Katrina
domingo, setembro 04, 2005
Embora haja por aí quem desconverse, e volte a desconversar, o problema não está, nem nunca esteve, na aldeia global em que habitamos, em criticar, a propósito do Katrina ou de outra coisa qualquer, os americanos. O problema está - sempre que os americanos metem água - em alguns não resistirem à tentação e em vez de se cingirem aos factos recuperarem uma cartilha ideológica obsoleta e a crítica abstracta ao capitalismo, e ao mercado, de que os EUA serão o expoente máximo. Isto cá, que lá nos EUA a coisa pia mais fino, à esquerda e à direita. Atente-se nesta prosa notável de Paul Krugman, hoje dada à estampa no New York Times, onde se didscute o cerne da questão, que também passa pela natureza, definição e papel do Estado. Algo que as esquerdas não gostam nada de discutir...
At a fundamental level, I'd argue, our current leaders just aren't serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don't like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice. (...) So America, once famous for its can-do attitude, now has a can't-do government that makes excuses instead of doing its job. And while it makes those excuses, Americans are dying.
Mas Krugman é do MIT, mudou-se para Princeton, tem dezenas de livros publicados, pertence em suma ao establishment, logo será 'suspeito'. Atente-se então ao que tem sido escrito naquele que é talvez o mais famoso blog do momento, um relato sensível e real, escrito na primeira pessoa por um grupo de administradores de sistemas informáticos que se recusou a abandonar o seu datacenter, em Nova Orleães...
mas continua e hoje temos (mais) uma prosa notável...It began with what could be the understatement of the year. "Hmm. This could actually be a nasty storm," Barnett posted at 9:05 p.m. PDT on the Saturday the storm began approaching.
Just after 6 a.m. PDT Sunday, he issued a challenge: "Come on with it then, storm. Bring me what ya got. Let's see who wins."
Throughout Monday morning, he reported messy conditions, "but as long as no flooding occurs, the city should be fine. There's really nothing to say...Imagine a low rumbling turbine engine for several hours, lots of wind and debris, and me taking pictures and video."
But by Tuesday morning, his tone grew more serious: "I do not want to be an alarmist, but people who have the means to leave the greater New Orleans area need to do so. The infrastructure required to maintain a city is down. It could be a long time before it's back up. There will be too many people fighting for exceptionally scarce resources."
On Wednesday morning, the chaos began: "If you're on the cam, you've got a special treat: You're watching the flood progress (hasn't moved in 24 hours) and the looting of a hotel."
(resumo dos primeiros dias via News.com)
Slept in til 7am today. The police and military still control the streets and they're patrolling in force by vehicle -- you can see this on the cam. A lot of people have asked about the vehicles and who's in them. They're all police vehicles now -- commandeered.Muita matéria para se pensar, à esquerda e à direita, mas não, para muitos é preferível continuar a ver as coisas a preto e branco, maniqueístas, estereotipadas, dá menos trabalho e é de tradição. É pena.
Let me address the political situation for a moment. I noticed that the responses I've been getting on the blog and the stuff I've been reading in the mainstream media has become very politicized. I'm not going to get into politics here -- I'm just going to do my work and then report what I see and hear throughout the day. If you guys want to play Democrat vs Republican vs Independent, go right ahead, but I'm really weary of the permanent election season this country's turned into. Honestly, these are politicians you guys are getting so excited about. Politicians. As far as I'm concerned, I don't trust people who want to tell other people how to spend their money and what they can read or see on television and what they can do in the privacy of their own homes. There's no way I'm going to feel comfortable supporting someone who thinks he knows what's best for the rest of "society" and is willing to use force and the threat of force to make others fall into line.
So yeah, I'm not going to support or condemn anyone specific for what's going on here.
And another thing to think about when we start pointing fingers is this. The government is never equipped to handle a crisis like this. There's too much bureaucracy -- initiative-stifling bureaucracy which prevents swift, effective action. I would like to hear from government employees on this. The nature of that bureaucracy is such that you have very specific guidelines to follow for even the most minute tasks. You need approval for just about everything, and the person you need approval from usually needs approval to give you the approval.
It's not as easy as say rounding up 4 of your co-workers and saying, "We've got someone at such and such an address, let's go grab her and get her out of there." Now add a destroyed or disabled command and control center to that bureaucracy and you've got a total and complete mess.
You (as a civilian) don't need "Approved" stamped on 3 different forms before you can run into your neighbor's house and pull them out. I hope this makes sense.
Anyway, I'm sure there's been human error in this catastrophe. How could there not be? But what I'm saying is that I've come to expect poor decision making and a total lack of initiative from government. They can't even balance a budget, at the federal, state, or local levels. I could balance my checkbook and spend within my means when I was a teenager. But I'm not gonna point fingers and get into the blame game. If you want me to blame something besides the storm herself, I blame the nature of government in the first place. It's too big, it's too slow, it's too inefficient, it's too bloated, and it's too intiative-stifling to be effective in normal circumstances, much less in a disaster. It's a systemic issue, more than an issue of individual people in government.
Ok, that being said, I see more civilians on the street now -- although many of them appear to be journalist types.
More later.
Publicado por Manuel 19:03:00
Se criticar Sócrates, ou uma certa ideia que ele tem de Portugal, sofro de quê? Anti-portuguesismo?" in Terras do Nunca
Será que é o que justifica o editorial do DN de hoje? O receio de ser chamado de anti-portugùês? :-)))
Quanto ao texto de Krugman é manipulação e mentira pura e simples. O que aliás se tem tornado habitual.
"But the evidence points, above all, to a stunning lack of both preparation and urgency in the federal government's response."
Sim então porque (texto de hoje):
(..)
Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday.
The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.
A senior administration official said that Bush has clear legal authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor.
Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said.
(...)
http://www.washingtonpost.com
/wp-dyn/content/article
/2005/09/03/AR2005090301680_pf.html
"Yesterday Mr. Bush made an utterly fantastic claim: that nobody expected the breach of the levees. In fact, there had been repeated warnings about exactly that risk."
: O dique rebentou numa área que tinha ido reforçada á pouco e os riscos não era de ruptura mas que a água passasse por cima porque estão previstos para tempestade 3 e não 4 ou 5.
Iraque: a Guarda tem 1 milhão de soldados dos quais 200000 estão fora dos EUA e destes 100000 estão no Iraque.
É a governadora que faz os pedidos á guarda nacional. É o Mayor que é responsável pela evacuação.
lucklucky
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