Emergency housing

[Spencer W Hunter]

On Sat, 15 Oct 2005 RoConroy at aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 10/15/2005 3:40:35 PM Central Standard Time,
> shunter at u.arizona.edu writes:

> >I wasn't going to respond to this--one of the self-disciplines Bucky
> >had that I don't was to steer clear of political issues for the most
> >part--but I have to say that no one lives anywhere in the world that is
> >free of risk.  Surely the parents of "those children of Pakistan" must
> >have known they were living in a major earthquake zone.  Where I am,
> >we're going to make the citizens of New Orleans look very wise indeed
> >when the water supply goes... and I'm not sure I want to read your
> >screed about my "crocodile tears" when it happens, either.  As for the
> >woman in New Orleans, I hope she does get her home back, and that it's
> >an autonomous flood-earthquake-hurricane-resistant geodesic dwelling on
> >a pontoon foundation with anchor line-feeds.

> >Gandhi once said that an eye for an eye will leave the whole world
> >blind, and I think by analogy that the
> >I-can-fend-for-myself-so-screw-you attitude will leave us all
> >ultra-dependent... and you are *not* going to
> >like the entities you'll have to rely on.

> The crocodile lady's house was totally demolished, but her brand new
> cadilac looked just fine.

What, is she supposed to live in it?  Maybe she'd exchange it for a normal
life again.

> As for your "autonomous flood-earthquake-hurricane-resistant geodesic
> dwelling on a pontoon with anchor feed lines", that is a joke, right?
> Why park a boat in the middle of New Orleans, and have to pay taxes,
> when they could anchor it in the Mississippi River?

Because there are roads that make transportation easy, centralized
utilities that are more convinient and efficient than the autonomous ones,
police and fire protection, community access, etc.  IOW, why people prefer
to live in towns and cities in the first place.

> But then I guess the estimate of $200 billion for initial hurricane,
> with 1,000,000 people being displaced, would come out to be about
> $200,000 per person, which would probably almost pay for your pie in the
> sky solution.

Sadly, no.  It will take much more determination and resources to bring
what we know as "the house" up-to-date.

[...]
>     As for Pakistani children being responsible for the actions of their
> parents, I think that makes as much sense as anything else you have
> said.

You obviously misssed my point.  When a disaster creates victims, such as
the children of New Orleans, they need help.  Period.

As for the rest, I believe Karl Rove's talking points have been
sufficiently addressed elsewhere.
--
Spencer Hunter, Tucson, AZ
gopher://www.u.arizona.edu:80/hGET%20/%7Eshunter