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Int(arr)national Talk Like A Pirate Day
Sep. 19th, 2005 09:37 amErm... *cough*... ARRRRR!
[feebly] Me hearties. [/feebly]
*sheepish*
[feebly] Me hearties. [/feebly]
*sheepish*
Sep. 19th, 2005
It's interesting (she said ironically) to hear different points of view coming out of New Orleans.
I just got off the phone with MSY, which is Louis Armstrong (neé Moisant) Int'l Airport, New Orleans. The person I spoke to told me about what happened to airline property while the... which unit was it? 82nd something? had possession of the airport.
Apparently they're a specialty unit (forgive me my imprecise military terms) who seize airports. They'd just got back from seizing things in Uganda and apparently forgot which country they were in. I can see that happening; reflexes and all. But that's what officers are supposed to suss out and mitigate -- or at least, that's what Robert Heinlein's led me to believe.
They moved in and took over offices from every airline at MSY, but with no apparent consideration of anybody's property or work restoral. PCs on operations areas, which are vital to airline functionality, instead of being moved aside or unplugged and moved, had their cables cut and were thrown into closets. An air conditioning unit from one airline was completely removed from the site to air-condition a temporary HQ in another parish. Hoses serving the jetways were hacked off for use... who knows where. It's going to take days or weeks for these businesses to get back to normal ops now, instead of hours or days.
The tugs -- you know, those squat vehicles that tow the airplanes around? -- those didn't get forgotten either. Aside from being used as field ambulances of a sort (see my previous entry), they were used for something drastic. One airline *delicate cough* has four tugs with blown transmissions and other such abuse as to render them useless until the Ground Support Equipment crew manages to overhaul them.
Let me reiterate -- these things pull aircraft around under normal operation.
As the airline employee spoke, the vocal tone giving me as much an impression of the utter mess in which that workplace was left as much as the spoken details, I couldn't help but to remember the indignant, outraged cries from the blogosphere and the press about how New Orleans was being treated as a third-world country after Katrina's devastation. Not even a hostile country -- just one treated with indifference and a complete lack of emotional engagement.
Sure, there's exceptions. Guardsmen rescuing ickle kittens, police helping people out. But uniforms are getting splashed with Mississippi mud in this situation, and it's going to be hard to wash out (if you'll pardon the metaphor).
I've got people in my Flist who are far more familiar with military mindset than I am. I'm hoping they'll add a note or two that might explain why private property was abused in this manner, because I'm not seeing the logistics or justification behind it.
I just got off the phone with MSY, which is Louis Armstrong (neé Moisant) Int'l Airport, New Orleans. The person I spoke to told me about what happened to airline property while the... which unit was it? 82nd something? had possession of the airport.
Apparently they're a specialty unit (forgive me my imprecise military terms) who seize airports. They'd just got back from seizing things in Uganda and apparently forgot which country they were in. I can see that happening; reflexes and all. But that's what officers are supposed to suss out and mitigate -- or at least, that's what Robert Heinlein's led me to believe.
They moved in and took over offices from every airline at MSY, but with no apparent consideration of anybody's property or work restoral. PCs on operations areas, which are vital to airline functionality, instead of being moved aside or unplugged and moved, had their cables cut and were thrown into closets. An air conditioning unit from one airline was completely removed from the site to air-condition a temporary HQ in another parish. Hoses serving the jetways were hacked off for use... who knows where. It's going to take days or weeks for these businesses to get back to normal ops now, instead of hours or days.
The tugs -- you know, those squat vehicles that tow the airplanes around? -- those didn't get forgotten either. Aside from being used as field ambulances of a sort (see my previous entry), they were used for something drastic. One airline *delicate cough* has four tugs with blown transmissions and other such abuse as to render them useless until the Ground Support Equipment crew manages to overhaul them.
Let me reiterate -- these things pull aircraft around under normal operation.
As the airline employee spoke, the vocal tone giving me as much an impression of the utter mess in which that workplace was left as much as the spoken details, I couldn't help but to remember the indignant, outraged cries from the blogosphere and the press about how New Orleans was being treated as a third-world country after Katrina's devastation. Not even a hostile country -- just one treated with indifference and a complete lack of emotional engagement.
Sure, there's exceptions. Guardsmen rescuing ickle kittens, police helping people out. But uniforms are getting splashed with Mississippi mud in this situation, and it's going to be hard to wash out (if you'll pardon the metaphor).
I've got people in my Flist who are far more familiar with military mindset than I am. I'm hoping they'll add a note or two that might explain why private property was abused in this manner, because I'm not seeing the logistics or justification behind it.
I had t' resort t' a translator t' get into t' swin' o' thin's here. Here's a lovely portrait o' Scurvy Rita, t' Piratical Maid Her-i-cane, our guest for this year's 'Talk Like a Pirate Day'.
Now, Katrina t' Mad apparently trundled along only about three and a half miles south o' here, causin' me t' sweat away for four days without air conditionin'. Scurvy Rita's a good hundred-plus miles away.
Who wants t' start t' pool on if and/or when I'll lose me power this time, eh?
Now, Katrina t' Mad apparently trundled along only about three and a half miles south o' here, causin' me t' sweat away for four days without air conditionin'. Scurvy Rita's a good hundred-plus miles away.
Who wants t' start t' pool on if and/or when I'll lose me power this time, eh?
