British Expatriate Network

So from what I saw over the weekend nobody gave a toss. Only one network channel did anything in the morning, nowt on the radio, and a strangely large quantity of people I talked to said "oh is that today?" to me. So how did that happen? For a good two years the entire world was told repeatedly that it was the most important event in the history of man. Now even staunch Republicn friends of mine were entirely indifferent. Yes they are sad about that day, but not moblized for some sort of action. What happened there?

I was listening to Tom Wolfe on NPR and his point about 9/11 was that outside of New York and a small town in Pennsylvania only a tiny amount of Americans really felt anything. He argued that yes it was a giant shock, but it happened "somewhere else" for most people. The "9/11 changed me" mentality did occur to many but nowhere near as on the scale that is generally believed. I wasn't quite one of those people, but it was fairly close. Then a few years later I woke up. I now feel like one of those "Katrina changed me" people. David Brooks wrote a very good article about how Katrina would lead to a very substantial progressive movement within the United States - and how coupling it with how the US has behaved since 9/11 will lead the rest of the world to shove it in that direction. I've read a few people since Katrina (Manc noticeably) arguing for that progressive movement to take hold. I am a changed man - I agree wholeheartedly. America doesn't work. But then I fear that the localized effect that Wolfe mentions regards 9/11 will occur regards Katrina.

Do you think people really care about 9/11 now? Do you think Katrina is and will be more impactive? Will the US actually change how it works internally now?

No I honestly think the US with throw lots of money at it, create new government departments to deal with it .
Then in a few years will realize that they can't prevent it happening and all thay can do is try and justify the money they have spent by scaring people every few weeks with stupid reports on how they think it will happen again here, there and everywhere in the US.

That mentality is no different to people elsewhere. Unless you were in one of the cities that were affected by the IRA bombings, you never gave it a second thought apart from the fact that it happened somewhere else. and do you think that the UK will remember the bombings in Spain on their anniversary? and yet the distance from the UK is no different to the distance from NYC to other places west and south in the US.

There was a lot about 9/11 on the history channel and the public channels had different programs on including british documentaries of the events. There were articles on Yahoo and BBC regarding services for 9/11. I think that is enough, don't you?

People move on - wasn't this something that we commented on regarding the way the US handled 9/11 that they didn't move on. Well, they have. I do believe what happened did change some people and while they may not always realise the significance of the date, they don't forget the memories either. I don't remember the dates of important events that happened in the UK, but that doesn't mean I don't remember or realise how certain things affected our country.

If Katrina hadn't happened, the Administration would have pushed celebration of 9/11 and tried to continue to use it to justify the invasion of Iraq, but Katrina did happen and the poor response of the authorities has forced them into a defensive spin.

My bet is that they will restore the French and Garden quarters and give the rest to the developers. They will give a huge contract to BRK who will skim a big chunk and sub contract Bechtel, who, after skimming a big chunk for themselves will let to subsubcontractors who will hire workers at minimum wage because Davis/Bacon is waived. Or am I being too cynical?

Think of all the owners of houses that may or may not return.
One thing for sure there is a huge army of Lawyers and Real Estate Developers drooling over the potential fortunes to be made.

Sadly, I fear Keith and Londonsquare are spot on. Kellog, Brown & Root are already out there doing work on damaged military bases and looking at other pies to dip their fingers into. It appears that being President/Vice President is about how many friends you can pay back during your 4-8 years, no matter what the situation is.

I watched "The Flight that Fought Back". It was ok but a bit slow-paced at times and the schmaltzy music was unnecessary. The producers should have watched something like Britain's Crimewatch or 999 to see how to do a better reconstruction of events.

I've studied the reports and testimonies in the past so not much was a suprise although it was quite shocking to hear a reconstruction of the un-released audio recorded as Flight 93 crashed, as well as basically seeing a passenger and 3 crew members killed with the knives that were on board.

Insurance company's are not helping at the moment, saw one report where they told home owners "sorry it's flood damage, not hurricane damage so we cannot give you any money".

Wankers

:???:

Hey, if the museums can't employ you, perhaps you should consider scriptwriting for one of the news channels? :lol:

Things wont change and memories will remain short.

Compare the billions of dollars being donated to the richest country in the world to Malawi's famine appeal that kicked off a couple of weeks ago to try and stop hundreds and thousands of people starving because of a failed crop. When I looked last Friday they had raised a total of $0.00 (GBP0.00 (still cant do the pound sign)). Nothing, not a bean. And it was only this year that we had to sit through hours of idiots crooning and patting themselves on the backs at LiveAid.

why are they wankers?

homeowners policy specifically deny coverage to floods which can be bought through the federal government flood insurance plan.

We have a binding contract with the clients to provide coverage for the stated perils or none excluded perils (and believe me, flood IS an excluded peril.)

State Farm Insurance FP-7955 Homeowners policy page 10 section I losses not insured
c1.
Water Damage, flood, surface water, waves, tidal waves, tsunami, seiche, overflow of a body of water, or spray from any of these, all whether driven by wind or not.

I think that's pretty black and white........

I don't think you know what you are talking about Goose.

Word of the day seiche

"A wave that oscillates in lakes, bays, or gulfs from a few minutes to a few hours as a result of seismic or atmospheric disturbances."

Manc, why do they exclude flooding in the insurance? I can understand that certain places do if they are prone to flooding continuously. But for everyone?

When I worked in insurance in the UK (many moons ago) your insurance did include flood insurance as well as other damage from 'acts of God'. However, there were the occasional policies that excluded coverage for flood damage because the property had claimed quite a few times for flooding due to a rising river for example. This was something that would constantly happen and so was excluded on the policy but it was done on an individual basis rather than everyone.

Also, for those people who live in areas that are known to or prone to flood, why don't the mortgage companies insist that the home owners have flood insurance? When you get a mortgage you have to have insurance as part of your mortgage condition so why can't it be the same for flood insurance?

Its very true Goose, flooding is not included in a home owners insurance policy. My neighbour was caught out with that one but luckily we weren't. We have always had flood insurance as part of our property is in a 100 year flood zone. Both our houses flooded and we were the only one with the insurance pay out. Even if you dont live in a flood zone it may pay you to get this as an extra, 'cos you never know :wink:

Well I think it's because insurance is state regulated, and therefore a company has to offer the same policy for everyone in the state, you can't therefore offer a policy in town A with flood, and a policy in town B without it. they have to be uniform policies for everyone in the same state.

Also, unlike fire and theft, which are incidental one off occurrences, floods are most of the times catastrophic and happen to thousands of homes at once.
No one company can withstand that loss.

So the companies said bollocks to it and just excluded it outright.

That makes sense making it fair for everyone. Thanks for the explanation. )