What's really happening in New Orleans

If you had any doubt that the problem in New Orleans right now is nothing to do with the deployment of the US army in Iraq or a lack of resources in the US listen to the mayor of New Orleans.

What New Orleans and its people are suffering from is the political indifference and ineptitude of Bush and his cronies. Frankly Bush deserves to hang for this.

The little things

In the middle of all the awful things going on it's nice to be able to take pleasure in small things. This morning I saw the Hippo bus refuelling at my local gas station. It's somehow reassuring to share a gas station with a hippo bus.

More disconnected thoughts about New Orleans

Thinking about the breakdown of law and order in New Orleans led me down a rather disturbing logic chain. Here are a few facts/conjectures that seem to be relevant:

• Most of the people left in New Orleans are black and poor
  
• It seems reasonable to assume that more than a few have had what are euphemistically called brushes with the law
  
• The NOPD is predominantly white, notoriously corrupt and has an adversarial relationship with much of the community
  
• The LA National Guard is predominantly white and working class and, unless things have changed a lot since I worked in LA, I'd bet has more than its fair share of racists
  
• There are reports that the NOPD and the Guard have been actively protecting property in wealthier, white, neighbourhoods while mostly staying well clear of where the trouble is

Now I'm just imagining what would happen in Toronto if the population of the Jane/Finch neighbourhood was isolated without food, water (or, dare I say it, drugs) with just the Toronto Police Service to keep order. Now this city isn't nearly as rough as New Orleans and while our police force has some serious problems it's a heck of a lot better than the NOPD. Anyway, enough to say I think it would be pretty ugly so the fact that things have got as bad as they have in NO isn't a huge surprise.

So now my train of thought goes to how much more serious it is that the US Army, a federal and therefore less tainted body, with its 30% black commissioned officers and 50% plus black NCOs hasn't shown up.

I so didn't need this

Crazy stalker woman just showed up at my building. Fortunately the concierge wouldn't let her come up so I went down to the lobby. She is just insane. I'm not sure what options, if any, I have at this point. Thank heavens for 24 hour security!