New Orleans Mayor lashes out

The situation in New Orleans is looking like a disaster movie most moviegoers would dismiss as too far out and unrealistic. According to the news there is lawlessness, chaos, looting, dead bodies floating in the water that itself it toxic and filled with human waste. Mosquitoes are breeding and now they are expecting an outbreak of disease. Police are barricaded up protecting themselves from snipers.

All this continues to deteriorate as still about half a million people are left to fend for themselves with little help coming from the US Federal government. A mandatory evacuation is in place but efforts to get people out seem so little relative to the scale of the disaster. President Bush sits back and states help is on the way but it is now day 5 and people are desperate and getting even more desperate as their lives are being threatened. The Mayor of New Orleans got on the radio this morning and blasted Federal authorities for not doing enough to help the victims of Katrina. He basically told Bush to get off his "God Damned Ass" and make things happened. Although those words were used I don't think he specifically referred to Bush in that way but essentially that was his message. He was so emotional in the manner and way he spoke which came right from the core of his soul. This is a man devastated, exasperated and at the end of his rope. At the end he broke down and had to leave in tears. Nothing so far has brought all this home to the heart than hearing him talk about his city and his people and what they are going through.

You know if this were Beverly Hills or Long Island I can bet help would have been there immediately not five days later. Those most affected are poor African Americans not rich white people. Americans have been asking where is France and Germany. Well where is Saudi Arabia, England and Japan their supposed best friends? Canada has offered help and has things in place ready to go and still no one has told us to ship anyone or anything to the region. I get the sense still that it is deteriorating and no one yet has a grasp on the situation and how to handle it. Meanwhile oil is not being pumped, gas prices hit over $1.50 a litre in some parts of Montreal yesterday and the economy of the continent is poised to take a nose dive if something isn't done to restore some sense of order down there soon. That disaster could translate into a continental or even global disaster if Bush doesn't get a grip on things soon.

In another story two American men, 23 and 20 were found dead in Laval yesterday not far from where I work. In fact I believe saw the helicopter that spotted the bodies in a quarry a few kilometers south of our building. They disappeared Aug 22nd after a night of partying and headed into Laval to go to an after hours nightclub. They were two male strippers and one was a porn star. They were in Montreal after their show had wrapped up its Canadian tour. They stripped for both men and women and were with a show similar to Chipendales. The story has been gripping the city for the past week but this morning they confirmed the two bodies those of the two men. I find it ironic that women are always referred to as strippers in the news when something like this happens but these guys were labeled as "models". Still though very sad... it's not sure how they died but they were located at the bottom of a deep quarry at the back of the nightclub. Perhaps they fell in a drunken or drugged state although people with them in Montreal said they took no drugs and were not drunk when they left. Perhaps they crossed someone in the porn business and were killed and shoved over into the quarry. I guess time will tell. Quite tragic though.


Update: I went and topped up the gas in my car at lunch. I had exactly half a tank left... $41 plus change.... so $82 for a full tank. A yearago $41 would have been a full tank. It was $1.34 a litre. Reports just before lunch had prices going up to $1.47 in the East end of Montreal when I live. *Sigh*