09.04.2005 || 16h30

Louisiana musings

I'm sorry, but Washington has failed the people of Louisiana and Mississippi. Big time. Hell, *Canada* moved faster than the US on this one, and our administration took some lumps for their lackadaisical take on the *real* Tsunami months ago. How long did our ships have to sit there before Washington answered Ottawa's offer of help? Hell, the fact that Bush's cronies still haven't decided whether or not to accept Venezuela's offer of cheap oil or Cuba's offer of assistance is just fuel for the fire. This is no time for politicking, right? Who knows how many more people could have been saved if Washington had moved faster?

And how, after scenes of the excessive looting and violence that have been flashed around the globe, will the US ever be able to get back on that high horse vis-a-vis other trouble spots? Hell, we all saw the racial rift, we all saw the people whose best came out getting tromped on by those who let their worst take hold.

Although I think the Swiss paper Le Temps said it best:

'The sea walls would not have burst in New Orleans if the funds meant for strengthening them had not been cut to help the war effort in Iraq and the war on terror... And rescue work would have been more effective if a section of National Guard from the areas affected had not been sent to Baghdad and Kabul... And would George Bush have left his holiday ranch more quickly if the disaster had not first struck the most disadvantaged populations of the black south?'

Or even better, Kenya's Daily Nation:

My first reaction when television images of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans came through the channels was that the producers must be showing the wrong clip. The images, and even the disproportionately high number of visibly impoverished blacks among the refugees, could easily have been a re-enactment of a scene from the pigeonholed African continent.'

I dunno, you can tell a lot about people and their societies by the way they deal with unexpected calamities. 9/11 showed us all how competent the Bush administration is, but what does the violence down there say about everyone else? I choose to believe that the good being shown by so many people around the affected area and across the planet outweighs the primitive crap, and I hope that I'm not being overly na�ve.



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older shite

One last little note... - 09.21.2006

de-stressing, biking and terrorism - 06.06.2006

Mildly stressed... - 05.29.2006

More crime stupidity - 05.28.2006

Scary stuff - 05.25.2006

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