Civilisation

I would have liked to think that civilisation was more than a veneer. That cooperation and mutual help were part of how people behaved, fundamentally. Isn't it those qualities that allowed humans to become what we are today? And yet, it seems that as soon as we can get away with it, as soon as there is difficulty, we revert to aggression and self-interest. I'm watching the situation in New Orleans with mounting disbelief and horror. Residents there, trapped and lacking access to food and sanitation, are turning on one another. They loot, they beat, they rape. They shoot each other.
The response from the government is equally distressing. Instead of mobilising resources to get people out and aid in, they are making a token effort, and sending in a smallish force of soldiers authorised to shoot to kill. The president is calling it one of the greatest natural disasters they've ever faced, yet their response to it is, frankly, pathetic. I don't want to moralise, or to deny the fact that the people there are suffering, but it seems to me that the american culture of "me first" might have some responsibility here.
The "right to bear arms" is also to blame. In a situation like this, however much I would like to think that people would be helpful and responsible on their own merit, it's obvious that the fact that everyone seems to have guns is not helping matters at all.
The worldwide response to the tsunami partially bolstered my faith in the human race. The response to hurricane Katrina has taken it away again.

N'Awlinz

The chaos and destruction that has taken place in New Orleans is a huge event, both for the people directly impacted, and for everyone else. It is having major impacts on the price of oil, and the supply of natural gas in the U.S. Possibly thousands of people are dead, and tens of thousands homeless. Although it hasn't directly affected any of us in this country, I still can't help imagining what it must be like for those who have lost everything they own. And hoping that they have good insurance.
I can't help feeling that the media is, if anything, not giving this the weight it deserves. Perhaps we're all sort of immune to things nowadays, but this is a whole city, basically destroyed. A whole city. That's a lot. A lot of history, a lot of lives. And I can't help feeling that we are beginning to see the serious beginning of the changes predicted by climate scientists - more extreme weather, leading to more disasters of this kind. I only hope that, just as the attack on the WTC started a rather manic "war on terror", the destruction of New Orleans will start an equally determined war on global warming.
Well, I can dream, can't I?