Retraumatisation

A disturbing but beautifully crafted narrative from the Guardian about Katrina survivors:
Katrina’s winds died a year ago, but they left deep scars. You see them in wrecked streets. You see them in destroyed forests. You see them in tiny white mobile homes that now dot the Deep South. You see them most, perhaps, [...]

More on Bush and Katrina

With the one year anniversary of Katrina at hand we will be deluged by a Hurricane of commemoration and analysis over the next few weeks. What strikes me so far is the similarity of all the assessments I have read so far.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg in today’s NYT begins with a focus on that same image [...]

Back with Bush in New Orlean’s

I am back after taking six months leave of absence from this project currently focusing on getting together a stronger structure for my thesis.

In the news everything circles around the same issues. With the first anniversary of Katrina and the fifth anniversary of September 11 both approaching there are a growing body of comment pieces [...]

Bush’s photo-ops

Bush is being criticised for not acting fast enough and for a lack luster, even humorous, speech when he first addressed the plight of New Orleans. The New York Times has become increasingly strident in its editorials over the last few days:

George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially [...]

Blame the gays

The floods in New Orleans has given rise to the usual discourse of balme from predictable quarters. Repent America director Michael Marcavage:

“Just days before ”Southern Decadence“, an annual homosexual celebration attracting tens of thousands of people to the French Quarters section of New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina destroys the city….
”Although the loss of lives is deeply [...]

More extreme weather

Another article, this time from Mother Jones, on the apocalyptics of weather: “Dropping in on the Apocalypse,” by Tom Engelhardt. Its a great piece with lots of links to studies and other articles that I will come back to. For now a brief extract about media coverage:
Our media, of course, adores Xtreme weather events. Dan [...]

Checking Crichton’s footnotes

It must be the day for finding articles on the environmental debate. Here’s an interesting article from Boston Globe Ideas on Michael Crichton’s State of Fear. It appears that a number of scientists are none too happy about being used by Crichton in his footnotes.
Toward the end of the novel, Kenner lectures another character on [...]

Climate Apocalypse

With the Kyoto Protocol coming into effect and the shock of the Tsunami, climate change has been big news over the last few months. It seems to be taking the place of the "nuclear threat" as the front line in contemporary apocalyptic thinking.
This weekend’s Independent published an interesting analysis of the recent meeting of climate [...]

Cataclysm and moral sentiment

Excellent reflection from Susan Neiman in the NYT Magazine on the response to the Tsunami. Neiman begins by comparing our reaction to that of Europeans in the 18th century to the earthquake and Tsunami that destroyed Lisbon 250 years ago.
But Enlightenment thinkers took broader perspectives. Though many denied the existence of a personal Creator, most [...]