vexxy:

yes, CNN has changed it into their own little thing but that should not make us lose focus on what it is, a tragedy. Not a platform for politics. Let's deal with that after this has been solved.

It is not limited to CNN, all news agencies and media outlet are all on the wagon, and its is expected. What happened is unprecedented, and besides, albeit depressing, the world needs the information.

Many pundits have injected some racial undertone to what happened in New Orleans. To me this a somewhat visceral reaction, what the world witnessed in the last 4 days was a resultant effect of failed leadership in the US, coupled with a logistical difficulties of dealing with a devastating disaster of that magnitude. Private citizens have stepped up big time- with donations and all sorts of help.

Nigeria needs to step up too, yes we have our own issues, but we need to do something regardless. Sri Lanka pledged $25 G despite their troubles. I'm sure there are Nigerians affected in disaster too, what is our embassy doing to assist, I wonder.

I did not limit it to CNN, only responding to the CNN comment.

Private citizens have always stepped up to help others here. It has never only been done by the government. Yes, FEMA let us down in a horrible way but the focus should be to get aide there. After it's dealt with then we can place blame if that's what I/you/us/whomever choose to do.

I guess that what we can do is assure those in need of our support should they need our help. Emotional support is probably all we have to offer, and those that are bringing up the racism issue are not helping at all.

Subject: Katrina: Nigerian Prof Niyi Osundare Experience


This was really hell.

From: Niyi Osundare


Subject: I am Alive
Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 12:19:39 -0700 (PDT)


This is my first real internet access since the
disaster struck...

I can't thank you enough for your concern and care.
It's been all so overwhelming. My wife and I are alive
and, after passing through five horrendous "evacuation
centers", have been allocated to the Red Cross
shelter in Birmingham, Alabama.
The nightmare of the past seven days is simply
unimaginable. We very narrowly escaped drowning in our
own house. Pursued by an 8-foot high toxic flood
water (15 feet in the street outside our door), we
were forced up a stuffy, airless attic, where we were
holed up for 26 hours, with no food, no water, no
prospect of any rescue. We were only saved by the
fortuitous intervention of a neighbour who heard our
shout for help when he came round with his rescue boat
to pick up something from his own house. With life
vests provided by him, we managed to swim out of our
house, leaving everything we had behind. Right now,
all our clothes, books, academic and professional
credentials, trave documents, computers,, manuscripts,
etc etc are submerged in the dirty waters of the New
Orleans flood. Hell has no other name...

We deeply appreciate your concern. Kindly pass on our
gratitude to all on your listserve.

Yours in the Eye of the Storm

Niyi Osundare

I wasnt caught up in d hurricane. That was a mail from the renowned Nigerian poet Niyi Osundare.

I'm glad that he's alright.

How to help victims of Hurricane Katrina even if you don't live in the US, courtesy of Black Looks:

A couple of useful Katrina activities even if you dont live in the US.

Katrina People Finder - they need people to help enter unstructured data into a structured database of names.

I Can Help - Real Help for Katrina victims: A forum for those who can help in anyway and for those who need help.

http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks/2005/09/katrina_help.html

So, please, we can go ahead and help this people with our time.

In additon, donations can be made through the Red Cross.

Per Niyi Osundare's experience; I repeat what is the Nigerian embassy in the US doing for Nigerians affected by the storm?

"The Independent in Nigeria reported that Nigerian embassy officials in Washington had not received any distress calls from Nigerian victims of the hurricane."

I think that if there were a cause of distress for the Embassy to act they would, but as of yet they have not reached that level.

Source: BBC News -- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4215714.stm

Must they wait to get distress calls? They should make move and see if there are any Nigerian(s) involved or is it that they are not aware that there are no means of communications. Even if there are now, it's not everyone who have access to it. That is what is expected of a govt concerned about the welfare of it's people. Besides, there should be a database of all Nigerians residing wherever. I think that is simply a flimsy excuse for their inefficiency and unproductivity.

Thanks De-King: Talk about the difference between being proactive and reactive. This qualifies what we have being saying like what will happen if Katrina happens in Lagos. A reactive goverment wont even warn people in the 1st place, No emergency evacuation plans, no disaster recovery procedures etc. They will simply wait for people to die and then squable in the parliament for ages about what to do.

Thank goodness we dont have these massive hurricanes in Nigeria. Rather, God help us from our "human" hurricanes that are killing the people at a worse rate compared to Katrina.

from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9177352/

5:41: Mike Myers and Kanye West are on now, talking about the homeless situation. Kanye brings up an important point, talking about how the media portrays white people as seeking food and blacks as looters. He goes into an impassioned speech about the difficulties blacks are having during the Katrina fallout and in the country in general. Mike Myers is with him at the start.

About 10 seconds in, it's clear he's not reading from the prompter. He stumbles a bit on his points, but most of them get across. The basic message to the government? Stop dragging your feet and help the people down there. Myers gives him a couple "oh my God" looks, and then another when Kanye says "They've given them permission to go down and shoot us."

Myers, clearly stressed, goes into another point about the hurricane and how New Orleans is forever changed. Then Kanye drops the biggest bomb.

"George Bush doesn't care about black people," West said. Myers turns to him and clearly has no idea what to say. Then they go to a flabbergasted Chris Tucker.

Kanye was one frustrated man on TV. (And really, I can't do it justice here. Watch the video.)

http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Kayne-West-Bush-Black-People.wmv

Comedian Mike Myers was paired with West for a 90-second segment that began with Myers speaking of Katrina’s devastation. Then, to Myers’ evident surprise, West began a rant by saying, “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.”
While allowing that “the Red Cross is doing everything they can,” West — who delivered an emotional outburst at the American Music Awards after he was snubbed for an award — declared that government authorities are intentionally dragging their feet on aid to the Gulf Coast. Without getting specific, he added, “They’ve given them permission to go down and shoot us.”
After he stated, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people. Please call —” the camera cut away to comedian Chris Tucker.

Yes, I saw this and I wondered how it actually helped the victims.

Everybody can yab Bush anyhow. However, when disasters of such magnitude happens, even the most well laid out plans will be stretched to the limit. Such disasters cant be prevented, and when they occur, the devastation in many cases stalls any meaningful plan.

I have been involved in Disaster recovery plans and I can tell you, plans are always great on paper, in reality, they need to be adapted as you will not have luxury for standard routines. This is the case with the devastation caused by Katrina.

I would expect to see more Americans move en mass to help out the victims and do whatever to rebuild the damages. Talk shows and racial accusations dont help anybody.

Now I'm no expert on disaster recovery, nor do I claim to possess any knowledge on the topic, but I do believe that this crisis could have been handled a lot better than it was.
There are a lot of conspiracy theories circulating as to why the victims had to wait so long for relief; ranging from the fact that a majority of them were black, to Bush got his lowest number of votes from Louisiana (ridiculous. I know.), to Bush isn't up for re-election so he really doesn't care.
As concerns what Kanye said on TV the other day; I thought he was just ranting as usual until I saw the pictures of the "black looters" and "white finders" on the web. And I dont blame him for using the medium to express the feelings of millions of others (including some of the celebrities present) were unable or afraid to. I feel pretty bad about the situation as it is, but believe me, if I had any family stranded in New Orleans, I would be taking it a lot more personal than Mr. West.
I think Bill Maher put it best when he said "Kind of makes you miss the innocent days (of 9/11) when Bush only sat on his ass for seven minutes".

First, what the media says has nothing to do with Bush.  They put out what they want to put out.  "Freedom of the Press" That's the way it is.

Second, these people were warned more than 3 days in advance at what was approaching them.  The mayor has said there were over 40,000 people who had decided to stay behind for whatever reasons.

He, being the mayor, along with the govenor and other city officials, could have easily employed all of the mass public transportation made available to them to hump those folks out of there.  They didn't.

Every town, city, county, state should have a plan of action incase something like this were to happen like Texas and Florida.  They didn't

It goes through so many levels before it hits Bush, yet he is blamed for everything.  Go figure.

There are so many options on who to blame.  Take your pick.  I just say let's save this nonsense until after the victims are cared for.

can people agree that every little thing that happens to a minority aint racism?

I strongly disagree with Kanye and his public outlast against Bush

I do, too. 

Everything is about race with us.  Also, if the news is saying that the African Americans are "looting" but the Whites are "finding" what does that have to do with Bush (who is the first president to have an African American female as the Secretary of State and a Hispanic as the head of the Department of Justice) racist?  He has more people of color in his administration then Clinton had in his and more than Kerry had in his campaign efforts.

All that being said, the bottom line is: Do not make this an opening for a political/racial platform.  Get off the soapbox and help.  Get back on after it's done.

. . . .now that I think of it, doesn't West have an album set to drop soon? More news coverage of him couldn't hurt. . .

My take is that this was a terrible disaster and there are many lessons to be learned from this alone.  We plan and then there's the plan of God, so with that in mind there was nothing that we could have done to prevent this from happening. Everything that happened was supposed to happen. It's a very disturbing reality for many because lot's of lives were lost and many people affected all over the world, but it is real.
My heart goes out to the many people who suffered directly from the tragedy. I know that people of all different nationalities were affected because I have a genuine love for humans. I have a very special love for my people that I can not explain. The reality is that the majority of the people affected were African descants. That hit home for me.

I'm a little disappointed when I read these threads and read how people are separating themselves as Nigerian Africans from the other Africans who are affected from this tragedy.  Did we not learn anything from slavery? The separation in our minds was one of the biggest contributions of why I am sitting here in America with an English Native tongue, not knowing exactly where my roots come from within Africa but still having the dynamic African spirit. This is such a disgrace to me. I am not saying that people should not have a sense of their cultural practices and love for their specific cultures I'm just saying that we are all in this together.

Africans all over the world have the same common cultural practices that binds us together and can not be denied. Their are some African Americans who sincerely love all African people because we understand what happened to us and that we are one. Only the ones without proper understanding are ignorant and hate themselves. 

Listen, For me when I seen my people there in the water without proper help, food, water, babies hungry, families spread apart, dead bodies floating and more I could not help but to cry from my soul. I would have given my life to say a child's life, it was so sad. I feel the same way when I read, see and hear stories about things going on in Africa because I know there is a generational war against our existence.
The saddest part of it all was that those people on T.V looked just like me. and no matter what I thought of their social or economic class i knew that they were my people. I was hurt by the fact that we as African people were not able to help ourselves but only depend on a government system that openly in the public let us down and did not help our people for days.
Remember when the Tsunami took place there were U.S troops and U.S help all over the place within the same day of the event. Now here we are in the U.S where the president lives and major resources are and people did not get help for about 4 days. This is Insane and not acceptable. People were arrested and shot for looting!!  I couldn't believe that, can you?
I can tell you straight up right now, I would have been one of the first persons breaking into stores trying to find survival supplies for my family and children, especially since I'm without food or water and everything i had was gone.

if this did not open up the eyes of African people all over the world who were sleeping by the false notion of the dominate culture, then I don't know what will and May God help us all.

Most important God sent a strong message to all of us Africans all across the world about our current conditions. Just as God has sent messages to other nations. We have really got to establish a Universal connection between us and look past our difference in-order to survive here. While many individual countries may be doing alright, there are many other countries in Africa and other Black nations that are suffering greatly. African's are the Majority of the world, how are we being dominated by the minority of the world?

This is not about Black or white, this is about right and wrong and about the original guardians of the earth taking our rightful place in setting things back on track. I believe we are able to do this because we have had much time to study our era's of the past and have bright leaders of the future who are ready and able to carry things on.

And now they are anticipating 3 more horrible hurricane's such as Katrina to hit the U.S.
May God have more mercy on us all.
I believe that we can pray, but also we can organize food drives, clothe drives and traveling opportunities for people who would like to relocate and start their lives over, education opportunities and more. I'm sure many people do not want to return to that place of such brutal pain. If people got together and brain storm their idea's, I'm something will come up.

WE WILL NEVER RISE ABOVE THE CONDITIONS OF OUR PEOPLE. IF ONE IS DOWN THEN WE ARE ALL DOWN.

I love you guy's, please don't be offended by my passion.

Kenya:


I'm a little disappointed when I read these threads and read how people are separating themselves as Nigerian Africans from the other Africans who are affected from this tragedy. 

 

No offense, Kenya. But you comment, it seems you may have  misunderstood the gist of the post. I need to correct some misconcept, if any.

Primarily, the idea is that Nigeria needs to donate to the relief effort. I understand Nigeria already made a commitment of $1 million.

Secondly, the Nigerian embassy needs to reach out to Nigerians and assist in any way possible.

I think these are the issues, and the majority of the pundits have agreed to this, I hope.  Your comment does seem to resonate with these.

i think this is pure racism, if this had happened to an affluent white neighborhood, i dont think the way Bush's adminnistration would react they way they did to the hurricane victims. I strongly dsagree with Nddy and Vexxy

Wait, isn't the Mayor of New Orleans African American? If he was so concerned about his people why didn't he do all that he could to bus everyone out who said they weren't able to make it out on their own?

He, himself, stated that there were over 40,000 people were left behind because they couldn't leave. Why didn't he get them out?

Why didn't he have a plan of action for something like this? It's no secret that New Orleans was built below sea level. It was no secret that they long since needed repairs done to the levees that protected the city.

terry:

i think this is pure racism, if this had happened to an affluent white neighborhood, i don't think the way Bush's adminnistration would react they way they did to the hurricane victims. I strongly dsagree with Nddy and Vexxy

A Terry, your comment seems like a "knee-jerk reaction"?

If you need more insight on the issue and how the events played out beyond what one sees on TV, then you may want to check out this link:

http://grandioseparlor..com/2005/09/katrina-fumble-of-highest-order.html, on Grandiose Parlor.

Imnakoya:

A Terry, your comment seems like a "knee-jerk reaction"?

If you need more insight on the issue and how the events played out beyond what one sees on TV, then you may want to check out this link:

http://grandioseparlor..com/2005/09/katrina-fumble-of-highest-order.html, on Grandiose Parlor.

knee jerk reaction

Yes you are right, I apologize, I must have mis-read something. Thanks for the Clarity, be well everyone

Its real sad cuz all these people lost their homes clothes , EVERYTHING n for 5days the government did not do anything , they just put all of those people in a big place with urine and feces n dirt n Dead bodies no food n no water to drink just because its a dominant BLACK city just pure racism Bush is an asshole i tell you , but now theyre starting to take actiona little bit at least , its really serious from what ive seen on T.V. and i dont even live there im in Chicago ..

I know that God himself is not sleeping. He will protect those people just like he protected the isralite from danger he said it himself. I pray dear God have mercy upon this earth we have sinned against u and done do stuff we shouldn't have done but i know that u will have mercy. Thank u Lord for we are a slave for Jesus Christ. Amen.

President Olusegun Obasanjo has just donated an additional $5 million naira to the U.N. Tsunami relief fund for the benefit of Hurricane Katrina victims, making total of $6 million naira that Nigeria has donated to this cause.

- http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/32647.html
- http://english.people.com.cn/200509/19/eng20050919_209249.html

From a UN Statement: "The secretary-general feels that this donation from a developing country for the benefit of many victims of last year's tsunami is a laudable example of international solidarity"

I hereby ban the almighty admin [Seun] for 2 hrs

Why?

Seun:

................... additional $5 million naira to the U.N. Tsunami relief fund for the benefit of Hurricane Katrina victims, making total of $6 million naira that Nigeria ..............

I know this post might not last 1 hr.

Our Baba did great!

Subject: Katrina: Nigerian Prof Niyi Osundare Experience


This was really hell.

From: Niyi Osundare


Subject: I am Alive
Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 12:19:39 -0700 (PDT)


This is my first real internet access since the
disaster struck...

I can't thank you enough for your concern and care.
It's been all so overwhelming. My wife and I are alive
and, after passing through five horrendous "evacuation
centers", have been allocated to the Red Cross
shelter in Birmingham, Alabama.
The nightmare of the past seven days is simply
unimaginable. We very narrowly escaped drowning in our
own house. Pursued by an 8-foot high toxic flood
water (15 feet in the street outside our door), we
were forced up a stuffy, airless attic, where we were
holed up for 26 hours, with no food, no water, no
prospect of any rescue. We were only saved by the
fortuitous intervention of a neighbour who heard our
shout for help when he came round with his rescue boat
to pick up something from his own house. With life
vests provided by him, we managed to swim out of our
house, leaving everything we had behind. Right now,
all our clothes, books, academic and professional
credentials, trave documents, computers,, manuscripts,
etc etc are submerged in the dirty waters of the New
Orleans flood. Hell has no other name...

We deeply appreciate your concern. Kindly pass on our
gratitude to all on your listserve.

Yours in the Eye of the Storm

Niyi Osundare


Where did you see this pls ? I mean this whole letter from prof Niyi Osundare

umm Vexxy. . . how did Kanye's statements "hurt" the victims of Katrina?

The gist of what Kanye was saying rings true in a lot of ways - and it's always better to have truth out in the open right?

Anyway, assuming that there is no way of being sure whether or not what he said is/was true, or even assuming that what he said was totally false - how did it hurt the victims?

I can provide at least one benefit to the victims: It would motivate bush to show he is helping to disprove what kanye said.