Scary stuff, living in the States

... even when you are a law-abiding, succesfull, well integrated Syrian immigrant. Just finished the Dave Eggers book "Zeitoun", the unbelievable tale of a Muslim entrepreneur who decides to stay at home when Katrina is about to drown New Orleans. His family (wife, 4 kids) have left town and during the first couple of days he peddles around in a cano, helping people, distributing food, feeding animals, ... till the day he gets arrested in his own home as a looter and a terrorist.

What follows defies even the most pessimistic views on American society and the States as a police state where army and special forces can disregard even the most minimal of civic rights.

Zeitoun is alive and well and still living in New Orleans.

And about Katrina: it wasn't Katrina that flooded New Orleans. It was the neglect of engineers who didn't build the necessary safety constructions to protect the city. New Orleans was flooded before Katrina hit the coast. And when she did, she veered away from New Orleans and never reached it. You could say the engineers displayed the same human arrogance as the police forces.