Can't believe what's happening in America!!!!!

[Forgetmenot]

Have just watched the news and I'm so upset seeing all those people who just seemed to have been abandoned by the authorities, their government and the rest of their country!!!
They have no food or water and the police are only concerned with looters!!
Why isn't the whole country rallying round to help for gods sake!!!

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[Prettybird]

I don't think that that is quite fair expatinscotland. A lot of the news has featured Biloxi, which I beleive is in Mississipi and has shown the "white" survivors and talked about the number dead - and about how their economy has been detroyed - and the impact that that would have on what was already an extremely poor area.

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[happymerryberries]

Recent reports state that the devistation covers an area roughly equal to that of the whole UK. However rich the USA is this is a massive disaster, and it is a near imposibility to get it all sorted instantly. A million people have left the area. 20,000 still need to be withrawn from the stadium. There is one road in.

Pepople are desparate and sadly deparate people can act badlt just as they can act wonderfuly. This isn't just true of American but all humans.

This is a vast disater, and getting in shots about work not being done becaise Bush can get that many votes in the area is at best tactless where there are bodies rotting in the streets.

However we feel about US policy, and discussion is warented, I don't think that this is the time. It lacks tact, diplomacy and compassion. Better to say less now, support and try to change , rather than make easy shots about this being Hurricane Kyoto

[expatinscotland]

That seems to be the general thought: America can cough up. There's a never ending supply of money in America and they're just being greedy. Funny, a lot of the world thinks the same of Britain.

Well, as someone who lived as a working poor in both places, I sure would like to see some of all this 'wealth', cuz it never seems to trickle down to the vast majority of the population.

Come to think of it, that seems to happen even in places there are not considered wealthy.

That doesn't mean that people dying of disease, hunger and dehydration don't deserve help from their fellow man, no matter where they are.

People can't help where they were born.

[Monstersmum]

What strikes me is that at this stage after the Tsunami there was more international help on the ground. Why is that not the case now? Are there any international aid agencies there yet?

No country - even one as wealthy as America - can deal with a disaster of this magnitude alone.

[morningpaper]

Waswondering I agree. We take 'law and order' so much for granted; the idea that there is such anarchy in a rescue centre and there is NO HELP is just unbelievable. That those people can just do NOTHING to help themselves and just have to wait, it's awful.

[sansouci]

i was wondering: if some means of transport could possibly be worked out, ie greyhound bus etc, perhaps families in surrounding states would consent to "host" those in distress?

[sansouci]

and the U.N. in all of this? I heard something about W.H.O but what about UNHCR? red cross?

[potty1]

MSNBC are reporting a chemical explosion near to the SuperDome It sounds dreadful.

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[sansouci]

no way! (rushing over to switch on tv)

[morningpaper]

From Michael Moore.com:

Friday, September 2nd, 2005

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing NOTHING to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

Yours,

Michael Moore
[email protected]
www.MichaelMoore.com

P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.

[sansouci]

good old Michael. you tell 'em, boy!

of course, dubya has about as much sense & as much power as a puppet on a string. all of his buddies made sure he got into office to keep their "interests" going... right?

[Kelly1978]

situation s3eems to be gettign worse. I don't have a clue why rescue efforts aren't more co-ordinated.
news here

[monkeytrousers]

It's awful for them but...it's funny how they all turn socialist when they need help..

[expatkat]

That sounds a little like gloating monkeytrousers, when this whole thing is absolutely apocalyptic. I don't know about "turning socialist". . .I must be too dim to get that one.

And morningpaper, thanks for that link to Michael Moore's letter; his takes on things are always reassuringly black and white and rather charismatic. . .But as for your earlier comment about your friend who was only safe becasue he was RICH. . .if that was the first thought a friend of mine had about me, I'd be gutted.

Yeah, I'm angry, too, but that's because I actually care about these people and don't have any particular political axe to grind.

[morningpaper]

This is turning into a "I care more than you!" argument which I am finding a bit odd.

Just had to paste the Michael Moore stuff... ah we love him because he's got that cynical-leftie angle that is positively British.

[harpsichordcarrier]

hmm, now, who do I loathe more - George Bush or Michael Moore. It's a tough one....

[expatkat]

We love him too in America, morningpaper. That's right. The American I know, loves him. I think he's a genius. But I was educated to look beyond appearances, and I force myself to do that with Moore. I think part of Moore's genius (& perhaps his fatal flaw) is that he's very much about emotion at the expense (sometimes) of accurate facts. But I wasn't being ironic when I thanked you for posting it.

[sansouci]

golly, expat. for a minute there i thought you were saying that you love dubya. I shouldn't judge him as a person; maybe he's a great guy but i certainly do hate many of his policies. as for Michael, i believe he may twist a few facts to support his own viewpoint...

[expatkat]

OMG NOOOOOO, Sancouci. . .I'd better watch my pronouns from now on. . .I should have said the America that I'm familiar with loves Moore and LOATHES Bush. . .each day we lament what catastrophes are being reaped around the world because of his (eg Bush's) policies. . .In fact, it all came very close to home (for me) when my journalist friend was kidnapped & killed in Basra about a month ago.

I just object to a certain gleefully bitter angle when looking at the New Orleans (& Mississsippi) devastation. But enough has been said about that now, so I won't harp on about it.

[sansouci]

i am truly sorry about your friend, expat. i could seriously get into a right bate about this subject... i have done often enough in RL. but the sunshine is too tempting.

& i'm hungry.