One of the protagonists of the Tale of Troy is Cassandra, the Cursed Prophetess. She had been a favourite of the god Apollo who had given her the gift of prophecy. Unfortunately after a little tiff with the aforementioned deity her gift was slightly amended to the extent that although she would tell the truth, nobody would believe her. Quite a burden actually. It must be extremely depressing to be able to forewarn of impending doom and to find out that the powers that be do not believe you and prefer to wage a never-ending war that will cost many, many lives before something resembling a solution will come about.Which brings me to Bush. After the raage of New Orleans by Katrina, Bush went on record stating that he did not think that anybody could have anticipated the breach of the levees. It now transpires (on videotape if you please) that Bush was given the full doom and gloom scenario of the potential impact of what was then still an imminent hurricane. Michael Brown (then chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency) then played the role of Cassandra and warned of the impending doom. He warned of the immensity of the impact and of the fact that there might not be sufficient forces to deal with safety, security and disaster management. This is what Bush had to say then:
"I want to assure the folks at the state level that we are fully prepared to not only help you during the storm but . . . after the storm. And we pray for no loss of life.”
Yeah folks. No worries. Bush is allways right. There are Cassandras everywhere. There were those who warned Bush that his quest for WMD would bring out nothing but blood and civil war. We had Cassandras warning the FBI of imminent terrorist attacks on the fateful 9/11. But Cassandra's are doomed. They are doomed to being ignored by everyone. And that includes being doomed to be ignored by Bush.
A bit like the needs of the rest of the world that is.
I hope his next curry is very very spicy (five chili peppers on the menu) and that he does not believe the waiter who points out "Mister Prezeedent, the curree iz veree hottee."
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4 commentaires:
The Cassandras are actually called conspiracy theorists by those who do not believe them or who have an interest in keeping them quiet. Convenient innit?
Iva Pekk, komdu ħafna. Biex ma nsemmux il-Kassandri tat-tibdil fil-klima. Tajbin biex jagħmlu xi film ta' Hollywood dwar il-profeziji tagħhom. Viva ż-żejt, sur Arbuxxell!
The AP backtracked on the Katrina story.
There is an interesting take on it here:
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/013316.php
The BBC (and Brown) also clarified the point on the "Today" programme on Friday. Brown said that there was in fact no warning of a breach of the levees.
FWIW...
Bush believes his own bullshit rhetoric so much that he wont register any comment unless its made in similar macho Rambo-Meets-Deputy Dawg language...say if his advisor had said summin like "Bawss N.O. is gonna go DAWWWN! Dat hurricane looks like one big evil sucker!" Remember the glazed look on his face while he was reading with the kiddies when an advisor whispered in his ear about the 9/11 strikes? Obviously wasnt enough cowboy-speak in the whispered remark.
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