| Monday September
5, 2005
See last week's weekend mail for
letters from Phillip on the Navy in the Gulf of Mexico
Following is from my oldest
son Alex in response to correspondence on how the response to the Gulf
of Mexico crisis response was not well handled:
Hmm. Well. "Well." Certainly not well-handled as
compared to what we'd like.
But:
Compared to building the canals high enough, and
compartmentalize the city enough, that the damage would have been limited?
Compared to having NO evacuated before the hurricane
hit?
Compared to having the state, parish and city
officials follow their own emergency plan?
Compared to federalizing the response on Saturday the
28th? (Remember, the State has to ask before the Feds can move in. Few
talking-heads seem to know this.)
Compared to having the Governor call out the LA Guard
on Sunday...Monday... umm... before Wednesday?
Compared to not having the 17th Street and Industrial
Canals collapse and scour?
Compared to not having the NOPD completely collapse?
Compared to being compelled to restore order in the
city before establishing a post-flood evacuation?
All those bad things happened. So: Compared to
reality?
Compared to reality, the Federal response has been
both wretched and nothing short of awesome.
Wretched at the top, and awesome below that. Wretched:
Lack of coordination at the top, the know-nothing head of FEMA, the lack of
immediate acceptance of non-Federal (and foreign) support, et very cetera.
Many died unnecessarily. More will still.
Awesome: The early repair (24 hours before the already
optimistic deadline) of the 17th Street canal, the air bridges, the movement
of displaced persons, the medical evacuation, the beginning of restoration
of infrastructure in N.O., etc. A quarter million people moved to TX in four
days. With help, another quarter mil moved to other places. Without a single
NO City or NO school bus usable.
10,000 rescues--TEN THOUSAND--by the Coast Guard
alone, with one (non-fatal) helo crash.
So: if you're complaining that not enough support
moved quickly enough, you're right--but considering where they had to start
from, the Feds (including the much-hated FEMA) performed amazingly. And
everyone, State or Feds, absorbed a doubling (and then another doubling) of
the number of evacuees, WITHOUT the sort of operational paralysis that such
insane changes of condition usually bring.
My opinion: The actions of those same Feds saved
thousands of lives, up to (and maybe including) the FEMA Region VI director,
Ron Castleman.
Complain away; it's your right. We Should Do Better.
But know: Learning how to deal with emergency response ALWAYS builds lessons
on the backs of the dead.
And if you think you can do better--FEMA is hiring.
--Alex
My own view is expressed
in the essay I just wrote, but
Alex, who is involved in the California emergency response teams (as a
volunteer, not paid) makes good points.
My own view is that restoring the old Office of
Civil Defense, with local organizations of both volunteers and
professionals, with emergency militia powers and responsibilities at the
discretion of the governor, makes a very great deal more sense; but it will
take a long time to build a proper organization. We have the technology. We
can do it.
What we must end is the attitude that you can only
trust professionals hired and paid for. Bureaucracy is the answer to many
problems, like dog catching and enforcement of needful regulations.
Bureaucracy is almost NEVER the proper response to emergencies and
unforeseen situations.
The Military is a form of bureaucracy but one with
remedies: there is no tenure, and command changes can be made quickly. We
cannot afford, nor would we want, large military establishments everywhere.
We need them as garrisons in many places to be the core of a rapid response
to disasters; but the primary responsibility for your neighbor is your
burden, and the best response to local emergencies is local Civil Defense
organizations, volunteers trained and ready, old goons and biddies who like
playing soldier and pretending to be part of a militia -- until they are
needed. And then they become heroes.
I agree completely with Alex.
I've grown weary of listening to Nagin complain, when he is more
responsible than anyone for the failed evacuation and miserable conditions
of those left in NO after Katrina struck.
Barbara finally got through to a good friend of ours in Jackson, MI on
Thursday. As distant as Jackson is from the catastrophic damage caused by
Katrina, Allison told us she was barely able to get to the hospital where
she works. There was no power, no water, no gasoline available, and people
were shooting at each other over water and gasoline. Most of the major roads
were still blocked by trees and debris, and hardly anything was able to
move. And that's in Jackson. I can't imagine what it must be like in NO
itself and the immediate surrounding area.
If there's blame to be allocated, I think Nagin deserves much of it. He
could and should have commandeered the NO city buses and school buses and
gotten as many of those people as far north as he could have done. That city
should have been a ghost town when Katrina hit. Had he taken even minimal
steps to evacuate those who didn't have their own transportation, the
situation in NO would have been a lot more manageable.
And what about emergency stocks of food and water? I almost choked when I
watched Nagin tell people to carry five days' worth of food and water to the
Superdome. Does the man have any idea how much that weighs? How could he
designate the Superdome a shelter of last resort and make absolutely no
provision for food or water for the thousands of people that he'd left with
that as their only option? As far as I've heard, the NO emergency management
people didn't even think to provide chlorine bleach and trash bags for
emergency toilets.
I'm not defending FEMA, although I'm sure their people on the ground were
doing their absolute best. But comparing a CNN news crew flitting in on
their helicopters, shooting some footage, and then flitting out again to the
resources needed to move meaningful amounts of aid to those thousands who
were stranded in NO isn't a useful comparison.
-- Robert Bruce Thompson
In War everything is very simple but the simplest
things are very difficult. It is called friction and Clausewitz wrote
meaningfully of it. And disaster response is like to military actions, which
is why it used to be CIVIL DEFENSE and local rather than FEMA and
professional and a job for bureaucrats.
Subject: Local lack of preparation in New Orleans
I think FEMA guidelines call for localities to be
capable of handling the first 72 to 96 hours of a disaster; the Feds commit
to being there no earlier than 3 days after the disaster hits. The hurricane
hit on Monday and the feds were arriving Thursday and Friday, right on
schedule.
New Orleans was not prepared to last three minutes,
let alone three days. I wonder how Los Angeles or Chicago would have fared.
I suppose you can argue that the feds had several
days' warning before the storm even hit, and they should have been ready to
move in. But still, a city ought to be able to hold itself together for 3
days. And a family ought to be able to survive without any help for 3 days
after a disaster (assuming no injuries).
Probably many of the ones left in the New Orleans city
center were those on the left end of the foresight bell curve, though; for
them, as well as for the sick or disabled who couldn't get out, the city
should have had a real plan and resources saved up.
Steve Setzer
Alas, FEMA uses the we are trained professionals
trust us approach. The old civil Defense system made it clear who was
primarily responsible. And see below.
============
From Lt. Commander Phillip
Pournelle
Early today we drove out to USNS Arctic, tied up to
her and offloaded supplies to her. These were the stores we took on in
Pensacola last night. Arctic is unable to enter Pensacola due to the
obstructions I wrote about earlier. We'll continue these operations for a
while. The Captain likes to remind people we are "Fast and Versatile." He's
very right
Phil
Phillip Pournelle Lt CDR USN
The most important asset of all on this ship...
and the ship dockside.
=
More reports and photographs from Phillip in his long
report below.
===========
Subject: FEMA, Hurricanes, and Deployed Troops
Dear Dr. Pournelle:
While I agree with your assessment of Civil Defense,
FEMA usually takes this long to respond to major hurricanes. In 1989, after
Hugo pummilled the Carolinas, Governor Campbell of South Carolina complained
about the slow Federal response. FEMA was also this slow in 1992 following
Andrew. What we are seeing isn't the effect of troops deployed overseas,
it's how FEMA usually reacts to major hurricanes. The only difference this
time is that because of the magnitude of the disaster, the eyes of the
entire world is focused on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, and is paying
closer attention to what's going on. FEMA can be great when it get's going,
but it always seems to take them several days to react to hurricanes.
Obviously there's much that can be done better. It's
hard to imagine how it could be done worse. The City of New Orleans needs to
ask itself why it never came up with a full evacuation plan. The State of
Louisiana needs to ask why the Governor didn't activate the National Guard
on the Friday before Katrina struck, when it first became apparent that it
could strike New Orleans. FEMA needs to ask why it takes several days for
them to get their act together every time a major hurricane strikes. And
from what I've seen during disasters, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if some
petty officials were trying to swing their weight around and gummed up the
works in the process. I've seen that happen before, except that the right
people involved said "forget you" and did what needed to be done. Could
have, would have, should have. I'm sure all involved will be pointing their
fingers at each other long before the water is drained from New Orleans.
Frankly the lack of improversation by all involved is
dumbfounding. Dumptrucks and high-bodied trucks can carry people as well as
buses; Citizens can be deputized as a police force multiplier; CB radios
from the local electronics store can provide communications if satellite
radios are not available; and so forth and so on.
We haven't even paid much attention to the Gulf Coast
yet. As I'm sure you're hearing from your source on the spot, damage
extended up through at least half of Mississippi. We're only hearing a small
bit of the flustration with a slow FEMA response from there, about as much
as we usually hear following major hurricanes.
The most obvious lesson from all this, as you have
already pointed out, is that disaster response needs to be locally based.
That point needs to be driven home to states and municipalities, if the
tragedy of Katrina hasn't already done so. The Federal government needs a
rapid reaction force to respond to disasters, and needs to plan for them in
the same way it planed for a Soviet grab on Western Europe in the days of
the Cold War. States have the legal authority (the exact part of the U.S.
Code escapes me at the moment) to maintain a state defense force seperate
from the National Guard, and perhaps the states should take a serious look
in using it to provide muscle during major disasters. States should plan on
dealing with disasters by themselves. If the Federal government can step in
and help, fine and dandy, but if not, it doesn't need to be caught
flat-footed. If there's any good that comes out of all this, maybe it will
be that all levels of government will start to take disaster response
seriously.
Kevin J Cheek
================
New Orleans will be rebuilt
http://www.stratfor.com/news/archive/050903-geopolitics_katrina.php
I know that you've had Stratfor links before, but I
don't know whether you read it regularly. The essay linked above was pasted
into one of my usenet forums, and it makes it clear why such a large city
was built in such an absurd location, two stories below sea level and even
more below the river level.
We hear a lot about oil and Louisiana, but nothing
about this year's agricultural exports without the nation's largest port.
Greg Goss
=============================
Subject: Troop "Over there"
Jerry. I don't buy this comment about not having
enough troops to handle the hurricane disaster because of Iraq. One comment
I read on the Free Republic Website said that only 10% of our current
"National Guard" troops are in Iraq. The rest of the Iraq troops are Regular
"volunteer" Army. That would leave 90% of the American National Guard
available to be used for such disasters. I cannot verify the percentages,
but I am sure that our total National Guard force IS NOT unavailabe, as you
imply.
They weren't there faster because of the LAW that says
who, when, and how they may be legally employed. A careful reading shows
that although there was some confusion, it was the officials of LA that were
faulty here. If Bush had invaded with troops before the Governor requested
it, it would have been an "invasion", and an impeacheable offense that
hasn't been done since the Civil War. Bush has failed to stop our government
from becoming larger, and has done many things I disagree with. But the
"false witness testimony" being presented by our, in my opinion, Bushophobic,
communistically inspired propaganda type Main Stream Media is absolutely
nauseating.
The other implication would be that we had "spent" all
of the money that we might need for the disaster elsewhere. Jerry, I love
your analysis of most things, but it was you who pointed out the fallacies
of "Voodoo Economics." Even you should know that "Washington" economics is
not dependent on reality. If Washington really, really wants money for
anything, it will appear. PERIOD. For example, money is ALWAYS there for a
war (not just Viet Nam, Iraq, or Korea).
The Levies broke because of the recalcitrance of
NGO's, Environmentalists, Democrats in congress, and the absolute corruption
of officials in LA over a long term period who refused to, or diverted that
money. Money not spent in one or another place does not mean that someone
intentionally did that to destroy a city. Shame on you. Our troops in Iraq
has nothing to do with "Mabel" who is still sitting in her flooded house
because she knows that every cop in N.O. is a crook and wanted to keep her
stuff. AND SHE IS STILL REFUSING TO LEAVE TODAY, WHEN A NEWSCASTER
INTERVEIWED HER!
It is a disaster. It doesn't help when people like
George Noory present shows that state that all this is part of a "weather
war" where hurricanes are being directed at American cities. It feeds in to
the "unreality" of "somehow, Bush did it." Nonsense, but to much of our
uneducated American public, who knows how much this will fan the flames of
hatred.
I am sorry to come down on you. I am unhappy that we
are stuck in Iraq, and do not know what the final results may be. But I am
more unhappy that I think that, because Americans have turned away from the
basic rules that are necessary for survival, and thus is doomed to die. I
mean that once "false witness testimony" is accepted in any society, it is a
poison that cannot be reversed, and that society dies. Also, the "rule" that
"if you don't kill me, then I won't kill you" is being voided, and the value
of human life is now nothing, whether you are disabled (Schiavo), unborn
(abortion), or poor (the N.O. mayor not using busses for the poor). Not to
mention the shooting at rescuers.
And of course, the total abrogation of "private
property" by our "make it up as you go along supremes."
Sorry Jerry. America may be over. But, NOT because of
our troops in Iraq. If you think Bush is bad in a disaster, can't you just
see every journalists lips firmly planted on a democrat Presidents "butt" as
he does absolutely nothing but "makes a great speech" about how he "feels
our pain." Then he would hire Sandy Berger to hide any "Levee" papers, and
Richard Clarke to "cover up and make a video" of how the Republicans broke
the levee's. Republicans may be bad. Democrats are even worse.
Thus endenth my rant.
PUBLIUS II
=====================
IT would be easier to reply if I were not so
irritated at your needlessly contentious and hostile attitude. Rational debate has no need of such silliness.
I was, in my haste, perhaps unclear: The
overseas war absorbed, used up, tired out, a Lot of our READY forces, the
very ones we need now, leaving as to Call up the secondary reserves, both on
state and national levels. And, I will admit, I had not then given
sufficient consideration to the thorough destruction of the old Civil
Defense organizations I knew. My youngest son has just reminded me that when
I was a Scoutmaster we were tied in to Civil Defense and Emergency
Preparedness. He was involved in emergency preparedness for earthquakes and
flooding.
You have mastered the art of saying things I
have said (some of them) in a way that makes me want to abandon my own
positions. Congratulations.
In any event we have not totally abandoned private
property. The Court has said that state Law prevails over Federal judiciary in an
important decision on property. Perhaps making people take their States and state law
seriously is a step on the return path? It does not abandon the notion of
private property, and it may be a return to sanity from the Federal Urban
Renewal bulldozer. Most such rights are better arranged and protected by the
states, for what the Feds give and protect the Feds may instantly take away.
As to this attempt to turn my analysis of
structural failure into a partisan accusation, I have many such letters from both sides and I
reject them all. The Civil defense defects are structural and partisan only
in that they stem from The Cold War Liberal rejection of the whole notion of
Civil Defense. Bush didn't kill Civil Defense because it was dead when he
got into office. Neither did Clinton.
Neither Party wants or wanted to change from the FEMA
centralistic philosophy to one of local Civil Defense organizations as a
local militia with federal help in training
to act in emergencies. Trust us said FEMA. We are trained professionals.
Don't try This as home. Well, we trusted them.
=======
Subject: Disasters big and small
It was clear to everyone who looked at the situation
that if no provision were made, the poor of New Orleans would suffer
grievously in a major hurricane. This was said repeatedly, for years.
Nothing was done. I think this inaction is symptomatic of a larger pattern.
America is a nation that has largely stopped really
believing its myths. The "Great Society" to be created by winning a "War on
Poverty," the vision of another generation of leaders, now seems an
incomprehensible failure. One can argue methods, by my point is that now we
can hardly imagine anyone even thinking they could actually realize such a
‘big idea.’ The now-pervasive cynicism and complacency mean that problems
that could and should be solved are ignored. The result is obvious with
Katrina, but there are thousands of individual-scale disasters in the U.S.
every day, disasters of crime, poverty, domestic violence, economic decline,
dysfunctional schools, and breakdowns of medical and other systems. These
disasters are hidden and ignored, the same way the vulnerability of New
Orleans' poor to flooding was ignored.
America cannot be sustained, as America, by the
achievements of a relatively small stratum of technical/managerial elites,
while ever-larger swaths of the population become ever-more marginalized and
underserved. We need a vision of rebuilding the nation for all our citizens.
Perhaps we can find it in the way we rebuild the region destroyed by a
hurricane.
Mike Juergens mjcom99@hotmail.com
Hurrah!
=
Subject: Apologists --
Dear Dr. Pournelle:
I was never one to believe in Original Sin, but after
witnessing the barbarity of the scum of New Orleans -- not the unfortunates
left homeless, but the looters and snipers -- I have to think that man is,
indeed, born flawed. For ever saint and hero that arose in this crisis,
there are a thousand who pluck a the wounded, figuratively cutting off
fingers for the rings of dying.
Those who scavanged for the necessities of life can
almost be forgiven, but those who raised the black flag and those who shot
at rescue workers deserve no excuse and only punishment. Which brings me to
the point of the e-mail.
On Saturday, on NPR, Daniel Schorr, apologizing or the
looting or shooting stated: that's "what happens, I suppose, when you have
people desperate at the same time a lack of uniformed authority or anything
to deter them..."
So according to Mr. Schorr, the only thing between
being a human and being an animal who shoots at rescue workers is the
presence of a cop. Law means nothing. Morality means nothing. The only thing
that keeps the jackals at bay are uniforms and guns. What does that say for
Americans?
Another apologist, Harry Conick, Jr., was recorded as
saying that if he were in such a situation that he might be looting as well.
Funny how Mr. Conick can get to what was his home town when supplies are
having a hard time. I wonder how much food, water, and relief supplies Mr.
Conick brought with him. I expect to hear how he is now shoveling muck from
the streets. Yeah, I'll hold my breath.
Pete Nofel
I would make The correction that those who
scavenged for necessities need no forgiveness; otherwise, yes, indeed.
========
Letter From England
Most people here in England seem
to be bemused watching events in America. Talk about chickens coming home to
roost! Have you read John McPhee's The Control of Nature <http://www.johnmcphee.com/controlofnature.htm>? It's extremely relevant to events, as is
Jared Diamond's <http://149.142.237.180/faculty/diamond.htm>
Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive <http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/
obidos/ASIN/0713992867/qid=1125910487/sr=2-1/
ref=sr_2_11_1/026-8569031-0446041> . Really, we can't afford a ninety-
day planning horizon for major disasters. America has our prayers.
BBC article on criminals adapting to ID cards: <http://news.bbc.co.uk/
1/hi/sci/tech/4213848.stm> . Problems with 'chip and pin' <http:// money.guardian.co.uk/scamsandfraud/story/0,13802,1562682,00.html> , see also
<http://www.chipandspin.co.uk/>
"If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen":
Labour complaints about grilling in speech by BBC commentor, Humphrys,
<http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1562874,00.html> .
Durham Cathedral story <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/
4211426.stm>
-- "The data (or the marks when teaching) are sacrosanct--they
tell us what actually happened." Harry Erwin, PhD http://osiris.sunderland.ac.uk/~cs0her
Well, the decision to Live there is local and
responsibility is local. I live in an earthquake area, There are dangers.
Should New York pay? Bit we have stopped thinking thus way. Federal caused
problems are federal responsibility. Local problems may have National
implications.
========
Subject: more education fun
http://www.ishkabible.com/archives/2005/09/arts_and_crafts.html
September 04, 2005 Arts and Crafts in pre-calculus ...
and law school
JoAnne Jacobs has a depressing piece about make-work
in high school:
My niece started her junior year at a highly rated
California high school. For her honor pre-calculus class, she was assigned
to do a collage about herself.
But it gets worse ... a commenter, Amber Taylor, says
"Our first assignment at Harvard Law School was to
make a collage."
Here's Amber's collage.
Ay caramba!
No judge that I know of requires collages in lieu of
opening motions, briefs, and statements ... yet ... the students in Amber's
class won't start becoming judges for a few years ...
Bailiff: All Rise, The United States District Court of
the Southwestern District of Arizona is now in session, the honorable Homer
Simpson presiding.
Judge Simpson: Good morning. Before we can start what
looks to be an interesting trial ... Bailiff, are there any more of those
chocolate glazed donuts? Bring me a couple please ... Uh, where was I? Oh
yes. Counsel, there is a preliminary matter that must be taken care of. You
have failed to submit your opening collages. If you need help, please see
Lisa or Maggie.
The perfect court case for opening collages ... or
cartoons ... is COYOTE V. ACME PRODUCTS CORP.
Update: Prof. Reynolds, thanks for the link.
----
this blog talks about the use of collage in the study
of calculus and law in both k-12 and higher-ed.
sadly, i'm not making this up.
i found the link on instapundit.com , one of my faves.
enjoy the holiday!
=== Jay R. Larsen MBA, CNE, MCP
Just to Show old problems continue.
====================
Subject: Shotgun Marriage
Re : "And it does appear that "full faith and
credence" is being given to the marriage. The legality of the marriage is
not in question. But the criminal acts that occurred prior to that marriage
are being punished."
Interesting point however is that, now that the couple
are married, the wife probably cannot be compelled to testify against her
husband. And that likely includes *any* evidence including DNA etc.
Although I would think that the wife should take
herself out of the prosecuting state until after the birth...
And thereafter, of course, the baby is merely
premature, whatever the experts may say...
Geoff
Who was admonished many years ago, that criminal
lawyers have to associate with liars, cheats and scoundrels, and the clients
are worse than that! And so does not practice criminal law....
===========
Subject: Chernobyl Death Toll May Be Less Than Feared
But of course nuclear power is much too dangerous to
use. It scares people.
"...but then he slumped into the chair, and they heard
only a thin whisper that faded to nothing, "Give them the lightning again."
finis coronat opus
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050905/ap_on_re_eu/nuclear_agency_chernobyl
VIENNA, Austria - Fewer than 50 deaths have been
directly attributed to radiation released in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear
power plant accident, and the final toll could be thousands fewer than
originally feared, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Monday.
AND:
The 600-page report says a lack of accurate
information about the accident's consequences has made the mental health
impact "the largest public health problem created by the accident."
File under "Don't worry, be happy!" and "You call THIS
a future?!"
Petronius The Arbiter Of Taste
artes, scientia, veritas perditae
=====================
Would an American newspaper report this?
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,16473521%255E663,00.html
Stranded Aussies fear for their lives Matt
Cunningham and Shannon McRae 03sep05
TWO Melbourne women were trapped in the chaos
at New Orleans' Convention Centre last night.
Karen Marks, 25, of Meadow Heights, and her
aunt Pamela Whyte, 59, of Broadmeadows, are stuck with thousands of hungry,
frantic people tired of waiting for buses to take them out.
Karen's mother, Joy Marks, said they were
getting desperate.
"They are running out of food and water and
they are just hanging in there," she said.
"They are promised buses every day and they
don't arrive."
Ms Marks said Karen and Pamela were concerned
for their safety amid rising violence.
"There's a mob-like tendency in there. People
are running around with legs broken off chairs, threatening people," she
said.
Up to 50 Australians are believed to be
stranded across the Gulf Coast.
About 10 escaped the New Orleans Superdome
yesterday after it erupted in violence.
They were holed up in the foyer of the Hilton
Hotel last night.
Brisbane's John McNeil, 22, told his family
he'd witnessed murders, rapes and stabbings, and feared he would be killed.
Mr McNeil's father, Peter, said his son was
with about 60 other foreign tourists who had fled the Superdome.
"They couldn't stay another night, the
situation was so bad," he said.
"People were just staring at them and making
suggestions that they were going to kill them."
John's sister Susie said he saw shocking acts
of violence amid fierce racial tension in the Superdome.
"It's turned into a black against white thing,"
she said. "My brother has witnessed murders, stabbings, rapes . . . it's
like a Third World country."
The mother of Sydney woman Vanessa Cullington,
thought to be in the Superdome before it was evacuated yesterday, flew to
the US in a desperate bid to find her daughter.
Sharon Cullington said she had not heard from
Vanessa since Tuesday.
Vanessa's boyfriend, Toby Salmon, is
accompanying Mrs Cullington.
"We've brought lots of photos and we're just
basically going to see who we can hassle," she said.
"We're just going to try and talk people into
taking the photos and try and find her."
There are also concerns for Queenslander Fiona
Seidler, 27, and her sister-in-law, Katie Maclean.
The women had been staying at a French Quarter
hotel since Monday, but a family spokesman said he had been unable to
contact them yesterday.
"The latest that we heard was that they were
staying in a hotel, but the manager or owner told them that they had to get
out because it wasn't safe and now we've lost contact. We don't know where
they are," he said.
Sydney woman Denise Riviera, 29, called her
mother in Australia begging her for help.
She rang her mother, Mercedes, yesterday,
saying she was trapped in a church without food or drinking water.
Mrs Riviera said her daughter told her: "Mum,
I'm alive but I am trapped in this church. Get someone to come and rescue
us. Report it, ring the embassy . . . since there's water everywhere we
can't go anywhere; we haven't got any food or water."
A tearful Mrs Riviera said: "I wonder how long
my daughter is going to be alive."
Adelaide man Scott Ramsay sat through the
hurricane when it hit Biloxi, Mississippi.
Four Aussie workmates managed to cross into
Florida before the hurricane struck, including Michael Hawkins, who said:
"The images of the tsunami are exactly what you are seeing in Biloxi - just
rubble everywhere, concrete slabs."
Queenslanders Tim and Joanne Miller and Garry
and Cynthia Jones were rescued by a Channel 7 crew late yesterday.
The two couples had huddled under a bridge next
to the Convention Centre since they were evacuated from their hotel on
Monday.
Mr Jones said they were terrified by the
violence.
"It's a battle zone. There's shooting, dead
bodies in the street," he said, adding they had to steal to survive. "We're
looters, like everyone else."
Mrs Miller said there were bodies around them.
"I had an altercation with a police officer and
he ended up just crying to me because he was so frustrated and he couldn't
do any more," she said.
The Millers' daughter, Kelly-Rae Smith, was
elated her parents had been found safe and well.
"You don't realise how hard it's been. Now we
can celebrate," she said.
Parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs
Bruce Billson said the Australian Government was doing all it could.
"All foreign governments that have expressed
interest in getting access to the disaster area have been advised that
they're not able to enter at this time," he said.
=======
"The group really feared for their safety because they were being
targeted because they were the only white people there."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wear/4208792.stm
British tourists 'flee Superdome'
A group of Britons have been escorted out of the New Orleans Superdome
to ensure their safety.
Jamie Trout 22, from Sunderland, was among 50 tourists stranded in
horrific conditions in the devastated city.
They had joined up to 30,000 other people taking refuge from Hurricane
Katrina in the venue.
But Mr Trout's family said the group was escorted to a nearby hotel by
the National Guard after the Britons were targeted by others in the
shelter.
The graduate economics student was traveling in the US when he was
caught up in the devastation of the hurricane.
===============
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050903/ts_nm/mayhem_dc
Valenti and her husband, two of very few white people in the almost
exclusively black refugee camp, said she and other whites were
threatened with murder on Thursday.
"They hated us. Four young black men told us the buses were going to
come last night and pick up the elderly so they were going to kill us,"
she said, sobbing. "They were plotting to murder us and then they sent
the buses away because we would all be killed if the buses came
-- that's what the people in charge told us this morning."
Other survivors recounted horrific cases of sexual assault and murder.
Sitting with her daughter and other relatives, Trolkyn Joseph, 37, said
men had wandered the cavernous convention center in recent nights raping
and murdering children.
She said she found a dead 14-year old girl at 5 a.m. on Friday morning,
four hours after the young girl went missing from her parents inside the
convention center.
"She was raped for four hours until she was dead," Joseph said through
tears. "Another child, a seven-year old boy was found raped and murdered
in the kitchen freezer last night."
=================
I do not know how true this all is. It seems to be
what overseas papers are reporting.
===========
Subject: Tierney proposes flood preparedness a
local responsibility
John Tierney in today's NYT proposes that localities
take responsibility for their own flood preparedness and that flood
insurance not be offered by the feds at prices that encourage unsound
building.
He suggests that preparedness for floods in other
states will never be a Congressman's highest priority.
Seems right to me.
JMC
Your usual good sense. Sounds right to me, too.
=============
On conditions in HOUSTON near the Astrodome:
My girl friend saw some reports of an area where she
often stays at the local residence inn (this is next to Reliant Stadium).
There is a strip mall where there a lot of little shops, and sidewalk sales,
etc. Some of the refugees have vouchers and what not to buy stuff at the
strip mall. Two things that have happened:
a) sidewalk sales have had to stop, people just take
things without paying.
b) a car was stolen from the mall parking lot.
Many of the other possible convention attendees
(mostly older women, this is the world's largest Quilt Show) my girlfriend
has talked to our thinking about canceling their trip anyhow because they
are worried about the refugees being housed in the downtown area.
Anyway, I just though I'd offer that since I have some
first person information. I don't think this is the apocolypse or anything,
*but these concentrations of refugees need to be broken up SOON*....
But hey, what do I care? I doubt Oregon is going to
get any....
=
The crimes started as soon as the first bus loads
arrived here in Houston.
I wish I knew what fool volunteered our Astrodome to
house refugees. This action is going to impose enormous costs on Houston's
taxpayers that will not be reimbursed, and even bigger costs on the small
businessmen and homeowners who will be victimized by these newcomers.
There are *reasons* these people did not evacuate in
an orderly fashion. Right now a cop friend of mine is collecting a lot of
overtime working downtown to arrest refugees whom he characterizes as
obviously mentally ill/impaired. (As Heather Mac Donald has documented,
America has made a policy decision to use prisons as mental health
hospitals.)
After disasters in the Third World, I believe that the
U.S. military sets up tent cities for those displaced. Something similar
should have been done for the New Orleans refugees. The direct costs might
or might not have been higher, but the collateral damage to innocent
citizens and businesses would have been much lower. So the net resources
available to help these people would have been higher.
J
==============
As I said at the start of the above section, I
don't know how true any of that is.
According the the Houston Chronicle, the crime wave
near the Dome is just rumor
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3340879
The Times-Picayune has the gang rape story at the NO
Convention center "That's a kid," he said. "There's another one in the
freezer, a 7-year-old with her throat cut.....One of the bodies, they said,
was a girl they estimated to be 5 years old. Though they could not confirm
it, they had heard she was gang-raped"
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html#077206
We're 400 miles from NO, and we have hundreds in
shelters here. They're getting jobs and getting moved into longer term
housing, but of course the ones that are here are the ones with initiative
and means to get out on their own before all hell broke loose.
Phil
For more on Phil's ship:
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=91708&ran=132637&tref=o
We can all hope and pray that most of the horror
stories are exaggerated or even made up. Unfortunately, we are dealing with
an area that had the highest murder rate in the country before the disaster;
and people who did not heed the warnings to get out of town before the
hurricane. It will take a long time to sort out what really happened.
BUT: charity demands that we do something for the
victims. Prudence demands that we consider the consequences of concentrating
large numbers of people who were unable to keep order in their own
communities in neighborhoods accustomed to having order kept largely by
custom and civility rather than force.
Dispersion to allow the Melting Pot to work its
civilizing magics may be in order. Concentrating the formerly lawless in a
few places is probably not prudent.
Liberalism: the Fuel of Empires? The Chronicle of
Higher Education, 5.9.2
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i02/02a01901.htm
2 political scientists at Princeton help revive debate
on how European liberals of centuries past viewed colonialism and
imperialism
By DAVID GLENN
It is one of the most troubling puzzles in the history
of political thought: Why were some of Europe's early liberal theorists --
the people who imagined and promoted tolerance, universal suffrage, the rule
of law, and minimal government -- also enthusiastic supporters of European
colonization, conquest, and empire in Asia and Africa?
John Stuart Mill, author of On Liberty and The
Subjection of Women, spent 25 years working for the British East India
Company in the mid-19th century. He believed that India and other
"barbarous" nations "have not got beyond the period during which it is
likely to be to their benefit that they should be conquered and held in
subjection by foreigners." Alexis de Tocqueville, among the century's most
sophisticated proponents of democracy, argued during the 1840s that it was
urgently necessary for France to subjugate and colonize Algeria.
Through much of the 20th century, political theorists
and intellectual historians largely ignored that element of classical
liberals' thought, focusing instead on their abstract arguments for liberty
or their campaigns for domestic reform. (Tocqueville's voluminous writing on
Algeria was virtually forgotten in the English-speaking world.) And when
these liberals' pro-imperialist arguments were acknowledged, they were
sometimes dismissed as simple hypocrisy.
More recently, some left-wing scholars have argued
that -- far from hypocrisy -- the liberals' imperialist adventures reveal
something essential about liberalism itself. The Enlightenment's calls for
universal human liberty, according to this argument, have always contained a
Eurocentric and potentially racist understanding of what human societies
should look like.
Such discussions are no longer confined to the margins
of postcolonial studies. With the end of the cold war's international order
-- not to mention the U.S. invasion of Iraq -- the question of empire has
moved close to the heart of legal and political theorists' preoccupations.
The past 15 years have seen a flourishing of sophisticated explorations of
liberalism, conquest, and international justice.
No Simple Formulas
Two of the most visible exponents of this new wave in
empire studies are Jennifer Pitts and Sankar Muthu, who met as graduate
students at Harvard University a decade ago and who are now assistant
professors of politics at Princeton University. Along the way, they got
married.
In Enlightenment Against Empire (Princeton University
Press, 2003), Mr. Muthu examined the brief period in the late 18th century
when several prominent liberal theorists -- notably Denis Diderot and Johann
Gottfried von Herder -- were skeptical toward, and in some cases actively
campaigned against, European colonialism.
Ms. Pitts's new book, A Turn to Empire: The Rise of
Imperial Liberalism in Britain and France (Princeton, 2005), explores the
very different mood of the mid-19th century, when most leading liberals,
Mill and Tocqueville among them, sat comfortably on the imperialist
bandwagon.<snip>
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