Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Monday, April 09, 2007
Katrina: "Why didn't they just leave?"
morning all
first i want to tell a story that DIDN’T happen…
Posted by michael on from scotland 04/09 at 08:07 AMwow...you’re getting a lot of stuff published lately, michael...that’s awesome.
I go t something going on here that I am pretty proud of:
http://laurahird.com/showcase/jamesoshea.html
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 04/09 at 10:03 AMi had a look at that (sorry i didnt get back to you)
well done to you too.as for getting a few things out right now i have decided to make a real go of it in the next while to try and get the ball rolling so to speak so expect a lot more in the next few weeks
Posted by michael on from scotland 04/09 at 10:26 AMWell...I will be brutally honest and admit while watching breaking news on CNN my first thoughts were, “That’s what you get for living 12 feet below sea level in a hurricane zone.” It was uneducated and yes a little ‘smug’, as in self-protecting. In my imagination I was way too smart to make that mistake and get caught in that tragedy. My view point changed rapidly as I watched events unfold on TV and I learned more. The more I thought about it, the more it became clear that anybody can be caught in a natural disaster, the real tragedy was the response or lack of it, before during and after the hurricane. The tendency to not only blame the victims but criminalize them, delaying their move to safety and medical care, splitting up families, the use of mercenaries rather than properly trained rescue responders. The unused school buses in the evacuation....
That was before I discovered internet news. After 100’s of hours in front of this screen I am still learning, still adjusting my point of view. That’s why I am here and other places around the web, communicating and looking for feed back, trying to get a sense of whether I am on the right track.
Michael over at spontaneous arising has a very relevant link to this topic called the Power of Perception.
Michael from scotland, I havent got time to read your article right now. I will later.
Posted by frances on from bc 04/09 at 10:44 AMHere is something that happened to me last Thursday.
I am a self-employed house cleaner and one of my clients is very wealthy, her husband is seldom home ( he lives off-shore and jets around the world with his business), which is good because I dont like his attitude much. He was having a client over for lunch that day but the client showed up early and I was chatting briefly with him. He was upset about global warming and the impending world crisis. “What are we going to do?” he was asking. Our conversation went something like this.
Me: change farming practices and become vegetarian.
Him: aint gonna happen!
Me: stop spending money on military build up and invest in r&d in green energy and rebuiling infrastructure.
Him: dont be ridiculous!
Him: Vancouver Island will really benefit from global warming. Lots of wealthy retirees and business people will be moving here.
Me laughing: Oh thats great. It will become too expensive for people like me to live here. Where will we move to?
Him: Sell your house and make a bundle.
I didnt have time to tell him people like me dont own houses and are even now having a hard time keeping up with the rising cost of housing. Its nearly doubled in the 4 years we have been living here. My clients husband entered the room giving me a scornful look. In his reality I am a non-person and my view-points outside of my job, count for nothing.
As I left the room I heard him talking to his partner about ethanol, ‘nukular’ fuel, bio-medicine...in other words: how science was going to save them from having to make any personal changes or sacrifices to their coveted lifestyle. How they could turn a negative situation to their financial advantage. I dont know what it will take for these people to think outside of the box-like system of ideas that constitutes their reality.
Posted by frances on from bc 04/09 at 12:26 PM‘Afternoon all. The sun is out in Eastern MA.
***
I have a short anecdote about renewal:
Over the last several months, my life had come to a complete standstill. Not in the sense of lateral moves at a job or a lack of the marketing-driven (I just typo’d ‘drivel’) zazz that so pollutes our collective (un)conscious. It was more like being driven into a dark cave of survival-looks-like-a-longshot sort of thing, frustrating and even scary for a survivor type.So the worm has turned and I’m lucky to have escaped the circumstance-noose once again. I’m in a sane space and the modest goals I have are still alive. I no longer have a garden space, though this may change, so I dig out the seed trays and pick a selection of embryonic plants. Some are seeds saved from last year’s crop (take that, Monsanto), others non-GMO organics. I fill the trays, water, and put them in the sun. Days later, they break the surface.
They’ll find a home in the larger environment when ready, but for now they’re my charges.
It is inexpensive, liberating, and defiant to watch non-corporate living things emerge from the soil. I highly recommend it.
***“Why didn’t they leave?”, indeed. In “When The Levees Broke” Spike Lee made the cunning decision to include discussion and footage of the Dutch system of levees, and the fact that the “Hurricane Pam” scientists visited Holland to learn about them. (Pam was a computer-simulation of a Cat 3 storm striking New Orleans.)
MZ, you have more patience than I do. The chance to nudge someone’s thinking in an unguarded way is a precious one, but in your work you must be swamped. <rim shot> I hope things are going OK in TX.
JOS, a fine poem - 3.5 stars. Michael, I’ll have to read Orwell later, as well as check out Spinwatch. Gotta run.
Posted by Zen Prole on from Urth 04/09 at 01:16 PMmichael...great article
JOS...I love your poetry.
frances...I agree. “I don’t know what it will take to get people to think outside the box.” Mickey’s front page today makes an important point. Most people I have known think in their own very specific economic box. They have no idea of how some other people live and more important, why they live the way that they do. It has been facinating watching all of the hoop la around the immigration issue. A lot of criticism for the “illegals” and absolutely no understanding of the usa foreign policies that have led to the exploitation and impoverishment of so many. I scanned Lou Dobbs book on the topic (he has said a lot on TV). I did not see one mention of the reasons that many come across the border. Here in the usa the brain washing has been complete and many have bought into the idea that anyone who works hard enough can become wealthy. Pop culture people like Oprah, Trump, and too many others held feed the myth and deny that they were the recipients of luck and special privileges. “Why didn’t they just leave” - for the same reason that 18,000 people die in the usa every year because they did not have health insurance. No money, no power, no options.Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 04/09 at 01:28 PMHi Zen...we were symultyping. You sound good today and you are in sync with nature as you create life from seeds. That is something that I have always failed at. Every year I look at the pretty pictures on the seed packs, usually succumb to temptation, buy and plant them. It is only a matter of time and I am once again disappointed with no results.
My captcha word is “nuclear”....did anyone see the news clip of Bush. I missed most of it but they said something about him trying to plug a car into an electric outlet the wrong way and he had to be pulled back by another person or he would have set himself on fire????Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 04/09 at 01:37 PMJOS thats a great poem. It reminds me of a film I watched last night called The Jacket.
Michael, I agree language and culture are so intimately entangled as to be nearly one and the same.
Good morning Zen Prole and RMJPosted by frances on from bc 04/09 at 01:58 PMthanks to all for the compliments...there should be 5 poems there actually if you scroll down.
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 04/09 at 02:53 PMHello Expendables...I’m back in a chilly NYC.
JOS: Congrats on the poems.
Michael: Congrats on the article....and thanks to everyone for the great tales above.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 04/09 at 07:20 PMYou know you are living in a police state when they start arresting 6 year olds.
How very very sad.
http://tinyurl.com/25btu7Posted by frances on from bc 04/09 at 10:42 PMThat is such a believable story, Mickey! Where does one start with people like that client of yours? Thanks for trying anyway.
‘Hi’ to Michael, Jos, frances, Zen Prole, Rosemarie and JOS from a sunny Daylesford. Although we are well into autumn, it is almost 80F today.
Take care,
HelgaPosted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 04/10 at 12:09 AM
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