The most of this books issues relate to the systematic total failure on all levels of the relief effort, which is what the following pertains to.
It is now a few days after the storm, the levees have broken, and Zeitoun is paddling around on his second-hand canoe saving all those he can find who need his help. Unable to transport a woman in a wheelchair and her husband who were both in their seventies due to the size of his boat, he paddles to the medical center where national guardsmen were stationed, with large fan boats. When he asks for help, at gunpoint, he is told first that they could not help him, and after repeating his request the more astonishing answer was given, "Not our problem," (144). I cannot explain my reaction to this any better than was written in the book, "What were they doing in the city, if not helping evacuate people," (144). The worst part in my opinion was the disregard of the stranded elderly couple as someone else's problem. That is just not right or reasonable in any sense.
Friday 7 January 2011
Zeitoun post 1.......(at long last)
I actually just finished the book a few days ago, but didn't take the time to do the blog posts until now, so here we go. The posts will be in order of the book's plot by reference and excerpts from the book.
One of the things that I admire about the way the book is written is the way that differences in ethnicity, religion, and everything else is mentioned casually and without pause which displays a great sense of openness to the differences in people as nothing needing explanation or justification. He knows the feeling of falling victim to prejudices, which is why he makes a point of never imposing such feelings upon anyone else. Without any pause in the flow of the writing, Dave Eggers, writing from the recollection of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, notes, "Rob had a similar predicament. His husband, Walt Thompson, was like Zeitoun-bullheaded," (39). There is no reference to them anywhere in the book as a 'gay' couple, but merely as a couple, which is the kind of absolute equality and acceptance that would be found in a Utopian society. It is not recognition of being a gay couple and accepting that, but accepting them as a couple, just a couple, that displays true equality.
One of the things that I admire about the way the book is written is the way that differences in ethnicity, religion, and everything else is mentioned casually and without pause which displays a great sense of openness to the differences in people as nothing needing explanation or justification. He knows the feeling of falling victim to prejudices, which is why he makes a point of never imposing such feelings upon anyone else. Without any pause in the flow of the writing, Dave Eggers, writing from the recollection of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, notes, "Rob had a similar predicament. His husband, Walt Thompson, was like Zeitoun-bullheaded," (39). There is no reference to them anywhere in the book as a 'gay' couple, but merely as a couple, which is the kind of absolute equality and acceptance that would be found in a Utopian society. It is not recognition of being a gay couple and accepting that, but accepting them as a couple, just a couple, that displays true equality.
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