May 19, 2010
Zeitoun
by Dave Eggers
It’s hard to imagine events like those described in Zeitoun to occur in the US. But the amount of fear and over-reaction that I believe has become ingrained in our national character, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised at any of it. It’s also hard to balance fact from propaganda and even those with the best intentions can lean toward characterizing things as inadvertently good or bad. But, because I trust Dave Eggers, I trust that this story is more fact than propaganda and depicts to the best of any person’s ability, to describe something as objectively as any personal story can.
I can’t stop thinking of the amount of loss there was in New Orleans. Nasser losing his life savings, all those dogs starving to death and perhaps most detrimental, the loss of faith people had in their country and the overall good of others. The craziest thing was that our government and leaders are much more able to ensure that prisoners don’t escape and are controlled than they are at saving lives and empowering their citizens. That fear is more likely to drive action than compassion or empathy. Huh. Sad right?
I was thinking about the part where they built the whole temporary jail in the Greyhound Station a lot lately. Right now in Toronto, they’re putting up all that fencing for the G20 and it kind of made me wonder, is this the same kind of construction job they did in New Orleans? Does this fencing get reused or is it something that will be thrown away in a matter of days?
And why did they choose Toronto of all places in Canada, in Ontario, to have the G20? Aren’t you just asking for controversy and wasted money? They’ve been putting the fencing up for days now and the whole show doesn’t even go down for another 4 days. What’s the point of wasting all those resources (not to mention all the people and businesses this inconveniences or hurts)?