Re: OT- Comparing Katrina to the Tsunami

Roger & Lorraine Martin wrote:

"The Lone Haranguer" <linusz@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:8ZNSe.121$KJ6.5957720@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yep, but ONLY among those who have subsisted on the public dole for a
couple of generations.  A situation that YOU endorse.

 > What I dont understand is that we also have families who have lived
on social welfare, but in times of flood or bush fires they dont grab
the nearest gun and start mugging, looting and raping. The people
in SE Asia did nt do that either, the Chinese regularly go through
flooding on a magnitude far greater and they dont go berserk

Read some history. Most of these people are the descendants of slaves and they're still "getting even" with whitey.

Whats wrong with Americans if they do that?

See above. It's an "us against them" mentality that their own leaders encourage. It's used as leverage to get more gimmees. Give us a jury verdict we like or face a riot. You've never had a similar situation in Australia so you're not competent to comment. 

I can understand breaking into shops for food and
water for survival, thats not even looting in my mind, but walking
off with a TV and stereo and rummaging through empty houses.

Whats gone wrong with the fabric of US society?

The animals in New Orleans represent the animals of New Orleans, not U.S. society. However the same thing happens in every inner city when the power goes out. 

As for the looters only being those on long term dole I bow to
your obvious better knowledge of the demographics of the refugees.

Political correctness makes it difficult to find any of my above observations in a library. You might want to study the history of riots in our major cities though. 

Philosophically I believe that a civilised society cares for those
less able to care for themselves or at least has appropriate
counter disaster plans in place when the worst happens. I find
it hard to come to grips with abandoning people to their fate,
but if thats what you think the nanny state does then that is your
opinion.


You seem to ignore the fact that this was a MANDATORY evacuation that
those who ended up wailing on TV CHOSE to ignore. They weren't
leaving. Period. You could have sent a Limo and they would have
stayed because the honest citizens knew the looters were coming and
the looters knew opportunity was coming. 

If it was mandatory, a lot of people did nt get told about it, tourists
seem to have been abandoned by hotel staff.


Yep.  It's always like the Titanic, a save yourself mentality.

Stories are now being 
given out on TV news of one British couple who went out prior to the
hurricane hitting only to return to a locked and boarded up hotel. All
their luggage still inside.

Big deal. Same thing happened to us in England. Because the Inn had a downstairs pub, we were locked out of the building between 1 and 5. Pretty primitive rule that has finally been changed. 


They weren't ABANDONED by anyone.  They chose to ignore warnings in
favor of what they THOUGHT were their own interests.  The fact that
MASSIVE help arrived later in the week proves that plans were in place
and the machinery was working.  Their own local elected officials were
the ones who failed to perform as expected.  These were chosen on the
basis of race and party affiliation, NOT on competence.
LZ



Having watched GWB on TV I thought he was struggling with the whole
concept of an unplanned thing happening to him. And when that disaster
management official said on Friday that he did n't have "confirmation
of the size of the disaster until Thursday" - he could not answer the
interviewer's statement; "Dont you guys watch TV, we've been giving
out news reports since it happened!". Its just all distinctly on the nose.

Two Australian TV news crews have rescued Australians stuck in NO,
but the US Govt. was refusing until today to allow consular officials entry
to assist with the evacuation of tourists. Two British and Australian
consular
officials are now having to provide assistance to all Commonwealth
Country citizens - which could be thousands. God only knows what is
happening to the other nationalities without any consular help at all. By
the
way the reason for getting foreign nationals out when a disaster strikes
is so that help can go to the locals who need it.

I've traveled a lot and I looked out for my own welfare. British officials certainly
didn't come to our aid when a train and ferry strike almost stranded us on their tiny island with a car rented in Germany. I kept tuned to what was going on and headed for the port. As we left the dock a deckhand told us we were on the last ferry leaving before even the government operated ferries shut down. The government had assured tourists the government ferries would not be struck.

You sound like a major whiner. Tourists are not helpless children. Hurricane Katrina was forecast to hit that area as early as Saturday morning. I have an e-mail in my file sent Saturday morning at 10.30 warning someone in Mississippi that Katrina was coming. A tourist with a brain had PLENTY of time to leave the city. They shouldn't need a nanny.
LZ
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: OT- Comparing Katrina to the Tsunami
    ... >>>It's because of the nanny state mentality. ... What I dont understand is that we also have families who have lived ... >> counter disaster plans in place when the worst happens. ... was refusing until today to allow consular officials entry ...
    (rec.outdoors.rv-travel)
  • Re: autotune (pitch correction) good idea for karaoke?
    ... Well yes it would be a disaster - not only from the stand-point of going far ... but ppl who dont hear well will now hear worse because they ... Would it be a good toy to add to a karaoke setup? ...
    (rec.audio.pro)
  • Re: Revisiting the UCL vs EPL discussion
    ... thin. ... If they dont win it, then in retrospect today's result will be ... seen as a disaster, especially when you consider that not 1, 2, 3, but ...
    (rec.sport.soccer)
  • Re: Is the sky blue?
    ... dont ya think ANYONE is justified in critisizing the ... other 99.9% of the time where THERE ARENT ANY OFFICIALS AT ANY LEVEL? ...
    (rec.sport.disc)