“Building Doesn’t Just Collapse Like That, Not In America…” Whoever Said That, That’s The Problem!

Early on Thursday morning, part of a 12-story residential building in the South Florida community of Surfside was reduced to rubble. As of Friday afternoon, at least four people had been found dead as a result of the collapse, and 159 were still missing, according to ABC7.  

Recently the mayor in response to the collapse of part of a Miami condo building where 99 people are missing and 4 are reported dead, said that “this doesn’t happen in America”. 

That’s the problem you know, we don’t expect certain events to occur in America, and when they do happen, we react and play catch up. It is that belief that has caused several catastrophes, 9/11, #Katrina that destroyed NO, #The attack on the US capital on Jan 6, 2020 and the recent collapse of the building in Miami. In fact a recent study in 2020 showed that since 1990 the land was receding as water levels were rising, yet Miami still stuck to their assumptions that drove their rule of thumb to inspect buildings every 40 years.  That should tee us something. If since 1990 the shorelines are receding as water levels rises and the building is 55 years old. In Jamaica, they are well aware of what happens when you build houses on sand, as they have to deal with losses ever so often due to severe weather and rising water levels by the shores. Some continue to build as they loose  their homes by the sea and then expect their governments to help them.

Moreover, there is an old proverb that warns of those who build their houses on sand… which many of us are well aware of. The story suggests that there were two men, one who built his house on a rock and one on sand. And when the winds and the rains came down, the house on the sand was washed away. 

Despite of the lessons and what we know of building on sand, we still have an old draconian law in America that says we check buildings on sands every 40 years. And after a study came out which suggests that the buildings on the shorelines in Florida may be in jeopardy of collapse given the rising water levels and receding landscape, nothing was done to avert what just happened in Miami. It’s a constant, repetitive cycle of American reactionary modus operandi which continue to affect millions of lives. If this tragedy in Miami doesn’t change American tune of believing in our exceptionalism and power to withstand the obvious, then I do not know what will. 
The post was written by Rev. Renaldo McKenzie, Author of Neoliberalism Globalization Income Inequality Poverty and Resistance. And President of The NeoLiberal.