Katrina - Part II
After seeing my Blog on Serena Williams’s less than generous offer to victims of Katrina, Hillary Duff has donated $250,000. This teenage nickelodeon star deserves some serious credit.
Residents of New Orleans continue to wallow in horrible conditions, while their city lies underwater. How is this still happening? The broken levy should have been fixed within 48 hours. There is a hole, fill it! Sink a ship, get steel barriers, do something. I saw that they were using sand bags? Go to NASA and say, "you have 24 hours to find a solution to fill that hole, and another 24 hours to get it completed or else we are slashing your funding by 50%". They will find a way to get it done. Offer ten million dollars to any person or company that has a solid plan to fill the levy within 48 hours. Let a little pressure and motivation stimulate some progress.
I understand there are many, many problems and this is going to very hard, but we need to start moving towards action. The government should have been on this since day 1, but it's not too late. Go to Korve Engineering; Harmer Steel Railway Material Specialists, and the other large railroad construction companies with a proposal. Whatever company can get the railroads repaired the quickest gets the job (regardless of the cost). Hire more than one company in case the first ones have delays. Provide free plane tickets and transportation for the staff from these companies to get a first hand look. If the roads are destroyed (preventing supplied from getting to the people), go to Texas and start buying off-road trucks. Actually a nearby Nissan plant has already donated cars for relief. This is a wonderful gesture, but the government should be willing to spend as much money as necessary to buy the vehicles they need. Toyota has plants in Texas and Alabama, GM has plants in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Fill the trucks with supplies and start towards New Orleans. Give supplies to anyone they see on the way. I saw that military ships weren't deployed until Tuesday (three days after the storm!) and only five ships. Of course all of these things take thought and organization, but difficulties can be overcome. We could wait and try and to get more efficient solutions, but I believe that we should move forward.
I see that they are using buses now to move people to Texas, but why not move them to train stations (even if the nearest intact train station is 100 miles inland, it is still closer than Texas). The government should "rent" all trains within 500 miles to move people somewhere safe, calm, and where they can easily receive supplies. Wal-Mart is opening mini-stores and giving out free supplies (in addition to donated $15 million, which is nice, but a pittance from this southern based billion dollar conglomerate). Why not pay (and pay well) for local residents to help. For example, cleaning the streets of public restrooms would give people something to do, while providing a valuable service. Once the levy is fixed, organize a system where people can help to drain the floor. Even if it was a water bucket line, it would be still be something, and people would be working (and motivated work) as well as getting paid (and paid well). These are just ideas I am quickly thinking of, I would have thought in five days we would have something at least as reasonable.
Any idea that might be helpful; the US government, with assistance from the Army and our tax money, should start doing it. Start rebuilding train tracks to the city. If they can get buses out, they can get buses in. Inbound buses should be filled with supplies. Airlift generators to hospitals (with very well paid technicians). The government should release more of its oil reserves (this is the very reason that we keep reserves). There are a million possibilities, and instead of talking and discussing them for the last five days, we should just go ahead and start them.
Off Topic: What if North Korea or Iran offered $500 million in aid saying that "the US can't even take care of its own citizens, maybe they should concentrate on that and not war. We care about those people and they need this help." Would the US accept it?
Larger Topic: Why do we keep using soldiers in non-war situations? Soldiers are weapons of war, trained to obey and to kill the enemy. They are not good at peace keeping, policing, humanitarian efforts, being sensitive, hurricane logistics, or instilling a sense of calm or hope. We need to add a new fundamental unit to the armed forces. We need a large military police force. Soldiers that carry small side-arms (not Ak-47s) that are trained to protect and organize. This force would be much more effective in the wake of Katrina as well as in Iraq. Soldiers are trained to cause violence, police are trained to cause peace.
Residents of New Orleans continue to wallow in horrible conditions, while their city lies underwater. How is this still happening? The broken levy should have been fixed within 48 hours. There is a hole, fill it! Sink a ship, get steel barriers, do something. I saw that they were using sand bags? Go to NASA and say, "you have 24 hours to find a solution to fill that hole, and another 24 hours to get it completed or else we are slashing your funding by 50%". They will find a way to get it done. Offer ten million dollars to any person or company that has a solid plan to fill the levy within 48 hours. Let a little pressure and motivation stimulate some progress.
I understand there are many, many problems and this is going to very hard, but we need to start moving towards action. The government should have been on this since day 1, but it's not too late. Go to Korve Engineering; Harmer Steel Railway Material Specialists, and the other large railroad construction companies with a proposal. Whatever company can get the railroads repaired the quickest gets the job (regardless of the cost). Hire more than one company in case the first ones have delays. Provide free plane tickets and transportation for the staff from these companies to get a first hand look. If the roads are destroyed (preventing supplied from getting to the people), go to Texas and start buying off-road trucks. Actually a nearby Nissan plant has already donated cars for relief. This is a wonderful gesture, but the government should be willing to spend as much money as necessary to buy the vehicles they need. Toyota has plants in Texas and Alabama, GM has plants in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Fill the trucks with supplies and start towards New Orleans. Give supplies to anyone they see on the way. I saw that military ships weren't deployed until Tuesday (three days after the storm!) and only five ships. Of course all of these things take thought and organization, but difficulties can be overcome. We could wait and try and to get more efficient solutions, but I believe that we should move forward.
I see that they are using buses now to move people to Texas, but why not move them to train stations (even if the nearest intact train station is 100 miles inland, it is still closer than Texas). The government should "rent" all trains within 500 miles to move people somewhere safe, calm, and where they can easily receive supplies. Wal-Mart is opening mini-stores and giving out free supplies (in addition to donated $15 million, which is nice, but a pittance from this southern based billion dollar conglomerate). Why not pay (and pay well) for local residents to help. For example, cleaning the streets of public restrooms would give people something to do, while providing a valuable service. Once the levy is fixed, organize a system where people can help to drain the floor. Even if it was a water bucket line, it would be still be something, and people would be working (and motivated work) as well as getting paid (and paid well). These are just ideas I am quickly thinking of, I would have thought in five days we would have something at least as reasonable.
Any idea that might be helpful; the US government, with assistance from the Army and our tax money, should start doing it. Start rebuilding train tracks to the city. If they can get buses out, they can get buses in. Inbound buses should be filled with supplies. Airlift generators to hospitals (with very well paid technicians). The government should release more of its oil reserves (this is the very reason that we keep reserves). There are a million possibilities, and instead of talking and discussing them for the last five days, we should just go ahead and start them.
Off Topic: What if North Korea or Iran offered $500 million in aid saying that "the US can't even take care of its own citizens, maybe they should concentrate on that and not war. We care about those people and they need this help." Would the US accept it?
Larger Topic: Why do we keep using soldiers in non-war situations? Soldiers are weapons of war, trained to obey and to kill the enemy. They are not good at peace keeping, policing, humanitarian efforts, being sensitive, hurricane logistics, or instilling a sense of calm or hope. We need to add a new fundamental unit to the armed forces. We need a large military police force. Soldiers that carry small side-arms (not Ak-47s) that are trained to protect and organize. This force would be much more effective in the wake of Katrina as well as in Iraq. Soldiers are trained to cause violence, police are trained to cause peace.
Comments
Who are these idiots?
Meanwhile, I have a question: Are these people refugees or not? I think not, but the radio keeps calling them that. Crazy radio.