Wow. New Orleans has just dropped off the developed world's map. A colleague finds it funny that a city could've been built below sea level ... and I'm thinking how the government of Louisiana and New Orleans, its denizens consisting of poorer ethnic working class people, was so negligent and unprepared for a storm of this magnitude (its happened before!).
The images of the storm reminded me of South Asia during the monsoon season. I can't really compare a monsoon with a hurricane (gale force winds, the amount of water, the violence of the storm), but at least in respect to flooding there could be something done. This is a snapshot of Dhaka in July 2004 ... amazing how one of the poorest countries of the world adapts to seasonal natural disasters unlike our own Gulf of Mexico states.
5 comments:
Adaption takes a significant amount of time and in many cases reoccuring loss of life to occur. The people and support structures of New Orleans, although partially of disparate means, live in the world's foremost superpower--a fully developed nation. Natural disasters are just that, natural disasters. It's not a matter of adapting (although even that is hard with nothing in hand--no food, no water, no clothing), it's a matter of survival.
I find your article trite and belittling of the hardships the people of New Orleans are going through.
You try hand pumping a heart for two hours or dialysis by crank because the hospital you work at is in the middle of a city in crisis.
Now try imagining you are 6 years old and sitting in a pool of your own urine at the Superdome of all places (a place of multi-million dollar entertainment). Father and mother are both dead and you are exhausted by the stale air, lack of food and water. It's NOT a matter of adaption for that little girl.
I don't think its a matter of adaptation for the citizens of New Orleans and the intent of the article was not to belittle the suffering of the people there.
Maybe you're right, adaptation is probably not the right word to use here.
It's more interesting to me that a city with more poverty than DC is faced with a calamitous natural disaster, which could have been alleviated with better planning.
The point of the article is the negligence on the part of the administration in New Orleans and the state and federal government's inadequate preparation. If a developing country can do it, why can't a city a in world's foremost superpower? The Gulf of Mexico is rich for hurricanes. Hurricanes hitting New Orleans is not a new thing. Hurricanes do not necessarily hit New Orleans every year. But THEY DO HIT.
Would that girl be sitting in her urine if the there were adequate contingency plans to evacuate the city, to have places for these people to go, and not issue the mandatory evacuation a mere hours before the hurricane hit the city???? That's the point of the article.
I'd rather your original post wasn't edited after the fact so user's would not be confused by what I am referring to.
I do not doubt or post argument to the fact that support structures of the citizens of Louisiana or Mississippi were not prepared for this incident nor the resulting and continuing loss of life. It's not just yet time to point fingers, so I digress.
However, blaming their hardships from a lack of "adaptability" as your original post stated is errant of course, that's my opinion.
Your other opinions made, I believe most readers, including myself, agree with.
I haven't changed the original post since you inserted your comment. sometimes I re-edit if I reread and realize its says something other than what i meant. It's possible while I was re-editing my post you might've been commenting on it so you missed the re-edit. Also when in doubt I blame blogger. There could have been a lag between when your comment appeared and the re-edit of a post.
I don't believe their hardship is based on their lack of 'adaptability.' I'm not going to single one factor, and adaptability would be the last I would consider (on the part of the citizens) ... planning by the government is something different.
Uh, ok, we're just going to have to disagree on what we saw on this post then.
Keep on bloggin!
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