| New Orleans - An American Tipping Point | | Date Created: 02 Sep, 2005, 07:03 PM |
 I visited New Orleans in in 1999 for my first and only visit, attending an Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy (AABT) conference, at the Convention centre. It was there I made up my mind to engage in developing a psychology practice utilising Virtual Reality technologies.
I recall sitting with colleagues in 1999 at the Hilton Riverside, overlooking the Mississippi River, with huge ships traversing, in addition to the tourist vessels. It was a fun conference, with great night entertainment during the coolish but very pleasant November evenings.
New Orleans is one of the few North American cities which can handle very large conferences. Others include New York City, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Miami, Washington DC and Toronto. Which also explains why the Superbowl seems to visit the same cities.
Several thoughts thinking about the future, with the human and geographical devastation of New Orleans still unfolding.
1. Americans are watching as a very dark and unpleasant underbelly is being exposed for all the world to see. Black communities seem to be over-represented in media reports of those suffering the worst losses, and who are crying for assistance.
2. Blog reports containing scientifically-based warnings that insufficient preparation for the forces of nature are appearing. And that funds and efforts to offer that preparation were siphoned off to post-9/11 homeland security efforts - meaning: containing terrorism threats - rather than another meaning of homeland security.
3. President Bush can expect extreme forms of criticism regarding his response - both amount and style. In Australia, by now, the Prime Minister, and state premiers (=Governors) would be using every opportunity - safety allowing - to meet with survivors or relatives of victims, and lend compassion and support. Flying over affected areas in Air Force or Marine 1 will be seen as a critical failure.
4. Americans will ask serious questions about Government priorities. Having come to learn the US/UK/Australian presence in Iraq was under dubious circumstances - the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction - Americans will not tolerate their own being seemingly ignored because efforts utilising money and manpower, in the main, are not going where they ought. Whatever tolerance for the Iraq folly the US population has offered up to its Government will come tumbling down faster than the levees broke.
5. We are not hearing media reports yet of heroic acts of generosity or virtue. I expect these will come later as the chaos recedes - but that will take some time. The longer it takes before we hear such reports, the more suffering will be endured and the greater the anger will disperse across the country, especially in those cities with similar demographics, such as Detroit, Philadelphia and LA.
6. Watch for help coming from a variety of sources: financial, health, scientific, emergency.
The American Psychological Association has released a series of help sheets and publsihed a media release:
"The American Psychological Association (APA) is offering free materials to the public on managing traumatic stress in the wake of Hurricane Katrina at http://www.APAHelpCenter.org. The downloadable fact sheet, Managing Traumatic Stress: After Hurricane Katrina, includes information for people both directly and indirectly affected by the hurricane and addresses what people may feel immediately following and long after the hurricane. It also provides strategies for people to help themselves, families and children and for those struggling to cope from afar.
Additional materials include fact sheets on Managing Traumatic Stress:
Tips for Recovering From Natural Disasters and Managing Traumatic Stress:
Tips for Recovering From Disasters and Other Traumatic Events as well as
information on building resilience."
And from the Louisiana Department of Health comes the following:
"Dr. Tony Speier, Coordinator of Disaster Services for the Office of Mental Health, has asked that Dr. Joseph Comaty and I coordinate volunteer services for psychologists. We are looking specifically for psychologists who are willing and able to
assist survivors of this disaster.
This is an extremely fluid (sic) situation, and the effort is changing almost
hourly to meet the need. Over time, we anticipate calling upon many of
our colleagues in Psychology to step up to the plate. Behavioral health
services are being provided in a number of settings through the Office of
Mental Health. The needs will continue to be great over a long period of
time, certainly for weeks and probably for months, and with everyone's
help, we can distribute the relief efforts. We ask for your patience as
the needs of the community and our response to these needs unfolds. There
are a variety of situations that will require psychologists to be present.
Some services will be provided in less than ideal situations, where you may
be requested to bring your own food, water, etc., depending upon the
circumstances. Please understand that there is much planning and
coordination going on behind the scenes and although we may not have all of
the answers, your professional expertise is very valuable to us and we
appreciate your willingness to serve.
We are asking that people who are willing to serve in any capacity send an
email to this address: Katrina_PSYCH_response@dhh.la.gov
Please use this email address only, since Dr. Comaty and I may be working in
the field, and unable to access our email on a regular basis. We will establish a roster of individuals who are able to volunteer and we will call upon you as the need arises.
In order that we be most efficient with this effort, please include the following information in your response:
Name:
Credentials:
Psychology License Number / State:
Special Expertise:
Geographic Location(s) willing to serve:
Times willing to serve:
Are you a Medical Psychologist and willing to prescribe if called upon to do so?
Are you a Public / Louisiana State employee?
Could you serve 24/7? for what length of time?
How much notice would you require?
Any limitations in your ability to serve?
How can we reach you most efficiently?
(Please remember that phone service is still limited in some areas.)
Thank you.
Cathy Castille
Cathy Orman Castille, PhD, MP
Clinical & Medical Psychologist
Division of Planning, Evaluation &
Information Technology
Office of Mental Health
Department of Health and Hospitals
1201 Capitol Access Road
P.O. Box 4049
Baton Rouge, LA 70821-4049
Phone: 225-342-9528
Fax: 225-342-5066
email: cocastil@dhh.la.gov
7. My prediction is that this is a Tipping Point for the Bush Administration. It will be hard to see how his advisors will spin their way from considerable finger-pointing at a lamentable example of prioritising at best, and pork-barelling at worst. The ease of promising money will be insufficient in the circumstances - it will require actions to speak louder than words, and how the President juggles this domestic catastrophe with US loss of life in Iraq will be telling.
He now has two quagmires on his hands - a figurative, and now a literal one. I suspect the President is not up to the task in this case, and his Government's response to 9/11offers no model to work from to rescue the Gulfport area and its populations.
8. Watch for the eventual eruption of "I told you so" blogs, interviews and publications once the devastation becomes more manageable, and the post-mortems and debriefings begin.
9. Stories of anarchy and looting are not meant to happen in catastrophes' aftermath, so goes the urban myth raised to heroic proportions. This time, however, as Americans look on astonished how their advanced nation is bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Iraq it saved from despots, questions are raised about the moral dilemma of looting for survival. And Presidential Orders of "Shoot to Kill". We'll soon here tragic stories of mothers searching for food for children being shot, to reveal the utter stupidity of this thinking.
Expect to hear harrowing accounts of efforts to save lives by entering abandoned properties in search of essentials like food, medicines and water - only to be shot and injured or killed by those ordered to kill, or merely defending their property. Tragedy will pile upon tragedy, as the chain of command and leadership falters. Presidential Orders of "Shoot to Kill" will be cause revulsion for the utter stupidity of this thinking.
10. Expect to see one politician rise above the pack, Giuliani-style, with exemplary statesmanship, and show the way forward. It won't be President Bush, although he'll give it a try. But his sheen has now been well and truly tarnished.
11. Factions in the Middle East will describe the fate of New Orleans as evidence that their belief system is superior to that of the West, and punishment is being metered out as a result.
12. Something new is developing as the days roll on, and relief is not found. Those embedded in the catastrophe and providing news to a dumbfounded world are those who voluntarily stayed and are blogging their stories, and the paid media who appear to be on the verge of being traumatised by what they are witnessing. It is clear that their anger is mounting to the point where political spin-doctoring is being snapped at the knees, and BS called for what it is. These journalists, many household names to the American nation, are emerging if not as heroes, but as angry representatives of the nation asking the hard questions because they are in the thick of it, while the politicians are not.
Some appear to have been deeply affected by what they have seen and are letting loose on officialdom. I expect more of this as journalism seizes on Katrina in a way they did not with Iraq. They will not be kowtowed by the spin doctors twice during George Bush's presidency. This is the time for them to undo the softly-softly approach mainstream media has taken in an attempt to be part of a unified America in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. And which gave rise to the new power of political blogging.
More power to such journalism - the time has come to seek out different "truths".
More thoughts to come... good luck to the affected communities and best wishes for those communities now reaching out to aid those evacuating to their environs. |
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