posted on September 7, 2005 01:25:31 PM
A friend sent this to me. Very interesting read.
An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State
An Objectivist Review
by Robert Tracinski | The Intellectual Activist
September 2, 2005
It has taken four long days for state and federal officials to figure out how to deal with the disaster in New Orleans. I can't blame them, because it has also taken me four long days to figure out what is going on there. The reason is that the events there make no sense if you think that we are confronting a natural disaster.
If this is just a natural disaster, the response for public officials is obvious: you bring in food, water, and doctors; you send transportation to evacuate refugees to temporary shelters; you send engineers to stop the flooding and rebuild the city's infrastructure. For journalists, natural disasters also have a familiar pattern: the heroism of ordinary people pulling together to survive; the hard work and dedication of doctors, nurses, and rescue workers; the steps being taken to clean up and rebuild.
Public officials did not expect that the first thing they would have to do is to send thousands of armed troops in armored vehicle, as if they are suppressing an enemy insurgency. And journalists--myself included--did not expect that the story would not be about rain, wind, and flooding, but about rape, murder, and looting.
But this is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made disaster.
The man-made disaster is not an inadequate or incompetent response by federal relief agencies, and it was not directly caused by Hurricane Katrina. This is where just about every newspaper and television channel has gotten the story wrong.
The man-made disaster we are now witnessing in New Orleans did not happen over the past four days. It happened over the past four decades. Hurricane Katrina merely exposed it to public view.
The man-made disaster is the welfare state.
For the past few days, I have found the news from New Orleans to be confusing. People were not behaving as you would expect them to behave in an emergency--indeed, they were not behaving as they have behaved in other emergencies. That is what has shocked so many people: they have been saying that this is not what we expect from America. In fact, it is not even what we expect from a Third World country.
When confronted with a disaster, people usually rise to the occasion. They work together to rescue people in danger, and they spontaneously organize to keep order and solve problems. This is especially true in America. We are an enterprising people, used to relying on our own initiative rather than waiting around for the government to take care of us. I have seen this a hundred times, in small examples (a small town whose main traffic light had gone out, causing ordinary citizens to get out of their cars and serve as impromptu traffic cops, directing cars through the intersection) and large ones (the spontaneous response of New Yorkers to September 11).
So what explains the chaos in New Orleans?
To give you an idea of the magnitude of what is going on, here is a description from a Washington Times story:
"Storm victims are raped and beaten; fights erupt with flying fists, knives and guns; fires are breaking out; corpses litter the streets; and police and rescue helicopters are repeatedly fired on.
"The plea from Mayor C. Ray Nagin came even as National Guardsmen poured in to restore order and stop the looting, carjackings and gunfire....
"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...under 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.
What explains bands of thugs using a natural disaster as an excuse for an orgy of looting, armed robbery, and rape? What causes unruly mobs to storm the very buses that have arrived to evacuate them, causing the drivers to drive away, frightened for their lives? What causes people to attack the doctors trying to treat patients at the Super Dome?
Why are people responding to natural destruction by causing further destruction? Why are they attacking the people who are trying to help them?
My wife, Sherri, figured it out first, and she figured it out on a sense-of-life level. While watching the coverage last night on Fox News Channel, she told me that she was getting a familiar feeling. She studied architecture at the Illinois Institute of Chicago, which is located in the South Side of Chicago just blocks away from the Robert Taylor Homes, one of the largest high-rise public housing projects in America. "The projects," as they were known, were infamous for uncontrollable crime and irremediable squalor. (They have since, mercifully, been demolished.)
What Sherri was getting from last night's television coverage was a whiff of the sense of life of "the projects." Then the "crawl"--the informational phrases flashed at the bottom of the screen on most news channels--gave some vital statistics to confirm this sense: 75% of the residents of New Orleans had already evacuated before the hurricane, and of the 300,000 or so who remained, a large number were from the city's public housing projects. Jack Wakeland then gave me an additional, crucial fact: early reports from CNN and Fox indicated that the city had no plan for evacuating all of the prisoners in the city's jails--so they just let many of them loose. There is no doubt a significant overlap between these two populations--that is, a large number of people in the jails used to live in the housing projects, and vice versa.
There were many decent, innocent people trapped in New Orleans when the deluge hit--but they were trapped alongside large numbers of people from two groups: criminals--and wards of the welfare state, people selected, over decades, for their lack of initiative and self-induced helplessness. The welfare wards were a mass of sheep--on whom the incompetent administration of New Orleans unleashed a pack of wolves.
All of this is related, incidentally, to the apparent incompetence of the city government, which failed to plan for a total evacuation of the city, despite the knowledge that this might be necessary. But in a city corrupted by the welfare state, the job of city officials is to ensure the flow of handouts to welfare recipients and patronage to political supporters--not to ensure a lawful, orderly evacuation in case of emergency.
No one has really reported this story, as far as I can tell. In fact, some are already actively distorting it, blaming President Bush, for example, for failing to personally ensure that the Mayor of New Orleans had drafted an adequate evacuation plan. The worst example is an execrable piece from the Toronto Globe and Mail, by a supercilious Canadian who blames the chaos on American "individualism." But the truth is precisely the opposite: the chaos was caused by a system that was the exact opposite of individualism.
What Hurricane Katrina exposed was the psychological consequences of the welfare state. What we consider "normal" behavior in an emergency is behavior that is normal for people who have values and take the responsibility to pursue and protect them. People with values respond to a disaster by fighting against it and doing whatever it takes to overcome the difficulties they face. They don't sit around and complain that the government hasn't taken care of them. They don't use the chaos of a disaster as an opportunity to prey on their fellow men.
But what about criminals and welfare parasites? Do they worry about saving their houses and property? They don't, because they don't own anything. Do they worry about what is going to happen to their businesses or how they are going to make a living? They never worried about those things before. Do they worry about crime and looting? But living off of stolen wealth is a way of life for them.
The welfare state--and the brutish, uncivilized mentality it sustains and encourages--is the man-made disaster that explains the moral ugliness that has swamped New Orleans. And that is the story that no one is reporting.
posted on September 7, 2005 05:04:21 PM
I received this from a friend who is very conservitive. It's well written and very thought provoking. Even if things weren't done purposely, it shows a lack of compassion at the least.
posted on September 7, 2005 06:19:46 PM
Colin, that article is spot on imo. And gosh, I'm a Lib!
I would add one thing.. those who have for generations been on welfare and relied on the government not only for housing, food and medical.. have also become accustomed to being told what to do, when to do it and how to do it...in other words, they have lost the power to think or act on their on behalf..so when this disaster happened, some felt the power to act out without restraint.. like children let loose in a candy store for the first time in their lives... that's how I saw it..
I don't think this is unique to New Orleans.
posted on September 7, 2005 06:43:16 PM
I agree maggie. New Orleans is not the only place this COULD (or will, given the right circumstances) happen.
This is a very thought provoking and "un-PC" article.
And I agree with alot of it. When people lose their ability to think for themselves how can they be expected to plan for an emergency?
Their mayor should have had those school and city buses getting them out, WITHOUT being told it's the right thing to do. (Or at least those who wanted to go. There are always many who chose not to.) Other provisions should have been made to keep the criminals SECURE. They were removed from society for a reason. If guys on death row didn't make it, well, they're on death row, for a reason.
posted on September 7, 2005 09:30:34 PM
I only agree on one point. Before this hurricane the world and many in the U.S. were not aware that such a large percentage of an American city live in abject poverty. Hopefully, one good consequence of this revelation may be an increased awareness of the struggle that is still going on in our country to achieve racial equality.
Otherwise, this article is an especially brutal and undeserved attack on the poor people of New Orleans. By exaggerating incidents of crime, the author is attempting to characterize the victims as criminals, helpless losers and uncivilized brutes. The majority do not deserve that condemnation.
Instead, such criticism should be directed toward those who failed to plan and execute an orderly evacuation of the city. They are the real brutes and criminals.
posted on September 8, 2005 04:56:02 AM
Appreciate that, dave! We should probably write a ten page scholarly paper on that one but who would listen? That has got to be the worst piece of trash that has been copy pasted to this board in the last few years.
posted on September 8, 2005 06:12:41 AM
To honest for you helen? People like you are the ones enabling the poor and creating the very conditions that foster that type of living.
Since I have been here it is one of the best posts placed here. But then again I did point out you also are so far left you don't seem to be able to see the center.
This sums it up nicely:
The man-made disaster is the welfare state.
Ron
posted on September 8, 2005 06:17:49 AM
Ron, I heard an interesting quote the other day. Some guy being interviewed said, "if you think the government is the problem, why are you looking for it to be the solution?"
posted on September 8, 2005 06:21:38 AM
Very good article - anytime someone tries to report any aspect of this story, they are called a rascist or bigot - so they steer clear of it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Caroline
posted on September 8, 2005 08:07:45 AM..anytime someone tries to report any aspect of this story, they are called a rascist or bigot - so they steer clear of it.
Or horrors or horrors, a incompassionate soul!
I love all these well-to-do liberals with their mp3 players and all other such luxuries - touting the virtues and dignities of living poor! As if. They are so sure theres comfort to be found somewhere in it. Maybe they should try living on a welfare check thats probably gone 2 weeks into the new month, and then talk about how wonderful it is to be poor in your own home where eating ramon noodles and cheese pancakes passes for a hot meal until the next check comes along.
posted on September 8, 2005 10:50:37 AM
New Orleans has been the number one or two city with the highest crime rate for years. Poor black on black murders on an on-going basis.
I hope by agreeing with what was said in this article didn't give the impression that I am blaming the blacks or the poor. Their situation has been years in the making. Our society has pretty much swept the problems under the carpet or kept them isolated in ghetto's where they have had very little help in breaking out of the mold...
I think the many who didn't flee the hurricane feared losing their homes and possessions to looters...and for people who have precious little to begin with, the idea of leaving it behind was unbearable.
As for those who went nuts and went on a looting , killing spree.. etc..it wasn't a shock really when you think about it..for the first time in their lives, they felt in control and could take what they wanted...
I have to wonder how many were on withdrawals from drugs too...??
posted on September 8, 2005 11:11:54 AM
Thank-you too, Helen. I thought the whole article was crap. Since this hurricane hit, and it was obvious from the beginning there was some major problem with disaster relief, the only thing the right has been able to come up with to counter balance this black mark against their government, is to blame these victims. I hope God doesn't test any of you to see if you could fare better.
posted on September 8, 2005 11:47:03 AM
the south side of Chicago where University of Chicago campus is located- Hyde Park area has always been a mixed area,Cabrini Green housing project is closer to downtown and is ridden with crimes.
They talk about demolishing the entire project which span city blocks.
But New Orleans is a city,not a housing project,I think some of the tales of rape and murder are exaggerated.
As for the troops coming in with their rifles pointing at the civilians,they have been told by their leaders to lower their weapons.
New Orleans is not Iraq.
-sig file -------
Eat grass,kick ass,never go belly up!
posted on September 8, 2005 11:51:33 AM "But New Orleans is a city,not a housing project,I think some of the tales of rape and murder are exaggerated"
That's right, stopwhining.
Murder and rape - fact or fiction?
Gary Younge in Baton Rouge
Tuesday September 6, 2005
The Guardian
There were two babies who had their throats slit. The seven-year-old girl who was raped and murdered in the Superdome. And the corpses laid out amid the excrement in the convention centre.
In a week filled with dreadful scenes of desperation and anger from New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina some stories stood out.
But as time goes on many remain unsubstantiated and may yet prove to be apocryphal.
New Orleans police have been unable to confirm the tale of the raped child, or indeed any of the reports of rapes, in the Superdome and convention centre.
New Orleans police chief Eddie Compass said last night: "We don't have any substantiated rapes. We will investigate if the individuals come forward."
And while many claim they happened, no witnesses, survivors or survivors' relatives have come forward.
Nor has the source for the story of the murdered babies, or indeed their bodies, been found. And while the floor of the convention centre toilets were indeed covered in excrement, the Guardian found no corpses.
During a week when communications were difficult, rumours have acquired a particular currency. They acquired through repetition the status of established facts.
One French journalist from the daily newspaper Libération was given precise information that 1,200 people had drowned at Marion Abramson school on 5552 Read Boulevard. Nobody at the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the New Orleans police force has been able to verify that.
But then Fema could not confirm there were thousands of people at the convention centre until they were told by the press for the simple reason that they did not know.
"Katrina's winds have left behind an information vacuum. And that vacuum has been filled by rumour.
"There is nothing to correct wild reports that armed gangs have taken over the convention centre," wrote Associated Press writer, Allen Breed.
"You can report them but you at least have to say they are unsubstantiated and not pass them off as fact," said one Baltimore-based journalist.
"But nobody is doing that."
Either way these rumours have had an effect.
Reports of the complete degradation and violent criminals running rampant in the Superdome suggested a crisis that both hastened the relief effort and demonised those who were stranded.
By the end of last week the media in Baton Rouge reported that evacuees from New Orleans were carjacking and that guns and knives were being seized in local shelters where riots were erupting.
The local mayor responded accordingly.
"We do not want to inherit the looting and all the other foolishness that went on in New Orleans," Kip Holden was told the Baton Rouge Advocate.
"We do not want to inherit that breed that seeks to prey on other people."
The trouble, wrote Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune is that "scarcely any of it was true - the police confiscated a single knife from a refugee in one Baton Rouge shelter".
"There were no riots in Baton Rouge. There were no armed hordes."
Similarly when the first convoy of national guardsmen went into New Orleans approached the convention centre they were ordered to "lock and load".
But when they arrived they were confronted not by armed mobs but a nurse wearing a T-shirt that read "I love New Orleans".
"She ran down a broken escalator, then held her hands in the air when she saw the guns," wrote the LA Times.
"We have sick kids up here!" she shouted.
"We have dehydrated kids! One kid with sickle cell!"
posted on September 8, 2005 11:53:11 AM
Maggie,
you may of hit on something with the withdrawls.
But then again this article brings to the surface what the welfare state actually creates.
posted on September 9, 2005 03:19:00 PM
Helen,
You must have read a different article. If not, I have to believe your head is so far up your azz you haven't seen daylight in years.
It scares me that you and your entourage can't read and comprehend the English language.
Amen,
I do believe it’s time to start the A-List once again,
Reverend Colin
posted on September 9, 2005 03:39:07 PM
You don't need to worry.. Your not bright enough to be installed to the A-list.
You have to do, post or say something stupid, that you know is wrong. For the most part you would have to be a leftist and really believe in it....not just a butt sniffing follower.
Don't fret Davy, maybe when you grow up.
Amen,
I do believe it’s time to start the A-List once again,
Reverend Colin
posted on September 9, 2005 03:59:30 PM
Calm down Davy,
Your just getting yourself all worked up about nothing.
I should have stated in the last message that I wasn't offended by your original statement.
I'm not bothered by this one either. Actually I don't know what it means anyway. Is it a love poem? Sorry Davy but I'm straight. Maybe you can find someone else to send your little poem to.
Shouldn't you be playing with you X-box?
Amen,
Your family and friends may think you’re an AH but the Reverend loves you anyway.
Reverend Colin
Caroline