Topic: Politics
I've been asked by a few people to remark about the disaster in New Orleans. It's a fair request, given my remarks at the end of last year that democracies with free economies are best suited to coping with natural disasters. I still stand by that as far as earthquakes are concerned. And I note that flood warnings did exist and that sea defences did too, except that they were inadequate for the task faced. But something has clearly gone wrong in Louisiana. What lessons can be learned?
To respond to that, I'm going to turn to a Norwegian neo-con friend who writes under the name 'Vampus'. In a recent post titled 'Blame Bush first', she explains that ..., well I'm not sure exactly what she does say, since I can't speak Norwegian. But when I asked her to outline the argument, she wrote back to tell me this:
I wrote about Katrina and Bush on VamPus-blog (Blame Bush first), as the Norwegian media is blaming Bush for just about everything. According to the guidelines of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the local authorities can not expect federal help before after 72-96 hours after a disaster. Which means local authorities needs to plan and execute emergency help locally. - New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin has pointed at Washington and Bush, blaming them for the poor execution of help. Lets look at another example: the former Mayor of New York, Guiliani, was a national hero after the 9/11-attacs. He showed leadership by continous communication in media, by going to Ground Zero and by taking responsibilty. But what made him a great leader is that he had planned for all of this in advance. Nobody could know that two planes would crash into the world trade centre - but it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that NY is a target - or that a bit city can suffer from a natural disaster, fire, communication break down, what have you. Guiliani had led the work of organizing the units (police, fire dep, goverment & emergency rooms) in case of crisis. When it actually happened, they were prepared. THAT made Guiliani a great leader.
What the fuck has Mr. Nagin done? He was, by the way, the candidate for Republicans but switched to Democrats when it turned out he had better chances of winning the election of Mayor with them in 2002. That alone sums up what an unprincipled creep that guy is. "Everyone" has known that New Orleans is prone to be hit by storms and hurricanes. New Orleans had plans, but Nagin disregarded their own plan although he was encouraged to do so. The plans say that evacuation should happen 72 hours before the hurricane is expected, and forced evacuation 48 hours before. Nagin waited until last minute.
The guvernor of Louisiana declared the state a disaster area on Friday August 26, 2 days before Katrina hit New Orleans, but didn't order an evacuation until Sunday AFTER Bush had strongly encouraged her to do so. Since the local authoraties were so apathic the federal government wanted to take control over the situation September 2 - but this was refused by Guvernor Blanco (I don't need to say which party SHE represents, right?).
Anyway - the Dome was not filled with necessary supplies for the refugees (again, local responsibility), they didn't use local transportation to get the poor out of the area (local responsibility), local authoraties has done little to crack down on crime - so these idiots that people are trying to help, shoots at the rescue team. Now, there is a reason why these people are poor - they are too friggin stupid to understand their own good.
Oh, my God. I'm turning into a SuperBitch with no feelings for humanity. Oh, well. Whatever..
Bush is an idiot in many ways - I mean, what kind of guy walks into a disaster area with a grin in his face with bodies literarily floating next to him. He is not a great communicator (like our hero of all times, Reagan), but give me a break. He has already given $80 billion to the rescue work, urged in the national guard, urged the city to get it's people out etc. What you can blame him for, is reducing federal funds for the rebuilding of the levees - but even engineers say that even if they'd had all the money in the world, they wouldn't have it ready in time.
So people say that this isn't a time to argue about who's fault it is, while they are pointing at Bush, because some voices are saying that the local government failed. Well, you know - Blame Bush First - who cares about facts anyway...
Erm.. a bit long, yes. But I get angry just writing about it...