New Orleans – why Kanye West is so right…

An event that just gets bigger and bigger, the disaster in New Orleans I don’t know exactly what to say or write; it seems too sad, too bizarre, too surreal, and too wrong. Bush’s response was way off; the evacuation was useless (leave in your car? Boy does the authorities in NOLA and the US need to learn more about public transport, especially as a lot of this calamity could have been avoided without the troops and money wasted by the US going to war for oil). At first I though after Cindy Sheehan and the bad polls due to the anti-war effort that again George Bush escapes, miraculously 9-11 style via an act of god or terrorism, but amazingly rather than doing the hand-wringing Giullani/Livingstone act he manages to totally fuck this one up too. Maybe in his Xtian nuttiness he and his government thinks they deserve to die?

At the end it all seems to come down to race and economic status – my immediate thought was that the response was slow because they were poor and black and ‘who cares?’. It makes me so angry, and it makes Kanye West angry too because on the NBC fundraiser he said live ‘ George Bush doesn’t care about black people!’ and told it like it is – you can see a clip here. It’s gone from a natural disaster, to a social and political one within 6 days. The media coverage is so flawed – people have spotted differences between how white and black survivors are treated (white people find things, black people loot) which reminds me of the old ‘Israelis are murdered, Palestinian are accidental victims of cross-fire’ language used in the UK media about people killed in the Palestine/Israeli dispute at least upto a couple of years ago. Interestingly Yahoo and AFP have noticed this and taken the comments down…media rewrites history once again.

Sadly the US now has with the looting and killing a taste of what life has been like in Iraq – and as with there, it’s always the poor people who lose. And I do find it ironic that the storm took out a large percentage of the US production of oil in the Gulf; so while they were trying to steal Iraq’s oil and make gibes at Venezuela, they lose out at home. One step forward, one step back.

Perhaps their god is telling them something?

Comments

4 responses to “New Orleans – why Kanye West is so right…”

Asia

September 6

Sir/Ma’am:

If you think the president is not doing a very good job then instead of you criticizing him, why don’t you start helping out and offering your home to at least a couple of the victims of the hurricane?! Have you donated at least $500 yet? Then maybe by showing a selfless act, people would think you do have the right to yap about this situation. How can anyone prevent a natural disaster? So if a huge earthquake struck L.A. and destroyed the city, will you start blaming Bush for not making the foundations right in each building? Seriously?!?! If we are to point fingers, it should have been the mayor of New Orleans. He knew that the city is below sea level … so why has not he been checking the maintenance of their levee? They do have city funds right? Not because they have been spared a lot of times by other hurricanes, that means they can withstand a category 5 hurricane. Moreover, Mayor Nagin knew that there are a lot of poverty-stricken natives in his city… so why didn’t he think of offering buses for them during that mandatory evacuation… and mind you he waited 2 days before the hurricane hit. The mayor gambled with his people’s lives so he should be blamed for it! This is not a racial issue but a leadership issue. The mayor is black, and i don’t think he’s that poor… so why didn’t he think about evacuating the unfortunate ones first before he left for Baton Rouge? What Kanye West said live on TV was uncalled for. By saying those in words, just make other people think lower about his own people… implying that his people are as ignorant as he is. Sad!

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Cathy

September 7

Asia-
Boy, you and all the other ditto-heads sure are casting a wide net of smear. Nobody is blaming Bush for the hurricane, but rather his response to it. Let’s imagine for a moment that the evacuation process and the preparedness was as best as it could be and people got out and got the care they needed. Even with the best set of circumstances, the fact remains the Bush STAYED on vacation during the worst natural disater in U.S. history. Condoleeza Rice WENT on vacation. Donald Rumsfeld took in a baseball game. Dick Cheney was nowhere to be found. When Bush finally showed up for his photo-op in New Orleans, he yucked it up about his partying days there and lamented the loss of Trent Lott’s house. His brother Jeb joked that this was “payback time” for Louisiana, since Florida had been hit four times before. Barbara Bush chuckled–yes, chuckled, hear it here [url]http://movies.crooksandliars.com/bb.mp3[/url]–about how the people in N.O. were so poor, they were better off in the Astrodome in Texas.

George W. Bush and his cronies DON’T care about anything but their own power and wealth.

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tim

September 9

I totally agree with what Cathy has said here – it’s not that Bush is responsible for such an ‘Act of God’ – although I’m starting to wonder – but the response was crap at best; and the factors playing in that involve the war – the war in Iraq is draining the US of money and troops for things like this. And Asia you’ve not studied what budget Mayors have – they can as with the London Mayor usually assign or ask for governmental money, they usually don’t have the millions needed to spare on big civil engineering projects like fixing the levees. To put it in perspective Netherlands finished it’s big dam project going since the 1960s and that cost many billion pounds, not dollars. So I’d expect making the levees cat-5 proof would be many millions if not billions, and I know of no city/ local government world-wide with that kind of money to spend (definitely not cash-poor New Orleans)- it’s a governmental issue. And thus responsibility ultimately lies at Bush’s door.

To say ‘ oh it’s your problem’ to the Mayor or to the people New Orleans is churlish and disrespectful at best – it’s not an issue that they can or could have solved on their own.

Oh Asia if you’d bothered to check or read the front page or the FAQ page, I’m in London, UNITED KINGDOM. So offering places to stay to NOLA residents would not be any use. And although I’m on holiday I’m considering what donation or action to make – I don’t see why I should have to ‘pay to say’ or shut up if I’m like the poor in Louisiana – they needed a voice rather than someone pointing out their poverty precluded their voice.

I shouldn’t have to give to charity to have a point of view? Action is good yes, but I doubt the action of sending money will solve the root issue to why the response was so delayed (which probably killed more people than the hurricane I’d guess), which is Bush and the Iraq war.

And why so many big hurricanes recently? Maybe it’s global warming or atmospheric change due to carbon emissions such as burning oil? It’s NOT sustainable. But Bush will not sign the Kyoto treaty will he?

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Mervin

September 10

I have wanted to post a comment regards the events in New Orleans, Mississipi, etc. because of Hurricaine Katrina. I live in the UK and have to disagree with what Asia said. Yes it was a natural disaster ( you can’t blame Bush for that), but his response to the situation was poor!

Maybe Mayor Nagin is at fault,( and possibly the Governor too) but why is it that with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr Bush does not seem as hesitant to make his mark, but when his own people are suffering ( Yes, he is President of the United States, not just those that voted him in or run by Brother Jeb! God it’s worse than that TV show Dallas……who’s JR and who’s Booby?) he was so nonchulant if not at all concerned! ( see comments made since the hurricaine)

Yes, I am an outsider, and maybe I can be corrected on a number of things, but I have family in the US, so maybe my comments can be justified.

In accordance with what Kanye West said. Do I think he’s right? Yes, of course I do. Let’s look at the Bush Administration. We know that they have cut taxes, so therefore as in all societies led by Conservative thinkers, they want more people to have money in their pockets ( notably middle classes to high earners), so that the poor who they resent end up poorer, as they are probably reliant on the State to survive.

Secondly, Congress in no way seems to hinder the call for Budget increases for’ The War on Terror’, which we all know is a bye-word for ‘ Oil Snatch’. Yet, when the hurricaine came, they were still asleep thinking that maybe it was just another tropical storm that would lead the people to drink Southern Comfort and thank their blessings they still had roofs on their houses! Wrong. They probably took their eye off the ball for the following reasons:

1) The inhabitants who appeared to suffer the most were black ( see news reports if I am lying!)
2) The inahbitants who suffered the most were poor ( Obviously, they were stranded)
3) And hey, they don’t vote for George so screw em! ( Political Fact!)

Far fetched? I don’t think so. George Bush takes days to respond then appoints his old college pal to run FEMA ( What a qualification……would you want to admit that!). Then he comments about wanting to sit on Trent Lott’s porch when rebuilt ! ( Er someone tell him to shut up before he puts his foot in it…..again!) What about the hundreds of thousands who have lost everything? Do you know what insensitive or tactless means?

Comments are made by right- wingers ‘ in jest ‘(Hmm, I wonder!) that maybe hurricaine Katrina cleaned up the city ( Not Funny !). Add to it, Mama Bush makes the comments that the poor are probably better off due to the Hurricaine ( somebody put that woman back in her rocking chair, give her them knitting needles and show her re-runs of the Golden Girls!) I have always said that when you catch people off guard you catch their true sentiments!

America is still divided by race more than class.( Example, Blacks loot, White people make effort to survive! And you tell me that isn’t racist?) Even I know that living here in the UK. Opinionists say that the divide between poor and rich is equivalent to Third World Countries! (And boy, the pictures shown of mainly black people suffering looked like something from an African country! Maybe the Bush administration got confused when they saw the pictures and thought as much so they left the situation alone!)

The US are getting the promise of aid from overseas ( note, even Iran and Cuba are offering. Swallow your pride Uncle Sam and take it. Maybe you’ll stop pointing those missiles 100 miles South East of Florida). Let’s not forget this is the richest country in the World! Unlimited resources? or are they being confined elsewhere?

And hey , consider this. You know the phrase, no smoke without fire! Why then did Condeleeza Rice go to her home state Alabama ( and with all due respect I find that and the visits by Mr. Bush and that Mr. Cheney false & patronising, just for the cameras….but hey, you can’t fool all the people all the time can you Mr. Roosevelt? or was it Harry Truman?), then go on national TV to say that the ‘ poor response ‘ , had nothing to do with race! If comments made by Mr West and co were proposterous, you wouldn’t respond or give those comments any dignity by commenting! Hmmm, I think they touched a nerve, don’t you?

And can somebody answer me why Israel is apparently getting $250k per person as I have read for rehousing the settlers ( don’t Israel have any money?), when those who have suffered from the Hurricaine are getting $2k?That doesn’t make sense to me, can someone explain?

I just hope that all those that have suffered may get back what they have lost, and more importantly have a government that genuinely cares about them!

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