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>
> >>
> >> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
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