Ok so, writing in your blog is like a habit.
Once you get out of practice, its hard to get back into the grove.
On the eve that Katrina struck, i was talking to my mom about how bad New Orleans would take to the effect. People around my office were chiding about how the city was like a great big bowl, and if the water broke the levee, there would be complete disaster. These were often followed by statements regarding the nature that is New Orleans. (In case you are oblivious to New Orlean’s major acknowledgements -> Debauchery and sin are a few trademarks of that historical city.)
After the hurricane struck and the devastation was truley measured, the attitude in my office changed drastically. They acknowledge and paid concerns about my family’s well-being, and they also shared in the disbelief that such a tragedy could occur.
Why is it we feign ( or at least feign the feign ) forgettfullness about our recent history. I got lost in that last sentence let me begin anew. Why is it that we predict things accurately, but when our predictions come true we find solace in feigning our intellectual predicitions? Why is it better to act like we were blind-sided then actually take responsibility for predicting and failing to follow through with the actions?
I was learning aboout New Orlean’s future failure in 6th grade. My louisiana history/sociology/social studies class was talking about the history of the Mississippi river and how it would change course one day causing New Orleans to flood immensly in the transition. We also talked about how the levees strangle the revitalization efforts of the floods and cause coastal errosion. (the exact mechanics is that much like Egypt and the Nile, Louisiana was built by the mississippi flooding and depositing soil deposits [poigniant name] on the ground which built up the land around it and created very fertile land, by creating levees we have quelled the flooding and therefore the coastline is still deteriorating and the gulf is carrying the sediment elsewhere.) We talked about the sea level and how far below New Orleans is exactly, usually coupled with a discussion of how high mount everest is comparatively.
In the end what do we gain from assigning blame one way or the other. I wonder how much humanity learns from their mistakes. Will we build New Orleans “bigger better faster and stronger”? minus the faster part. Or will we cut corners again and simply create a reasonable facsimilie because in the end who lives in New Orleans? It certainly doesn’t house the rich. They are on the east coast and the west coast. Gulf coast has no real monetary gain except for it’s oil industry.
My final thought of the night comes down the political wrangling caused by the current onslaught. So many people want to blame President Bush for the failure we face, i blame the people who voted for him. When they voted for Bush, they voted to stay in Iraq “till it was finished”, and for our country to continue to ignore environmental awareness. (i know let me explain this last part. There is some arguments going around, the same arguments that have been flowing for the last couple years, that this is an effect of “global warming”. Most environmental scientists agree “global warming” is happening. The disagreement is over the cause. Is it a natural life cycle for the planet to go through? Did human development/pollution cause an expedited version of the threat? I don’t know personally, and i believe the evidence is not conclusive either way. What i’m angry about now is the current trend in gas prices and how we say we want alternative fuel sources and yet we fail to vote for representation that will make such desires occur. Is this a rant? It feels very rant-like. I don’t even pay gas. I just see that people will lose jobs because they can’t pay for fuel and ergo cannot go to work to make more money, but the economy builds checks and balances right? maybe people will get jobs closer to home, maybe they will develop alt. fuel sources. I don’t know. All the same. My point is that Global warming is occuring, and that doesn’t seem to be controversial.
So is bush to blame? I haven’t a clue and i could care less, we can’t impeach him right now, so lets just wait out the rest of the four years and elect someone who fits more with my ideals. Vague? Well its my blog, so i can be vague. Perhaps i will enlighten you one day about my ideals. And no they aren’t clear and concise.
September 10th, 2005 at 2:58 am
this reminds me of this toni morrison essay, “the site of memory,” that i was reading today in essay boot camp… uh, i mean seminar. [quote:d2b84a3c13]You know, they straightened out the Mississippi River in places, to make room for houses and livable acreage. Occasionally the river floods these places. “Floods” is a word they use, but in fact it is not flooding; it is remembering. Remembering where it used to be.[/quote:d2b84a3c13] she goes on to use this image as a metaphor for writing, how writers remember “where we were, what valley we ran through, what the banks were like…” and so on, and i’ll admit–as you, ever the voice of reason and logic in this household, deftly pointed out–that this metaphor is flawed. the river does not flood certain areas because it “remembers” where it is “supposed” to go. that’s ridiculous! it floods certain places because water is bound by the interaction of geography and the laws of gravity, of course. but the image is still powerful, if we think about it in relation to what just happened in new orleans. lake pontchartrain and the mighty mississippi, reminded by hurricane katrina, flowed through the levees, “remembering” its natural path. this is something we should remember. new orleans is [i:d2b84a3c13]in the way[/i:d2b84a3c13] of the natural path of a huge amount of water. and the only thing stopping it is the levee. what pisses me off is that after a similar disaster in 1953, amsterdam, a city of canals whose sidewalks sit at the same height, if not further below sea level than new orleans, installed hydraulic levees to prevent a catastrophe like this from occurring, and environmental engineers and so forth say that if new orleans had built a similar system this would not have happened. an article that was published on MSN right after the flooding quoted some dutch experts as saying something along the lines of, “you guys, i can’t believe you didn’t fix that… y’all are [b:d2b84a3c13]america[/b:d2b84a3c13], not some third world country.” and they had a point. the technology was there. we could have fixed this problem. but we didn’t, because for fifty years, nobody down there in louisiana has had the political power to get it on the agenda. and don’t tell me they didn’t try. they have, for years. the sad truth of the matter is louisiana doesn’t have enough electoral votes, oil tycoons, or congressmen in the house of representatives. louisianians need to mobilize and make the best of this tragedy by demanding enough funding out of congress and the president not only to rebuild new orleans, but also to fix coastal erosion and install new levees that will protect new orleans from a category five hurricane (katrina was only four! four!)… and quick. unlike the mississippi river, the memory of the american people is short.
September 11th, 2005 at 4:58 am
i’m getting rather irritated with those who feign ignorance on the situation of New Orleans prior to Katrina. i find myself repeating, over and over, that this info is nothing new.
September 11th, 2005 at 2:05 pm
I find that the exact is true. Most of the people I talk to in Louisiana knew full well what was going to happen, and no one was surprised when it did. The biggest information problem now is the rumors being passed around and the snide comments that I have begun to hear, such as “why dont you go back to New Orleans” or “They must be from NO”.