Re: OT: Foreign Aid For USA

According to the AP the items offered from various countries have been rescue teams, medical teams, cash, boats, aircraft (including Chinook helicopters), tents, blankets, generators, fuel, field hospitals, equipment for temporary housing, and "humanitarian aid". None of that sounds ridiculous. The Russian offer (stated by Elizabeth) is the only one I've heard that was specifically turned down.

While I'm sure the people in shelters are hankering for some fresh produce and a good home-cooked meal, the logistics just aren't in place yet to handle perishables. As much as I dislike some aspects of corporate America, Anheuser-Busch (spelling?) and Wal*Mart (and possibly others) have been sending water, food, and very necessary supplies directly to the people in need since day one--in some cases totally bypassing the government. The lack of access into New Orleans has been one of the biggest problems.

As for the I-10 repairs, one of my close friends is a bridge designer for I(owa)DOT. Based on his experience it is likely to take literally years to design, approve, and construct replacement spans. And that is after the channel/lake/gulf is cleared of debris so the engineers can do the preliminary testing to the area. In the short run a floating bridge piggybacked on barges is a possibility for some of the shorter spans or some kind of ferry service in place of the longer spans. I will agree that skilled utility workers (electric, gas, phone, water, sewer) as well as large equipment and operators to remove debris are going to be very useful.

Tia Mary wrote:
All of which is RIDICULOUS! Space heaters (if they were offered as aid) to dry out timbers -- for heaven's sake, there's NO DAMNED ELECTRICITY so how could they run the heaters? As for folding the down comforters to make mattresses -- LOLOL -- we need specific things and if countries can't help us with what is so desperately needed then we shouldn't take the donations just because we might possibly make use of them as some point in the future. Besides, those imaginary down comforters would have to be laundered and there's now way THAT is going to happen -- not when people don't even have drinking water. Like I said, if a country was to offer down comforters that we don't need, ASK them for regular blankets -- which I am sure we probably do need in the refugee centers that are in other states.
Right now, we need money and food and water and health care (medical supplies and personnel) and a means to deliver all of it and we DO need it immediately. That means helicopters and/or a whole load of flat bottomed boats. THINK PEOPLE! If you think it is a waste of resources to keep "W" safe when he visits the disaster area, then we shouldn't waste resources dealing with aid that we can't make immediate use of but *might eventually* come in handy! By the time those poor people need something like comforters or space heaters, most of them would have starved to death!
We probably need people skilled at building & repairing bridges and laying roads and fixing the power lines and fixing things like I-10 so that we can quickly truck stuff into places like New Orleans. I would be willing to bet that one of THE most useful things we get from Canada are electrical crews to help fix the power lines, etc. Here's another thought -- has anyone offered to send us processed crude oil? We desperately need it because we have lost a whole passel of Gulf Coast refineries. The boats and helicopters and trucks and busses that are being used for emergency operations all need fuel and I can guarantee you there ain't gonna be enough to go around! I have no idea if the offer of processed crude oil has been made -- I am just using it as an example.
So -- can anyone actually tell me what type of aid has our government declined to accept and which country did the offer come from? I didn't hear what "W" said but I would be willing to bet it was something along the lines of "We won't accept aid that we don't need and we will first do as much for ourselves as we possibly can before we do accept aid." Hopefully NO president will ever agree to accept aid in the form of things that are not absolutely necessary and certainly not just to make the donating country feel all warm and fuzzy!
I don't care WHAT type of stuff is offered as aid -- I am sure that we could find a use for all of it --- eventually. Unfortunately, we just don't have the luxury of accepting anything and everything at this point in time. How do we know that the authorities haven't told some of the other countries that we don't need their aid *right now* but we will in X number of months? If we did accept all those "imaginary" space heaters and down comforters whose gonna pay to store them until we make use of them? Hells bells, whose gonna pay the people to work the docks or airports to unload the stuff and then transfer it to a warehouse where it has to be inventoried and kept track of? The logistics of accepting and then dealing with stuff that we don't need NOW is a nightmare that we can well do without!
I'll wait to see how things shake out before I start to condemn what is being done. It's nor perfect and there are a whole lot of people who seem to have fallen through the cracks. I heard one of the FEMA guys in New Orleans say that they didn't even know there were refugees at the Convention Center! I bet someone with the authority made the decision to open up the Convention Center for those in need and then someone down the chain of command failed to notify the Red Cross &/or FEMA about it OR the message got lost in the shuffle!! Now THAT is criminal. Someone dropped the ball and I hope heads will roll for THAT particular "oops"! 

--
Brenda
NEW to Styx, classic to the world:  Big Bang Theory
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