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America Betrayed

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I thought I'd heard all the bad news about the government mismanagement of Hurricane Katrina's impact on New Orleans in 2005. I was wrong.

This is a factual, well documented study of one of the two greatest engineering disasters of the last 100 years. (The other was the meltdown of the nuclear plant at Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union.)

Some basic points:

This was not a "natural" disaster. It was a direct result of billions of your tax dollars being used to pay for all sorts of idiotic projects to benefit private, politically connected interests while money for the levies to protect the people of New Orleans was neglected. Katrina was not even a Category 4 storm. It was a category 3 storm. The disaster that ensued was a direct result of public works projects that destroyed the wetlands protecting the city and even built a huge ship canal (that did not work properly) which would channel the full force of the storm into the city.

Warning. If you live near levies, you should get this film and check out the resources listed. You could be in danger too. Other levies around the country have also been neglected.

Spending on infrastructure to protect people in our nation has been neglected for years while public money has gone to help gambling casinos and other forms of politically connected "development".

Educate yourself. Become an active citizen. This film shows your life and property could very well be in danger.

If this sounds extreme, watch this film. Don't take my word for it. Make up your own mind. This is very disturbing material.

Hurricane Katrina was a tragedy in every possible sense and meaning of the word that you can imagine. Perhaps the biggest of it all, was the total failure of the United States of America's government to prevent the catastrophe and provide relieve afterwards. This is something that we don't expect from what we are taught is the most powerful country in the world. As a result, many articles and books have been written and films made that document this failure in its entire splendor. The powerful and unforgettable "America Betrayed" takes a well-researched and penetrating look at some of the factors that lead us to such a shameful disaster.

Right at the beginning of the documentary, we are told that the devastation created by Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005, was not the result of a natural disaster. We learn that it was actually a man-made disaster, in which 80% of the city was sadly flooded - a hell that could had been prevented. Director Leslie Cardé remarkably documents how this failure was the result of the relationship that the US Army Corps of Engineers' (USACE) incompetent management and the greedy corporate sector - via profitable contracts - has. The USACE is the agency that is in charge of planning and designing of bridges, dams, levees, and similar structures that serve the nation. Cardé interviews several agency and government officials, academicians, etc., and provides evidence after evidence of how the USACE builds relationships with corrupt politicians and hires contractors with shadowy reputations, which unashamedly overbill their employers, hence the taxpayers money. The result, of course, is Katrina, Because of this destructive relationship, we witnessed the annihilation of one of the major and historically important cities in the US. No matter how much restoration takes place, the soul of the city is gone with some of its people. Cardé wisely connects all the abuses committed by politicians, USACE, and contractors with the term Disaster Capitalism, which clearly has shown that in any recent wars or disasters, these people are more interested in making money that helping their fellow citizens in need. She rightly concludes that this behavior is definitely related to the so-called Shock Doctrine, which Naomi Klein so brilliantly discusses in her best-selling book.

Cardé also adequately discusses USACE-related projects in other cities across the US, and we witness how some of these cities are taking justice into their own hands in working hard and against time in trying to prevent any future disasters.

"America Betrayed" will not tell anything new if you have been able to read the actions of our government well. The signs are all there - you just need to make the associations. However, the director provides so much valuable information that helps us understand the system better, how we are being pillaged and how greed is destroying our institutions. It is a powerful and well-produced indictment against some government and non-government officials that are eating us alive. It will surely put the health care debate into perspective, and make us understand why there is one greedy party that doesn't want it to happen. If there is no money in it, we don't want it. The DVD also includes an interview with the director, as well as bonus interviews with the people that shared their thoughts in this film. It also provides a resource guide. (USA, 2008, color, 94 min plus additional materials). Reviewed on September 17, 2009 by Eric Gonzalez for [...].

If you're looking for a movie to really get your blood boiling, search no further than "America Betrayed," a shocking and revelatory documentary that examines the deplorable condition that much of our nation's infrastructure is in at the moment.

Writer/director Leslie Carde finds her villain in the US Army Corps of Engineers, an agency whose primary aim is supposed to be that of protecting the nation's citizenry from potential disasters caused by the structural failure of dams, bridges, levees, buildings etc. Instead, the Corps, in cahoots with the many politicians and congressmen who work right along with it, has been found, over and over again, to be derelict in its duties - guilty of negligence, of employing harmful cost-cutting measures, of having misplaced priorities, of engaging in outright deception, and of brokering sweetheart deals with pet contractors. The movie is unsparing in its treatment of the Corps, and Carde clearly views it as her own personal mission to hold that organization accountable for the many acts of criminal malfeasance it has engaged in over the years. I think it speaks volumes that no member of the Corps was willing to be interviewed for this film.

The movie chooses as its focal point the catastrophic failure of the levees in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, which resulted in the almost complete annihilation of one of America`s premier cities. Interviewee after interviewee refers to Katrina not as a "natural" disaster but as a man-made one. And given the facts as Carde lays them out for us, the film makes a very convincing case for that argument.

The scenes set in New Orleans - both during the hurricane and in the wake of its aftermath - are heartbreaking in the extreme. But it isn't just in New Orleans that the problem lies. The movie makes it clear that there are literally hundreds of other potentially dangerous levees and dams scattered throughout the country, most notably in the earthquake-prone Central Valley region of California. And that isn't even taking into account all the aging, structurally unsound bridges, sewer systems, roadways, etc. that are also threatening to give way at any moment - as exemplified by the Minnesota bridge collapse that resulted in the deaths of thirteen people on August 1, 2007.

Most galling, perhaps, is the fact that so many of the funds that could have been earmarked for retrofitting projects here in the U.S. have been diverted to similar projects in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Carde's work extends far beyond the issue of infrastructure; she views this as merely a symbol of the much greater failure of government overall, of our unwillingness as a nation to value the safety of our people over corporate profit and special interest deal-making.

Narrated by Richard Dreyfuss, "America Betrayed" is indeed a powerful and important social document - but be prepared to seethe.

If you think corruption and the incestuous ties between politics and business is bad in America, wait till you see worse outside America! Thanks to the Bill and Rights and your Freedom of Information Act (FOI), Americans are now exposed to the shocking betrayals of public trust by government authorities and their crony ties to big business.

This DVD is more than just about exposing how the disaster at New Orleans is man-made one, not a natural disaster. Leevee works were exclusively channeled to the US Army Corp of Engineers and their cronies. Similar to how contractors legally steal taxpayers money sounds similar to all those foreign instrastructure building works in Afghanistan. People on the ground NEVER benefit from any of these billions of dollars that are shelled out by congress. Instead, the public is widely deceived into thinking that these are money spent on "protecting the public's future", whereas in fact, these billions of dollars are "legally" and shrewdly stolen by unscrupulous and unacountable contractors and sub-contractors.

Example:

Congress awards the US Army Corp of Engineers US$1 billion (usually much more)
for building public works.

USCE outsources work to contractor 1 who takes their cut of the pie.

Contractor 1 doesn't want to do the job directly and out-sourcess the project to sub-contractor A who then takes their cut of the budget.

Sub-contractor A doesn't want to do the job directly and out-sourcess the project to sub-contractor B who then takes their cut of the budget.

By the time the last greedy contractor takes his cut of the pie, there doesn't seem to enough money to buy the best building materials anymore. Inferior building materials are sought, profits are maximized, construction projects are put into place at the slowest pace (so that more money can be sought to "complete the project"). When disasters strike and innocent people killed, these contractors and the government washes their hands off all responsibility.

On and on this game goes.

The final bill is then billed to taxpayers!

The USCE and their contractors and the special interests groups are happy and re-elect their benefactors in Congress for the next term so that more taxpayers money can funneled to their projects in the future. Cozy lifestyles with no public accountability to anyone.

On and on this game goes.

5 years on and hurricane-struck New Orleans is still left in ruins!

Any rational person can now ask: "Where has all the billions of dollars gone missing?!"

You see this happening in New Orleans, and other "aid" to foreign countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.! What innocent civilian has benefited from the billions of dollars that have gone missing?!!! None!

You, the taxpayer, been conned! What are you going to do about it?!

You see this merry-go-around business and money games being played by all politicians worldwide! They all have ties to businesses and deceive you the public into thinking that they're doing "good"! What good has any politician with business ties done for you and me? Nothing! They're all in business and politics to make money for themselves! Cronyism, corruption, you name all the sins of the universe, and you can find them all in the areas of business and politics. Nothing ever changes in this world! They're all damned!

Highly recommended are all media works by director Michael Moore.


Recommended viewing:

The Distinguished Gentleman

Rethink Afghanistan

Sicko (Special Edition)

Capitalism: A Love Story

Fast Food Nation

Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media


Recommended reading:

Profit Over People: Neoliberalism & Global Order

Escape from Paradise

Beyond Suspicion? The Singapore Judiciary (Southeast Asia Studies Monograph Series)

The Media Enthralled: Singapore Revisited (International Communications and Popular Culture)