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WORLD & NATION
Feb. 24, 2006
www.gui1fordian.com
Senate committee investigates FEMA response
Olivia Honeycutt
Staff Writer
"We were abandoned. City offi
cials did nothing to protect us." said
Patricia Thompson, a New Orleans
evacuee, to the Senate Select
Committee in a hearing. "We were
told to go to the Superdome, the
Convention Center, the interstate
bridge for safety. We did this more
than once. In fact, we tried them all
for every day over a week. We saw
buses, helicopters and FEMA
trucks, but no one stopped to help
us. We never felt so cut off in all our
lives."
This quote imderlies a picture of
two distraught children, victims of
Hurricane Katrina, in "A Failure of
Initiative: Final Report of the Select
Bipartisan Committee to
Investigate the Preparation for and
Response to Hurricane Katrina"
written by Virginia representative
Thomas M. Davis HI.
This report is part of the U.S.
government's investigation into
relief effort failures during
Hurricane Katrina.
The report presents findings of
90 failures by many different peo
ple and organizations in many dif
ferent arenas in the rescue, relief
and recovery efforts after Katrina.
During a Senate panel on Feb.
10, former head of FEMA Michael
Brown testified that he warned the
White House that disaster was
imminent.
Brown blamed poor federal
response to the disaster on the
Department of Homeland Security.
Brown said that he warned
White House aides of massive
flooding. He said that he talked
with White House officials several
times once Katrina made landfall.
He also said that he spoke twice
with President George W. Bush
before the storm.
On Jan. 24, 2006, The
Washington Post reported that it
obtained documents supporting
this statement.
FEMA presented the first dted
document to White House aides
two days before Katrina hit. It
warned that storm surge "could
greatly overtop levees and protec
tive systems" and destroy nearly 90
percent of New Orleans' infrastruc
ture.
The second document showed
that the Department of Homeland
Security's National Infrastructure
Simulation and Analysis Center
(NISAC) sent an assessment to the
White House after midnight on
Aug. 28. The document warned
that Katrina would "likely lead to
severe flooding and/or levee
breaching."
In an interview on ABC's Good
Morning America on Sep. 1, 2005,
President Bush said, "I don't think
anybody anticipated the breach of
the levees. They did anticipate a
serious storm."
President Bush was on vacation
in Crawford, Texas, when Katrina
struck. Also on vacation were Chief
of Staff Andrew H. Card, Jr.,
Homeland Security Adviser
Frances Fragos Townsend, and Vice
President Dick Cheney. The day
after he received reports of cata
strophic levee breaks. Homeland
Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
traveled to Atlanta for a pandemic-
flu meeting.
"I think Bush sitting on Trent
Lott's porch waS majorly symbolic,"
said Guilford student Menemsha
Milnor.
Milnor is a part of a group of
Guilford students and faculty who
spent their Fall Break helping the
Katrina relief effort. They spent
their vacation hammering roof
shingles, clearing yards and haul
ing away the debris.
Max Carter, Director of the
Friends Center and Campus
Ministry Coordinator, led the
Guilford group. "Katrina was not
the first disaster to hit The
Bottoms," Carter said. He said it
was obvious that the people who
needed the most help were not get
ting it.
The people of Bogalusa told
Carter that FEMA had not been to
"The Bottoms," the neighborhood
the group worked in. Some resi
dents stated that Friends Disaster
Service was the only organization
to visit the area since FEMA
dropped off roofing tarps.
On March 5, about 30 members
of the Guilford community will join
the Friends Disaster Service (FDS)
for another round of relief work
during Spring Break.
Raleigh Stout will be returning
to Bogalusa, La., on the trip. "I have
been to Louisiana twice with
Guilford community members for
Hurricane Katrina disaster relief,"
he said.
"I am concerned that while
FEMA had operated efficiently
before our 9/11 terrorist attacks,
FEMA actually became disenfran
chised from its core mission of serv
ing Americans in catastrophe by
being rolled up within the new
Department of Homeland Security,"
Stout said. "So my gut reaction is
that I was not surprised to see
FEMA getting the blame for slow
action during Katrina."
Guilford student Michael
Thomson Harris said of the trips:
"I've been on several of these work
trips with Friends Disaster Service,
and I find the work to be very ful
filling. You get to meet the people
whose houses you're working on,
and you realize the difference
you're making. The sad part is that
more groups like FDS are not pitch
ing in. I didn't hear of many other
groups in Bogalusa, especially in
tiie part of town we were in."§§
Danish cartoons ignite a ’clash of civilizations’
Ben Dedman
Staff Writer
The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten
published a series of controversial cartoons
depicting the Prophet Muhammad, insti
gating a "clash of civilizations" in the
Middle East and leaving dozens dead.
The 12 cartoons, which included one of
the Prophet Muhammad wearing a turban
resembling a bomb, were printed in
Denmark in September and reprinted in
other European countries during the past
three weeks.
Western powers, including the United
States and the United Kingdom, have
offered Denmark their unconditional sup
port. The Danish and European newspa
pers have received hostile criticism since
the cartoons were published, driving the
editor of Jyllands-Posten to'take a vacation
for an indefinite period of time.
The cartoons incited riots and protests in
many Islamic countries, including the fire
bombing of Danish embassies in Syria,
which led to at least 11 deaths before Feb.
11. Last week in Benghazi, Libya, 11 pro
testers were killed in a riot; and at least 15
protestors were killed in Maiduguri,
Nigeria on Feb. 18, according to The
Vancouver Province.
The main problem that many Muslims
have with the cartoons is that the depiction
of the Prophet Muhammad is offensive to
the principles of Islam.
"The reason for this is to prevent idolatry
of the Prophet Muhammad and the other
prophets..-The Prophet Muhammad, during
his life, stressed to followers that we need to
worship God, and not him, since he is only
a prophet," said senior Hatice Dogan.
"We refrain from pictures of prophets to
avoid idolatry and also to avoid distortion
of images by oppressive and 'superior' cul
tures for the images to fit their culture."
Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad blamed the recent reappear
ances of the cartoons on an Israeli conspira
cy in retribution for Hamas' recent victory
responsible cartoonists.
Pope Benedict XVI recently criticized
both sides of the conflict. He said that he
abhorred the violence by Muslims against
Danish and European embassies, but he
Ur
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blames conspiracy for cartoon publication.
in Palestinian elections.
Hamshahri, an Iranian daily newspaper,
started an international contest for a car
toon depicting the holocaust. The contest is
meant to test the boundaries of free speech
and oppose Jyllands-Posten, which used
freedom of speech as a defense to ward off
criticism of their cartoons. There have also
been calls from the Islamic world
for the assassinations of the
also added that freedom of speech must
never be used to defame religion.
"I think that the Danish cartoon is ridicu
lously disgraceful and was done to inten
tionally offend Muslims," Dogan said. "The
Prophet Muhammad was a peaceful man,
and true Islam is a peaceful religion."
"It's just crazy," said Ken Gilmore, Chair
of the Political Science department. "There's
so much irresponsibility. It's irresponsible
for the papers to publish the cartoons, but
then again I understand the right to free
speech."
Gilmore tied the chaos into the political
science theory that Benjamin Barber called
"Jihad vs. McWorld." TTie theory describes
the "clash of civilizations" between the glob
alization of western powers and the
reaction to globalization from Islamic
nations.
"The level of offense [Muslims] feel is
not just about intolerance of tasteless and
offensive free speech, but about groups
who don't have the power to define global
discourse or to influence global culture,"
said Shelini Harris, Chair of the Religious
Studies department and Assistant Professor
of Peace and Conflict Studies. "This issue is
not unrelated to the problem of globaliza
tion in the wake of colonization and devel
opment, and the increasing marginalization
of cultures that are not the ones who define
global cultures, economics or the market."
Max Carter, Director of the Friends
Center and Campus Ministry Coordinator,
posed this question to those who pigeon
hole Muslims as terrorists: "Why is it that
people call things Muslim terrorism and not
Christian terrorism?"
"You could legitimately ask that when
you kill 20,000-30,000 innocent civilians in
the invasion of a country, and our country is
perceived as a Christian country, 'is that
Christian terrorism?"' Carter said. "We don't
think it is; we think it's our right as a sover
eign nation."
"I do not support bombing embassies as
a reaction to cartoons, but at the same time
I am upset with the cartoon's depiction and
am fed up with the way we are portrayed as
terrorists," said Dogan. "Those who do that
do not represent all Muslims, but at the
same time I can understand their anger and
pain."§8