Pay to be saved: The Future of Disaster Response

[marmar]

Published on Monday, August 28, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
Pay To Be Saved: The Future of Disaster Response
by Naomi Klein

The Red Cross has just announced a new disaster-response partnership with Wal-Mart. When the next hurricane hits, it will be a co-production of Big Aid and Big Box.

This, apparently, is the lesson learned from the government's calamitous response to Hurricane Katrina: Businesses do disaster better.

"It's all going to be private enterprise before it's over," Billy Wagner, emergency management chief for the Florida Keys, currently under hurricane watch for Tropical Storm Ernesto, said in April. "They've got the expertise. They've got the resources."

But before this new consensus goes any further, perhaps it's time to take a look at where the privatization of disaster began, and where it will inevitably lead.

The first step was the government's abdication of its core responsibility to protect the population from disasters. Under the Bush administration, whole sectors of the government, most notably the Department of Homeland Security, have been turned into glorified temp agencies, with essential functions contracted out to private companies. The theory is that entrepreneurs, driven by the profit motive, are always more efficient (please suspend hysterical laughter).

We saw the results in New Orleans one year ago: Washington was frighteningly weak and inept, in part because its emergency management experts had fled to the private sector and its technology and infrastructure had become positively retro. At least by comparison, the private sector looked modern and competent (a New York Times columnist even suggested handing FEMA over to Wal-Mart).

The complete article is at: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0829-23.htm

[Ian David]

1. Wal-Mart is the best place to loot after a natural disaster.

I plan on making friends with someone who owns a snowplow to do a Post-Apocalypse Smash-and-Grab at Wal-Mart, right after the bombs start falling.

Buy Blue, Loot Red.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. I don't know that I'd even want to *loot* Wal-Mart's cheap Chinese crap.

If I'm going to be looting, I'm gonna head for Nordstrom's.

[Ian David]

7. I was thinking of food, hardware, guns and ammunition.

If you're looking for high-fashion during a time of civil strife, then either your priorities are way off, or else things aren't bad enough to justify looting.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. Good point. But after I'm finished looting Wal-Mart for cheap Chinese

guns and hardware, I'll stop off at Nordstroms to loot shoes. ;)

[Ian David]

15. You want durable hiking shoes to search for food and flee from canibals.

[marmar]

17. I wouldn't want their crap, even for free...

I'll loot Target instead. :evilgrin:

[Ian David]

19. Target refuses to provide Plan B Contraceptive. That's a good choice.

For more ideas on where to loot, visit http://www.BuyBlue.org

Remember:

Buy Blue, but Loot Red!

[The Jacobin]

20. Target doesn't stock firearms.

Nor Ammo.

[Ian David]

3. The Republick Party doesn't care about Urban Disasters...

because Urban areas vote Democratic.

Oh, let's pray that a huge supercell of tornados devastates the midwest and that Bush sends Wal-Mart to the rescue!

"I'm sorry, you can't get any aide, because the computer from ChoicePoint says that you're a negro... I mean, that you're identity isn't verified."

[marmar]

6. "Republick Party"

Nice. Turnabout is fair play. :applause:

[Teaser]

4. How long to Snow Crash?

We've got the metaverse (second life), for a small number of people.

We're getting privatized AID groups.

How long before franchised governments?

[Kutjara]

14. I call first dibs on the Swiss franchulate.

It'll be nice to have little alpine resorts and offshore banking havens dotted around the country.

[Cobalt Violet]

5. Lovely.

"Here's a snapshot of what could be in store in the not-too-distant future: helicopter rides off of rooftops in flooded cities ($5,000 a pop, $7,000 for families, pets included), bottled water and "meals ready to eat" ($50 per person, steep, but that's supply and demand) and a cot in a shelter with a portable shower (show us your biometric ID -- developed on a lucrative Homeland Security contract -- and we'll track you down later with the bill. Don't worry, we have ways: spying has been outsourced too). "


Of course it will be this way.

[Ian David]

9. But you'll have to speak English. The Republickers' English Language Bill

says that Emergency Services don't have to be provided in any language other than English.

[KittyWampus]

8. Business does disaster better? Only when govt.is controlled by those who

deliberately WANT government responses to be inadequate. That way they can give billions of dollars to their business buddies.

[KittyWampus]

10. Clinton's FEMA performed brilliantly during the historic Midwest floods

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. That they did.

At the time I was flying for Civil Air Patrol and we flew a bunch of FEMA people and radio equipment up to the Grand Forks area. They seemed very much on the ball, and stuff got done. Granted the Grand Forks flood wasn't nearly as big a mess as NOLA (though it was bad enough), at least FEMA and other agencies were trying hard to get something done and help as many people as possible.

[Ian David]

16. FEMA made it to Oklahoma City within 2 hours of the bombing. n/t

[KittyWampus]

21. outstanding talking point. Short & to the point. Thanks!

[marmar]

13. And during at least a couple of hurricanes...

Government works very well when it's run by people who want it to run very well.

[ComerPerro]

18. it will go in this direction very soon. And they will privatize everything

health care will be entirely for profit, so will police and fire.

[blogslut]

22. Thanks Naomi Klein

I love her articles. :)

[marmar]

23. Yes. And the book "No Logo" was very good.

:thumbsup: