I am very thankful for providing me this opportunity and it is with sincere sense of gratification that I pen down my brief statement of purpose before you. I am Sphoorti Sangamesh Biradar, 21 years old. I am studying B. Computer Science engineering final year in the reputed university Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) at college Sir. M. Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology. I have always believed in the credo “Destiny awaits those who dare to dream”. It is to this belief that I attribute all my accomplishments till date and my passion to study further.
Pursuit of excellence and knowledge has always been my burning desire and the propelling force behind all my achievements. My decision to pursue graduate study blends harmoniously with my eventual objective of taking up a management career in the sports industry. Education: I would like to present my past performances as my credentials for success in future endeavors. My academic performance was good and this acted as a booster that helped me look at the future with confidence & excitement. My schooling provided me with the much needed encouragement to grow as an all-rounder having a dynamic and committed approach in life.
I learned that just having interest is not sufficient & that it needs to be supplemented with hard work & determination to succeed. I scored 92% in my 10th grade, which left me with a predilection for academics. Then came the phase of pre-university examination (10+2) in which i secured 89%. Being brought up two intellectual engineers, my father who did his bachelors in Electronics and Communications and my mother who possesses a master’s degree in Computer Graphics, pushed me positively ahead to take up a bachelors degree in Computer Science. It was only a big step ahead when I got a seat at Sir. M. Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, which is ranked #1 among the engineering colleges in the Karnataka State by the reputed magazine “Dataquest”. The emphasis at our college is on having a thorough knowledge of fundamental principles & studying a wide spectrum of courses ranging from essential features of subjects to the core topics. They drive students to involve in plenty of extra-curricular activities. This gave me the opportunity to participate in college-level and university-level tennis tournaments, and to eventually win them. My under graduation studies has provided me with a strong and comprehensive background in computer science.
Exposure to core computer science subjects for four years has given me a strong base in life and provided me with commendable groundwork to realize where my passion lies and what course to go for as my higher study. WHY SPORTS MANAGEMENT? Having had a strong background in tennis for 14 years and simultaneously managing academics to compete with the rest of my fellow classmates, I am particularly interested in sports management because it is a course on completion of which I believe I can deliver my intellectual and managerial knowledge while I hold in me an understanding of the essence of competing in the sports world.
For someone like me, who has the heart to feel & a mind to understand the depth and intensity involved in today’s sports, which is highly diverse as well as expanding by leaps and bounds cannot resist herself from choosing a career in this field. I remember, playing tournaments such as The Orange Bowl and Eddie Herr in Florida state, when certain things caught my attention on how better the organizers could manage the event in terms of sponsors, marketing, scheduling of matches, supply of sources like tennis balls and water for players, so on.
That was when I felt, if I can find drawbacks in something, I can as well fix them. Mahatma Gandhiji said “Be the change you want to see in this world”, I strongly believe in his words and by choosing a career in sports management I will gain an opportunity to work in the sports industry where I can reach out to players and multi-national sports brands and sponsors to make the difference in the way any sports event is carried out. Out of my own volition I have chosen sports management, which offers ample scope for management activities and these parallel with my aspiration of a M. S degree. With the advancement in technology, gaining profound knowledge about computer science will prove to be an advantage for me as I will be capable of understanding and knowing how to deal with the implications and pace myself with the advancements of technology each day. My sports background: Sports, I can say runs in my blood. In particular, tennis has been my passion since I was 8 years old. When I held my first Head tennis racquet at Nike-Bhupathi Tennis Academy in Bangalore, I was excited like never before to take it up as a serious sport.
At a young age of 8, to have Krishna Bhupathi, a world-class champion and father of Mahesh. Bhupathi, as my coach was a blessing, granted to me by my father. Mr. Krishna Bhupathi, saw that I had a hidden talent in me and was meant to be here, training under him. At 10, I started competing under the All India Tennis Association under-12 category. It was my first tennis tournament and I made it through to the finals to my parent’s astonishment, gave a tough fight in the finals to my fellow competitor losing gracefully.
Involving in rigorous training each day, I had to soon learn how to balance my academics alongside intense tennis practice. Since grade 1, my desire to excel in academics was so much that I continued to hold my spot in the top 5 ranks of my class. My school teachers always encouraged me and allowed me to compensate for the classes I missed later on, as I’d travel and participate in various tournaments all over India. Importantly, my parents were my support pillars as they travelled with me to numerous and remote places in India so that I achieve a high rank in the under-14 and under-16 age category.
Earning points by winning few tournaments, and making it to the finals of higher grade tournaments, I soon made it to the 22nd rank in the All India under-14 category, which was a great achievement for me at just 12. An important highlight was when I won the Champion series under-14 and under-16 title both at 14. This achievement took me to the next big step which was captaining my state team under-16 category, at the 50th national school games held in Pune, where we bagged the silver medal for Karnataka.
That is when my father realized he had to take me to the world’s best tennis academy, Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, IMG in Florida. Legends are born in this academy, like Andre Agassi, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Sabine Lisicki, to name a few. Training under world-class tennis and fitness coaches gave me inspiring exposure to what it takes to become world’s top tennis player. The best memory that I have from my training is meeting Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, and Justine Henin, at the Sony Ericsson Master’s Tennis tournament.
It was an tremendous inspiration to witness them sweat it out right in front of me. Interacting with them during their practice was merely a dream come true to this day. Extra-curricular activities and achievements: In academics I have put my best efforts & secured 75% till my third year of B. computer science engineering. Actively participated in seminar and lab work, successfully completed two mini projects, one in Computer Graphics and another is Database Management System, would take up final semester project in February.
After completion of second year, I interned at CapGemini under the Cloud Computing team for a month, where I gained insight on the newest Cloud technology using VMware. Captained my college tennis team and won the inter-collegiate tennis tournament in 2009, and represented my university (VTU) at the All India University Tennis tournament in 2011. Received the best player award at a university-level tennis tournament held in MIT, Pune.
Gained experience as one of the event managers for the 50th Athletic Sports Meet for technological institutions, held at our college. Won the first prize for my seminar on “The future of ITES employees in India” at Presidency college fest. WHY AT YOUR UNIVERSITY? I am very keen on pursuing a Master degree in sports management. I want to pursue advanced training in this field of my passion. I am looking for a graduate school that will encourage me to give my best recognizing my passion for sports.
After thorough inspection and contemplation of the graduate program offered by many prominent institutions, I had no second thoughts in choosing your university after learning about your dedicated faculty combined with the world class facilities, pleasant University ambience and a balanced academic program are the factors which have motivated me to apply to your university where I will be able to enhance my knowledge with the opportunity of gaining exposure to the latest developments taking place and am sure it would help me to mould my career in a great way.
In conclusion, I would like to add that the essence of University education lies in the synergetic relationship between the student and his department. I feel that graduate study at your University will be the most logical extension of my academic pursuits and a major step towards achieving my objectives. I would be grateful to you if I’m accorded the opportunity to pursue my graduate studies with possible financial assistance at your institution.
Given, the opportunity I would sincerely work with dedication and give my best to make substantial contribution to my field of work and live up to high standards of your graduate program. I look forward to the discovery and challenge of my chosen career and a mutually beneficial association. I thank you immensely for considering my application.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz On The Problem Of Evil
Leibniz’s Problem of Evil is a consequential treatise that has risen from his philosophical discussions on the problem of freedom, sin and evil. This would be our concern since the problem of evil was derived from the previous premises of the existence of God and its hold on the concepts of freedom and sin. It may essentially be referred to as a salient discourse which under certain circumspections, the problem of evil is a problem of the reality of the concept of God. He had provided sufficient explanations on this matter. Hence the discourse could invite theistic method of response since at the first place, the problem was portrayed as the opposite of the all powerful being that we know as God. This paper would present the concepts in his works and clarify some of the philosophical questions that Leibniz has posed.
The dilemma that this notion asserts is that if a supreme being really exists that is capable of doing everything then it could also be responsible for the occurrence of goodness and evil in this material world. The issue that this philosophical question posits would always lead a theist to the fundamental questions of the veracity of God’s wisdom and truthfulness of his supposedly imposed doctrine. Here we would base our discussion on the concepts of freedom and sin in order to limit our discussion to the very essence of the topic.
Freedom, as the philosopher said, is quite problematic with regards to the concept of God. If man was chosen to live in the earth by a supreme being that has created this domain and had the eternal knowledge of what was and is to come, directs the course of history and affects the actions of all creatures found herein, then would there be freedom in its very essence? Freedom is defined as the absence of any predictable consequence, one which is not bound with limited choices. Hence the freedom to sin and not to sin also comes with this discourse. Sin would then become an absurd concept since there has already been a doubtful perception of freedom. The question arising is this: if there really is no freedom, as provided by the predetermined chronology of human actuations, what then would qualify as sin? Would an (un)free commission of sin be considered as sin? Such debatable conceptions were presented by Leibniz in order to stir our inquisitive minds on the reasons behind the concept of God and its universal relevance to human society.
Leibniz tried to present the evidential problem of evil to be able to know the factual existence of God and in the end use that very same concept to disprove the existence of a supreme being. He started with the assertion that if the world was created by an all knowing, all present, and powerful god, hence the world he created has not represented his godly attributes of goodness because of the presence of evil.
The logical problem of evil was derived from the belief that a perfect God would permit evil to exist if he really was a God that is capable only of doing good then why doesn’t God do something to finally stop evil. Based on orthodox theism, this being holds the greatest power and knowledge to create and destroy anything. It was from him that the world came into reality, and with that goodness and evil. Surely any good man would not stand to see evil doings with doing anything about it. God was also portrayed as a moral being, one which does not condone injustice and suffering among men. Thus the contradiction between the supposed characteristics of God and the existence of evil is logical basis for doubting the logic of God’s existence. Hence every causal relationship in the planet was in total command of this god. Good and evil in the contrary are somewhat difficult to define and would only lead to arguments and counter arguments which would not be able to settle an acceptable end to the opposite minds.
With those basic assertions on the traits of God the parallelism of the existence of evil comes into play. Evil is further categorized into moral evil and natural evil. Moral evil is a deed committed by man and the natural evil could be a phenomenon or an event that caused suffering to humanity. The other category is the horrendous evil which is far worse than the moral and natural evil based on the reason that it has caused much suffering on an unbearable severity. Evil, then, is connected to the issue of ethics.
Hence the problem of evil causes difficulties in maintaining belief to an all loving and gracious god because of the presence of evil in the society. This dilemma provided by the questions of God condoning or tolerating the presence of evil leads us to pose a point of inquiry. It was argued that God tolerates evil to roam and tempt man so that God could choose who among these men are worthy of his glory, but the question is why would God test man of his goodness if in the first place God could have just created man as perfectly incapable of falling into temptation and committing evil deeds? He did create angels that are holy and reside with him in eternity. An incompatibility was therefore presented to make this assertions clarified. It states that God is a perfectly good entity that would not let evil any happen, knows how evil would be possible so it has the capability to preempt the occurrence of evil.
That being said, Leibniz presented his solution to the problem of evil which could be found on his Theodicy. The arguments were written in a syllogistic form or in simple terminology, question and answer. Through question as objections, he raised the concerns on the concept of evil, its origin and purpose, and the consequences of its existence to man. Hence it would be an essential part of this discourse to quote pertinent sections of the text and provide explanations and adaptations of the argument at length.
The first objection was that if one does not choose the best then it is lacking in power, in knowledge, or in goodness (Leibniz). Arguing that God could have made the world without evil but still he created one with such, therefore God did not chose the best. Leibniz answered this with a strong statement saying that:
” the best plan is not always that which seeks to avoid evil, since it may happen that the evil is accompanied by a greater good… permitting of evil tends to the good of the universe… God allowed to certain creatures the opportunity of exercising their liberty, even when he foresaw that they would turn to evil, but which he could so well rectify; because it was not fitting that, in order to hinder sin, God should always act in an extraordinary manner (Leibniz, 1998).”
The second objection which states that if there is evil in the most intelligent creations of God then there is more evil than good (Davidson, 1996, p. 116). The question pertaining essentially to human conduct, since we are the only creatures who had the capacity to know what is good and what is evil but we still commit evil. Leibniz answered this with “God is infinite, and the devil is limited; the good may and does go to infinity, while evil has its bounds.” The boundary of evil, the degree of evil in human race is far leaser than the degree of goodness. Such was what Leibniz argued in order to provide the answers to the problem of evil.
If we would settle in a theist context and accept this explanation, then it had already given us ample answer on the question of the existence of evil. That situation has given man the opportunity to experience life. Without evil and suffering then it would not be possible for man to develop, decide and do things for his own good and use his faculty of reason. The reality of evil also gives man the chance to maximize his faculties, to see the bad things in order to appreciate what is good, to suffer and be saddened in order to value happiness. For humanity to appreciate the presence of light, darkness should be felt. This is the “unity of the opposites” (Adams, 1995,). The opposite needs to be presented in order to assess the value of the other. This discourse is more than the debate on the existence of God and the reality of evil. Though it may seem that everything on earth is predestined, we could still derive that humanity still had the choice.
The evil in society exists also through mysterious ways. It was easy for us to blame evil on a certain person, an event, or phenomena, but we have not seen that the cause of all this evil is not evil at its purest form. One example of this evil is an economic policy. Some economic policies may cause suffering to an individual, a moral evil, such as displacing people from their homes because of tolerance of unregulated mining, causing death because of hunger due to imbalanced food production and distribution of wealth or sudden raise in prices of medicine because of market driven health services. It could also be a natural evil caused by uncontrolled logging, mining, depletion of natural resources, greenhouse gas emissions. These environmental degradations all originate from economic policies of various governments hence disasters were felt all over the world, especially with the advent of Global Warming.
He ended his argument with a very important phrase which would greatly affect our understanding of the existence of evil and aid our preponderance of human nature. He said that “a thing is possible so long as its impossibility is not proved.” Hence, it would be pointless to debate on the validity of God’s existence since no one has proven that God really exists and on the other side, no one has also been able to prove that God does not exist – a pointless debate actually. The realization of these passages is greatly connected with the human society. Leibniz’s contribution through his philosophical work on the problem of evil not only had its effect on the theological issues of human societies. The application of this treatise has also been well fitted to the current situations in global economic, political and environmental concerns.
References
ADAMS, R. (1995) Leibniz: Determinist, Theist, Idealist, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
BROWN, G. (1988) Leibniz’s Theodicy and the Confluence of Worldly Goods. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 26, 91.
DAVIDSON, J. (1996) Untying the Knot: Leibniz’s on God’s Knowledge of Future Free Contingents. History of Philosophy Quarterly, 13, 116.
LEIBNIZ, G. W. A Solution To The Problem of Evil.
LEIBNIZ, G. W. (1998) Leibniz on the Problem of Evil. Stanford Encyclopedia Of Philosophy.
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The Impacts Of The Hurricane Katrina On The United States
ABSTRACT
Never before in the history of the United States, had this nation witnessed and suffered from such a costly and severe hurricane like Katrina, which occurred in August, 2005. This paper, based on secondary research, discusses the influences of Katrina on the American life. In particular, the findings explore and answer three questions of what this hurricane was, how it damaged the most developed country in the world and what responses were given by the authorities and the non-governmental organizations together with the criticisms of the people. Finally, the paper draws conclusion that Katrina remarkably altered the United States; furthermore, this nation must find solutions for the problems inside itself in order to avoid another similar adversity.
1. Introduction
It has been nearly eight years since the hurricane Katrina first made its appearance in the Bahamas, but no one could ever possibly forget it, especially the American who lived in the areas of its direct effects. The damages caused by Katrina are still being felt after an eight-year time. The most severe loss of life and property took place in Louisiana and New Orleans. Mississippi and Alabama were seriously damaged as well. This was a storm that most of the American have long feared (Nagin 2005, cited in Cornwell 2010). Moreover, Katrina was considered as the most destructive disaster in the history of the United States that its overall damages excessively took over those caused by any other major disaster such as the Chicago Fire in 1871, the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire in 1906, and Hurricane Andrew in 1992 (Chapter One: Katrina in perspective). The hurricane undeniably made tremendous impacts on a wide range of American life. Thus, with the purpose of showing how one of the most terrifying catastrophes changed and affected the United States, this paper will discuss the questions of what Katrina exactly was, what its consequences were, and what reactions and criticisms were.
2. Discussion of findings
2.1. What is the “Hurricane Katrina”?
Katrina is a hurricane-scale storm. On August 24th, 2005, the Tropical Depression Twelve, which had formed over the Bahamas the previous day, strengthened into a Tropical Storm and was given the name Katrina. After passing over Florida, Katrina weakened to a Tropical Storm on the 26th. However, it intensified after entering the Gulf of Mexico. On August 27th, the storm reached Category 3 and soon developed to Category 5. The storm became not only extremely intense but also exceptionally large. By the dusk of the 28th, rain began to fall and the Gulf Coast had already suffered from the storm’s impacts. The next day, the hurricane made the second landfall in Louisiana. The heavy and deadly storm unstoppably moved north. Eventually,
Katrina downgraded to a Tropical Storm after passing through Mississippi (Chapter One: Katrina in perspective).
Storms are the acts of the nature, but what made Katrina a lethal storm was the influence of the human beings on the environment. In other words, this hurricane can be classified as an extreme disaster directly caused by man-made global warming. By destroying the Gulf’s wetlands protecting New Orleans, the humankind contributed a vast effort to the deadliness of the hurricane. The research has shown that a storm’s power would be strengthened by the high temperature. Hence, the more intense a storm becomes, the more the temperature in its core climbs. Consequently, the speed of the storm’s spin will be accelerated. This leads to the meteorologically violent storm that we call hurricane (Kluger 2005). This theory explains why Katrina became a powerful hurricane after approaching the warm water in the area of Gulf Mexico, where the wetlands had been destroyed by the human. That made the storm unpredictable for the scientists. Thus, the United States was hit by surprise. For that, the blame for the lethality of the storm was mainly given by the human, themselves.
2.2. How did Katrina affect the United States?
Hurricane Katrina is undoubtedly, the costliest and also the most destructive disaster in the history of the United States. The damages and impacts of this hurricane on the United States can be found in many aspects. However, the three most significantly affected fields are social life, economy and politics.
In social life, Katrina destroyed countless facilities, properties and exerted an unforgettable terror in heart of the people. Due to the complication caused by continuing recovery efforts, the total cost of the damages Katrina left behind was not exactly estimated. However, the figures given by the White House suggested that it was approximately 96 billion dollars. Moreover, the hurricane devastated a vast number of residential properties which was accounted for about 300,000 homes (Chapter One: Katrina in perspective). The storm also caused several breaches in the levees around
New Orleans, which made the city flooded. On May 19th, 2006, the total direct and indirect casualties were confirmed to be 1836 people, mainly from Louisiana and Mississippi (Hurricane Katrina 2005). This severe disaster damaged the region’s communications infrastructure as well. Katrina crippled thirty-eight 911 call centers, resulting in disruption in local emergency services. It knocked out over 3 million phone lines, 1.477 cell towers and affected many broadcast stations (Chapter One: Katrina in perspective; Chapter Four: a week of crisis). The environment suffered as the hurricane caused water stagnation, oil pollution, sewage, household and industrial chemicals. Its surge struck 466 facilities handling large amount of dangerous chemicals, 31 hazardous waste sites (Chapter One: Katrina in perspective). For the survivors, their feelings after the hurricane can be described as a mixture of grief, anxiety and depression. They lost almost everything in that disaster such as their families, their friends, their homes and their properties. The hurricane was a terrible nightmare that nobody could possibly forget.
It is undeniable that Katrina is the costliest storm in the history of this country. Hence, there is doubt that the economy of the United States suffered its dramatic damages. The figures provided by The White House indicates that the unemployment rate doubled from 6 to 12 percent in the most influenced areas of Louisiana and Mississippi during the time of crisis which was between August and September. The salaries and wages went down sharply by about 1.2 billon dollars in the third quarter of 2005 (Chapter One: Katrina in perspective). The storm also demolished 113 offshore oil and gas platforms, damaged 457 oil and gas pipelines, and discharged almost as much oil as the Exxon Valdez oil disaster. This affected 19 percent of U.S. oil production; therefore, the cost of oil and gasoline rose considerably by 3 dollars a barrel for oil and 5 dollars a gallon for gas (Amadeo 2012). The joined effects of both Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, which made landfall soon after Katrina in the outskirt of Louisiana and Texas, resulted in the total number of 114 million unused oil barrels. This number was equal to over one-fifth of the annual output of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico (Chapter One: Katrina in perspective). Additionally, according to the reports of The Department of Energy, this powerful storm made roughly 2.5
million customers suffer from power outages (Chapter Four: A week of crisis). The damages inflicted by the hurricane in the economy can be found in the sugar industry as well. The heart of sugar production in Louisiana, whose yearly crop value was up to 500 billion dollars, was struck heavily by Katrina. The nearby Mississippi’s casinos, which made the income of 1.3 billion annually, were also damaged (Amadeo 2012). The University of North Texas’ Doctor Bernard Weinstein put the total loss in economy up to 250 billion dollars (2008, p.3). This disaster truly and deeply damaged the economy of the most developed country in the world.
Besides the social life and the economy, Katrina left its impacts on politics as well. It tarnished a president’s tenure and caused unbearable burdens for the government along with the numerous criticisms from the people (Cornwell 2010). As Katrina drastically damaged the United States, the government led by President George W. Bush lost its reputation among the people who wanted to be protected properly by their authority. This definitely made it harder for President George Bush to get elected for another tenure. This also resulted in the loss of reputation of his Republican party, and opened a chance for other political party to win the next election. In addition, Michael Brown, who was the former director of FEMA, was forced to resign shortly after the disaster (CNN 2005). Moreover, in a more specific aspect, Katrina affected the African-American politics as well. It was clear that after the hurricane, the black people were very angry with the government. They assumed that it was racism that contributed to the slow disaster response (Sanders 2005). Consequently, three years later, after the last year in the four-year tenure of a President of the United States, the first black president was elected as a result of efforts made by voters to overcome the racial discrimination that Katrina created (Cornwell 2010).
2.3. What were the reactions and criticisms?
With such a troublesome disaster, came the troublesome issues. First of all, there were many problems in the reactions after the hurricane. In order to provide helps for the victims of the catastrophe, the United States government and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) carried out one
of the largest disaster-response operations in the history of the nation.
Government search and rescue efforts were executed by Coast Guard, FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force (FEMA US&R), the Department of Defense, and other Federal agencies. The Coast Guard managed to rescue and evacuate over 33,000 people. This earned them the name the “New Orleans Saints”. FEMA US&R teams also saved 6,500 lives (Chapter Four: A week of Crisis). Furthermore, FEMA was one of the first organizations to provide housing assistance to over 700,000 citizens after the hurricane. They also paid the hotel costs for families that were homeless for months (Hurricane Katrina 2005).
However, had it not been for the helps given by other NGOs, the situation could have been worse. Due to the destruction of the communication infrastructure, it took FEMA three days to realize the magnitude of the hurricane’s damages and start to react (Ahlers 2006). Therefore, NGOs played a fundamental role in the disaster-response project. Almost every local, regional, national charitable organization, private donor, faith-based entity contributed in aiding the victims. More than 9,000 volunteers from forty-one states were of assistance in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. These people took charge of mobile kitchens and recovery sites. Other smaller faith-based entities such as the Set Free Indeed Ministry in Louisiana provided comfort and shelters for the survivors (Chapter Five: Lesson Learned). The most noticeable and crucial contribution was the efforts made by the American Red Cross. In the aftermath, the Red Cross and its partners supplied 1,400 evacuation shelters for about 450,000 evacuees, 68 million hot meals and snacks. Moreover, they also supported 1.4 million families with direct assistance in buying groceries, clothing and other basic needs (Hurricane Recovery Program). In the long-term work of recovering the American society, the Red Cross created the Hurricane Recovery Program. This project made the mental health services accessible to about 187,500 individuals. Besides, they assisted with the development of personal recovery plans for more than 13,200 families. The total fund raised by The Red Cross was accounted for approximately 2.188 billion dollars (Hurricane Recovery Program).
In spite of all the efforts made by both the government and other NGOs, soon after the hurricane, criticisms against the slow reaction and discriminatory attitude of the government began. Many people believed that the lack of preparations and managements were factors leading to the deaths of many more citizens as a result of exhaustion and slow response. Others thought that race, class and other similar elements had contributed to a large proportion of victims who were sick, poor, old or black people. The hurricane surely raised the concern of the American and made them asked themselves these questions:
How was it that an America able to send hundreds of thousands of troops halfway round the world to topple a dictator of whom it disapproved could not protect New Orleans? How could such a Third World disaster happen in the leader of the First World? Why did black suffer the most? (Cornwell 2010)
Indeed, besides the slow response, discrimination is the hottest issue that attracted countless criticisms from the public. Long before Katrina hit the city, New Orleans’ residents already knew that they had been abandoned by the Bush administration. New Orleans is one of the poorest cities of the nation, and its residents are mainly black people. They blamed Bush administration for failing to upgrade the levee system which caused New Orleans’ flood, failing to provide emergency services for Katrina’s victims and leaving behind a large number of black people. Dreier (2006) claimed that The Bush administration’s actions should have been considered as indifferent rather than incompetent. He also suggested that The Bush administration had sabotaged FEMA’s capability to react to the disaster by taking away the authority of FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers, spoiling their morale and ignoring warnings from the state emergency managers. Moreover, people blamed Bush’s government for racism as the percentage of black victims was nearly 49% (Hurricane Katrina 2005). Additionally, FEMA should be heavily criticized for not having cooperated with other NGOs in the disaster-response operation. They seemed unwilling to accept the supports from NGOs. For instance, the American Red Cross was not allowed into New Orleans after the hurricane. Hence, they were unable to assist the government’s response (Chaudhuri n.d.).
3. Conclusion
All the findings above have shown that Katrina is one of the most destructive disasters in the history of the United States. Sadly, it was global warming caused by human’s activities that made Katrina unpredictable and more dangerous than it should have been. The hurricane hugely damaged the United States, especially on three main aspects: the social life, the economy and the politics. On top of that, the consequences of the hurricane were more serious due to the slow response and the indifference of the government despite the fact that many NGOs had contributed their efforts in the disaster-response operation. Therefore, the government was strongly criticized by the public. Katrina showed the world that there had been too many problems inside the United States, especially in the time of chaos. Hopefully, after nearly eight years, the United States could have solved its problems, and another disaster like Katrina would not happen anymore
REFERENCES
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http://articles.cnn.com/2005-09-12/politics/brown.resigns_1_fema-official-david-paulison-chertoff?_s=PM:POLITICS Cornwell, R. 2010, ‘Hurricane Katrina: The storm that shamed America’, The Independent, 20 August, viewed 20 January 2013, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/hurricane-katrina-the-storm-
that-shamed-america-2057164.html Dreier, P. 2006, ‘Katrina: A Political Disaster’, viewed 30 January 2013 http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/145/politicaldisaster.html
Kluger, J. 2005, ‘Is Global Warming Fueling Katrina?’, Time U.S., 29 August, viewed 16 January 2013, http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1099102,00.html Sanders, K. 2005, ‘Katrina victims blamed racism for slow aid’, NBC news, 6 December, viewed 10 March 2013, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/10354221/#.UUMNJ2fUnGQ
Simon Fraser University, ‘Hurricane Katrina 2005’, viewed 20 January 2013, http://www.sfu.ca/geog/geog351fall06/group06/Hurricane2005.htm The American Red Cross, ‘Hurricane Recovery Program’, viewed 14 January 2013, http://www.redcross.org/what-we-do/disaster-relief/hurricane-recovery-program The White House, Chapter One: Katrina in perspective, viewed 14 January 2013, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/reports/katrina-lessons-learned/chapter1.html The White House, Chapter Four: A week of Crisis, viewed 14 January 2013, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/reports/katrina-lessons-learned/chapter4.html The White House, Chapter Five: Lesson Learned, viewed 14 January 2013, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/reports/katrina-lessons-learned/chapter5.html University of North Texas, ‘UNT experts can discuss Tropical Storm Gustav and Hurricane Katrina’s 3rd anniversary’, viewed 28 January 2013, https://news.unt.edu/news-releases/unt-experts-can-discuss-tropical-storm-gustav-and-hurricane-katrinas-3rd-anniversary