apparently, WalMart is a better First Responder than FEMA

[mopaul]

as much as i hate to admit it, and as much crap as we give walmart, i keep hearing how they are the first to provide food and supplies to the disaster victims, and even open up their stores to anyone in need for free.

is this what it's come to?

[kick-ass-bob]

1. Isn't that Bush's plan? To make it look like the private sector

can do it better than the Govt?

on edit: OK - maybe not bush, but his handlers?

[blm]

2. Careful, mopaul...they WANT emergency response to be privatized....

it was in the Texas Reublican platform for 2000 to get rid of FEMA.

Would Gore or Kerry's FEMA be so absurdly inefficient? No. Either of them would have maintained James Lee Witt as the head of FEMA, and both would have immediately put money into those areas of emergency response that needed it the day they took office.

And both would have put needed funds immediately into the areas that were environmentally on the brink, like the Louisiana wetlands and ports. Kerry even said in his campaign that Louisiana needed 14 billion to deal with its immediate problems.

[whistle]

3. Proving once again that American free enterprise works and ....

...government bureaucracy does not! So, where was WalMart and other charities during the five days after Katrina when 50,000 or more of New Orlean's poorest and most helpless victims were dying from lack of food, water, sanitation, medical care, drugs and so forth? Why were these victims being declared looters and shot?

[The2ndWheel]

4. Civilizations downfall

can't come soon enough. When you owe your life to Wal-Mart, it's time to get off the ride.

[MSgt213]

5. The Japanese Mafia is better equiped to handle disasters then FEMA is

right now.

Hanshin, Japan: An N-K System of Disaster Response
A severe earthquake struck the Hanshin region of Japan at 5:46 a.m. on January 17, 1995, registering 7.2 on the Richter scale of magnitude. The epicenter was located on northern Awaji Island, just off shore from Kobe, a city of 1.5 million population. The rupture registered strong ground motion through downtown Kobe and northward to the neighboring cities of Nishinomiya, Ashiya, Itami City, Amagasaki, Takarazuka, and other towns in southern Hyogo Prefecture. A disaster response system evolved following this event, revealing important characteristics of the process of self organization in dynamic, uncertain environments.

<snip>

From these profiles, it is clear that different types of organizations entered the response process at different times and engaged in disaster and relief operations for different periods of time. Participation of both private and nonprofit organizations peaked in the third week of operations, as reported in the Japan Times. Interesting also is the active role of the yamaguchigumi, the Japanese mafia, in the organization and distribution of disaster relief, in apparent cooperation with local governmental officials. (A list of all organizations identified as part of the interorganizational response system is available from the author.) Other data show the extraordinary mobilization of a national response through fire departments, medical volunteers, and water teams from 43 of Japan's 47 prefectures. These activities all required communication and coordination, central to cooperative action.

http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/qr/qr78.html

[jobycom]

6. Walmart helped a lot of people after Katrina, in many ways

They were among the first stores to reopen, along with Home Depot. They were able to bring a lot of supplies, both donations and store stock. They were among the first to re-open, keeping their employees paid. They told their employees who had been evacuated or who had lost their homes that they would have jobs at whatever Walmart they wanted wherever they wound up.

A lot of people in Mississippi were glad they were there.

[xultar]

7. To walmart's credit at least they have experience. FEMA folk have

no experience doing anything but fuckin shit up.

[theboss]

8. WalMart does a lot of these little things very well

Part of the reason that all the questionable crap that WalMart does on the business end (undercutting competitors, using cheap overseas labor) does not ultimately hurt them is they are great at the service end and pr end.

They will sponsor any local activity or event that comes to them.
They do have a pretty significant charity arm, particularly in rural areas (as Katrina proved).
They have really good relations with senior citizens.


They even do goofy stuff like allowing any RV or camper to hook itself up in a WalMart parking lot. This may sound dumb to a lot of people, but if you've ever attended a college football game or NASCAR event in the South, you know that RVs are a way of life. So, it matters that there is always a place to hook up your water and electricity on a long weekend.

[kcass1954]

9. I'm still not shopping there. n/t

[Spazito]

10. It had to be a deliberate decision by FEMA to allow Walmart to

get in while they stopped everything else. The intent is to convince the American public that privatization is the way to go. Walmart is despicable in it's business practices and it's treatment of it's employees therefore the ideal model for the bush administration, imo.

The 'free' stuff from Walmart was very expensive to it's employees, and don't think for a minute the consumer won't pay for this 'generosity'.