Comments on: Missing Leadership

By: jepe

jepe — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 12:41:05 +0000

What I find astonishing is that some people I’ve spoken to here are still more concerned about defending Bush+company on their handling of the Katrina disaster, rather than on the Katrina disaster itself. I guess ‘disappointing’ is a more accurate description.

The fact that Bush& Co. were initially cavalier about this hurricane doesn’t surprise me; the fact that some people still love this cavalier behavior does. Hopefully, the cavalier phase is ending damn fast. It’s obviously horrific and desperate down there.

In order to learn from this on-going crisis and prevent future repeats, we’re going to have to investigate ‘the blame’ somehow. And those that have the power and cash to act (i.e. gov’t) should have enough guts to let such investigations proceed. [Of course, that's never going to happen.]

By: JoAnne

JoAnne — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 05:03:13 +0000

Why should one expect leadership from a person who was told that his country is under attack and nonetheless sat silent and still for 7 minutes. It’s just same ole, same ole.

By: lisa

lisa — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 01:36:43 +0000

in all the prep that americans have prepared for there is always consideration of money….i believe New Orleans and the Gov’t. never thought something of this force would happen….its a play on odds and money…i cannot even with the horrible events place blame on anyone….it happpened….just simply that….lets do all we can to help and prevent in future instead of wasting time and thoughts about what could have been prevented….i believe we should focus on what is on our plate now…and learn from that…as that is truth..and now…lets fix it …learn…no guessing…no nothing…just do…and then put our experience into play for future….deal with this now…not converse about why it happened….fix it now!

By: serial catowner

serial catowner — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 23:11:09 +0000

One of the most striking aspects here is the “perfect storm” of long ignored advice, combined with political appointments to FEMA as a prelude to ending the agency altogether. And, of course, the unnecessary and mismanaged war. It’s not just that the Bushies did a few things wrong, it’s that they did EVERYTHING wrong.

Maybe Katrina didn’t happen because of global warming. But we know that storms like Katrina WILL happen because of global warming. We know that NOT planning for the future means you will be surpised when the future comes.

New Orleans isn’t the only serious situation we have, and they all require serious planning, or we’ll have a string of disasters and, eventually, a string of ruined slums where our cities used to be.

This is where you come when you’re through playing games.

By: Greg Kuperberg

Greg Kuperberg — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 21:00:59 +0000

I applaud this posting, of course. It makes a lot of points in the right direction that I hadn’t yet thought of.

Nonetheless, it misses the other point that I made, which is that charity donations for Katrina lack a proper sense of proportion. Consider (a) the amount of institutional aid (insurance, FEMA, etc.) that wlil be spent in respone to Katrina. Consider (b) the amount of aid per person that goes to third-world peasants. Now compare a charity like Hurricane Housing to these. It is clearly orders of magnitude less than (a), and orders of magnitude more than (b).

So what is the real motivation? That you saw the victims on television? That they are more important because they are Americans? Surely trained scientists and mathematicians should be guided more by competent back-of-the-envelope calculations than by television footage.

As I suggested, the best compromise between emotion and reason is to give to a broader charity (such as Americares, perhaps) without earmarking the money. Hurricane Housing is too targeted to be the right choice.

By: Kasper Olsen

Kasper Olsen — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:19:03 +0000

Dear Risa,
I think your comments – about the Bush administrations lack of (prior) and post response to the situation after Katrina – are quite appropriate. It was not difficult to estima the impact of Katrina on New Orleans, for example, several days before it hit the city. And what did the government do? Why did Bush find it more important to stay on vacation, instead of directing aid for the (possible) areas of emergency (and destruction)? Was it more important to keep babbling about how important the war (or “liberation” of) in Iraq is?

As far as I’ve heard, the estimated cost of Katrina is well above $ 30×10^9 (this is of course just a first estimate). In comparison, the cost of the war in Iraq is at least $ 5×10^9 per month. I suggest, that Bush cuts the war in Iraq by 6 months to help the people of New Orleans and other victims of a natural disaster…

Kasper