September 09, 2005

• Falls Creek camp put on standby status.
• Colorado camp reportedly reminiscent of concentration camp.
• Thanks for this post and for all the links that follow.
• Lowry in Colorado has a toxic waste site on it. http://www.environmentcolorado.org/envco.asp?id2=10669 Since the Base closed, it has been redeveloped into a suburbia. There are liquor stores and bars within walking distance. I would'nt compare Lowry to a concentration camp at all. Look it's just a temporary orange plastic three foot high corral barrier. As anti-government/anti-military as I am, I see no problem at all,,here. Now the people who got shipped to Utah,, I'd be pretty pissed if that's where I ended up.
• btw, this is where the protesters, who became known as the Denver Three , were escorted out of Bushs Town Hall meeting for having a "No Blood for Oil" bumper sticker.
• If there's one thing that George II's administration's incompetence over the past few weeks has shown, it's that they aren't capable of planning a piss-up in a brewery, let alone of carrying out most of the conspiracy theories levelled against them. Choosing cronies rather than qualified people to run bodies will do that, I suppose. Thus, I find it hard to believe that there is a plan to create detainment camps. However, I find it quite credible that the local authorities are scared of the large numbers of dispossessed people, especially in view of some of the reports of chaos from the Superdome and Conference Center, and liberty is probably not their foremost concern. The blocking of the attempt to set up a camp radio station at the Houston Astrodome - and the reasons given - seems to bear this out. One conspiracy theory that I find slightly believable is the suggestion that some of the numerous fires in New Orleans are being set to dispose of bodies in order to bring the overall dead count down. That kind of panicked attempt to cover over incompetence does seem somehow consistent.
• America's sick attitude towards the disenfranchised I think this is an unfair phrase. I believe you'll find that America is doing everything it can to help, from giving money to offering their homes and colleges as places for the disenfranchised to live and learn. I also believe you'll find that FEMA &c is also doing everything they can...to anger as many people as possible. Locally, the school boards here have said, "If someone comes in claiming to be from the affected area, let them in. Don't ask for ID, just let them come in and learn. Take them at face value."
• Would be more accurate to say the administration's sick attitude towards the disenfranchised?
• Fair enough, Sandspider, I'll go with kamus' amendment.
• I don't know about any of what was in that post (none of the pictures would load and it was so long I just skimmed it), However, I can say that at IU, I've had two students put into my class that were from New Orleans and that our deptartment's office is in a complex of buildings that was schedualed to be demolished next year (ours was the only one still in use) and they opened one of them back up for 100+ non-student evacuees that are, according to the school paper, being given free dining points to use in any of the dining halls. So not ALL of those from New ORleans are being treated that way. Doesn't is seem impractical to think that all of them are being treated this way, anyway? WOUldn't it take an enormous ammount of manpower to have "gaurds" at all the places they are sending people?
• I wasn't asking about a massive, nationwide scheme to detain all hurricane refugees; I was enquiring about this specific instance of a certain camp in Oklahoma.
• Also, does anyone else think the article by Diane Carman (posted by HawthorneWingo) is a little bizarre? I mean, when an article's first sentence is "If I didn't know better, I'd have thought I was peering through the fence at a concentration camp", I expect something a little more bleak than "Volunteers came to offer counseling and help finding housing, furniture and clothing for evacuees." It's like the author wrote the first sentence and then came back to the article three days later having forgotten the angle she wanted to put on it.
• I find it quite credible that the local authorities are scared of the large numbers of dispossessed people...in view of...chaos from the Superdome and Conference Center What I find amazing about this [authorities] attitude is the reasoning. Incredibly desperate people under panicked conditions are herded into poorly planned, woefully inadequate facilities, corralled there, and given every indication that they are being imprisoned to rot, and then authorities act surprised by the breakdown of societal bonds. Desperately grateful refugees are bused to warm, well-staffed facilities with food and new clothing and authorities expect them to riot over every minor foible and generally react like sub-human barbarians. And why do I keep thinking that this attitude on the part of law enforcement is somehow the result of current trends in government? As far as NOLA stories, this is the most interesting first-hand account I've seen on how thing's were handled.
• I found this comment from Nal's link interesting: When individuals had to fight to find food or water, it meant looking out for yourself. You had to do whatever it took to find water for your kids or food for your parents. But when these basic needs were met, people began to look out for each other, working together and constructing a community. Also, there seems to be an automatic prejudgement by authorities: Big crowd of black people = dangerous.