Bush again / Hurricane Katrina

[Peri]

A follow on from the thread below.  Did anybody hear about the comment that Barbara Bush made - I think to a reporter, not sure about that but she apparantly said that the hurricane did some of the poor people of New Orleans a favour in that they would be better off now.  Any comments ?

[Peri]

BTW if she did say this - what on earth is the woman thinking of.  She never seemed that tactless and stupid when she was first lady.  Or is she just trying to add another line to the book of Bushisms. 

[Clanad]

Well.... although politically incorrect, the fact is a lot of the people suffering through this disaster, will be better off and many will be far better off than before. The level of poverty in many parts of Louisiana and especially, New Orleans is astounding and this will be a giant step in improving their lives...

[Oneeyedvic]

Bet they are all delighted and skipping round with joy!

[libertie]

Well I'm sure that those sentiments will no doubt cheer them all up, as they are wading through all sorts of filth and desperately searching for missing family and friends not knowing if they will ever have a home or job again!!!

[Dom Tuk]

About 500,000 people living in various stadia in the country until christmas....that will improve their lives.

In the long term the future fornthese people is bleak. They will try and stay with relatives, friends etc, just to get some kind of normalcy in their lives. Those with skills will find alternate jobs and start again with rented accomodation etc. The problem will be that many will disperse and untraceable even if the govt wants to doel out cash to them in say 1 years time. But the vast numbers of unskilled people will languish in shelters for a long time. Imagine trying to ask the insurance company for compesation. Where is all the paperwork??

[MargeB]

yeah, but the people that can say it will improve their lives (as in a 'good thing') is the poor people themselves. From anyone else, it sounds condescending in the extreme (oooh, look what the disaster has done for you, your life was so crap that it took a hurricane to make it better).  From a 'Bush' it sounds just AWFUL: "We are a first world nation, yet you were living in abject poverty, and it takes a major disaster THAT WE EXACERBATED to get us to pull out our fingers to help you poor black folks."

I don't think I have ever disliked a political family more than the Bushes.

[libertie]

Totally agree Marge, what a thouroughly unpleasant bunch!!

[luckyboy]

 Totally agree that her comments were uncaring and plain wrong, but i bet she was expressing similar views to about 40% of americans..

[metagirl]

Yep, thats Barbara for you.

Basically, the Administration has done a very good job at covering up the fact that the Bushes are actually, New England high-class stuff - none of this down-to-Earth Cowboy and dungarees is more than a very good Branding job.

So, at 80, when even the most zip-lipped individuals start to loosen up, Barbara said what she really felt. And no doubt her favourite and closest son shares her views.

[Peter Pedant]

Although I do not agree with Clanad's sentiments, it certainly explains the slowness and reluctance or half-heartedness of the support efforts.

One of the letters in the DT - yes I am afraid I sit in the bath with a rubber ducky - and the paper, which sometimes shakes with my emotion as I hiss: yes yes, how true! how true! - one of the letters which came from Sri Lanka said,

In sri lanka after the tsunami there was not one case of a tourist being robbed or mugged by the people who had lost everything......

[Oneeyedvic]

PP - as much as I dislike Bush - To be fair in Sri Lanka there were groups of people who stopped supplies getting through to the east coast - Baticoloa & Tirmcomalee  (Tamil area) and diverted them to the South Coast Galle area - where the Singhalese live.

 

Sadly, in this day and age it is every one for themselves - Lord of The Flies all over again.

[libertie]

Another reason I suppose could be that by and large the victims of the tsumani where all in the same economic group, whereas the people of New Orleans who were left behind ie poor and black and those unable to help themselves maybe felt that it was all hugely unfair!!

[Xollob]

"And so many of the people [in the Houston Astrodome]were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them. What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas."

It doesn't get more cynical than this. And yes, perhaps those who had nothing will be glad of the $2000 startup money. But I'm sure they would rather have their friends, relatives and neighbours still alive rather than floating face down in a cesspit for weeks.

I suppose it depends on what you mean by "very well".