Slight ponderings on Katrina aftermath and Norwegian election

[misscam]

The whole aftermath of Katrina is leaving me slightly... Uneasy. The European reaction in general seems to be torn between WTFgitis and unease at how fast civilization can turn to anarchy. Three meals away from anarchy, isn't that how it goes? I wasn't expected an illustration example of that in the US. But then again, perhaps I should have. Humans are humans everywhere. Take away the essential needs to survive and it won't much matter what was before.

I worry about the US. What this hurricane has come to show so far has not eased my worry one bit. But the future is still being framed in every new day that dawns and we may still make things better. And so, I'll hope for the US too. For all of us and those who will inherit the world we're making too.

In that vein, the election in Norway is in less than a weel and though I have my clear preferences in what I want, I don't feel that horrified if the election don't go my way. Really, most politicians in Norway are in agreement on most issues and what seperates them are not as wide as what ties them together. And the same is true for most of Norway, I think. In a small country, this is of course easier and I find myself once again feeling lucky.

That said, I still itch to have a new prime minister. Oh yes.

Muse may have tentatively returned and I'm writing a wee bit on Shades of Dawn and various requests. Still feeling tired and a bit knocked out by life of late, so have some patience with me, darlings.

In the news:
Multiple failures caused relief crisis (Interesting article, certainly in view of who is blaming who for what.)
Patrolling the 'Venice from hell' (Be warned - there is at least one image of the dead in that article.)
World press discusses Katrina
A viewpoint on the US media's reaction
US asks EU and NATO for help
Norway offers aid to the US, no reply as of yet
Krekar makes vague threat against Norway (We will not send him to Iraq until guaranteed he won't face the death penalty and things become more organised down there, which seems like it might take a while. So we're stuck with him. Joys of joys.)

A meme:
Authors leave an imprint on the stories they write. Is there a line you've found in a fanfic to capture something about me? Post it here, then do the same in your LJ if you so want.

Comments

[maureenlycaon.livejournal.com]

In all honesty, it leaves me more than uneasy. Part of it, of course, is that the decay in New Orleans is more advanced than elsewhere -- it had one of the highest crime rates in the nation. (This was something I only learned about since the hurricane.)

The slow official response says much more about it, and I think that's what really scares me.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

One of the not so good poverty rates too, right? I think I read something about that.

[maureenlycaon.livejournal.com]

Yep, which of course is directly related to the high crime rate.

[belegcuthalion.livejournal.com]

I worry about the US. What this hurricane has come to show so far has not eased my worry one bit. But the future is still being framed in every new day that dawns and we may still make things better. And so, I'll hope for the US too. For all of us and those who will inherit the world we're making too.

Amen to that (if you allow the christian term). Right now I fear you have more hope in your heart than I have. Did I tell you recently that I wholeheartedly admire you?

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm Norwegian. We have hope bred into us, as much as we like to pretend otherwise.

But thanks :)

[erhothwen.livejournal.com]

Everything is so unorganized; it's quite disheartening.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it...

[highwindpav.livejournal.com]

I wonder a bit if anyone anywhere reporting on this realizes that no one can ever be prepared for a natural disaster like this?

Probably I'm just being an ignorant, middle-class white American, but I can't get on board the whole-scale bashing of the federal government for this. I'm sure there are gaping holes in the fed's handling, the state's handling, the local's handling...but a lot of the people stuck now chose not to leave. The people in the stadium should have been rescued sooner, but should they have chosen to go there in the first place when it was known the stadium was only rated to withstand a cat. 3? Katrina passed Florida as a tropical storm. I think it's a pretty safe assumption that no one expected it to become a category 5 hurricane overnight. I'm not blaming them for not leaving, because no one really expects the worst case scenarion from actually happening even if it's staring them in the face. I think that's human nature.

And I think it's a pretty safe assumption that no amount of preparedness and retrofitting would have made New Orleans able to withstand the worst hurricane nature could throw at them. There are a lot of place in California that have been retrofitted for earthquakes, but if/when a 10 hits, how much of it will matter? We'll be screwed. Nature will always win in that kind of fight.

I know that rescue efforts could have come faster, I know it could have been better prepared, but it feels like the world is saying everyone in New Orleans could have survived if only Bush weren't such a jackass. I'm sure you know that's not how it works, but those articles...they're all about federal this and federal that, Bush this and Bush that, as if the man could have stood on the Gulf shore and rebuked the wind.

Do the reporters report on the small things? Do they talk about how much people around the country are giving to the Red Cross and United Way for relief efforts? That a college student in Florida has managed to drum up a small group of fellow students to donate and do fundraisers? That a webcomic artist is set to raise nearly $9,000 by selling his art on eBay for the Red Cross? I know my piddly donation isn't going to solve the problem, I know my friend's rallying at her college is a drop in the bucket, I know $9,000 from a wecomic artist isn't giant, but it'll help. The US, that is, the people, aren't just sitting down about this, right now we're doing what we can to get relief to the Gulf Coast. Screw the Fed, screw the spinless media, there are lives at stake right now. I do hope that corruption gets exposed and stays that way, but I'd rather that those who can concentrate on helping relief efforts, shining a light on the ones that are working so they can work better with more resources. That's what is important right now. Saving lives, not playing the intraplanetary blame game.

As ignorant, middle-class white American in California as this sounds, I know the Gulf Coast will recover. It won't be the same, but they will get back on their feet. Because that's what we do.

Sorry for turning this into a rant...I didn't expect to have so much to say, and I'm not even saying everything :/ Sorry...

[sinneahtes.livejournal.com]

Did the people *choose* not to leave, or were they not *able* to leave, I wonder? They didn't exactly have all that much wealth, from what I could see, so I don't imagine they could have all just gotten into cars and driven far away from the storm, and everything I've heard about public transportation that was meant for evacuation was that that public transportation never came for them. I am an ignorant, middle class white American myself, who lives in a town in Connecticut where the poverty rate is reportedly less than 1%, so I don't truly know what it means to be poor but that the poor don't have as much as the rich, so I can't say in all confidence they chose to stay there because that's what they wanted, rather than that because they couldn't leave, or maybe they had reason to fear to leave.

[highwindpav.livejournal.com]

I've heard it was some of both. They didn't have a lot of time, either, since the hurricane only became a hurricane after it had nicked the end of Florida. Some people always choose to stay. In one of the articles linked, some guys chose to stay in their flooded house *after* the rescue team tried to persuade them to leave, so I imagine quite a few people did honestly choose to stay. I know that some people couldn't leave, and that was very unfortunate, since if an evacuation was ordered, transport should have been made available to them. That was a giant screw-up, I agree with that...I know there were a lot of screw-ups. A lot of people died that could have lived.

I know that...I just, I dunno, it's getting to me hearing how it's all the fed's fault (one article that the BBC had, it was a translation of different newspapers from around the world, and most of them mentioned Bush, some to blame him, some to say what screw ups Americans were not to get it right). There's plenty of blame to go around. But I think there are more important things to be encouraging at this particular moment. We can spit the fed later if we need to. Right now, there are people to rescue.

(I saw on the news yesterday, I think, a helicopter was reporting on the flooding, and they were waved to by people needing rescuing on a roof. The news 'copter wasn't set up to rescue them, but they stuck around long enough to figure out where the people were so they could tell rescue 'copters where to go. I was really happy to hear them do that, take the time from reporting to help those people the only way they could.)

[sinneahtes.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can understand not liking to see more blaming than helping being mentioned in the news, especially from foreign sources. But... well, I do think it's actually possible to help victims AND to question and blame (or at least question) whoever had responsibilities they didn't live up to, or whoever screwed up, at the same time. I don't know where I stand with blaming Bush himself, or the federal government (or whoever), but I don't blame people for being angry and wanting to ask the questions now, if they properly substantiate any claims they make rather than just pick the nearest convenient target to fling mud at. (I imagine some are pointing fingers as a way of questioning whether they really believe the administration is competant enough to be trusted with the rescuing and rebuilding.)

And, I have to say, when the people who are the targets of the finger-pointing in this mess themselves (like Chertoff) say anything like, "I think it's more important that we focus on helping the victims now," I raise an eyebrow and think, That looks like someone who wants to villanize people blaming him now, and to buy time for himself in hopes that peoples' anger will dissipate and they forget to question him later. I admit I'm an overly cynical person, but I know I'm not alone in raising an eyebrow at that.

What I'm getting frustrated at is anyone pulling, "I'm not helping! Why should we help those Bush-voters/this is what they get for Iraq/it's their fault for global warming!" That's one heck of a sort of blaming that doesn't help anyone at all.

(And indeed, I'm also glad to hear about that story. :))

[misscam.livejournal.com]

I think what most of the critisism targets is the fact that despite the advanced warnings, the relief effort didn't really get underway until days later. It had been very clear for quite some time that the hurricane was heading the way of New Orleans and that the city is under sea-level. This adds up to major trouble even I know.

The federal government just gets the brunt of it because they are the highest authority and therefore ultimately responsible.

And as far as the reporting here goes, the American people is only getting sympathy and understanding and yes, we do get stories about the volunteers and the good work they do. But you have to understand that when a lot of countries have been lectured by the US government on how to organise rescue operations and other things and then do a quite poor show like this, there is a certain boomerang effect.

[highwindpav.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, yes, I can certainly understand a boomerang effect. That makes sense.

Although, no, the fed is not ultimately responsible. That's actually backwards from the way it works here most of the time; it would be impractical at best and lunacy at worst for the fed to be responsible for that much. But the fed will help of course. In the US, the ultimate responsibility, technically, lies with the people themselves (i.e., in case of living in disaster prone areas, we better be prepared as best we can for them. I live in a fire-prone area so it's up to my family and I to keep the weeds down and make our house as fire safe as possible. It's not the city's responsibility, and it certainly is not the federal government's responsibility). As far as rescue and relief efforts go, it starts local, at the city level, then to state level, then to federal. The fed can't come charging in because that violates a state's sovereign rights (although I can imagine a scenario where the fed would do such a thing, but at that point, there would be a fundamental breakdown of the the US, it would be a very bad precident for us). However, the fed will help if asked and often does take over a lot of things once it is asked.

From what I've been hearing now on the radio and such, the breakdown started at the local level. They had a plan, or so I hear, but didn't follow it. There is corruption at that level as well. The state governor had to get on the mayor's backside to get anything started, but Bush had to call and kindly suggest to the governor that hey, you moron, don't you think a mandatory evacuation would be a good idea? He couldn't force the issue, because as the head of the federal government, it's out of his hands until the fed is asked in. Then the governor called for the evacuation. And you're right, it was far too late, it should have started much sooner, and it should have been handled much better. Also, the fed was asked in too late. I understand that things got tangled up at the federal level as well, and that that should be fixed, but there is no possible way to blame the fed for the breakdown, because that's just not how the US works.

I'm glad to hear that there's reporting being done on the efforts underway now...sometimes those things are hard to see when there's so much blame being tossed around. I guess warm fuzzies don't sell papers, although I wish they would, especially here...more publicity for relief and rescue efforts, for the charitable orginizations, could only help them get more funds and therefor access to more people and equipment.

[formerlydf.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry- my comment doesn't have anything to do with your post. I'm just a fan of OFUM. I recently wrote
this (http://www.livejournal.com/users/formerlydf/6887.html#cutid1), s sort of mock essay on the Book of Fanfiction. Some of it was inspired/reminded me of the OFUs, and I would be honored if you would look at it. Please?

~DF (DevotedFan)

[misscam.livejournal.com]

If I have the time, I'm sure I can give it a look - is it any fandom specific?

[formerlydf.livejournal.com]

No, just general fanfiction. It is kind of slash-biased, though. And I shamelessly make fun of Mary Sues and squealing fangirls.

~DF

[chunkylimes.livejournal.com]

I will run up and hug ordinary Americans, but flip off the Bushies. That would get me arrested, but it'd be worth it. I too think that the Gulf's going to survive, but some people who royally screwed up are in for a crash-and-burn.

So, yeah, in the end, every good person in the States gets a comlimentary hug from me, if they so desire.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Given recent things some of the Bush family has said, I'm with you on the flip off.