Yeah, I'm done with Damion Shubert and Scott Jennings. These guys have no clue what the "real world" is all about. They have no concept of what makes human beings tic. Read below. I copy/pasted a conversation on Damion's blog regarding the New Orleans situation. Similar conversations have occured on Scott's blog, so I'm finished with him, as well.
Musings on New Orleans
Filed under: General, Politics — Damion @ 10:06 pm
Sorry for the lack of updates this week. I’d blame the heavy workload I’m experiencing right now but, truth be told, the events on the Gulf Coasts seem to make any musing I could possibly put forth about game design to seem small and trite. I’ve recieved letters from people in the past thanking me for games that have resulted in meeting their soulmates and from cancer patients who have thanked me for allowing them to feel like fully functional human beings inside of a virtual space. But in the wake of the courage shown by the emergency personnel fighting this disaster, I feel like the maker of insignificant baubles and trinkets. I’ve given money to the Red Cross, and I’d urge anyone else so inclined to give what they can.
Not that everything has gone swimmingly. I have little doubt that the death toll of this event will surpass 9/11. The property damage already has. And yet, I’m continually surrounded by responses to the events I find appalling. Scott’s update points out the most egregious examples by our media, our government and our president. The Blame Game has started from the left while New Orleans still burns. Of course, that wouldn’t have been possible if the president had shown an iota of leadership with some level of gravitas instead of attending a birthday party, a sham ‘town hall’ for a failed political initiative and, most infamously, a guitar lesson.
And, of course, the pure hatemongers stepped forward to blame America’s sins for God’s Wrath. And here I thought the south were all Red States. Apparently, God destroyed New Orleans because the Southern Decadence festival was to be held this week, specifically today. Apparently, God was a couple days early, which sounds like a personal problem. Perhaps next time, God should think about baseball, or recite the alphabet backwards.
Oh, and can we please actually KNOW SOMETHING before we all put on the tinfoil hats?
It never fails to surprise me how surprised everybody is. “Nobody could have predicted this” is a common refrain on the news. New Orleans is, in fact, surrounded on three sides by a gulf, a lake, and the mightiest river in the US. The city is a bowl-shaped depression that rests below sea level. The levies were in desperate disrepair, but Louisiana’s economy was too depressed to fix it, and attempts to get the funding from the federal government failed. The city was long flirting with disaster. This, of course, makes the events only that much more horrific, because if government had functioned, it could have been minimized.
As a final thought: before every hurricane, major events or other whisp of trouble over the last 10 years, the press has gone out of their way to scare the hell out of us. This time was no exception- CNN trotted out an expert on the New Orleans topography to explain why this one could be the big one. This was on Saturday. I shook it off - the media has tried so hard to scare me with threads of shark attacks and millenium bomb threats that I just don’t even listen to it any more.
It turns out that guy was almost exactly right, every step throughout his description of what could go wrong. Sometimes, it turns out, the sky actually is falling.
• • •
17 Comments »
I actually spent the 6 days *flew out Saturday afternoon at 3pm* before the hurricane, just (literally) north of the tracks installing a machine. I was sleeping at 124 Royal Street at the Holiday Inn (1 block north of Bourbon St.)
I felt just a hair guilty because I spent the entire week wishing God would wash that rotting crap-hole into the sea. The poverty of the city is appalling. I was there with a trainee and tried driving about 10 blocks in each direction searching for something we knew was decent to eat (Outback, or Applebee’s, etc.) We finally found an extremely expensive steak house (Dickie Brennan’s) between Royal and Bourbon.
The hotel was so bad we couldn’t count on being able to eat breakfast there, so we just picked up pre-packaged junk and bottled water at a gas station in the mornings. We tried 4 different gas stations. Food stamps are apparently a huge part of the economy, as the last place we went to had a sign stating they weren’t able to take food stamps for a while (guess a machine was down or something). The clerk was complaining about how much money they were losing over the last few days because of the problem…
Everything was crumbling, and not just in the French-quarter. Most people you saw had dirty clothes and bums slept everywhere. Watching people pass at dinner each night, my trainee commented that the area was so bad you didn’t even see “different walks of life” pass by the window. Just the indogent and the freaks (piercings, tattoos, snakes around the 40 yr-old pot-bellied hippie). The highlight of the week was the old woman we watched for 3 nights stopping and talking to anyone who would talk to her on the street out in front of our hotel. She looked normal enough, but on the fourth night when we stopped to see what she was all about, she told us “The cops are payin’ me $100 to hit . He beats up women and children, so they say they’ll pay me $100 to put a hit on him.”
Add to this that the machine distributer was on-site, as well (we were just there to retrofit the control system). This guy was as big a racist jackass as you’d ever met. I didn’t think people actually said things like, “That guy’s a f’ing n’er in a white man’s position!” Man, the needle on the racist-O-meter was screaming off the chart.
It is rewarding that the president of my company is going to talk to the president of that guy’s company about our continued relationship and his continued employment. My people were floored by the situation.
Yeah, nutty week, but not as bad as it was for all the people that had to go through the storm. I hope that the devastation is so complete they move the city or something. I also hope that enough people give enough money to take care of the survivors. In an event such as this, it doesn’t even bother me if the federal government uses my tax dollars to help those people, though, frankly….my tax dollars have been carrying many of those people for most of their lives already.
So that pretty much lines things out, and puts it straight into the correct political light. Anything else is pure agrandizing garbage.
Comment by Jaycen Rigger — 8/31/2005 @ 11:33 pm
At the risk of sounding harsh…
Darwin (Australia) was destroyed by a cyclone in 1974. There wasn’t much storm surge damage because Darwin is 10m above sea level (for the most part), but 80% of the homes were destroyed by the wind. After that, Darwin required all houses to be engineered for category 4 cyclones. That has since been weakened to category 3. (I think 3 is too low. My house is rated for a 4, and I have a store room that will withstand higher. All the framing is welded steel, with thousands of cyclone-coded screws to hold on the roof and walls.)
1) Houses in the gulf look like they’re coded for a category 2… which is way too weak. Since hurricanes have been hitting the gulf and florida forever, you’d think that sometime 50 years ago they would have required stricter building codes! No way… building stronger buildings is more expensive.
2) If you’re going to build your house in storm surge (or flood prone) area, build it on stilts and make sure those stilts can survive a storm surge.
3) If TV spends 2 days broadcasting “this is the worst storm in 50 years” and “new orleans might flood” and “mandatory evacuation” and “if you can’t evacuate we’ll provide safe shelter for you”, and you still stay in your non-coded flood-prone house, you’re a fool.
Comment by Mike Rozak — 9/1/2005 @ 12:13 am
If TV spends 2 days broadcasting “this is the worst storm in 50 years” and “new orleans might flood” and “mandatory evacuation” and “if you can’t evacuate we’ll provide safe shelter for you”, and you still stay in your non-coded flood-prone house, you’re a fool.
To be fair, most of the people who stayed behind had no means to leave. New Orleans has (had) a huge population that lived below the poverty line. Many don’t have cars. It also is almost completely isolated - surrounded by swamps and rivers on all sides means no real suburbs to flee to. I suspect few bus tickets were available.
A government study in 2001 said that a flood in New Orleans was the number three most threatened US location for a disaster (#1 was terrorist attack in NY, #2 was major earthquake in SF) - natural terrain heightens the problem, lack of good escape roots makes it worse. The fact that a lot of the housing down there was, shall we say, substandard, to be appropriately priced for the shockingly low standard of living in NO, made things much worse.
Comment by Damion — 9/1/2005 @ 12:38 am
I was there with a trainee and tried driving about 10 blocks in each direction searching for something we knew was decent to eat (Outback, or Applebee’s, etc.) We finally found an extremely expensive steak house (Dickie Brennan’s) between Royal and Bourbon.
To be fair, you were looking for a chain restaraunt in the middle of the largest tourist trap in the Southeast. New Orleans actually has (well, had, I guess) the best restaraunts in the country, but you were looking for them in the middle of the red light district and wondering why you were only finding cheap strip clubs.
Comment by Scott — 9/1/2005 @ 6:25 am
Damion said:
Sometimes, it turns out, the sky actually is falling.
Why do I get the itchy feeling that the neighborhood Jehovah’s Witnesses are going to be darkening my doorstep again this weekend? The ones ’round here seem to have a particular passion for natural disasters.
Mike said:
Darwin (Australia) was destroyed by a cyclone in 1974.
Do you live in Darwin, Mike? I’m down in Sydney…
Mike also said:
3) If TV spends 2 days broadcasting “this is the worst storm in 50 years” and “new orleans might flood” and “mandatory evacuation” and “if you can’t evacuate we’ll provide safe shelter for you”, and you still stay in your non-coded flood-prone house, you’re a fool.
As someone who has never owned her own TV in her entire life, I find this much less shocking than the fact that countless able bodied adults ended up in dire straits by the mere virtue of the fact that they couldn’t swim. I hope this encourages more people to learn swimming and lifesaving. I’m a terrible swimmer, but I’ll be damned if I ever get stuck in my attic in a flood.
Comment by Tess — 9/1/2005 @ 6:30 am
Scott said:
New Orleans actually has (well, had, I guess) the best restaraunts in the country, but you were looking for them in the middle of the red light district and wondering why you were only finding cheap strip clubs.
Scott speaks the truth. I have eaten wonderful food in New Orleans, and the prices were quite reasonable, as well. Also, were there still a New Orleans for you to go to, I would recommend staying at a Bed and Breakfast, rather than the Holiday Inn. There were some marvelous little B&Bs, which were priced insanely well, and had wonderful staff, and wonderful breakfast, and I’m gonna start crying in a moment…
Comment by Tess — 9/1/2005 @ 6:35 am
Yeah, and uhh…Brennan’s (the extremely expensive steak house you mentioned) is one of the finest steak houses in the US. The Brennan family restaurants are world-famous.
Looking for an Outback in downtown New Orleans…heh, too funny
Comment by Ray — 9/1/2005 @ 7:06 am
Ugh, sorry to pile on you, I didn’t read the rest of the replies before I posted.
Comment by Ray — 9/1/2005 @ 8:27 am
I know, I know, but I’m not a huge fan of that cuisine. However, I have developed a new appreciation for Jumbalaya. The smoked sausage (when cooked properly) is insanely delicious.
I’m not at all surprised by the news of the police looting SUVs, weapons and merchandise. I think it’s common knowledge just how rampantly corrupt the authorities in that area are.
I am, however, frustrated by the reports of certain morons in the area shooting at the military helicopters performing rescues. It’s disheartening to know that people (regardless of their socio-economic background) who want rescue are being denied the opportunity because of a few twits. Hopefully, they’ll track down the individuals responsible and those people will resist attempts at capture.
Comment by Jaycen Rigger — 9/1/2005 @ 11:53 am
I don’t think all of the police actions can be seen as corrupt. Reports have several of the police precinct houses as being underwater. Standard police cruisers aren’t well suited from crossing rubble and low standing water. Standard issue police weapons are no match for looters with machine guns. There’s undoubtedly some corruption, but an ill-equipped peace officer can either abdicate his authority or attempt to solve the problem as best he can. In this situation, I’d much rather he do the latter.
Of course, I also can see the other side of the looter’s mentality. They very much feel that society left them there to die. So fuck society. Does that excuse their current actions? No, but it might better explain them.
Shooting at rescue helicopters and overturning ambulances, though - that’s just ten kinds of inexplicable and wrong.
Comment by Damion — 9/1/2005 @ 12:59 pm
I see your point on the police situation. Considering how poor those areas are, I’m sure the cops are under-equipped. However, I’m hearing reports of cops snagging SUVs from dealerships, running looters off from Wal-Marts and then loading up their SUVs with goodies. THAT isn’t the result of being under-equipped.
I’m absolutely not interested in the thinking behind those lacking any moral compass. I grew up in a rotten situation at a level of poverty comparable to those people in New Orleans. Society has been doing everything it can to get those people out and help them.
Let me better explain that mentality to you; “I am the center of my universe. My feelings are the only thing that matter to me. I only really relate to other human beings in terms of how they make me feel about myself, or how I can use them to get something for myself. Other people exist to give me things.”
Undoubtedly, there are a variety of reasons people come to that attitude, but you can’t say it’s purely environment and how you’re raised. I grew up in that environment (until I was 11) and I was taught that attitude (until I was 15), and I was still smart enough to put 2 and 2 together. I have no empathy nor do I have sympathy for that life view, though I’m always willing to try to help someone think beyond it.
Comment by Jaycen Rigger — 9/1/2005 @ 4:01 pm
Damion wrote: “To be fair, most of the people who stayed behind had no means to leave. New Orleans has (had) a huge population that lived below the poverty line. Many don’t have cars. It also is almost completely isolated - surrounded by swamps and rivers on all sides means no real suburbs to flee to. I suspect few bus tickets were available.”
From some of the TV press conferences I’ve seen, I think (but am not 100% sure) that free transportation was offered.
Most of the people interviewed said they “didn’t think it would be that bad” and didn’t believe all the media hype. This is interesting; it shows that the media overhypes so much stuff that when something important is communicated people don’t believe it.
Tess wrote: “Do you live in Darwin, Mike? I’m down in Sydney…”
Someone else down under, and in a game company too (one of the 3 or 4 in australia)… Technically, I live an hour’s drive outside Darwin. After hearing my neighbor’s story of Cyclone Tracy, I wouldn’t be in Darwin if a 4 or 5 were going to hit, even in a cyclone-coded house. I’m 50 miles south, and should be a bit safer.
Comment by Mike Rozak — 9/1/2005 @ 5:37 pm
Oh of course, the Almighty must be angry at the sinners. I remember that from the Asian Tsunami too … all those heathens “deserved” it.
Such hatemongers have no right to call themselves Christians.
Comment by Josh — 9/2/2005 @ 10:16 am
Jaycen… RE:
“I’m absolutely not interested in the thinking behind those lacking any moral compass. I grew up in a rotten situation at a level of poverty comparable to those people in New Orleans. Society has been doing everything it can to get those people out and help them.”
I don’t know what you studied in school, nor what you do for a living. But when it comes to sociology, you are speaking madness. We seek understanding so that we can build models. We use those models to control outcomes. THAT is why their thinking is relevant. Furthermore, though you do seem mainly to focus on the “twits”, it’s hardly accurate to call anyone “lacking [in] any moral compass”. People are fully capable of doing things that they know are wrong. Why are they doing wrong things? They have their reasons, sound or not. If we understood when and why a human being (poor, rich, no matter) will choose to betray their morals, we can learn how NOT to push people until they break. Everyone breaks, sooner or later.
They shut down the city, taxis and all, BEFORE the evacuation. If you didn’t have a car they MIGHT take you to a hotel. This decision was made because no one gave a flying rat’s ass about the poor, or their need to leave. Friends of mine were trapped before they knew it. Society has chosen how to deal with emergencies, and that includes leaving the poor to rot. We (collectively) are hardly trying to “do everything we can to get those people out and help them”. Read the article, follow the links, if you haven’t already. Scott’s post is especially informative, if you need background.
I am disgusted by the incompetency of my country.
Comment by Justin Willcox — 9/2/2005 @ 6:44 pm
“People are fully capable of doing things that they know are wrong. Why are they doing wrong things? They have their reasons, sound or not. If we understood when and why a human being (poor, rich, no matter) will choose to betray their morals, we can learn how NOT to push people until they break. Everyone breaks, sooner or later.”
Thanks for letting us know where you come from right up front. It’s not theif fault, they were “pushed” into it. I see. Thanks, that’s very helpful.
“This decision was made because no one gave a flying rat’s ass about the poor, or their need to leave.”
Yes, I’m quite certain you’re correct. Know one cares about the poor, that’s why the liberal cause gains so much traction in America. It’s also why there are so many charity organizations. You’ve nailed it!
“Society has chosen how to deal with emergencies, and that includes leaving the poor to rot.”
SOCIETY chooses? I see. Here I thought the individual states and cities created their own emergency plans, much like San Francisco did just before the last major quake hit.
Obviously there is a conspiracy of hate/ignorance/un-caring going on in the U.S., and I think it’s time we all agree George Bush was at the center of it. Let’s impeach him.
“I am disgusted by the incompetency of my country.”
Huh, yeah… Sometimes I am, too. *shakes head sadly*
Comment by Jaycen Rigger — 9/5/2005 @ 12:58 am
Yes, I’m quite certain you’re correct. Know one cares about the poor, that’s why the liberal cause gains so much traction in America. It’s also why there are so many charity organizations. You’ve nailed it!
It’s beyond dispute that nobody, either in the Democrat-controlled local government, the mix-controlled state government or the Republican-controlled federal government stopped to think that maybe, just maybe, the famously impoverished underclass of New Orleans might not have a way out, or might not have had any money to buy a hotel room if they did get out.
Thanks for letting us know where you come from right up front. It’s not theif fault, they were “pushed” into it. I see. Thanks, that’s very helpful.
Making these sorts of moral judgments when you’re not ‘in the shit’ is very easy.
SOCIETY chooses? I see. Here I thought the individual states and cities created their own emergency plans, much like San Francisco did just before the last major quake hit.
The federal government is responsible for emergency plans when the level of catastrophe raises above a certain level. In the case of NOLA, the state government of LA requested a National Disaster be declared before the hurricane made landfall, and the federal government agreed. Once that happens, FEMA is supposed to take a much more active role.
Comment by Damion — 9/5/2005 @ 1:19 am
The problem with up-to-the-second news coverage is that often the newsmen (who we all know have no political agenda) get news to us before having all the facts in hand, not that it matters to them.
“It’s beyond dispute that nobody, either in the Democrat-controlled local government, the mix-controlled state government or the Republican-controlled federal government stopped to think that maybe, just maybe, the famously impoverished underclass of New Orleans might not have a way out, or might not have had any money to buy a hotel room if they did get out.”
We now know, Damion, that indeed many people knew the “impoverished” of New Orleans would have “no way out”. The emergency action plan, paid for by the Mayor’s office of the Parish of New Orleans, and created by a private company, said exactly that. The report said the city would have to begin evacutation 72 hours prior to the arrival of a category 3 storm in order to get all the poor people out. In fact, that’s explicity what the long evac shedule was for, because New Orleans has SO MANY people living off of welfare.
In fact, the school busses and the city transit busses were supposed to be used for exactly that purpose (72 hours before the storm was supposed to make land fall).
The fact that you are unwilling to “make moral judgements” about people who shoot at rescuers and rape people during a crisis shows that you have zero (0) common sense. You’re better off talking about whatever you would normally talk about when not talking about politics, humanity, or anything else requiring a smidgeon of brain power.
“Making these sorts of moral judgments when you’re not ‘in the shit’ is very easy.”
I don’t have to be “in the shit” to know what those people did was wrong. You are excusing the most barbaric and animalistic behavior because I was not directly participating in it? Tell you what, come on over to my house. Let me rape you and shoot at you for a while, and let’s see if I still have the same mindset when I’m finished with you.
If I don’t, I’ll post an appology. Then I’ll call up the victims and explain to them that they were over-reacting and if they were only on the other side of the shooting and raping, they’d have a better understanding of the situation.
“The federal government is responsible for emergency plans when the level of catastrophe raises above a certain level. In the case of NOLA, the state government of LA requested a National Disaster be declared before the hurricane made landfall, and the federal government agreed. Once that happens, FEMA is supposed to take a much more active role.”
The President proclaimed New Orleans a federal disaster area 48 hours prior to the storm. After that, it was the Governor’s responsibility to ask the federal government to step in. She did not do so for 24 hours AFTER the storm hit. The President can not unilaterally walk in and take over until the Governor asks for help. It protects the state’s rights and the rights of the people in that state. The federal government is not a grandfatherly old man with everyone’s best intentions in mind.
You have less of an idea of how the process works than I do, so you should stay quiet on this topic. FEMA took an active role when it was told to. FEMA did what they were supposed to do in this situation. They could not go into New Orleans because it was in total chaos, AND because the disaster was still occuring. It is their job to stay out of the disaster and to take care of those who get out of the disaster area. Then, after the disaster is over, they go in and clean up. They do not walk into a currently deteriorating situation to create even more chaos and loss of human life. Had FEMA and other relief agencies gone in before the situation was FINALLY brought under control by the feds, things would be MUCH worse.
Comment by Jaycen Rigger — 9/7/2005 @ 7:33 pm
