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.

Completely forgot to post it

Two days ago I went to the 16th (already) edition of the BrusselsGirlGeekDinners, which interestingly was about books. Famous blogster ImkeDielen has signed a book deal: a collection of 50 of her blogpostings have been published. Food for a philosophical discussion! Why bother, I would think. Even if blogpostings actually treat stuff that's happening, it's like reading old newspapers. Publishing blogs on the other hand, might just be the beginning of something like publishing auto-biographies. Some blogs really are interesting and cool and have some added value that transcends the here and now. In which case I really would be more interested in reading a blog that spans a more consistent period of time. After all: it would be just like publishing letters or diaries. So ... maybe it is the start of someting greater.