Bump to baby on the beaten expat track
This is the summation of failures by a country and administration’s policy history/movement that americans have been and are allowing, splattered all over the facets of this disaster. It isn’t about New Orleans anymore. Bigger questions exist. It is disgusting that it comes to this.
All aboard the USS Clueless. Let’s see how that bone-headed freak we all stuck in the white house digs out of this one. Where’s carl rove??
A hurricane hit was not a surprise.
What astounds me is the deplorable coordination of response by authorities. WHY is the mayor of New Orleans sending an SOS via CNN??? And why is our president gushing assurances about our oil prices before issuing military directives??? Lootings, gang activities, attacks– this is textbook doomsday script in the wake of disaster, given conditions where authority is not promptly established. WHY is this allowed to happen in the wealthiest nation on earth, when a breach in the New Orleans levy system tops the list of worst-case scenarios???
This event highlights how thinly stretched our resources are, by misappropriation of priorities to neo-colonialism. Nature and weather forecasting technology gave us ample notice to prepare, yet the challenge to our government was met with unforgivable inefficiency, four years after 9-11 and after billions of dollars’ diversion from education, poverty, health care, environment.
Where are our assets if they obviously are not with Homeland Security???
New Orleans was home. At least its loss might prompt the questions that have needed to be asked for so long.
New Orleans is now plagued by one catastrophe after another. Repair efforts on the levee breaches, particularly at the 17th Street Canal in Bucktown, have failed and Lake Pontchartrain is draining steadily into the city. Floodwaters are coming into the oak-canopied St Charles corridor. Water main lines are breaking. Martial law is in effect. There is complete anarchy.
The best place for updates is streaming radio on WWL 870AM. Unofficial neighborhood-by-neighborhood assessments, if available, are on NOLA and WWL-TV.
My heart goes out to y’all. God bless.
And a painful show that was. What I want to know is how other countries’ media covers domestic disasters. I have newfound respect for CNN–but just— since moving to Southeast Asia. CNN-World surprisingly maintains semblance of journalistic precepts, which at CNN-US have been bumped by corporate interests. I’d almost forgotten the comical cowboy antics of on the ground reportage that eclipses the gravity of events until we got streaming domestic feed for the hurricane coverage. Does anyone else feel like slapping these reporters?
Katrina turned the media spotlight on Louisiana’s function in the US economy, despite the state’s economic ailments. Prime location at the anal terminus of the artery of US commerce that is the Mississippi River imparts heavy responsibilities. It supplies 25% of the nation’s seafood. The rigging industry provides 15% of the nation’s oil. It supports the rail and shipping traffic for petroleum, petrochemical, shipbuilding, and aerospace industries, as well as the international trade bound for points north. Direct hit from a Cat 5 Katrina would have upset the economic landscape not just for Louisiana or the region, but also for the entire country.
These activities deal the Mississippi delta an ecological blow, one of the consequences being oxygen-depleted coastal dead zones. The US Gulf Coast is one of a growing number of hypoxic regions around the world, the largest in the western hemisphere. Healthy wetlands provide a natural buffer against storms making landfall. Unfortunately, wetland ecology loses out when weighed against the billions in industries sustaining immediate and material human needs.
Louisiana and the coastal states are in an ecological quagmire that has been begging attention for decades. With the increasing frequency and power of Gulf storms due to global warming–does anyone doubt the phenomenon exists anymore??— it’s a double whammy that may just rearrange the geography faster than the Army Corps of Engineers can counter.
Intoxicated fumes of breath and a clammy handshake. Missing teeth in a captivating smile….
N’awlins’ reputation precedes it and this is the first impression, before the jazz and blues spin rhythms with the muggy air, before the Cajun spices mount the offensive. Have you been where elegance and refinement consort passionately with the grit and grime? Indolence is King so strap your principles on and hang tight or lose ‘em. It’s a schizophrenic transvestite full of wit, this crazy town. And you’ll never forget her.
Knock back some Southern Comfort. This show will be painful.