climate change remains to be proven

In most blogs, some people most often explore their archetype and write it off as a passage through life, somehow, some people can still question my affinity to not delve into details about a life of someone within the confines of another. I can never see how it under any circumstances can ever measure to the catastrophe at hand and be debunked so easily. You can say I'm a little pissed. That's drunk in British speak. Ruminating on administration and failure that I'm going to explore and ramble on about how I got here. I guess you could call it a period of adjustment. The familiar has morphed into the strange. Or maybe it’s the strange that’s become too familiar. I can't be sure. I'd say it started with my morning coffee, when it stopped tasting rich and flavourful and began tasting like warm, milky water, but I'm not sure. In any case, writing about things feels different lately, and when I think about some of the things I've written previously, especially about time travel, I cringe.

There is little doubt that the destruction and loss of life in the southern United States is both extremely tragic and devastating. And while some are displaying truly heroic traits, others are taking advantage of the situation. Widespread lawlessness has been reported in New Orleans, including shootings (shootouts), theft, and carjackings.

Everything from office buildings to hospitals have been looted with reports of armed gangs having moved into numerous hotels. The question now is - do authorities have sufficient resources to combat the problem and focus on the continuing evacuation of the city?

Here are a variety of interesting articles about the situation...

• Why Thousands May Die
• Federal Government Wasn't Ready for Katrina, Disaster Experts Say
• No One Can Say they Didn't See it Coming
• Why New Orleans is in Deep Water
• Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen?
• Disasters Keep Coming but FEMA Phased Out

As many of you are already aware there is a terrible tragedy unfolding, one that has affected hundreds of thousands, if not millions, and will continue to do so. It has robbed people of their homes, of their livelihoods, of their security, of their hope.

You think I'm talking about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, don't you?

Strange how you might assume that.

After two and a half years, Iraq has seen nothing but death, destruction, and deprivation. Basic services in Iraq are still intermittent, sewage remains a drastic problem, and the unemployment rate is over 50%. And now, beyond the insurgency, which has grown, diversified, and shown amazing resilience and adaptation (in Al-Anbar province it has fought the United States to an absolute standstill), Iraq’s constitutional crisis may very well act as the last nail in its coffin. After two and a half years of foreign occupation and grief, the people of Iraq may now have to face civil war.

What is the difference between the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina and the devastation in Iraq? There is absolutely nothing that anyone can do about a hurricane.

It's disturbing how an agenda can alter how much value we place on life, not to mention race. How much death is excusable for the promotion of democracy or to fulfill the gas guzzling needs of others? The hammer must hit home to all whom think we're in 'ridiculous' times only when they mileage is effected. Is the life of a child worth a quarter off of a gallon of gas? How about twenty children? Were they white children I can assure you that alternative fuel technology funding would be through the roof.

For the most part, we view death through a surreal filter, through a soft lens, from the comfortable confines of living rooms, from the cushioned warmth of couches. We watch as one dimensional personalities detail death with perfect hair, their exquisite dental work giving death a smile. We have become so accustomed to a sanitized reality that it has become nearly impossible for us to fathom our own culpability.

President Bush cut his vacation short and returned to Washington to address the country, to reassure Americans that the government is doing all that it can in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. What Mr. Bush did not mention was that more than a third of the members of the Mississippi and Louisiana National Guard are either in Iraq or supporting the war effort. These are the men and women who are supposed to be the first available resource with regards to rescue and security operations in disasters such as this. According to National Guard officials in those states affected, the limits of available manpower are already being stretched. It should also come as no surprise that most of those remaining to face this disaster have already done tours in Iraq.

The US Army Corps of Engineers is now tasked with trying to repair the damaged and overrun New Orleans levee system, a task that will take some time to accomplish. But what might interest you is that, in 2003, federal funding for the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project was severely reduced. Walter Maestri, the emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, told a local news paper in June of 2004 that funds had been diverted…

"It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."

Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, has said that hundreds, if not thousands, have been killed in New Orleans alone. A public health emergency has also been declared for the entire Gulf Coast.

Widespread looting and random violence have also been reported. Local police and fire have also reportedly been caught looting.

During these times, while reaching or safety, we’re sublimity given a long look into the gaping, repressive, black hole inhabited by those little considered. It's times like these that the differences between 'us and them' are blatantly exposed. While those in Darfur not only have to live as refugees, but also in fear of constant attack, those who have fled Hurricane Katrina do not. Unlike those who were devastated by last year's tsunami, many of Katrina's victims will be able to rebuild their lives because of insurance, a generous outporuing of public and international assistance, federal aid that won't be halved or disappear after this event is no longer a headline. International aid will not be misappropriated, fail to show up, or arrive only to be a tenth of that promised. Those who survived Hurricane Katrina will not be so easily forgotten.

Please, take some time to visit amnesty.ca for a better, happier - shit hole.