Old News but Still a Touchy Subject: FEMA and their Debit Cards

Brief discussion on Hurricane Katrina, a year after it was just a tropical storm. Having read the article, the following is the response.

D: Ridiculous -- I understand how the problems happened, but its obvious that the system is so F-ed that no one has time to doublecheck any of the work. Better to do it right the first time...

P: A guy I work with blames congress for handing out money. I blame the people for their responsibility. 9/11 brought out the best in people. This storm definitely brought out the worst. It is obvious that we are much more helpless of a species than we think.
I also like how many of the religious felt that this was a sign from God that the city was evil and people need to change their ways. Start new lives. Meanwhile crime is skyrocketing in the cities that Katrina victims got displaced to. They didn’t change their ways. They changed their venues. This was F’d up from the top-down.

D: I don't think it's the inherent nature of the people to be criminally minded but rather the fact that they've never had much opportunity couple that with the fact that the organization in place to handle these things was structurally F-ed from the top-down, and further magnified their beliefs that no one cares about them, and their situation in their minds has been lose-lose from birth. I'm not saying their attitude is the correct one, because anyone with enough willpower can succeed from even the humblest beginnings, but there's not a lot of optimism going around those parts.

P: Prayer replaces optimism, and vice versa. And I think even as a person who has religion in a his life will agree that people put too much stock in prayer. Prayer is comfort, not safety. At the same time, I think people that rely on prayer also are relying on someone else to get them out of their situation, rather than doing it themselves. Enter evangelists.
These people that just blew their money on everything but food, shelter, and survival, are the ones that are going to be crying “Oh please God help me. I’m broke. I’m hungry. I’m tired. My baby needs to eat.” They had responsibility of some kind before disaster struck, why can’t they have it now? I consider those cash cards extended paychecks for some, welfare checks and social security checks for others. I have to believe if they weathered the storm, no pun intended, they have eaten in the past. What are they doing now? There is a lot more optimism in the rural areas, where they people have banded together to rebuild their communities because they were forgotten. They know they’ll survive, but they have to do it together, alone.
All in all, this hurricane hit at a very, very vulnerable point in time for this country. We are an oil embargo away from a real crisis, and Iran and Venezuela are banking on that.

D: I have a feeling that 90% of the people that blew their money on non-survival items were also people who fraudulently obtained the disaster cards.

P: That is a distinct possibility. And I understand money makes the world turn, but shame on those places for accepting those cards. They looked like debit cards, but I’m sure there was something on them that said what they were. I guess that’s the same as selling a bum a pint of bourbon when he should be eating a sandwich, or a person with a stoma buying smokes.

All in all, people in times of crisis, in regions of crisis, do not act like barbarians. Some may be to proud to ask for help, but try to survive as long as they can. When aid arrives, starving nations do not have food fights. When peace-keepers restore calm, most of the time, they are not attacked. Freezing people do not find what fits. In short, "beggars can't be choosers" - Paul J. Quinn.
NOLA showed us that not only did many people defy help, but simply relied on it without seeking safety on their own. I'm not speaking for all, and I'm not speaking for the poor. There were many people who had opportunities that did not use them. There were some that could have helped others, and chose to just help themselves. This storm saw no boundaries. Whether those boundaries were neighborhoods, cities, states, or races.

A short time later, tapes were released on Michael Brown's warning the White House. Discussion followed.

D: Doesn't take him off the hook at all. His leadership, and the administration's, during the disaster was a complete joke whether they knew the deal or not. If you think the problem is bigger than what we're ready for, do something and mobilize people to handle it.

P: What I think he is happy about is that there is definitive proof that the very people that threw him under the bus, knew about this in time. The mayor, gov, senators, house reps, and the W admin should all be held liable. The mayor did the most, but could’ve done a hell of a lot more, especially with mass transit vehicles. It really breaks my heart hearing people in the towns down there that look like the hurricane hit 2 hours ago say that have prayer to keep them going. F that. If there is anyone in the world that should be mad right now (besides Iraqis), it should be them. These folks, by the time they get electricity and the debris cleared so the mail can come through, will be getting IRS audits because they are late on their bills and taxes. If it were up to me, everyone who was not able to receive some sort of aid within 2 weeks of the storm, should be exempt from taxes for 2005. And at the rate it is going, 2006. The volunteers who can help them should be exempt as well.
Asking another 70 Billion for a civil war in another country, give me a break. You know where that money is going? It is being used for the right reasons. Only, that $5 million school they keep building just keeps getting blown up again. That bridge that was constructed for $10 million, gets blown up every month. Those trucks that carry goods all day, need their windshields replaced 20 times a month from stones being thrown at them. That’s where the money is going.
By the way, if you crunch the numbers, this war is doing exactly 5/8 the damage of Vietnam. Casualties/deaths, etc.