Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler OT: Katrina and World Support?

The quote below was pulled from a Jamaican (of which I am a citizen) local newspaper. Don't think you are alone on this.

"Jamaica was among the nations offering what help they could. But the Kingston embassy, while stating its appreciation for the support, politely declined the offers, saying in a statement: 'The United States Government is not yet requesting international assistance at this time.'

The embassy suggested, however, that persons and organisations wishing to help may still contact the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, www.fema.gov, coordinator of the recovery efforts."

see full article here
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20050901T000000-0500_87388_OBS_THOUSANDS_FEARED_DEAD__NEW_ORLEANS_TO_BE_ABANDONED.asp

The most unfortunate fact that exists through this whole mess, and which is one of the primary reasons that so many families lost their lives along with their homes is the bad timing of the storm.

Many of the people in the US are not wealthy.

No, Really.

A lot of folks actually can't afford to fill up the gas tanks on their cars and make a run for safety when gas is twenty bucks for six gallons. Heck, many of them can barely afford to feed their kids and pay the rent and keep car insurance and replace car sensors every couple months cause our cars are now so frugal and clean that they get confused and won't run when a signal gets lost, and the gas milage drops to 6MPG.

So, here it is the end of the month, a storm is coming, the money has run out and there's barely enough gas in the car to get to work, let alone Texas.

The alternative is to ride it out....

......surfs up!!

Riffman ... A few thoughts :

1. Take a valium, have a drink, work out ... ANYTHING to calm your nerves. (edited for smiley face)

2. There is a HUGE relief effort already underway. However, rescue helicopters are being shot at, as are law enforcement personell on foot. That makes helping a little more difficult.

3. There is a 90,000 square mile area affected. Just finding everyone will be difficult.

4. People were warned to evacuate the city. Then they were ordered to. Thousands ignored these warnings.

5. And "Jerkoff?" ... Was THAT necessary ?

My prediction is that, when everything settles, The U.S. will have done 90+ % of the clean up and financial support. That is OK. We can handle it.

That being said, to those countries who have and will offer support, THANKS !

We may take every opportunity we can to complain about the price of gas; and yes, it is an inconvenience and sometimes for some of us a sacrifice. But at least to those of us that are still alive through this, while it may make life more complicated, at least it isn't life threatning.

Yes. Necessary. Unless you think its perfectly normal for a high ranking gov official to tell you he knows what it is like to die of thirst on a rooftop in 95 degree weather.

I also don't blame low income people for not having left. Even if they could, it still shouldn't be an issue. They need help.

Riffman, fine. Let's have him shot. Afterall, He DID cause this tragedy.

Actually, I'm with Riffman on this. Unless there is a massive "stealth" relief effort and everyone being relieved is also being hidden away from cameras, the response does seem oddly slow. I'm sure the media is getting things wrong a bit, but the bottom line seems to be that we have about a half million displaced people, in a very hot part of the country, with little or no drinking water, and days are going by. Everyone on the radio here is babbling about food and rebuilding, but after 2-3 days without water people are going to start dying in larger numbers... I'm darned close to loading the Jeep up with a few hundred gallons of water and driving down there myself.

This was one of the big problems after the tsunami as well... lots of water around, but once you mix a few hundred million gallons of sea water in you can't drink the stuff any more.

I really hope I am being too negative on this...

Foreign countries HAVE offered their assistance, but the US gov't has has advised most of them to wait until the situation is more under control. This "we're so effin' generous with our aid, so why isn't the world as generous when something happens to US?" attitude revolts me. The world DOES care. Open your eyes.

The saddest thing about this disaster is that the devistation was entirely predictable -- and in fact had been predicted years in advance -- and not enough was done to plan for or mitigate that eventual disaster. You can blame our corporate-like political system which rewards short-term changes far more than long-term foresight for this. Politicians play the odds. "It's not going to happen during MY term." It's simply not a priority to think about future generations.

OK, enough ranting.

Oops, I disagree......

It's not ranting when stating the apparent truth followed by well formulated opinions.

In only two paragraphs

Peter, It was a fascinating read. My only problem with this is that the development started in 1879. The people of that area have profited for 126 years from this development.

Why is it the duty of people who live over 1000 miles away to be responsible to pay for New Orleans ? I am not talking the current relief effort, either. I am talking about what the populace of New Orleans and Louisana has done for over a century.

There will be more Monday morning Quarterbacking going on about this, which is pretty easy to do.

As for the response being done, There will be 40,000 National Guard troops on the scene by the weekend. The Navy is getting ships there ASAP. There are 1000's of volunteers driving/flying/boating relief, some being greeted with gunfire.

As for the Monday morning QB's, We know that the mayor of New Orleans warned people to leave on Saturday and ordered them to leave on Sunday.

Knowing what they know now, How many people in New Orleans would have left when first told to on Saturday ?

How many lives would have been saved had people listened to the warnings 48 hours before the Hurricane hit ?