En række tanker, citater og kilder om den katastrofale
situation i kølvandet på orkanen i Louisiana -
mere dækning af samme på min hjemmeside
www.modspil.dk.
Lad os starte med Interdictor
<
http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/49003.html>:
The city is starting to feel more secure now. Much larger military
and Homeland Security presence and many fewer civilians left. Of
course with this added security comes additional dangers like
hyper-suspicious, armed authorities. If you watch the cam or walk
the streets, you see that almost every civilian is approached,
evaluated for threat potential, then either patted down or left
alone. The disconcerting thing is that these authorities always have
their guns at the ready and look like they're enjoying intimidating
the people. Two of us have already had guns aimed at us by police --
Brian by the Federal Cops guarding the Boggs Federal building while
we were waiting for the resupply, and me when we were delivering the
router to City Hall.
Her <
http://www.leftturn.org/Articles/Viewer.aspx?id=670&type=W> er en
øjenvidneskildring fra en mand, der lige er flygtet fra New Orleans:
If anyone wants to examine the attitude of federal and state
officials towards the victims of hurricane Katrina, I advise you to
visit one of the refugee camps.
In the refugee camp I just left, on the I-10 freeway near Causeway,
thousands of people (at least 90% black and poor) stood and squatted
in mud and trash behind metal barricades, under an unforgiving sun,
with heavily armed soldiers standing guard over them. When a bus
would come through, it would stop at a random spot, state police
would open a gap in one of the barricades, and people would rush for
the bus, with no information given about where the bus was going.
Once inside (we were told) evacuees would be told where the bus was
taking them - Baton Rouge, Houston, Arkansas, Dallas, or other
locations. I was told that if you boarded a bus bound for Arkansas
(for example), even people with family and a place to stay in Baton
Rouge would not be allowed to get out of the bus as it passed
through Baton Rouge.
Her
<
http://www.sonicyouth.com/bboard/fanforum/viewtopic.asp?TopicID=1766100&topic=my+wife+and+I+last+night+at+the+astrodome>
en beretning fra Astrodome i Houston, hvor tusinder af flygtninge fra
Louisiana i dag er indkvarteret:
we walked to the dome and asked arund about where to take these
clothes only to be told by cops that they were not accepting
donations. I thought that to be BULLSHIT. The administrators and
politicians kept saying they did not need anything that they had
enough of food and clothes, but anytime the eporters managed to talk
to any volunteers or doctors or red cross people, all they could say
was "we need EVERYTHING" and "whoever is telling you that there are
adequate or suficient supplies of ANYTHING, from food to manpower,
is delusional." so I found a red cross worker and asked and she said
if we took it into the dome someone would definitely use it. so we
walked down the east ramp, into the saddest, most surreal scene I
have ever witnessed in my life. we found a volunteerr who took the
clothes we brought and told us how much they were appreciated and we
went over and signed up to volunteer. First of all, the Red Cross is
the ONLY organization doing anything remotely organized. they have
NO federal help. NO national guards, NO military personnel, Nothing
at all. they are stretched to the limit in every possble way.the
federal government is screwing these people over. it was chaos, but
a slightly controlled chaos, and while it was inded heart wrenching
to see those people, the babies, the SMELL (not B.O. It was the
smell of sewage from these people's clothes. the ones who had not
yet gotten to the showers weer weatring the same clothes they have
had on for 4 days.) the sight of the babies, the little children,
the elderly...
(...)
My rage and indignation is aimed squarely at our retard monkey
president and his fallacious supposed homeland security
organization, who have bungled this from the get go, whether due to
complete ineptitude, or willful ignorance, it is a horror that we
should never let those fucking greedheads live down.
Læseren må drage sine egne konklusioner. Go read
<
http://www.sonicyouth.com/bboard/fanforum/viewtopic.asp?TopicID=1766100&topic=my+wife+and+I+last+night+at+the+astrodome>.
En skarp analyse fra Paul Krugman i New York Times
<
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0902-22.htm>:
Before 9/11 the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed the three
most likely catastrophic disasters facing America: a terrorist
attack on New York, a major earthquake in San Francisco and a
hurricane strike on New Orleans. "The New Orleans hurricane
scenario," The Houston Chronicle wrote in December 2001, "may be the
deadliest of all." It described a potential catastrophe very much
like the one now happening.
So why were New Orleans and the nation so unprepared? After 9/11,
hard questions were deferred in the name of national unity, then
buried under a thick coat of whitewash. This time, we need
accountability.
First question: Why have aid and security taken so long to arrive?
Katrina hit five days ago - and it was already clear by last Friday
that Katrina could do immense damage along the Gulf Coast. Yet the
response you'd expect from an advanced country never happened.
Thousands of Americans are dead or dying, not because they refused
to evacuate, but because they were too poor or too sick to get out
without help - and help wasn't provided.
(...)
At a fundamental level, I'd argue, our current leaders just aren't
serious about some of the essential functions of government. They
like waging war, but they don't like providing security, rescuing
those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never,
ever ask for shared sacrifice.
Yesterday Mr. Bush made an utterly fantastic claim: that nobody
expected the breach of the levees. In fact, there had been repeated
warnings about exactly that risk.
So America, once famous for its can-do attitude, now has a can't-do
government that makes excuses instead of doing its job. And while it
makes those excuses, Americans are dying.
Hele affæren giver meget af den samme dårlige smag i munden, som jeg
havde for mere end to år siden, under den amerikanske invasion - jfr.
f.eks. den totale og uforståelige passivitet overfor plyndringen af Baghdad.
I dag forekommer det hele pludselig meget lettere at forstå: De, som
træffer beslutningerne, vil ikke blot blæse på den irakiske befolknings
ve og vel - de vil blæse på den /amerikanske/ befolknings ve og vel. Så
hvad andet har vi nogensinde kunnet forvente?
Eller, som det opsummeres på BBC Online
<
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4210674.stm>:
At the end of an unforgettable week, one broadcaster on Friday
bitterly encapsulated the sense of burning shame and anger that many
American citizens are feeling.
The only difference between the chaos of New Orleans and a Third
World disaster operation, he said, was that a foreign dictator would
have responded better.
Go read <
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4210674.stm>.
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