What's News

First things first, I should let you know that I quit my job back on September 9. Though I really hate that word “quit”. I prefer to say that I resigned. It was a really hard decision, but I knew that it was the right one. I could really feel the commute taking its toll on me. Two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening is just absurd. It’s taking away from my family time, it’s taking away from my “me” time, and it’s just not healthy. Then traveling in New York City leaves one feeling so dirty…the pollution in the air, in the subways….

I was trying to start a family with my husband, and those factors just didn’t mesh with the plan that I had in mind. So I decided the best thing to do would be to resign. Like I said, it was probably the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make, but I sat with my boss about a month ahead of what would be my last day and told him up front what I wanted to do and honestly, why I wanted to do it: so that I could focus more on starting a family. My boss was unbelievably and wonderfully supportive, so that really made it much easier. Everyone else that I told was incredibly supportive and agreed that I was making the right decision as well. I already knew that, but it was reassuring to hear it from others as well. What was even more encouraging was that a lot of people said that they knew folks – women – who quit their jobs, and within a month or so, became pregnant. The stressful commute, pressures of work and deadlines and hassles of the city are just not so conducive to helping women get pregnant. Well, some of us anyway.

So that’s what’s happened, and that’s why. Another nice thing about being home now is that my husband’s parents are here. They’ve been staying with us since July 31, and are planning to stay until October 31. His mom’s been doing most, if not ALL of the cooking since she got here, so that’s been really nice. I’ve been getting pretty spoiled in that sense, but my husband’s also teased me that he wants me learning from her so that I can cook like that even after they leave. I doubt I can be as good as her, but we’ll see…

I don’t get to see his parents that often – this is the first time I’ve been with them longer than like 10 days! But it’s going well – I’ve gotten pretty good with my Tamil! We’ve taken them sightseeing to quite a few places – Niagara Falls, Washington DC, New York City, Atlantic City…and we’re planning a trip up to Boston/New Hampshire to see the fall colors in a couple weeks. It’s nice to be able to show them all the sights and sounds of the East Coast here.


"Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world." -Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

...it was the worst of times

FYI - this is a very long entry. Don't say I didn't warn you.

So it’s all over the news now, and it seems to be all anyone is talking about.

The devastation brought on by the wrath of Hurricane Katrina.

Oh, God. Where to start? There’s so much going through my mind about that. I first realized things had gone much, much worse than expected on Tuesday, when the first few pictures of the stranded survivors came filtering through. A colleague of mine said that the South, the New Orleans, Louisiana/southern Mississippi area happens to be one of the poorest parts of the nation. People there often don’t have cars, don’t have money to use public transportation, and that’s why so many of them didn’t actually evacuate when they heard the storm was coming. Therein lies problem number one. There should have been assistance ahead of time to help get people out. Find out who’s left, why they’re still there. Can you help them leave? Then do it. (Of course, if they’re the kinds of people that don’t want to leave, then there’s really nothing you can do about it. If they’re choosing to ride the storm out, good luck to ‘em.). That would’ve helped a great deal in terms of the current situation.

Then once the storm hit, you had the issues with the levee along the Lake that borders New Orleans. A 2-block portion of that levee apparently collapsed, unable to withstand the rapidly rising waters. They had an interview with one of the engineers on Wednesday on a CBS special, and he stated that the levee was designed to withstand the strength of a Category 3 Hurricane. Bear in mind that Katrina was a Category 5 storm – with winds, if I recall correctly, gusting up to 185 miles an hour. Pretty powerful stuff. These people knew that the levee wasn’t designed to withstand a Category 5, and so they should have known that it was bound to collapse. They knew Katrina was a Category 5, and that it was coming their way. Why didn’t they take extra precautions? Put extra barriers along the levee, reinforcements, whatever? Did they just think, “Oh, maybe we’ll luck out?” That’s a big risk. And tied in to that the interviewer asked him, “Well, why didn’t you just [initially] build a levee that would withstand a Category 5? Why limit it to a Category 3?” and his reply was that “There are costs and benefits associated with building these, and the costs of building a levee that would withstand a Category 5 outweighed the benefits.” I’m sorry, but that’s the lamest excuse I’ve ever seen. Let’s see: An extra, oh, I don’t know - $100,000 dollars. Okay, fine. Even a million dollars. A few million. Whatever. Yet if you don’t spend it, you risk losing thousands of lives. Yep. I SO see how saving the money is a better idea. NOT! The interviewer responded “I’ll bet you’re rethinking those costs and benefits now.” And he replied – almost casually, I was annoyed to find – “Oh, yes, we’ll be going back and reviewing our decision now.” Yeah – it’s a bit too late for that, my friend. The damage has already been done.

Now revert to present day and the madness and mayhem that has come about as a result of this catastrophe. It’s almost surreal. There are times when it sounds like something out of a Hollywood movie. People firing at the policemen who are there to help, chaos and anarchy reigning supreme, huddled masses, weak and weary from lack of food, sleep, and shelter, the balmy weather only adding to their discomfort. The scenes of destruction – houses leveled, floodwaters still chest deep in some places, the roofs of houses and the tops of trees the only areas visible from the air. It looks almost like a Hollywood production. Last night’s Dateline said that the people on the streets, some of them look so famished, so worn, they almost look like they stepped off the set of Survivor, but that “tragically, this isn’t reality TV – it’s reality.”

Then there are times, when it looks more like the scene at a third world country. There was a woman on TV last night carrying two infants, one in each arm. She was crying, her kids were crying, the people walking with her were trying to pour water on her and her children to keep them cool. A man lay on the sidewalk, sprawled, nearly dead. People nearby were telling him to wake up, stay strong, that help would come. But it was almost as if they were saying that for their benefit as well as his; no one really knew when help would come – they’d been there for four days, and no one had yet come to give them any information, any food, any water, nothing.

Things there just seem so disorganized. One of the reporters last night – or maybe one of the people among the masses – said “It looks like a scene in Baghdad or elsewhere in Iraq – but at least there they have food and water.” I mean, really, we hear that the president is going there to visit and see how bad things are today. But what is really happening to help these people?

Of course, it doesn’t help that lawlessness has chosen to rear its ugly head. Situations like this bring out the best in people, and the worst in some. When 9-11 happened in New York, people banded together to help each other. They stayed strong. I don’t recall a lot of looting, rioting, shooting, etc. I know it’s a different situation. We were facing a common enemy then (and still are): Al Qaida. There was a significant loss of life, but no one really lost their house, their possessions, had “nowhere to go”. So this is vastly different. And maybe because I’m not in (nor have I ever been, nor God help me do I hope to be) in a situation like this, but isn’t it possible to be in dire straights, to face desperation, but yet still have compassion and respect for others. Looting to take what you need is one thing – food, water, that’s fine. But take what you need. Share with others who may need it more than you. Don’t hoard.

One of the reporters last night told the story of a woman who was getting on one of the buses to go to Houston – she had handed her baby off to someone on the bus and was getting ready to get on herself, when someone pushed her out of the way. She fell to the ground and was shoved backwards as others clamored to get on the bus. By the time she was able to get back up, the bus was gone – with her baby. Obviously she was distraught, but the reporter was kind enough to hear her story, talk to a guardsman who found a police officer who was willing to help her. In fact, the policeman went above and beyond the call of duty by actually taking the woman to Houston himself, in his squad car to find her baby.

That’s the sort of thing that needs to happen. And it doesn’t have to be cops helping the citizens. People need to band together and help each other. It tears me up that there are people that are taking advantage of this situation to steal, kill, assault, and even rape! How is that justifiable? At all?! I mean, those atrocities are bad enough in a secure, non-ravaged world, but after a disaster like this, what kind of sick f#ck decides to go out and rape somebody?! People who do that sort of thing are seriously deranged, and are the worst sorts of human beings – no soul. And they’re shooting at the medics, saying “You better come help my family.” Don’t you think that if they could, they would? They’ve got their priorities. Those with children and elderly first, I’m sure.

Then you have people who’ve got their own priorities seriously misaligned. Yahoo News had the story of this one woman:

Ruby Roussell, who lost her house and car to the hurricane, said she climbed aboard a bus in New Orleans thinking she'd be dropped off in Baton Rouge, where she has family. Instead, she found herself in Houston.

"We didn't choose to come to this place," she said. "We didn't ask to come here."

Yeah. You didn’t ask to come there. Okay, then should they just take you back?? My God – have you ever heard that “beggars can’t be choosers?” There are people there that are literally dying to get out. You’re OUT. You’re SAFE. And yet you’re complaining about where you are?! You have time ahead of you to get back to Baton Rouge. You have the freedom now to go where to you need to go, when you want to go. Oh my GOD. Just SHUT UP and be happy that you’re alive, and that you’re SAFE! God, people like that just make me want to grab them and shake them and say “What is WRONG with you?”

Sorry. Getting a bit worked up.

There’s another story – last one, I think, I know I’ve been rambling for awhile here…oh – it was about another of the bad apples, and about how situations like this seem to bring out the worst in people – even law enforcement officers. Apparently a tourist asked a nearby policeman for help at one point. His response to her? “Go to hell – it’s every man for himself.” I’m sorry. But that should be grounds for his dismissal. Get his badge number, or at least his name, and report him. I know situations are tense and that there’s no time for those sorts of formalities and processes, but when all this is over, his words really should come back to bite him in the ass. Is that the sort of thing that someone who has sworn “to serve and protect” should be saying? If anyone should be showing compassion, willingness to assist, it should be them. I know that a lot of police officers were affected as well – after all, they’re human too, they have families, homes, loved ones that may still be unaccounted for. But if you can’t handle it, if it gets to be too much, if you don’t feel that you can focus on helping others like you’re supposed to, then SAY SO. Don’t take it out on fellow victims. If you can’t handle it, turn in your badge, and just quit. People like him are the ones that set the horrible examples that it’s okay to be selfish, to ignore your fellow men (or women) in need, it’s okay to loot, steal, cheat, assault, and commit all this crimes when the real issue is that people need help. The only way that this is going to work is if everybody bands together. By everybody I mean the people within the crisis, the people outside the crisis; those helping in other cities with the coordination of evacuating refugees, and the US government. Both at the federal and state levels. Everyone needs to come together to serve the common purpose. Help those who need it.

And yes, I know there are, like I said, those bad seeds. And in desperation, people do crazy things. Remember in Titanic? Upon hearing that women and children only are going to be first allowed on the escape rafts, he steals a child from one of the lowerclassmen and uses that child as his ticket onto the raft. I sincerely hope it’s not the case, yet greatly fear that many down in the ravaged areas are employing means similar to this, in their desperation to be rescued. How tragic.

Again, I realize that I have never been in a situation like this. I am sure that unless you’ve experienced the fear, the anguish, and the desperation firsthand, you don’t know what you’ll do, how you’ll react, what you’ll be driven to do. But I am the type of person who yearns, who hopes to believe that man is inherently good. However, seeing people react this way in circumstances like this makes me think twice about my ethical beliefs. While I agree that help is disappointingly, and unbelievably slow in coming to this area (remember the quote that “we’re taking better care of Iraqis that we are of our own people”), it doesn’t give people a reason to harm their fellow man. People need to be compassionate, kind, helpful, and gracious. Only then will we be able to look back on this situation and say “Look at the circumstances we were given, the challenges we had to face, and see how well we managed.”

Instead, I think this disaster is going to go down in history as one of the worst in the nation, and as a lesson for a variety of subjects (management, sociology, science, logistics, etc.) filled with “coulda shoulda wouldas”.

What a shame.