You terraformed the land (a mountain here, a river there), built roads, zoned areas for industry, housing and commercial properties, put in a water supply and watched the folks move in. You were city planner, mayor, police commissioner, chief education officer, head of medical facilities and emergency services all in one.
If you got the mix right the city grew and money flowed into your coffers to be used for ever more ambitious projects to keep the poplace cheering.
But it seemed that no matter how carefully you grew your city there came a point where circumstances spun out of control.
It always began with a natural disaster and the game had quite a few to throw at you: earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, even an alien attack.
And then everything started to break down. Roads were destroyed, powerlines came down, the citizens rioted, fires started, the police services were overstretched. You ran out of money for reconsructuction. You cut corners. The citizens began leaving.
No matter what you did, you knew there was no way to win anymore.
Of course it's just a game. Nothing like that can happen in real life.
I didn't think so until I saw the newsfootage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It's been as if a made-for-TV-movie about apocolypse had suddenly become real.
I'm shocked: first of all at the scale of destruction - whole neighbourhoods flattened; but more than that - at the city's rapid descent into lawlessness and the ill-coordinated and tardy relief efforts. This is not what a nation expects from its government.
And an anchor on CNN yesterday made a very important point: if the reporters were flown in to cover the devastation before the hurricane struck, why couldn't the emergency services have been there waiting too? Why couldn't the old folks and the sick have been evacuated?
When you play SimCity you never see your inhabitants close up. On out TV screens the distress is all too real. I grieve for the folk who've lost their homes, lost everything they owned. How on earth must that feel? And I could have wept with Mayor Nagin during his telephone interview on CNN yesterday.
6 comments:
I read on CNN someone compared Hurricane Katrina to the December 2004 tsunami. My first reaction was no, the tsunami was unexpected, whereas Hurricane Katrina gave ample warning, yet the city was ill-prepared. Now I know better. Unexpected or ill-prepared, precious lives were lost.
Do not be naive. The disaster could have been avoided if they had listenend to the many reports made years ago about strentghtening the dykes. Unfortunately, the Bush administration decided otherwise: no funds allowed for a city of mainly black people. How much blood in his hands will Bush be accountable for. Power gone awry and greed have struck again. And what does it show about the American people reaction in this situation? In the tsunami disaster, Asian people have shown, for sure, a bigger heart and a strong sense of community. What a shame. But I am not surprised, after all. The decadence of the mighty American empire has begun for good. Sauf qui peut!
Like everyone else, I am overwhelmed by chaotic emotions about this: horror, pity, disbelief...but most of all, shame. I cannot recognize the America I see on the TV screen. Are those Americans sitting knee-deep in filth, without food and water, without sanitation, without medical care, without protection against roving bands of predatory psychopaths? I am appalled and ashamed. How can this be?
Why wasn't Hurricane Katrina 'President' Bush's top priority? Because there was no money in it for him or his cronies. I don't even think it was racism, as Anna implied. I think Bush would have been equally unconcerned about a city full of poor white, Spanish or Asian people. I think he's an equal-opportunity elitist bastard.
Today, my wife and I were able to get a hold of some good friends today who live(d) in Waveland, MS. Their house is gone. The town is gone. They rode out the storm in a local shelter, so they are fine, but everything they owned is gone. I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like. I sit here in my study typing these words... at least they are alive.
sharoooonnnnnnnnnn
zafar sent me a link: www.kitaab.org. v v nice :)
Thanks friends. I have nothing really to add to what you've said ... i just watch the news and my heart bleeds for these folks.
Angler- glad your friends are okay. I have an online friend from New Orleans I must try to track down.
dz - the link is great - what would I do without you?
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