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Title: Re: [xml-dev] Responding to Katrina (offtopic even if XML is part of the soluti on)
Politics changes through information as long as the information is
accurate and the focus is undiluted. 90% of some politics is
distraction.
The
other 10% is making up the lie or picking the patsy. If an
electorate is unwise and chooses such politicians, the results are
as you
see them.
Thanks
for the references, Ken. Reprogramming money to fund
other
initiatives while cutting taxes is an old dodge. That we keep
falling for it says much about the hopefulness with which we dodge
responsibility and equity while hiding behind ideology and promoting
divisiveness to obscure misguided and useless goals. We say we
won't
get fooled again, but we will because we want what we
want,
we want it now and we don't want to hear 'no'. America
remains very much a child with respect to its own good and because
it is
such a large and powerful child, it wounds its family.
Thanks
for the reference, Neil. Keep in mind that public safety
predates homeland security. It is hard to separate the two these
days
and one can use the other to get good technology and
standards to market. That won't fix stupid. Nothing does if
it is
willful.
Only
one part of the solution comes of technology and systems
solutions. The good news is that this is where the members of
this
mail list can have and have had a positive affect. Regional
procurements and effective standards are part of the solution
to
raise public safety out of the localized stove pipes where
the
majority of the global effect has been to produce administrative
statistics for funding purposes. While important, this is not an
operational focus and operations save lives when inevitable
catastrophes come. Looking at Katrina, today, it is a
recovery
effort, but next month, it may well be yet another response to
a
major incident. How many times will we endure that without
learning the right lessons?
len
You can't change politics
through technology.
Trust me.:)
From: Ken North
[mailto:kennorth@sbcglobal.net]
> 1. The conditions of the levees and dikes are
well-known in
> emergency planning circles. Requests for funding
to repair
> them have been routinely turned down.
Congress
started funding the Southeast Louisiana (SELA) Urban Flood Control
Project
in 1995. SELA was a long-term capital works project. The U.S. Army Corp
of
Engineers spent more than $400 million on levees and pumps.
The project
was not complete, but in 2003, the funding was cut. Last year the
Corps of
Engineers requested $65 million, but the administration cut the
SELA
funding to $10.4 million.
March 2005 US Army Corp of Engineers
SELA Project Fact Sheet
http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/pd/Funding_Programs/Current/CGSELAFY06.pdf
Would
those same decisions have been made if budget proposals for the US,
UK,
Canada, and other nations were available on the web, with RSS feeds for
programs
marked for big cuts or big
increases?
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