8 September 2005 - 10:31am
Refugees? Evacuees? Or Detainees?
I saw this via Xeni at Boing Boing (who's posting some very interesting and distrubing stuff regarding the Katrina aftermath)....
A family wanted to help. Their church retreat was going to be housing some evacuees from the disaster, so they decided to drive up and drop off some food, bathroom supplies and clothing. At least, that's what they expected to be able to do.
But as soon as they arrived at the gate, they realized the government had other plans.
We then started lugging in our food products. The foods I had purchased were mainly snacks, but my mother - God bless her soul - had gone all out with fresh vegetables, fruits, canned goods, breakfast cereals, rice, and pancake fixings. That's when we got the next message: They will not be able to use the kitchen.
Excuse me? I asked incredulously.
FEMA will not allow any of the kitchen facilities in any of the cabins to be used by the occupants due to fire hazards. FEMA will deliver meals to the cabins. The refugees will be given two meals per day by FEMA. They will not be able to cook. In fact, the "host" goes on to explain, some churches had already enquired about whether they could come in on weekends and fix meals for the people staying in their cabin. FEMA won't allow it because there could be a situation where one cabin gets steaks and another gets hot dogs - and...
it could cause a riot.
It gets worse.
He then precedes to tell us that some churches had already enquired into whether they could send a van or bus on Sundays to pick up any occupants of their cabins who might be interested in attending church. FEMA will not allow this. The occupants of the camp cannot leave the camp for any reason. If they leave the camp they may never return. They will be issued FEMA identification cards and "a sum of money" and they will remain within the camp for the next 5 months.
My son looks at me and mumbles "Welcome to Krakow."
(This is a long post, with lots of photographs, well worth reading.)
So we're starting to see that the government's ineptitude is continuing into the longer-term relief efforts, by treating the evacuees and survivors of Katrina and "Lake George" as criminals, locking them in detention camps. Is this government so misguided as to think "three hots and a cot" means establishing hundreds of little Guantanamos?
We'll see what happens. But given the Bush government's track record of contempt for the common man so far, I am not optimistic. Please, W, prove me wrong.
media girl also blogs at other places.
Similar entries
store
Buy stuff here.
Comments
Generally, I discount conspiracy theories, but I understand their place as a daemon in the American imagination - they help explain the inexplicable.
There was so much odd about this Bush performance, that you can understand why people will get conspiratorial.
It's now being reported many of the nightmarish rumors about the convention center and the superdome were inaccurate, but were spread by media outlets protective of the Bush apparat.
I see a hammer trying to do a wrench's job. Trouble? Send in the machine guns! Never mind that we don't need machine guns, that's what we do. (On Jon Stewart last night, NBC anchor Brian Williams described how the press had automatic weapons pointed at them when they tried to cover the securing of a department store with broken windows.
"We're obviously the press, with cameras and notepads and passes around our necks. We're not al Qaeda, we're just doing our jobs...."
It's not conspiracy, it's being wholly unprepared even now to take on the real challenge here. They want to treat it as a civil disobedience problem.
Conspiracies? It doesn't take conspiracies for this kind of crap to happen.
The stated purpose of the Reaganites and their successors has been down-size the government. The views is the that government that helps best, helps least. Even after the horror we see in news footage, some members of Congress have voted "no" on disaster relief.
A conspiracy is secretive. This one is wide open - glorified, if you will. America's ills are caused by those who live below the poverty line or whose religious views do not mesh with those espoused by the Administration in power.
Angry rhetoric at minorities is openly heard without the slightest sign of any shame. As frivolous amendments are proposed for the Constitution - such as banning same-sex marriage or prevent flag desecration, the ERA is no longer a priority, nor is reproductive rights, nor is there any serious work at helping the underclass.
This is not some cabal that has brought this out. They are marching down Main Street and carrying the stars and stripes and saying this is their plan for America - and they ran on that platform and have been elected - sweeping their way into the Presidency and now controlling both House of Congress and dropping taproots into the Supreme Court.
Starting with Reagan, we have been offered a program of non-response and rhetoric about personal responsibility - sort of, "God helps those who help themselves."
And with these characters in office, I say, "God help us."