<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2722" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"
bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV>Although Cuba is in the main path of most Caribbean hurricanes, it has
suffered less than 10 deaths in the last 20 years.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The Two Americas<BR> By Marjorie Cohn<BR>
t r u t h o u t | Perspective<BR><BR> Saturday
03 September 2005<BR><BR> Last September, a Category 5
hurricane battered the small island<BR>of Cuba with 160-mile-per-hour winds.
More than 1.5 million Cubans<BR>were evacuated to higher ground ahead of the
storm. Although the<BR>hurricane destroyed 20,000 houses, no one
died.<BR><BR> What is Cuban President Fidel Castro's secret?
According to Dr.<BR>Nelson Valdes, a sociology professor at the University of
New Mexico,<BR>and specialist in Latin America, "the whole civil defense is
embedded<BR>in the community to begin with. People know ahead of time where
they<BR>are to go."<BR><BR> "Cuba's leaders go on TV and take
charge," said Valdes. Contrast<BR>this with George W. Bush's reaction to
Hurricane Katrina. The day<BR>after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Bush was playing
golf. He waited<BR>three days to make a TV appearance and five days before
visiting the<BR>disaster site. In a scathing editorial on Thursday, the New York
Times<BR>said, "nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday - which
seemed<BR>casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood
the<BR>depth of the current crisis."<BR><BR> "Merely sticking
people in a stadium is unthinkable" in Cuba,<BR>Valdes said. "Shelters all have
medical personnel, from the<BR>neighborhood. They have family doctors in Cuba,
who evacuate together<BR>with the neighborhood, and already know, for example,
who needs insulin."<BR><BR> They also evacuate animals and
veterinarians, TV sets and<BR>refrigerators, "so that people aren't reluctant to
leave because<BR>people might steal their stuff," Valdes observed.<BR><BR>
After Hurricane Ivan, the United Nations International
Secretariat<BR>for Disaster Reduction cited Cuba as a model for
hurricane<BR>preparation. ISDR director Salvano Briceno said, "The Cuban way
could<BR>easily be applied to other countries with similar economic
conditions<BR>and even in countries with greater resources that do not manage
to<BR>protect their population as well as Cuba does."<BR><BR>
Our federal and local governments had more than ample warning
that<BR>hurricanes, which are growing in intensity thanks to global
warming,<BR>could destroy New Orleans. Yet, instead of heeding those
warnings,<BR>Bush set about to prevent states from controlling global
warming,<BR>weaken FEMA, and cut the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for
levee<BR>construction in New Orleans by $71.2 million, a 44 percent
reduction.<BR><BR> Bush sent nearly half our National Guard
troops and high-water<BR>Humvees to fight in an unnecessary war in Iraq. Walter
Maestri,<BR>emergency management chief for Jefferson Paris in New Orleans, noted
a<BR>year ago, "It appears that the money has been moved in the
president's<BR>budget to handle homeland security and the war in
Iraq."<BR><BR> An Editor and Publisher article Wednesday said
the Army Corps of<BR>Engineers "never tried to hide the fact that the spending
pressures of<BR>the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security - coming at the
same<BR>time as federal tax cuts - was the reason for the strain,"
which<BR>caused a slowdown of work on flood control and sinking
levees.<BR><BR> "This storm was much greater than protection
we were authorized to<BR>provide," said Alfred C. Naomi, a senior project
manager in the New<BR>Orleans district of the corps.<BR><BR>
Unlike in Cuba, where homeland security means keeping the country<BR>secure from
deadly natural disasters as well as foreign invasions,<BR>Bush has failed to
keep our people safe. "On a fundamental level,"<BR>Paul Krugman wrote in
yesterday's New York Times, "our current leaders<BR>just aren't serious about
some of the essential functions of<BR>government. They like waging war, but they
don't like providing<BR>security, rescuing those in need or spending on
prevention measures.<BR>And they never, ever ask for shared
sacrifice."<BR><BR> During the 2004 election campaign, vice
presidential candidate<BR>John Edwards spoke of "the two Americas." It seems
unfathomable how<BR>people can shoot at rescue workers. Yet, after the beating
of Rodney<BR>King aired on televisions across the country, poor, desperate,
hungry<BR>people in Watts took over their neighborhoods, burning and
looting.<BR>Their anger, which had seethed below the surface for so long,
erupted.<BR>That's what's happening now in New Orleans. And we, mostly
white,<BR>people of privilege, rarely catch a glimpse of this other
America.<BR><BR> "I think a lot of it has to do with race and
class," said Rev.<BR>Calvin O. Butts III, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist
Church in<BR>Harlem. "The people affected were largely poor people. Poor, black
people."<BR><BR> New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin reached a
breaking point Thursday<BR>night. "You mean to tell me that a place where you
probably have<BR>thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are
dying<BR>every day, that we can't figure out a way to authorize the
resources<BR>we need? Come on, man!"<BR><BR> Homeland
Security Secretary Michael Chertoff had boasted earlier<BR>in the day that FEMA
and other federal agencies have done a<BR>"magnificent job" under the
circumstances.<BR><BR> But, said, Nagin, "They're feeding the
people a line of bull, and<BR>they are spinning and people are dying. Get off
your asses and let's<BR>do something!"<BR><BR> When asked
about the looting, the mayor said that except for a few<BR>"knuckleheads," it is
the result of desperate people trying to find<BR>food and water to
survive.<BR><BR> Nagin blamed the outbreak of violence and
crime on drug addicts<BR>who have been cut off from their drug supplies,
wandering the city,<BR>"looking to take the edge off their jones."<BR><BR>
When Hurricane Ivan hit Cuba, no curfew was imposed; yet,
no<BR>looting or violence took place. Everyone was in the same
boat.<BR><BR> Fidel Castro, who has compared his government's
preparations for<BR>Hurricane Ivan to the island's long-standing preparations
for an<BR>invasion by the United States, said, "We've been preparing for
this<BR>for 45 years."<BR><BR> On Thursday, Cuba's National
Assembly sent a message of solidarity<BR>to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. It
says the Cuban people have<BR>followed closely the news of the hurricane damage
in Louisiana,<BR>Mississippi and Alabama, and the news has caused pain and
sadness. The<BR>message notes that the hardest hit are African-Americans,
Latino<BR>workers, and the poor, who still wait to be rescued and taken
to<BR>secure places, and who have suffered the most fatalities
and<BR>homelessness. The message concludes by saying that the entire
world<BR>must feel this tragedy as its own.</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>