I understand many are still reeling and recovering from a direct hit of this past week's events. I understand media fatigue. I understand the need to start the recovery period. But I refuse to believe that complacency, which has graced the path of every bungle of the past five years, will follow this phenomenal failure of government. We the American people are more intelligent than that. We have to wake up and smell the rot that is fast enveloping our country, long before Katrina hit, long before conditions allowed the the White House to be put up for sale. "This is the Law and Order, Terror and Morality government, and it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water."Listen to or read the transcript of a searing … [Read more...]
Nostalgia
Read Anne Rice's NYTimes OP-ED Do You Know What It Means To Lose New Orleans? … [Read more...]
And the racial shit hits the fan
This is the summation of failures by a country and administration's policy history/movement that americans have been and are allowing, splattered all over the facets of this disaster. It isn't about New Orleans anymore. Bigger questions exist. It is disgusting that it comes to this.All aboard the USS Clueless. Let's see how that bone-headed freak we all stuck in the white house digs out of this one. Where's carl rove?? … [Read more...]
Failure of governance
A hurricane hit was not a surprise.What astounds me is the deplorable coordination of response by authorities. WHY is the mayor of New Orleans sending an SOS via CNN??? And why is our president gushing assurances about our oil prices before issuing military directives??? Lootings, gang activities, attacks-- this is textbook doomsday script in the wake of disaster, given conditions where authority is not promptly established. WHY is this allowed to happen in the wealthiest nation on earth, when a breach in the New Orleans levy system tops the list of worst-case scenarios???This event highlights how thinly stretched our resources are, by misappropriation of priorities to neo-colonialism. Nature and weather forecasting technology gave us ample … [Read more...]
The inevitable fate of New Orleans
New Orleans is now plagued by one catastrophe after another. Repair efforts on the levee breaches, particularly at the 17th Street Canal in Bucktown, have failed and Lake Pontchartrain is draining steadily into the city. Floodwaters are coming into the oak-canopied St Charles corridor. Water main lines are breaking. Martial law is in effect. There is complete anarchy.The best place for updates is streaming radio on WWL 870AM. Unofficial neighborhood-by-neighborhood assessments, if available, are on NOLA and WWL-TV.My heart goes out to y'all. God bless. … [Read more...]
Dude where’s my pipeline?
And a painful show that was. What I want to know is how other countries’ media covers domestic disasters. I have newfound respect for CNN--but just-- since moving to Southeast Asia. CNN-World surprisingly maintains semblance of journalistic precepts, which at CNN-US have been bumped by corporate interests. I’d almost forgotten the comical cowboy antics of on the ground reportage that eclipses the gravity of events until we got streaming domestic feed for the hurricane coverage. Does anyone else feel like slapping these reporters? Katrina turned the media spotlight on Louisiana’s function in the US economy, despite the state’s economic ailments. Prime location at the anal terminus of the artery of US commerce that is the Mississippi … [Read more...]
The Big Easy meets Katrina
Intoxicated fumes of breath and a clammy handshake. Missing teeth in a captivating smile.... N'awlins' reputation precedes it and this is the first impression, before the jazz and blues spin rhythms with the muggy air, before the Cajun spices mount the offensive. Have you been where elegance and refinement consort passionately with the grit and grime? Indolence is King so strap your principles on and hang tight or lose ‘em. It’s a schizophrenic transvestite full of wit, this crazy town. And you’ll never forget her.Knock back some Southern Comfort. This show will be painful. … [Read more...]
Fish tales and banana jams– Koh Kong or BUST!!!
The blistery summer sun finally yawned and shifted attention elsewhere, allowing a lively tropical storm to play in the Cardamom Mountains. Screeching winds and driving torrents of rain obliged the topographical audience of trees and flora to bend and sway in spirited waves. Onstage in the heavens thunder raged while spectacular light shows illuminated our path. Range Rover engineers were done proud on those unpaved jungle passes. Such backdrop commands resonance with the soul, a harmony of earth and spirit, a communion of----what the--?As we awaited transport to cross the river, a curious contraption, defying the tedium of logic, bobbed into view. It asked to be stared at rudely. The apparatus comprised planks of wood wrongly secured atop … [Read more...]
