International Assistance for Katerina

Just curious. Anyone seen or heard of any offers or pledges of assistance from other countries?

absolutely none. All other countries assume the US is rich enough to have all the resources to rescue its own citizens.

Canada has.

Michael

Australia's offered.

Geoff

yeah, those are symbolic words that make those countries look noble in the diplomatic circle. In reality, they would probably say good luck to the US. god bless you if you can make it.

I have no doubt England has, I think I heard Germany did but I am not sure. I did hear Canada did but unsure if it was the French Canadians or the English Canadians. It is hard to keep up, Venesula?? Chavez did but I think it was intended as an insult (yahoo news has something about that)
Topper

BIGIRON said:

Just curious. Anyone seen or heard of any offers or pledges of assistance from other countries?

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*** I stand corrected ***

According to this article, a good number of countries and international organizations have offered some type of assistance:

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=12689

"...Worldwide offers of help poured into the US. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack noted offers from Russia, Japan, Canada, France, Honduras, Germany, Venezuela, the Organization of American States, Jamaica, NATO, Australia, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Switzerland , Greece, Hungary, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, China, South Korea, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates. He said the list was "literally growing by the hour."

"..."Secretary of State (Condoleezza) Rice, after consulting with the White House, has made it clear that we will accept all offers of foreign assistance. Anything that can be of help to alleviate the difficult situation, the tragic situation of the people of the area affected by Hurricane Katrina will be accepted," he said..."

I read of an offer of aid, not from France, but from the French Antilles. I'd be surprised if there weren't offers from Australia and England, but haven't heard anything specific. Canada wouldn't surprise me either direction... Lot of good people there, but also a lot of people that hate America.... And most of the government people are in the latter group.

Scott Mcllelan (White House Press Director) did a little conference an hour or two ago and said that ~"More than a dozen nations have offered their condolences and some have offered assistance."~ But he didn't say who had offered condolences or who has offered aid.

Maybe I'm an idiot who would "Cut off his nose to spite his face".... But I don't think we, as a nation, want aid from foreign countries. If we can't handle this ourselves, then we don't deserve the status of the world's remaining superpower..... But it would be appreciated if they made a sincere offer.

(As I understand it, many of the countries that made generous offers to the Tsunami relief have yet to deliver even 10% of what they promised.)

Hugo Chavez's offer of free gasoline for the poor was only intended as an insult, and a communist recruiting tool.

picard said:

yeah, those are symbolic words that make those countries look noble in the diplomatic circle. In reality, they would probably say good luck to the US. god bless you if you can make it.

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Seems a little hostile Picard. I know we sent troops to Florida after Andrew. The local Red Cross is getting ready to send people starting tomorrow

Michael

Silviron said:

(As I understand it, many of the countries that made generous offers to the Tsunami relief have yet to deliver even 10% of what they promised.)

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You got that right. One example is something I've been watching on a Taiwan TV station reporting that more than US$10 million dollars worth of donations have yet to be released to the tsunami victims because of all the red tape involved. I wonder if the people who really needed the aid are still alive. The politicians are probably still quarelling about who should get the credit.

usa helps everyone we like help to.at least offer

I am not angry at you guys. I feel sorry for those folks in New Orleans whom are homeless yet the gov't is innept in providing aid. They are good at rhetoric speeches than action. These desperate poor people are venting their frustration. The residents of New Orleans will be homeless for at least 1 year until the gov't clean up the mess. Where will these people stay in the mean time? They don't have any money, no jobs, no future.
Their future is under 6ft of water.

This storm is major wakeup call for this state. It is too heavily reliant on casinos, tourism to generate jobs. These industries are fragile and susceptible to inclement weather.

picard said:

.........The residents of New Orleans will be homeless for at least 1 year until the gov't clean up the mess. Where will these people stay in the mean time? They don't have any money, no jobs, no future.
Their future is under 6ft of water..........

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Not sure if you meant the local government, the state government or the federal government,,,, But it would happen a lot faster if they didn't expect/rely on "the gov't" to take care of them, to clean up the mess for them. If they want to rebuild New Orleans (a mistake to simply rebuild where, and as it was, IMHO) they should band together and get started.

It wasn't the government that first built New Orleans... It shouldn't be the government's responsibility to rebuild it. (Even though hundreds of millions of Federal Taxpayers dollars have been spent there for a hundred years to keep the water out as it sunk deeper and deeper into the muck.)

One thing I never understood is: Why is it that if MY house burns down, gets flooded or washed away or blown down, it is just my bad luck, and up to me to rebuild or go somewhere else and start over on my own, but if 20 or more of my neighbors or my whole town experiences the same thing at the same time, it is the Government's (Taxpayers) duty to put my neighborhood or community's life back together?

If they have any sort of useful talent, skills or even just a willing, strong back, there are jobs and a future waiting for them, either in the rebuilding of N.O. or better yet, somewhere else, somewhere that isn't below sea level and run by a corrupt, incompetent political machine.

There are no chains binding them to the place anymore, even if there were some invisible chains binding them there before the flood. They can go where the jobs are, and where there IS a future for them. While even the more industrious of them may be short of cash for a while, and will have to make a big effort to start from scratch again, there is no reason that an able-bodied and/or able-minded person can't do it.

There has already been a huge outpouring of aid money, and there will be a heck of a lot more. There will be private, corporate and taxpayer money made available for people who want to work, who want to relocate and start over,short-term housing, even money for a better education / job training.

Sure, it will be a real hard job for most of them to do it, but three months from now, anyone who doesn't have some sort of a place to live, some sort of a job, and the potential for a bright future, it is because they are already a victim of the welfare society and have no future but more welfare and more poverty anyway.

I won't try to represent this as absolute fact, but it is my understanding that ~40% of the population of New Orleans and its environs was on welfare, (and has been for 50 years). They can collect a welfare check and face a similar lack of a future anywhere.....

Heck, with any luck, this disaster might provide the impetus for some people to break their multi-generational reliance on the welfare state and actually begin to build a future for themselves, their children and their children's children.

I'd better stop now before I get into a big(er) political / social rant.... Sorry if I offended anyone's sensibilities, and sorry if this rant belongs in the underground instead of here. (Admin or moderator can just delete this whole post if you feel I am wrong or out of place.).... This situation just reaffirms my long term beliefs in self-sufficiency and self-responsibility and not expecting the government to bail me out of whatever difficulties I encounter.

sorry, guys, off-topic

i know for a fact that at least three RSAF (republic of singapore air force) chinooks based in the U.S. are currently helping with airlift missions to transport supplies to the affected areas. it was mentioned in the local newspapars and this BBC article which i found:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4210264.stm

chamenos said:

i know for a fact that at least three RSAF (republic of singapore air force) chinooks based in the U.S. are currently helping with airlift missions to transport supplies to the affected areas. it was mentioned in the local newspapars and this BBC article which i found:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4210264.stm

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Exact quote from that article

Singapore sent Chinook helicopters following a request by the US to Fort Polk, Louisiana, to help to ferry supplies and undertake airlift missions.

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I do think that the US has the capability and resources to help but it is the logistical nightmare and the social problem that was constantly swept under the rug that led to this undesirable outcome.

Nobody has seriously tried to tackled the drug problem in New Orleans(and many parts of the world, not only USA for that matter). As we can see, drugs cause a lot of social problems that will escalate and explode in pandemonium when something of this nature and magnitude occurs. On any typical day, drug addicts looking for a fix will resort to anything from stealing cars or even mugging for a few dollars to get their kick.

Now imagine a hurricane has rendered all the security measures to all things material (shops, markets, gun shops) virtually there just for the taking. Anarchy reigns immediately when local law enforcements' resources are also wiped out.

Three Canadian warships and one Coast Guard ship leaving on Tuesday with supplies and 1000 troops to help.

It is a sad fact that it takes time to get a co-ordinated response to a disaster, FEMA says 72 hours.

Michael

picard said:

absolutely none. All other countries assume the US is rich enough to have all the resources to rescue its own citizens.

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Besides that you are quite wrong, this attitude of yours won't advance the goal of friendly relationship with the USA either.

bernhard

P.S.: right now Germany has a team in the area and is organizing the support as told by our media. Which could be a lie, but I doubt that.