Natural Disasters Quotes
Statement after Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans including almost all of the public housing.
Note that the learned men who wrote the Chronicle accepted the notion that “fiery dragons were seen flying in the sky”. In another 1000 years, who knows what we observe today that will be laughed at by our progeny. The quotation also demonstrates that historical primary sources are not necessarily reliable because they were sometimes written by men and women with primitive outlook who accepted certain things without critical analysis.
This fiery statement got Mitchel sent to a penal colony in Australia from which he escaped and came to the United State. It was essentially true. Despite the potato famine in much of Ireland, there was a constant supply of different foods exported from Ireland to England. There were many ways that they Irish could have had food, but they all required some money and there was a massive depression with many Irish out of work and also unable to grow potatoes. The “political philosophy” of the English rulers of Ireland however precluded any kind of welfare, relief or food assistance—see {636214}.
This is one of the earliest expositions of the legal and economic doctrine that if a borrower is made unable to pay the interest and principle of the loan by an act beyond anyone’s control. The obligation to pay for that year is cancelled. In modern times most cultures go the other way. When the banks caused the economic Meltdown of 2008, millions of Americans could not pay their loan obligations and mortgages. They received no relief whereas in the “primitive” world of 4,000 years ago they would have relief for that year. Note the subtle difference in Hammurabi {611462} where someone had prepaid and rented land for a year and the crop fails, and this situation where there is borrowed money.
