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Yet again, mother nature shows its sheer strength and brutality. And yet again, humans are left behind in awe and despair. Millions are affected as Katrina swept across Louisiana, and New Orleans, the home of my aunt and uncle.

Katrina could not have timed her appearance worse, as she came in brutally the same week as my aunt and uncle were supposed to move inland safely away from the unstable weather that comes in on the southern shorelines of the US of A. My dad was coming over too, to help them move and settle in and build the farm they are setting up.

Guess they should have done that a week earlier. Well, there is nothing you can do about that is there. Mother Nature gives, and mother nature takes. That’s the way of life, always has been that way and will remain so for all eternity.

But it is at times like this that you see the true face of human nature. You see ordinary people become heroes, some turn desperate and become modern-day vigilantes, and you see people losing all they’ve ever had. Looking at the news reports from downtown New Orleans reminds you not of a town that thrives with life during the Mardi Gras festival, or a town with great history, a town with that good jazzy atmosphere.

What you’re looking at, is a war zone. No guns were fired, and no atomic bomb was dropped. No, it was mother nature that showed her brute force. Mother Nature shows her arsenal, her potential for devastation. She has no mercy and no feelings. Even though no guns were fired, the victims of this great tragedy is now firing guns like there is no tomorrow.

I can’t say that I blame them, they are fighting for their survival. It’s the sheer instinct of getting on to tomorrow, all signs of being civilized and being a moral being plummets like a rock heading from outer space into our atmosphere. It’s destined to fall to the ground. My respects go out to the ones working for the New Orleans police and fire departments, their job is hard in the first place, but the responsibility placed on their shoulders after Katrina did her work is way beyond imagination.

Working around the clock for days, without sleep, not knowing where the next bullet may strife. They themselves have lost everything, and yet they stand fort trying to maintain peace and order. Seeing that many police officers have deserted comes as no surprise, most people would have in their position.

This brings me to federal involvement in this matter. The federal government was slow to deploy the national guard and Army to the area. They showed very little interest in doing anything, and good old Bush sat on his picket fence just staring. It took a very long time before the president even bothered to make a statement, to get off his fucking arse.

Adding to the injury, the sitting administration has cut back on flood protection funds to cover the ever-growing expenses of running the war in Iraq. The US has heaps of military personnel abroad, especially in Iraq that should have been dispatched to the disaster area. But no, good old Bush is too occupied fighting the war that his father started.

His own pride makes him fail in his own backyard, where it matters the most. The fact that the US was quicker to deploy personnel to the tsunami-affected areas than in their own homeland also makes me wonder. It puzzles me and makes me speechless. But nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to the Bush administration. Pack of useless, no-good rednecks.

Bush is like an untrained sea captain. If you show him a naval chart, he wouldn’t know how to use it. Show him a compass, and he thinks it’s a toy. Ask him to guide the ship by the stars alone, and he’ll laugh at you and say; “No, that’s damned impossible! The stars are only dots sprinkled across the sky by God to entertain us. God bless us, and God bless America!”

The only thing I can say really is this; My thoughts go out to the flood victims in New Orleans and the surrounding areas.

Update:

It seems that the initial reports my aunt and uncle were given were wrong. They’ve now been able to get to their house, which hasn’t been affected by the catastrophe at all. Just minor water damage, that’s it.

I just can’t say how pleased I was to hear this.

By Jostein Elvaker Haande

"A free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular" - Adlai Stevenson

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