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September 02, 2005
Alarming News From Nawlins
The friend I expected to visit with me last night called to say he needed to put off our drinking session for a night or two as his boss had stressed him out to the point that he could not be friendly to man nor beast. I respect his decision, because he works for Jimmy Lee, a little Japanese entrepreneur whose only friend is money and who treats, out of pure prejudice, his American employees like slaves. I've known Jimmy for awhile. He's one of those slumlords(he owns a fleabag hotel in what was formerly Chicago's skid row, a 17 storey building nestled now between a Comfort Inn and a parking lot in the most expensive zip code in this part of the country) who spends much of his time dodging city agencies in court over numerous code violations.
In the man's defense, he does carry good tenants when they fall on hard times, though he tends to make their lives a living hell in the meantime. This is a case of a guy who arrived in the U.S. as a peon and built his own little empire. He's got a good heart, he just doesn't want anyone to know about it. Personally, despite his seeming greed, I like the man. He does a good job of hiding his humanity, but it is there. He simply wants to see others bust their asses and succeed like he did, and if they don't or can't, he views it as inferiority.
Oh, well.
So I went down to the hotel bar for a drink. Gabriel and Rebecca, the bartenders, were excellent at their job. I had a pint of Pilsner Urquel on draft and a shot or two of Sauza Hornitos. Then I returned to my suite and read the news.
I am distressed beyond belief about some of the things happening in Nawlins, according to the Associated Press.
New Orleans descended into anarchy Thursday, as corpses lay abandoned in street medians, fights and fires broke out and storm survivors battled for seats on the buses that would carry them away from the chaos. The tired and hungry seethed, saying they had been forsaken. ``This is a desperate SOS,'' mayor Ray Nagin said.
``We are out here like pure animals,'' the Rev. Issac Clark said outside the New Orleans Convention Center, where he and other evacuees had been waiting for buses for days amid the filth and the dead.
``I'm not sure I'm going to get out of here alive,'' said tourist Larry Mitzel of Saskatoon, Canada, who handed a reporter his business card in case he goes missing. ``I'm scared of riots. I'm scared of the locals. We might get caught in the crossfire.''
I'm having some technical trouble with links that will change in the near future when I change servers from customer unfriendly Square Space to another forum like Blogger, but here is a link to the story, via the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5249697,00.html
This majorly sucks, but it's not anything non-understandable where human nature is concerned. These people have been yanked from normal life into an existence not unlike pure horror: Their homes are gone, their entire world has turned into a hell few civilized people can understand and the disruption of communications has cut them off from the money they have in their bank accounts, so they are broke, undomiciled and basically "fucked" for the time being. The despair and the frustration are taking their respective tolls.
I've donated money to one relief venue and am going to donate more to another.
We already know that as usual, America is on its own, despite all the help we give other countries in times of disaster, none of those countries nor any of our "allies" will help us. If you can, please donate whatever you can afford to help the people of New Orleans. If we don't help our own, they will not be helped, because the rest of the world doesn't give a tinker's damn about the United States except when we can do for them.
Posted by Seth at September 2, 2005 08:09 AM
Comments
(CBS/AP) In an accelerating drive to help the United States, more than three dozen countries have pledged assistance in the Katrina hurricane disaster.Several international organizations including UNHCR, WHO, the European Commisssion and the Organization of American States have also offered aid, said CBS News State Dept. Reporter Charlie Wolfson.The offers blur political lines. Cuba and Venezuela, for instance, have offered to help despite differences with Washington. Oil giant Saudi Arabia and tiny countries like Dominica, are among the nations making pledges.Australia announced a donation of $8 million to the American Red Cross...fyi.
Posted by: Dan Trabue at September 2, 2005 08:06 PM
Dan, thanks. I've been out "playing" and haven't been following the news as much as usual.See, even thorns in sides can come in handy :)from time to time.I have to admit that I'm surprised, especially seeing that even Sri Lanka and the Dominican Republic want to kick in, and according to Bloomberg, Schroeder made a statement that somewhat raises my respect level for him:``The pictures that we see on television are hard to bear,'' German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told reporters today at the Chancellery in Berlin. ``It is not only our historical duty, because we've received unlimited help from the American people after the war, but it also goes without saying.'' "You're welcome, Gerhard, and thank you."
Posted by: Seth at September 2, 2005 09:41 PM
Now, see? All of us getting along all cuddly like?
Posted by: Dan Trabue at September 2, 2005 09:56 PM
I don't know if I'd go that far, as soon as things have been set right in Nawlins, if not sooner, it'll be back to "business as usual," with the U.S. and George Bush back on the wrong end of the global socialist and liberal firing range.
Posted by: Seth at September 2, 2005 10:57 PM
