Sunday, September 11, 2005

9/11 en Antigua, Guatemala

Today is September 11, 2005. Four years ago today I was woken up by a phone call from my father in Northern Virginia, informing me that while the World Trade Center had fallen due to an airliner hijacking, he and my mom were both safe. They had taken a flight to Washington Dulles from San Francisco on Sunday night. Three years ago today I was working in London. Walking back to my flat near Hyde Park I passed through Grosvenor Square and took photos of the wreaths, flowers and letters respectfully placed at the feet of the FDR and Eisenhower statues. Then I passed through the armed guard security check-point to get into the Mews behind the barbed wire-shrouded American Embassy, where I lived. Today I´m in Antigua, the colonial capital of Guatemala. I´m in an internet cafe on the west side of el Parque Central. This morning I followed a parade of school children marching through town, playing their instruments and dancing. I also found the following letter in my hotmail inbox -- not because I voted for Bush, but because I´m on Moore´s mailing list.
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To All My Fellow Americans Who Voted for George W. Bush:

On this, the fourth anniversary of 9/11, I'm just curious, how does it feel?

How does it feel to know that the man you elected to lead us after we were attacked went ahead and put a guy in charge of FEMA whose main qualification was that he ran horse shows?

That's right. Horse shows.

I really want to know -- and I ask you this in all sincerity and with all due respect -- how do you feel about the utter contempt Mr. Bush has shown for your safety? C'mon, give me just a moment of honesty. Don't start ranting on about how this disaster in New Orleans was the fault of one of the poorest cities in America. Put aside your hatred of Democrats and liberals and anyone with the last name of Clinton. Just look me in the eye and tell me our President did the right thing after 9/11 by naming a horse show runner as the top man to protect us in case of an emergency or catastrophe.

I want you to put aside your self-affixed label of Republican/conservative/born-again/capitalist/ditto-head/right-winger and just talk to me as an American, on the common ground we both call America.

Are we safer now than before 9/11? When you learn that behind the horse show runner, the #2 and #3 men in charge of emergency preparedness have zero experience in emergency preparedness, do you think we are safer?

When you look at Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, a man with little experience in national security, do you feel secure?

When men who never served in the military and have never seen young men die in battle send our young people off to war, do you think they know how to conduct a war? Do they know what it means to have your legs blown off for a threat that was never there?

Do you really believe that turning over important government services to private corporations has resulted in better services for the people?

Why do you hate our federal government so much? You have voted for politicians for the past 25 years whose main goal has been to de-fund the federal government. Do you think that cutting federal programs like FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers has been good or bad for America? GOOD OR BAD?

With the nation's debt at an all-time high, do you think tax cuts for the rich are still a good idea? Will you give yours back so hundreds of thousands of homeless in New Orleans can have a home?

Do you believe in Jesus? Really? Didn't he say that we would be judged by how we treat the least among us? Hurricane Katrina came in and blew off the facade that we were a nation with liberty and justice for all. The wind howled and the water rose and what was revealed was that the poor in America shall be left to suffer and die while the President of the United States fiddles and tells them to eat cake.

That's not a joke. The day the hurricane hit and the levees broke, Mr. Bush, John McCain and their rich pals were stuffing themselves with cake. A full day after the levees broke (the same levees whose repair funding he had cut), Mr. Bush was playing a guitar some country singer gave him. All this while New Orleans sank under water.

It would take ANOTHER day before the President would do a flyover in his jumbo jet, peeking out the widow at the misery 2500 feet below him as he flew back to his second home in DC. It would then be TWO MORE DAYS before a trickle of federal aid and troops would arrive. This was no seven minutes in a sitting trance while children read "My Pet Goat" to him. This was FOUR DAYS of doing nothing other than saying "Brownie (FEMA director Michael Brown), you're doing a heck of a job!"

My Republican friends, does it bother you that we are the laughing stock of the world?

And on this sacred day of remembrance, do you think we honor or shame those who died on 9/11/01? If we learned nothing and find ourselves today every bit as vulnerable and unprepared as we were on that bright sunny morning, then did the 3,000 die in vain?

Our vulnerability is not just about dealing with terrorists or natural disasters. We are vulnerable and unsafe because we allow one in eight Americans to live in horrible poverty. We accept an education system where one in six children never graduate and most of those who do can't string a coherent sentence together. The middle class can't pay the mortgage or the hospital bills and 45 million have no health coverage whatsoever.

Are we safe? Do you really feel safe? You can only move so far out and build so many gated communities before the fruit of what you've sown will be crashing through your walls and demanding retribution. Do you really want to wait until that happens? Or is it your hope that if they are left alone long enough to soil themselves and shoot themselves and drown in the filth that fills the street that maybe the problem will somehow go away?

I know you know better. You gave the country and the world a man who wasn't up for the job and all he does is hire people who aren't up for the job. You did this to us, to the world, to the people of New Orleans. Please fix it. Bush is yours. And you know, for our peace and safety and security, this has to be fixed. What do you propose?

I have an idea, and it isn't a horse show.

Yours,
Michael Moore

Friday, September 09, 2005

Katrina/Guatemala

The Red Cross can't accept my blood since last October I visited Chichén Itzá, a "malaria-risk" Mayan ruin in the Yucatan. My claret won't be clean (in theory) until 12 months from that date -- October 2005 is the earliest I can donate. However, since I'll be in Guatemala for the next few weeks, I imagine I'll have to wait another 12 months from now. I think anywhere outside Guatemala City, which I know I'll be venturing beyond, is tainted as well. WHA-temala? Yeah, it was a surprise for me, too. I've been back in the States for barely a week and I'm already off again. This time it's for work, but you better believe that I'll be mixing some pleasure in there, too.

I was going to write a long, boring blog about the government's lack of response to Katrina, but now I won't have time. However, I would like to share with you, dear reader, some of the things I've learned in the past week.


  • Over the past four and a half years, the traditional and essential wall separating Church and State in this country has been turned into a shower curtain. Thanks to Bush and his medieval policies, much of the world now views American Christianity as a wacky cult. Pat Robertson is currently cashing in on the Hurricane disaster relief, due to FEMA's official sponsorship of his corrupt Christian charity. Think Robertson is a stand-up guy doing God's work? Stop being an idiot, he's not. Read Max Blumenthal's September 7 piece in The Nation to learn why.

  • Bush Sr. had a policy that the U.S. shouldn't lose any more wetlands; Clinton also set tough policies on environmental protection for coastal wetlands. Bush Jr. repealed all those policies in favor of business interests, opening up 20 million acres for development. Read Molly Ivins's well-researched September 1 editorial from the Chicago Tribune to find out how much funding the Bush White House has cut from the Army Corps of Engineers budget and how much of the National Guard has been diverted to Iraq.

  • Bush told Diane Sawyer that no one "anticipated the levees would breach". Bullshit. Read this Scientific American article from October 2001 which leads with, "A major hurricane could swamp New Orleans under 20 feet of water, killing thousands. Human activities along the Mississippi River have dramatically increased the risk, and now only massive reengineering of southeastern Louisiana can save the city". Great graphic illustrations accompany detailed explanations of root causes and the only possible solution to the problem: rebuilding marshes to absorb high waters and reconnecting the barrier islands to protect the marshes.

  • Joseph Hughes has made a pictorial timeline for August 29-30. See what Dubya was doing while Americans were dying. Click the shit-eating grin below to watch our leader playing with guitars and birthday cakes in Southern California and Arizona.



  • I have to thank my Uncle Anthony in Hong Kong for bringing my attention to this, Keith Olbermann's scathing commentary on Michael Chertoff's idiocy. Click on the picture to play the QuickTime.

  • Speaking of great commentary, I can't resist linking to The Daily Show's hilarious piece on the two Michaels (Chertoff and Brown), aptly entitled "Meet the F**ckers". Click the picture to play video. (Thanks go out to OneGoodMove for posting both these last ones.)


And so, dear reader, I leave you for Central America. Please take care of the U.S. for me while I'm gone -- because, you know, our leaders aren't very good at that sort of thing.

Monday, September 05, 2005

Double your money

Last week I returned from a trip to Burgundy. If you're interested in images, check out my France 2005 gallery on Buzznet. It was a fantastic trip – I only wish that I could roll around in my nostalgia unimpeded. My mind dwells on the southern U.S.

While I was talking with my mom during a layover in Boston, my eye strayed to the TV set at the gate, tuned to CNN. I initially thought I was viewing footage from last December's tsunami, but Mom quickly filled me in. That was on Wednesday, August 31. I've spent the last four days in a high dudgeon. The more I learn about events that transpired post-Katrina, the more furious I become. More on that later. I'm through with feeling powerless to help, though. I just returned from Whole Foods Market, which doubled my donation to the Red Cross for Katrina victims. If you don't have one in your area, you can call the American Red Cross directly at 1-800-HELP-NOW or give through their website. They also accept donations of stock, airline miles, and even spare change via Coinstar machines.

Right now I'm off to give some blood, but I promise a rant later.