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Let's pull together as a nation
Feb. 8th, 2007 11:45 amIn times of crisis, people pull together. Thievery falls, corruption dimninishes.
If only.
Those who watched the Spike Lee "documentary" of the New Orleans flood might have thought that there was one easy way to justify the corrupt and dishonest in the city, because they were nearly all wearing uniforms. This seems to be a good system to me. Terrence Chan knows to take the "dangerous" roads home in Costa Rica, because the alternative is coming across the police, and Terrence would rather risk the criminal fraternity in Costa Rica than a meeting with the police, mainly because the former tend to be cheaper.
Similarly, shots in the Spike Lee film showed police stocking up with such essential items in local stores as the latest DVDs (vital for those evenings locked inside with nowhere to go).
Meanwhile the noble poor talked about their righteous battles for compensation from the big bad insurers.
And, of course, they had a point. State Farm and Allstate do not come out of hurricane Katrina smelling of anything but shit. State Farm has finally conceded (effectively, if not in words), that many of the claims it denied on the grounds that the destruction had been caused by flood (correctly excluded from policies because FEMA covers flood) rather than wind had, after all, been caused by wind. State Farm is paying up at this very moment. Yay for the noble downtrodden individual in the face of capitalism.
But wait, what's this?
News comes that in the New Orleans neighbourhood visted by George W after the hurricane, the US government, via FEMA, gave $84.5m to more than 10,000 households. The one problem with this is that there were only 8,000 households in the region before the hurricane struck.
This pattern was repeated in nearly 100 neighbourhoods damaged by the hurricanes, according to an Associated Press investigation. At least 162,750 homes that did not exist before the storms may have received a total of more than $1bn in improper or illegal payments, the survey found.
Somehow I don't see Spike Lee making a film about this, and quotes from Mayor Ray Nagin or Governor Kathleen branco, both stalwart defenders of the noble individual in the face of big business, were thin on the ground.
More than 400 people have already been prosecuted for fraud, and $18m has been recovered.
What is most depressing is that many people just take it as par for the course. This is how they expect people to behave.
Despite being an evangelical atheist, and despite putting forward the theory of "whatever works", I have my own moral code. I just couldn't put in false claims in the aftermath of such human tragedy (the number of fraudulent claims after 9/11 was similarly disturbing, and resulted in a distortion in the original death count) and I can't understand the minds of people who not only do so, but show no remorse when caught. For them, it's just another angle (deliberate all-ins on Boss Media, anyone?) and a comment that it's all "part of the game".
Ethics is a complex philosophical area and I do not find it an easy one to read, but I do know that a civilised society depends on more than a literal interpretation of "the rules". That's why if, in any game, I come across a rules lawyer, there is a serious potential for violence.
It isn't usually the law that is an ass, but the letter of the law that is an ass.
If only.
Those who watched the Spike Lee "documentary" of the New Orleans flood might have thought that there was one easy way to justify the corrupt and dishonest in the city, because they were nearly all wearing uniforms. This seems to be a good system to me. Terrence Chan knows to take the "dangerous" roads home in Costa Rica, because the alternative is coming across the police, and Terrence would rather risk the criminal fraternity in Costa Rica than a meeting with the police, mainly because the former tend to be cheaper.
Similarly, shots in the Spike Lee film showed police stocking up with such essential items in local stores as the latest DVDs (vital for those evenings locked inside with nowhere to go).
Meanwhile the noble poor talked about their righteous battles for compensation from the big bad insurers.
And, of course, they had a point. State Farm and Allstate do not come out of hurricane Katrina smelling of anything but shit. State Farm has finally conceded (effectively, if not in words), that many of the claims it denied on the grounds that the destruction had been caused by flood (correctly excluded from policies because FEMA covers flood) rather than wind had, after all, been caused by wind. State Farm is paying up at this very moment. Yay for the noble downtrodden individual in the face of capitalism.
But wait, what's this?
News comes that in the New Orleans neighbourhood visted by George W after the hurricane, the US government, via FEMA, gave $84.5m to more than 10,000 households. The one problem with this is that there were only 8,000 households in the region before the hurricane struck.
This pattern was repeated in nearly 100 neighbourhoods damaged by the hurricanes, according to an Associated Press investigation. At least 162,750 homes that did not exist before the storms may have received a total of more than $1bn in improper or illegal payments, the survey found.
Somehow I don't see Spike Lee making a film about this, and quotes from Mayor Ray Nagin or Governor Kathleen branco, both stalwart defenders of the noble individual in the face of big business, were thin on the ground.
More than 400 people have already been prosecuted for fraud, and $18m has been recovered.
What is most depressing is that many people just take it as par for the course. This is how they expect people to behave.
Despite being an evangelical atheist, and despite putting forward the theory of "whatever works", I have my own moral code. I just couldn't put in false claims in the aftermath of such human tragedy (the number of fraudulent claims after 9/11 was similarly disturbing, and resulted in a distortion in the original death count) and I can't understand the minds of people who not only do so, but show no remorse when caught. For them, it's just another angle (deliberate all-ins on Boss Media, anyone?) and a comment that it's all "part of the game".
Ethics is a complex philosophical area and I do not find it an easy one to read, but I do know that a civilised society depends on more than a literal interpretation of "the rules". That's why if, in any game, I come across a rules lawyer, there is a serious potential for violence.
It isn't usually the law that is an ass, but the letter of the law that is an ass.
