To answer your question "What the fuck is happening in Nola", I'll tell you. Quite simply, we are seeing live and direct the intersection of race and class that I speak of on here all the time. Minorities and the poor are ignored in this country, and they horrificly slow response from the government speaks volumes. Events like this fuel my pessimisism regarding race (and class) relations in this country. Instead of responding as quickly as possible, Bush has his goons out performing "image damage control" via press conferences and interviews. Send the fuckin' aid and damn the talking. It's funny how responses were much faster to tsunami relief efforts and 9/11, yet lethargic in a place that happens to be 67% Black (while New York City is 22% Black; U.S. Census Bureau, 2000).
The older I get the more I become cynical because shit hasn't changed. My wife has a redneck co-worker asking her how much money the Red Cross will send the victims of this tragedy, as if helping them will hurt her in some way. The ignorant woman doesn't realize that the Red Cross is a non-profit org. that operates on donations. This woman's mentality represents a large portion of White folks in this country, including those in power. I'm not slamming all Whites mind you, just making a point that there is an insidious element that is bent on the disenfranchisement of the downtrodden. Historically, there have been many White folks out there striving for freedom and rights for ALL people (John Brown immediately comes to mind as well as Harriet Beecher Stowe), and this continues to be the case. My question is why can't the government and/or people in general operate in pursuit of the greater good for ALL people? That's my issue in a nutshell.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Yes, I understand this all. My question was rhetorical.
In all honesty, I've just been kind of blindsided, as I never expected to ever witness something like this within my lifetime.
In all honesty, I've just been kind of blindsided, as I never expected to ever witness something like this in the United States[/b] within my lifetime (but maybe my grandparents)[/b].
In all honesty, I've just been kind of blindsided, as I never expected to ever witness something like this in the United States[/b] within my lifetime (but maybe my grandparents)[/b].
Yeah. Maybe. I dunno actually man... I just don't know what to make of it.
In all honesty, I've just been kind of blindsided, as I never expected to ever witness something like this in the United States[/b] within my lifetime (but maybe my grandparents)[/b].
Yeah. Maybe. I dunno actually man... I just don't know what to make of it.
It's you're actually seeing it firsthand... well, from a country perspective you are. You know when they breeze over those "such-and-such amount of people dead in Iraq" news clips every night? What do you think has been going on over there for the past couple years?
And that's not even a foreign government. That's "us" doing that.
a complete breakdown of communication between different beuracracys
I think this is a really big part of the equation. I think a lot of "leaders" don't understand what it means to lead. I think the Govenor (democrat) Of La might be the start of the problem.
The (democratic) governor is now being made the fall girl, CNN has already begun questioning why she would go to Houston today (duh, to visit the people evacuated there) when Bush is coming to town. she is made out to be crazy angerwoman because of her threat to punch bush. watch rove whip out the swiftboat style on her an nagin.
The (democratic) governor is now being made the fall girl, CNN has already begun questioning why she would go to Houston today (duh, to visit the people evacuated there) when Bush is coming to town. she is made out to be crazy angerwoman because of her threat to punch bush. watch rove whip out the swiftboat style on her an nagin.
I talked to my dad in Mississippi last night. He was telling me about his friend's 70 year old parents outswimming their house as it was being swept in a huge wave up the street (this is in Gulfport, MS). Another friend's dad went into diabetic shock on the roof of his house and was airlifted to Florida to the hostpital. A friend's wife was 8 1/2 months pregnant and started bleeding when the water hit. They didn't make it to the hospital and they lost the baby but she lived. 90% of the people my family knows on the coast lost their houses. Driving around down there, they get lost because there are no landmarks anymore. Bodies everywhere.
In New Orleans, the body count is going to go WAY up when the water goes down and they find all the people who died in their attics. He was saying he thinks a lot of the people who are unnaccounted for went up to their attics to wait it out when their houses flooded, and died up their. Especially old people. Sorry I know this is depressing but I felt like I needed to share some news from the source.
Most folks from New Orleans have been evacuated from everywhere that isn't underwater (the superdome is empty as are all the emergency shelters) and lots of people are staying with family out of town and kids are starting school all over the south. In Natchez (where my family lives) there are 500 kids from the New Orleans, Gulfport and Biloxi areas in the public schools, and 3000 new people in town (pop 26,000). Mostly women and kids, since the men have gone back home to survey the damage and try to figure out what to do about their homes. The problem now is that nobody has any money.
I read today in the NY Daily News that the current head of FEMA used to be incharge of enforcing rules regarding the breeding of Arabian horses, and has never done anything which even remotely qualifies him for this post.
If Ray Downey had not died on 9/11 in NY the situation would be a lot different.
I read today in the NY Daily News that the current head of FEMA used to be incharge of enforcing rules regarding the breeding of Arabian horses, and has never done anything which even remotely qualifies him for this post.
I read today in the NY Daily News that the current head of FEMA used to be incharge of enforcing rules regarding the breeding of Arabian horses, and has never done anything which even remotely qualifies him for this post.
I PRAY TO GOD that this continues to follow the administration. They're going to try to get away with blaming it all on LA officials, and shifting gears to the supreme court nominations.
In a report, AP quoted an unnamed Israeli military official as saying the device emits a frequency that targets the inner ear, can cause damage with exposure for several minutes at close range, and compels humans nearby to leave the area. Exposure for minutes at close range could cause hearing damage. Information about longer-term exposure effects at long distances has not been publicly disclosed.
future headline:
MCCLELLAND: "WIDESPREAD HEARING DAMAGE UNRELATED TO CROWD CONTROL EFFORTS IN SUPERDOME"
In a report, AP quoted an unnamed Israeli military official as saying the device emits a frequency that targets the inner ear, can cause damage with exposure for several minutes at close range, and compels humans nearby to leave the area. Exposure for minutes at close range could cause hearing damage. Information about longer-term exposure effects at long distances has not been publicly disclosed.
future headline:
MCCLELLAND: "WIDESPREAD Mental Illness[/b] UNRELATED TO CROWD CONTROL EFFORTS IN SUPERDOME"
Just got sent this link of a news article written in December 2001 about NOLA's vulnerability to a hurricane. Here's the first paragraph:
New Orleans is sinking. And its main buffer from a hurricane, the protective Mississippi River delta, is quickly eroding away, leaving the historic city perilously close to disaster. So vulnerable, in fact, that earlier this year the Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked the potential damage to New Orleans as among the three likeliest, most castastrophic disasters facing this country. The other two? A massive earthquake in San Francisco, and, almost prophetically, a terrorist attack on New York City. The New Orleans hurricane scenario may be the deadliest of all.[/b]
I work up to a strange headline in the local paper today - 10,000 people refuse to leave N.O. There's 5 pages of stories about people who are refusing to leave their homes & how they will be taken away by gunpoint, if necessary. I don't know if its a crock or not. It almost sounds to crazy to be true.
I work up to a strange headline in the local paper today - 10,000 people refuse to leave N.O. There's 5 pages of stories about people who are refusing to leave their homes & how they will be taken away by gunpoint, if necessary. I don't know if its a crock or not. It almost sounds to crazy to be true.
It's true. I saw some footage of people who refused to leave. One incident was a dude who was obviously in shock refusing to get out of his car. There were two rifles pointed at him and a lot of yelling, not unlike a take-down.
It's not a crock unfortunately, just another example of having no clue how to deal with a disaster, the psychology of a disaster and how to treat the survivors.
It's not that unbelievable to me that people refuse to leave. A lot of them were older, some, if not most, were cetainly not clear-minded (who would be after a week of the world falling down around your ears). To them, the worst is over and now food and water is being distributed, so they have sustinence. They are scared to leave the safety of their home, it looks motherf-cking scary out there. I can't say because, touch wood, I've not been in a situation remotely like this, but were I old, alone and had the basic essentials, I'd probably rather die in my own home than get carried off to an uncertain future without the comfort and safety of familar things that may not be there when I got back, if I ever did. They've made it after a week of hell, I can see why some would refuse to leave now.
Comments
Yes, I understand this all. My question was rhetorical.
In all honesty, I've just been kind of blindsided, as I never expected to ever witness something like this within my lifetime.
Yeah. Maybe. I dunno actually man... I just don't know what to make of it.
It's you're actually seeing it firsthand... well, from a country perspective you are. You know when they breeze over those "such-and-such amount of people dead in Iraq" news clips every night? What do you think has been going on over there for the past couple years?
And that's not even a foreign government. That's "us" doing that.
Or this:
http://www.clydelewis.com/dis/jones/jones.html
The (democratic) governor is now being made the fall girl, CNN has already begun questioning why she would go to Houston today (duh, to visit the people evacuated there) when Bush is coming to town. she is made out to be crazy angerwoman because of her threat to punch bush. watch rove whip out the swiftboat style on her an nagin.
I feel sick.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katrina/story/0,16441,1562882,00.html
In New Orleans, the body count is going to go WAY up when the water goes down and they find all the people who died in their attics. He was saying he thinks a lot of the people who are unnaccounted for went up to their attics to wait it out when their houses flooded, and died up their. Especially old people. Sorry I know this is depressing but I felt like I needed to share some news from the source.
Most folks from New Orleans have been evacuated from everywhere that isn't underwater (the superdome is empty as are all the emergency shelters) and lots of people are staying with family out of town and kids are starting school all over the south. In Natchez (where my family lives) there are 500 kids from the New Orleans, Gulfport and Biloxi areas in the public schools, and 3000 new people in town (pop 26,000). Mostly women and kids, since the men have gone back home to survey the damage and try to figure out what to do about their homes. The problem now is that nobody has any money.
bush sez donate here........don't
it is here
Unfuckingbelievable.
I read today in the NY Daily News that the current head of FEMA used to be incharge of enforcing rules regarding the breeding of Arabian horses, and has never done anything which even remotely qualifies him for this post.
If Ray Downey had not died on 9/11 in NY the situation would be a lot different.
much worse. he f-d up his job with horses too
LOL I was reading that earlier.
I PRAY TO GOD that this continues to follow the administration. They're going to try to get away with blaming it all on LA officials, and shifting gears to the supreme court nominations.
future headline:
MCCLELLAND: "WIDESPREAD HEARING DAMAGE UNRELATED TO CROWD CONTROL EFFORTS IN SUPERDOME"
That was one of the weakest arguements for a crackpot conspiracy theory I've ever read.
New Orleans is sinking.
And its main buffer from a hurricane, the protective Mississippi River delta, is quickly eroding away, leaving the historic city perilously close to disaster.
So vulnerable, in fact, that earlier this year the Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked the potential damage to New Orleans as among the three likeliest, most castastrophic disasters facing this country.
The other two? A massive earthquake in San Francisco, and, almost prophetically, a terrorist attack on New York City.
The New Orleans hurricane scenario may be the deadliest of all.[/b]
I work up to a strange headline in the local paper today - 10,000 people refuse to leave N.O. There's 5 pages of stories about people who are refusing to leave their homes & how they will be taken away by gunpoint, if necessary. I don't know if its a crock or not. It almost sounds to crazy to be true.
It's true. I saw some footage of people who refused to leave. One incident was a dude who was obviously in shock refusing to get out of his car. There were two rifles pointed at him and a lot of yelling, not unlike a take-down.
It's not a crock unfortunately, just another example of having no clue how to deal with a disaster, the psychology of a disaster and how to treat the survivors.
It's not that unbelievable to me that people refuse to leave. A lot of them were older, some, if not most, were cetainly not clear-minded (who would be after a week of the world falling down around your ears). To them, the worst is over and now food and water is being distributed, so they have sustinence. They are scared to leave the safety of their home, it looks motherf-cking scary out there. I can't say because, touch wood, I've not been in a situation remotely like this, but were I old, alone and had the basic essentials, I'd probably rather die in my own home than get carried off to an uncertain future without the comfort and safety of familar things that may not be there when I got back, if I ever did. They've made it after a week of hell, I can see why some would refuse to leave now.
fucking horrific
"Put me in another Superdome? Hell NAW."
Let this be a lesson to anyone else in a US-based natural disaster: If they say they have a shelter for you, DON'T GO.