Right Wing Nation

We already had one example of this crap with “Katrina aid.” I originally posted this in October of 2006, but I’m re-posting it today, just to lend context to the most recent example.

Several people thought I was just an awful, cruel, heartless old coot when I objected to federal funds for Katrina. Well, thanks to Joanne Jacobs (again), here’s exactly what your federal funds are going for — that is, other than the cheap booze, crack cocaine, prostitutes and lap dances, and other “rich, vibrant, cultural” expenses quite well reported so far:

Investigation shows FEMA spent millions on puppet shows, bingo, yoga
By Sally Kestin
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted October 8 2006

At the Pinitos Learning Center in Boca Raton, disaster workers dressed as “Windy Biggie” and “Sunny” teach 30 preschoolers a song about how the wind is good, even during a hurricane.

“Windy Biggie is our friend.

“Windy Biggie is strong wind.

“She turns, turns, turns, turns around.

“She’s knocking things to the ground.”

This is FEMA tax money at work. It’s also paying for Hurricane Bingo, puppet shows, “salsa for seniors,” and yoga on the beach.

Idiots.

Last year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded Florida $22.6 million for “crisis counseling” for victims of hurricanes Wilma and Katrina.

Florida’s program, called Project H.O.P.E. — Helping Our People in Emergencies — is still in operation with about 450 workers across the state who spend much of their time leading games and performing shows for groups of residents — regardless of whether they’re in crisis or even experienced the storms, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel has found.

The program, funded by FEMA but run by Florida’s Department of Children & Families, is supposed to identify victims and help them recover from the “psychological aftermath” of the storms by providing emotional support and referrals for food, clothes and services.

But Project H.O.P.E. officials say they’ve had trouble locating victims because FEMA refuses to provide names or addresses of those who have sought disaster aid, citing confidentiality. Workers have searched for Wilma victims by driving around and looking for blue tarps on roofs.

The Katrina team, whose mission is to help Gulf Coast evacuees who have moved to Florida, have scoured hotels and festivals, sometimes finding only one or two “survivors” a week.

The job is stressful, Project H.O.P.E. officials say. Counselors regularly attend “stress management” sessions that have included collecting shells on the beach, “silly string and art therapy,” and “the toilet paper game.”

“This fun game has the team throwing toilet paper in an orderly fashion while additional rolls are constantly introduced,” says a Project H.O.P.E. report.

One wonders: Did FEMA pay for these “counselors” to play with toilet paper?

But don’t miss the list of “Project HOPE” projects in the sidebar. I wouldn’t want you to think your taxes weren’t being sufficiently wasted on tofu-brained idiocy:

PROJECT H.O.P.E.’S CREATIONS

Funded by crisis counseling grants from FEMA, Project H.O.P.E. has developed shows and presentations for day care centers, retirement homes and businesses, including: organizations. Among their creations:

Faster than Disaster - “A game developed for teens that describes Hurricane awareness through questions (based on Jeopardy Game).”

Hurricane Harry and the Three Little Mice - “This is a puppet show that teaches the need for, how to, and benefits of being ready for a hurricane by using fairy tale themes. … This story is the classic fairy tale of the Three Little Pigs, with the wolf becoming a hurricane trying to huff and puff and blow down houses.”

Presentation on stress: “Hand out a diagram of a piece of Swiss cheese and have each person write three things in three of the holes that they can do right now and have control over. (i.e. read tonight to their kids, take a bubble bath tonight, get a massage tomorrow, etc.).”

Collages: “Survivors create a beautiful image for their personal well being through shapes, colors and images that mimic who they are, what they are going through and what makes them feel good.”

The Healing Box Workshop: “People will paint and decorate a symbolic box. In the box, they will place representations of people, places, things and affirmations of what is important to them. … The box helps people focus priorities and appreciation of what is meaningful in life.”

Source: Florida Department of Children & Families, weekly reports

Folks, this is what twenty years of patiently viewing crane dancing, drumming ceremonies, conscienceness-raising exercises, multicultural awareness seminars, animal rights activism and vegetarianism — instead of stopping these morons and telling them they were morons — has gotten us. We’re paying for this crap. And this is why every penny of Katrina aid should be taken back, and given back to the taxpayers.

Now to our most recent example, this time with tsunami relief.

THREE years after Australians donated $400 million to rebuild Asian lives devastated by the 2004 tsunami, aid groups are under attack for spending much of the money on social and political engineering.

A survey by The Australian of the contributions by non-government organisations to the relief effort found the donations had been spent on politically correct projects promoting left-wing Western values over traditional Asian culture.

The activities - listed as tsunami relief - include a “travelling Oxfam gender justice show” in Indonesia to change rural male attitudes towards women.

Another Oxfam project, reminiscent of the ACTU’s Your Rights at Work campaign, instructs Thai workers in Australian-style industrial activism and encourages them to set up trade unions.

What’s worse about this example is that it’s private donations. Still, anybody who doesn’t know that Oxfam is nothing but a bunch of slobbering nutjobs deserves to be separated from his hard-earned cash, as does anyone so stupid that he’s surprised that his donation isn’t going to tsunami relief.

It doesn’t have quite the entertainment value of the Katrina idiocy, though, unless the travelling Oxfam gender justice show was a puppet show. Or Windy Biggie.