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So... suddenly, your home is gone ...


TommyK

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... and half your family is missing.

 

This week it happened again. The same scenario is playing itself out, just in another part of the world.

 

It could be from an earth quake, tidal wave, hurricane. It doesn't matter. You live in a fairly large city. Things are getting ugly. What do you do?

 

Me? Pack up what loved ones I have grab my bug out bag and whatever survival supplies I can scrounge up and head OUT OF TOWN.

 

You?

 

It is getting ugly, just as it did in 'The Big Easy' a few years ago. People getting angry that 'someone' is not 'doing enough' for them. That 'someone' is the faceless government, who because of the tragedy is non-functional. It's boot strap time baby. I pray for those people in Haiti and am sending whatever I can donate. Most of those in front of the camera are doing for themselves what they can. The minority who make it 'ugly' are the ones who cannot or will not do anything for themselves. That is the time to leave.

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... and half your family is missing.

 

This week it happened again. The same scenario is playing itself out' date=' just in another part of the world.

 

It could be from an earth quake, tidal wave, hurricane. It doesn't matter. You live in a fairly large city. Things are getting ugly. What do you do?

 

Me? Pack up what loved ones I have grab my bug out bag and whatever survival supplies I can scrounge up and head OUT OF TOWN.

 

You?

 

[b']It is getting ugly, just as it did in 'The Big Easy' a few years ago. People getting angry that 'someone' is not 'doing enough' for them.[/b] That 'someone' is the faceless government, who because of the tragedy is non-functional. It's boot strap time baby. I pray for those people in Haiti and am sending whatever I can donate. Most of those in front of the camera are doing for themselves what they can. The minority who make it 'ugly' are the ones who cannot or will not do anything for themselves. That is the time to leave.

 

TommyK thats an interesting point. One I don't understand at all. I lived in Charleston, SC when Hugo came in. The next morning my neighbors and myself were out making repairs and trying to improve the situation, When Andrew ravaged FL we saw all types of incredible self perseverance. When the floods hit the midwest, Iowa in particular, the local people got off their duffs and fixed the problems and improved their situation, you didn't see people sitting on the rooftops waiting for the government to come to the rescue.

 

However in New Orleans people sat on their *** and waited for the government to come to the rescue and then complained that aid wasn't coming fast enough nor in amounts they wanted! Now the same thing in Haiti, I watched a news clip on CNN yesterday where the reporters were standing in front of a huge building, a school I think, and a handful of people were trying to break up the concrete to hopefully get more people out alive. The reporter noted that the Hatian people were watching as people from ST Martin were doing the work, he stated it was like that every where!

 

Somethings wrong with that picture. Why were the Haitians not leading the charge to remove their own friends and family? I just don't get it. People are getting so damn dependent on government, thinking it's the answer to everyone's problems. Governments everywhere are collapsing and people need to be able to ensure their own survival.

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One thing that puzzles me about the numbers being thrown around:

 

We were told, this a.m. that 3,000,000 people need help in Port-Au-Prince.

 

According to Wikipedia... Port-Au-Prince has a population of 1,082,800 people, with 1,728,100 for the entire metro area.

 

Where are the other 1.3 mil people coming from?.. or is someone cooking the numbers? or are the talking heads not checking their facts?

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People in Haiti dependent on government? That makes no sense because they have not had a legitimate, functional government there in years. Add to that the insane poverty and the fact that over 2/3 of the population do not have formal employment and you have toppling house of cards just waiting for a light breeze to collapse it.

 

These people have no where to go. It's a tiny island and Haiti's half has little to no resources. What are they going to do flood over to the Dominican Republic side? Jump on a bunch of make shift rafts and sail to the Florida coast? Hard to pick yourself up by the boot straps when you have no boots.

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People in Haiti dependent on government? That makes no sense because they have not had a legitimate' date=' functional government there in years. Add to that the insane poverty and the fact that over 2/3 of the population do not have formal employment and you have toppling house of cards just waiting for a light breeze to collapse it.

 

These people have no where to go. It's a tiny island and Haiti's half has little to no resources. What are they going to do [b']flood over to the Dominican Republic side[/b]? Jump on a bunch of make shift rafts and sail to the Florida coast? Hard to pick yourself up by the boot straps when you have no boots.

 

It's been done before... Re-read your history.

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Tommy...

 

Don't get me wrong on this because I come from a part of the country where doing for yourself is pretty much part of the local culture, even among those among us who have a lot more net worth than others.

 

But here's the deal, my Mom (technically "step mom," but after 49 years, why mess up a good thing?) is from New York City, never learned to drive, never was around anybody who used hand tools, let alone power tools. Never really saw them being used.

 

Lovely lady. Wonderful cook. Good at lots of lots of stuff except... Stuff you need to use engines or tools of various sorts are just beyond her.

 

Now in some places in this world, people are brought up where stuff simply "is" and learning much of any skill set simply is not part of the culture. Neither is problem solving other than finding somebody who will solve a problem for you.

 

Oddly to me, it seems to be a problem both for the hereditary wealthy and the hereditary urban poor.

 

I was reading a sci fi thing about "what happened when" about 70 percent of the population got bumped off and eventually the power grid and most communications went down. The author had some interesting commentary about where and who had capability to return to a 19th century sort of existence and who couldn't. Like it or not, he took kinda a Hank Williams Jr. "A country boy can survive" perspective.

 

m

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First off Milod, any woman who wipes your butt and snotty nose, cooks and cleans up your dishes, washes your clothes, makes your bed even though YOU are supposed to, at a point in your life when you can't do all that, is a Mom, regardless of the familial or biological relationships. Mom is the highest office in the land and a title which should not be given lightly.

 

The rest of that, I agree with. While I have a lot to learn about self survival, I think I'm miles ahead of most of the cittiboys I have come in contact with. I bought a new-to-me car in the 'big city'. When the salesman delivered it to me he showed me how the seat worked, how the radio worked and how the trunk opened. But how to to check the oil? He had to get the mechanic. "Where is the spare tire and jack?," I asked. [lol] I might as well asked him to explain nuclear fusion. His response was, "Call triple A." [lol] "Triple A??." [lol] I told him, "out where I live if you have to call triple A, you'd better bring a lunch... and supper, because you got a lo-o-o-o-ong arsed wait."

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Tommy...

 

Actually I left home at 16 roughly three months after my Dad married "Mom." No fights, just he was going to grad school and didn't want me going to a city high school.

 

So, no, she never did the little kid "mom" things - although if she had to do so were I ill or incapacitated, this lady would have been there with a smile. She did for my younger and "baby" brothers, and she somehow managed to put up with my teenage sister who now at 60-something wants Mom to stay with her in Texas. <grin>

 

Believe me, I don't lightly offer the title of "my Mom."

 

She just isn't at all handy with tools. Darned good on a keyboard, though.

 

m

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