Katrina is wreaking havoc in the South, of that there can be no doubt, and my hopes for safety and security go out to everyone down there.
Everyone, that is, except Biloxi, MS Mayor A.J. Halloway, quoted in a CNN article:
"This is our tsunami," Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway told the Biloxi Sun Herald newspaper, referring to the December 26, 2004, tsunami that killed more than 226,000 people in the Indian Ocean region.
"This is our tsunami"?!?! Seriously, dude, here's a fucking reality check for you.
There were 226,000 dead people in the tsunami.
There are, right now, maybe 100 people dead from Katrina. That's being generous. Mississippi is reporting 55 right now, Florida 10. I'll pad a little for reports not yet in.
If ten times as many people died in Katrina as presently did, it still wouldn't come close to the death toll from the tsunami.
If one hundred times as many people died in Katrina as presently have, you'd still be a far fucking cry from the tsunami's death count.
If one thousand fucking times as many people died from Katrina, only then would you finally have reached HALF the death toll as the Indian tsunami.
It's tragic that anyone died at all, but don't sit there and have the balls to compare your pissant little "under 100 dead across a thousand or so miles of coast" with "nearly a quarter of a million people dead".
Jesus Christ, that's like seeing a hundred people trapped in a burning temple and saying "oh, woe is us, this is our Holocaust!" ... it's just so completely on the wrong end of a completely different scale as to be laughable, insulting, arrogant, and self-absorbed, all wrapped into a single nasty package.
Meybe he was just referring to the destruction, not the lifes lost.
Even if he did, JJ, that's still crap. You simply don't put "your thing where some buildings were destroyed and a small number of people killed" in the same ballpark as something that kills a quarter of a million people.
"It ain't the same fuckin' ballpark, it ain't the same league, it ain't even the same fuckin' sport." -- Jules, Pulp Fiction
Did you happen to catch the gov. of Mississippi speaking on CNN? Essentially what he said was "I have ordered that looters be shot on sight, preferably in the head." I thought I was watching a rerun of "In the Heat of the Night." Unfortunately, I wasn't. Redneck.
While you are correct that there is no comparison, I'm willing to cut the guy a little slack. After all he did just watch a significant portion of the city he is mayor of get wiped off the face of the earth and, while the death toll is orders of magnitude less, it's still going to be a shock to him and rest of the city.
Unless, of course, he's just doing some political grandstanding and he doesn't really care. But I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that it's likely the emotional shock he suffered caused him to speak without really thinking about what he said.
Don't forget.. the victims of the tsunami didn't have a few days warning.
I've already seen some arrogant assholes asking if UN will give us support *rolling eyes*
I ask this: How is it that Katrina is getting all the press? Is it because it was quick and terrible? Is it because many people died? I don't get it! Every year at least 20 class 4-5 tornados touch down in Tornado Alley, hundreds of people die EACH time, but, its just a blurb in the papers and t.v. Lots of people die in an earthquake several times a year- small blurb. Yearly floods in the south especially in the Mississippi region claim lives, small blurb. This is because people have accepted natures fury in all of its form.
Sorry to vent like this, but, it seems to me that when a yahoo like this gets in front of a microphone, his little world is crumbling down and woe is me! Did he have any family in the path? Doubt it. Did he have his tax-paid-for mansion destroyed? Doubt it.
Did his new Lexus float away? Doubt it.
Just shut the hell up, ask for federal assistance, and help some people rebuild their houses.
D---
Seriously. I'm usually only 50-50 in agreement with you, but in this case....Come on, that guy needs a reality check. Needs to go to the tsunami-affected areas and he'd realize that Mississippi is not even in the same universe.
I *almost* understand what he has said. Actually in this case, the damage for the Hurricane is far greater locally inland than with the tsunami (the tsunami rarely ran more than one or two miles onshore while the hurricane had a 30 foot storm surge that ran tens of miles into Mississippi and Alabama).
You would have to be totally blind to look at the carnage and NOT be reminded of what happened in Thailand and India. And you would have to be totally stupid to think it "compares" to the level of death and destruction the tsunami wreaked.
Now, if people start rebuilding slums again in New Orleans, then I'll be highly pissed. :-) I think it's time to bulldoze and fill in....
Big George: It's because a hurricane offers a few days warning, and thus, allows the media to get there in full force to film the damn thing.
Earthquakes and tornadoes don't offer such warning.
And the comments keep coming in!
"I can only imagine that this is what Hiroshima looked like 60 years ago," said Gov. Haley Barbour,(Miss.) describing parts of his state after surveying it from the air.
Article from Spiegel's Daily Take - http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,372356,00.html
Well, add this comment to the fire:
"It looks like Hiroshima is what it looks like," Gov. Haley Barbour said, describing parts of Harrison County, Miss."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/31/national/nationalspecial/31cnd-storm.html?ex=1283140800&en=37192625caa0da1f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Oops...should have read that last post. Oh well. My thunder is stolen again. It reminds of that time in Nam...
Just kidding. :)
I found this hilarious:
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/08/30/black_people_loot_wh.html
white dudes "find" food at a store, some black guy does the same thing its "looting".
it seems only in times of disaster do we really see how fucked up our country is.
and why are we rescuing all these idiots who had 3 days warning to leave? and why do we care if they "loot" some rotting food?
Why are we rescuing the "idiots" who had three days warning? Because maybe, just maybe, they couldn't leave. New Orleans isn't exactly a city of the rich and there are a lot of people who simply didn't have the ability to evacuate to a safe area. That, and we're generally nice people who tend to save your life even though it's your fault it's in danger.
As for the comments by the mayor of Biloxi, I'm going to revise my earlier statement. Now that a couple of days have passed, and we are getting a better idea of the level of destruction, his comparison may be apt. If you compare Biloxi to the entire loss caused by the tsunami, there is no comparison. If you compare Biloxi to the loss caused in a *comparitively sized area* by the tsunami, then it's not so far fetched. So far the loss of life isn't as high but the level of destruction is at least as high if not higher. And if, as I fear, the death toll rises into the thousands, perhaps even the tens of thousands, then the comparison becomes considerably less ridiculous especially considering the size of the area affected by Katrina in comparison with the size of the area affected by the tsunami.