Like Duck to Water, thats how I have taken to life :). This blog is the saga of love and adventures of a small duck in a large water body called LIFE....

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Thursday, September 15, 2005

Ina Mina Katrina..


I think the first named hurricane I ever heard of was Ivan. I remember wondering what's the big deal about a person called Ivan destroying something. It was only later I realized that Ivan was not a person but a hurricane. I really thought naming a storm was a stupid practice. Imagine!! If the practice ever reached India, the tsunami would probably be named as "Kaali maata" or the earthquake in Gujarat would probably be something like "Shiv Tandav" ;-) :-D But later I did some research and found a reason for the naming here:



Yeah I did change my mind about the naming factor after reading the article :)

There have been many hurricanes/named storms in US. Recent ones we know of are Charley, Ivan and Jeanne in 2004, Arlene, Dennis, Emily, Franklin, Harvey, Irene, Jose, Katrina and Ophelia till now in 2005. Since september is supposedly the peak for hurricanes, there are surely more to come. But none of them have been like Katrina before...

Katrina exposed another harsh truth about US, the first one being exposed by the 9/11 WTC incident. The response was pretty pathetic and this time George Bush couldn't repeat his all-time favourite dialogue "The United states of America will stand united against all terrorism" :-D Sadly, a natural disaster can in no way be named as an act of terrorism, even Bush doesn't have the power to call God a terrorist. In a way, I'm pretty sure the real terrorists must have been really happy. They didn't have to do anything this time and there was utter chaos!! But I was surprised when Bush said "I'll take the responsibility" :-D. Man, its late, but good. You atleast now realize that you are responsible for something. And that vacation at your ranch in Texas isn't your only responsibility :-p. The News channels really had a field day with his statement ;-). They actually made it sound as if Bush was the cause of Katrina :-D.

I recently got this mail from a friend. I dunno how many of the so-called facts are actually facts, but here it is:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Orleans vs. Aamchi Mumbai

Inches of rain in New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina... 18
Inches of rain in Mumbai (July 27th).... 37.1


Population of New Orleans... 484,674
Population of Mumbai.... 12,622,500


Deaths in New Orleans within 48 hours of Katrina...100
Deaths in Mumbai within 48 hours of rain.. 37.


Number of people to be evacuated in New orleans... entire city (almost)
Number of people evacuated in Mumbai...10,000


Cases of shooting and violence in New Orleans...Countless
Cases of shooting and violence in Mumbai.. NONE


Time taken for US army to reach New Orleans... 48 hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach Mumbai...12 hours


Status 48 hours later: New Orleans is still waiting for relief, army
and electricty.
Status 48 hours later: Mumbai is back on its feet and its business is as
usual


USA: World's most developed nation
India: Third world country

Oops!! Did i get the last fact wrong???

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Even though the rains in Mumbai cannot be compared to Katrina, the fact is that the response here in US was sluggish to say the least :-p. Is it really necessary that a governor ask specifically for a particular kind of help, when the whole country has a huge warning being flashed from all sides about the hurricane? Ok they might not have had a warning for the 9/11 incident (I still cannot believe that), but hello? You had one clear and bright here!!!

First of all, I don't understand building a city like New Orleans. According to them the simple steps to create a city seem to be:

1) Find a pit between a high huge river and another high lake.
2) Make sure this place is near the sea from where storms/hurricanes can come anytime.
3) Construct pathetic levees for the river and the lake.
4) Build a city that's completely below the water level of both the river and the lake.
5) Live in the city and declare "I'm safe :)".

I really don't understand why they are rebuilding the city either. Now that they know how unsafe it is, why rebuild and again invite another disaster to happen? Most of the people have already been shifted to other places, being given jobs, shelter and they probably won't want to come back once the city is "rebuilt". Why not keep the city as it is as a "New Orleans Memorial" as they did for WTC :-D? Jokes apart, if they are definite about rebuilding, then they must make sure that the levees this time are higher and stronger than the Great wall of China...

The problem with the people here in US is that they depend too much on the Government. "The Government didn't send us buses, the Government didn't make sure we were all evacuated, the Government didn't get us food and water at the right time" etc etc and etc. I know people in India too depend on the government, but its usually only for the compensation they get later ;-) But this is too much! C'mon, 2 days before the hurricane struck, the warnings were being issued. There were evacuations ordered. What do these people expect? That someone should come, check each and every house, if there are people push them into a bus and carry them out of the city??? Roof top evacuations were being telecasted after the storm and I remember people begging to be rescued. They didn't listen to the warning, did nothing to avoid the hurricane and want to be rescued? Sheeeeeeesh!! Even worse than this was the way the people behaved when put in the superdome! Rapes!! God!! A man is in a life and death situation and all he can think of raping a woman who is in the same situation as him? Its totally outrageous and unacceptable behaviour!! God, why did you make men this way? Is there any logic in looting people and raping women where you should probably be helping them out? And yup, they can always claim that "The Government locked us up in the superdome and didn't monitor us"!! I guess people are animals, if they are not in a controlled situation, they return to the ancestral monkey behaviour :-p Quod Erat Demonstrandum from Katrina!

The other problem I've found is too many good facilities. They say "Too much of something is not good" and thats precisely the problem in US. The electricity is continuous and there are no power cuts. So none of the buildings have generators!! In India, I think there's a stipulation that every building with a lift should have generators (I am not sure but I think so). Heck, most of the upper middle class families have invertors for their houses. I know its due to the common power cuts, but its good. In a way, we are prepared for emergencies :) Here most of them do not. Because they are oh-so-confident about the power. No wonder the whole Los Angeles city stopped working at the recent power outage. Moreover everything else depends on electricity. I heard one of the news channels actually issue a warning saying "Don't use any of the food in cans which have been outside the fridge for than 4 hours". The food last only 4 hours without electricity? :-o? What the heck?? So if I'm stranded in my house without electricity, I can't even eat the food in the house after 4 hours?? What's the use of storing food then? I just don't have the words to express my disgust here..

My heart went out to the many people who were sitting in front of the superdome waiting for help. There were children, old people, new mothers with babies and nothing was being done for them. I really hope that Katrina is a lesson learnt and things are much more smooth if a disaster strikes again (God Forbid!). We are in mid-US and the chances of us being attacked by a storm is pretty less (but Lexington it seems, is a tornado prone area, just my luck :-p :-D). But there are millions of people living on the coastline who may be hit any time by a hurricane. Hopefully next time, may all of them have the intelligence to get out of the storm path when warned and stay away until its all quiet, calm and safe again :)

9 Comments:


Neel Arurkar retorted...

Interesting Read. Ah! Katrina Kaif must really be upset with the US gov ;-)


Deeps retorted...

Hehehe :) She sure must have been :-D


Amit retorted...

Pretty sensitive! I am not sure whether is the first one which talks about something but you. No I am not trying to be rude here. Was just little surprised when I read something like this here. There was nothing about Deepthi in this particular Blog.

I also read those stats. But I guess you know that it wasnt just about rains in New Orleans. So i blv it should be unfair to compare the two scenarios. Then it was wonderful when you mentioned how some positives can become negatives. I read the following somewhere.

A certain degree of physical harmony and comfort is necessary, but above a certain level it becomes a hindrance instead of a help. Therefore the ideal of creating an unlimited number of wants and satisfying them seems to be a delusion and a snare....


Well the above may not be the best fit here. But partly it does :-)


And last not the least. If something happens tomorrow to my city, I'll try and expect government to rebuild every part of it as it was or may be better.


Deeps retorted...

>>Pretty sensitive! I am not sure whether is the first one which talks about something but you. No I am not trying to be rude here. Was just little surprised when I read something like this here. There was nothing about Deepthi in this particular Blog.

Hehehehe. No offense taken. I guess thats true to some extent. There have been many posts which haven't exactly been about me. But I think this is the first one about my opinion on a current situation :) BTW its still about me in a way as its Deepthi's perspective :))

>>I also read those stats. But I guess you know that it wasnt just about rains in New Orleans. So i blv it should be unfair to compare the two scenarios. Then it was wonderful when you mentioned how some positives can become negatives. I read the following somewhere.

I agree. Thats why after the mail, I said "Even though the rains in Mumbai cannot be compared to Katrina, the fact is that the response here in US was sluggish to say the least :-p."

>>And last not the least. If something happens tomorrow to my city, I'll try and expect government to rebuild every part of it as it was or may be better.

After I read your statement, I realized, I would want that too had it been Bangalore :) I guess since the country is foreign, the feeling of attachment is less and hence I talked about not-rebuilding. But I am not sure, had my town been a not-so-safe-place to live, maybe I wouldn't want it to be rebuilt and be a hazardous place to live for me and my family...


Amit retorted...

:-)


wise donkey retorted...

Bush cannot call God a Terrorist because he is God.

Well i agree that its right to compare the mumbai rains with hurricane katrina (Btw i think the first name i heard was Ivan) but its amazing that US can be hit so badly.

tsunami is a rarity in our parts, but though again not comparable, surely the US admin in general should be prepared for hurricanes.

well i subscribe to M Moore newsletters and perhaps i do have a bias against Bush, but the response just seems pathetic to me.

agree with ur perspective, a nice post and take care:)


Deeps retorted...

Gaya, good to see you back and commenting :-D

I am sorta biased against Bush too, what with the bushisms and all.. Anyways, its the people who voted him back to power. But I am not sure whether any other president would have handled it any better. Its just Bush's bad luck ;-)


wise donkey retorted...

thanks deeps:)

hmmm excuse me for relyin on Moore but did people really vote for bush, i thought they didnt count the votes :D :D

btw do u watch Faux News.
wheneve i watch it the BP shoots up so i avoid it. wonder what they said about it.

i am not sure that other Pres would have handled it badly. its not just what he didnt do but what he did.

People are people, they have to pay for their leaders mistakes.

PS :In case i didnt mention clearly i do agree that we Indians are more self reliant and dont depend too much on power and those in power :)


Deeps retorted...

Hehehe :) The last statement hits the spot :))) Yeah we Indians are very much better off not depending on power and those in power :-D

I saw Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 too. I really don't know whether to believe him or not!! But since he didn't stand for the president election the 2nd time Bush got elected, he must not have any political intention ;-) So inference is what he said must be true :) Looks like Politics is politics, be it India or U.S :))