MetaFilter posts tagged with disaster and government

The Lockerbie Deal

reenum — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 11:49:54 -0800

How Britain's largest corporations helped engineer the release of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber.

""You can't forget there are people listening when you say you are going to do things, and I try not to overpromise."

zarq — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:18:07 -0800

This past March, former US President Bill Clinton acknowledged to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that tariff policies his administration championed in the mid-1990's helped destroy Haiti's rice production and contributed to the impoverished nation's inability to feed itself. But while most of the world has stopped paying attention to Haiti's woes, Mr. Clinton has become the de facto leader of the effort to rebuild it after the catastrophic earthquake this past January. Will his influence be enough? Reports from the UN Office of the Special Envoy to Haiti indicate that the reconstruction progress has been slow. Worth noting: the history of Haiti's rice production industry is complex and despite his comments, Clinton is not solely to blame for its failure. (Esquire link goes to single-page print version. Original is here.)

Bulldozer Politics

amberglow — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:48:53 -0800

New Orleans City Ordinance #26031 --...those who have not been able to make the necessary repairs to their battered homes by August 29th risk having their property seized and bulldozed by the city.... Bush says today: Katrina Repair Will Take Time, but time's up for many New Orleans residents. (more here from ACORN, who has been trying to help save homes there)

Are you covered?

owhydididoit — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 22:52:12 -0800

Some call FEMA's administration of federal flood insurance and disaster relief illogical and illegal, although you won't find that in FEMA's recent summary of Katrina, which reveals that $15.3 billion dollars in federal flood insurance claims have been paid. That's quite a bit more than the National Flood Insurance Fund's budget, and you may recall that payouts didn't go smoothly. Still, having federal flood insurance, as opposed to relying on disaster relief, has proven its worth during the rebuilding process. Certainly Katrina was an extraordinary phenomenon, unlikely to be repeated any time soon. Perhaps that's why the annual disaster relief budget is smaller this year.