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The Forum > Article Comments > Civic mindedness US style! > Comments

Civic mindedness US style! : Comments

By Brett Bowden, published 8/9/2005

Brett Bowden argues Hurricane Katrina has shown how fast the degeneration of civil order can occur in the United States.

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A sobering commentary indeed.

The first picutres I saw last week were on the front page of the Austrlian and looked as if it were of refugees fleeing the horrors of Rwanda rather than citizens of the self proclaimed greatest democracy on earth.

While the factors that underlined the fall of the Roman empire are still under debate there is no doubt that a constellation of factors were at play - over stretched militarism, internal religious conflict to name just two; there are parallels here.

The chaos that has fallen over the Gulf states has its roots is a sense of disconnectedness and disenfranchisement. New Orleans in particualr is the poorest of the American poor, very few have adewquate resources lete alone private health insurance so the human costs is a long way off from being realised.

The philosopphy that underwrites the current drive for self reliance in the face of an unfair distribution of wealth is fertile ground for the growth of an under class that will soon tire of being subjagated and ignored.

The USA has already had one civil war; looks like another one might be on the horizon - not tomorrow, not even in a decade or two but unless things change at some stage the president might be suggestion the good citizens go back to their village and lock up their children.
Posted by sneekeepete, Thursday, 8 September 2005 10:34:31 AM
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National Geographic predicted Hurricane Katrina's impact last year:
http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/
Posted by Jennifer Clarke, Thursday, 8 September 2005 11:33:47 AM
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Read the article in the New Yorker by John McPhee date line 1983 that outlined then the physical problems of New Orleans - ya gotta wonder! And then the transcript of Late Night Live - Radio National where Adams talks to an academic Robert Bullard on the racial feature of the disaster, author Mike Tidwell on the potential fate of New Orleans together with his warning several years ago and a refugee editor from that city, Mike Tisserand on the sociological dynamic of the area. It all merely reinforces the potency of Bowdens piece.

Dennis Altman back in the 80's wrote of the dangers of a kind of social underclass that might develop in Australia much like that laid bare in New Orleans this month. While it hasnt been fully realized here yet - and I suspect the effects of the Whitlam years and indeed those of the Hawke Keating regime put the brakes on it a bit - the trend over the last decade is certainly stoking the furnances of discontent with more to come as the divide between the rich and poor widens.
Posted by sneekeepete, Thursday, 8 September 2005 11:58:55 AM
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I listened to a ABC radio program yesterday (buy can’t remember the program name or time), but from what was said, FEMA in the US was asked to determine if a tsunami type disaster (as occurred in Asian countries recently) could occur in the US.

FEMA immediately identified New Orleans as being a potential disaster area, due mainly to the geography of the area, and the fact that so many buildings were in low lying regions. However the problem would cost about $14 Billion to fix, so it wasn’t fixed.

But I think that the US is now too dominated by it’s industrial/military corporations, and not enough concentration has been placed upon it’s many social problems. Having the Neocons in power probably wouldn’t help much either.
Posted by Timkins, Thursday, 8 September 2005 12:25:46 PM
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The government response to the havoc in New Orleans was most certainly inadequate and shocking, initially. But as usual, the most newsworthy occurrences have been the looting, shooting, raping by a small minority and of course, the ineptitude of George W. Bush – that evil target of the chattering classes.

“Where else in the world…..?” moans the author. Well, apart from places like Rwanda where they didn’t need the excuse of natural disaster to butcher each other, and Zimbabwe where the government deliberately bulldozed the homes of its own citizens, and other African countries whose governments allow their own people to starve while they live in luxury, we don’t know how Australia or other western countries would cope with such a disaster – a whole city wiped out! That hasn’t happened since WW11.

My own mother opined that Bush wasn’t interested because most of the people affected were poor blacks! She is also a US-hater but, I suppose, can be forgiven as a ga ga 87 year old. Mr. Bowden has no such excuse.

The New Orleans tragedy is just another excuse to bash the Yanks. Most of Bowden’s article is taken up with America’s ‘gun culture’, ‘no inkling of any notion of citizenship’ (whatever that means), perceived ‘social injustices’. ‘polarisation’, and the ‘dramatic collapse of social order’. He even drags up the Civil War!

The horror of New Orleans is set aside – if you please – in the second paragraph, to re-emerge again only in the last sentence as a symptom of all that’s wrong with America. Given the largesse America has unstintingly spread around the world, I am reminded of old remark: once we had skinny friends, now we have fat enemies.

I’m surprised Americans want to do anything for anybody with all the bad-mouthing they get.
Posted by Leigh, Thursday, 8 September 2005 12:26:41 PM
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quote from right wing web site Tech central "The scenes of wanton chaos, lawlessness, desperation and death in New Orleans can't be blamed on Mother Nature alone. We have known from centuries of bitter experience just what she is capable of. And in Katrina's case, she told us precisely what she was planning to do and when she was planning to do it. No, the mayhem strewn in Katrina's wake resulted from a collapse of government at all levels. But unlike the storm, which gave a mere 24 hours worth of warning, the swirling maelstrom of government incompetence and inattention that led to ruin was hiding in plain site."
Posted by Kenny, Thursday, 8 September 2005 2:26:45 PM
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