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New Orleans – View from an Australian
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| Jem_hadar |
I received this email from a co-worker this morning. She had it forwarded to her from a member at her church and she swears it's true....
I have NO IDEA if it's in fact true or not... or just another fictitious e-mail that has been created and circulated to inspire a thought on the situation that developed in New Orleans relating to the hurricane which destroyed so much and upheaved so many. :(
Anyways, it's an interesting read, especially if it's true. The message in it is SPOT-ON if you ask me.
-jem-
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What's really behind the chaos in New Orleans?
Back in the 70's, my wife, baby daughter, and I lived in Goodna, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane. We were young and inexperienced and like most couples our age lived pretty much hand to mouth. It was a struggle to make ends meet. Any savings we had went as a down payment on the home we were buying. Once a week my wife went shopping and bought the food and supplies we would need the following week.
Like the Southeastern United States, the area we lived in was subtropical and prone to cyclones (same as hurricanes). One day a cyclone approached our area. It wasn't a big one as cyclones go, so we weren't too concerned. We figured 6-12 hours of high winds and all would be back to normal. Except things didn't go exactly according to plans. The cyclone moved in over top of us and hit up against another pressure front and stopped dead. And there it sat for two days. Not too much wind but oh did it rain. An inch an hour for 48 hours. That's right - we got nearly four feet of rain.
Now Brisbane is built on the Brisbane River, not an impressive river as rivers go - only a few feet deep and a hundred feet wide in the western suburbs where we lived. At least during normal times. Four feet of water over several hundred square miles is a lot of water. Trust me on that one – I've seen it. And all of that water all had to get to the sea via the Brisbane River. During the night, our little Brisbane River rose and rose. The police were magnificent. They woke people up and evacuated thousands of homes during that long night. Only two people drowned in our area – residents of a mobile home park whose trailer was swept away. The police commandeered trucks and backed them up to the local grocery store and loaded all the food and necessities, drove them to high ground and parked them.
By mid morning the river was 60 feet deep and three miles wide. We lived on a hill so we weren't submerged. When you walked over the crest of the hill and looked down into the valley where there was once a highway, railroad line, shopping centers, and thousands of homes you were stunned into silence. All you could see was water everywhere. No electric poles, no roof tops, nothing. Everything was under water. We took stock of our situation - it wasn't good. The flood came on our weekly shopping day so the house contained very little food. We had some candles and a flashlight. Nothing else. There was no electricity or water. Fortunately it was warm weather. We were in stunned disbelief. So were our neighbors. However, we decided we had better quickly organize ourselves. We knew we were going to be isolated and without water or power for some time. We started collecting all the rain water we could. Without it we were screwed. We dismantled and reassembled a non-mortared barbecue under our carport. We started collecting all the firewood we could find. We assessed the food situation. Some people had full freezers. We separated what we could eat over the next several days and dug pits and buried the rest. Everyone shared what they had without a single word of what came from whom.
Needless to say we survived - and in good shape. The R.A.A.F flew some food supplies in (especially fresh bread that the local prison was baking and fresh, unpasteurized milk from local farmers.) by helicopter. In fact I look back on those days with some fondness. Our carport became the hub of the neighborhood. At night we would just sit around the fire and talk. The thousands of people who were displaced didn't go to refugee camps. They went into the homes of those not flooded - sometimes friends or relatives, often strangers. Nobody forced you to take in another family, everyone just did it.
Hundreds of millions of dollars was raised throughout Australia. The relief agencies didn't screw around with the money either. As soon as the water receded in a weeks time, they set up centers in every hamlet. Anyone who was submerged was given an initial $4,000 in CASH to tide them through. More came later. Was there some abuse? A few instances but not many and the there
was follow-up to deal with that.. Was there any looting? Virtually none.
What does this have to do with New Orleans? Plenty. Why didn't the people in the Superdome make any effort to organize themselves? Why didn't groups of men patrol the restrooms to prevent rapes? We have gone a long way in the past 40 years to creating a dysfunctional society where self reliance, pride in one's self and a sense of right and wrong are no longer esteemed or even valued.
We have allowed our government and media to say to people that you are not at fault for what you do. You are victims, little children who can't look after yourselves. We have told our minorities that everything that goes wrong is the result of racism. That you cannot succeed in a racist society. We have told the dysfunctional that we will look after you no matter how egregiously you act. We have excused crime saying that poverty creates crime, when we all instinctively know that it is the crime that creates poverty.
We have told young women that it okay to have babies without fathers. There is no stigma attached - in fact if you have a baby we will shower you with money and benefits so you can move out of your parent's house and have even more babies. Even if this guarantees your babies will be raised in poverty. We have told young men that it is okay to father as many children as you can. The government will assume the father's traditional role and look after the mother and babies.
And most importantly, we have called morals old fashioned and judgmental. What right does society have to say that something is right or wrong?
And what have we gotten for this? (not to mention the $1 trillion we have spent on the poor) Citizens who, at the first sign of trouble, stand around bewildered. You see it on the news. Faces screaming, "Help me!", "Tell me what to do!"
We're reaping what we sowed. People need to be taught to stand on their own two feet and look after themselves.
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| Sly_Guy |
| I was with this article up until it turned into conservative propeganda. |
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| ChemEnhanced |
| Americans expect to have things done for them...they shouldn't have to do anything for themselves....that is why the citizens did nothing...they were waiting for their next handout |
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| DigitalMP |
Don't think you can comprehend what life is like in an American ghetto/poverty-stricken area until you've experienced it or seen it first hand.
These people don't live life ANYTHING like you and I, and nothing like ANYHWERE the GTA has to offer. |
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| Mandrick_v |
| quote: | Originally posted by DigitalMP
Don't think you can comprehend what life is like in an American ghetto/poverty-stricken area until you've experienced it or seen it first hand.
These people don't live life ANYTHING like you and I, and nothing like ANYHWERE the GTA has to offer. |
Hmmm, all I can say is All Poor people are poor because they choose not to work hard. In North America you can defeat the poverty if you want to, all you have to do is work, or at least try to do hard honest work. On this continent there is work for everybody, if you cannot find work in your neighborhood, move to other city, get a loan, get education and ing work.
Me and my parents came to Canada with no english and nothing but close that we had on us. From cratch we started our lives, honestly hard worked and got out of poverty within years. There is so many other families that I know of, came through same hustle and succeeded.
I totaly agree with the article, why are we to blame other people when all our lives are in our hands. We have right to do everything we can to make our life a success story. |
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| DigitalMP |
| quote: | Originally posted by Mandrick_v
Hmmm, all I can say is All Poor people are poor because they choose not to work hard. In North America you can defeat the poverty if you want to, all you have to do is work, or at least try to do hard honest work. On this continent there is work for everybody, if you cannot find work in your neighborhood, move to other city, get a loan, get education and ing work.
Me and my parents came to Canada with no english and nothing but close that we had on us. From cratch we started our lives, honestly hard worked and got out of poverty within years. There is so many other families that I know of, came through same hustle and succeeded.
I totaly agree with the article, why are we to blame other people when all our lives are in our hands. We have right to do everything we can to make our life a success story. |
Oh I agree 100%...I'm definitely not saying it's alright for these people to suck off of the government, but American ghetto is a different world. A very, very different world, and it may only be 5 miles from where you live. |
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| jon jon |
| quote: | Originally posted by Mandrick_v
Hmmm, all I can say is All Poor people are poor because they choose not to work hard. |
wow
<3
Nothing like a bit of controversy for a Tuesday. |
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| Mandrick_v |
| quote: | Originally posted by DigitalMP
Oh I agree 100%...I'm definitely not saying it's alright for these people to suck off of the government, but American ghetto is a different world. A very, very different world, and it may only be 5 miles from where you live. |
American Ghetto is simply a culture... |
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| El Kay Dee |
| quote: | Originally posted by Mandrick_v
American Ghetto is simply a culture... |
...run by influences on the telly |
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| Mandrick_v |
| quote: | Originally posted by El Kay Dee
...run by influences on the telly |
Haha, wanted to add that but thought "All those Gold Chains hanging on the PHAT necks and shining brushed gold teeth from the tinted window of Bentley" do not assoissiate with poor people we have discussion about. |
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| TrickDaddE |
The part that I find Hilarious is the fact that the U.S. is the superpower of the world they are spending Billions in Iraq but now they need the worlds help to aid those affected by the disaster.
Futhermore they just approved 140 billion for NASA to send another POD up to the moon! For what?, they already been there supposedly! LOL
Things that make you go Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm??????? |
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| Sly_Guy |
| quote: | Originally posted by TrickDaddE
Futhermore they just approved 140 billion for NASA to send another POD up to the moon! For what?, they already been there supposedly! |
Without being an expert on the internal finances of the United States, I'd say $140 billion is peanuts compared to the almost $500 billion on national defense.
Oh, and that mission to the moon is to establish an outpost up there as it'll make deeper space missions easier to undertake because it's much further outside of the earth's gravity well. |
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