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Earthmother, Sep. 05 2005,02:21
I think this is the scariest and most depressive statement so far in this very depressing thread.
There are many parallels between the New Orleans tragedy and the recent tsunami in Southeast Asia.
Both were natural catastrophes, made worse by human short-sightedness, greed and neglect.
In Southeast Asia the natural mangrove vegetation which might have protected the coasts, had been eradicated, and hotels and other facilities for mass tourism were erected in the most vulnerable spots, directly on the shoaling beaches. A warning system for earthquakes and tsunamis could have saved thousands of lives, even if it wouldn’t have stopped the material disaster.
Large parts of New Orleans was built below water level and the protective walls were inadequate. This was a well known fact for the authorities, who had requested federal funding for repairs. The requests were denied, even though it was also well known that New Orleans was situated in the main path of tropical hurricanes, and that the protection walls wouldn’t withstand a level 5 hurricane.
In both cases total chaos ensued, the authorities seemed unable to handle the situation, or even grasp the extent of it, for several days, although mass media were quickly in place and continuously issued updated reports every hour over international TV channels.
But there are also many differences:
The tsunami came totally unexpected for everyone, including the authorities. The countries affected were mostly small, poor and underdeveloped, and many parts of the archipelago were very isolated. The catastrophe also affected several different countries, which made communication harder. A large number of the victims were tourists from several other countries, which lead to further complications with the need for medical care and the assessment of the victims.
The American authorities knew about the hurricane and its magnitude several days ahead, in fact the magnitude turned out to be a bit less than predicted. And yet the best they could come up with was to tell all inhabitants to evacuate the city. Then those who obeyed the directives were left to rot without food, water or other facilities for several days, on highways and in ballparks, because the authorities supposedly didn’t know where to look for them. And why wasn’t the National Guard called in _before_ the hurricane struck, to strengthen the walls?
But here comes the really scary part:
In the underdeveloped 3rd world countries the local inhabitants, who had lost all their worldly possessions, were reported by the world press to selflessly share what little they had left with the tourists. There might have been some cases of looting, but I don’t remember any, (and I did follow those reports closely and continuously, since my country was one of the hardest affected from the disaster. Instead, as a direct result of the catastrophe, a 20 year long armed and bloody conflict in the Aceh province of Sumatra was resolved and a peace treaty was signed, because both sides realised that political differences must stand back for the greater needs.
But in USA, the world’s richest and supposedly most developed democracy, armed looters fire at rescue helicopters and contractors. And the National Guard has orders to ‘shoot to kill’, cheered on by several posters on this thread. Already several innocent lives have been lost because of this policy being carried out.
And now Earthmother, one of the nicest posters on this board, draws the conclusion that maybe she should go out and buy herself some guns, because everyone needs to protect themselves in times of distress.
Did it ever occur to any of you that the insanely liberal gun laws of USA might be part of the problem? Did it ever occur to any of you that the vast social differences and the policy of ‘Self-sufficiency, self- and family-protection' might be part of the problem?
I don’t usually bash USA. But instead of bringing out the best in people, like the tsunami did, this disaster seems to have brought out the worst.
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