"Choosey Beggars" in NOLA?

[gmoney]

Just caught the intro to "This American Life" where they were talking with a volunteer from Colorado who was offering to help displaced people in NOLA... offering a two bedroom house plus a car free for a year, plus a job with either CocaCola or WalMart (ick, but still) and probably other stuff to get a family started.

She could hardly give this package away...

She said she tried for 3 weeks and only got 35 people to agree to relocate to Colorado, and it sounds like it took some arm twisting to get that many. Everyone thought it was always cold and snowy in Colorado, so they didn't want to go there!

I'm sorry, but that doesn't sit well with me. Hell, *I* would probably leave everything I have and move to Colorado given the offer of a free house and car for a year, plus a job. If these folks don't have the sense to leap on this offer, is there any help for them? Or am I being insensitive?

Someone please explain it to me...

[blondeatlast]

1. There are many other factors to consider with the Katrina/levee victims.

Many of them are still uncertain where all of their family members are. I wouldn't want to move around much until I had that reassurance.

Most would definitely want to return to their homes in the hopes of rebuilding. They have lives in NO that they hope were merely interrupted.

That's asking the victims to give up a lot of EMOTIONAL goods, not just material.

Most people do have a loyalty to their jobs; it's a security issue.

Their unwillingness to relocatre makes perfect sense to me.

[alarimer]

7. I think you are right

It would be very hard to leave your community and go somewhere unfamiliar when you have lived in one plae your whole life. I moved around my whole life and I could do it but most people would not be willing even if it was free. One of the great tragedies of this hurricane is the destruction of communities. People had friends and family around them to help out when times are hard. Even in desperately poor communities you have real connections between people that may no longer exist if they can't move back. Now they are scattered to the four winds. Imagine moving from New Orleans to Utah or even Colorado. I imagine myself in the situation of forced relocation and I can't do it. For one thing I am a marine biologist, moving to some landlocked place is not an option given my education and training. What the hell would I do?? Now I can't really compare myself to the people in NO; many of them may have jobs you can do essentially anywhere but still it is tough.

[crispini]

2. Imagine this.

You have lived all of your life in the South (warm), surrounded by friends and family. Even though you have lost everything in the hurricane, even if you are in Texas, you are still in a relatively familiar place. (Lots of people from Louisiana are already in Texas, for some reason.) Even if you are in the Astrodome, you may still have many of your friends and neighbors around you, and you are trying desperately to preserve any sense of normality. You may want to move back. You just don't know.

Colorado? Sounds pretty far away and pretty scary to me, too. And I say that as someone who has lived there. (and in Louisiana, and in Texas.)

[gmoney]

5. Better the Hell you know, eh?

I don't know... Even if I was deeply tied to my hometown, I'd have to realize I need a way to just get out of the shit until someone figures out what's going to happen to my home or apartment. I don't think there's anything preventing their family from going with, or to keep them from returning to NOLA to try to recover their things and try to rebuild. But there will be a HUGE housing shortage in that area for the next few years, not to mention probably a huge disruption in employment (unless you can do construction for less than the "prevailing wage" or want to clean toxic goop off everything).

I can see SOME people not wanting to go for the reasons you mention, but only 35 people willing to take a chance on a fresh start? That just seems...

[blondeatlast]

6. "That just seems..." what?

Perfectly reasonable, IMHO. What's your humble opinion?

[gmoney]

13. ...unrealistic.

I mean, you're lost in the desert, dying of thirst, someone finds you and offers you water, and you say "...hmmmph. Do you have any Perrier?"

Or like this... an old joke, but oddly timely.

A preacher is caught in a flood and has to scramble to his roof as the water rises. He prays "Oh Dear God, I know you will use your merciful powers to save me from this deluge."

A few minutes later, a man in a beat-up old rowboat comes by and offers to take the preacher to higher ground. The preacher says "Oh no, for the Lord will come to my rescue!" and continues to pray. They row off, and the water keeps rising...

The water is almost to the top of the roof when a helicopter comes by and lowers a rope ladder. "Grab hold and we'll take you to safety" says the rescue worker. The preacher says "Oh no, the Lord will save me from this deluge!" and continues to pray.

Finally the water rises so high, the preacher drowns. He finds himself in Heaven and St. Peter asks "do you have a question you would like to ask God?" The preacher says "Yes. I had been a servant of God all my life. Why did God forsake me and ignore my pleas when I prayed to Him to rescue me from the flood?"

God says "What do you want? I sent a rowboat, I sent a helicopter..."

[blondeatlast]

15. What an inteeeeresting analogy--Colorado is the equivalent of Perrier?

Trust me, I've lived there. It's nice, but sheesh.

You are saying that people who have roots ought to just pick up and go. we are gonna have to agree to disagree on this.

Why did you post this in the Lounge, pray tell? :shrug:

[gmoney]

17. No, just the opposite...

It seems people are turning down something that will help them and to hold out for something they want but aren't likely to get.

Turning back the clock is the Perrier in the analogy. A lot of these people are going to wish they'd settled for tap water.

[crispini]

12. Yeah, but that "someone"

who's gotta figure out what's going on with your place... is YOU. Ain't nobody gonna do it for you.

I think the whole "adventurous spirit of a new place" is a lot more fun when you're young. Once you've had a place for a while, and especially if you've had kids, the idea of a fresh start just sounds exhausting. So much work to do -- especially if you've done it before.

And, remember, these kinds of decisions aren't usually made with anything resembling logic. People just listen to their gut, their insticts. Texas isn't that different. Colorado -- VERY different.


Edited to add: Link --> some citizens of NOLA have never been out of their city.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4803420

Imagine that, if you will, and then imagine being faced with the prospect of COLORADO?!

[gmoney]

14. That someone may NOT be me...

...if I'm a renter, chances are I have ZERO say in what my landlord decides to do with my dwelling in this situation. (Let alone what FEMA/EPA/etc. are going to let the landlord do with it and when.)

It sounds like many of those who are stuck in the 'Dome didn't have the means to evacuate because they were too poor, so I doubt they own a lot of real estate.

Again, I'm not saying this option was right for everyone, but only 35 people out of thousands?

[crispini]

19. Some people are probably hoping

to get back in and get their belongings.

And, yeah, I can completely understand it. It sounds like human nature to me. Did you see the link I posted where many of those people have never been out of New Orleans in their LIVES? Of course they're not gonna want to try to start over in COLORADO. It sounds absolutely terrifying.

[China_cat]

23. Look at it another way

Your mother always told you 'if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is'.

Someone you don't know from Adam offers you all this stuff and you aren't going to think that there's something wrong with it? Or at least some serious strings?

[blondeatlast]

3. BTW, the phrase "choosy beggars," is that original or was that how they

titled it?

I find it quite offensive...

[gmoney]

9. sorry if it offends...

...it's actually an old Smoky Robinson song title.

A turn of the phrase "beggars can't be choosers" which is NOT to imply that the NOLA victims are literal beggars... just a figure of speech.

Maybe I should have titled it "Never look a gift house in the mouth..."

[DS1]

4. That would be like asking me to move to Kansas.

I wouldn't do it for a free car until it breaks.

[blondeatlast]

10. Kansas or the car broke? I'm a Kansan by birth and heart, I just couldn't

resist!

[SmokingJacket]

8. People down there care more about family and friends than things.

Huge sweeping statement, yeah. But I think it's basically true. When I lived there (having moved from the midwest) I noticed that a big difference was that lives there were centered around social connections.

I was a teacher, and I used to get annoyed when I gave my students nice notebooks or pencils, and then I'd find them all broken or destroyed almost right away. Then I realized that yeah, *I* valued nice new stuff, but why should I expect them to? It's just stuff.

People up here don't think twice about moving 3000 miles -- far from their friends and family -- just to get a higher salary. If you think about it, that's kind of a weird value system.

[Ladyhawk]

22. Yes. I would live wherever my social support was.

I don't have much of a support system, but it would be scary to leave what little I do have and move to an entirely different place.

[supernova]

11. I think that's asking a bit much so soon

after the disaster.

Yes, it's sounds like a nice offer. But it's in a place very unfamiliar to them when they haven't decided that they really do need to move away yet.

Keep the offer open, someone will decide it's time to move on, but not before they've worked through their grief first.

[blondeatlast]

16. What makes this thread appropriate for the Lounge rather than

the debate forums? :shrug:

[gmoney]

18. Sorry... force of habit.

Feel free to ask a mod to move it or kill it.

[skygazer]

20. That doesn't sit well with you?

Who asked you to approve or disapprove of other people's decisions? Yes, you are being insensitive.

These people are under a huge amount of stress right now. In times like that, you are going to cling to the little bit of stability and familiarity that you have, not simply chuck it all and dash off to a new and completely unfamiliar place. They've already been frightened and traumatized, lost everything and are probably unsure about some of their family members and belongings. People can only take so much at a time - what these people need is something to hang on to.

Perhaps further down the road, more of them will be ready to consider such an offer but right now, it's too much too soon. That shouldn't be difficult to understand. You say you'd jump right on it but you don't know that. You're not in the situation - you're looking at it from a completely different place.

[Blue_Tires]

21. maybe they were suspicious of some kind of catch

i know i'm wondering if there are any strings attached...