Katrina
September 2, 2005This is the kind of report that’ll give me nightmares for the next few days. Here in Tassie we’ve experienced storms in the north of the state. But I wonder, if we did experience a storm as horrifying as what occurred in New Orleans, would society in Tasmania breakdown as irretrievably as what happened there? I’ve heard from posters on a forum I regularly frequent, that looters from New Orleans have crossed over into Baton Rouge. As a result, streetjackings and other general crime have tripled over the last few days.
Another issue that’s just cropped up is this remark that was made by a UN representative -
Katrina was far worse than last December’s tsunami in South-East Asia, the United Nations’ emergency relief co-ordinator, Jan Egeland, proclaimed. “This is one of the most destructive natural disasters ever measured in the amount of homes destroyed, people affected, people displaced,” he said.
Firstly, let’s take a look at the fallout from the Tsunami disaster. According to the Wikipedia entry, 170000 - 250000 people were killed during that disaster. And God only knows just how many people were forced from their homes. Before going ballistic over this quote, it’s important to remember that the news report doesn’t contain the full quote from the Official in question. Neither does it entirely mention the exact situation or context in which the quote was made. And let’s face it, if you were living in the US and this disaster were happening on your front doorstep, you would quite readily believe that it was the worst disaster ever. I know I certainly would.
