Katrina Katrina - The Fix is Out

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina one of America’s best commercial writers (Gary Halbert) has poignantly asked, how does one "fix it?"

Halbert lives in Florida and after the devastation of Hurricane Andrew, he was instrumental with his friends in raising thousands of dollars in relief donations.

But having seen how relief money can disappear or be diverted even by such organizations as the Red Cross, he is in a quandary as to how to help Katrina’s orphans.

After all, there are no banks or cash machines, no businesses functioning, no basis for ordinary commerce any more in New Orleans and its environs.

Katrina saw to that.

And Halbert, along with millions of others, would really like to know how to "fix it."

"Fix it" seems like such a wistful phrase in regard to Katrina - which, had she come but one letter later, might well have been named Latrina.

Aprropriately.

Having hung from planes and choppers while taking pictures and TV news film, having delivered relief supplies to stranded people caught between flooded rivers (and seen thugs on the ground prevent others getting those supplies), having seen children drowned by rogue waves, and having witnessed and personally experienced a variety of natural disaster situations, I am duly impressed by the efforts Halbert and his friends made to help the victims of Hurricane Andrew.

But Katrina is different.

Katrina was a monster on a mission. A mission of unprecedented destruction.

And as always, the blame game has begun.

Some of it may very well prove to be well-directed, as for example this excerpt from a review of the situation by Sidney Blumenthal: "A year ago the US army corps of engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken."

As always, the victims are likely to be quickly forgotten – unless the media keeps our focus on New Orleans and Biloxi and the shortage of oil for the next few months or years. Which it probably will, since a homegrown disaster is far more ‘newsworthy’ than the daily deaths of thousands in drought-stricken African nations.

Aid for those people is still being promised, but little is being delivered.

But it is a far different story after Katrina.

In any such natural disaster, aid comes in the form of quick action – sometimes – by emergency services – followed by empty promises which victims of disasters such as Hurricane Andrew are still waiting to see fulfilled.

As Halbert writes in his newsletter: "What about the people who got crushed by (hurricanes) Charley, Dennis, Ivan and Jeanne? The folks in Punta Gorda? Orlando? Pensacola? The cities which were almost leveled? Many of these individuals have not yet collected any relief money whatsoever from FEMA. Many of them are still homeless, broke, and have received no aid whatsoever."

Post disaster corruption and fraudulent claims seem to be a natural way of life.

And life goes on.

Sort of.

So how do we "fix it"?

Sarcasm comes to mind immediately.

Sarcasm like - let's just get Dick and George's buddies in Bechtel and Halliburton to donate some time and resources.

(Read John Nelson's true life "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" - and you'll understand that the sarcasm is not misplaced).

But back to the "fix it."

How can we Fix It?

I don't know how.

Except to suggest that such a disaster is but one among an increasing number of natural disasters occurring with greater frequency around the globe - and perhaps that is the clue to the solution.

Old models of Band-Aid behavior (shallow levees around New Orleans, never improved despite years of warnings) based on economic priorities (it's too expensive, so we'll just have to take our chances) are not the answer.

In fact, throwing money at a problem - any problem, but especially an unpredictable problem-maker like Nature itself - is no answer at all.

Fundamentally, the answer has to be found and acted on at the personal level. Each person must (but probably won't even though they should) become aware that the choices they make literally lead to the consequences they experience.

Therefore, those who choose to live in a city that is built below sea level have always known they were in danger.

Those who build in flash flood situations can expect their homes to go away in a flash.

If thousands of people move to Las Vegas every month, knowing that the city is strapped for water and future supplies are not guaranteed - especially if Nature continues its unpredictable ways - then they can expect to go thirsty at some point in time.

The list could go on.

The human mind - though capable of taking us to the stars - is surprisingly small when it comes to contemplating the consequences of choice.

Which is why people show no concern about continuing to build and live on quake lines and volcanic terrain (e.g. the San Andreas Fault, Mammoth Lake and the environs of the Long Valley Caldera).

Pulling Strings

Like little pre-programmed puppets, our politicians (all politicians) react to such disasters by saying "we will prevail," "we will be back to normal tomorrow," "we will help the needy" "it is the American Way to survive and go on."

Empty words after the event may placate the masses (which is all they are intended to do) - but they do nothing to address the fundamentals.

And in this case, the fundamentals are that Nature, without taking any heed of the fact that the USA has abrogated its association with the Kyoto (Global Warming/Predictable Disaster) Treaty - in other words, the US believes that 195 other nations and a world full of scientists are just dumb-ass wrong...well...Nature and her handmaidens like Katrina don't give a rat's tutu what the US might think, and she is apparently getting out of hand.

As a metaphor, one might envisage a dog shaking the fleas off its back - or a horse ridden too hard deciding to throw its rider - or a raped woman turning on her rapists with the utmost fury - or a mother protecting her children (in this case, the children being anything but the human species) from the ravages of the human species.

Whales and dolphins being killed by sonar tests (facts denied of course) - plankton disappearing from the food chain because of refrigerants in the atmosphere (facts denied of course), sea birds starving to death on the Oregon coast because the plankton is gone and the fish are gone and the seabirds have nothing to eat….how long can we deny the facts and the evidence?

Just do a Google search on "bird die off" and you’ll find plenty of evidence – albeit with fuzzy explanations since it’s difficult for the average scientist to sound credible if he suggests that all sea life is at risk because of disappearing plankton and human predation.

So let us not dwell too long on anthropomorphic left leaning liberal/greenie scenarios.

Neither let us look for salvation to the Right - which has its adherents to the concept that God created this world for us to exploit until Doomsday and the Second Coming...which can only be hastened by ensuring we create the very scenario that will invite the final solution – the Armageddon religious war between Muslims and Christians and Jews which they believe will bring on The Rapture itself ....

"Just the Facts Ma'am"

Instead, as the 50s radio show character Randy Stone used to say when he covered the night beat for The Daily, "all I want is the facts Ma'am. Just the facts."

What facts?

Tsunamis for Christmas...a quarter million dead.
Earthquakes...hurricanes...tornadoes...volcanoes...floods...melting glaciers...ice shelves as big as Rhode Island dropping off Antarctica....the Big Picture is not a pretty one.

And New Orleans - a drowned city littered with the corpses of hundreds if not thousands of drowned people - is little more than one stroke of the brush on the bigger canvas.

Tragic it is. There is no denying that. But sending money to New Orleans would be a useless exercise. There's nowhere to cash it and nowhere to spend it - which may be a motivator behind the looting.

Trade in hard goods was something our cave-living ancestors apparently found useful in their struggle to survive - and in a matter of minutes, the people of New Orleans have been reduced to the status of cave dwellers. Except they have guns.

And that’s a good thing if you need to protect yourself and your family.

But would it not have been far better to not put yourself and your family in danger in the first place?

Of course.

Death by Numbers

So devastating has Katrina’s rampage been, that it is only days later that the numbers and cost in human lives are coming out. And the numbers are escalating.

Consider this paragraph from the free online encyclopedia, Wikipedia:

"Katrina may be the deadliest hurricane in the United States since the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which killed around 8,000 (possibly up to 12,000) people. However, it may surpass the deadliness of the Galveston hurricane, since as of 7 PM CDT September 1, 2005, more than 20,000 are still reported missing."

So is there any possibility of learning anything from this?

On a personal level, I would suggest that with Nature being as unpredictable as she is (not to mention the economic repercussions which could well lead to another global depression) every individual should be thinking about finding a place in a safe location where they can go back to doing what America's pioneers did so well.

It's called self-sufficiency.

There is none of that in an air-conditioned desert house or an apartment in a skyscraper where an indoor plant from South America is the only garden one has.

On a collective level...well, what can one say?

The collective does have its own collective consciousness - like hives of bees, each hive differentiated by its own specific frequency. Thus the human collective builds cities below sea level, or in skyscrapers on islands, and then (unlike bees, which are far more sensible) demands resources from far far away, lives beyond its means - depletes its immediate environment...stores little or nothing of value, except perhaps a Harley Davidson, and is incredibly vulnerable to any and all natural disasters.

Where their ancestors canned enough food, dried enough beans, raised enough pork or chicken or beef to keep themselves going through any hard times that came along they don't even have enough food in the fridge for two days!

Nor do they have hard coin in their hip pocket, such as gold or silver. President Roosevelt saw to that when he took the US off the gold standard. All they have is green paper, and paper can melt very quickly in a flood or burn extremely well in a fire, or get inflated out of sight in a disaster situation.

Heroes and Villains

One could go on, perhaps at book length, musing about such things as the untold heroes and heroines currently saving lives in New Orleans and elsewhere; about the untold killings that have no doubt occurred but will never be reported; about the breakdown of law and order as cops desert their posts to go home to their families; about the probable death of prison guards overwhelmed by trapped inmates; about so many scenarios that such a disaster must precipitate.

But what's the point?

How would that "fix it"?

Perhaps - perhaps - perhaps - the only way to "fix it" is to salvage something from a distant past - something from the heyday of American history.

Steeped though it is in myth and legend, and given though it is to the shortest of memories when it comes to disasters, America once had - once had - both collectively and individually - a 'fix it' approach that was underpinned by a strength of character that did NOT rely on someone else to 'fix it.'

And that strength of character - though it has all but leached completely from the national psyche - can be summed in two words.

Common Sense.

Common sense says you don’t put yourself in harm’s way in the first place.

Common sense says you have raingear for rainy weather.

Common sense says day follows night, winter follows summer, you don’t build on sand, water flows downhill, fire burns things, volcanoes erupt and earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and tornadoes ARE predictable…in the sense that they are guaranteed to happen. Don’t know where, don’t know when, but we’ll meet again….somehow.

Yes indeed, we should help disaster victims in whatever way we personally can.

But as we do, we should be aware that we too are but insects in the eyes of Nature - which means that insects could teach us a lesson or two.

Ants for example are prepared for the future, because they know how capricious Nature can be. They have actually learned something from their past.

On the other hand, grasshoppers get wiped out every season.

Because grasshoppers learn nothing from season to season.

Like people, they might look good in the noonday sun, but, like the majority of people, they have no common sense.

And as that over-used but rather apt cliché has it, those who learn nothing from the past are doomed to repeat it...because they refuse to change and make common sense choices to ensure a better future.

Instead, they'd rather rebuild an entire city below sea level!

Now that'll fix it.

For sure.

(c) 2005 Michael Knight