I don't think they had an evacuation plan and the government definately had a piss poor ability to respond to the crisis with real relief. It shouldn't have taken that long to get buses, food and water! Thats crazy!
In their case I believe he is probably right (althought I don't know the circumstances his livejournal reads like he stayed in hopes that this would happen and he could re-live his army days or some sort of post world war III dream).
The whole thing is very shocking and disturbing to me. Much more so then the Tsunami, more then 9/11 I think. I don't think its because its closer to home (although I was in NO last year) but because of how quickly basic human decency has broken down. I can accept horrible acts of nature much more easily then those of humans. It isn't even the looting that bothers me, its the murder, muggings, rapes and ignoring of the sick. I just can't believe human decency broke down so quickly... I keep telling myself it must be sensationalist journalism reporting the worst examples...
Everytime I read another report I keep thinking, WTF?!
Yeah, isn't it? Veg likes to say "most of us are 2 paychecks from being homeless". Maybe it's really one disaster from being animals. Or maybe we just are working on an animal level, but we aren't quiet aware that for 99% of our lives we have an alpha wolf around to keep us in line.
And honestly, you won't see some trust fund baby who got trapped in that region raiding the gun shop and shooting people. I mean, _maybe_ you might, but the chances are it is the people who have been hard up for most of there life and just snapped. Or, maybe like the Mayor said, it's all a bunch of drug addicts freakin out. I kind of hope that isn't it, sure is a strong arguement against addictive drugs ;)
I think it goes to show how sheer the veneer of civilization truly is. In the West especially we are obsessed with this idea of being a civilized people. So when its the people of our own country that descend into the lowest depths of human behavior we are somehow surprised. As yix said it is a very poverty-stricken area to begin with. To me that puts a lot of things in perspective: should we really be so shocked that crime is rampant?
Yeah, and it just goes to show that povery is everyones problem, not just a bleeding heart liberal save the whales kind of thing. The other example is terrorism. The majority of criminals thru-out history have one thing in common, they feel like they don't have much to lose by defying 'civilization'.
See, I thought the FEMA guy was talking about people like this:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/
In their case I believe he is probably right (althought I don't know the circumstances his livejournal reads like he stayed in hopes that this would happen and he could re-live his army days or some sort of post world war III dream).
The whole thing is very shocking and disturbing to me. Much more so then the Tsunami, more then 9/11 I think. I don't think its because its closer to home (although I was in NO last year) but because of how quickly basic human decency has broken down. I can accept horrible acts of nature much more easily then those of humans. It isn't even the looting that bothers me, its the murder, muggings, rapes and ignoring of the sick. I just can't believe human decency broke down so quickly... I keep telling myself it must be sensationalist journalism reporting the worst examples...
Everytime I read another report I keep thinking, WTF?!
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Yeah, isn't it? Veg likes to say "most of us are 2 paychecks from being homeless". Maybe it's really one disaster from being animals. Or maybe we just are working on an animal level, but we aren't quiet aware that for 99% of our lives we have an alpha wolf around to keep us in line.
And honestly, you won't see some trust fund baby who got trapped in that region raiding the gun shop and shooting people. I mean, _maybe_ you might, but the chances are it is the people who have been hard up for most of there life and just snapped. Or, maybe like the Mayor said, it's all a bunch of drug addicts freakin out. I kind of hope that isn't it, sure is a strong arguement against addictive drugs ;)
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But yes, it is just awful to watch.
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Yeah, and it just goes to show that povery is everyones problem, not just a bleeding heart liberal save the whales kind of thing. The other example is terrorism. The majority of criminals thru-out history have one thing in common, they feel like they don't have much to lose by defying 'civilization'.
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