Obligatory post on the Hurricane Katrina situation. No, my ideas are definitely not very popular, and yes, i come across as a bit of a harsh bitch, but i'm really not that cynical/cold hearted, it's just some things that amuse me to think about. My thoughts go out to anyone involved and I hope they're all safe and make it through this okay.
Having said that little disclaimer, I continue:
1-I know it was only a day before the storm, but experts predicted that it would be this bad, that it would be worse than anything people were thinking..yada, yada, yada. They predicted the sewage leaking out, they predicted the flooding, the loss of building... People who say "we never saw it coming" are retarded. they were warned. yes, i know the warning doesn't keep it from being atrociously amazing, but there was some warning.
2-living in america will not protect you from natural disasters (the weather), leaking sewage, non-working toilets, lack of drinking water.....in such a situation. people say "oh my god, our infrastructure is so complex that there's no way people can be without drinking water in our country" well, when everything is under 20 ft. of water, there is no infrastructure. the united states is just a bunch of stranded people, just like there were in thailand, except the forces here seemed to have been a bit greater...from that follows
3-with our infrastructure and ummm..."ethnocentricity" of thinking that we're more "civilized" or whatever, you'd think that people wouldn't go looting, or shooting at people, or burning shit. like, seriously! it's SO FUCKED UP! the whole place is fucked as it is, and for people to go out and cause more damage...someone even shot a fucking cop in the head! WHAT THE FUCK! okay, so you need some emergency medical supplies, that's a decent reason. the people breaking into jewelery stores and shit to get some valuables is just fucked up. i suppose the people who own the stores will be reimbursed by insurance (hopefully) but the whole idea of it is wrong. especially in a culture that for some unexplained reason thinks it's better than everyone else. "oh, they wear turbans, they're not as 'civilized' as us and we should teach them the right way to live" yeah, then we shoot cops and steal shit just because everything's fucked up. brilliant.
4-why do humans live in such dumb places? i'm not one to talk, since my house is below the water level of the delta, but i think it's dumb to live where we do. and holland, living below sea level. and new orleans. an ENTIRE huge city!!! below water level, and in an area that gets hurricanes and the like. seriously...what genius came up with this plan? oh, this is an area that naturally floods and gets the shit beat out of it by storms and floods...lets build some mounds of dirt to hold back the water, and build a huge cultural center city here. duh... berkeley's got some stupid bits too...everything west of the freeway and in some places san pablo ave. is built on fill. berkeley is also on a fault line. it's been shown that in an earthquake, fill does this neat thing called liquifaction, where it basically turns liquid. so next earthquake, that area's gonna get fucked up. or memeorial...built ON the fault. or my house in stockton. well, most of the city of stockton. it's built below the water level. the city is there because of the levees. i live less than a block from the levee in my area. in 1997, the last major el nino that really affected northern california, the levee broke like 20 miles away from us, that whol neighborhood was flooded. the levee near us held, but they dumped a bunch of extra stuff on it cuz they were worried. my house could be in like...5-6 feet of water. all of our valuables are stored upstairs, because we know this is a possibility. so us humans, thinking we own everything, live in these places, and then are completely amazed when a disaster strikes and our homes are destroyed. what the fuck did we think was gonna happen? my only hope is that people realize it and get out, so they don't die.
ah, for those of you who aren't THAT interested in the whole thing, here's 3 pictures of shit that's goin down in new orleans area:the city, said to be nearly %80 under water.
the break in the levee that allowed the city to be flooded so badly after it made it through the worst of the hurricane with just some minor flooding. Boats = ( This makes me so sad, especially since I know a guy in Slidell, LA (a bit north of new orleans, but still hit hard) who lives on a boat. hope he's alright
it's all nuts.
there will be another post tonight, on the goings on in my life, but i wanted to get this out there = P
cheers
oh, random picture:TEQUILA!!!