I really don't intend this to sound like a trolling attempt, but looking at the situation from Austria I find the developments in and around New Orleans the least surprising.
1) The stereotype of greedy and gun-loving US-americans is making a lot of people react with "yeah - americans." here. Even though it's hard to tell how many of the people loot in first place (and it's likely a minority), noone here is shocked by the images of policemen running off with TV sets or even people shooting at helicopters.
2) The stereotype of an idiot president. You have a disaster on your hands and he's using it for his bi-weekly "the Nation will rise stronger from this" speech. Seriously, he should be in his office overseeing the operations instead. And as for the touted homeland security - looks like there is none.
3) The looting scenes show people looting electronics and breaking into homes, so it's not just about food. And they are armed. This means that either the people are more desparate for wealth or the moral standards that would stop one from engaging in criminal activities simply aren't there. It's a "them or me" mentality at its best and it doesn't help the stereotypes here, either.
Like I said, these are not attempts at trolling, but are intended to spark a discussion. If you look at what is happening in NO, imagine what problems the goverment might face if a catastrophe of a similiar scale would happen in a bigger city?
In conclusion I would like to add that a similiar event in Europe would probably cause the same chaos and the goverments might need some time to react accordingly. But the time-span for the reaction would likely be shorter and you wouldn't have to deal with as many armed looters or people shooting at helicopters. And we would be spared an idiot speach or two from our "leaders".
by Samo Korosec — Sep 02
1) The stereotype of greedy and gun-loving US-americans is making a lot of people react with "yeah - americans." here. Even though it's hard to tell how many of the people loot in first place (and it's likely a minority), noone here is shocked by the images of policemen running off with TV sets or even people shooting at helicopters.
2) The stereotype of an idiot president. You have a disaster on your hands and he's using it for his bi-weekly "the Nation will rise stronger from this" speech. Seriously, he should be in his office overseeing the operations instead. And as for the touted homeland security - looks like there is none.
3) The looting scenes show people looting electronics and breaking into homes, so it's not just about food. And they are armed. This means that either the people are more desparate for wealth or the moral standards that would stop one from engaging in criminal activities simply aren't there. It's a "them or me" mentality at its best and it doesn't help the stereotypes here, either.
Like I said, these are not attempts at trolling, but are intended to spark a discussion. If you look at what is happening in NO, imagine what problems the goverment might face if a catastrophe of a similiar scale would happen in a bigger city?
In conclusion I would like to add that a similiar event in Europe would probably cause the same chaos and the goverments might need some time to react accordingly. But the time-span for the reaction would likely be shorter and you wouldn't have to deal with as many armed looters or people shooting at helicopters. And we would be spared an idiot speach or two from our "leaders".