I haven't said anything about Hurricane Katrina. This is not because I didn't notice, but more because everything has pretty much been said already.

I've talked before about civilisation blooming in silly places, and New Orleans was one of those I mentioned because this 287 year old city has been living in a damp dent for its entire life. It must have been pretty obvious early on that the area was not a great place to build unless you wanted a French Venice. Venice has been around since 568.

So, why do there appear to be no real contingincy plans, at city, state and federal levels for provisioning and evacuating locations that face this potential devastation in any year? Only one side of the freeway open leaving town? School buses left standing in their yard while people drowned for want of transport out? Criminals just let out onto the street? And what, they can find Saddam Hussein but they can't find Mardi Gras town?

But even scarier is the social and military response to this storm. People aren't saving, helping and supporting, they are looting, raping and murdering. I've read all sorts of theories about this in the past week and I am not going to link to all of them - you can find them in 2 seconds on Google, but suffice to say its roots live in various elements, from overcrowding and poverty, to race and poverty. And it looks like, in New Orleans, they are pretty much the same thing.

Makes me very sad that so many people were never given much of a chance.

I don't think New Zealand is a long way behind, either. Look at the schoolyard gangs and drugging and violence and weapons and tell me we don't have an up and coming social element just as deviant as this lot just around the corner.

PS - New Orleans Mardi Gras was one of the few places I can say I wanted to go.

Living can really give you the shits sometimes.

Reading: More Gabaldon (it's light enough to follow)
Listening to: NOT DYLAN, noooooooooooooo