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Another canned thread?..
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I hope that the spirit of charity and concern that the UK has shown in the past to sufferers of similar disasters is shown now, and that the anti-American feelings and prejudices don't make us look like the selfish, self absorbed ones.
The disaster does cover hundreds of miles and has affected a large number of people. These people are now homeless, have no jobs and may have only what they are standing up in. Those affected most seem to be those who have the least. The southern states of america are the poorest and there is alot of poverty. These events have saddened me. Hope things improve from now on.
Another Runner I have read of no anti-American feelings here only concern that the so called richest nation in the world is struggling to cope with this.
Prehaps the US emergency departments have been concerning themselves too much with the threat of terriorism when natural disaster can be much more devastating.
Your point raises an interesting question though... Will there be a charity fund (though I assume there is already), pains me to say this and im likely to get attacked for it but..
I wont give anything purely on the basis that there are much more worthwhile causes, there are millions of people all over the world that live their lives in worse conditions than we see in New Orleans at the moment and id rather continue to support them.
USA 2004 GDP (Gross Domestic Product, in other words how much their economy gernerates each year) $11.75 trillion
Military Expenditure $370.7 billion (FY04 est.) (March 2003)
I hear President Bushes comments today on the news that hes sending another 7 (or was it 17) thousand troops to bring to total up to 40,000. USA has at least 1.2 million active service personnel of which at least 500,000 must be in USA (approx 250,000 in Iraq) where are they all, why wernt 50% of them sent in on day one? why still only 40,000 6 days later and not 200,000?
I gather they are now doing all they can but with the resources available in the USA and having had 6 days to mobalise them it seems appauling the situation continues as it is.
I don't know if we would cope better - I certainly hope so, and I hope everyone learns lessons from this. But reality of disasters of this scale is that by their nature they make the usual rescue mechanisms impossible. It's like when we talk about Disaster Recovery situations at work - they work well in limited incidents, but something that took out the electricity and transport of London, and cut off all usual transport options is hard, if not impossible, to plan for.
I agree entirely with your analysis that the people most affected are those who had the least to begin with. People who had money, or somewhere else to go generally left before the real devastation hit.
I love New Orleans, I've spent many happy holidays there enjoying the annual Jazz Festival. I haven't really got my head round the reality of what has happened.... it's just all indescribably sad.
Im a very caring person (despite how I may come accross), if I was involved in this situation or anything where people needed help id do all I could, I think thats just a natural instinct.
But I won't judge the need of the people affected by the ineptitude of their government, anymore than I would withhold support from those affected in a country run by a corrupt dictator.
There is a Red Cross fund, as there was following 9/11, and as there is in London following 1/17. It is a fund to which many Americans (and non-Americans like me) have donated. Whether this is the most worthy cause at this particular moment in time is an argument I won't get into, as I think that very subjective judgement is one that can always be questioned.
There was an interesting parrellel of this at the Manchester air disaster when the plane caught fire on the runway, sadly about 50 people died but witness accounts are of very fierce fighting towards the back of the plane but I guess when your clothes are on fire youll do anthing to escape. Human panic and fight/flight instincts are natural, all be it that if there hadnt been panic and fighting on the plane maybe more people would have survived but that doesnt stop indicidual acting with whatever means they consider necessary to save their own lives.
but if it was for my children i might
(have no kids)
It's a minority looting, it may well be a minority of police preotecting stores while other police rescue victims, we don't know the facts.
I'm not naive enough to think that it would be any different in the UK if the same catastrophe were to happen here. Some people would be prepared to steal,attack others, and murder in these exceptional circumstances, even accepting the fact that we don't have the widespread gun ownership of the US.
I don't agree with the shoot to kill policy for looters. What good does that do? Are we really saying a human life is worth less than a TV or a microwave ?
A by product of this is the crime and gang culture that proliferates in such area's the widespread availability of guns and numbers of drug users and gang members further compounds this hence the capacity to commit crime and create disorder and potentially discourage act of humanity are so so much higher.
The situation of such large pockets of people that live in the USA in this way is not reflected anywhere else in Western Democracies, even given the poverty in the UK this is thankfully (though unsatisfactorily) represented by fewer numbers and less willingness to commit crime even if you look at some of the worst ares's of UK eg East London, Glasgow, Liverpool etc.
Its the scale of the numbers and the embeded feeling of hopelessness in which these people live that magnifies the problem in New Orleans etc.
I saw a programme about LA a short while ago which said the equivilent of a 911 happens every year in terms of gun deaths (3000 in LA alone) yet the government have done little to even police the poverty and crime ridden area's and seem unable or willing to combat the problem. In all approx 20,000-25,000 people are killed by guns in the USA each year, most of them black on black murders. In the UK although our population is about 15% of USA approc 30 people are murdered by gun crime each year.
I think its time for them to get back to basics which is really what the original canned thread was about. Regrettably I chose to use less appropriate and poorly worded comparisions and dwelled to much on the USA interferring overseas by pursuing matters of self interest.