Content by mujadaddy
Posted at 10:01pm on Jun. 22, 2006 Dispatch from teh Future: NYT 2106
By mujadaddy
Dispatch from the Future
New York Times, Friday June 23, 2106
SAVAGE QUAKER STRONGHOLD CRIPPLED
Lindsey Miller-Liu, King of Prussia, Penn.
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Posted at 2:49am on May 20, 2006 Our Friends in Beijing
By mujadaddy
I meant to write something on this subject when homegirl had the temerity to disrupt the Chinese Premier's legitimization ceremony.
At the time, there were about four or five positive comments about her outburst, an outburst I hasten to remind everyone was coined as "heckling" by 99.99% of the media.
There were also a few comments to the effect that, although the reporter may have had a point, there is a time and a place for public commentary on major international issues, and nothing is gained by embarrassing ...
It was at this point that I became disgusted at the general spinelessness in the world regarding the Chinese Communist Party. (For various real world reasons, I declined to pursue the opportunity for comment at the time)
There's no time like the present.
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Posted at 7:18pm on Sep. 30, 2005 Rita vs. Katrina
By mujadaddy
This has been making the rounds at my workplace, first via email, then posted hardcopies on the bullettin boards. I am in Lafayette, LA, the high-ground between Katrina and Rita's strikezones. I thought everyone here would appreciate it. I reproduce it here by hand, word for word:
Subject: CAJUNS...after the storm
They were poor. They lived in homes that, to some Americans, would appear no more than shacks. They've suffered discrimination at the hands of their fellow Americans. And then the hurricane came, it seemed to veer out of its way, just to hit them.
So why didn't hundreds of Cajuns from western Louisiana appear on my TV screen this week, complaining that George W. Bush doesn't like them, demanding $200 billion of my tax dollars, or blaming the bad weather on Halliburton?
Hurricane Rita may have hit western Louisiana harder than Katrina hit New Orleans, but Rita crossed folks made of sterner stuff than you'll find in the Ninth Ward. Here's how one Washington Post story described the scene just hours after Rita made landfall near Intracoastal City, a "city" that in many senses barely exists:
"The only people who can get here are the sturdiest of sorts, a small armada of Cajuns with pretty French names and sunburned skin and don't-mess-with-me bravado. The bayous were full of them Saturday, gliding high and quick in airboats, and so was the Vermilion river, where they were spinning steering wheels on fast Boston Whalers and kicking up wakes in flat-bottomed aluminum boats. They did not wait for the president or FEMA or anyone else to tell them that there were people out there - out there and desperate, on rooftops...
`I got out of the sheriff's office in about 20 seconds,' said Steve Artee, as his son, Chris, made a hard, boat-tilting turn on the swollen Vermilion. `They just took my cell phone number and I was gone. That's because Kathleen Blanco wasn't involved.'"
Now, anyone who hates Blanco and bureaucrats can't be all bad. But I don't agree with Mr. Artee that the people of Vermilion Parish behaved more responsibly or showed more strength of character because Gov. Blanco didn't have their parish on her speed dial. I believe the people of western Louisiana behaved better because they are, in fact, better people.
The failure revealed by Hurricane Katrina was not a failure of government, at least, not any more than government always fails. The failure in New Orleans was a failure of character. Corrupt people electing corrupt politicians who gave millions in tax dollars to corrupt cronies to either mis-construct vital levees or to spend the money on entirely useless pork projects. Then, when disaster struck, these same people - living a Faustian deal of votes for tax-funded handouts - were utterly lost when those corrupt government officials headed for high ground without them.
As John Fund of the Wall Street Journal wrote: "In just the past generation, the Pelican State has had a governor, an attorney general, three successive insurance commissioners, a congressman, a federal judge, a state Senate president and a swarm of local officials convicted. Last year, three top officials at Louisiana's Office of Emergency Preparedness were indicted.... Just this summer, associates of former (N.O. mayor) Marc Morial were indicted for alleged kickbacks involving public contracts. Last month the FBI raided the home and car of US Rep William Jefferson as part of a probe into allegations he had misused his office."
Not to mention the widespread looting by the citizens of New Orleans themselves, which included televised looting by police officers, too. The chief administrative officer for Kenner, LA, was just busted for pilfering food, drinks, chainsaws and roof tarps from New Orleans and stashing them in his suburban home.
Hey-stay classy, New Orleans!
Then came Hurricane Rita, Katrina's ugly sister, to wreak similar havoc just a few hundred miles to the west. The communities affected were, on the surface, similar as well: Abbeville or Cameron, LA were "low income" communities. The education levels were similar to the Ninth Ward, too. And you won't find many branches of the Aryan Nations meeting among the dark-skinned natives of Cajun country, whose heritage is a genetic gumbo of Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and American Indians.
But while the people of the New Orleans were panicking and complaining (not to mention stealing, shooting and stabbing) days after the storm, the Cajuns of western Louisiana were out tin their boats, looking for lost neighbors and rescuing strangers off rooftops.
It wasn't just because Gov. Blanco wasn't involved - it was because almost NO government is involved in these folks' daily lives. The people of rural Louisiana grow up with the assumption that their survival in this world of woe is their responsibility. Unlike far too many people in New Orleans, "low income" isn't an excuse to the working families in rural Louisiana. It's just a condition to be dealt with. They live their lives as though they own them, unlike those government-dependent "victims" who live as though life is something the state provides for them and is responsible to maintain.
Randy Gary, a fisherman from Cameron, LA, was asked about his future after his boats were destroyed and flooding poisoned the oyster beds he fished. He didn't blame FEMA or accuse President Bush of stealing his lunch money. He wasn't spotted kicking in the door of the local Wal-Mart to snag a plasma-screen TV "for survival purposes." He has yet to join the Cajun Action Committee to investigate why so many of Rita's victims spoke French.
Instead, as the AP reports, he smiled. "What else we gonna do?" he said, pledging to rebuild his shattered home and work. "It's my life. It's what I do."
Hurricane Rita, you've met your match.
I would only quibble with one bit of this otherwise spot-on assessment of the difference between rural and urban Louisiana -- the fact that there were more people in a smaller space than in the west. But that's it. I especially liked the "almost NO government involvement in their daily lives" part. It's pretty much true, and is part of my perspective on independence of people from their government.
I hope you all enjoy my first diary.