September 9, 2005 Man vs. Nature
Came across this post – Sheep and Wolves in New Orleans while I was searching for an iTunes plugin for WordPress. The author makes an interesting argument that the disaster, or more importantly the fallout from the disaster, is perhaps more of a man-made one rather than a natural one. Geneva points out social strains, economic crutches and government ineptitude might be to blame.
On the whole, I’d probably agree with her, being the outside observer that I am. Is it hard to comprehend Americans turning on their own?
Last night, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said 300 Iraq-hardened Arkansas National Guard members were inside New Orleans with shoot-to-kill orders.
“These troops are�Ķunder my orders to restore order in the streets,” she said. “They have M-16s, and they are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect they will.”
The reference to Iraq is eerie. The photo that accompanies this article shows National Guard troops, with rifles and armored vests, riding on an armored vehicle through trash-strewn streets lined by a rabble of squalid, listless people, one of whom appears to be yelling at them. It looks exactly like a scene from Sadr City in Baghdad.
One doubts it. China brought in non-local troops to quell the Tiananmen Square uprising and no doubt the US will have done the same. The last half-century has seen the US release it’s military muscle on its own civilian population numerous times… and often times they weren’t even armed.
Tags: Political Thoughts
- 5 comments
- Posted under Blog
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Geneva
said
Thanks for the trackback to my post (I am a her not a him BTW).
I added some photos to the post, and also made sure that it named the individual who originally wrote it.
I, too, somehow doubt that it looks anything like Iraq, but I thought the story was moving.
Nice site by the way, and if you wanted help with an itunes to wordpress script, I will be happy to share mine with you.
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Eshin
said
Sorry, got confused with the article’s author and you since I read “my wife, Sherri”. Changed it now…
Still undecided about the iTunes plugin…not quite sure I want the world to know what I’m listening to! Noticed you’ve been listening to Morcheeba and the cover of How Soon Is Now?… almost looks like my library!
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Geneva
said
Yeah, I have LOADS of music. The plugin I use, IndieRock, just writes to a text file, then I use a PHP file to echo it, and link to that from wordpress.
IndieRock is at http://www.seniorjunior.org/code/ and uses the .Net protocol.
The code for my php echo is
“;
}
?>
Good luck!
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Joseph in Egypt
said
Interesting take on the New Orleans hurricane aftermath; but still naive, I think. I am from New England (the northeast U.S., settled by Engkish farmers) and came to college in the Spanish Southwest (settled by Spanish convicts who’d been pressed into military service under Hernando Cortez). The two places couldn’t be more different. New Orleans (a former French colony) is another kettle of fish, again. What foreigners often can’t (or won’t) see is that the U.S. is more like seven or eight different countries under one flag, not at all the homogenous fantasy of T.V. (remember, T.V. shows are Not Real, my friend, they exist only to Sell You Stuff).
New Orleans people may have “turned on their own” as you say, but note, please, that New Yorkers did nothing of the sort, when they were bombed by terrorists (much more frightening than a hurricane, I’d say). Goes to show you; Culture is Everything. That’s why Yankees up North are so furious that the same redneck dirtbags who lost the Civil War now run Washington. We don’t want a bunch of illiterate, murderous, uncivilized animals from Texas and the Deep South in charge, any more than you fellows overseas do!
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Eshin
said
You make a fair point in that it is often forgotten that the US is made up various different states, with their own laws, history and culture.
All TV helps to form impressions, opinions, etc… even if it is fantasy. My boss lectured on the fact that Friends basically drove the whole Starbuck trend (it’s okay to sit for hours on end, in a coffee house, with your friends) – well, overseas at least. Hey, I worked in advertising, go figure…
It’s funny you say Yankees… it’s derived from when New York was New Amsterdam and they had a whole bunch of folks up there who were Dutch with the common name of Jan Kees (pron. Yun Kays). So, I guess that is even a reflection.