Work Your Brain — 09/02/06

First Some Fun

• Thursday Thirteen #3 — Baggage @ Baggage That Goes With Mine wrote thirteen reasons why the internet is better than real life. This is my favorite.
  

  11. On the internet, you can pop into a forum or a blog and tell a person that their beliefs are dumb, they should be breastfeeding, they should never co-sleep, they should divorce their husband, they should shave their legs, and they should stop wearing mom jeans. In real life, people would punch you in the face.

In Memory Of Katrina

• But you can keep them for the birds and bees — Mac @ PeskyApostrophe wonders about all of that Katrina aid money the U.S. asked for and got from other countries last year. She comes to the same conclusion I did.
  

  I’m appalled at a variety of things when it comes to the Katrina rebuilding effort and FEMA’s role in it all, but this is a whole new level of incompetence. As part of my new job, I am now involved in grant-writing. In a good portion of grants, the grantee expects a report as to how the money was used. While I’m sure these gifts did not come with any reporting requirements, if one of our grantees found out their money had been either wasted or didn’t got to the program for which it was intended that would pretty much guarantee they’d never give money to us again. And you have to wonder if, should another emergency situation arise, these countries would think twice about giving aid money to the U.S. if we’re not going to use it and use it wisely.

• First the Flood, Now the Fight — Spencer S. Hsu @ WashingtonPost.com wrote a special report on the butting of heads between FEMA and state and city officials in the rebuilding of the Gulf States and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. FEMA swears it’s not trying to be difficult but the process seems to be designed to wear down those requesting help until they just give up and either take what little they’ve been given, which isn’t much if anything.
  

  Through hundreds of such disputes large and small, the most costly disaster in U.S. history is fast becoming its most contentious, with appeals and disputes worth nearly a billion dollars bogging down repairs of critical public systems and delaying the return of residents.

  Current and former officials at all levels blame FEMA workers’ inexperience with eligibility rules, weaknesses in U.S. disaster laws and inconsistent treatment by Congress for much of the wrangling. The huge scale of the storm and honest disagreement over whether federal or local taxpayers should pay the tab add to the conflict.

  “Disasters should be difficult to declare. . . . But once you get them, FEMA should not worry about cutting costs,” said Daniel A. Craig, who stepped down in October as head of FEMA’s recovery division and is now consulting for New Orleans. “Public entities are eligible for everything they have lost due to the disaster. It is not up to FEMA to cut corners or makes sure money is saved.”

  Gil H. Jamieson, FEMA’s deputy director for Gulf Coast recovery, agreed that “we’re in this to rebuild the city” and added: “We are not in it to delay for the sake of delay. Are there folks who sometimes hose it up? Absolutely. But I think we’re doing a good job of helping it recover.”

  The disputes come as the costliest part of the recovery begins: restoring water, power, roads, bridges, schools and other public facilities along the Gulf Coast. Agency veterans said the spending will have more impact on the physical rebuilding of the Gulf area than anything else FEMA does over the next decade, possibly eclipsing its role in aiding individual victims of the storm.

  The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans, for instance, sustained $446 million in storm losses, said Executive Director Marcia St. Martin. But FEMA has committed just $113 million so far.

  FEMA notes that New Orleans promised U.S. environmental regulators $640 million in repairs before Katrina, and that the antiquated system is too big for the Crescent City’s reduced population.

  “That’s what makes a city — if you don’t have water, sewer and drainage, you don’t have a city,” lamented Robert Jackson, spokesman for the sewer board. “The money so far only scratches the surface of the devastation.

  Hat Tip: Susie @ Suburban Guerrilla

More

Tags: Thursday Thirteen, Internet, Hurricane Katrina, FEMA, aid money, Gil H. Jamieson, Daniel A. Craig, Gulf Coast recovery, New Orleans, Islamofascism, George W. Bush, Muslims, women in the media, Support the Troops, defense appropriation bill, Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, Iraq, Afghanistan, Congress, Pentagon, Lower 9th Ward, National Hurricane Canter, 9/11, Max Mayfield, Osama bin Laden, Hezbollah, terrorism, Ann Jones, Taliban, NATO, Christians, American Dream, Martin Niemoller, Germany, Nazis, Rocky Anderson, Utah, Salt Lake Tribune, patriotism, lie, Walter Jones, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, Caddam Hussein, Donald Rumsfeld

Where In The World Is Iraq?

Maybe the reason that Americans think we’re so superior is because we don’t take time to realize we’re not actually alone and that there are actually whole other countries and cultures beyond our borders. Then again, we aren’t all that good with figuring out what’s in our own borders, are we? I recall my mother telling me that some friends of hers were on one of those game shows like The Price Is Right and it took them a year to get their prizes shipped to them because they lived in New Mexico and the show wouldn’t ship outside of the country — kid you not.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — After more than three years of combat and nearly 2,400 U.S. military deaths in Iraq, nearly two-thirds of Americans aged 18 to 24 still cannot find Iraq on a map, a study released Tuesday showed.

The study found that less than six months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, 33 percent could not point out Louisiana on a U.S. map.

The National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs 2006 Geographic Literacy Study paints a dismal picture of the geographic knowledge of the most recent graduates of the U.S. education system.

“Taken together, these results suggest that young people in the United States … are unprepared for an increasingly global future,” said the study’s final report.

“Far too many lack even the most basic skills for navigating the international economy or understanding the relationships among people and places that provide critical context for world events.” [“Study: Geography Greek to most young Americans (CNN.com)]

Tags: Iraq, education, Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, Gulf Coast, National Geographics, CNN

The Gulf Coast Continues To Get Screwed By The Federal Government

Well, this is a little disturbing. Remember when Bush and his adminstration promised to help rebuild the Gulf Coast, including it’s economy? Remember how “reconstruction” was going to boost the Gulf Coasts local economy?

Companies outside the three states most affected by Hurricane Katrina have received more than 90 percent of the money from prime federal contracts for recovery and reconstruction of the Gulf Coast, according to an analysis of available government data. [“Gulf Firms Losing Contracts (Washington Post)”]

Among the contracts analyzed, 3.8 percent of the money went to companies that listed an Alabama address, 2.8 percent to firms in Louisiana and just 1.8 percent went for Mississippi contractors. Taken together, that amounts to less than $200 million. [“Gulf Firms Losing Contracts (Washington Post)”]

It’s not surprising that locals and local officials are unhappy with this raw deal. They rightfuly fear that most of the money will flow out of state and out of an area that was already economically suffering before Hurricane Katrina.

The Department of Homeland Security estimates that as of early last week, 72 percent of the $1.6 billion that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had committed so far to contracts for Hurricane Katrina relief went to small firms nationwide in either prime or subcontracts, said department spokesman Larry Orluskie. But he said only 6 percent of the funds have gone to companies in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama — a region where small firms make up a disproportionately large share of the economy. [“Gulf Firms Losing Contracts (Washington Post)”]

I keep thinking of the old saying about how if you give a man a fish, he’ll be hungry tomorrow but if you teach a man to fish, he’ll feed himself. The Gulf Coast needs help rebuilding but it shouldn’t be done for them by outside businesses that will take the money away and then abandon the area. The Gulf Coast needs to rebuild it’s own structure and the government needs to help them do that, not by providing overpriced contractors who underpay locals and take the profits somewhere else, but by giving local companies the chance to survive — plus, I’m willing to bet that local companies are more interested in doing things right because at the end of it all, they’ll still be there in the community.

Meanwhile, many local firms that want to work with the government say they continue to meet with frustration. Kendall Prewett said he has been trying for weeks to get government subcontracting work for his Mississippi-based debris removal firm, B & P Enterprises, but that neither the government nor the prime contractor, Florida-based AshBritt Inc., is returning his calls. “I don’t understand why all these people not from here are working, and the Mississippi contractors aren’t,” he said.

AshBritt referred requests for comment to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which said it is encouraging the award of subcontracting work to local companies. [“Gulf Firms Losing Contracts (Washington Post)”]

Hmmmm…so it’s not like people can just say all of those Southern people are all lazy and want everything done for them and handed to them by the government like I’ve been hearing/reading of late. There are people who want to work, want to help their communities, and want to get on with their lives, but the government is ignoring them in favor of bigger, more expensive, outside companies…makes a lot of sense really when you consider how much money FEMA spent driving all that ice around the country only to part it in New England.

Even so, the overall small percentage of contracts with local firms “suggests a lack of advance planning to tap local small business partners in an effective disaster response strategy,” Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), who chairs the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, said in a statement. [“Gulf Firms Losing Contracts (Washington Post)”]

Have I mentioned lately how much I like Olympia Snowe?

Tags: Gulf Coast, Hurricane Katrina, economy, Homeland Security, Olympia Snowe

FEMA: The New Four-Letter F-Word

I spoke with El last night. If you think Louisiana and the Gulf Coast looks chaotic from the comfort of your living room, you’re under-estimating the chaos. She has become extremely frustrated with both Red Cross and FEMA — though interestingly, she recognizes that Red Cross is made up of volunteers and FEMA is not and therefore holds more bitterness for FEMA.

With Red Cross, it just seems like not everyone knows what’s going on. For one thing, she’s supposed to contact her local Red Cross center (not shelter) for help, but the center for her area is in New Orleans. When she called Baton Rouge’s center to ask where she could get a eye glass voucher (she was wearing disposable contacts when she evac’d for what she thought would be a few days) and they told her that they had a long-time understanding with Lenscrafters and she should call them. When she called Lenscrafters, they knew nothing about it but had heard that the Red Cross was giving out vouchers.

Anyway, she also can’t get through to that 800 number Red Cross launched last week to offer some financial aid. She and her family have all taken turns calling throughout the night even. So, next week, she and her mother are driving back to Memphis where they had received a lot of help from Red Cross immediately after the hurricane.

As for FEMA, well, she called them to ask about rent voucher since it’s unlikely she’ll be able to get back to her apartment any time soon as it had been underwater in New Orleans. She was told that she can’t have the rent vouchers until after her building is inspected. Her response to me was “That could take years at the rate things are going!” Quite frankly I think that FEMA needs to rethink their rules there. After all, they have more than a whole city to inspect and people have to live somewhere. $2000 per household (not per person) is not going to go far and people are being discouraged from staying in shelters.

She also told me an interesting bit of news from down South. Apparently, the sheriff’s department in Plaquemines Parish has been running since the hurricane without pay 24/7 and they’ve been begging FEMA for financial aid for the last week. They can’t even afford payroll. Sheriff Hingle threatened to pull his entire department off the job and send them home tonight if they didn’t receive funding to continue. (I love those southern Louisiana sheriffs!)

Apparently, Governor Blanco stepped up to the bat and handed Plaquemines and St. Bernard Parishes a combined $16.5 million from the state’s general fund — though she is still hoping to get reimbursement. [“State sends money to keep St. Bernard, Plaquemines Sheriffs Going (KATC3)”]
Now, St. Bernard and Plaquemines are located along the lower reaches of the Mississippi River and were at the point of landfall for Hurricane Katrina. They were among the areas with the heaviest damage. Why then are they having to beg for help still? Why are they being ignored by FEMA?

My father says if you listen to the “local” radio station(s), you hear more and more hatred for FEMA and it’s incompetence and it’s lack of co-ordination. He said, “FEMA is a four-letter word down there.”

It does make you wonder what exactly they’re doing…

Tags: FEMA, Gulf Coast, Red Cross, New Orleans, Kathleen Blanco

If Only…

I saw that Bush attended a pow-wow in the Gulf regarding Hurricane Rita and it’s potential threat to New Orleans and the rest of the hurricane ravaged Gulf Coast. If only he’d made such a show in the week and days prior to Hurricane Katrina hitting the Gulf Coast less than a month ago, he might have avoided a lot of criticism in the last three weeks.

Hopefully this is a sign that we’re learning from our mistakes…

On the other hand, as much as I like Mayor Nagin and think he’s a good thing for New Orleans, I don’t agree with his push to rush people back into New Orleans before all of the water is drained and it’s been declared safe by people who understand what the kind of toxins that have been soaking into the city can do. I’m secretly glad that Rita has put a halt to his plans and I hope someone shakes some sense into him before he has a chance to make the situation potentially worse.

Tags: George W. Bush, Hurricane Rita, Ray Nagin, Gulf Coast