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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (248991)	9/5/2005 3:50:07 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1572630

Re: I said act* like animals. There is a subtle but significant difference between what you're contending and what I said.* A "subtle but significant difference"?! Where? All I see is semantic hairsplitting... I can play that game too --you see people acting like "animals" at the bottom only. I contend, however, that people at the top are acting like animals TOO. Anyway, as the German article below puts it, the whole mess in Louisiana was a disaster waiting to happen --and I'd go even further and claim that it's not so much a natural calamity as a man-made ordeal. After all, there would have been no disaster if hundreds of thousands of poor Louisianans didn't live in squalid conditions in the first place, unable to move north like the well-off.... Katrina Was a Disaster Waiting to Happen Scientists have feared the kind of destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina for years. New Orleans was particularly vulnerable to the catastrophic effects of a storm surge. It was only a matter of time says a precient report written in 2001. "A major hurricane could swamp New Orleans under 20 feet of water, killing thousands." These sound like the warning words of city authorities last week urging residents to evacuate, don't they? Well, they're not. An incredibly precient report, back in 2001, described the kind of devastation which could engulf New Orleans if it were to be struck by a powerful hurricane. The scenes of carnage predicted in the report are sadly becoming a reality this week. So, naturally, people are starting to ask, why wasn't more done to protect the Gulf Coast and its people? Hurricane Katrina: Is Looting a Question of Skin Color? It didn't take long for reports of looting to filter through. No sooner had Hurricane Katrina's winds died down, than people emerged onto the streets and began helping themselves to whatever New Orleans' shopping paradise had to offer. Now, dear reader, you might say their actions are understandable, if not condonable. If your home had just been washed away, and you hadn't eaten a proper meal for 48 hours, the urge to help yourself to a few candy bars or cartons of milk from the local convenience store might be a strong one. But a number of amazing reports have described how local residents also loaded up their vehicles with DVD players and televisions, with the National Guard and police almost powerless to stop them. New Orleans is rapidly turning into a lawless city, with those unable to leave resorting to plunder and mayhem. But the really interesting angle on all of this comes from those smart folks at Metafilter. They cleverly link to three pictures of apparent "looters" featured on Yahoo news. Two men are pictured wading through flood waters with bags of groceries and beer in their arms. They are described as "looters." And, coincidentally they are African-American. Next comes a picture of a white couple carrying food supplies through the flood waters. According to AFP/Ghetty Images, these fine young people are on their way home after "finding bread and soda from a local grocery store." So the white people don't "loot", they "find". A curious insight into prevalent racism in the US media; just as one man's "terrorist" is another man's "freedom fighter," it seems one man's "looter", is another man's "finder". You decide. service.spiegel.de