Playing the Blame Game

It seems that almost everyone, everywhere, who is anyone of note, wants to point the finger and assign blame for some part of what happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Oprah Winfrey thinks that an apology is owed to all of the victims. Goodness knows how many people want to blame President Bush and the list of things they want to blame him for may reach back to being the cause of the hurricane itself. Don't laugh. Some are blaming Hurricane Katrina on global warming and his (President Bush's) failure to sign the Kyoto Accords. This makes no sense, but it is being argued anyway.

So the blame game is afoot. Let's play. We should start by reminding everyone that those who fail to learn the lessons of history, in this case known as Hurricanes Betsy and Camille, are doomed to repeat them. Unlike earthquakes, which give no warnings, hurricanes give advance notice of their coming. There is time to evacuate in advance of the arrival of a hurricane. Many residents of New Orleans and other cities that were ravaged by Hurricane Katrina chose not to evacuate in spite of the warnings that a major hurricane was en route. I blame each and every one of those individuals who had the means to evacuate and chose not to, for worsening the burden and workload of rescue personnel in the aftermath of the storm. Every person who could have left and did not do so made that much extra work for rescuers to have to do once the storm had passed.

I blame the Mayor of New Orleans for failing to use the plan to evacuate the residents of the city who had no way to get themselves out of the city, by using city busses. If this was the written, advance plan for such a disaster, then it should have been exercised, tested and had that been done, it would have probably worked. I also blame said Mayor for failing to exercise proper leadership in the aftermath of the storm. Screaming on talkradio may have raised his national profile, but it accomplished little else and did nothing to aid his constituents. He should have been more visible in the city, helping people in need, working the food lines, solving glitches in the rescue and relief efforts, and on the phone to the Governor to demand more assistance.

I blame the Governor of Louisiana for failing to respond more quickly, and for not having a better response planned as soon as it was apparent that the storm was going to hit. I further blame said Governor for failing to take a proactive position on repairing the levee system that was overwhelmed by the storm and failed, causing the flooding that has made New Orleans uninhabitable.

I blame President George H. W. Bush Jr. for failing to appoint a director of FEMA with the training and experience to properly manage a disaster of this magnitude. I further blame our president for failing to step in and declare martial law in the most heavily damaged areas right away so that those areas could be cleared without any problems, or further looting and the recovery could eventually begin. I also fault the president for his clear inability to manage a crisis or his public image during a crisis, causing a complete loss of confidence in him by the bulk of the American people, even among his Republican supporters.

The blame game. The problem with this game, no one wins. No one ever wins the blame game.

File Under Lessons Learned

So my headhunter sends me on yet another job interview, telling me that this is for a full-time direct hire position and I show up on time, in the appropriate suit and tie. Actually I was early but the important point is that I got there before the appointed time. I went to the reception desk, portfolio tucked under my arm, fresh copies of my resume and professional references inside.

I waited in the reception area of this large corporation and was first greeted by a courteous woman who introduced herself by telling me her name and that I wasn't on her calendar and she then asked "How can I help you" and before I could respond, the receptoinist explained that I was there to see her counterpart. She apologized for the confusion and quickly enough her counterpart came out and ushered me into her office.

I found myself being interviewed for a position, but not the full-time direct hire position I thought I was there for. It was for a temporary contract position that would only last for four months at best, and wasn't even full-time during that entire four month period. I was taken aback because this wasn't what I was there for and being an honest, upfront person, spoke up about the confusion. After the confusion was sorted out, the interviewer asked me if I was interested in the contract position and after I was assured of a few conditions that I needed to be met in order to be able to take on the contract job, would be met, I said I was interested, and the interview went on. I even felt it went well, as I expressed interest in the specifics of what needed to be done during the four month period.

Subsequently the headhunter tells me that the firm came back to him telling him that the interview went "negative". Well, damn. I find myself interviewing for a position that wasn't what it was supposed to be, for fewer hours and less money that it was supposed to be, completely catching me by surprise and they felt the interview went negative.

Now I've sent a card and a note of apology to the interviewer, apologizing for any negatives she may have experienced in our interview, because they certainly weren't intended. But when one considers just how much surprise there was in that morning's interview for me, she might have been a bit more accommodating to give me time to absorb the shock and try to determine if I was interested in the position.

Lessons learned. 1. When working with a headhunter, interviews may well contain surprises. Don't let them put you off of your game. 2. Keep that positive smile on your face in the interview room.

Kayne West is an Ignorant Fool

So Kayne West decides to use a benefit for victims of Hurricane Katrina as a platform to bash President Bush. According to the Associated Press, West appeared about 2/3rds of the way through the show on NBC and said "George Bush doesn't care about black people", that America is set up "to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible" and "I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they're looting. See a white family, it says they're looking for food."

Well, well, well. Mr. West, you have a lot to learn and while I doubt you are a regular reader of this blog, in your vernacular, I will try to school ya. First of all, let's consider those images, haunting images of the victims of Hurricane Katrina from the city of New Orleans. They are truly horrific and it appears that almost all of the victims are black. Which makes it seem like there is someone to blame for the disproportionate amount of black victims, since blacks make up roughly 11 percent of the population of the United States.

But wait. New Orleans is a city with a predominately black population. The population living within the city limits at the time of the hurricane was 67% black. Or to put it another way, just over 2 out of every 3 people living within the city limits of New Orleans when the levees overflowed was black, and likely a victim of poverty as well. There was no government mandate for blacks to live within the city limits. The only reason for the absence of whites living within the city limits of New Orleans is that phenomenon known as "white flight" to the suburbs surrounding the urban area of New Orleans. The whites are in Metairie and Kenner.

As to the differences between looters and those looking for food, when we see images of looters carrying armloads of guns, flatscreen and plasma televisions and other items that are not edible, it is difficult to see or portray them as anything but looters. Were they to be carrying food and water, it would be a different issue.

Is assistance slow in arriving? Probably. But remember, this is a representative democracy, in which the federal government can only act based upon requests from the local and state governments. President Bush could do nothing except order FEMA to stand by and prepare to render aid until the governors of the impacted states asked for aid. Even then, when helicopters intending to rescue survivors approached the Superdome, they were shot at. Makes it kind of hard to render aid, doesn't it?

Fats Domino was a victim who had to be rescued and yet, he wasn't poor and he had the resources to flee before the storm arrived. Instead he chose to "ride it out". That was a mistake that he and everyone like him, who had the ability to get out and chose not to made, and in doing so, increased the burden upon the rescue and aid systems. What has happened is that the order to evacuate has come before, but the hurricane has missed the city and people have grown tired of evacuation when it seemed there was no reason to. This time, the reason did exist, but the people in the line of danger failed to heed the warning. Just like with Hurricane Camille, just like with Hurricane Betsy.

You see, Mr. West, this has happened before. But those who refuse to learn from the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.