Empowered Malaysian-Chinese
Reading how this Malaysian-Chinese, surviving as an accountant in the US of A, Escape from New Orleans, sends a grim message to all the efforts of Malaysian ruling government's UMNO's members call to empower the malays of Malaysia.
Did Jonathan had any help by the government to empower himself to the level that he is now?
ps: I am glad that he survived, but am very sad for all the life lost and the suffering survivors of the hurricane!
The Star Online > Nation
Saturday September 3, 2005
Escape from New Orleans
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HAPPIER TIMES: Lim posing for a photograph with Chen and Rachel in the United States in June. The family is now taking shelter in Houston, Texas. |
A phone call from Lake Charles, about 322km away, saved their lives.
Lim had been on a weeklong business trip to Michigan and had returned home to his Taiwanese wife Chen Shu-Chin and their three-month-old baby girl on Friday.
“On Saturday afternoon my friend from Lake Charles called and asked if we were going to evacuate. She offered us a place to stay,” he said in a telephone interview.
“As I had not watched the news, I was clueless as to what she was talking about until she told me that Hurricane Katrina had changed its direction (from Florida) and was going to hit New Orleans.
“At first, like many others, we did not take the news seriously as we were used to hurricanes several times a year.
“But on the way to the supermarket, we saw scores and scores of people lining up at gas stations.
“That was the first hint that something was not right and I told my wife that we had to leave,” Lim said.
He said they rushed back to their apartment and took enough clothes for five days as well as some important documents, diapers, milk powder and baby clothes.
They left at 5pm and reached their friend's house at Lake Charles within four hours.
They stayed there for two days before moving on to Houston, where his wife's aunt lived.
They learned that 80% of New Orleans, which is below sea level, has been flooded and it could take many months before they could return home.
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DESPERATION: Hurricane victim Lee Bemboom struggling to carry her 11-month-old baby boy Jahon as she searches for help among thousands of people gathered inside and outside the Convention Centre in New Orleans to wait for buses in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on Thursday. — APpic |
“It's in Jefferson Parish, near Lake Pontchartrain, where one of the levees broke. It might take months to pump out the water as New Orleans is like a bowl surrounded by water on both sides.”
Lim does not know the fate of some of his friends, including a Malaysian couple who had just moved there last week and were hunting for a house.
“I fear returning home to gather more belongings, which they said we could do next week.
“Even if my house is not flooded, I'm worried about the serious looting problem. Even rescuers and the police are getting shot at.
“There are also health concerns as the city is flooded and the water is contaminated with toxic chemicals and human waste,” he added.
Lim has been living in the United States for seven years.
Since 2001, he has been staying in New Orleans, where he got married and his daughter Rachel was born.
“The memories are irreplaceable. Now, it feels like the movie War of the Worlds has become reality; this is what we're experiencing here.”
“My greatest worry is whether my daughter, wife and I can continue staying in the United States.
“My company is in the process of applying for my Green Card but we don't know if it will be affected because of what is going on.
“And we don't even know whether our lawyer is still alive.”
Lim is thankful that his friend made the phone call.
“Without that call, we would not have known that the hurricane was going to hit us.
“It might have been too late to leave.
“People say that New Orleans is not worth rebuilding and will be history. I thank God that my family is alive to tell the story.”
posted by mamat at 9:36 AM
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