Thursday, September 01, 2005

Septemtrionalis arbitratus: malus

Has anyone been listening to “New Orleans is Sinking” or “When the Levee Breaks”? They’re starting to sound more like prophecy and less like 1/2 Steve Smith approved rock music. I’m sure Clear Channel has taken those off the play list for the next 6 weeks.

While watching/reading the news today the images of annihilated neighborhoods and flooded plains are ever-present, it seems that Hurricane Katrina is the 3rd most powerful hurricane ever to make landfall on American soil. The visuals provided to suggest that the Gulf of Mexico (and by the way, how did Mexico call dibs on the name of that gulf? Texas blew it on that one) is trying to claim the state of Louisiana for it’s own. In this case, the death toll has reached 100, which is not a particularly high number for such a powerful force of nature, and the loss has been generally contained to property. Hurricane coverage being more ubiquitous than normal, I have been seeing coverage of people returning to their homes and exercising nothing less than complete indignity at the sight of their life in ruins. One woman was angry that the Federal Emergency Management Agency hadn’t made a stop in her town just yet and that she needed federal help. In 2001, FEMA listed the possibility of a hurricane leveling New Orleans as one of the top three most likely catastrophic natural disasters that would occur in the US. Despite the warning, it was taken out of the presidential cabinet, and calls for budget expansions, especially to continue a project to strengthen the New Orleans levee, went unheard all so that American customs agents can hold up airport lines longer and for more trivial reasons. The levee request was for 80 million and it ended up coming 50 million short, which yes, is a lot of money, but 50 million dollar represents 0.1% of the overall 2005 budget of the Department of Homeland Security, which is the office that houses FEMA. That 50 million apparently could have made the difference between SCUBA Marti Gras and annoying puddles. Louisiana is now a “Blue state” in more ways than one. It looks as if insurance companies are going to get the brunt of this one, since it looks as if they are going to pay out at least 16 billion, at least a substantial portion of which could have been avoided had 50 million been provided for a better levee. That aside, who is going to clean this up when the job is too big for FEMA? Where is the national guard when you need them? Oh yeah: IRAQ. The National Guard has 465000 members, 184000 of them are pinned down by insurgency, hot weather and sand, more than any time in history. Tomorrow, 28000, roughly 6% of who whole guard force, will be deployed to hurricane ravaged areas to hand out coffee and be yelled at by angry people. Oh yeah, and lift stuff. Imagine what these people, the ones they didn’t send to Iraq or Afghanistan, look like. I bet most of them can only see out of one eye or have a clubbed foot. Or you know, maybe they have a family.

UPDATE:

  • Rapings and beatings!
  • Hidden Snipers firing at hospitals as they are evacuated!
  • The dead lying in the street!
  • Widespread looting!
  • Retreating American soldiers!
  • Orphaned or lost babies crying in the streets, surrounded by the dead!
Welcome to Mogadishu, October 1993 New Orleans, August/September 2005...

It's like a day at the Hippodrome over there.

Anyway, that brings me to what should have been the top story for the latter half of the day: nearly 1000 Shiite Muslims (largely women and children) were trampled or drowned during a religious pilgrimage of nearly one million when cries of a suicide bomber (intentionally false or otherwise) amidst the crowd incited a riot. While the train wreck that Iraq has become in the last 3 years has been awe inspiring in terms of both scope and speed, this is on another level. To live in an atmosphere where the threat of being the victim of a random attack is so real and pervasive that your natural reaction among a crowd of your fellow worshipers is to push and shove to get away is such an iniquity that I might vomit if I continue to ponder it. The greatest injustice that can be visited upon any human being is to live in a constant state of fear, whether it for reason specific to one person or an entire nation of people. While the Iraqi government continues to position the cart before the horse with an abortive constitution, citizens are sifting through bodies as a result of an event that should have been peaceful in every conceivable fashion. In order for a government to confer inalienable rights to the citizens of the nation, shouldn’t they be in a position to protect those rights the moment they hand them down?

Today's question:
What historical person of note was questioned in connection with the theft of the painting “La Gioconda” in the year 1911? (15 Points)

Moment in the song: 2:38 from “Wrong” by The Archers of Loaf