09-02-2005, 05:07 AM
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Hello world!
Industry Role:
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 12,508
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by escorpio
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...inaloot01.html
"...disaster response researchers are intrigued, especially because this behavior has been far from the norm. Sociologists cite more than 50 years of research showing that widespread looting after a natural disaster is rare."
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This is a good example of how things can be taken out of context. Anybody reading the entire article will see that it doesn't support what you contend.
Quote:
But major looting occurred only in St. Croix, said Kathleen Tierney, sociology professor and director of the Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Researchers later determined that St. Croix differed in several ways from the other areas.
"More than 80 percent of the housing was destroyed," Tierney said. "It's an island; there was nowhere to go. They didn't know when help was going to come. Law enforcement was rendered ineffective. They didn't know when they'd see another meal."
Sounds close to the situation in New Orleans.
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Quote:
But what about the looting of luxury items? Some media images showed people hauling off television sets and DVD players, in an area with no electricity. "That's something we as researchers are going to take a closer look at," he said.
He offered a hypothesis ? not an excuse, he stressed: "You'd probably find the people doing this to be very poor. Pretty much they have nothing in their lives. They didn't have the resources to escape, didn't have a car or money to leave.
"Now, on this one occasion, suddenly they think, 'Wow, I can have these things,' for once."
Much of what's being taken are essentials: anything edible, disposable diapers, water and clothes.
"Most of the folks in and around New Orleans appear to be showing humanity at our best ? helpful, honest and genuinely concerned about the welfare of others."
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