Hurricane Katrina - International Aid

[zeromonkey]

The hurricane that hit the southern United States has caused so much damage to cities and so much loss of life that it's almost impossible to imagine what it must be like for the unfortunate victims, who now have to come to terms with the fact that they have probably lost close friends or relatives along with their homes and everything they owned. It's another heartbreaking natural disaster bringing the human cost with it and I feel so sorry for the people affected by it.

President Geaoge W Bush has asked for international aid, money and help. NATO has been asked to help in the rescue efforts and people all over the United States of America have been raising, collecting and donating money to organisations that are providing some of the incoming aid.

While I appreciate that the money and aid is needed and it is imperitive that it is supplied to those who so desperately need it right now, without further delay. I also question if the United States, as a nation, will be able to have more sympathy for the countries that are currently and have been for many years, in similar conditions, even worse in some cases. Will they finally understand how much their help could make a difference in other countries ?

It may be the hardest way to learn, by having it happen to you, but it's better than never learning at all...

I hope the US government and citizens are able to limit their already collosal economic, and infinitely worse human losses; and I also hope they are now more willing to help others through finally understanding how hard it can be for them. It would be such a great shame on humanity if such an epic tragedy can pass us by without any lessons being learnt.

Do you think the United States will understand the plight of the countries who have been needing their help for so long, and perhaps do more to make a difference or will they still continue to treat them as they are doing now ?

 

[Barclay (Dark Angel)]

Do you think the United States will understand the plight of the countries who have been needing their help for so long, and perhaps do more to make a difference or will they still continue to treat them as they are doing now ?

Individuals might, the government won't, and the only thing that will alter that is US citizen people power.

I'm hoping that Bush and his team will get a severe kicking over this, but with such an ineffective opposition, I doubt it. The divide between the rich and the poor will remain. It may even widen. The poor have no effective voice, and I don't see that changing any time soon. Even if the Republicans are defeated in congressional, senate, or presidential elections, the Democrats are a poor alternative as they're fragmented, and have no unified policies, or even policies that are radically different to those of the Republicans.

The fundamentalists will feel justified, and the influence of religious mania will grow.

The one thing it might change is the perception re Global Warming. (There were signs of change even before Katrina.) What form that changed preception will take is still open to doubt.

There are simply far too many Americans who think in terms of me, me, me. They'll continue indulging in oil wars, in the belief that they have every right to do so. Might is Right!

Hugs,

Barclay

 

[dave arc-i]

what are americans like on irony then? - i see the third world is now supplying the US with disaster relief supplies

still without wishing to be seen as callous lets hope that this model of how not to manage a HUGE disaster will provide lessons for our government so that when some sort of shit like this hits us WE wont be quite so fucking disorganised

 

[Barclay (Dark Angel)]

what are americans like on irony then? - i see the third world is now supplying the US with disaster relief supplies

Yeah, after Bush refused help from the UN, Canada, the EU, etc.etc..

And what was he doing on Monday, the day Katrina hit? Yep, you got it, he was playing Golf, and attending a Republican fund raiser. It was 3 days before aid got to Louisiana, and 4/5 days before it got to New Orleans. What was Georgey boy doing then. Yep, you got it again, he was telling people not to buy "Gas", and talking about a zero tolerance approach to looting.

And where was the Louisiana National Guard? Blimey, you're right again. They were in Iraq - "peacekeeping"...

In the meantime it took days for Congress and the Senate to approve approx $10 billion in aid. Want some context? The US military gets approx $440 billion annually.

And in the meantime, thousands are dying, starving, commiting suicide, raping, killing, and all the rest of it.

The Beeb has a comment sent in by a US citizen, blaming the disorder on "drug addicts", who will do anything to get a fix, others demanding aid from the rest of the world (despite the fact that Bush refused it - even from Canada), and now I see Bush is blaming local authorities and politicians.

But what is national govt meant to do if a local authority can't or doesn't cope? It steps in to remedy the situation. Could Bush have done that? Well, only in part. Not only did he appoint his neo-con cronie to FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency)***, but he slashed it's budget, and privitised it. It's boss, Michael D. Brown was busy, early on in the crisis telling people how much aid was getting through on national TV. Bush, in the meantime, was telling the FEMA boss on FRIDAY MORNING that he was doing "a heck of a job".

Bottom line as I've so often said. Bush is incompetant, and doesn't give a f*ck.

Hugs,

Barclay



***Frightened? You ought to be...

http://www.sonic.net/sentinel/gvcon6.html

Some people have referred to it as the "secret government" of the United States. It is not an elected body, it does not involve itself in public disclosures, and it even has a quasi-secret budget in the billions of dollars. This government organization has more power than the President of the United States or the Congress, it has the power to suspend laws, move entire populations, arrest and detain citizens without a warrant and hold them without trial, it can seize property, food supplies, transportation systems, and can suspend the Constitution.

Not only is it the most powerful entity in the United States, but it was not even created under Constitutional law by the Congress. It was a product of a Presidential Executive Order.

etc. etc....

 

[JPsychodelicacy]

If you don't mind feeling so angry you'll feel like doing something rash, have a look here:

Windows Media Player

QuickTime

Near as I can figure it, FEMA actively withheld aid from Democratic New Orleans County and Jefferson Parish, while providing at least a skeletal service to the Republican state of Mississippi. Bush is now deflecting blame onto the Democrats saying that they didn't get local aid sorted in time (Note how Mr. Broussard points out that they were *promised* federal help would get there, and it never came).

At best, we're looking at negligent homicide - at worst mass murder.

J.

J.

 

[zeromonkey]

I feel sick....

 

[dave arc-i]

quote from barclays sentinel link.......

THREE TIMES FEMA STOOD BY READY FOR EMERGENCY

In April 1984, President Reagan signed Presidential Director Number 54 that allowed FEMA to engage in a secret national "readiness exercise" under the code name of REX 84. The exercise was to test FEMA's readiness to assume military authority in the event of a "State of Domestic National Emergency" concurrent with the launching of a direct United States military operation in Central America. The plan called for the deputation of U.S. military and National Guard units so that they could legally be used for domestic law enforcement. These units would be assigned to conduct sweeps and take into custody an estimated 400,000 undocumented Central American immigrants in the United States. The immigrants would be interned at 10 detention centers to be set up at military bases throughout the country. REX 84 was so highly guarded that special metal security doors were placed on the fifth floor of the FEMA building in Washington, D.C. Even long-standing employees of the Civil Defense of the Federal Executive Department possessing the highest possible security clearances were not being allowed through the newly installed metal security doors. Only personnel wearing a special red Christian cross or crucifix lapel pin were allowed into the premises. Lt. Col. North was responsible for drawing up the emergency plan, which U.S. Attorney General William French Smith opposed vehemently. The plan called for the suspension of the Constitution, turning control of the government over to FEMA, appointment of military commanders to run state and local governments and the declaration of Martial Law. The Presidential Executive Orders to support such a plan were already in place. The plan also advocated the rounding up and transfer to "assembly centers or relocation camps" of a least 21 million American Negroes in the event of massive rioting or disorder, not unlike the rounding up of the Jews in Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

i find that sentence was one of the scariest - especially with regard to Bushs feverent belief in God and all things christian and the whole neo-con creationist thing that is currently so apparent