BS: Katrina was it racial discrimination ?

Subject: BS: Katrina was it racial discrimination ?
From: GUEST,LEJ
Date: 28 Aug 06 - 02:10 PM

One year on from Katrina was it racial discrimination on a grand scale ? Why have so few of the people returned to rebuild their homes ? Government spends more in Iraq in a week than they sent in aid. Sad reflection on our elected government.

Subject: RE: BS: Katrina was it racial discrimination ?
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Aug 06 - 02:33 PM

If neglect affects 'mostly' one racial/ethnic group, then yeah, it is sorta de facto discrimination, but it is simply impossible to prove that it would have been different if the racial mix had been different.
.....but people will believe what they wish to believe about the mindset of the bureaucracy.

In this case Nature did some discriminating by making the biggest messes where the poorest people lived on the most at-risk areas. (Now if those low-lying areas had been coveted, spectaular scenic areas, we might have seen something similar to what happens in California when expensive homes get burned on mountain sides.)

Subject: RE: BS: Katrina was it racial discrimination ?
From: pattyClink
Date: 28 Aug 06 - 02:36 PM

Oh, puh-leeze spare us the race-baiting. In Mississippi, the people can't rebuild their homes because the damn insurance companies welshed on most of their policies; people got the required insurance which turned out to cover only little parts of hurricane damage, not whatever damage the hurricane would bring. The banks, which required the insurance, have insisted on being paid off for vanished homes. So those who 'owned' homes now still have a monthly mortgage note for a pile of debris. They must now also get a loan for a new home. Even if they somehow had savings and a job to make this feasible, the banks will not loan new money without another round of insurance. In many zones, it has not been determined how high the insurance will be. In others, it has been determined and it costs an arm and a leg.   The jillions of dollars churches and individuals sent has had to be used on food, water, clothing, and survival. The jillions of dollars the govt spent went to Bechtel instead of to subsidize rebuilding.

In New Orleans, it is still up in the air how the levees and flooded areas will be rebuilt (whether it will be insurable, whether the ground will be raised, etc), and again, many homeowning families just have no money to rebuild, and worst of all, there is no utility infrastructure to allow them to live on their lots in trailers. Those who rented had no resources to begin with, and they have no intention of camping out in utility-free war zones until someone builds housing for them, so they are staying in Texas or wherever.

But I do agree with your point, this whole year we freely poured dollars into Iraq while half-a-million people struggle with no resources to rebuild, and Yankee congressmen suddenly are against "port" when it threatens to come to a poor part of the united states instead of to the Boston Big Dig.

Leaving regional selfishness aside, the main reason we have not rebuilt for our brethren is because this country now has a government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations.

Subject: RE: BS: Katrina was it racial discrimination ?
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Aug 06 - 02:37 PM

Haven't we been hashed through this issue before?

Subject: RE: BS: Katrina was it racial discrimination ?
From: pattyClink
Date: 28 Aug 06 - 02:37 PM

Sorry, that was "pork" not port.
And if this was all a racial scheme, someone inform Trent Lott he's gone black, cause he lost his home and can't collect insurance either.

Subject: RE: BS: Katrina was it racial discrimination ?
From: Wesley S
Date: 28 Aug 06 - 02:51 PM

Some rob you with a six gun, some with a fountain pen.

Subject: RE: BS: Katrina was it racial discrimination ?
From: Cruiser
Date: 28 Aug 06 - 02:51 PM

No! Unfortunately, the focus is simply on the devastating situation in Iraq. One could be considered by those of a certain persuasion as an "act of God" while the other was the act of a man insanely obsessed with what he thinks is the "voice of God" speaking to his troubled mind.

Either way it could be said that "God" has severely erred.


Cruiser

Subject: RE: BS: Katrina was it racial discrimination ?
From: Ebbie
Date: 28 Aug 06 - 03:22 PM

To amplify the info: Trent Lott lost one of his homes.

Subject: RE: BS: Katrina was it racial discrimination ?
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 28 Aug 06 - 05:39 PM

No, it was a Hurricane, and it blew all the commas out of the first post...

Subject: RE: BS: Katrina was it racial discrimination ?
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Aug 06 - 05:50 PM

Pity hadn't blew you into a coma !