Re: [xmca] Re: Katrina and Tsunami and Iraq

From: Mike Cole (lchcmike@gmail.com)
Date: Sat Sep 03 2005 - 14:27:08 PDT


I believe it is too early to tell what depth and what kind of
politicalization
has occurred and will occurred. It is estimated that besides loss of life,
property and
infrastructure, 1 million people have lost work. What happens to them, along
with many
associated happenings, will exert a strong influence on whether or not these
events
are sufficient to changes the course of world events.
 

 On 9/3/05, Shirley Franklin <s.franklin@dsl.pipex.com> wrote:
>
> This public outrage and expose seems to be one of the very few positive
> outcomes of this man-made disaster.
> So many more Americans must have become politicised than after 9.11?
> Shirley
> On 3 Sep 2005, at 21:45, Mike Cole wrote:
>
> > The Iraq/Katrina connections are in wide currency in local media
> > coverage as well, Shirley. Many unvoiceable thoughts by unhearable
> > people have exploded all over the US media, along with predictable
> > moves to restore ideological as well as physical order.
> >
> > On 9/3/05, Shirley Franklin <s.franklin@dsl.pipex.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> Our impression here in the UK is that people are very much relating
> >> the disgusting neglect by the Bush Government of those hit by the
> >> hurricane to the war and occupation of Iraq.
> >> The Daily Mirror, a tabloid daily newspaper, published this today:
> >> (Shirley Franklin)
> >>
> >> 3 September 2005
> >> MICHAEL MOORE: DEAR MR BUSH
> >> Dear Mr Bush,
> >> Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane
> >> Katrina
> >> and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted.
> >> Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do
> >> you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot.
> >> Man, was that a drag.
> >> Also, any idea where all our National Guard soldiers are? We could
> >> really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do
> >> like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to
> >> begin with?
> >> Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of
> >> Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then
> >> but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there
> >> were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this
> >> storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody
> >> tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know
> >> how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to
> >> and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!
> >> I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying
> >> to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps.
> >> Don't let people criticize you for this - after all, the hurricane was
> >> over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?
> >> And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you
> >> specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New
> >> Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them
> >> that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there
> >> weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you
> >> had a much more important construction job for them - BUILDING
> >> DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!
> >> Advertisement
> >> On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I
> >> was
> >> moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds
> >> as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the
> >> disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand
> >> on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done
> >> that.
> >> There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to
> >> use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out.
> >> Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this
> >> would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter
> >> and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all
> >> their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a
> >> hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado
> >> that
> >> stretched from New York to Cleveland.
> >> No, Mr Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 per
> >> cent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no
> >> transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's
> >> not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white
> >> people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has
> >> nothing - NOTHING - to do with this!
> >> You hang in there, Mr Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army
> >> helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and
> >> the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.
> >> Yours, Michael Moore MMFlint@aol.com;
> >> www.MichaelMoore.com <http://www.MichaelMoore.com><
> http://www.MichaelMoore.com>
> >> P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch.
> >> She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now
> >> driving
> >> across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you
> >> can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.
> >>
> >>
> >> On 3 Sep 2005, at 17:59, David Daniel Preiss Contreras wrote:
> >>
> >>>
> >>> Indeed, my humble impression, is that what Madame Katrina made more
> >>> evident is the issue of the lack of social justice. But, from
> >>> compasion to a real endorsement of new policies there is a huge step
> >>> and, my pessimistic prediction, is that, when voting, people will
> >>> care
> >>> more about taxation and oil prices than social security, education
> >>> and
> >>> environment. And, who knows, maybe nobody will remember that there is
> >>> a war going on up there in iraq.
> >>> David
> >>> Mike Cole writes:
> >>>> I believe you may be underestimating the situation here, Phil. We
> >>>> all
> >>>> are underestimating..
> >>>> What is needed is a truly many sided account derived from people in
> >>>> many positions. Of which your post and the others on XMCA and other
> >>>> such dicussion groups are some.
> >>>> I have never witnessed American journalists so deeply in sympathy
> >>>> the people they
> >>>> are reporting on. The class and race issues are benig far more
> >>>> widely
> >>>> discussed in a way that the rising price of gasoline has not. Deep
> >>>> questioning of the Bush government
> >>>> has surfaced in very mainstreat media-- The NY Times, this morning,
> >>>> pointed to the tax
> >>>> system and said it is essential to start to think about increasing
> >>>> taxes to pay for governance,
> >>>> broadly speaking. The voices of the poor have, in a very rare
> >>>> moment, been loudly and clearly heard. The middle
> >>>> and upper classes have not been on TV except in the guise of
> >>>> politicians... they got away and
> >>>> while inconvenienced severely, have not undergone the terror and
> >>>> fatigue.
> >>>> You are, of course, entirely correct that such a situation has gone
> >>>> unresolved in the Tsunami zone
> >>>> but that the drama in the US creates forgetting of the
> >>>> still-vicimized survivors of the last great,
> >>>> "natural" disaster. And we can predict the same for the Gulf Coast.
> >>>> Unless there are some fundamental changes in US policies, its
> >>>> governmental general world view, the poor will have again
> >>>> begun to go "of the radar screen" of "society," so that again the
> >>>> head of FEMA will be hear and seen
> >>>> to say that he was not aware that such people existed.
> >>>> Its hard to learn from history when one has a short memory.
> >>>> mike On 9/3/05, Phil Chappell <philchappell@mac.com> wrote:
> >>>>> I in no way wish to detract from the immediate and immense problems
> >>>>> in
> >>>>> the gulf, but I have just spent a couple of days in Phuket,
> >>>>> Thailand
> >>>>> (on an educational kind of visit) where thousands died 8 months ago
> >>>>> in
> >>>>> another natural disaster. 8 months on there are dispossessed and
> >>>>> traumatised children who lost all family members, street vendors
> >>>>> who
> >>>>> cooked and sold bbq chicken and salad to put their kids through
> >>>>> school
> >>>>> whose carts were destroyed and who are still working out how to
> >>>>> return
> >>>>> to their villages over a 1000 km away, homeless adults wandering
> >>>>> around
> >>>>> with ragbags (a very unusual sight in this international playground
> >>>>> where everyone prospered), and endless, endless, endless
> >>>>> restaurants,
> >>>>> bars, and other entertainment joints empty except for the few staff
> >>>>> who
> >>>>> are dozing on tables. The "west" has shunned its former playground.
> >>>>> An
> >>>>> island that once owed its existence to the various fishing
> >>>>> communities,
> >>>>> many nomadic, that plied its waters; a playground that now owes its
> >>>>> existence to western "fly and flop" tourism, and James Bond. The 4
> >>>>> and 5-star hotels remain unaffected, apart from having no guests.
> >>>>> Several people complained of the government's slowness in providing
> >>>>> the
> >>>>> reconstruction support that they felt was due months ago. And the
> >>>>> government complains that the millions pledged by other countries
> >>>>> are
> >>>>> still to be received. I don't have international TV at home, but I
> >>>>> watched it in my hotel in
> >>>>> Phuket. I saw Americans echoing the words of Thais, albeit 8 months
> >>>>> too
> >>>>> early. And I read in a local English rag the complaints that "the
> >>>>> Bush
> >>>>> government is spending all its money on the war in Iraq and doesn't
> >>>>> have enough to support this latest disaster". (I didn't bring the
> >>>>> article back with me and it's not available electronically). My
> >>>>> hope
> >>>>> is that the spin can stop for long enough to help those who
> >>>>> need - in the latest gulf area, in Thailand, in Sri Lanka, in Banda
> >>>>> Ache, on the bridge in Iraq............ One poignant moment for me
> >>>>> was the entertainment place (half bar/half
> >>>>> restaurant) that we passed by. A cable tv (cnn) was showing looters
> >>>>> up
> >>>>> to their necks in water. The viewers were slumped on tables asleep
> >>>>> -
> >>>>> the wait-staff for the evening, waiting. This is not a terribly
> >>>>> eloquent post, but one I wanted to write as I
> >>>>> ponder humanity's latest issues with nature and itself. And from
> >>>>> another list: "In such a terrible situation as the one that
> >>>>> thousands of people are
> >>>>> experiencing now in the USA, I believe it is not time for refined
> >>>>> exercises of discourse analysis (at least, I would be unable to do
> >>>>> them) that, for the sake of academic "rigor" and self-complacency
> >>>>> (which too often are one and the same issue) would obscure the
> >>>>> fundamental issues at stake in this crisis. The simple issue is
> >>>>> that
> >>>>> the bodies and minds of poor people always DIE in greater
> >>>>> quantities
> >>>>> and SUFFER more than other economic classes under critical
> >>>>> circumstances. If you have an opportunity, do search for and listen
> >>>>> to
> >>>>> these speeches, for example. I doubt that CNN will make them
> >>>>> available
> >>>>> on line. And to the international academic community (particularly
> >>>>> the US
> >>>>> scholars) I can only suggest, with all due respect and humbleness,
> >>>>> to
> >>>>> consider anew or review the role that the material bases of
> >>>>> society,
> >>>>> and particularly objects such as "class", "class relations",
> >>>>> "poverty",
> >>>>> or the like, play in the models (?) that inform (?) their
> >>>>> respective
> >>>>> forms of discourse analyses." Phil On 03/09/2005, at 2:01 AM, Vera
> >>>>> Steiner wrote: > Hi,
> >>>>>> The only small step that I am aware of is that the U. of New
> >>>>> Mexico is
> >>>>>> letting undergraduates enroll with no
> >>>>>> records and providing them with tuition, etc. But no steps thus
> >>>>> far at
> >>>>>> the
> >>>>>> graduate level or assistance to researchers,
> >>>>>> Vera
> >>>>>> ----- Original Message -----
> >>>>>> From: "Peg Griffin" <Peg.Griffin@worldnet.att.net>
> >>>>>> To: "'eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity'" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> >>>>>> Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 10:46 PM
> >>>>>> Subject: RE: [xmca] Hurricane Katrina-LSU Student Relief Fund
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Thanks for the info, David.
> >>>>>>> Do you know if any of the colleges and universities to the south
> >>>>> and
> >>>>>>> east
> >>>>>> of
> >>>>>>> Baton Rouge have any temporary web homes?
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Does anyone know of anyone keeping track of ways to work with
> >>>>>>> students,
> >>>>>>> teachers, researchers who have been displaced from the gulf?
> >>>>>>> Is anyone getting a database about displaced doctoral candidates
> >>>>> who
> >>>>>>> need
> >>>>>> to
> >>>>>>> replace months of data collection, students who need certain
> >>>>>>> requirements
> >>>>>> to
> >>>>>>> graduate, junior faculty who have to rewrite their almost
> >>>>>>> finished
> >>>>>>> manuscripts and so on?
> >>>>>>> Is anyone trying to get them together with university people who
> >>>>> can
> >>>>>>> help
> >>>>>>> them work out reasonable next steps?
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> So far the evidence from Yale and UC seems to say that those
> >>>>>>> institutions
> >>>>>>> haven't yet recognized they might be the someones with the
> >>>>> expertise
> >>>>>>> to do
> >>>>>>> these sorts of things...
> >>>>>>> PG
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>>>>> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu
> >>>>>>> [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
> >>>>>>> Behalf Of David Daniel Preiss Contreras
> >>>>>>> Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 11:12 PM
> >>>>>>> To: 'xmca@weber.ucsd.edu'
> >>>>>>> Subject: [xmca] Hurricane Katrina-LSU Student Relief Fund
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> A secular way to help, from the site of
> >>>>> www.lsu.edu <http://www.lsu.edu> <http://www.lsu.edu><
> http://www.lsu.edu>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> David
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Hurricane Katrina-LSU Student Relief Fund
> >>>>>>> Hurricane Katrina has had a terrible effect on our state and
> >>>>> there are
> >>>>>> many
> >>>>>>> LSU students from South Louisiana who could use your help in this
> >>>>>>> time of
> >>>>>>> need. The LSU Foundation's Hurricane Katrina - LSU Student Relief
> >>>>>>> Fund
> >>>>>> was
> >>>>>>> created in response to the far-reaching damage caused by
> >>>>>>> Hurricane
> >>>>>> Katrina,
> >>>>>>> and all donations to this fund will directly assist students
> >>>>>>> whose
> >>>>>>> lives
> >>>>>>> have been greatly affected by the storm.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> To give to the relief fund by credit card, simply fill out the
> >>>>>>> information
> >>>>>>> here. If you would like to donate by check, please make the check
> >>>>>>> payable
> >>>>>>> to the LSU Foundation and indicate on the check that it is
> >>>>> intended
> >>>>>>> for
> >>>>>> the
> >>>>>>> LSU Student Relief Fund. You can mail your check to:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Hurricane Katrina-LSU Student Relief Fund
> >>>>>>> c/o LSU Foundation
> >>>>>>> 3838 W. Lakeshore Dr.
> >>>>>>> Baton Rouge , LA 70808
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Thank you for giving to the LSU Student Relief Fund, and, as
> >>>>> always,
> >>>>>>> thank
> >>>>>>> you for all you do for LSU.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> David D. Preiss
> >>>>>>> home page: http://pantheon.yale.edu/~ddp6/
> >>>>>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>>>>> xmca mailing list
> >>>>>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >>>>>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>>>>> xmca mailing list
> >>>>>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >>>>>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>>>> xmca mailing list
> >>>>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >>>>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >>>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>>> xmca mailing list
> >>>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >>>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>> xmca mailing list
> >>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> David D. Preiss
> >>> home page: http://pantheon.yale.edu/~ddp6/
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> xmca mailing list
> >>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >>>
> >>>
> >> Shirley Franklin
> >> St Martin's College,
> >> Tower Hamlets PDC,
> >> English Street,
> >> London
> >> E3 4TA
> >> Tel: 0207 364 6334
> >> Mob: 07958 745802
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> xmca mailing list
> >> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >>
> > _______________________________________________
> > xmca mailing list
> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >
> >
> Shirley Franklin
> St Martin's College,
> Tower Hamlets PDC,
> English Street,
> London
> E3 4TA
> Tel: 0207 364 6334
> Mob: 07958 745802
>
>
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