Bon ben c'est le 4 juillet, c'est donc la fête des obèses des "trippeux" d'armes des gendarmes du monde des Américains. Bon, bien que le billet puisse paraître très anti-américain, il ne faut pas voir de ma part un anti-américanisme primaire et maladif. Sauf qu'évidemment, contrairement aux voisins du Sud, je n'arrive pas à m'extasier autant qu'eux devant le drapeau américain et la société américaine en général. Ah, il n'y a pas que du mal dans ce pays bien sûr, mais comment je peux croire que ce peuple est "bon" quand la Cour Suprême du pays permet à celui-ci de devenir un "Far West" énorme, en permettant à chaque citoyen de porter une arme ? Ils sont 300 millions aux États-Unis, dix fois plus qu'ici. Imaginez si juste la moitié de ceux-ci portent une arme... Sans compter que là-bas, le "Support our Troops" que dénonce fortement le Détracteur Constructif est presque obligatoire, engravé dans le cerveau des Américains qui voient en l'armée le seul moyen de maintenir la main mise sur le pétrole l'ordre mondial. Mais bon, peut-être qu'avec un changement de président, ça va déjà aller un peu mieux au niveau politique intérieure et extérieure ? D'ailleurs, il faut bien que les célébrations du 400ème de Québec tombent proche de la Fête d'Indépendance américaine pour qu'un historien américain parle de Samuel de Champlain (via Patrick Lagacé) ! Je suis tombé sur une image sur le site Bulles d'oxygène (d'où vient le drapeau aussi) qui m'a fait sourire:

Ça dit à peu près ceci, pour ceux qui auraient de la difficulté avec la langue de Shakespeare: L'esprit humain ne se mesure pas par la grandeur de ses actes, mais par la taille de son cœur. Ça se trouve à New York, proche du Ground Zero bien sûr. La phrase est très belle. Le seul problème qui m'embête c'est que le coeur des Américains pompe trop à l'argent et aux armes plutôt qu'aux sentiments...

As I went down to Bermuda to play
Studying about that new cat model way
And who shall win the profit crown?
Accu Weather show me the way!

O insurers let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
O insurers let's go down
Down to Bermuda to play

As I went down to Bermuda to play
Studying about that new cat model way
And who shall win the profit crown?
Weather Predict show me the way

O insurers let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
Come on insurers, let's go down
Down to Bermuda to play

As I went down to Bermuda to play
Studying about that new cat model way
And who shall win the profit crown?
AIR Worldwide show me the way

O insurers let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
O insurers let's go down
Down to Bermuda to play

As I went down to Bermuda to play
Studying about that new cat model way
And who shall win the profit crown?
Accu Weather show me the way

O insurers let's go down
Come on down, don't you wanna go down?
Come on insurers, let's go down
Down to Bermuda to play

As I went down to Bermuda to play
Studding about that new cat model way
And who shall win the profit crown?
Weather Predict show me the way

O insurers, let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
O insurers, let's go down
Down to Bermuda to play

As I went down to Bermuda to play
Studying about that new cat model way
And who shall win the profit crown?
AIR Worldwide show me the way

At the center of his frustration is the Freedom Tower cornerstone, a massive granite block planted at Ground Zero with considerable fanfare in 2004. The stone was crafted and donated by Hauppauge's Innovative Stone.

However, two years after officials planted the cornerstone in the ground, it was unearthed because plans for the tower changed. Today, the stone rests in Innvative's warehouse.

Daly suggest, since the first stone has been disgraced, ther city should contract Innovative to make another one.

From his column:

The company had donated the garnet-flecked stone and done the polishing and inscribing free, another example of the spirit of true goodness that filled so many Americans in the aftermath of the monstrous attack.

No doubt more than one suburban homeowner who came to Innovative Stone for a counter for a kitchen or a bathroom was surprised to behold the inscribed cornerstone sitting in a corner of the company's work lot.

Many of the scoundrels who betrayed the murdered innocents are gone, but the stone still sits at Innovative. And the new people in charge of Ground Zero do not seem entirely sure when we really will build the Freedom Tower.

When we truly are ready to commence construction, we should contract the good people at Innovative to build a new, equally exquisite stone.

However beautiful the original stone may be, it has been dishonored by the shameless grandstanding by Pataki and his ilk.

A dozen issues which had slowed work and raised costs have been listed over by Christopher Ward, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executive director.

In September, new dates are expected to be issued for the completion of a memorial, skyscrapers and a transit hub.

Will the centrepiece Freedom Tower be scaled back remains unclear.

After being scheduled for completion in 2006, then 2011, now the lastest estimate is 2013, for the tower planned as a replacement for the destroyed Twin Towers.

At 1,776ft (541m) it would be the tallest building in the US.

‘Emotional dates’

"The schedule and cost estimates of the rebuilding effort that have been communicated to the public are not realistic", said Mr Ward in a report to New York governor, David Paterson.

He said that by the end of September, new "clear and achievable timelines" would be set by developers and government agencies.

Referring to them as “emotional dates”, Mr Ward also said that in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the earliest rebuilding estimates were not truthful.

The deadlines for the redevelopment work have been moved several times.

As commodity prices soar and developers and government agencies wrangle over site plans, the project’s initial $14bn budget has continued to rise.

You Are My Sunshine
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my insurance away

The other nite, dear,
As I lay sleeping
I dreamed good hands held me in their arms.
When I awoke, dear,
I was mistaken
And I hung my head and cried.

You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my insurance away.

I've always loved you
And made you happy
If you will only say the same
But if you leave me
To shyst another
You'll regret it all some day;

You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my insurance away.

You told me once, dear
You really loved me
And only premium could come between
But now you've left me
To shyst another
You have shattered all my dreams;

You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You made me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I loved you.
Please don't take my insurance away.

Mississippi my Mississippi
the place where I was borne.
White fields of cotton
-- green fields clover,
good Biloxi Bacon
and long tall corn;

You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You made me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my insurance away.

Crawfish gumbo and jambalaya
the biggest shrimp and sugar cane,
the finest oysters
and sweet strawberries
from Toledo Bend to New Orleans;

You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You made me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my insurance away.

One evening as the sun went down and the legal fees were churning
Down the net came a lawyer hiking and he said boys I'm not turning
I'm headin for a land that's far away beside the crystal fountains
So come with me we'll go and see the Big Rock Katrina Mountains

In the Big Rock Katrina Mountains there's a land that's fair and bright
Where the Hurricane winds blow softly and you flood out every time
Where the adjustments all come up empty and the sun shines every day
On the birds and the bees and Maria Brown's mammaries
Where the lemonade springs where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Katrina Mountains

In the Big Rock Katrina Mountains all the houses have wooden legs
And Lecky Kings says no way cause Edith Jones looks the other way
The farmer's trees are full of fruit and the barns are full of hay
Oh, I'm bound to go where there ain't no snow
Where the rain don't fall and the wind don't blow
In the Big Rock Katrina Mountains

In the Big Rock Katrina Mountains you never need your glasses
just pick a spot on the property and raise the water mark
The engineers change their reports and their supervisors are blind
There's Lake Pontchartrain too and it did flood too
You can paddle all around 'em in a big canoe
In the Big Rock Katrina Mountains

In the Big Rock Katrina Mountains the jails are made of tin
And you can racketeer right out again, as soon as you are in
There ain't no US Attorney, no witnesses or storm pics
I'm a goin to stay where you adjust from the airplane all day
Where they hung the jerk that invented work
In the Big Rock Katrina Mountains

I'll see you all this coming fall in the Big Rock Katrina Mountains

The Editilla is the Master of Disaster with lots of soulas and some beautiful children to boot. His endorsement yesterday again makes us blush. So we figure Belle is Molly, I'm HL and Nowdy is Clarence. God help us all.  ;-)

Sein Fein Brother Bruce!

sop

What has been a closely held secret by some local governments has now become public - who may get what from nearly $200 million in federal money for long-term recovery projects countywide.

It hasn't yet been officially approved by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, but a proposed list has been sent to Washington from the Mississippi Development Authority. The list of projects approved to split $198.4 million in grant money contains good news for some agencies and bad news for others.

For instance, more than $7 million had been requested for local school districts, but they will apparently receive nothing. Yet Bay St. Louis and Waveland stand to get a combined $21 million-plus to build a pair of marinas three miles from each other along the same beachfront.

Of the total, $105.8 million will go to Hancock County government. Bay St. Louis can expect to get $37.6 million and Waveland, $17.4 million.

The top items approved so far on the county's list are $40 million for a new jail and $50 million to four-lane Mississippi 603 from just above Interstate 10 to Mississippi 43. However, the highway project was recently thrown into doubt when state transportation Commissioner Wayne Brown said a number of road projects - including the 603 widening - may not be done because of rising gasoline prices.

Next up is the continuing struggle to attract another grocer to the Bay-Waveland area. Mayor Longo in Waveland previously said an announcement was coming early in the year but he evidently spoke too soon.  Now Bay St Louis is willing to spend some of the allocation of the $200 million dollars discussed above to buy and renovate one of the abandoned shopping centers to attract another chain to Bay St Louis. Rouses continues to be the chain that city officials are courting. JR Welsh also filed this report:

Weary of waiting nearly three years for a full-service grocery to return, city leaders here have hatched a new plan: Build, and somebody will come.

Well, they wouldn't exactly build. But they would buy and renovate. A plan by the Favre administration would use $5 million in federal grants to purchase a property suitable for a grocery, and then offer a low-cost lease to a grocery chain.

The city has been without a major grocery store since Winn-Dixie folded its tent and left after Hurricane Katrina. Hungry citizens have few options: Wal-Mart in Waveland, a supermarket in Diamondhead, or drive many miles elsewhere to stock their kitchens.

The documented holdup to Rouses opening up is the ever present 500 pound gorilla of insurance. The story continues:

"We are talking to Bay St. Louis officials," said Donald Rouse, managing partner of Rouse's Supermarkets, headquartered in Houma, La. The company operates 32 stories in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Rouse said there's lots to weigh when deciding on a new market, especially here.

"Insurance is awfully difficult to obtain. It would be quite a bit of money and risk for us," he said. But, he added, "We're interested in that market and we're still trying to put the right deal together."

Lets take the scenic route across the Bay Bridge on Highway 90 to downtown Gulfport and today's Harrison County Board of Supervisor's meeting. On the agenda is a story Slabbed has been following for quite some time, the fight to save the old Gulfport library building. Melissa Scallan filed this report for the Sun Herald:

The Harrison County Board of Supervisors on Monday could decide whether to object to the Gulfport Library being considered for landmark status.

On the board's agenda is an item to accept a letter from the state Department of Archives and History saying the permit committee will consider naming the library a Mississippi Landmark.

The committee made the decision at its June 12 meeting, and the public has until July 19 to submit letters or e-mails concerning the library.

The board also will hear from representatives of We the People, a group that has been diligent in its efforts to save the library from demolition.

If the supervisors object to the library being designated a landmark, the decision will be made by the Board of Trustees for Archives and History, likely at its October meeting. If the board doesn't object, the permit committee will vote on the issue at its August meeting.

Supervisors said earlier this month they likely will object, not because they want to tear down the building, but because they don't want to put public money into a building that can't be used for a library anymore. Also, they have said insurance would be too high for a building so close to the water.

Even if the library is named a landmark, supervisors aren't obligated to repair the building.

"The board doesn't have a burning desire to tear down that building," Supervisor Kim Savant said when Archives and History made its decision. Savant represents District 2, which includes the library. "But what we have said is that we will not put taxpayer dollars into the building."

We wish We the People luck in finding money to restore the building.

Its back to Bay St Louis to find out what Habitat for Humanity has been up to there. Habitat has proven, along with other non profits like KaBOOM to be among the best friends the slabbed have made since the storm. Sarah Cure writing for the Seacoast Echo filed this report:

A house, depending on the square footage, usually takes about one year to build, but Bay-Waveland's Habitat for Humanity division will build an astonishing seven homes in five days while working around the clock.

Roughly 200 volunteers from Illinois, Florida, New Jersey, Texas and even Northern Ireland are "blitz-building" this week on Dicks St. in Waveland for five days straight and almost 24 hours a day. Seven Hancock County families will have the opportunity to move in their new homes within two to three weeks.

"By the end of July, our affiliate will have built a total of 77 homes in Hancock County since Hurricane Katrina," Director of Communications for Habitat Bay-Waveland Dave Walker said. "We play a big role in the solution."

It has only been one month since a "blitz-build" was conducted in Bay St. Louis during the 2008 Carter Work Project in which 10 houses were constructed in five days.

"......now we are doing an extra seven," Walker said. "This speaks about the determination and tenacity of this affiliate and how we are passionate and driven to get this community back on its feet."

Finally we take "Old 90" over to New Orleans and find that GO Zone bonds allocated to rebuilding the City are going unused, the victim of uncertain credit markets and governmental red tape. Kate Moran at the Times Picayune has the story:

For the most part, Gulf Opportunity Zone bonds have proven a powerful means of seeding private sector investment in the parishes ransacked by Hurricanes Katrina or Rita. They have had limited impact in only one place: New Orleans.

More than 40 developers with housing, hotel or retail projects in New Orleans have applied for a bond allocation in the past two years. Seven of those have managed to place the bonds in the private market and close their deals. That means a vast amount of borrowing capacity remains unused in the city that arguably needs it the most.

Some of the developers who let their bond allocation lapse simply decided to tap another public incentive, such as historic tax credits. Others grew fed up with some of the rules the state imposed on companies that wanted the bonds. In still other cases, developers had to forfeit their allocation because their projects did not pass muster with Wall Street investors waiting out the turbulence in the credit markets.

"There is just so much turmoil in the credit markets, that even if you have what may be a good project, a lot of investors in these types of securities are sitting on the sidelines," said Scott Willis, a local real estate and commercial finance lawyer.

Have decided on a 5 bed crop rotation system, this is the most effective planting strategy to prevent the build up of diseases in the soil. The 6th bed will be taken out of rotation and used to grow asparagus which will take a couple of years to crop.

Felt creative after excessive weed clearing and built a wigwam with runner beans all lined up under starters orders, ready set to grow. Admittedly it looks more like a dome on the Kremlin than a wigwam but not bad for a first attempt. It's just for this year, as i have other plans for that area later on.

Basically, after I read a book, I will do a book report on it, here. Give my thoughts and opinions and whether or not I would recommend it, where you can buy it, who wrote it and so on.

These might not necessarily be new books, nor bestsellers, but books that I read because I found something about then interesting. I usually avoid 'fad books'.

So here are a few warnings for you:

~I re-read books. There are some books that I love so much that I have, literally, read the covers off of.

~I bounce from genre to genre

~When I read a book by a certain author, I will usually go on a binge of reading (or trying to) ALL of that authors work.

~I have gone months without touching a book. So posts may come sporatically.

~I am way out of practice with doing book reports/review

~I do not like giving spoilers.

~I try to give every genre a chance. I do stress the try

I am willing to take book suggestions. Please, if you just read something you think deserves a look, let me know and I will see about it.

Who am I?

I am an unpublished writer, a mother of six (soon to be seven) happily married stay at home, slightly eccentric lady. Our household includes five boys, one girl, two dogs (an inside dog and an outside dog), and three cats.

**waves**

Ah, work! The feeling that you are contributing to the greater good. The warm feeling when you succeed in the face of adversity and resulting orgasmic climax of getting paid bloody peanuts at the end of the month. Realizing its probably not worth going in on Monday so you might as well phone in.

At my place of work yesterday and the unrecognised centre of the world, two things happened that are most likely not worth repeating here. That none the less has never stopped me before, the red baron entered the building through the front door with his child which would only be a snack for one co-worker but he kept the child close as old Hanging Lip looked for more beans. Its a fact and most likely a European union directive that every work place has to have at least one old Hanging Lip.

The second event and every thing out of the ordinary is an event at ground zero. The manager was talking to a woman, not even a blonde which he enjoys so much. The woman had a laugh like this,

Whoop, Whoop, Whoop, Whoop

Our guiding light and small framed powerhouse of doom answered this with his normal,

Aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye

I felt like Sir David Frederick Attenborough as they danced around each other and slightly dirty which is always a bonus.  At the end of the day there was no sign he was gathering twigs in his mouth to build a nest but we are hopeful.

In the aftermath of 9/11 there was a lot of talk of post-traumatic stress reactions, and not just for those who were there or were directly affected. Each time I've been back to the World Trade Center site I've watched as the mass of rubble is slowly reduced, brick by brick, over the course of years. By day the dump trucks pass in and out of the site, and it could almost be mistaken for just another of the many building sites which dot the landscape of Manhattan.

It's only the crowds that gather, still, which mark Ground Zero as something other. This is no ordinary place. People line the streets every day to stand around a hole in the earth that will never be fully repaired. They gather in front of the old cemetery across from where the Twin Towers once stood, and they hardly notice that they're standing in front of graves dating back hundreds of years because the mass grave in front of them rivets them to the spot. They stop in the middle of the noise and bustle of New York City, and they take a few moments to look up and snap silent photographs of something that no longer exists. That act would be patently absurd except that it is the only antidote to fear to be had as your eyes come to rest on what can never be again. The scaffolding that now lines the corners of the site blocks any view of what may be inside, and yet it isn't the concrete and twisted steel that needs shielding but our spirits.

By night the police come and cordon off the area entirely so that no traffic, pedestrian or otherwise, may get within a few hundred feet of the area. What is there left to protect, I wonder? What more damage is there to be done? It is not to protect what is there but to stand as testimony to our inability to forget what came before and the events of that terrible day. We could not forget even if we wanted to, which is the essence of trauma

The memory of the Twin Towers falling is one nobody seems to be able to fully process so we stand in their former shadow, stare through the lenses of our cameras and take photos of nothing, of empty space, of memory. There is no closure for such an event. It has scarred the psyches of those who watched the Twin Towers fall, whether they stood mere blocks away or watched from the other side of the world. It is an event distorted by terror, to the point that there are some images of that day that we have censored from collective memory. For example, the falling man whose photograph was printed by most American newspapers once, and only once.

Our minds simply do their best to try to cope with very intense emotional issues/memories but processing them isn't straightforward. Sometimes the intensity of those memories is so great that you have to block things out for a time to give yourself a chance to get a handle on the whole picture. So we forget that we're taking a photograph of emptiness, we block out the image of the buildings crumbling as we watch the dump trucks, and deny the reality that there is nothing left of those who perished in the flames and no matter how far we dig down into the layers of rubble nothing that could quiet our terror remains. Having experienced trauma our minds swing like pendulums between re-living the utter horror of the event, and numbing. Sometimes we feel the impact of it and it is so great that we block it out once again. Yet it always returns because something remains unfinished - we haven't yet processed the full emotional turmoil the event created.

There is no peace to be found in that place but we cannot understand that in our bodies or in our deepest selves because the trauma is so large. It is so beyond the scope of all we had previously considered that it has distorted time and memory, our sense of self and our experience of the present so that the past cannot be framed as past. It feels unfinished. We cannot simply "get over" those moments as we stared, helpless and undone because it wasn't just that the buildings fell, that our loved ones died, that we came too close to the edge of endurance but that what took place on that day surpassed any capacity any of us have ever had for understanding what it is to live in this world.

On September 11, 2001 our worst vulnerabilities were exposed, and we were estranged from our selves. We understood what it really means to experience incomprehensible terror, and therefore the memory of that day is something we both avoid and are compelled to return to. We keep turning it over in our minds, hoping that one day we can make sense of it. We hope to find meaning in remembrance but the only way to do that is to begin to let go but never to forget.

Trauma, whether so terrible as 9/11 or on a smaller scale, puts a lot of pressure on each of us to figure out who we are in the face of it because it's so far out of the range of normal human experience. We find ourselves unable to say those things we want to be able to say: I have integrity, not fear, or that we have one another, not the loneliness of terror. So what I try and take from my semi-pilgrimage is the same essential thing - faith that I have what is here and now, though I may grieve forever for what might have been.

Managed to clear just under half the plot, it's a bigger task than anticipated, but worth it. Can start to plan the plot and give it some sort of organisation now, a blank canvas.

Whatever will you do with your final hour?

• Some 4.6 million people need assistance, compared to 2.2 million before the drought.
• As many as 75,000 children are already suffering from acute malnutrition.
• Six million Ethiopian children under five may be at risk of malnutrition.
• In 1985 one million Ethiopians died of famine.
• The UN wants $325 million to provide 400,000 tons of food.

It's time someone sat down and calculated all the money that the UN et al and all other relief agencies and humanitarian organizations have received on behalf of the Ethiopians in the last quarter of century, and asked:

What exactly have you done for these poor souls?

One of thousands of livestock carcasses litter the ground around Goraye in the drought-stricken Borena zone of Oromia region, Ethiopia in this file photo from March 25, 2006. Drought in Ethiopia has caused food shortages, killed livestock and more than doubled the number of people needing urgent humanitarian aid to 5 million, the United Nations said on Friday. REUTERS/Andrew Heavens. Image may be subject to copyright. See RTSF Fair Use Notice!

The Ethiopia-Somali Connection

Warlords Next Door?

Channel 4 (UK) Video Documentary

Dispatches reveals how key politicians at the heart of the vicious fighting in Somalia - described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis - enjoy incredibly close links to Britain. They have British or EU passports, their families live here and they commute between Somalia and homes in English cities. British taxpayers are financing them in the name of democracy - yet in Somalia they are linked to allegations of mass murder, torture, extortion and corruption. [See Video Reports]

Related Links:

• Drought doubles number of Ethiopians needing aid: U.N.
• Famine fears grow in Ethiopia (Video report)

tes

sop

Heute war es endlich soweit: Der erste richtige Tag New York. CDS International, die Organisation über die ich mein Visum erhalten habe, hat alle Neuankömmlinge für heute (10.06.) nach New York zu einem Orientierungsmeeting eingeladen. Das beste an der ganzen Sache ist, dass wir dafür von Siemens den ganzen Tag frei bekommen haben *GGG*.

Also ging es früh am Morgen los. Unser Zug ging um 8:01 Uhr von Princeton aus. Kurz nach 9:00 Uhr waren wir dann mitten drin. New York City Penn Station. CDS International hat seinen Sitz am United Nations Plaza, direkt gegenüber von den Vereinten Nationen.

Riesige Wolkenkratzer wo hin man schaut. Die Gebäude sind so hoch, dass unten auf der Straße fast keine Sonne mehr ankommt. Und das ist nicht nur in einer Straße so, ganz Manhattan sieht so aus. Die Stadt ist einfach gewaltig. Selbst als Berliner kam ich mir hier klein vor.

Das nächste was man sieht wenn man sich um schaut ist mit Sicherheit das:

In Manhattan ist zu jeder Tages- und Nachtzeit Rushhour. Es gibt nicht eine Straße, in der kein absolutes Verkehrschaos herrscht. Zu dem schlimmsten Zeiten des Tages, regeln hier immer, trotz funktionierender Ampeln, Cops vom NYPD den Verkehr. Damit überhaut noch was geht, verbieten die dann auch mal spontan das Rechts- oder Linksabbiegen an einer Kreuzung um den puren Durchsatz an Fahrzeugen zu erhöhen. Da die Straßen hier absolut rechtwinklig und gerade verlaufen, macht es auch keinen großen Sinn zu versuchen irgendwo schneller voran zu kommen. Man steht eh überall gleich im Stau.

Ich war sehr froh, dass ich mit der U-Bahn unterwegs war. Voll war die zwar auch, aber wenn man es erst mal in einen Wagon geschafft hat, dann merkt man, dass diese stark klimatisiert sind, dadurch bleibt die Luft dort drin erträglich.

Am United Nations Plaza angekommen, erwartete uns die erste Überraschung. Dass wir an eine noble Adresse geladen waren, war mir ja klar, aber dass CDS im Gebäude und auf dem Grund und Boden der Deutschen Botschaft residierte war mir neu. Wir mussten uns also durchleuchten lassen, und wurden dann in ein Gebäude geführt, das irgendwie zur Botschaft dazugehört, das sogenannte "German House".

Das Meeting bestand aus einer kurzen Vorstellungsrunde und einer Einführung in die Regeln und Gesetze in den USA, die uns während unseres Aufenthaltes betreffen würden. Danach, ging es hinauf ins Dachrestaurant der Botschaft, um in schwindelerregender Höhe unseren Lunch einzunehmen. Die Aussicht von dort oben war schon ein echter Hingucker:

Nach dem Lunch, war das offizielle Programm beendet, und wir zogen los um New York zu erobern. Von den Vereinten Nationen, am Crysler Building vorbei führte uns unser Weg zum Rockefeller Center, der berühmten Einkaufspassage, und gleichzeitig einer der höchsten für die Öffentlichkeit zugänglichen Gebäude New Yorks. Stolze 20 Dollar kostet die Fahrt nach oben ins 68 Stockwerk. Aber das war mir dann auch egal, sie hätten so ziemlich alles verlangen können, dieser Blick ist unbezahlbar! Manhattan at its best:

(Blick nach Norden über den Central Park)

(Blick zur Südspitze Manhattans, und Empire State Building)

Dann ging es weiter zum Time Square, dem wohl berühmtesten Platz New Yorks, Ecke 42th Street / Fifth Avenue. Soviel bunte Reklame, Werbetafeln, überfüllte Geschäfte und Lärm hab ich noch nie auf einem Haufen gesehen. Aber was thront natürlich unangefochten in die Mitte des Platzes...? Ja genau, ein Rekrutierungsbüro für die Amerikanischen Streitkräfte... typisch amerikanisch halt :).

Von dort aus mit der U-Bahn zur Südspitze von Manhattan, zur Staten Island Ferry. Die Fähre ist mit einem normalen U-Bahn Ticket quasi kostenlos nutzbar, und fährt direkt an der Freiheitsstatue vorbei, und gewährt nebenbei noch willkommene Abkühlung durch den Fahrtwind auf dem Wasser. Heute waren hier nämlich teilweise wieder über 36 Grad.

(Südspitze Manhattans von der Staten Island Fähre aus)

Nach der kurzen Erholung auf See, hatte ich mich nun innerlich darauf gefasst gemacht, den Ort des ehemaligen World Trade Centers, den sogenannten "Ground Zero" zu besuchen. Irgendwie war mir schon etwas mulmig zu Mute, ich weiß noch wie tief an diesem Tag der Schock über die Unglaublichkeit dieser Tat war. Dementsprechend erwartete ich irgendeine Art ruhiger, würdiger Trauerstäte.
Aber nein, nicht die Amerikaner. Da war nichts. Gar nichts. Außer einer lauten, riesigen, schmutzigen Baustelle. Nicht mal eine Art Gedenktafel. Nichts, was an das was passiert ist erinnert. Hätte ich nicht gedacht, dass hier so damit umgegangen wird. Anscheinend entspricht es eher der Mentalität hier eine solche Stätte nicht zu errichten, sondern gleich den sogenannten "Freedom Tower" zu bauen, der 2012 an der Stelle des ehemaligen World Trade Centers stehen soll.

(Ground Zero)

Danach ging es zurück zur Penn Station und gen Heimat. Nach 12 Stunden auf den Beinen sein und über 6 Stunden davon durch die Gegend rennen war ich ziemlich geschafft. Zurück im Hotel habe ich dann durch die Nachrichten erfahren, dass kurz nach unserem Zug einige nachfolgende Züge gestrichen worden waren, da das schlimme Unwetter, was zur Zeit in anderen Teilen der USA für Überschwemmungen sorgt, wohl auch eine Sturmfront in Richtung New York geschickt hatte. Gott sei Dank war es aber dann doch nicht so schlimm wie befürchtet. Ein bisschen Regen und Gewitter, aber nichts gravierendes. Nochmal Glück gehabt.

Vielleicht fahre ich nächstes Wochenende gleich nochmal nach New York, denn es gibt noch viel mehr zu sehen...

After an airport-like security check we climbed up on the ferry and went straight for the top (being up there lessens by sea sickness). George said that nothing much has changed since the turn of the century: you stand in a long hot line, nobody speaks English, and a bunch of security guards yell and use hand motions to direct you to the island. Looking back at the city, the view was amazing. It seemed to go on forever. You can definitely notice the foggy haze around the city. Within a few minutes we were right in front of the statue and like all of the other tourists we clicked our camera. The ferry stopped at the Liberty Island, but I wanted to get off at Ellis Island first (It ends up that it only goes in one direction so we never actually went on the island).

Once we reached Ellis Island I couldn't wait to get off the ferry. It was so nauseating. We went right into the processing building and entered into the luggage area. I couldn't believe we were standing in the same building where my Grandpa Martens and his family passed through (I wish I would have known to ask him questions about what it was like to travel to America). Melissa had mentioned that the short play of the traveler's experiences was great so that was the first thing we did. It was a great way to get our mind set on what it was like here years back. It was the story of Bela Lugosi, the original Dracula, who came as a well known actor back in Europe.

Right after the performance I wanted to find my Grandpa Martens, Great Grandpa and Grandma Martens, and Great Grandpa and Grandma Moore's names in their archive list. After waiting in line we found out that the archive records were only from 1890-1924 (during wide open immigration). My Great Grandfather Martens came in 1928 and My Great Grandmother and Grandpa Martens came in 1932. We Learned that after 1924 immigration standards were more efficient with checking health records in advance to travel and people had to obtain passports. Therefore, people that entered after 1924 have their records stored in the National Archive Library in NY and Washington, D.C. on microfilm. In order for me to find the Martens records I have to know everything about their travels like the boat they came on, exact date, etc. We are going to try and find it hopefully I can!

We also found out that you could check to find your relatives online through their website for free at home so I think I might have found my great grandparents on the Mohr side, (their name was changed at the boarder to Moore) but I have to check to make sure their ages match up with what my grandma knows.

After this we looked around and saw the exhibits they had about the rooms they had to go in and the tests they had to test. Some were crazy like having to draw a diamond to prove you weren’t insane. We learned that they would test people's mental abilities by putting puzzle pieces together. If they could not accomplish the task within a certain amount of time they were thought to have a mental disability, which meant they had to be further checked and very few* were sent back to their home country. In truth, we were at first disappointed with the museum because it wasn’t visually appealing or very stimulating. Some of the information was neat, but the north end could have been done much better. We think they left it stripped down to maintain its true form, but they could have been more creative.

Next, we joined a 45 minute tour of the outside of the main building. George said, “This chick doesn’t mess around!” He thinks she could have been transferred from Yellowstone she was so intense. She explained what it was like to pass through, get checked, etc. and told us a lot of interesting information about how Ellis Island came to be through how we ended up here today taking a tour. On the wall of all the names that passed through I found "The Moore Family" but ours would have been spelled Mohr (you never know, maybe that's us. George just thought I was crazy because you have to pay a $100 to get your family's name up on the wall and we didn’t do it, he said you might as well look for Carrera then). I took a picture anyway.

After the tour we walked around ourselves and found the historical documentary pictures to be fascinating. This is where the place really got neat. It had tickets and passports and diagrams of how the place developed over the years. One part of the island was kept strictly for the sick and the doctors, nurses, medical staff, etc. that were caring for them. Some could never leave the island...crazy! George loved looking at all of the old advertising and the train maps. A whole room was devoted to the restoration of the island that occurred in the 90’s. You see, the place closed and then sat for like twenty years. It looked like it was ready to fall over in the pictures, but the overhaul saved it and made it look great. They did a really great job with the museum on this end of the building (of course, we must specify that it was the south end for George). We wished we would have found this side first because we had to move through it so quickly.

*George’s sidebar: At this juncture, I would like to take this opportunity to point out that Ellis Island was not the horror story that so many textbooks make it out to be. Sure, it wasn’t the most comfortable place, but it got the job done. The worst thing they did was lift the eyelid with a little hook. 98% of those who got to the island got into America. 98%!!!! Do you know how amazing that is?! Unheard of! So kids, if you ever hear your teacher say something about the big, bad, terrible, rejecting Ellis Island, set them straight.

We got on the last ferry possible after 6:00p.m. and had to go straight back to Manhattan because the island was closing. George thought it would also be a good idea to see where the Twin Towers stood since it wasn't far from Battery Park. The bus dropped us off two blocks away and to see the emptiness of where the buildings stood was shocking. I could not even imagine what it would have been like on 9/11. George said he tried to imagine the building, but it was impossible. Everything was blocked off and we found a little area where we could look through some fences. The holes of where the buildings stood were enormous and construction looked as if it has made little progress in 7 years. George and I continued to try and find a better view, but everything was pretty much blocked off. The fire station right across from where the towers stood had more than 50 pictures of men that died serving on 9/11 and my heart dropped to look at it. The good thing is that the new center, slated for 2012 looks unbelievable. It will be a fitting and living memorial to the worst day in US history.

George and I went looking for a place to eat dinner. We sat on a bench watching some daring skateboarders and then decided to go to Ray's pizza.

-Michelle and George the American Tourists

Here's the beef:

]]> http://thatsrightnate.wordpress.com/?p=308 Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:31:37 +0000 thatsrightnate http://thatsrightnate.wordpress.com/?p=308 Tommy Thompson was a star of the Bush administration.  As Secretary of Health and Human Services he did an amazing job keeping this country in the top 100 in lift expectancy and infant mortality.  But, he also left one piece of unfinnished business nagging at him. 

When Thompson was Secretary of Health and Human Services after the 9/11 attacks he was criticized for ignoring the threat to first responders at ground zero.  Doctors concluded that the dust there was toxic soup and over 70,000 first responders enrolled in a long term health monitoring program.  Many of these people have since been unable to get health coverage and Thompson took heat for not doing more from left leaning bleeding hearts.

Thompson was determined to make good and in private life he has finally got his chance.  The Department of Health and Human Services has now given an $11,000,000 contract to Logistics Health Incorporated--a company Thompson is President of to track the health of  between 4,000 and 6,000 workers who live outside the New York City area, where a separate health monitoring program is in place.

My hat is off to this courageous American who refused to leave any job undone even when he was no longer in public office. 

He went to work, and called me. His boss told him to go and have fun and enjoy himeself! yay! We are going to NY City! He always gives up his vacations, works on his days off, and he works 6 days a week, every week, sometimes 7.

We are leaving Friday when he gets off work, getting there Sat late morning and we will be pulling back out to make the long trek ( 9 hours) back to Ohio Sat night to be here for our Daughters 5th birthday party!

I can't wait to get pics of this! We will be allowed cameras cause of Brads website, writing about the movie, and I am a photographer so I cant wait to get my hands on the camera when we get there! I am hoping while we are there to make a quick pit stop to Ground Zero,

Too most this seems like a wasted trip, since it isnt a "Big Hollywood" premiere. It is an Indie Film. But still! We got invited to go! And when I get back and tell about our "adventure" to this underground movie preview, it will be a hell of a story. And the pics are going to be amazing!

So we are off to something I never imagined we would be doing. We are just average ppl in Ohio! yay for average!

I have TONS to get done before we leave, because I have to have everything ready for her party. And since I will be gone, it all needs to be done before we leave! I dont mind though, cause my hubby is excited and this is "his Thing" so I dont mind the extra work to get ready! I will update when we get back with lots of pics and stories!!!

There isnt going to be too much time to site see around NYC, but I am planning on hitting up the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Ground Zero. The only other time we were there, we didnt get to see any of these places and now.... WATCH OUT NEW YORK, HERE WE COME!