Carl Tyler's Blog :: I'll have faith in this inquiry...

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Bush to lead inquiry into Katrina, to be honest I have said very little concerning Katrina, when people are still dying I don't see much value add in my comments on how people could have done things differently, or better etc.

I will say I am often amazed at our hypocrisy, when a natural disaster like this happens we are all very quick to jump up with offers of support one way or another, as President Bush said, "In times of Crisis, we help our fellow Americans", the question though, is if that is really true? There people we pass in crisis all the time, we often pass them daily them on our ways to work, they have probably suffered some kind of Crisis, but do we reach out to help them as often as we should? Are we just too jaded now to believe people when people request our help? Are we so immune to personal disaster that we have to see huge disasters to be affected? I don't have an answer to this, just an open thought.

So I will say one thing about GW from last week, those that read my blog know tha tI have zip, nada, zero respect for this man (it has been no secret), so I loved it last week, when on Wednesday he said in an interview "we are doing everything we possibly can to help these people", then two days later after his photo shoot he said "We are redoubling our efforts to help these people", so how exactly can you redouble efforts on something where you're already doing everything that can be done?

One of my biggest concerns watching the Katrina coverage, is what is going on with education and language skills in Louisiana? Regional accents I have no problem with, but listening to some of these poor suffering folks speak, they're missing out every other word. Are their language skills a reflection on the quality of education in that area or is that how everybody speaks down there? I honestly don't know, so I'm asking. Can their speech really be as bad as my spelling?

Comments

1 - Distance makes the difference. When there's no face on it, and that face isn't in yours, it's easy to feel sorry for them and do something to help, like when those who are suffering are far away in the gulf states, or even further away in Indonesia.

We see this all the time right in our own back yards. Around here (Seattle) we have a roving group of homeless people who set up their tents for 60 to 90 days at a time in various parts of King County. We call them 'Tent Cities' (in my case, I help sometimes with Tent City IV through our church).

Whereever they show up, the reaction is inevitable - either complete acceptance, or complete hostility. People who gladly donate to homeless causes from the suburbs of Seattle are completely opposed to those same homeless people setting up camp a few blocks from their house, even if only for a couple of months.

Posted by Greg Walrath At 01:25:06 PM On 09/06/2005 | - Website - |

2 - RE: Language, it's a bit of both, but the dialect is definitely a big part of it. In terms of dialect, New Orleans is to Boston as Scotland is to London -- almost sounds like a different language. Actually, my neighbor has a Cajun friend who's a college professor. Obviously very well educated, but you still can't understand half of what he says for the accent/dialect.

Posted by Lisa At 01:39:54 PM On 09/06/2005 | - Website - |

3 - A few months ago, I was asking a guy running a seafood stand in Westwego about how the shrimp are typically cooked. "Most people ball 'em" was his answer. "Ball 'em? What the hell is that?" I asked. "You know, hot water, ball 'em."
OTOH, their property taxes are insanely low so you have to wonder how they fund their schools. Personally, I would put my kids into a private school if I lived there.

Posted by Jon Johnston At 03:49:34 PM On 09/06/2005 | - Website - |

4 - The pure Cajun dialect is IMHO more understandable than what you're hearing from the typical New Orleans resident on news reports right now. Cajun has some unique words and idioms, but it has a cadence that I think makes it fairly easy to follow along. But most of the people in New Orleans don't seem to be speaking with a pure Cajun accent and dialect. It seems to be more of a mixture of deep-Southern and Cajun, along with a strong element of the slang and speaking patterns that you'll see in lots of poor urban centers these days. Us Yanks have a tough enough time understanding a deep-Southern accent on its own. When you mix in the poor urban and Cajun elements it becomes near incomprehensible.

Posted by Richard Schwartz At 07:25:45 PM On 09/06/2005 | - Website - |

5 - I'll agree with Richard, and congratulate him on finding a way to phrase it which is descriptive without being totally unkind. A lot of what you are hearing on the news is more of the urban slang than the cajun or southern. I have heard similar speech on news reports out of Philly.

I come from Florida, have relatives in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, and have been to Mardi Gras. There are many people who speak with a drawl but still use words and grammar correctly. While Cajun is distinctively not typical southern drawl, it does have structure and grammar that you can usually recognize - it is the idioms and the foreign-language words (such as French) you wouldn't probably catch in listening to a Cajun.

As far as the lower property taxes, I'm not sure if LA is the same as FL, but in FL there are taxes on gas, luxury items, and consumables of all kinds which contribute to the educational system. Even clothing and snack foods are taxed. (I was surprised when I moved up north and found they don't tax clothing.) The Florida lottery supports the educational system as well. IMHO it is a very fair system to the residents, because the people who can spend more money on frivolous items (including the tourists) pay more taxes.

Posted by Maria Helm At 03:46:25 PM On 09/07/2005 | - Website - |