FW: How Cubans deal

Wed Sep 7 19:31:46 UTC 2005

This is an interesting forward I received from a colleague which provides a different perspective on how to deal with disaster.

Elizabeth Brandt
Professor, 250 Anth
Arizona State University
Box 872402
School of Human Evolution and Social Change
Tempe, AZ 85287-2402
(480) 965-5992 My Office
(480) 965-6215 Main  Office
(480) 965-7671 Fax
Reality is only an illusion, albeit a very persistant one---Einstein

> ----------
> From: 	Henry Walt
> Sent: 	Wednesday, September 7, 2005 7:19 AM
> To: 	Chris Fox; Chris Musello; Chris Wilson; Maisha Baton; Vic Clark; Victor Olavarria; Tom Jamison; John Brayer; Elizabeth Brandt; Krystine Graziano; Bill Hudspeth; Michael Marshall
> Subject: 	FW: How Cubans deal
> 
> 
> 
> Subject: How Cubans deal
> 
> 
> > The Two Americas
> > by Marjorie Cohn
> > 
> > Truthout.org
> > Saturday 03 2005
> > 
> > http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090305Y.shtml
> > 
> > Last September, a Category 5 hurricane battered the
> > small island of Cuba
> > with 160-mile-per-hour winds. More than 1.5 million
> > Cubans were evacuated to
> > higher ground ahead of the storm. Although the
> > hurricane destroyed 20,000
> > houses, no one died.
> > 
> > What is Cuban President Fidel Castro's secret?
> > According to Dr. Nelson
> > Valdés, a sociology professor at the University of
> > New Mexico, and
> > specialist in Latin America, "the whole civil
> > defense is embedded in the
> > community to begin with. People know ahead of time
> > where they are to go."
> > 
> > "Cuba's leaders go on TV and take charge," said
> > Valdés. Contrast this with
> > George W. Bush's reaction to Hurricane Katrina. The
> > day after Katrina hit
> > the Gulf Coast, Bush was playing golf. He waited
> > three days to make a TV
> > appearance and five days before visiting the
> > disaster site. In a scathing
> > editorial on Thursday, the New York Times said,
> > "nothing about the
> > president's demeanor yesterday - which seemed casual
> > to the point of
> > carelessness - suggested that he understood the
> > depth of the current
> > crisis."
> > 
> > "Merely sticking people in a stadium is unthinkable"
> > in Cuba, Valdés said.
> > "Shelters all have medical personnel, from the
> > neighborhood. They have
> > family doctors in Cuba, who evacuate together with
> > the neighborhood, and
> > already know, for example, who needs insulin."
> > 
> > They also evacuate animals and veterinarians, TV
> > sets and refrigerators, "so
> > that people aren't reluctant to leave because people
> > might steal their
> > stuff," Valdés observed.
> > 
> > After Hurricane Ivan, the United Nations
> > International Secretariat for
> > Disaster Reduction cited Cuba as a model for
> > hurricane preparation. ISDR
> > director Salvano Briceno said, "The Cuban way could
> > easily be applied to
> > other countries with similar economic conditions and
> > even in countries with
> > greater resources that do not manage to protect
> > their population as well as
> > Cuba does."
> > 
> > Our federal and local governments had more than
> > ample warning that
> > hurricanes, which are growing in intensity thanks to
> > global warming, could
> > destroy New Orleans. Yet, instead of heeding those
> > warnings, Bush set about
> > to prevent states from controlling global warming,
> > weaken FEMA, and cut the
> > Army Corps of Engineers' budget for levee
> > construction in New Orleans by
> > $71.2 million, a 44 percent reduction.
> > 
> > Bush sent nearly half our National Guard troops and
> > high-water Humvees to
> > fight in an unnecessary war in Iraq. Walter Maestri,
> > emergency management
> > chief for Jefferson Paris in New Orleans, noted a
> > year ago, "It appears that
> > the money has been moved in the president's budget
> > to handle homeland
> > security and the war in Iraq."
> > 
> > An Editor and Publisher article Wednesday said the
> > Army Corps of Engineers
> > "never tried to hide the fact that the spending> 
> > pressures of the war in
> > Iraq, as well as homeland security - coming at the
> > same time as federal tax
> > cuts - was the reason for the strain," which caused
> > a slowdown of work on
> > flood control and sinking levees.
> > 
> > "This storm was much greater than protection we were
> > authorized to provide,"
> > said Alfred C. Naomi, a senior project manager in
> > the New Orleans district
> > of the corps.
> > 
> > Unlike in Cuba, where homeland security means
> > keeping the country secure
> > from deadly natural disasters as well as foreign
> > invasions, Bush has failed
> > to keep our people safe. "On a fundamental level,"
> > Paul Krugman wrote in
> > yesterday's New York Times, "our current leaders
> > just aren't serious about
> > some of the essential functions of government. They
> > like waging war, but
> > they don't like providing security, rescuing those
> > in need or spending on
> > prevention measures. And they never, ever ask for
> > shared sacrifice."
> > 
> > During the 2004 election campaign, vice presidential
> > candidate John Edwards
> > spoke of "the two Americas." It seems unfathomable
> > how people can shoot at
> > rescue workers. Yet, after the beating of Rodney
> > King aired on televisions
> > across the country, poor, desperate, hungry people
> > in Watts took over their
> > neighborhoods, burning and looting. Their anger,
> > which had seethed below the
> > surface for so long, erupted. That's what's
> > happening now in New Orleans.
> > And we, mostly white, people of privilege, rarely
> > catch a glimpse of this
> > other America.
> > 
> > "I think a lot of it has to do with race and class,"
> > said Rev. Calvin O.
> > Butts III, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church
> > in Harlem. "The people
> > affected were largely poor people. Poor, black
> > people."
> > 
> > New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin reached a breaking point
> > Thursday night. "You
> > mean to tell me that a place where you probably have
> > thousands of people
> > that have died and thousands more that are dying
> > every day, that we can't
> > figure out a way to authorize the resources we need?
> > Come on, man!"
> > 
> > Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff had
> > boasted earlier in the day
> > that FEMA and other federal agencies have done a
> > "magnificent job" under the
> > circumstances.
> > 
> > But, said, Nagin, "They're feeding the people a line
> > of bull, and they are
> > spinning and people are dying. Get off your asses
> > and let's do something!"
> > 
> > When asked about the looting, the mayor said that
> > except for a few
> > "knuckleheads," it is the result of desperate people
> > trying to find food and
> > water to survive.
> > 
> > Nagin blamed the outbreak of violence and crime on
> > drug addicts who have
> > been cut off from their drug supplies, wandering the
> > city, "looking to take
> > the edge off their jones."
> > 
> > When Hurricane Ivan hit Cuba, no curfew was imposed;
> > yet, no looting or
> > violence took place. Everyone was in the same boat.
> > 
> > Fidel Castro, who has compared his government's
> > preparations for Hurricane
> > Ivan to the island's long-standing preparations for
> > an invasion by the
> > United States, said, "We've been preparing for this
> > for 45 years."
> > 
> > On Thursday, Cuba's National Assembly sent a message
> > of solidarity to the
> > victims of Hurricane Katrina. It says the Cuban
> > people have followed closely
> > the news of the hurricane damage in Louisiana,
> > Mississippi and Alabama, and
> > the news has caused pain and sadness. The message
> > notes that the hardest hit
> > are African-Americans, Latino workers, and the poor,
> > who still wait to be
> > rescued and taken to secure places, and who have
> > suffered the most
> > fatalities and homelessness. The message concludes
> > by saying that the entire
> > world must feel this tragedy as its own.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Marjorie Cohn, a contributing editor to t r u t h o> 
> > u t, is a professor at
> > Thomas Jefferson School of Law, executive vice
> > president of the National
> > Lawyers Guild, and the US representative to the
> > executive committee of the
> > American Association of Jurists.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > Marty Carvlin
> > 
> > martycarvlin at yahoo.com
> > 
> >  
> > 
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