be the change you want to see in the world

Apple fooled everyone today. The technology media was buzzing with pre-release news and rumors about Moto’s Rokr phone, which is underwhelming, to say the least. 100 songs. Big deal. I’m sure Moto will have more to say on the subject. It does sync with iTunes and can access the iTunes Music Store, but it is a lackluster opening salvo in what will undoubtedly be a fun contest to watch, as cell makers integrate more and more functionality around music into their offerings.

Apple’s real news - the iPod Nano - is a truly amazing little piece of technology. It is utterly tiny and holds 1000 songs. It is featherweight and solid state. And the coolest thing about it is it is a real iPod, not like the shuffle, which doesn’t have a display. This little thing has a color display. It appears to do everything the big brothers do, except maybe work with iTrip, iMic and the like. It holds your files, your audiobooks, photos, whatever.

This new iPod nano is one of those truly irritating devices. It instantly makes my 20GB 3rd Gen iPod completely “old”. It was holding its own against the 4th Gen iPods, but now its just yesterday’s news. iPod is dead. Long live iPod.

The unforseen consequence of the disasterous response to Katrina may be an emboldening of the mass media in the US. Long cowed by successful and relentless accusations of bias, chronic underfunding of investigative activities, and wider and wider syndication of thinner and thinner content, the US media has suddenly found a voice. They are speaking out repeatedly and forcefully on the subject of Katrina and its aftermath.

The US media has found a voice because of two main factors. The first rests on the utter irrefutability of the culpability of government in the disasterous handling of the Katrina’s approach and aftermath. To quote George Tennent, “its a slam dunk” for every reporter covering the tragedy.

The second factor is more subtle. US media outlets have shied away from commentary on political topics for years, preferring instead to stage mock debates between practised and polished spin-meisters from the two main parties. This saves them from any accusation of bias while allowing them to say they still broadcast opinion. It is a shallow and meaningless way to debate politics in the US, and it fosters a culture of dueling talking points. Not a conversation at all but dual soliloquays, never actually meeting. The shudder-inducing horror of New Orleans has shaken on-the-ground reporters to the point where their tolerance for these mock debates and talking points has snapped.

Washington - “For God’s sake, are you blind?,” a woman shouts at the head of the federal emergency management agency (FEMA), Michael Brown.

“You’re patting each other on the back, while people here are dying.”

The woman is not a victim of Hurricane Katrina. She is a reporter with US television network MSNBC who is so affected by the misery she has witnessed she can hold back no longer.

We hope these same reporters will retain their nose for bullshit and begin to gain back some of ground the lost by the fourth estate in the last decade. If this well-founded sense of indignance were applied to politicians’ empty posturing around other burning issues, the people would be much better served.

The tragedy of New Orleans is a harbinger of one future of our global society. Globally, we are on precisely the same path as New Orleans was, prior to the arrival of Katrina. From the BBC:

The Bush administration, together with Congress, cut the budgets for flood protection and army engineers, while local politicians failed to generate any enthusiasm for local tax increases.

New Orleans partied-on just hoping for the best, abandoned by anyone in national authority who could have put the money into really protecting the city.

Today we live in a world where the dreams of the 17th century Bourgeoisie are fully realized. Business takes place with limited fetters and Kings and government do not meddle too much in the affairs of commerce. If anything, they are on the payroll.

Today, by their own request, business plants the crops of the future - the future of our children and grandchildren - and our capitulation to the legislative and regulatory demands of business is the sowing of the wind that will reap the whirwind.

The business-driven policies of leaders like Bush - tax cuts, deregulation, market forces - this is putting out fire with gasoline.

The inaction and neglect that led to the disaster was caused directly - not indirectly - by policies taken to appease the short-sighted requirements and needs of business. Not all businesses or business people, but most, and certainly the wealthiest. The voices of the new generation of business people - ethical, green, multiple bottom-line - are but whispers in Katrina’s howl.

So let us now learn. The next time someone tells you that government should get out of the way of business, remind them of New Orleans. Remind them that New Orleans was destroyed because government caved in to the demands of business, and business leaders. Government cut taxes, deregulated, cut budgets and waited for the trickle-down most of them don’t believe in anyway. In the case of the US, government went to war to protect the interests of the status quo and its reliance on cheap oil.

It should be clear now that Government needs to lead business in the right direction, and that business cannot take place unfettered. The short-term priorities of quarterly reports, annual stockholders meetings and futures markets make business leaders unreliable ministers for our global congregation. Public servants need to be our minsters.

To make this transition we need to make public service a more respected profession than business. We can do this by getting serious about electoral reform, campaign finance reform, lobbying regulations and adequate compensation for elected and un-elected public servants. We can do this by reforming our polity so its inherent structure reflects the cycles and time-scales of the problems it needs to address, not the problems and time-scales of business.

And we do all of this by getting involved and demanding a better result than the response to Katrina.

Hurricane Katrina

As CNN’s website trumpets the general sense of shock sweeping America right now at the feeble resonse to Kartina’s aftermath, those on the ground literally dying for aid are lucky they don’t have any real connections to civilisation. If they did, they might catch wind of supreme asshole Michael Brown of FEMA telling them they are responsible for their own situation:

Michael Brown also agreed with other public officials that the death toll in the city could reach into the thousands.

“Unfortunately, that’s going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings,” Brown told CNN.

“I don’t make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans,” he said.

“And to find people still there is just heart-wrenching to me because, you know, the mayor did everything he could to get them out of there.

“So, we’ve got to figure out some way to convince people that whenever warnings go out it’s for their own good,” Brown said. “Now, I don’t want to second guess why they did that. My job now is to get relief to them.”

I think it is quite amazing that the majority of New Orleans citizens managed to evacuate the city with one day’s notice. I can’t recall if any assistance was offered to people with no way to actually do so, but that will all come out in writing of this tragedy.

If Michael Brown wants to know why some pople didn’t evacuate, the answers are many and quite obvious:

Despite the dire predictions, a group of residents in a poor neighborhood of central New Orleans sat on a porch with no car, no way out and, surprisingly, no fear.

“We’re not evacuating,” said Julie Paul, 57. “None of us have any place to go. We’re counting on the Superdome. That’s our lifesaver.”

The 70,000-seat Superdome, the home of football’s Saints, opened at daybreak Sunday, giving first priority to frail, elderly people on walkers, some with oxygen tanks. They were told to bring enough food, water and medicine to last up to five days.

“They told us not to stay in our houses because it wasn’t safe,” said Victoria Young, 76, who sat amid plastic bags and a metal walker. “It’s not safe anywhere when you’re in the shape we’re in.”

There you have it Michael. Unless you offered to drive these people out of New Orleans yourself, then you should just STFU and do your job.

Hurricane Katrina

In pro wrestling the bad guy usually gets down on his knees at some point, begging the good guy to stop beating on him. The good guy, being good, usually relents, only to be sandbagged by the bad guy as soon as he lets down his guard.

Politics is like that as well. When one politician is saying “don’t play politics” with an issue or event, it usually means that politician is vulnerable and hasn’t come up with a strategy.

The strategy only works when political commentary can be rightly construed as gaming. The Katrina situation is no game, and Bush cannot escape criticism for real and devastating decisions taken by his administration that directly impacted the outcome of Katrina’s landfall.

The Newhouse News Service article published Tuesday night observed, “The Louisiana congressional delegation urged Congress earlier this year to dedicate a stream of federal money to Louisiana’s coast, only to be opposed by the White House. … In its budget, the Bush administration proposed a significant reduction in funding for southeast Louisiana’s chief hurricane protection project. Bush proposed $10.4 million, a sixth of what local officials say they need.”

This is a very complex story of betrayal. Betrayal of half a million Americans living in direct threat of a hurricane-related catastrophe that has now been realized. The tax cuts and Iraq-related budgetary redirections have now come home to roost.

So it is not “playing” politics to insist that Bush be immediately and relentlessly held to account for his direct failings with regard to the Katrina disaster. It is simply good politics. Politics in the interest of America. Politics that aims to right wrongs and prevent further neglect and catastrophe.

It is “playing” politics to simply lie to the American people about what engineers had been telling the whitehouse for years. Bush said on Monday:

“I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did appreciate a serious storm but these levees got breached and as a result much of New Orleans is flooded and now we’re having to deal with it and will,” he said.

Holy shit. This is just about as good as Clinton’s “what the meaning of the word is is”. Bush will say he was talking about breaching (i.e. breaking) the levees, not topping them. Now that’s playing politics. And that’s disgraceful.

Hurricane Katrina