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September 29, 2005
Fear Itself
by JeremyAccording to this report in today's New York Times, some of the incredible horror stories from Katrina-stricken New Orleans were incredible for a reason.
One of the peripheral themes of the Katrina aftermath, this article reminds me, is that the mere loss of electrical power sends us humans hurtling back through the centuries of our atavistic memory to a vantage point from which everything we know to be real about our present world takes on the character of myth.
I'm thinking here of that gravitational pull that urges us back into the womb of magical thinking, the thing that tempts us to believe any rumor we hear -- especially if it's deeply disturbing -- but that simultaneously teaches us more about ourselves (which is a good thing if you can get it, preferably when your life is not in immediate peril).
Other things shake the existential etch-a-sketch for us too: 9/11 did that for millions of us -- though many people quickly forgot what they unlearned on that day.
The problem is that the sudden loss of the lifeblood of modernity -- which is what I think electricity is -- tends to strip us of much of our wisdom even as it begins to make us wiser in new ways.
This, when wisdom and good judgement are most needed, can be a very bad thing:
"It's part of human nature," General Mason said. "When you get one or two reports, it echoes around the community."Faced with reports that 400 to 500 armed looters were advancing on the town of Westwego, two police officers quit on the spot. The looters never appeared, said the Westwego police chief, Dwayne Munch.
"Rumors could tear down an entire army," Chief Munch said.
During six days when the Superdome was used as a shelter, the head of the New Orleans Police Department's sex crimes unit, Lt. David Benelli, said he and his officers lived inside the dome and ran down every rumor of rape or atrocity. In the end, they made two arrests for attempted sexual assault, and concluded that the other attacks had not happened.
"I think it was urban myth," said Lieutenant Benelli, who also heads the police union. "Any time you put 25,000 people under one roof, with no running water, no electricity and no information, stories get told."
[...]
The convention center, without water, air-conditioning, light or any authority figures, was recalled by many as a place of great suffering. Many heard rumors of crime, and saw sinister behavior, but few had firsthand knowledge of violence, which they often said they believed had taken place in another part of the half-mile-long center.
[...]
Capt. Jeffrey Winn, the commander of the SWAT team, said its members rushed into the convention center to chase muzzle flashes from weapons to root out groups of men who had taken over some of the halls. No guns were recovered.
State officials have said that 10 people died at the Superdome and 24 died around the convention center - 4 inside and 20 nearby. While autopsies have not been completed, so far only one person appears to have died from gunshot wounds at each facility.
[...]
For military officials, who flew rescue missions around the city, the reports that people were shooting at helicopters turned out to be mistaken. "We investigated one incident and it turned out to have been shooting on the ground, not at the helicopter," said Maj. Mike Young of the Air Force.
The Superdome and the convention center were indeed hellholes, then, and officials should be punished for neglect in carrying out evacuation plans. But that doesn't, it turns out, mean that the reports that were most sinister, most damning of human nature, were necessarily true.
So that's a footnote, for what it's worth, for those whose hobby it is to keep track of what's true and what's not true.
Posted by Jeremy at 08:10 AM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2005
From a Very Reliable Source
by JeremyWhy no more hernia-inducingly funny satire on this blog? Problem is, I just can't compete with the bacchanalian jubilee of self-parody in the news lately. The market is glutted.
Here are some funny, funny jokes that have brought me joy lately. Probably you are already aware of them:
Sheehan to Bush: "...pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans..."
Farrakhan: "I heard from a very reliable source who saw a 25 foot deep crater under the levee breach. It may have been blown up to destroy the black part of town and keep the white part dry."
Tony Blair: Hey, let's hire a group of consultants to suggest ways to educate people against bigotry and stuff.
Consultants to Blair: Get rid of Holocaust Memorial Day because "It sends out the wrong signals."
Perhaps Tony Blair could replace Holocaust Memorial Day with Ethnic Cleansing Day...
...oh, and I'm sure there's some more out there. Perhaps I'll update this a bit later.
Posted by Jeremy at 07:00 PM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2005
Hitchens Galloway Debate
by JeremyJust watched the Hitchens v. Galloway debate via streaming internet video. I feel as if I've just done two hours of physical exercise. I would advise you to avoid the vacuous and smugly cadenced shoutings of George Galloway unless Christopher Hitchens is present to keep you from having to shoot out your television.
There was much talk during the debate of people passing out leaflets bearing self immolatingly despicable statements made by Galloway over the years. I was amused and proud to learn that these were apparently the handiwork of three first rate people I've been proud to share a corner of the blogosphere with: Gene, Mary, and Judith. See Michael for more on that.
Posted by Jeremy at 09:39 PM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2005
Got a Plan?
by JeremyHere's the latest Idea I had for my blog: I thought I might share with you some of my recent experiences with my new meerschaum cigar holders. This really is a grand way to smoke a cigar, while lounging on the deck with your feet up.
And then I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of beautifully carved meerschaum pipes from Turkey.
Similarly, Michael Totten has a plan for his blog involving that general part of the world. We really are on the same wavelength. Scary how much.
Posted by Jeremy at 06:28 PM | Comments (0)
September 11, 2005
Windows on the World
by JeremyThis is a picture, taken in 1989, of the kitchen staff at Windows on the World, the restaurant that was once at the top of the north tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan.
I don't know how many of the people in this picture may have been killed on 9/11, but many of the staff of that restaurant were.
I think one way to memorialize people is to simply take pleasure in the fact that they lived and that they did things with their lives that mattered to other people, as these people did, rather than to always use their memory as a point of reference in contemplating the magnitude of something awful.
So I say this in their memory: these people ran a damn fine restaurant.
"When I reflect on the 22 years I spent at Windows on the World, no singular event immediately comes to mind, but rather a series of images: the faces of children pressed up against the windows, the sun setting over the Statue of Liberty, and the laughter and joy of thousands of guests who created a lifetime of cherished memories."-Jules Roinnel
"...I think of Jupiter, how nice of a person he was to work with. I think of Salahuddin, Shabbir, Jeffrey and Gomez and their sincerity with their work. I think of Jay and Jackie, and the disagreements we worked out together. I think of Isidro, Junior, Lionel and others at the kitchen that used to make the busiest days go by so smoothly with their positive attitudes. I think of everyone who I knew, some I worked closely with and some I only exchanged wishes with, but they all had one thing in common; they were all very special people because Windows was a place where everyone was special for what they did..."- Ikramul (Ike) Haqug
Posted by Jeremy at 01:21 PM | Comments (4)
September 07, 2005
Hamas at War With Palestine
by JeremyWhen some of us point out that terrorist Palestinian groups such as Hamas are the real enemies of the Palestinian people, we don't get drinks bought for us by our "progressive" friends. Perhaps we'd have more luck, in the coming years, among Palestinians. Or maybe I'm reading too much into this article in the Paletinian Authority's official newspaper, Al Hayat al Jadidah (as translated by Mideast Wire):
Palestinian Interior Ministry warns people against Hamas's "criminal web"Al Hayat al Jadidah reported on September 5 that the Ministry of the Interior and National Security has said: "Certain Hamas members are relentlessly seeking to provoke an awful conflict. We hereby absolve ourselves from the disastrous consequences such a conflict will have on our people and our national cause."
In a September 4 press statement, the ministry added: "Hamas's decision to appoint brigade commanders and to divide Gaza into military zones is [taken] as if there is no authority and no legitimate power, or, at best, merely an alternative or parallel authority.
"The escalatory tone, provocative decisions and insatiable appetite of certain influential Hamas figures to sow wretched discord in our ranks have ceased to surprise us. Their actions contradict their grandiose slogans that they pass off as basic positions while concealing in their folds schemes to annul all common denominators in national relations, undermine the PNA and its authority, and hijack national aspirations for party and factional goals.
"We therefore call on our loyal people to be wary of this criminal web woven under the cover of grandiose slogans, and stress that the PNA's national awareness and vigilance is not a sign of weakness but stems from its sense of historic responsibility and the wisdom of its leadership, the leadership sound in the knowledge that national dialogue must be allowed to run its course, with all national groups bearing the responsibility before God and posterity."
- Al Hayat al Jadidah, Palestine
Good luck arguing that the PA are anti-Islamic puppets for the U.S. and Israel.
Posted by Jeremy at 02:37 PM | Comments (0)
September 06, 2005
Stop the Invasion! U.S. Out of the Gulf Now!
by JeremyEnd this illegal, unjust, and racist hurricane!
Hurricane Katrina-Bush
Bush and his Republican cronies fingerprints are all over the gulf disaster and the gas price rise that will hit the US and the world.
Say no to Bush's 40 billion dollar boondoggle!
No more blood for Oil!
Posted by Jeremy at 06:44 PM | Comments (1)
September 03, 2005
"Praise God, he got out of the thing"
by JeremyThis story is at once a small nugget of good news, and a glimpse under the microscope at what too easily can become a faceless blur of human tragedy:
Blues musician Fats Domino, 77, who went missing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was rescued by boat from floodwaters near his New Orleans home. The musician, his wife, Rosemary, and at least one daughter were picked up by rescue boat on Tuesday following efforts by his agent Al Embry to alert authorities that Domino and his family were believed trapped in their home.Domino ended up as one of thousands of New Orleans residents stranded by flooding after he rebuffed pleas from friends to evacuate as the storm bore down on the city, agent Al Embry told Reuters.
"He is doing well, he's just stressed out a little bit," Embry said in a phone interview from Nashville, Tennessee. "But praise God, he got out of the thing."
Posted by Jeremy at 10:32 PM | Comments (1)
A New Group Blog
by JeremyThis looks like it'll be an interesting blog to add to the blogroll. Here's how they describe themselves:
Pickled Politics is an online current affairs magazine (or ‘group blog’) that aims to reflect the political voice of young, progressive British Asians.This is slightly tricky as British Asians are a diverse group of people, but that is also reflected in those who write for us. In fact, some are not even of Asian origin - but then we are an inclusive bunch.
When they say "progressive" do they mean progressive? Or do they mean ProgressiveTM (and sustainable)? Well, they've got Harry's Place in their short blogroll, so I guess that'd be the former.
Also, they know I exist, which is always nice.
And here's a bio excerpt from one of the authors:
Ahmad’s political allegiances change from conservative to the liberal more times than he changes his underwear.
Posted by Jeremy at 09:48 PM | Comments (0)
Bush and Katrina - Shotgun Wedding
by JeremyI don't know precisely who to blame for the shocking failures in the response to hurricane Katrina -- why were the hospitals filled with patients for days following the storm? According to a report I heard on CNN it was because state authorities thought they'd already been evacuated.
It seems to me that neither the mayor or New Orleans nor the governor of Louisiana met their obligations. Arguably, the mayor might have been in no position to do his job. I'm not sure how to let the governor off the hook.
Bush's failure was that he did not have an effective action plan in the event of the utter absence of any organized emergency response on the state level. This state failure may have been the result of incompetence on the part of the governor, but in future it might be the result of state authorities having become victims themselves. So I do hope the feds use the opportunity to put together an approach to disasters that does not assume a first response by competent local authorities.
Having said all that, I find the effort by some members of the press to turn the extreme misfortune of thousands of people into a political black eye for Bush, extremely embarrassing.
[note: just as I'm ready to add a link from the New York Times, I see that the place on the NYT website homepage where I'd seen a headline about Bush's Katrina-related political trouble has been replace by an article about Bush's active personal involvement as of yesterday. I guess someone on the editorial board must have thought they'd crossed a line too?]
And I'm not sure what this headline from CNN was meant to say, but here's a breaking news email alert message -- in its entirety -- that I just received from CNN:
Subject: CNN Breaking News!Body:
-- President Bush:
I guess that says it all.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:46 AM | Comments (3)
September 01, 2005
"I'd Rather be in Iraq"
by JeremyThat's what one of the National Guard soldiers in New Orleans said, having now served in both places. It's food for thought on both fronts.
Posted by Jeremy at 08:40 PM | Comments (0)
