media narcissism

[amethyst]

think that many of our questions will be answered when somebody does a thorough timeline and resource analysis.

Amethyst...You brought up some good points about Mayor Nagin.  I guess in the same vein, I'm wondering why the Governor won't allow the affected counties to be federalized to speed up the relief effort.  However, I don't know what that means and I don't know what the implications of federalizing are..  Things seem to be going much better in New Orleans and it will be fascinating to find out what happened and why during the last eight days or so.   

I have been glued to WWL, the NOLA station. I gather that Governor Blanco feels that she has excellent local emergency managers already in place, such as Aaron Broussard and Walter Maestri, who along with Ray Nagin, have saved hundreds and thousands of lives. Considering that local managers are familiar with their areas and sensitive to local problems and needs in a way that somebody coming in from the outside would not be, it would make sense to not declare martial law and federalize everything. In a situation like this disaster, if you have people from the outside placed in charge of everything, there would be delays in bringing them up to speed, which could delay relief and recovery even more. I think Blanco is right to keep the power at the local level and to use the resources that the Feds (and others) bring in without putting a bunch of Federal desk jockeys in charge.

My hubby used to work for the Feds (in two different departments) and he mentioned something to me that I hadn't even considered. He said they were constantly reassigned to new areas and territories in a way that was wasteful and irrational. He said,"Somebody in Washington would get a wild hair and decide to merge two offices. Then six months later, they would create four offices out of that merger. Then three months later, they would send our manager to Atlanta and bring in somebody from Tucson." They never saw the people who made these decisions. The higher ups never visited the field. While my hubby worked for the feds, he basically lived in furnished apartments because he never knew where he was going to be assigned next and for how long. It's not like he was working for the FBI or anything like that, either...lol.

I think this is the kind of bureaucracy that we are against. Unfortunately, the culture of Washington has not changed, no matter who is in power. (Of course, I have seen this kind of crazy management in large corporations too.)
 
I am sure that Blanco has taken this federal tendency to reassign people partially into account. Much better to have locals, who are invested in their own communities, in charge and telling the outside resources coming in, which is not only the feds, what they can do to help.

[miss piggy]

Greetings Vunil, Tif, Marta and all

Interestingly enough, we're not the only ones bristling with Third World references.  I thought of you all last night as I watched PBS and Richard Rodriguez' essay "The Third World".  Unfortunately, there is no transcript of it at the PBS site.  Anyway, his point was that we look at impoverished nations and use the term Third World to distance ourselves from those societies (however you want to define that--don't want to get in trouble  ).  They showed snippets of a Middle East village, a Mexican border town and then New Orleans.  And, as he says, he thought "Third World".  The Third World is here.  He ruminated about that, then not using the words "social contract" (that's what I thought of) he brought up the fact that we have a social order that leads us to expect that when we flip a wall switch, the light will go on, when we turn a faucet out will come water for drinking or for a bath, when we dial 9-1-1, an ambulance or the police will come.

As another commentator said, government failed. 

As a survivor in Biloxi said, I pay taxes.  (sound familiar? this brought up US colonial history for me)

We have a government for the greater good of all.  Government seems to have broken their contract with the people of the Gulf Coast. 

Wanted to pass that along.  I probably have this on the wrong thread...   

Amethyst, thanks for keeping us up to date on the local & inside govt perspectives.  They also replayed Frontline's The Man Who Knew about John O'Neil who faced daunting bureaucratic culture in the FBI in the fight v. terrorism.  My d kept asking me "why didn't they listen to him?"  my lame answer is "that's why they're doing this show, he didn't fit in and he didn't do things their way." 

MP

[dogbit]

 am sure that Blanco has taken this federal tendency to reassign people partially into account. Much better to have locals, who are invested in their own communities, in charge and telling the outside resources coming in, which is not only the feds, what they can do to help.

This makes a lot of sense to me.  And I applaud her for taking this stance.  Also, for hirine James Witt as a consultant.  It seems she has set her political ambitions aside.  At first, I thought she may be politicizing for her own sake but it seems like she is taking a pragmatic route. 

[amethyst]

Greetings Vunil, Tif, Marta and all

Interestingly enough, we're not the only ones bristling with Third World references.  I thought of you all last night as I watched PBS and Richard Rodriguez' essay "The Third World".  Unfortunately, there is no transcript of it at the PBS site.  Anyway, his point was that we look at impoverished nations and use the term Third World to distance ourselves from those societies (however you want to define that--don't want to get in trouble  ).  They showed snippets of a Middle East village, a Mexican border town and then New Orleans.  And, as he says, he thought "Third World".  The Third World is here.  He ruminated about that, then not using the words "social contract" (that's what I thought of) he brought up the fact that we have a social order that leads us to expect that when we flip a wall switch, the light will go on, when we turn a faucet out will come water for drinking or for a bath, when we dial 9-1-1, an ambulance or the police will come.

As another commentator said, government failed. 

As a survivor in Biloxi said, I pay taxes.  (sound familiar? this brought up US colonial history for me)

We have a government for the greater good of all.  Government seems to have broken their contract with the people of the Gulf Coast. 

Wanted to pass that along.  I probably have this on the wrong thread...   

Amethyst, thanks for keeping us up to date on the local & inside govt perspectives.  They also replayed Frontline's The Man Who Knew about John O'Neil who faced daunting bureaucratic culture in the FBI in the fight v. terrorism.  My d kept asking me "why didn't they listen to him?"  my lame answer is "that's why they're doing this show, he didn't fit in and he didn't do things their way." 

MP

Great post, Thanks! ((( Miss Piggy!)))

I have been thinking about the social contract a great deal....and also our taxes, which is how we fund our government corporations and pay for our employees, from the president on down.  It may be time for our people to reconsider what kind of employees we hire to run our government corporations and to what purposes we want them to be run. It looks to me that many of our employees have behaved as if they own the government corporations and have allocated many of our corporate resources for purposes other than for good of the people...all of the people.  

My senator is George Voinovich. I do not feel as if I am represented. I feel GV represents his own interests really well. I admired his stand on Bolton, but that was it. 

I've also been thinking a lot about words like "third world" and how we are at a turning point because of this crisis. Maybe we will all come together as a people over this, putting parties and labels like liberal and conservative aside, and have our own Boston Tea party.  

Words like the "ghetto", the "barrio", the "inner city"....those are all distancing words, too. They tend to ostracise the citizens that have to live in those locations, to make "them" other than who we are. Actually, the truth is, "they" are us, or at least I hope most people feel that. So when we see the kind of poverty that we think of as "third world", here in the USA, it is because we have allowed our government corporations to make the citizens of our own domestic "third world" invisible, powerless, impovershed and voiceless. That domestic "third world" exists in every community, not just NOLA, and it is growing. Do we want that to continue? Can we morally live with that as a people?

I am learning so much from these discussions.

I hope I can see that story on John O'Niel sometime.

[write]

ok, everyone-


so what are we all going to do about moving forward?

A minority of people are committing offences and making news...

but what about all the many ordinary people like you and I who just need everyday support?

It is no use the government captivating the media for various stories of success or failure, we want assurance that people will be accomodated even if their stories are neither interesting or favourable.

There are still hundreds of people displaced and living in temporary shelters from last years hurricane season in Florida...they cannot secure support or rebuilding resources...clearly there is a problem in accessing resources. What lessons can be learned right now?

So many people offer help- but it needs to be coordinated locally, then further afield. There needs to be a chain of command and a contingency situation.

Something has failed here- but we are all awaiting instructions.