New Orleans Seeking Foreign Aid

[danarhea]

New Orleans is getting ready to ask for foreign aid because aid from Washington to rebuild is slow in coming and not enough. We have plenty to waste in failed rebuilding efforts in Iraq, but when it comes to our own people, the amount of funds needed just arent there, according to our leaders. Now, a nation that used to pride itself on giving out foreign aid has resigned itself to receiving it. I think most of the foreign aid which comes in should go to the Army Corp of Engineers, whose budget has been slashed in half. On the other hand, letting our own cities fend for themselves and go hat in hand to other nations might be a shrewd move by Bush to balance the budget......... Balance the budget? NOT.

Article is here.

 

[oldreliable67]

What? You're saying that 85 Billion ain't enough?

 

[GarzaUK]

What? You're saying that 85 Billion ain't enough?

Yeah but it is not coming in quickly enough, same thing happened to Afghanistan after the war. The government don't just write a check for 85 million to New Orleans.

 

[oldreliable67]

The government don't just write a check for 85 illion to New Orleans.

According to family and friends of mine in NO, the people mainly dissatisfied with the pace or scope of federal assistance in NO are the politicians. It has pretty quickly been back to business as usual, or at least they've tried to get back to business as usual: kickbacks, bribes, corruption, etc.

 

[jamesrage]

As far as I am concerned New Orleans should relocate it's city somewhere preferably above sea level.They are going to live in disaster prone area and demand the government give them money for living there for fix some they proably had almost decades to deal with.Couldn't they get voter initiaves to increase taxes or bond money to fix the levy all these decades that they were aware that they lived next to a levy?

 

[cherokee]

As far as I am concerned New Orleans should relocate it's city somewhere preferably above sea level.They are going to live in disaster prone area?

It makes no since to live in a bowl.... Under sea level

 

[danarhea]

According to family and friends of mine in NO, the people mainly dissatisfied with the pace or scope of federal assistance in NO are the politicians. It has pretty quickly been back to business as usual, or at least they've tried to get back to business as usual: kickbacks, bribes, corruption, etc.

I was in New Orleans about 3 weeks ago to give a bid for renovating the HVAC of a condominium tower. Sections of the city look like bombed out sections of Germany from WWII that you see in pictures. It is 6 months since Katrina hit, and absolutely nothing has been done in some areas of New Orleans.

Also, it is one thing to pledge 85 billion dollars and another to actually give the money. We have all seen it before where Bush has promised money and gotten Congress to pass bills, only to refuse to provide the funding. It is the same thing here. I doubt that New Orleans will ever see all the money that was promised. Just more empty promises.

 

[oldreliable67]

I was in NO two weeks after Katrina and have been back several times, and have family and friends there. The problem is not that nothing is being done; it appears that the problem you have is that much of what is being done can't be seen just yet.

You said you were there to bid on a project. There are many, many other projects being bid on right now as well. Many of those projects depend on federal aid or insurance proceeds. These things take time. The last time I was there (about mid-January), there were numbers of small groups of carpenters and construction guys doing renovations on houses, in general following along behind the insurance adjusters who were basically going from house to house, neighborhood to neighborhood. As soon as insurance terms were agreed on, checks were issued, and renovations starting. In some neighborhoods, it looked like a very busy beehive.

Not all neighborhoods are like that of course. The areas that were the worst flooded (i.e., the 9th Ward) will take a longer time to re-build, largely because of the numbers of now absent landlords, and importantly, the public policy questions about exactly how or what the shape/dimensions of rebuilding in those areas should take.

Yes, the Fed govt is moving slow in some areas (the last I heard (a few weeks ago), the EPA had still not given permission to remove all those 'drowned' and/or abandoned vehicles), but don't mistake the lack of visible progress for no progress at all.

Six months is not long for an effort of this magnitude. The number of local political jurisdictions alone is a major impediment to prompt action - every politician has to get into the act, as witness Nagin's posturing.

Your opinions are your own, and you are certainly welcome to them. But look, in this post as with so many others, you give the impression of just grabbing at anything as an excuse to exercise your Bush Derangement Syndrome. Your hatred of Bush appears extreme and just cannot be healthy - it seems to color everything you do or post or well, everything. Your almost like some of those Repubs were over Clinton!

 

[easyt65]

Nothing would surprise me the leadership in New Orleans anymore. These are the same guys who left hundreds o school busses in the parking lots instead of getting locals out. Their explanation was that they were waiting for the Greyhound Busses, which Greyhound had already sent out of the City, to come back because they were more comfortable/had A/C. This is the same people who were allowed to take a complete PASS after making the incredibly RACIST remark that they wanted to rebuild N.O. as a 'chocolate' cite - minorities ONLY!

And in regards to the money not flowing as quickly as N.O. would like. N.O. would never see one dime, were it up to me, until someone like Colin powel was sent there to be the keeper of the purse strings! There has been such a history of corruption in that city that it isn't even funny! I wouldn't trust the political leaders down there with bus fare let alone 85 MILLION!

This is the same local goverment that failed to use the money allocated to finish the levies down there as they were supposed to. The Army Corp of Engineers reported that post-Katrina inspections revealed how the levies had been built and the city was provided the funds to finish the structures, to fill the structures inside with cement. The inspection conducted showed that they had filled the majority of the inside with rocks, sand, and broken seas shells in at least 1 of the structures. The chief engineers stated that the rest of the money to do this project right had to be pocketed and that this levy could never have been expected to hold.

Lets see how they have handled some of the easiest tasks down there, at least according to the news -

There was a great report about how a man returned to his house to find it had been bulldozed to the ground with all of his belongings still inside. No effort had been made whatsoever to notify anyone that this was going to happen..Oh wait - my bad: they put up fliers in the neighborhood, a neighborhood where no one had been allowed back into until several days before the bulldozing!

 

[MSgt]

And yet, "danarhea" strikes again!

Unbelievable. Is your desperation to bash so bad that you have to produce the smallest shred of real information while adding a wealth of opinionated venom?

Nagin is working to recover himself for the next election. He is producing anything he can to the public to prove his worth which means he is willing to sell out his country to do it. Instead of waiting for the aid established by the national government to work its way through the bureaucracy that plagued the hurricane recovery, he begs for foreign aid? I guess some people are so desperate that they will go out of their way to embarrass America and the government. I guess he has your vote.

Look at the bright side...some people who become desperate resort to terrorism. So, I guess it could be worse.

 

[oldreliable67]

I wouldn't trust the political leaders down there with bus fare let alone 85 MILLION!

Hey, thats Billion, with capital 'B', as in 85 Billion! :2wave:

 

[easyt65]

Hey, thats Billion, with capital 'B', as in 85 Billion! :2wave:

I wouldn't trust them with that much, either! :mrgreen:

 

[Stinger]

I was in New Orleans about 3 weeks ago to give a bid for renovating the HVAC of a condominium tower. Sections of the city look like bombed out sections of Germany from WWII that you see in pictures. It is 6 months since Katrina hit, and absolutely nothing has been done in some areas of New Orleans.

Also, it is one thing to pledge 85 billion dollars and another to actually give the money. We have all seen it before where Bush has promised money and gotten Congress to pass bills, only to refuse to provide the funding. It is the same thing here. I doubt that New Orleans will ever see all the money that was promised. Just more empty promises.

First only the congress can appropriate money. Second the city and the state were asked to submit a plan of action before we sent more money, they haven't. That was the congress complaining about the huge amounts of money with no accountablity or plan to use it.

But if they can get some foriegn countries to help out are you really going to complain?

 

[MSgt]

First only the congress can appropriate money. Second the city and the state were asked to submit a plan of action before we sent more money, they haven't. That was the congress complaining about the huge amounts of money with no accountablity or plan to use it.

But if they can get some foriegn countries to help out are you really going to complain?

This wasn't about begging for foreign aid. This thread was about bashing. I'm on to danarhea's tactics. He is very consistent.

 

[Stinger]

This wasn't about begging for foreign aid. This thread was about bashing. I'm on to danarhea's tactics. He is very consistent.

If France and the and Europe want to help our most Eurpean city what is the complaint? Dana?

 

[Deegan]

If France and the and Europe want to help our most Eurpean city what is the complaint? Dana?

Hell, it wouldn't be the "chocolate city" with out a few handouts, and some begging in the streets, why change now?:roll: