Or When the Government Failed the People Essay

Submitted By twish82
Words: 1228
Pages: 5
Open Document
Hurricane Katrina
Or when the government failed The People
Business Ethics

Disasters are not totally isolate events. Their possibility of occurrence, time, place and gravity of the strike can be reasonably and in some cases precisely predicted by technological and scientific advances. The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters defines that “A disaster is a situation or event which overwhelms local capacity, necessitating a request to a national or international level for external assistance” (CRED). Perhaps, one reason for this observation is that the disaster relief agencies are often the only organizations with the competencies to deal with them. As a director of The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Michael Brown was responsible to coordinate the response given to the disaster that overwhelmed local and state resources and he failed to accomplish is duty. Immanuel Kant's theory of deontological ethics argues that, “in order to act in the morally right way, people must act from duty” (1790).

M. Brown’s duty as a director was to provide an immediate and long-term assistance to the individual in need. After all, who better than FEMA to know what to do in time of crisis like Hurricane Katrina. M. Brown’s responses and behavior throughout the catastrophe were unethical because he did not seem to realize that people were in deep distress and therefore, failed to take the necessary actions. The hurricane has exposed ethical problems “related to social justice” (James Buehler 2005) and raised questions of how emergency services should be used.

During his hearing before the ethics commission for Hurricane Katrina, M. Brown recognized that his biggest mistake was not “recognizing by Saturday (a day before the hurricane strikes) that Louisiana was dysfunctional” (Brown’s testimony 2005). Clearly, he should have known days before that the state of Louisiana evacuation was far from complete. However, M. Brown went further in his “repentances” by denigrate the victims of Hurricane Katrina to save his name. He was quoted as calling those stuck in New Orleans “those who chose not to evacuate” (CNN Transcripts, 2005). Evidently, he expected that the sick and impoverished to manage for themselves. With those carefully chosen words, he even went so far as to blame them for their fate. While being interviewed by Fox News days after the hurricane passed, he explained that FEMA’s slow response to the problems in the convention center where thousands of people were trapped was only because he “hadn’t heard about it until today.” This interview was on Thursday, September 1. Obviously, everyone in the country except FEMA’s director had heard about it since it had been on every news station, national and international. In another desperate attempt to clear his name, Brown claimed in an interview, “I must say, this storm is much bigger than anyone expected” (On Larry King show 2008).

Edward Queen, director of the Ethics and Servant Leadership Program said that “to accept a job without competence is immoral” (Emory Report 2005) I will add that it also unethical. Brown took over FEMA in 2003 with little experience in emergency management. He joined the agency in 2001 as legal counselor or his friend, former FEMA director Joe Allbaugh, (who was President Bush 2000 campaign manager). When M. Allbaugh left FEMA in 2003 Brown was offer the job. His previous job for decade was in the head of The International Arabian Horse Association (IAHA), how one could become director of FEMA after being a judge commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association? The answer is “good friendship and relations”. That how a man, one would assume was qualified get the position. M. Brown lack of skill was known as soon as Kratina strikes down Louisiana. His incompetence was not only a waste of money but also may have allowed people to die.

The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina commission concluded that: “instead of
Show More

Related Documents: Or When the Government Failed the People Essay

Why Did The Articles Of Confederation Fail

of Confederation failed because the went unenforced and the people didn’t follow them. The people had more power than the government. The Articles feel because they were weak. The people knew that they were stronger than the government so they didn’t follow the laws. The laws went unenforced so the people didn’t follow them because the laws were weak and people had more power. Taxes weren’t collected because the government wasn’t stronger than the people. The courthouses failed to meet during…

Words 253 - Pages 2

Red Dress Day Analysis

the Canadian Government. Aboriginal women account for below 5% of Canada's population, yet make up 24% of female homicide victims. Statistics show that aboriginal women are a minority, yet hold one of the highest percentages of homicides in Canada's community. These homicide cases have been rising due to the racist, misogynistic, and stereotypical views expressed towards Aboriginal women and girls. Despite the gruesome evidence proving this matter's importance, the government has failed to properly…

Words 1371 - Pages 6

Rwanda Genocide Essay

religions, and have intermarried. The term “tribe” or “ethnic group” has long been inappropriate to distinguish between these two main Rwandan groups. Nevertheless, the Rwanda killing of about 800,000 thousands people within 100 days was the failure of responsibility to protect vulnerable group of people. The purpose of this paper is to assess the Rwanda case based on the concept of responsibility to protect. Although the idea…

Words 1278 - Pages 6

Essay on Bp Oil Spill

ashore, people on Gulf Coast are suffering huge damages they have never met before. The U.S. government estimates that up to 60,000 barrels of oil a day are spewing out from the damaged BP drilling rig to Gulf of Mexico. It has ruined the shoreline, killed animal and sea life, threaten the ecosystem and harmed the tourism and fishing in Louisiana. After the spilling happened, US government and BP has been struggling for plugging the hole deep under the water which is known as Top-kill, but failed. Right…

Words 1501 - Pages 7

Essay on Sociology and Strong Reason

“The Provisional Government lasted such a short time because it failed to deal with the social and economical problems faced” How far do you agree with this statement? In order to answer the above question we must look at the social and economical problems that the ‘PG’ faced, then look at the other problems the ‘PG’ faced such as the issues with the war, then arising issues with land distribution, the national minorities and the divide between the liberals and socialists and their influences…

Words 991 - Pages 4

Why did perestroika fail to revive the Soviet economy? Essay

provoked a wide range of reactions both positive and negative. Perestroika is credited with being the final factor that caused the collapse of the Soviet Union by irreparably damaging its economy. Although the Soviet economy was approaching crisis in 1985 when Gorbachev came to power, it was still working. It was perestroika which appeared to have made everything worse, so that an ailing economy was approaching collapse by 1991. According to CIA estimates by 1989 the size of the Soviet economy was roughly…

Words 1978 - Pages 8

Race-Based Affirmative Action in the United States Essay

“Race-based affirmative action has failed.” Discuss (45 Mark) When the constitution was produced, the Founding Fathers aimed to ensure that all people share the same right, have equal opportunity. Affirmative action is a programme that entails giving those members of a previously disadvantaged minority group a head start in such areas as higher education and employment. There were many goal during the 1960s till now set out to ensure that there will be a point where racial equality will not be problem…

Words 975 - Pages 4

troubles in paradise Essay

convention area, as well as historically and culturally important zone. Paseo Caribe was organized as a partnership between the government of Puerto Rico and the private sector. The government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, a territory of the United States, acquired from the U.S federal government a piece of land at the entrance of the San Juan Islet. The government of Puerto Rico developed a Special Land Use Plan and regulation for the entrance of the San Juan Islet in 1993. The Plan also known…

Words 1704 - Pages 7

Causes of the Great Depression Essays

many workers out of jobs and drastically increased the number of homeless people. Both banks and businesses failed. There were many ideas on how to fix the Great Depression, and liberals and conservatives and different ways of handling it. There were many different causes of the Great Depression. One of the biggest causes was the Stock Market Crash. Speculation eventually led to the market falling 12% because so many people were buying stocks to sell them for quick money. This made their price go…

Words 966 - Pages 4

Essay on Social, Economic, and Political Failures: The New Deal

TVA seems to be a good deal, it flooded an estimated 730,000 acres of land behind its dams, and 15,654 people were forced out of their homes. Farm owners received cash settlements for their condemned property. But tenant farmers, a substantial number of whom were black, got nothing. 5.) The NRA was nick named the “Negro Run Around”. Some of its codes like the minimum wage led to many black people losing their jobs as employers preferred to take on white workers. THE Native Americans Native Americans…

Words 1440 - Pages 6