Katrina

[Barbie]

I’m really quite surprised not to find a large long thread dedicated to conversation on what has happened in Louisiana, Mississippi and other states that were affected.
I guess there’s not much else to say that CNN and FOX aren’t already showing – though that (to me) is still questionable as to whether or not they are reporting news, or creating news…

I’d like to believe that if there was a natural disaster (a disaster at all) of this magnitude, which the Canadian people would not behave as a lot of desperate and delirious people are behaving in New Orleans; but I’m not so sure. Chaos turns people into – well, just look.

I’m completely reminded of Lord of the Flies.
Our Prime Minister pledged Canadian assistant through the ‘Disaster Assistance Response Team’ or DART, which provides medical care, power and clean water and can head south on 2 days notice. He also said that Canada can provide transport planes or helicopters, electrical generators, water purification systems, small boats for navigating the waterways of the region and engineering equipment and of course, the Canadian Red Cross is on their way or already there. I think 200 volunteers.
But so far, the Bush Administration has not accepted.
Anyway – I just wanted to post that my thoughts are with everyone in those States who have been affected. My heart pours out to the children. Good gawd.

All of this makes me appreciate my life, so much more.

:(

[sauron]

The two most up-to-date-and-least-full-of-mass-media-influence places I've found with coverage:

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html - just the facts, no fluff

http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/ - first hand account of what it's like in NOLA


- d.

[Torque]

I was dropping by here looking for a Katrina thread so I could politicize it with a little President bashing. There wasn't one, so I made one.

Fixed it for you, Barbie.

[Escape Artist]

Too many cooks spoil the sauce, Barbie.

Your argument is certainly nothing new. There is little or no purposeful debate that could be pursued on its merits. Sounds like resentment on the part of Canadian citizens to me. So be it. No skin off Canada's ass in this matter. None off yours, either; feeling slighted and being slighted remain separate issues.

Otherwise, I'm relatively neutral on the matter, so I can't inject much into this slow-cooking mess.

Such things happen every year across the world. You get the outpouring of verbal "support" and the loading of the bandwagon by people who don't want to be tarred and feathered, the culturally and socially so-called compassionate throw money at mostly unethical charities, and life goes on.

I really don't think we need more of the same crap here, Barbie et al.

Enough with whining about afflicted society, arguments and attacks regarding what people think other people should do with their discretionary budgets, tacking personal agendas on to sensitive subjects like politicians with legislation, doomsday scenarios and bragging about ammunition acquisition, gas price issues, the inevitable "will you PLEASE think of the children!" dreck, and whatever else I haven't managed to include.

Really. :)

[PB]

Let me tell you a little about Katrina....

I've never personally been really affected by a disaster such as this.... not until now.

Most know - we are in east Texas. In Tyler there are about 3500 evacuees being sheltered, fed, and loved. This feeling of grief that I have felt in the last few days has been very sad and very overwhelming at times. We have an office in New Orleans and several in the surrounding areas. Only 60% of our employees have been accounted for so far. My team has been taking overflow issues and distressed business calls from people that have evacuated into other parts of Louisiana that we service. (Cable, Internet, and Digital Phone) People frantic to get their businesses back up in some shape or form.
I"ve been working with a girl in our Baton Rouge office where a large part of out New Orleans team is temporarily at now. She said they were devistated. Devistated by the fact that everything they had is gone - Devistated by the fact that there were dead bodies just floating in the streets. Having no way of knowing if it was one of the people they would be looking for in the next few days...

It is a truely helpless feeling to know that we aren't too far away from there - and there is only so much that I can do tohelp them/

One thing that was neat that I did do = I got 16 phones up and running in the cajun dome in Lafayette for the thousands of people there to be able to attempt to reach their families. Technically I was just doing my job - but to me - it was more than that. And I felt proud when I was getting everything ready for them.

ON thursday - I had worked so hard - I took myself out to dinner. There was no way that I was going to cook. BUT - I wanted so badly to go by the shelter and get a small family and take them with me. I didn't know how to go by and just get one though....

As for the people that are still there causing alot of Chaos.... The ones doing that are t he same ones that would have mugged you on the street during Marti Gras - they have just been pushed to a different level. We've all seen endless footage of what they are living in - I'd expect that in a different country - but not in the state next to my own. the response from the government - I don't know what the deal is - but I've seen an outpour of peoples hearts in my city...

[Koliedrus]

This certainly isn't a news outlet. Over time I think many of us have learned that there are enough of those to go around and we gravitate towards the ones that catch our mind's eye.

I've been watching, catching mainstream, seeing vids from hither and yon, cried a time or three, did some minor changes to a .kmz overlay in hopes that it would help someone, checked in with the DigitalGlobe people, got a prompt response and relayed it, found http://www.scipionus.com/ ...

In short, I've been paying attention.

I Drudged this morning and saw mention that black hurricane victims in New Orleans have begun eating corpses to survive. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/randall-robinson/new-orleans_b_6643.html).

If it's true, it's insane. If not, it's insane.

So, I read through the comments and watched Kenya Kanye rant (http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2678975) while Meyers went "Huh?"

When I got to the end of Robinson's blog comments, I decided to add one but for some reason it was stuck at 118 on September 03, 2005 at 12:10AM.

So, here I replicate what would be post 119 by Tabloid Publisher:

Hey, Thanks!

"Bin Laden's Chinese Manufactured Hurricane Machine Sparks Civil War II In US.

It is reported that the mastermind behind the destruction of civilization stated, 'The corpse-eating thingy cost me a bundle, what with all the mind controlling nanobots. But, if you're gonna fork out the dough for a Lamborghini, you go for all the features. The racial hatred... That was just an unexpected bonus.

Zoom Zoom Zoom! Hahaha!

I'm still learning how to aim this thing. Got the wrong month this time but not by far. There were some patterns that made it break to the right. I'm still on my game and the season isn't over yet.'

On condition of anonymity, an Al Qaeda official commented, "Look at them! Ha ha ha! They blame each other! This is better than that time Jerry found out that Elaine was faking orgasms! Nice putt, boss!"

For some reason they wouldn't let me post!

Attica!

[Asmodeus]

We have opened up Camp Maxey here in Paris. Supposed to be like 500 families or some shit moving in. There is already damn near 200 here already. This is creating a logistics nightmare.

Now I am all for helping those who truly need help. But, I am not for helping those who can help themselves.

[SimpleSimon]

There are over 1,000 refugees in the fairgrounds here in Shreveport, and many more at the campus of LSU. Get used to it, as this is going to be a long term situation.

[Koliedrus]

Simon and Asmo,

Place your markers!

http://www.scipionus.com/