Visitors from Pakistan under U.S. Dept of State program at site of London Avenue Canal breach

Today, Sandy Rosenthal, founder of Levees.org met with a group of seven visitors from Pakistan, who were in New Orleans learning about emergency preparedness. They requested a meeting to discuss advocacy, rebuilding and lobbying issues and to tour the sites where the levees collapsed during Katrina. Ms. Rosenthal met the group at the site of the east side London Avenue Canal breach.

After Rosenthal explained that, in New Orleans, the event considered a ‘natural disaster’ was in fact a failure of the Army Corps of Engineers to properly build flood protection, a member of the group offered a compelling observation.

“Nature is always very kind,” said Muhammad Hasseb Khan, Assistant Director of FATA Disaster Management Authority, Government of Pakistan. “Allah/God can never think of damage to humanity.”

To this, Ms. Rosenthal replied by quoting a well known sociologist, Gaye Tuchman who warned,

“Always be aware to look behind language that would seem to attribute social change or calamity to nature. It minimizes the individuals and institutions whose actions can often be found hiding behind all the talk of water and wind.”

The New Orleans Citizen Diplomacy Council is a nonprofit organization that arranges professional appointments and cultural activities for over 500 international leaders sent to New Orleans annually by the U.S. Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program and other programs. As one of approximately 90 councils nationwide, and the only council in Louisiana, the NOCDC aims to promote cross-cultural relationships and mutual understanding.

Among the thousands who have participated in the IVL program since its inception are numerous distinguished leaders from the public and private sectors including: Nicolas Sarkozy; Margaret Thatcher; Frederik W. de Klerk; Oscar Arias Sanchez; Tony Blair; Anwar Sadat; Morihiro Hosokawa; and Boutros-Boutros Ghali.