[Leica] OT NOLA Katrina

[bdcolen at comcast.net (B. D. Colen)]

Sorry - I thought I was posting this off-list to Tina, and as soon as I
pushed the button, I resubscribed to the Forum - so anyone who wants to kick
me, kick me over there. ;-)


On 9/2/05 7:48 AM, "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@comcast.net> wrote:

> Tina, I suspect you've been spending far too much time in developing
> countries, have become far too emotionally involved with them, and have 
> lost
> sight of the realities in your own.
> 
> I have only been to the Third World once - not the dozens of times you 
> have,
> although my once was to Somalia, which would make Honduras look like LA. 
> But
> I recall thinking returning to the U.S. and thinking, 'people here don't
> even know what real poverty is, much less live in it.'
> 
> But then as time passed, I returned not only to the U.S. but to reality, 
> and
> I realized that poverty and standards of living are relative. First off, 
> the
> poor of NO live under normal circumstances under conditions far better than
> urban poor in most countries outside Europe. However, they are living as
> they are in a country that claims to take care of its poor, that claims 
> that
> all men are created equal, that holds itself up to the world as a shining
> beacon of something or other. They live without hope, and with only the
> barest of urban necessities, hidden from view in a rich, decadent city.
> 
> And now the scrim is ripped away - we can see who these people are and how
> they live. We can see that they were left behind to fend for themselves in
> the hell hole that New Orleans is now, left behind while the middle and
> upper class fled in their BMWs, Escalades, and F-150s, left behind by a
> government that didn't even think to start dropping bottled water and food.
> 
> If you want to condemn someone in the U.S., Tina, condemn the system that
> has allowed this poverty to continue unabated since people first started
> acknowledging it almost 50 years ago. The Mississippi Delta isn't much
> different from the way it was in 1900 - and yet we condemn these people
> because they don't pull together like the benighted poor of Central 
> America?
> 
> Maybe its time that the church groups that so lovingly pour all their
> resources into countries outside the U.S., and send photographers to
> document their work, start shifting their focus to the poor in this 
> country.
> For they are poor, and they are suffering, even if they are not "as poor" 
> as
> the people in Honduras.
> 
> B. D.
> 
> 
> On 9/1/05 9:28 PM, "Tina Manley" <images@InfoAve.Net> wrote:
> 
>> 
>>> Scott
>> 
>> What unique conditions?  No money, no job, no education, no
>> infrastructure?  All of that is present in rural Honduras
> 
> 
> 
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