What else could the gov have done prior to Katrina? Declared martial law and forcibly evacuated people? That would have seemed amazing foresight given the eventuality, but in other circumstances would have also been a political disaster. What I don't understand is why the governor didn't declare eminent domain over all buses in the state and have them all at the limits of the flood to carry people out. I can understand people not wanting to leave their homes... some people will just make bad decisions in a disaster. For that matter, why couldn't most people have simply hiked out of the city? It wasn't ALL 20 ft of floodwater so the swimming doesn't seem to have been that much. I suppose the people to truly lament are those who were both poor and incapable of leaving. Those are the ones that the state has a special responsibility to care for.
As for "looting", I don't see what the big deal is at all. Its not as if:
A) Walgreens/CVS/WAL-Mart don't have insurance.
B) The food and clothes would have been able to have been sold when the city is re-occupied in 8 months.
So I don't see the moral issue in "looting" any of those things. The police should have declared eminent domain and distributed food anyway.
Finding a flat:
1)Greek girl - This was about a mile walk from the nearest tube.
2)Greek guy - This was promising except the front door is in an alcove w/ a huge wrought iron gate in front of it. There is no dryer and when I asked him about where he dries his clothes he said.. well we can't outside the neighborhood is dangerous. I might come back to this one though.
3)Vietnamese girl - Great apt, close to campus, nice roommates...who want me to pay for HALF the flat.. a mere 19,000 for the year.
4)French girls- Ok, this place was FILTHY. Mold and dirt abounded. It was in Finsbury Park (more later). Still, I almost fell for it b/c they had bottles of wine setting out and posters of early 19th century French commercial art. (Les Biscuits!) I could have been so cosmopolitan!
5)British guy- House on Abbey Road! But they don't have it yet... and they don't know if the landlady will allow them to have four people... and...
6)Tonight, Japanese guy...
What a pain.
So yesterday was Ethiopian New Year's Day! It is the year 1998 for them. They were cut off by the Arabs from the rest of the Christian world, so they developed quite a few independent traditions. There was an Ethiopian party at a club yesterday...with DJ Mekunin and DJ Tewdoros. I didn't go.
But I was in Finsbury Park where quite a few of them live and I had lunch in an Ethiopian diner. I was served the usual type of food, but it was wrapped in the injira (that spongy bread) and it was the size of 2 bricks! I could barely finish it, but as I was eating the place filled up (it being a holiday) and I wasn't about to waste food in front of a bunch of Ethiopian grandmothers. When the owner saw I was enjoying it, he put some red powder (cumin?) and thick red paste down and told me to put it on my food. I obliged and soon was sweating profusely with red hands (no utensils here).
I thought of the story in in the Arabian Nights where the noblewoman marries the peasant, but tries to make love to her with cumin stained fingers. So she drugs him and cuts his thumbs off. He waits by the roadside, abducts her and rapes her. Then they live happily ever after....
I left the diner (with my thumbs) and couldn't resist walking by the Finsbury Park Mosque. This is the former home of the "Mad Mullah" aka "Captain Hook", a scary looking imam with a hook for a hand and a glass eye courtesy of the Soviets (so the story goes). He used to call for the banner of the prophet to hang over 10 Downing St. and for Muslims to do everything in their power to make this a reality. After years of his calls for violence, he was finally deported home (to Jordan?).
There was a huge banner on the mosque that said, "A new beginning for better community service, better public image, better neighborhood". I was surprised that the building was brick and architecturally modern. It could have been an apartment building in NY with a minaret and small dome on it.
Almost literally in its shadow, are the Ethiopians. One could almost take them for Muslims as well with their salaams and Semitic speech. But in the diner I was at, there was huge poster of St. Michael guarding Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo to dispel any doubt. There actually are Ethiopian Muslims. Ethiopia is an empire and contains many ethnic groups. The Amhara (who we in the West think of as THE Ethiopians) are actually a small minority. There are several other Orthodox ethnic groups, but the largest single ethnic group is actually split between Christian and Muslim, and there is a large Somali minority as well.
Interestingly, there were both Christians and Muslims buying food in the diner for the celebration of what would seem to be an exclusively Christian holiday.
As for "looting", I don't see what the big deal is at all. Its not as if:
A) Walgreens/CVS/WAL-Mart don't have insurance.
B) The food and clothes would have been able to have been sold when the city is re-occupied in 8 months.
So I don't see the moral issue in "looting" any of those things. The police should have declared eminent domain and distributed food anyway.
Finding a flat:
1)Greek girl - This was about a mile walk from the nearest tube.
2)Greek guy - This was promising except the front door is in an alcove w/ a huge wrought iron gate in front of it. There is no dryer and when I asked him about where he dries his clothes he said.. well we can't outside the neighborhood is dangerous. I might come back to this one though.
3)Vietnamese girl - Great apt, close to campus, nice roommates...who want me to pay for HALF the flat.. a mere 19,000 for the year.
4)French girls- Ok, this place was FILTHY. Mold and dirt abounded. It was in Finsbury Park (more later). Still, I almost fell for it b/c they had bottles of wine setting out and posters of early 19th century French commercial art. (Les Biscuits!) I could have been so cosmopolitan!
5)British guy- House on Abbey Road! But they don't have it yet... and they don't know if the landlady will allow them to have four people... and...
6)Tonight, Japanese guy...
What a pain.
So yesterday was Ethiopian New Year's Day! It is the year 1998 for them. They were cut off by the Arabs from the rest of the Christian world, so they developed quite a few independent traditions. There was an Ethiopian party at a club yesterday...with DJ Mekunin and DJ Tewdoros. I didn't go.
But I was in Finsbury Park where quite a few of them live and I had lunch in an Ethiopian diner. I was served the usual type of food, but it was wrapped in the injira (that spongy bread) and it was the size of 2 bricks! I could barely finish it, but as I was eating the place filled up (it being a holiday) and I wasn't about to waste food in front of a bunch of Ethiopian grandmothers. When the owner saw I was enjoying it, he put some red powder (cumin?) and thick red paste down and told me to put it on my food. I obliged and soon was sweating profusely with red hands (no utensils here).
I thought of the story in in the Arabian Nights where the noblewoman marries the peasant, but tries to make love to her with cumin stained fingers. So she drugs him and cuts his thumbs off. He waits by the roadside, abducts her and rapes her. Then they live happily ever after....
I left the diner (with my thumbs) and couldn't resist walking by the Finsbury Park Mosque. This is the former home of the "Mad Mullah" aka "Captain Hook", a scary looking imam with a hook for a hand and a glass eye courtesy of the Soviets (so the story goes). He used to call for the banner of the prophet to hang over 10 Downing St. and for Muslims to do everything in their power to make this a reality. After years of his calls for violence, he was finally deported home (to Jordan?).
There was a huge banner on the mosque that said, "A new beginning for better community service, better public image, better neighborhood". I was surprised that the building was brick and architecturally modern. It could have been an apartment building in NY with a minaret and small dome on it.
Almost literally in its shadow, are the Ethiopians. One could almost take them for Muslims as well with their salaams and Semitic speech. But in the diner I was at, there was huge poster of St. Michael guarding Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo to dispel any doubt. There actually are Ethiopian Muslims. Ethiopia is an empire and contains many ethnic groups. The Amhara (who we in the West think of as THE Ethiopians) are actually a small minority. There are several other Orthodox ethnic groups, but the largest single ethnic group is actually split between Christian and Muslim, and there is a large Somali minority as well.
Interestingly, there were both Christians and Muslims buying food in the diner for the celebration of what would seem to be an exclusively Christian holiday.
posted by akrites @ 5:59 PM
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