British Expatriate Network

Just finished watching CNN.

They were showing video of people outside the convention centre. Many had been there for days and they showed two bodies one in a wheel chair the other on the ground covered by a blanket.

The big complaint? It would appear that no one in authority or the charitable organizations had been seen. They are surviving on what they can loot from local food stores. They are living on chips and whatever drinkable liquid thay can find.
Someone in authority said that the people still in the city should have heeded the warnings and left like 80% did. The problem is, these people are for the most part without personal transport and extremely poor.

It was followed by the usual lineup of military and FEMA people saying what they propose to do. By the time they get over the talking many more will be dead. The US should be ashamed of how badly prepared they were for this or any other disaster.

People in Baghdad were better off after the "Shock & Awe" demonstration that the US military was so proud of. Disgusting!

The lack of response and the response seems to echo the inherent racism of the country.
Too many press conferences by old white guys, too much suffering by black people.

And all “people” can really talk about is how black folks are stealing white folks stuff.

This country is poisoned by racism; I hope the free stuff they got from slavery was worth it.

As these people have no health insurance - no one wants to treat them. They have no money so no one will take somewhere else. I think things are going to get worse before they get better.

Still they have plenty of platitudes from the President to keep them going.

Here are his CNN quotes:

"We're dealing with one of the worst natural disasters in our nation's history, I can't tell you how devastating the sights were." - understands this is serious - well done
"The folks on the Gulf Coast are going to need the help of this country for a long time. This is going to be a difficult road. The challenges that we face on the ground are unprecedented, but there's no doubt in my mind that we're going to succeed."
but he can't tell you what that plan is or why it will succeed.

"But I'm confident that, with time, you'll get your life back in order. New communities will flourish. The great city of New Orleans will be back on its feet. And America will be a stronger place for it." Good to know as robbers loot your home

"But our citizens must understand this storm has disrupted the capacity to make gasoline and distribute gasoline," look out I'm going to pin this on on Iran

This man is a joke. He's going to visit New Orleans - bet he won't go anywhere near the victims. They'll thrw him in the river I hope :evil:

2004 Election results

Louisiana Bush 57% Kerry 42%
Alabama Bush 63% Kerry 37%
Mississippi Bush 60% Kerry 40%

That's right. The 3,000 or so people they've resuced so far have all been white.

Hmmmmm...it was only a matter of time before race came into it. Most of the pics have seen of looting, have been of black people, does that mean that white people aren't taking advantage of this as well?

I doubt that very much, and as Chris Rock once said in one of his stand up shows, "If it's white, it's alright".

I was going to reserve my judgement of the local, state and federal government's response but gave up being so fair. I heard the platitudes and then read this in the Village Voice -
http//villagevoice.com/news/0536,ridgewayweb2,67481,2.html

"Why won’t Bush take decisive action in the Hurricane Katrina disaster and send in the military? He has control of the world’s mightiest military machine—thousands of planes, trucks, boats, expertly trained men and women. Where are these people? How can the National Guard be so close to providing help, as the public is told, yet still there are people dying on the sidewalks of a major city?"

Yes it's a disaster of unprecented scale in this country but enough with the "we are" and more of the doing. Now. Somebody please explain why 2 and a half days later that there is no huge military force in dowtown New Orleans. At the very least there should be a leaflet drop telling citizens what is going on, when aid is coming ,and what to do.

And I was frankly surprised by the condemnation of Bush personally. That was until he said this - "Don't buy gas if you don't need it." Very clever. What next, duck and cover? Buy duct tape? I will not join in the blaming but he looks hollower every day. And Dennis Hastert's comments today that it makes no sense to rebuild New Orleans is very insensitive.

As for the looting. Disgusting. I am ashamed of some of these people. I fully undertsand food, but tv's and cars? Sickening. Add that I overheard on the radio that on the first night of being in the Superdome two people were raped, one of them a child. There are those who crack under pressure, and there are those that are just evil.

Well things got changed drastically today for my son. He is a nurse here in town and works for a private nursing home company.

I spent my afternoon buying him supplies, of canned food and water, lanterns, batteries, flashlights, bug repelent, gas etc. and filling up the back of his pickup truck. With a tarp to cover it, so people won't see what he's carrying.

He and other nurses are driving later tonight to Mississippi, they have a nursing home right down near the gulf, next to Louisana. And the few staff spent last night holding off looters, trying to keep them out of their supplies for the patients.
So they've sent for help.

I'm ashamed to say the slowness of the federal and state governments actions is deplorable. The people are dying in the streets, have not had food or anything.

The local gov. put all those people into that dome in New Orleans, but they didn't stop to plan for food or drink for them. Where the hell are their brains?

I was watching one station tonight, that was reporting that Fats Domino had been found and rescued. Then they had some Dr. female from some place in Texas, who had been rescued. She was staying at the Hilton in New Orleans, and the management got scared for her safety, because people were breaking in. So they arranged for buses to come in the dark with no lights on to get her and others out.

Well if the blinking Hilton can make such arrangements, why in the heck are all those people still sitting in New Orleans screaming for help!

Four hovercraft type vehicles have gone from here, they are supposed to load the people on buses and then put the buses on the craft, and hover them over to the Texas line. The poor buggers will be dead before they get there.

I'm not seeing the mayor of N.Orleans, or the Gov. where are they - sitting high and dry.
I stood in line today for an hour to buy items for our son to take in with him. Another woman was buying for families she'd found wandering around our town with no where to go.

There is no organisation by the people in command - this is disgusting! evil

"At the very least there should be a leaflet drop telling citizens what is going on"

and also what about food?

At the start of the war in Afghanistan

humanitarian daily rations, were dropped from U.S. C-17 cargo planes over Afghanistan.

Thousands of two-pound canary yellow packages branded with American flags floated through the night sky over Afghanistan, imprinted with the words "This is a food gift from the people of the United States of America", in English, Spanish and French.


What about doing the same for these people, if I did not know what was going on and saw those pictures and vids for the first time I would have thought this was taking place Africa or Haiti, the old Soviet Union or some 3rd world country people here like to look down their noses at. Not the country with the world’s largest economy, largest military and the only remaining superpower.

If this was taking place in a 3rd world country the media would go on and on about corrupt Governments and all sort of rubbish. If the USA cannot manage this sort of thing (or dont want to**), what can we say about other countries less fortunate.

Have any other countries offered to help?

Bush is talking right now. He's looking forward to the people on the ground. Do you think he'll be taking a tour of the convention center?

Those poor people. Seeing the bodies and seeing the dying babies is just too much.

Ginger, I'm so glad there are people like you and your son that are willing to go and help, where it seems that the government isn't doing all that much. evil

At least one Canadian Search and rescue team of 45 specialists are in downtown New Orleans. But they are unable to get to work because of the violence.

I am not sure if anyone saw this yesterday (as it was in the noted on the web quite a bit). Here is the story

http//www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/09/01/photo_controversy/index.html

Basically, it has to do with the news coverage of the aftermath of the hurricane, in terms of the civil unrest/looting that is occurring. Specifically, there have been plenty of pictures of black people carrying miscellaneous food things that they "looted" from grocery markets, whereas, there have been pictures of white folk that, as the captions noted, carrying food things that they "found" in the abandoned grocery stores.

The AFP, which provides the pix and the captions to news sources, such as yahoo, have asked for them to be removed.

I just find the whole thing, on so many levels, incredible.

I read this yesterday,

Jamaica was among the nations offering what help they could. But the Kingston embassy, while stating its appreciation for the support, politely declined the offers, saying in a statement: "The United States Government is not yet requesting international assistance at this time."

The embassy suggested, however, that persons and organisations wishing to help may still contact the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, http://www.fema.gov, coordinator of the recovery efforts.

2004 Election results

Louisiana Bush 57% Kerry 42%
Alabama Bush 63% Kerry 37%
Mississippi Bush 60% Kerry 40%

Yes.
http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/com...02,00.html

It's reported that offers of aid have come from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Russia, Japan, France, Germany, Britain, China, Jamaica, Honduras, Greece, Venezuela, the Organisation of American States, NATO, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Greece, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, South Korea, Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

Bush's response? "I'm not expecting much from foreign nations because we hadn't asked for it. I do expect a lot of sympathy and perhaps some will send cash dollars. But this country's going to rise up and take care of it." That comes off as crass to me. Venezuela isn't included either even though it offered to send cheap fuel and humanitarian aid. Politics is politics.

I have to say that the city and the state of New Orleans really seem to have dropped the ball here. Governer Blanco has seemed really out of depth. Hayely Barbor in Mississipi seems to be leading things much better. The Federal response has been pretty dire but at least Bush has now had a tantrum about it. Add that it was very interesting to see Bill Clinton laying into the news media today. He did seem extremely pissed at the line of questioning of "do you blame Bush for this?"