King Lear

[poliphilo]

Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? O! I have ta'en
Too little care of this.

(Act III, scene iv)

Comments

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Gulp. Exactly.

Here:

Edward Kamau Brathwaite. SHAR: Hurricane Poem. Kingston, Jamaica:

And what. what. what. what more. what more can I tell you
on this afternoon of electric bronze
but that the winds. winds. winds. winds came straight on
& that there was no step. no stop. there was no stopp.
ing them & they began to reel. in circles. scream. ing like Ezekiel's
wheel
&
that the valley of destruction filled with buzz. with kite tails wild.
ing
tug & tear & rip & tatter up & like old women laugh.
ing. warn. ing. child.
ren scream.
& they were really scream. ing let me tell you

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

My horror is less at Nature than at a Government (the Government of the richest, most powerful nation in the world) that has got itself into a such a state- overstretched, underfunded- that it cannot help its people.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

The Cavalry is coming, but it's so slow!

I was just taken to task, perhaps rightly so, for ignoring the fact that steps must be taken in a certain order for such a massive undertaking. I get impatient and want to go from A to Z with nothing in between. I would have been an awful clerk or secretary. But I still insist that this help attempt is too little and too late! And maybe it's because no one could have imagined such a scenario or prepared for it...

I have just heard that doctors were trying to take patients out of a hospital in New Orleans, into a vehicle, and a SNIPER just fired on them from an upper window.

People can no longer be evacuated from Charity Hospital, and the temperature inside is 110 degrees.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

From what I'm reading it is indeed too little and too late.

The Government was notified several years back that this was a disaster it should be planning for- instead it cut relevant funding and posted relevant personnel abroad.

They were gambling it wouldn't happen on their watch- but it did.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

CNN says officials are calling for the entire city to be evacuated. And I did see that there was a food drop at the Convention Center...

If they do evacuate the entire city, will those gangs with guns run from help? Will they stay and be lords of their drowned manors with their useless flat-screen televisions and with no water?

What a science fiction story this would make. Then I remember that it's real, and I can't believe it, and can't stand it.

We should have known, when they showed that perfect round hurricane that filled up the entire Gulf moving onshore.

The Gulf is too warm. There are two more tropical depressions forming right now, one to be named Lee and the other Marvin, I think.

We're already at the M's.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's so like a Hollywood movie it's unreal.

I keep thinking of Escape from New York- where the post-apocalyptic city has been fenced round and abandoned to rival gangs.

Lee Marvin? That's either totally inspired or totally inappropriate- I can't decide which.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is a real event and that there are thousands of people out there suffering and dying.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Snake Plissken! Yes. I remember it well.

I may have told you about my dream about being a part of a great stream of refugees fleeing down a highway, how we were finally taken in at a set of buildings, and I was given a room with just a couple of pieces of unmatched furniture--a table, I think, for one--

That dream haunted me, and I'd revisit it from time to time and play with it--it's the theme of my life, somehow.

I also dreamed about a post-nuclear world in which the scenery was blasted and unfamiliar.

All this news is bringing back my dreams. When I was going through my difficult end-of-marriage, then later raising my children alone, I found myself fascinated with survivor stories from Nazi Germany. I would read book after book and pretend that I would somehow make a place for myself, a home, even there.

Now I see how that can't be done, really. One just sits on one's plastic bag and hopes for water, and finally ignores the sun.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

When I was a very small boy I had a fantasy about being the survivor- along with my best friend- of a monstrous tidal wave.

We would live on an island, surrounded by a shining sea. No corpses, no wreckage, no shortage of food and water. Everything would be wonderful forever and ever.

[ibid.livejournal.com]

Well with any luck it'll undermine popular faith in the chimp...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think it could be the thing that finally breaks him.

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

just read an article that says the army corps of engineers has known for several years that the levee isn't strong enough to hold back a storm surge, but their funding has been cut by bush and they havent been able to do anything about it. in 2001 the federal emergency management agency listed a severe hurricane striking new orleans as one of the top three disaster scenarios likely to occur in the us (also on their list was a terrorist attack in nyc), but their research was ignored.

bush also opened up the wetlands between NO and the ocean to developers, putting the city at greater risk, because every 2 miles of wetlands reduces storm surge by half a foot.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think I probably read the same article.

On Truthout, right?

They took a gamble. They hoped it wouldn't happen on their watch.

But it did.

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

i forget where exactly, but possibly salon.com or the ny times.

i was about to say "my, you're up early", but then i remembered that i'm on pacific time, so there's an 8 hour difference, not a 5 hour difference.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm up earlier than usual. Ailz has a hospital appointment mid-morning and we both need acres of time to get ready in.