(no subject)

[hellison]

I keep meaning to post Stuff - usual ramblings about eg charlie and teh chocolate factory (mostly loved it, except the ending), Electric Picnic (veering from whee to omg why am i going back to whee) and so on, but then I look at the news again, or other lj reports and the words just leave me.

Even if I get away from Katrina and the horrors in America, there is the chaos and horror in Iraq, people being shot or murdering their babies in UK and we're even doing our own little bit here with rioting and chucking petrol bombs into childrens' bedrooms.

Some people have been mentioning the quote about us being only 3 days away from savagery. I'm not sure we're not much closer than that.

But then what good does staring at bbc news with a Woe Face do?
So I shall go to EP and make the most of the sights, sounds and time with good friends. After all, as the mother is fond of saying, you never know the hour. When its done, I'll tally up what I've spent on fun and frolics and donate as much again as currently I can't think of any other way to help.
In the meantime, I'm going back to my new Happy Place, Neil and the kitten (oh, those hands...)


As it says up there at the top, enjoy yourself, it's later than you think ;)

Comments

[malvino.livejournal.com]

Something about the horror there has been troubling me, we've see pictures from all over the place of disasters for years, and ones that have gone on for much longer, but this is the first to descend into anarchy instead of people sitting tight and waiting for the cavalry.

Which poses all kinds of questions, are there gangs running around out of survival because they don't trust the cavalry to turn up, or are Americans actually different from the rest of the world?

The other thing is, where are the unaffected normal people? When disasters have happened in other first world countries there's been a steady stream of concerned citizens rushing to the devastated area with their cars loaded with essentials to give to the victims. The USA is one large landmass, you can drive anywhere and everyone has cars, why aren't people loading up the caravan and heading down there, and maybe bringing back someone who's lost everything to put them up until they're back on their feet? It really does happen in other places.

[hellison.livejournal.com]

I've been wondering that as well. There were some nasty reports from thailand of child kidnapping at the time, but they were very isolated. I certainly don't remember armed gangs roaming the streets pillaging and raping, and there was fairly intensive news coverage at the time.

Some of it could be anger at being so suddenly abandoned in horrific conditions in what is supposed to be the wealthiest country in the world; at being *told* to go the dome and ending up in the midst of sweltering heat, dead bodies and human waste with no food or water for days and no-one coming to help.
Some of it is mostly likely mob mentality - if even the COPS are looting, why not join in? Some of it is, of course, basic survival.

But that doesn't explain all of it.

The level of savagery and the suddeness of the descent into chaos are the really frightening things though and it is something I don't thing we've seen elsewhere.
There seems to be a huge lack of communication. I've seen several times people *wanting* to offer rooms or other help but have no information on how do to it.

[malvino.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the total lack of leadership is highlighted too, espcially with the communication problems.

Apparently the local police were already viewed as just another gang though, which might explain why the people had no respect for them in the first place and why they appeared to be looting more than anyone else and less that interested in helping people out.