The sad sad situation at the superdome

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The Astrodome in houston is no longer in use. When it was built, it was the called the "8th wonder of the world", and now it's being used for take two in one of the worst disasters in US history. Seeing as how the superdome is now hell on earth, I wonder if the same will not happen at the Astrodome. The place is pretty small. At least they will have water, food, and A/C.

Hope the Astrodome will have securitiy on it's own because officials said themselves the Astrodome will be a "city of its own". Actually there better be proper security, or else they are stupid not to.

Maybe then the offenders from the Superdome will be separated from the innocent refugees.

New Orleans is a poor run-down city with a lot of poverish civilians and prone criminals. So it isn't surprising to have many of them enter the dome for refuge.

The same goes for those in the Convention Ctr., and those stranded in the flood waters.

I read in the "Independent" this morning that there was "Anarchy in New Orleans"

I was shocked and upset, but its not surprising. The disorder and chaos has its roots in the fundamental principle of American society of "Each Man For Himself".

This flawed principle has resulted in a divided society in America. New Orleans is a poor area. I wonder why? It is largely populated by Afro-Americans who have always been shut out from the rest of society, impoverished, going to the worst schools, living in the worst areas, doing the meanest jobs.

Its not surprising that with the collapse of order, these people have been struggling to get what they can for themselves and their kids, as they do not trust the authorities to help them. When have the government ever helped them before? Why should they trust them now?

Under capitalism, you always get the "Haves" and "Have Nots", therefore a divided society. One thing we can do without is a divided society, especially in times like these.

Capitalism and crime go hand in hand.

I say get rid of Capitalism.

America and the American people need to get their bloody act together if they want to avoid another rerun of this disaster. They can start by restoring funds to flood defense projects, social inclusion, reducing global warming, instead of funding some god-damn war in Iraq and tax cuts for the wealthy.

This would not have happened in England.

I have one word. Wow!

Every country has a great mixture of Capitalism mixed with its "godliness". Humans are by nature capitalistic in most instances.

The problem is letting the business world in the US come before its people. The BIG Capitalism. Therein lies the danger.

As far as the terribly obvious division of race in New Orleans, humans will always segregate themselves from each other by and large-- those who do not resemble ourselves. The stranger is instinctually considered a possible threat. Everyone on this forum is doing it right now to some extent.

But just because a somewhat natural segration occurs, doesn't mean that true equal opportunity shouldn't be striven for. The problem isn't that many New Orleaners are African-American, it's that they're poor.

I remember watching hurricane and natural disaster documenteries on the National Geographic Channel, the Travel Channel, etc. I heard that one of the worst case scenarios for a hurricane is if it struck New Orleans head on, especially if the levees keeping the waters of Lake Ponchetrain out failed. It happened.

When I first read about the events at the Superdome, the first thing that popped in my mind, was the similarity to the reaction of people in War of the Worlds. When it comes down to it, people will do ANYTHING to survive. They will steal and even kill another for food, water or shelter. Of course, I'm assuming survival (either for self-defense or for supplies) was the motive behind these murders, but I don't know for sure, obviously.

In a way, I kind of understand that: if it were ever a 'me or someone I don't know' situation in my life, I would choose me. I don't condone murder at all, and don't believe I would go that far in an extreme situoation, but I would steal to survive.

One thing I don't understand AT ALL though, is the reason behind the rapes. I heard there were at least 7 admitted cases, but who knows how many other victims didn't come forward. Anyone here understand the motives behind that?

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Last edited by Ante on 09 Nov 2005, 8:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm not understanding what is going on due to not having listened to the news for a long while. Someone on the bus was talking about a flood in New Orleans a few days ago but I didn't know about what was happening in the Superdome.

I think you will find some "baddies" in any kind of disaster - they are type of people who will loot, for instance.

It is fitting that you should put The Independent in quotes; they are anything but Independent.

It seems to be the case that most industrial societies operate along the same principles to greater or lesser extent

There are lots of lots of socio-economic groupings who are 'shut out of society'; it is usually based on parental wealth and genuine access to opportunities. I suspect that some of the extremely successful Afro-Americans who have risen would feel insulted and patronised by segregation along racial lines

When you say 'struggling to get what they can for themselves and their kids', it reads like a sympathetic 'spin' put on looting and robbery.

Under any society governed by Humanity you get the "Haves" and the "Have Nots". Under the closest thing to Communism (and we have only ever seen tyrannical perversions of the concept - I wonder why?), there were the Party Faithful and the Inner Circle. It just comes down to human nature really.

It seems to be Capitalism that produces those things that some people think it is worth committing crimes to obtain.

And replace it with what?

You seem to have a veritable Political Agenda going on here, bringing together many partially related facets of global problems.

That remains to be seen.

Adversial, I think your views are very biased.

Are you one of these awful patriotic Americans who will prop-up a failing Bush administration come what may? Do you know of the harm Bush has inflicted on the world, thanks to his neo-conservative policies. Admit it, Bush IS failing. He is down to 36% in the opinion polls in America.

He should be removed from power at once.

Yes, the "Independent" is very independent from the right-wing press, owned by Tory Murdoch and co.

Britain has developed a good Welfare State, which America has failed to do.



Under capitalism, perfectly decent people commit crimes just to get the things they need to survive.



What would you do???

Even the police force on active duty had to resort to taking food out of abandoned grocery stores because they weren't provided with food or water. How else can the civilians who've run out of resources, many with children, young infants who need formula, and are faced with the decision to take food out of stores or die, have handled the situation, especially when there's no forseeable help coming from rescue?

The way this whole disaster was handled, the fact that it took five days for the people at the Superdome and those trapped in their homes to get help and that there was no sense of urgency by the government to help the survivors was one big, whopping "F*** off and die."

It's not neccessary to resort to communism to cure the ills of unrestrained capitalism. All you need to do is restrain the capitalism. It's called a "socialist democracy" and the U.S.'s northern neighbor is a good example. Canadians believe in free enterprise and that a person should be rewarded for hard work, ingenuity or luck, but also think that corporations that have significant impact on the standard of living of the nation should be regulated, and that worker's rights need to be protected so that they don't become slaves to their employers through economic blackmail. We believe that it's our duty to pay taxes so that all citizens can have free health care regardless of economic status, rather than the U.S. system in which the rich get 1st-class health care and the poor get 3rd-world health care or none at all. We may not smile when we pay those taxes, but we see the alternative every night on CNN.


I can't speak for RobertN's agenda, but his points are valid. The U.S. government cut spending on levee maintenance in order to offset the cost of fighting an overseas war. Bush then deployed the reserves (including the unit from New Orleans) to the Gulf in order to avoid the embarassment of a draft fight in Washington D.C. Those two actions set the stage for both the natural disaster and the civil disorder that followed. It's what they call "the chickens coming home to roost".

The sad thing about all of this is that it's the innocent victims who suffer for the U.S. government's extreme arrogance on the world stage. In my province (British Columbia) the softwood industry has been all but extinguished because of a U.S. "countervailing duty" that has been ruled illegal a dozen times or more. Bush has stolen $5,000,000,000 from us in the last 4 years in violation of the NAFTA treaty but every time the courts rule in Canada's favour the U.S. government just appeals somewhere else and basically says "what are you going to do about it?" Bush knows that we can't afford a trade war and are therefore almost powerless to stand up to the southern bully. So it comes as no surprise to find out that a large majority of Canadians are turning their backs on the USA and refusing to donate money to the Red Cross for Luisiana relief. We think that asking us for money after stealing $5,000,000,000 and destroying our natural resource economy is like a thief stealing your car and then knocking on the door and asking for gas money.

--Not to promote violence in any way, shape, or form, nor ever suggest it is the correct answer to anything: Will somebody assassinate that pr*ck already??????

.......And do a hit on FEMA's director while they're at it.

No...if they assasinated him he would go out a hero and we'd get Cheney. My Mom, sister and I pass time sometimes thinking of ways he could get himself disgraced and remoced from office, none of which I would post here, epecially as they are all things I believe he is capable of