Y2K and Kosovo refugees...& gov't preparedness....just connecting the dots

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

We know this: Clinton was advised by experts that bombing would increase the violence against the ethnic Albanians and result in a massive refugee problem. (Chris Ritter on KSFO radio www.ksfo560.com. check out Georr Metcalf's page.) When asked about the pathetic situation about the refugees, one of the top gov't talking heads said, "We knew that would happen."

My question/remark: If "they" knew that the refugees would come, why did they not pre position material and supplies/provisions/personnel? Innocent children are dying of exposure, and "We knew that would happen."

Now...think about the populations of our major cities, our unprepared, uninformed sheeple. By not making major public service announcements, informing people so that they can prepare, is our gov't setting them up for similar refugee-in-place situation? When people in our cities do not have food, water, satitaition, etc., is some policy wonk going to say, "Yeah, we knew that would happen."

Don't count on your government to prepare for you.

I heard this today: Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

-- Mary (CAgdma@home.com), April 07, 1999

Answers

I sometimes wonder if it isn't a "weighing of the risks/damage" process; if they knew there would be refugees from Albania ahead of time, any pre-positioning of emergency tents, food, water, medical supplies, aid workers in neighboring countries (where we would, of course, need their permission in the first place) would send a message to the world, and the Serbs, that we EXPECTED a massive "cleansing". Our "preparations" could be seen as an _encouraging_ message to Milosevic to throw them out, since they would have a nice, dry, warm comfy place to go. Soooo - do nothing early, "fix on failure" and expect a tolerable number of casualties as a result.

I suspect it is the same with Y2K. If there were a lot of overt preparation now, it could be viewed by the public as the govt encouraging them to withdraw from banks and investments, to stockpile food and goods - in an economy where all the available means of delivery are already fully booked through the end of the year. This would help initiate an inevitable panic months before it *had* to occur. So they do nothing, wait, "fix on failure" and hope the casualty figures are tolerable. Hence the "prepare for 3-5 days" message - to give them time to set up emergency response mechanisms.

-- (Getting@cynical.oldage), April 07, 1999.


Getting -

This was discussed in a recent interview on NPR with (I think) a representative from the office of the "UN High Commissioner for Refugees". The official confirmed that pre-positioning supplies was indeed considered and ruled out, because it would have encouraged the Serbians to escalate. I'll try to locate the interview on the NPR site.

Summary: they knew, but chose not to act, in hopes that things would really go well. Pretty poor planning, this. Now they cannot act, only react.

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), April 07, 1999.


I heard(CNN)there was a whole lot of food stored in Kosavo. The Red Crosses I think. Sad they didn't take it out knowing they were going to bomb the hell out of the place. It was interesting to get a sneak preview of what those military storehouses of Mre's look like.

-- Justin Case (justin case@Aloha.com), April 07, 1999.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ