Maxims: Shame, Blame or a Sham?    
 Shame, Blame or a Sham?5 comments
7 Sep 2005 @ 09:57, by Max Tobin

At a distance all appears peaceful to the peace-filled heart.

Did I hear the alarm go off? I must have slept right through it!!
A very interesting little article I stumbled accross may add something to the soup to bring out another flavour.
It would be a shame to harp on about the essense of this present non-sense, it would break hearts open and allow a flow of the healing waters; perhaps to remove the contamination of polluted places and activities. BUT oh dear I believe we will create more deception before the redemption. Read on to get an English journo's take on this tragic event. This was published in the local New Zealand Herald. Can any sense the tounge in cheek and hear the unspoken words, do not let it vex you the V*X has a worthy answer, be careful however not to choke on it before the cruel joke of it.





Gwynne Dyer: Shame may right the wrongs in vexed US

07.09.05

It's not fair to blame George W. Bush for the disaster in New Orleans. He had nothing to do with the evacuation operation that left the poorest and most helpless people behind.

If some of his appointees failed to give enough attention and money to the city's sea defences, well, so have other appointees of other administrations for decades past. But Bush will get the blame, and that may set some long-overdue changes in motion.

Americans are not merely outraged by the fate of New Orleans; they are deeply embarrassed, for this has been a public humiliation.

A visibly angry reporter for the BBC, making an on-camera report from New Orleans four days after the disaster, spoke of how it had revealed "the dark underbelly of life in this country", and that was just how most non-Americans see it.

Almost all the people abandoned in New Orleans to struggle for survival (or just to drown) were poor and black. They belong to a hidden, Third World America so alienated from mainstream American society that armed gangs quickly sprang up to loot and to victimise the survivors.

Not Third World, really, but Fourth World, for most countries of the Third World have solidarity and social discipline. In New Orleans, even rescue helicopters were fired on, something that did not happen amid all the grief and despair of the tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean countries last December.

It's not that most foreigners are anti-American or that Americans care desperately about what foreigners think - they don't. But they care a bit, and they know what foreigners must be thinking.

The Dutch, almost half of whom live below sea-level, are thinking that they would never so neglect their dykes that a predictable storm would inundate one of their major cities. They also know that if such a catastrophe did occur, some individuals might be left behind to die - no system is perfect - but that no Dutch government would forget several hundred thousand of its own citizens who lacked the money and the transport to get themselves out of harm's way.

Other countries are simply stunned by the scenes of official incompetence and social collapse in the United States that have been playing on their television screens. They already knew that the giant had feet of clay: a Government that can make such a mess of a minor colonial war can also make a mess of disaster relief.

But they are shocked by the fact that almost all the victims belong to the black underclass.

That is not Bush's fault (though he has not tried very hard to change the old realities of race in America). He will, however, get the blame for it, and the blame may not be expressed solely in words.

The last time the United States saw the same combination of rising casualties in a futile foreign war and a heightened consciousness among black Americans of just how little of the country's wealth and opportunity had come their way, it was 1965-68, and American cities burned.

With luck, they will not burn again. But similar situations produce similar patterns, and suddenly the situation in the United States begins to resemble the mid-60s. The anger of black Americans, the humiliation felt by many Americans of every colour, and the existing unhappiness about the war in Iraq may add up to a lever long enough to move the country.

America's reputation has not been so low in the world since the Johnson and Nixon presidencies of 1963-73, but few foreigners really want to see the United States humiliated. What they want is a better America, closer to its own ideals both in its treatment of its own citizens and in its behaviour in the wider world. Just about the same thing that most Americans want.

Lies can be defeated by the truth, and good can come out of evil.

The US has taken the wrong road abroad in trying to establish American hegemony in the world, and it has abandoned many of its own citizens at home. These things can be fixed, but only Americans can fix them. At last, an opportunity has presented itself.

* Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.


[< Back] [Maxims]

Category:  

5 comments

7 Sep 2005 @ 13:36 by jstarrs : And just why is George Bush
not to blame?..Gwynne may have thoughtlessy let slip a wonderful piece of irony when she naively states that "He (Bush) had nothing to do with the evacuation operation that left the poorest and most helpless people behind."
That's exactly the problem.
That's why it's called the United States.
And the United States are falling apart due to uncaring principles & values as is excellently stated here: http://www.alternet.org/story/25099/

** It's the difference between connection and separation.***

A lack of empathy and responsibility accounts for Bush's indifference and the government's delay in response, as well as the failure to plan for the security of the most vulnerable: the poor, the infirm, the aged, the children.

Sure the Buck must stop with the present 'administration' and Bush is the puppet visible at the 'top of the heap' However, the essential hand that moves the puppet is somewhat invisible and definatly non accountable.

A Watershed indeed and we offer our prayers in support of the break-through (out) which is needed now to ensure that the movement from a culture of 'disconnect blame and victims' evolves into something more. Maybe this is the great tragedy (appears to be natural!!!) required to bring a "New Civilization" into focus. The veneer of civilization has never appeared so thin. The answer is as always within and a new era of conscious co-creation can begin.  

7 Sep 2005 @ 17:15 by jmarc : well he did create this thing
called the homeland security department and named a guy by the name of Tom Ridge, I believe, who's well publicized words about, have enough food and water for at least three days on hand because it will probably take that long for the feds to come to the rescue, and this warning of his was reduced to some kind of mockery, I believe, an urgent warning reduced by those who like to set the memes, as foolishness, and wasn't duct tape and plastic sheeting funny after all and they're just trying to scare us?

Until they get the transporter beam fixed at the pentagon, the federal government will not be magically transporting people swiftly away from disasters. They stand ready to warn and to help with rescue efforts afterward though. They did seem a bit taken by surprise by the fact that the new orleans police department went awol. They'll know better next time.  

10 Sep 2005 @ 03:08 by azangel : I wish
my president would show a little more empathy and compassion for his fellow human beings. I am disappointed in his apparent lack of any kind of sensitivity when it comes to humanity. I feel that as an American citizen, I am misrepresented by my country's leader because personally I feel misled and betrayed by his leadership abilities. He presents himself in a manner that I perceive as very uncaring and self-centered. I feel that he is more concerned about "power" than he is about the human heart and the human suffering that our soldiers and our American neighbors have had to endure as a result of some of his choices in leading our country. I think that there is so much energy being put into "who is to blame" and I hope that as a country, American people will come together to show support for one another regardless of socioeconomic status or politics... I know........... wishful thinking. But, regardless, the damage has been done and it is my hope that the human spirit will endure and that we will come together rather than pull apart.  

12 Sep 2005 @ 01:13 by maxtobin : Open Source Technology
Time NOW, to 'see' the wood from the trees. (Open to source technology; the creator has established a wonderful compass for us all)

Most thinking persons do not hold the American peoples accountable for the leadership (controllers) and its antics. HOWEVER, there is a clear view possible and it is difficult to describe the taste of the soup when you have lived all of your life within it. Even a NUT fresh from the tree will taste soup like!!

So just maybe a way beyond the error created by the parallax phenomena (Same root as paradox???) is to consider well the points of views of others who have experienced living in a different flavour of soup.

Tis time for the compassion to open the way for a new day and a healing of the dis-ease of seperation (Hearts must break if they have been 'sealed in safekeeping' then is possible a heart connected response)

Our prayers for all those affected by the tragedy, that this may provoke a wave of healing within the present revealing (Did some one say the Emperor has no cloths?)  

23 Nov 2005 @ 10:55 by jonah @203.206.115.209 : trust thy god knows what we deserve
we get the leaders god thinks us to serve
if we were better citizin ,he be better christian ,he be as christ but of gods truth ,but who cares for christ ,see santa,satan..knows if you been good or ,,,bbbaddd..just like god right ,we have son of god born and we have snow,satan,where the saviours grace ,christ forgivness ,love of god ,thou shalt not kill and what life is in a seed , it is not for guilt but to reveal gods grace ,do you think life precious so doth god,he greated seed to grow ,to life
your need ,needed the seed to die but as jesus said more blessed is the lion become man ,than man to become lion ,talking food here..jesu also said our saviour will only come home to peace ,santa knows this well merry satanmass and a peacefull new ear  

Other entries in
20 Jan 2010 @ 01:02: E-BOOK PRESS RELEASE
2 Aug 2008 @ 08:13: Paradise Now
23 Feb 2004 @ 23:53: There is light in the Darkness.
19 Dec 2002 @ 18:56: Expanding World View!!


[< Back] [Maxims] [PermaLink]?  [TrackBack]?