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Hurricane Gustav

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BradK

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Well, seems like a good time to start a thread on Hurricane Gustav.

I must say that I have followed a few press conferences of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin - and he is a very straight shooter. Has now told potential looters that they will go 'directly to Angola' prison - in the general population so that Bubba can have his way with them.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7590426.stm

This press conference goes for seven minutes, but is the announcement of the mandatory evacuation.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7590336.stm

I noticed President Bush speaking on the television this morning and he just sounded like a shadow or fake imitation of Ray Nagin.

Ray Nagin for President!

Brad
 
Angola

For what its worth, Angola is not a very nice place to go to. It is Lousiana State Penitentary - the place where that guy spent 30 years in solitary confinement! I believe there was a movie about it with Kevin Bacon?

The moment he sat down, I knew: this man is a political animal. In the five hours we spent together, the depth and breadth of his knowledge about the world gobsmacked me, He talked about AIDS in Africa, the Palestinians, corporate globalisation. He consistently showed an amazing antenna for stories of people who have been marginalized through war or injustice. His capacity for empathy was breathtaking.

I suddenly felt phony for even being there, offering to help when he had been waiting three decades for someone to notice his predicament, suffering in solitude but with dignity. What did I have to offer, how could I possibly relate to a man who has been locked up for 30 years in a tiny cell? For a long time, it was all I could do just to listen. Listening has never been my strong suit.

Three Decades in Solitary Confinement

Albert described his cell for me: less than three metres square, it has a steel bed platform bolted to one wall with a thin mattress atop it. A small table is bolted to the opposite wall, and the third wall is occupied by a combination toilet and sink. He is not allowed to put anything on the walls, so he lines the perimeter of his wall with books along the floor. And he has two steel boxes under the bed in which he keeps all of his earthly belongings. He spends 23 hours a day there. Three days a week he is given an hour in the "yard," not much more than a small cage with a dirt floor, where he can exercise alone. The other four days a week, he can use his hour for a shower or to walk along the cramped cellblock.

I cannot imagine the heat. The day I visited it was 90 degrees, and humid. The CCR cellblock has one fan for every five cells, and no air conditioning. But Albert did not complain.

Instead, Albert talked about his mother, who had raised Albert and his siblings alone, keeping food on the table, clothes on their backs, and a roof over their heads--he called his childhood home "an oasis in a pocket of poverty" -- by working as a prostitute. Just before she died, his mother asked him, "Albert, when those white folks gonna let you out?" He talked about his sister, who has been his biggest supporter, who lies dying from cancer in New Orleans, unable to visit him anymore. Albert hopes to be permitted to attend her funeral, a hope probably misplaced.
 
I was (and am) short the S&P 500 over the weekend, so all sadism aside, I would like Gustav to kick it up a gear.
 
Although Gustav will dominate the news :eek: ....

More than 300,000 people trapped in India's worst floods in 50 years have been rescued but nearly double that number remain stranded without food or water, officials say.

About 60 people have died and three million have been affected since the Kosi river breached its banks earlier this month on the border with Nepal and changed course, swamping hundreds of villages in eastern Bihar state.
Click to expand...

http://news.smh.com.au/world/600000-trapped-in-indias-floods-20080831-466j.html
 
So, its 5.40pm on Monday evening. Where are we up to with it? Can we find out a live site where there is information on Gustav's category?

I DO NOT like the devastation, but boy I like storms!!

So, is this 'the real thing' according to Nagin? Or a media storm? Thoughts from fellow storm watchers???

Cheers
Brad
 
Nashezz said:
I was (and am) short the S&P 500 over the weekend, so all sadism aside, I would like Gustav to kick it up a gear.
Click to expand...



If anyone had any doubts as to the kind of world we live in you have single handedly reminded us ...... onya champ.

:(
 
hello,

yes and sales of guns in NewO up 40%, wow

many should start to re-consider this "look whats happening in US, UK or spain" and it therefore has to happen here in Aus, not a chance

yeah pop cap homes ????????

thankyou
robots
 
numbercruncher said:
If anyone had any doubts as to the kind of world we live in you have single handedly reminded us ...... onya champ.

:(
Click to expand...

Although I believe his statement was harshly cold; no one really has the right to judge him on it.

Let's face it - lots of big business revolves around this sort of thing - insurance probably being the biggest. Insurance companies take gambles on the year ahead when it comes to storms; and many limit their exposure because of events just like this - should these companies be forced to insure people?

If companies are allowed to protect capital / profits by not taking a position in areas affected by storm, then it surely isn't so wicked to seek profit from said destruction - after all, companies that enjoy higher profits as a result of a sudden spike in Copper on the back of some earthquake don't exactly donate the difference to victims, now do they?

Who has the right to dictate what event one should and should not seek to profit from? Nike paying 3rd world children 10c a shoe, oil companies ravaging the earth with pollution, YUM foods keeping 20 chickens in a cage, and McDonald's ruining a generation of children - that's just business.

I'm sure many folks are positioning their portfolios around Gustav; they just don't have the ill-taste to go around boasting about it.
 
Dare you to go to New Orleans and say that Nyden :eek:
Hey you can wait till it's safe (for your own safety from the elements) - no problem :2twocents
 
Nyden said:
Although I believe his statement was harshly cold; no one really has the right to judge him on it.

Let's face it - lots of big business revolves around this sort of thing - insurance probably being the biggest. Insurance companies take gambles on the year ahead when it comes to storms; and many limit their exposure because of events just like this - should these companies be forced to insure people?

If companies are allowed to protect capital / profits by not taking a position in areas affected by storm, then it surely isn't so wicked to seek profit from said destruction - after all, companies that enjoy higher profits as a result of a sudden spike in Copper on the back of some earthquake don't exactly donate the difference to victims, now do they?

Who has the right to dictate what event one should and should not seek to profit from? Nike paying 3rd world children 10c a shoe, oil companies ravaging the earth with pollution, YUM foods keeping 20 chickens in a cage, and McDonald's ruining a generation of children - that's just business.

I'm sure many folks are positioning their portfolios around Gustav; they just don't have the ill-taste to go around boasting about it.
Click to expand...

Edit:
Why isn't anybody attacking those that are wishing for economic meltdown? Surely many more will suffer from a massive world-wide depression than a simple storm - yet we all seem to tolerate those with bomb-shelters and bars of gold who speak of armageddon on an almost daily basis.


Some members here honestly remind me of that ghastly 'A current affair' show.

Oops! I pressed quote instead of edit, silly me :)
 
2020hindsight said:
Dare you to go to New Orleans and say that Nyden :eek:
Hey you can wait till it's safe (for your own safety from the elements) - no problem :2twocents
Click to expand...

Mind the comments there ACA, I didn't say I was hoping to profit from this; I said I'm sure that many folks are.

I also stated that I believe his comments were in ill-taste, I was merely offering an alternative point of view to the holier-than-thou moral high-ground.

Oh, and (you can almost hear the can opening!) first of all; no one should die as a result of this. They have ample warning, and they've been instructed to leave their homes, and to any that stay - I feel no pity for those that refuse to help themselves.
 
hello,

i'm with you Nyden, its a circus, life will roll on fine

the great thing is the gold indicator is showing alls well

thankyou
robots
 
Opportunity knocks::cautious:

TTM012301CC385_391166a.jpg
 
Nyden said:
They have ample warning, and they've been instructed to leave their homes, and to any that stay - I feel no pity for those that refuse to help themselves.
Click to expand...
Nyden
Do you have pity for those who leave, only to have their homes robbed? (hence the increase in weapons sales of course) - people forced into that predicament because of
a) the right of Americans to have bare arms, and
b) the hopeless govt efforts to protect them from that sinking feeling :eek:

Incidentally, Interesting that it's 3 years almost to the day that Katrina hit

Katrina made landfall near New Orleans on August 29, 2005, smashing poorly-built levees surrounding the city and causing massive floods that destroyed tens of thousands of homes and killed nearly 1,800.
Click to expand...


PS Such a test of people's ethics during the Katrina episode -

a) due to an incompetent Govt, we are stuck here, and
b) there is only so much food to go round
c) you have food
d) you need food , but so do I
e) I'm bigger than you
f) so who's gonna know if I murder you by stealing your food? :eek:
g) hopefully I'll learn to live with myself somewhere out there in the future
 
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