Roots of Disaster - The Arrogance Begins

The Founding "Fathers" of the South could have imagined this scenario.

However, it wasnt as important as the money that could be made and the ease in which those wanting to become rich from it ignored the evidence.

Many allegations have been flying from many directions as to whose responsibility it was to safeguard the people of the South who ultimately became the victims and survivors of Hurricane Katrina. While it's easy to point fingers at certain individuals or entities, the bigger picture is hardly being brought up. The fact is that this catastrophe has been hundreds of years in the making and America will be vilified for it, both nationally and internationally for years to come.

It's very upsetting to watch the news and realize that many smaller towns and cities have been wiped off the face of the planet, but New Orleans, which fared slightly "better", has the immediate gluttony of the media. To understand why, I had to understand why and how New Orleans was built where it was to begin with.

The Creation of La Nouvelle-Orleans

In a nutshell; in 1718 when the French founded what became New Orleans they had in mind the same ideals that any other likeminded business person had which was commerce and wealth. It didnt take long to figure out that with the enormous size of the Mississipi River, there would be a vast amount of goods that could be shipped downriver for trade. A port needed to be built that could handle such a large amount of trade. It was believed that anyone building such a port would become very wealthy and that the commerce that sprung up around it would create additional wealth.

The problem in building New Orleans was that anyone building there had some mighty big competition, namely nature and weather. The Mississippi Delta was a constantly changing land/water mass assisted in no small part by the flucuations of the weather and although this new port was almost 100 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico, it too would would be affected by the constantly shifting geography.

Herein lies the amazing ingenuity that ultimately became the trap that is New Orleans. Engineers figured out how to drain the swampland and divert the bodies of water around the fledgling port.

Since the mid-19th century, hundreds of miles of canals and levees have been built (aided by pumps beginning in the 1910's), to drain and hold back the waters of the mighty Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain. Each time the levees have been added to or "reworked" they have become higher and eventually taller than the city itself. Thus creating the "bowl" in which the city of New Orleans has trapped itself.

Knowing this, it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out that the potential for disaster was created long before the current federal, state and local officials were in place.

Nothing in the world is as soft and yeilding as water,
Yet nothing can better overcome the hard and strong,
For they can neither control nor do away with it.

The soft overcomes the hard,
The yielding overcomes the strong,
Every person knows this,
Yet no one can practice it.

Who attends to the people would control the land and grain,
Who attends to the state would control the whole world,
Truth is easily hidden by rhetoric.

Tao Te Ching (passage #78) by Lao Tzu who wrote it over 2500 years ago.

Hurricane Katrina - America's Failure

Watching the tragedy unfold in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has been a lesson in humility. I already had my doubts as to the claims of America being the "superpower" and now to see the proof unfolding before my eyes, I don't want to believe it.

This isn't a meer failing to heed warnings of impending destruction. This is the blatant ignorance of a Nation that believes itself to be unconquerable only to allow it's own people to die because of this belief.

I can't hold back my feelings about this ignorance, this arrogance any longer.

This wasn't a failure of just any individual or group, not even close. It was the failure of an entire nation of people. Nature has proven what no scientist, no professor, no terrorist could ever prove before; that for hundreds of years America has thrown money and excuses at weaknesses it didnt want to acknowledge existed. The problem is that America can reverse this cycle of self-destruction if it wants to. Through a tragic series of events even the world sees what many Americans refuse to acknowledge.

America must acknowledge that it can easily become the Rome of the modern age.