Posted: Oct 24, 07 12:02pm
I can't think of anything that can define a leader quicker than crises. Perhaps that's why people will fabricate a crises in order to show their strengths. (The problem with that approach is that sometimes even a fabricated crises can take on a momentum of it's own, completely beyond the control of those who created it. In such cases the manipulator had better be able to "walk the walk" or their child can bury them.)
Perhaps Oldude59 will elaborate on this subject here, I'd like to hear about some of his experiences.
Yesterday Louisiana elected a new governor, Bobby Sindal.
I've held off discussing this on TBD, because the subject might be of little interest to those who've no reason to follow Louisiana politics. There is a leadership angle to this, that may be of interest to those participating in this group.
Let me give you a little background. Louisiana is one of the most corrupt states in the U.S. I once read somewhere that only Rhode Island surpasses The Bayou State when it comes to corrupt public officials. I'm not just referring to the high profile governors and mayors, but all the way down to parish governments, public utilities, law enforcement, and city oficials in the smallest hamlets.
Even outsiders know of the exploits of Huey Long and Edwin Edwards. The former ruled his fiefdom with an iron fist, and the latter dodged more federal inquiries than the slickest New York and Chicago "Don's".
New Orleans is below sea level, and the only thing keeping the water out is the city's levee system. For years the New Orleans Levee Board was responsible for monitoring, maintaining, and managing the state of these levees. They're been given hundreds of millions of dollars to oversee this system, but where did that money really go?
They built a casino. They bought a private jet. They spend hundreds of thousands on junkets for various fact-finding trips and lofty civic purposes. They entertained, they controlled contracts, they did everything but their job. Oh sure they paid a lot of people to drive around and add dirt and concrete here and there. But when you look at what they did with their money, how much they spent, and what the city got out of their efforts it's obvious that mismanagement and outright corruption were the order of the day.
This all took place in a city sitting within miles of the Gulf of Mexico, where on average, a category III storm strikes every five to ten years or so. Sometimes they hit Mobile, Biloxi, Pensacola, Corpus Christie, or Baytown. A true statistician would argue this point, but anyone who plays poker would just assume that NO's time was long overdue, and someone, somewhere, had better have some sort of a plan ready for the disaster that was sure to come.
Louisiana's preparations were nothing but a house of cards, built with squandered federal, state, and local taxes by a corrupt political machine more interested in winning votes and contracts for their friends. Look what happened when Katrina loomed in the gulf.
It's not the fed's responsibility to evacuate people from the path of a hurricane, flood, volcano, or rioting mob. State and county/parish officials are the responsible parties in these situations. What did Louisiana do? They issued evacuation orders. But what of some 200,000 people living in south Louisiana that don't have a working vehicle, or the money to buy one? What of the people in nursing homes and hospitals?
The people without influence or good jobs. The people who for whatever reason of their own wound up at the bottom of the social strata in a state where the philosophy seems based on 19th century darwinism. "They're poor because they haven't evolved."
They dropped the ball big time and the worst offenders were Governor Kathleen Blanco and NO Mayor Ray Nagin. They were presented with an incredible opportunity. Handed a genuine act of god type crises they could confront and use to show the world the true leader that lay within them, but they crumbled. They showed the world how weak they were. They made every mistake a leader could.
Within hours they were holding press conferences where they wondered aloud when the FEMA trucks would arrive with fresh water, emergency crews, command post's, etc. The mayor set up shop in a 4-star hotel. The governor monitored the situation from relative safety in Baton Rouge. The poor, downtrodden evacuee's were crowded like cattle into the Superdome without water, food, or sanitary facilities.
The press converged on New Orleans. It became the epicenter of the tragedy. Not much was made about coastal Mississippi, obliterated by the storm. Nobody mentioned the hundreds of stranded people across the lower parishes.
Within hours, they played the RACE CARD.
It was all somebody elses fault. The press, knowing nothing about Louisiana politics, money, or power gave them the bandwidth for their outlandish claims. They made a big deal about how George Bush flew over the area in an aircraft. He too fumbled it, by not making a personal appearance on the scene. His faux pas were about appearances, and had nothing to do with his executive responsibility. The president can't fire a states governor or a city's mayor.
If you browse around some of the left-leaning websites, and listen to the pre-election rhetoric of the democrats, Hurricane Katrina is evidence of an incompentent and uncaring republican administration. If you listen to the people of Louisiana, the ones who just voted, the true culprit was always Kathleen Blanco (Dem) and the NO political machine.
The Louisiana political machine was handed a crises, and they responded with all the character of a common thief who's been caught with his hand in the till. The recent election shows just how big of a deal this was. Louisiana has'nt had a republican governor since reconstruction. Bobby is the son of Indian immigrants. He's a brilliant young man and has shown real leadership in his other roles around the state. This election marks a sea change in Louisiana politics. In a crises, real leaders will stand out, and everyone will remember their conduct when the smoke clears.
