- "The implications of FEMA's 'incompetence' and Bush's
inexplicable failure to do anything about the plight of New Orleans until
it was too late become rather obvious. Competence just leads to fewer chances
to make money. ... At the same time, 'undesirable' populations ... can
be cleaned up."
-
-
- The cost (or here) of cleaning up the results of Bush's
negligence in failing to deal with global warming and spending money needed
for New Orleans levees on his war in Iraq may be as much as the $300 billion
spent in four years to fight the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Of course,
what most people would regard as a cost, the entrepreneurial politicians
in the Bush White House see as yet another opportunity to transfer money
from taxpayers to their personal friends. The scheme is blatantly obvious:
-
- Bush has started to issue Iraq-style no-bid contracts,
with cost-plus provisions that guarantee contractors a certain profit regardless
of how much they spend.
-
- Old buddies like Halliburton, Bechtel, and Fluor are
first in line. Joe Allbaugh, the former director of FEMA, is lobbying for
Halliburton, and another winner of the Katrina windfall, Shaw Group Inc.
-
- In order to increase profitability at the expense of
the working people most affected by the hurricane and thus most in need
of money, Bush has removed (or here) federal minimum-wage provisions from
the reconstruction contracts.
-
- The concept of 'disaster capitalism', a term coined by
Naomi Klein, is now being applied to the United States itself. Klein wrote:
-
- "Last summer, in the lull of the August media doze,
the Bush Administration's doctrine of preventive war took a major leap
forward. On August 5, 2004, the White House created the Office of the Coordinator
for Reconstruction and Stabilization, headed by former US Ambassador to
Ukraine Carlos Pascual. Its mandate is to draw up elaborate 'post-conflict'
plans for up to twenty-five countries that are not, as of yet, in conflict.
According to Pascual, it will also be able to coordinate three full-scale
reconstruction operations in different countries 'at the same time,' each
lasting 'five to seven years.'
-
- and (note that Halliburton had a 'pre-completed' contract
for New Orleans):
-
- "Gone are the days of waiting for wars to break
out and then drawing up ad hoc plans to pick up the pieces. In close cooperation
with the National Intelligence Council, Pascual's office keeps 'high risk'
countries on a 'watch list' and assembles rapid-response teams ready to
engage in prewar planning and to 'mobilize and deploy quickly' after a
conflict has gone down. The teams are made up of private companies, nongovernmental
organizations and members of think tanks - some, Pascual told an audience
at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in October, will
have 'pre-completed' contracts to rebuild countries that are not yet broken.
Doing this paperwork in advance could 'cut off three to six months in your
response time.'"
-
- and:
-
- "But if the reconstruction industry is stunningly
inept at rebuilding, that may be because rebuilding is not its primary
purpose. According to Guttal, 'It's not reconstruction at all - it's about
reshaping everything.' If anything, the stories of corruption and incompetence
serve to mask this deeper scandal: the rise of a predatory form of disaster
capitalism that uses the desperation and fear created by catastrophe to
engage in radical social and economic engineering. And on this front, the
reconstruction industry works so quickly and efficiently that the privatizations
and land grabs are usually locked in before the local population knows
what hit them. Kumara, in another e-mail, warns that Sri Lanka is now facing
'a second tsunami of corporate globalization and militarization,' potentially
even more devastating than the first. 'We see this as a plan of action
amidst the tsunami crisis to hand over the sea and the coast to foreign
corporations and tourism, with military assistance from the US Marines.'"
-
- and:
-
- "A group calling itself Thailand Tsunami Survivors
and Supporters says that for 'businessmen-politicians, the tsunami was
the answer to their prayers, since it literally wiped these coastal areas
clean of the communities which had previously stood in the way of their
plans for resorts, hotels, casinos and shrimp farms. To them, all these
coastal areas are now open land!'"
-
- Just like New Orleans! If the Bush Administration has
elaborate pre-made plans to make money off conflicts which have yet to
occur in other countries, why would they not also have elaborate pre-made
plans to make money off natural disasters that occur within the United
States? A book of plans for New Orleans, a book of plans for Florida, a
book of plans for San Francisco . . the money to be made is enormous! The
implications of FEMA's 'incompetence' and Bush's inexplicable failure to
do anything about the plight of New Orleans until it was too late become
rather obvious. Competence just leads to fewer chances to make money. All
of the reconstruction contracts can be directed to friends of the Bush
Administration, and no one will complain about the extremely generous payments.
At the same time, 'undesirable' populations - blacks in New Orleans, gays
in San Francisco - can be cleaned up, thus ensuring that the area will
vote Republican in the future.
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- http://xymphora.blogspot.com/
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