In the face of a Natural Disaster

``mamoon,

almost every year hundreds/thousands of people die in floods in bihar/bangladesh. in china too until teh three gorges dam is erected hundreds will die in flood.

Should we blame capitalism for these too?`` ``````

In the case of Hurricane Katrina, we are discussing the aftermath. Dams are built in China as well as USA, so Dams have nothing to do with capitalism.
USA is the most prominant story of capitalism. It is one of the richest and most developed state. Why did the federal govt showed insensitivty towards the New Orleanders. The mayor himself accepted that he was counting on the help from the federal govt for evacuations. Why the government was so slow to react. Had the federal govt voluntarily failed to react early? I think no. Basically, the system failed.
Any secondly by blaming capitalism, what I intended to do was to bring in front the inequalities which exist in USA today. The people who left and didnt decide to follow the evacation instructions, were generally poor and marginalised groups. Huricane Katrina has simply brought the issue of inequalities in the fore.
The outside world as well as americans themselves were shocked to see all this. So the all which was not well in the capitalist society of USA has been exposed.
Similarly, India shining slogan is also kinda capitalist slogan which ignores the inequality and poverty aspect which is quite serious in India.
So i think understanding the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, one may also look at the political economy of USA, and whereby one may look at capitalism also with critical eye.

Re: # 66

``Now you’re stooping to their level by exchanging insults. ``

aslam,
Here are the posts #32, #33 I was expecting replies form Mamoon

``mamoon,

almost every year hundreds/thousands of people die in floods in bihar/bangladesh. in china too until teh three gorges dam is erected hundreds will die in flood.

Should we blame capitalism for these too?``

Rather than supporting his argument or discussing the topic he is more interested in demonstrating vulgarity.

mamoon:

heres the meaning:
dude ( P ) Pronunciation Key (dd, dyd)
Slang.
A man; a fellow.
dudes Persons of either sex.

dictionary.com would be a good place for you to start, before sending another imbecile article to chowk.

mamoon
I don’t even know who you are I defended your writing, when others were critical of the quality of your writing. Simply because I felt they should debate the issues you raised rather than your writing skills. Now you’re stooping to their level by exchanging insults.
I think it’s about time I left this chowk which has become nothing but a contest of mutual insults.

Re: # 64

Chowk staff:

kindly note the replies of this ``writer``, instead of replying to the posts he is just spouting flith around. Is this what you intend this post to degenerate into?

Mamoon, the baboon:

You go ahead with your ``sarcasms`` and ``jokes`` with intermitent flith, theres nothing else you are good for.

#54 by Netizen on September 11, 2005 11:34am PT
Re: # 48

mamoon dude:

could you stop your ``funny`` and ``hilarious`` sarcasm/jokes and reply to the posts?


And Netizen dude (whtever the fk that means), can u refrain from putting ur az. in every thing which is growin out of the ground plz!

Death toll is surpisingly low in NO. Secondly only major chaotic situations that turned ugly was Convention center/ome. It looks like 90% of the New Orleans did escape in time. Majority of the rest were lead to be parked in the dome and local police and FEMA crew could not control the situation in the dome in time. How hard it is to provide clothing and food to 10,000 people trapped like such and have enough police on ground to ensure order? not much...but they failed.

Secondly now that you look back at the coverage...media is ch**tiya as usually....the dome situtation was tailor made for the media.....it is easy to cover the story in the dome and exaggerate all the drama and mayhem by sitting on a dry and safe place and point your 10000 camera on 10000 helpless people than go and visit rest of the city and gather the story. this is called low cost production...media loves it.

As usually American public panicked...and third worlders got a good validation for their own miserable lives..look they are as bad as us.

I have noticed that countries like India and Pakistan alway downplay the extent of damage....they start at 10 dead and ulitmately raise to the 10,000 number at a point when no one notices...America does the opposite...panic, declare apoclype, million dead and then assess the situation and bring estimates down.

Only a few hundred dead in a disaster this scale is a good news. bad news is FEMA is totally unfunctional and a wastage. What will they do if God forbade our worst terrorism fears come true someday?

hamidm #56: ``romair mian,
........ thanks for your advice on who to vote for ......... you see, i couldn`t vote for mcain because he did not win the party`s nomination - that`s how it works ............ ``

Hamid mian,

Don`t mention it. I aim to please.

That isn`t how it works though. Parties are fluid entities, especially in the USA, where pressure groups have so much power. In the USA, they are not ideological constants. Whomever can, ``take over`` the party, can then dictate its agenda. Let me give you some examples:

- Currently the Republicans are, at their core, dominated by the relgious right (christian evangelists + christian non-evangelists). At its think tank level, they are dominated by the neo-cons. At their fiscal policy level, they dominated by big government economics.

None of these, at their core are traditional Republican ideas. Republicans were pro-religion, in a manner that I am pro-religion. Much like me, they certainly weren`t evangelically pro-religion though. For example, the Republican policy has never been to support Israel, because Jesus will not return, until the Israel/Palestine is under Jewish control. Now that is its stance, since the evangelicals believe it to be sound foreign policy.

You maybe surprised to know that the neo-cons were originally democrats, and very liberal democrats. They weren`t too successful there, so they migrated to the Republican side, and literally took over public policy, through Dick Cheney`s influence. They are not liked by traditional Republicans.

Traditional Republicans hate big govt. Yet Bush has spent more on govt. than Clinton did! He has funded every big govt. initiative...........

In such a situation, one cannot simply vote for the party. It would be like me voting for Tehrik-e-Insaaf, even if it turned into the MMA. I would never do that. I would vote for some third entity, while supporting the alternate candidate, within PTI. Much like you should be anti-Bush, and support McCain, while voting outside the party. Or not voting at all.......Or yes, even vote of Kerry. Do keep in mind that centrist Republicans and Democrats, do vote across party lines, when they see their own party being pulled to an extreme...........

In fact, going by your comments on this site, and your stance on religion, one would think you would vote for a monkey, dressed in a hawian shirt, who used sign language to campaign, rather than vote for the religious right-centric Bush. One cannot be so anti-religion and then simultaneously support such pro-religion politicians..........

Re: # 60

``We know ( your more blacker!!) Indian ass has better chance of make it in us than in the black hole of kolkatta. ``

bad example,
you just need to go to Mumabi/Delhi to do better than in the black hole of kolkata.

#59 by arjun_m on September 11, 2005 6:03pm PT

he was criticizing his standard of English moron.

We know ( your more blacker!!) Indian ass has better chance of make it in us than in the black hole of kolkatta.

#58 by aslam644 on September 11, 2005 3:51pm PT


What’s this Gibberish NEWSWEEK on about, class-based racism.


Maybe you can bid for a clue here..

These people are poor inspite of capitalism, not because of it as the author suggests...

your(yes..black!!) pakistani ass has the same chance of making it big in the US as whitey..

#1 fuzair

“Do you mean ``Bias against?`` Or ``Negative prejudice towards`` instead of ``Racism?`` If I don`t like women, am I racist or sexist? If I don`t like rich people, am I racist? Gibberish.”

Fuzair

What’s this Gibberish NEWSWEEK on about, class-based racism.


families are significantly less poor than female-headed households. While hunger, crime, drugs and overt racial discrimination have eased, other problems connected with poverty may have worsened: wage stagnation, social isolation and a more subtle form of class-based racism. Each can be found in New Orleans, pre-Katrina.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9287641/site/newsweek/

so now they are rescuing dogs, cats and hamsters in new orleans ............. the penguins at the audobon aquarium have a new plastic swimming pool !

............. what happened to mayor nagin`s 10,000 dead people ?........... i guess the man lost his head (again) .........

............ the governor should be impeached for dereliciton of duty (i don`t know if stupidity is a crime )...........

Re: # 53

romair mian,

........ thanks for your advice on who to vote for ......... you see, i couldn`t vote for mcain because he did not win the party`s nomination - that`s how it works ............

Meet the press transcript

MR. RUSSERT: How would you grade the president`s performance thus far, A through F?

MAYOR NAGIN: How would I rate it?

MR. RUSSERT: Yes.

MAYOR NAGIN: Oh, I don`t want to get into that, Tim. I mean, I will tell you this: I think the president, for some reason, probably did not understand the full magnitude of this catastrophe on the front end. I think he was probably getting advice from some of his key advisers or some low-level folk that had been on the ground that this was serious, but not as serious as it ended up being. My interactions with the president is, anytime I talked with him and gave him what the real deal was and gave him the truth, he acted and he made things happen.

MR. RUSSERT: How about the governor?

MAYOR NAGIN: Well, you know, I don`t know about that one. We fought and held that city together with only 200 state National Guard. That was it. We did not get a lot of other support for three or four days of pure hell on Earth. There were resources that were sitting in other parishes. I just don`t know. I mean, and then when a group did come down to review what was happening in New Orleans, it was a big media event. It was followed with cameras and with AP reporters, a little helicopter flyover, and then they had a press conference and it was gone. So I don`t have much else to say about that.

MR. RUSSERT: It sounds like you don`t think the governor has done a very good job.

MAYOR NAGIN: I think there was an incredible breakdown of coordination, of resources, and decisions were made to move resources and to not move resources that just don`t make sense to me. And then there was this incredible dance between the governor and the president about who had final authority, whether this was going to be federalized, who was going to be in charge at the end of the day, and I just don`t appreciate that kind of stuff when people were dying in my city.

Re: # 48

mamoon dude:

could you stop your ``funny`` and ``hilarious`` sarcasm/jokes and reply to the posts?

hamidm #47: ``........ i agree with you - this adminstration has turned out to be quite incompetent, but it is still better than the democrats (anouzobillah !) ...... ``

Hamidm mian,

There aren`t too many things I am good at. I can`t run fast. I can`t sing. I can`t play the violin. Nor can I tap dance. But, I think I am pretty good at meeting people and figuring them out. And even better at reading their comments, over time, and figuring them out.....

Base on whatever I have read from you, there is no way, at the core, you could support someone like Bush. You seem like a centrist Republican. Someone who is socialy Democrat, personally Republican, and fiscally traditionally Republican, as well. Someone who would support a Colin Powell or his type of person.

I gave up on both Democrats and Republicans a long time ago, due to their foreign policy double standards. And would probably vote for some third person, even if he never got elected. But between Republicans and Democrats, I would probably be a centrist Republican. I am against gay marriage, very against abortion, pro affirmitive action based on poverty- but not on race, and fiscally conservative (though would prefer free college education of any type for everyone in a society - kind of like Canada)..

You should (have) stick to your convictions. Regardless of the odds. Regardless of whether you are going to win or lose. I have been against Bush, against the Iraq War, against so many things, since day one. When everyone and their gradmother (and you) were so gung-ho on all these things. I stuck with my convictions. And now 2/3rd of the USA agrees with me on all this.................

A person who is wrong, but bases his/her stand on convictions and principle, can be disliked, but respected. A person who is wrong, and keeps changing principles and convictions, is neither liked, nor can he/she be respected............

You should have stuck with McCain and Powell etc. (though I don`t like McCain too much, but he is a lot better than Bush). Both are about as anti-Bush as any Republican can be. Both have been completely kicked out of the Republican mainstream. The religious right hates their guts. But both are genuine solid war-heroes. Not chickenhawks like Bush/Cheney. That trait, alone, tells me a lot about a person..........

There is no way a McCain/Powell or Powell/McCain ticket will lose in an election. Even though Bush has done far more damage to the Republican party, then even Clinton was able to do............