Leftpondia

Unless you've had your head in the sand or been dwelling on a field for the last week you can't have missed what been happening over on the other side of the pond (and south a bit).

Working in rather wet section of industry and living on a place not that high about sea level .. it seems madness that things are still so chaotic over there.

Hmm New Orleans is a place pretty much under sea level, and kept dry by levee (hence "took my Chevy to the levee" in American Pie) aka a dyke as known in this part of the world and Holland. Now I know that Katrina was a bit blowy which we don't have, but surely they'd have a plan in place were the levees ever to be breached (and it would seem to me a hurricane would be the likely reason). But to me it seems as if that just isn't the case. Don't they have Emergency Planning in the US? I know we have plans for freak events that would cause flooding, hence me spending last summer at the harbour entrance (the lowest coastal point on the island).

Things weren't helped by George W spending money that should have been on Coastal/ Flood Protection on War (I'm not entering that argument), surely as leader you first duty is to protect your own people? So the levees breach and flood the low lying areas first, which are it seems inhabited by the poorer communities. I find it particularly striking how all the TV clips show mainly black African-Americans, of the poorer communities, with few white faces seen in clips (although that could be the press).

I feel that George W won't be getting so many votes next time from low lying areas, where coastal/ flood protection money has been cut. Mind you that would require thinking from GW that it would be better to spend money at home, and we know how GW hates to think.

Let's hope order gets sorted soon in the deep south, so that the people most affected can get on with rebuilding their lives instead of day to day survival. Pretty basic stuff needs to get done, yet the world's only real superpower can't seem to do that ...