The Lost City of New Orleans
I head that phrase tonight on the news. At first, it seemed like poor taste in news slugs but after watching 30 minutes of news footage I started to wonder. My mom asked me if I thought they'd be able to eventually "save" New Orleans. I immediately replied "sure, there's too much money to not". Then I thought about it a while and looked at the poverty that existed and has since been created by Katrina. It's a foolish venture to begin with to build a city below sea level. You WILL lose that battle eventually.
It's astonishing to me to hear that we have "refugees" in America. We have people trapped on interstate overpasses. Read that a couple of times and let it sink in. There's no food, no water, and no place for people to go. The military, police and emergency are rushing to do what they can. Funny, but I haven't heard a peep of support from the rest of the f'ing world. And all the while, Opec is just raising the price of oil again. Someone calculate their profit margin ($4 per barrell to draw and process and they sell it for $70). It would make me sick to do it myself.
I told the wife that we're going to make a donation. A hundred bucks won't kill us. I'm still skeptical of certain charities, namely the Red Cross after the atrocity of their spending spree after 9/11, so I'm looking to see where to send this money. All I can do is have faith that it will help someone other than a charity's "administrative" cost.
This is a rather bitter, angry post. For that, I apologize. But I'm just so stunned by the images on TV and the figures that have been rolling in. I admit that I'm a bit of a disaster junkie. It comes from my years of radio. Doesn't anyone else find it difficult to do their regular job or routine when the suffering is so close? Or am I just blind to the fact that it's happening everyday, somewhere in the world?
My prayers go out to everyone affected by Katrina. Let's hope she's the last this season.
It's astonishing to me to hear that we have "refugees" in America. We have people trapped on interstate overpasses. Read that a couple of times and let it sink in. There's no food, no water, and no place for people to go. The military, police and emergency are rushing to do what they can. Funny, but I haven't heard a peep of support from the rest of the f'ing world. And all the while, Opec is just raising the price of oil again. Someone calculate their profit margin ($4 per barrell to draw and process and they sell it for $70). It would make me sick to do it myself.
I told the wife that we're going to make a donation. A hundred bucks won't kill us. I'm still skeptical of certain charities, namely the Red Cross after the atrocity of their spending spree after 9/11, so I'm looking to see where to send this money. All I can do is have faith that it will help someone other than a charity's "administrative" cost.
This is a rather bitter, angry post. For that, I apologize. But I'm just so stunned by the images on TV and the figures that have been rolling in. I admit that I'm a bit of a disaster junkie. It comes from my years of radio. Doesn't anyone else find it difficult to do their regular job or routine when the suffering is so close? Or am I just blind to the fact that it's happening everyday, somewhere in the world?
My prayers go out to everyone affected by Katrina. Let's hope she's the last this season.
posted by Mkae at
8:29 PM
5 Comments:
Canada has offered it's full military force to aid the disaster area. While that may seem insignficant when compared to the US military force, most of ours can be deployed to the area quite quickly.
The only thing stopping us from helping is that the US hasn't asked us to help and we can't do anything until that happens.
By
Michael J. Hercus, at 11:50 AM
Doesn't anyone else find it difficult to do their regular job or routine when the suffering is so close? Or am I just blind to the fact that it's happening everyday, somewhere in the world?
To be honest, if the American news media were as obsessed with suffering elsewhere as they are with suffering at home, we'd have entire networks reporting 24-7 on Africa, the Middle East, Chechnya, etc. I'm glad when Nightline and others dare to spend chunks of air time talking about strife and suffering in other countries. (Peter Jennings was brilliant with this.) We Americans are far too insular, and geography is as much to blame as anything else.
This whole tragedy reminds me that the Third World is the rule rather than the exception. Without civilization, suffering comes very easily to mankind. Civilization can only be maintained with very complex parameters that are very easily thwarted by a single event in nature or a single action by a man.
By
GiromiDe, at 12:06 PM
As of Thursday there were approx. 60 countries offering some sort of support. The ones who stuck out to me were Sri Lanka and Indonesia, the hardest hit by last year's tsunami. Always good to hear this sort of compassion isn't gone from the world, especially when the media is saying otherwise.
By
Dave(id), at 2:46 PM
Daily Show coverage has been sublime, including this remarkable journalistic tidbit voiced-over during a shot of the thousands huddling inside the Astrodome.. (not an exact quote):
"And you must remember that many of these people were living below the poverty level, so this is not such a bad thing for them."
Right there is the problem with all day news networks - commentators feel like they have to keep talking, regardless of how little they have to add.
By
Aussie-Askew, at 10:08 AM
No need to apologize, Mkae. There's something honorable in getting angry about suffering.
By
thisismarcus, at 3:53 PM
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