Tea and Books, etc.

sad, but not surprising... i have friends that have lost hope of ever going back to a normal life in NO.

 

Bad Dirk, bad!

I think they should name it Triumphant New Orleans should it get back to near normal. But that won't be for a long, long time.

And though the focus is on New Orleans, there were plenty of other towns in the surrounding states that sustained tremendous loss and damages.

Hi, Amy. I agree that it's not much of a surprise, but it is pathetic and shameful that a country of this size, which boasts of technologic, scientific, economic, and scientific superiority, among others, can't organize itself to help people in need.

My best wishes to your friends that they can resume a relatively normal life soon.

 

I thought they changed the name to Chocolate town...

Anyone that moves back there has cream cheese for brains. Good luck getting flood insurance, or maybe they figure the Federal government will bail them out again.

 

Hmm. That's a bit harsh, PK. Cream cheese for brains?

I think a lot of these people really have no other place to go. After all, they have nothing.

Hotels are tossing them out, aid is slow or not available, and there's nowhere else to turn.

While I agree with you about the flood insurance (and other insurance issues, really), I don't see that the federal government has bailed them out yet. There have been a lot of promises made, but many haven't been kept. :-(

Armaeus: I just thought of another name -- Renewed Orleans. Okay, trite, but I never said I was brilliant! ;-)

 

EEK, Princess Tea, you will have people realising, oops, I mean thinking that I grace-and-favoured you for the mention!

Seriously, well done for winning the competition, and especially for such a thoughtful choice of charity. My apologies for the tiny sum. It's so easy to forget about these terrible events when the media spotlight moves around so rapidly.

Well done for quite rightly bringing the uncomfortable truth back to our attention.

If I lived in New Orleans - which, for what it's worth, I think is a fine name (coming from Newcastle, I'm a bit biased) - and were still alive, I would be enraged at those who were ultimately responsible for ‘designing’ the sea defences, which clearly weren’t up to the job.

The disaster exposed an even greater truth: that we in the West seem to value our non-white citizens less than others.

Despite their terrible troubles, I've been moved by the resilience and strength of spirit of the people of New Orleans.

(PK, if you had made that comment on my blog, you'd just have been awarded your second yellow card, you lucky man!)

 

Well, sire, we have no control over what people will think, so I'm not going to worry about the grace-and-favour opinion possibility and neither should you. :-)

The sad thing about the sea-defense design is that it was criticised for many many years. But like so many things, because nothing catastrophic had happened or was anticipated, nothing was done either. It's yet another case of fixing something after it broke rather than taking preventative measures... but once something is broken, it will never be like new, no matter what is done.

Regarding nonwhite vs white citizens: by and large, the poor were affected across all racial and ethnic boundaries. However, it is true that a disproportionate amount of those affected were nonwhite. As me mum said, if a disaster of these proportions had happened in Washington, DC, Westchester, New York, or Stamford, Connecticut, it is unlikely that there would have been such a laissez-faire attitude before and during the crisis, and such inefficiency and disorganisation afterward.

The resiliency of the people of New Orleans -- I am a self-confessed cynic, so the foibles of the human race, and the evil that people perpetuate on each other, don't often surprise me, even as they anger, disappoint and sadden me. However, the human spirit does constantly amaze and astonish me, too, especially in war-torn countries, impoverished areas and sections of the globe hit by natural disasters.

Despite all, homo sapiens sapiens still treads onward. I haven't yet decided if that's a good thing or bad.

 

Oh, pooh, meant to address the moolah issue --

As I said last night, sire, any amount given from the heart is always the right amount.

So, thank you once again for your generosity. :-D

 

Well said, PT. I'm not sure either. It is a shame that warnings had been given well in advance. The point that your mum made is sad too. The same is true over here of course.

I hope what you say about broken things never being new again isn't true in this case. Time will tell I suppose.

I had a couple of particular incidents in mind when I spoke about resilience etc., one involving a black couple who were showing a BBC film crew around what remained of their home. Their acceptance, humility, sadness, and courage were just overwhelming.