drain. The insured homes will mostly get very little money back because most policies do not cover flood and some do not cover hurricanes. Any future insurance policy will either be so expensive or non-existent. With people setting fires to their homes, fires will probably also be excluded under certain circumstances. A hurricane or a flood will happen again in this region. Due to lack of funds in the national budget, money was already cut which made the system of pumps in New Orleans ineffective to handle the overflow of water. 80% of the city is underwater now. Anything in those areas are completely ruined. With only 20% still standing and in utter chaos, one has to ask, why rebuild there?
As for the rest of the victims in the path of the storm, they will again face hurricane forces as long as they live along the coasts. They knew that when they moved there and built their homes. There is nothing to be done to stop the hurricanes from coming, but they are doing all they can to plan better evacuation techniques and setting up shelters to house people in need.
Americans, as a whole, are a good lot. We have our elements that are downright awful and some evil, but don't blanket over everyone as being the same.
The Preciousness Of A Fleeting Existence
posted by Callen Damornen at 3:38:00 pm
2 Comments:
This was really well put. Even though my views can be more lefty than righty, I could not agree with you more. I am fed up with blanket condemnations and over-generalizations to the service of what, exactly? The writer's ego, some transparent agenda? I just don't get it. It doesn't (to me) matter whether the stuff is coming from the right or the left anymore, just so tired of the lack of any legitimate dialogue on really any topic any more.
Thanks for such a thoughtful post.
I did clue into this sentence however, and it gave me food for reflection:
Yes, parts of the South are like a third world country now that it has been levelled by the storm.
In a past career, I used to work on information systems for community mental health centers. This included lots of travel to places like Jackson, MS, and Baton Rouge, LA. I can tell you that parts of the South resembled the Third World long before Katrina came around, such is the poverty down there. The media coverage of the hurricane just seemed to make it more visible.
At any rate, best wishes.
Paul
Excellent article. I really like your blog.
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