But one more thing...

[sabotabby]

I'm watching, and feeling, sadness turning into physical horror turning into rage. And people wonder why folks in New Orleans are rioting?



For ordering 1,500 police to leave search-and-rescue operations to stop looting when there are still survivors, Mayor Nagin deserves to be strung up, Mussolini-style. I'm not usually one to condone capital punishment but for that I'll make an exception.

For this, I hope they use Condoleeza Rice and her shoes to plug the levee or something. Then we could actually say that one of those neo-con bastards had done something useful.

Okay...so nothing could have prevented Katrina. But a hell of a lot could have been done to prevent the misery and suffering we're seeing now.

The other day I came out at work. (There are a few new people, and they don't know about my politics.) One woman was insisting that, well, socialism didn't work, and anarchism wouldn't work, because people were flawed and that capitalism, though it was flawed too, was the only thing that seemed to work. (Never mind the historical inaccuracy of that statement; this was a casual lunchtime discussion.)

I replied that what we're seeing in New Orleans now is capitalism in action. The rich had cars and got out. The poor got drowned. The system works, perfectly.

I can't help but contrast this, being removed from the situation and not an American, with the media coverage of Sept. 11, the outpouring of sympathy, the "We Are All New Yorkers" bollocks. I don't see that now. We are not being asked to identify with the people too poor to get out, the people trapped in the Superdome, the "looters," the rioters. That's part of why I can't read the news right now. It's a spectacle. We're meant to be horrified -- not for the human lives lost, not for the beauty of the city, not for the animals who drowned, probably wondering why their owners weren't coming back -- but at this grotesque display of people at their worst.

Anyway, this seems to be on the right track.

On a comparatively trivial note, I really, really wish my landlords (father and son) would agree to discuss rent disputes over the phone instead of insisting on getting together with me in person. Just because my landlord has nothing better to do with his time doesn't mean that I have nothing better to do with my time. They always show up late and I waste my entire evening on what could be solved in a few minutes of discussion.

Comments

[syndicalist.livejournal.com]

The people in NOLA should loot every goddamned abandoned store -- or even non-abandoned, they can find. The media tone of contempt and horror at these people is disturbing (it's especially coming from the usual sources, FOX etc., some outlets are being pretty humanitarian).

[sabotabby]

So you've noticed it too?

[mr-flabulous.livejournal.com]

the highlighted quote in the star was some whitey tourist motherfucker being all like 'i thought this city was classy'

[sabotabby]

Oh, I think I saw that. ::vomits::

[(Anonymous)]

I think she was a native of Philadelphia, and that 'sophisticated' was another word she used.

[corvus.livejournal.com]

boo! no native of philly would ever say something like that! :( :( :(

err

i mean

that sounds about right

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I cannot believe that people were left in that city. Goddamn it, I can't watch the news cause I get so furious and scare people around me with my ranting. It's utterly sick, and who gives a shit what's being looted? It's just stuff. Those are people. Ahem.

[sabotabby]

Well, they needed the helicoptors for Iraq or something.

[terry-terrible.livejournal.com]

Yup, I read that about 2/3rd of the Louisiana National Gaurd's equipment and about 1/2 of thier personal are tied up in Iraq.

I guess blowing up people is a much higher priority than saving them.

[terry-terrible.livejournal.com]

No shit, it's amazing that with two days warning they couldn't have organized a mass evacuation, or at least attempt to. Instead of that, they pretty much just ordered everyone out in a "every person for themselves" fashion.

[cdaae.livejournal.com]

I agree, with everything everyone's said here. It just boggles my mind that they could have left people there, that they can be treating people like this. And if the official evacuation plan is "every person for themselves," it's no surprise that some people are holding up trucks bound for hospitals.

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

It totally beggars belief. I mean I expect callous indifference on the part of the Administration even to American lives if they're poor and/or brown people, but for it to be so blatant, so public, played out on the television screens... like the Charity hospital that treats the uninsured begging for help to evacuate, while the private hospital down the road has completed its evacuation... (another link from liz_marcs).

I didn't think I was still capable of being shocked.

[sabotabby]

I'm sort of glad I'm shocked. It means I still have some leftover faith in humanity. Or something.

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, always reassuring to discover one still has the capacity.

[ridemycamel.livejournal.com]

Watching the news on tv, it really amazes me to see what New Orleans looks like...I feel like I'm watching "some backwards country like Africa", to quote the US Ambassador to Canada in a speech he made at Queen's.

[sabotabby]

Holy shit, Africa's a country? ;)

Is this the new US Ambassador? We were making fun of him last night.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not sure...I'm talking about the Ambassador who was around this time last year. I think it's the same guy who called Canada cowards for refusing to join in on the WAR IN TERROR IN I-RACK