Laughing on the Way to Armageddon

"....The last thing we need are demands that we leave. Mandatory evacuation could do more harm than Irma herself. Scott has the best of intentions, but you can’t tell millions upon millions of people to evacuate without giving them any real way to do so. Two major highways just won’t cut it for that parade of refugees."

Why America must collapse

This time I am not talking about America and its endless wars against large parts of the word and the danger of an out-of-control military Junta and its puppet president, Donald Trump, unleashing nuclear Armageddon on the world.

Instead, I am talking about the exceptional country, the finest democracy money can buy, that is incapable of looking after its citizens - the poor, the vulnerable and the elderly.  I am talking about a society that has privatised everything, has allowed its infrastructure to crumble over a 30 year time span.

I am talking about a society where it's every man and dog for himself, a culture that says "fuck you!"

We have people in its post- Ayn Rand society that wants the government off its back and the only worthwhile things in life are those things that can be achieved by the individual.

It is institutionalised selfishness.

I am not necessarily angered by events in a distant country but because of the toxic and corrosive influence American has on the rest of the world.I can see the very same attitudes creeping (perhaps flooding might be a more apt expression) into my own country, New Zealand.

If we had had a more caring society than we have and a Civil Defence that was more like what it was instead of the mess we have today all the areas devastated by earthquakes, floods etc.might have recovered sooner.

Looking at the photo above and reading about the mayhem of millions of Floridians trying to get out as best they can - usually by car (how many of these cars only have one occupant) I raised the question yesterday of why this evacuation is so incredibly chaotic - literally telling people they must leave and not giving them any means to do so.

One of the responses I got that could only be from a white American male responded that you couldn't rely on the government to help. 

In the American context that is true when whatever help there is is often no help at all.  In a disaster we are on our own and our ability to cope, even survive depends on the resilience of local communities.  Even, here in New Zealand after numerous disasters we are warned that we will be on our own.

For all that there is a place for socialised Civil Defence. it is beyond the ability of individuals, families, even of local communities to organise and fund a major evacuation like this.

****

As if to answer my question I encountered  two articles that answered my questions or rather, confirmed my concerns.

Why haven’t passenger trains, which could carry a thousand people a time, been sent to Florida to help? Residents without money or the ability to travel by car or plane could be taken to designated points of shelter and food.

The first was an excellent article and cris de coeur that appeared in the Washington Post

We can’t leave Florida, but we can’t stay 

either. Help us!

There are no good options for the millions trapped by the storm.

The second was an article in the World Socialist publication, WSWS asking the question:

Why aren’t trains evacuating people from the path of Hurricane Irma?

The woman in the Washington Post piece reports being stuck in her flimsy central Florida home - essentially because she is damned if she does,and damned if she doesn't leave Florida.

She couldn't be clearer,

“The majority of Florida will have major hurricane impact and deadly winds. We expect this along the entire east coast and west coast,” Scott said at a news conference. “All Floridians should be prepared to evacuate.”

But Florida has only two main roads: interstates 95 and 75. They are parking lots, and have been for days. People are sitting in their vehicles, completely stopped on four-lane highways, running out of gas. There are no exits on these roads for scores of miles at a time. Once you get on a Florida highway, you are not getting off. You’re stuck. So, my family’s choices are: We stay here in our flimsily built house, made of sheet rock and plywood; or we hop on an unmoving highway and risk running out of gas closer to the coast, with only our car for protection.

The second WSWS article takes this further and asks the same questions as I did:

This “fend for yourself” method of evacuation presents an enormous inequality, where working people must spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to head to safety, assuming they even have a car. As a retirement destination, Florida also has many residents over 65 years old. This includes residents in nursing care, or with physical or mental impairments, that make them unable to drive or fly.

Why haven’t passenger trains, which could carry a thousand people a time, been sent to Florida to help? Residents without money or the ability to travel by car or plane could be taken to designated points of shelter and food.

After all a poor nation like Cuba is able to look after its citizens as best as is possible in a disaster of this nature and scale.

Even the extremely poor nation of Trinidad and Barbuda can intervene to show compassion and help its citizens to the very limited extent it can.

Have a look at the video. People are being evacuated by plane,boat, towed barge- any way possible and the prime minister is down there on the ground offering whatever way he can.

One has to ask like the WSWS article why trains could not not be made available to evacuate the most needy.

Even the Washington Post agrees: 

Meaningful evacuation would have meant public transport, safe shelters along the way, medical help and facilities throughout, and safe shelter, food, water and sanitary supplies on the other side of it all. For free. Because evacuating is expensive: You need gas and a reliable vehicle. You need good health to make a slow-moving, anxiety-inducing journey with thousands of other people surrounding you at every turn. You need money to buy supplies and emergency equipment, and to miss work. You simply need things we don’t normally have. Being prepared is a luxury, and it’s not always possible.

Part of the answer lies in the fact that the rail companies are all privatised (no private corporation is interested in human welfare if it has any impact on its bottom line) and the infrastructure has been allowed to crumble mightily.

In part it is also the individualistic  attitude that sees any form of care and compassion for others as at best a weakness, at worst,a form of te dreaded communism.

I have to ask if Florida doesn't have a functioning port so that ships could come in and rescue folks who are stranded.

Where is the US navy? We all know the answer to that question! They're not going to turn their ships around from various war zones to come and help civilians.

Instead we have the obverse.

I was shocked to learn that a ship on a cruise to the Caribbean disgorged thousands of its presumably well-heeled but largely elderly ( I would imagine) passenger in Miami to fend for themselves just as Hurricane Irma was approaching.

Thousands of cruise ship passengers dropped off in Miami 

ahead of Hurricane Irma

Is it just me that thinks that this is an example of the most disgusting and criminal disregard by a corporation for its customers?  

I can see the justification for lack of action perhaps out of fear of legal implications.

If someone is drowning do you check if they've got a credit card first?

***

We live in truly apocalyptic times but part of that is that in the face of this we have lost our humanity and concern for others.

It is this loss of humanity and care for others that makes outrages like this possible.




In 2005, during Hurricane Katrina prisoners were just left to drown.
***

One more thing....

Watching live stream coverage this morning I was struck by the number of brain-dead males out on Miami Beach with their iPads and cellphones.

Not least this idiot from AMTV

"THEY are changing the forecast from cat.4 to cat. 5 and back to cat.4. NOAA cant be trusted anyhow....there's nothing to worry about "

'DEAD MAN WALKING' is what I would say about this.

***

In conclusion, America should collapse and help is here in the form of Harvey, Irma and Jose, not to mention wildfires all the way up the west coast and east to the Rockies.

In the inimitable words of James Howard Kunstler in his latest piece: 

Swamp Fever

"Am I the only observer wondering if Irma may be a fatal blow to the banking system? The mind reels at the insurance implications of what’s about to happen. Urgent obligations triggered by an event of this scale can’t possibly be serviced. Look for it to snap the chain of counterparty leverage that has been propping up the banks, insurers, and pension funds on mere promises for years on end. Finance, both private and public, has been feeding off unreality since well before the tremor of 2008. The destruction of Florida (and whatever else stands in the way up the line) will be as real as it gets....

"But the America they roam into in search of a place to re-settle is going to be a more fragile place, too. A week or so after Irma has gone away, the ill-feeling that heaps this country like a swamp fever will still be there, driving the new American madness into precincts yet unknown."

(red colour - my emphasis)