New Orleans — almost 3 years later
“A politician’s
insincerity can best be measured by how far around the world our
soldiers are…”
By
Saul Landau
The
French Quarter vibrates with sounds and smells of perpetual Spring
Break. Was a film crew shooting the young men and women, drinks in
hands, screaming “let’s party?” No. The celebrants were acting
goofy on their own, as they routinely do in Ft. Lauderdale and
Cancun.
Just
inside the Hustler Club doorway, two women wearing forced smiles and
a few strings, stood beside the barker, trying to lure “partying”
crowd members inside. “Look at the rack on these babes,” he
pointed at her uncovered milk producing organs.
I
vaguely recalled such a sight as an infant. We saw people buy drugs,
light joints, and shout “yeah” and other profundities.
By
Saul Landau Read Spanish Version
The
French Quarter vibrates with sounds and smells of perpetual Spring
Break. Was a film crew shooting the young men and women, drinks in
hands, screaming “let’s party?” No. The celebrants were acting
goofy on their own, as they routinely do in Ft. Lauderdale and
Cancun.
Just
inside the Hustler Club doorway, two women wearing forced smiles and
a few strings, stood beside the barker, trying to lure “partying”
crowd members inside. “Look at the rack on these babes,” he
pointed at her uncovered milk producing organs.
I
vaguely recalled such a sight as an infant. We saw people buy drugs,
light joints, and shout “yeah” and other profundities. Some
vomited in the street, stumbled, fell and generally had a terrific
time. Tom and Huck (Marvin and Saul) must have also enjoyed such
terrific “partying” in their youth.
Four
college-age kids, reeking of booze, shared the hotel elevator. “Join
us, you’re not too old,” a young man invited. “We’ve got
more,” pointing to his paper cup containing a rum drink. “We also
got you know what in the room,” making an inhaling sound and
putting two fingers to his lips.
The
next day, we drove through the once densely populated 9th
Ward, now a semi rural looking expanse of empty streets and stray
dogs. Amidst boarded up houses and empty lots, we heard sounds of
wind and birds chirping. Downright bucolic!
Had
a neutron bomb hit? Almost three years ago the vacated homes were the
stages for social life: people ate, played, did homework, screwed and
had family spats.
Approximately
225,000 people left New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina flooded most
city neighborhoods in August 2005. A sizeable number came from the
9th
ward. Some 1,800 people died during the floods; later, hundreds more
succumbed to stress-related ailments.
“The
richest country in the world should do something to help people,”
said a woman resident. “Bush and them spend more money in one week
in Iraq than it would take to fix up all our homes.” Two plus years
later, out of almost 200,000 households in Orleans Parish, only
133,966 could receive mail and 40% of pubic schools had reopened.
She
shook her head. “Just look at this place.”
Late
August 2005, TV image of the 9th
Ward showed people floating in rising waters; others waiting
helplessly in the streets. No response from government agencies! Dead
bodies festered in the summer sun!
Reports
of looting! Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco finally called out
the National Guard. One local lawyer said: “Rumors had it she was
on quaaludes during the Hurricane.” Blanco warned: "These
troops know how to shoot and kill and I expect they will." She
didn’t mention punishing those police seen looting.
TV
cameras recorded dazed people in flooded streets filled with debris
and corpses, some heading to temporary refuge at the Superdome
stadium. Bush remained at his ranch. Five days later, he flew over
the disaster. Mayor Ray Nagin remained confused. Republican Senator
David Vitter dragged himself away from his busy schedule — the
Washington whorehouse? “The death toll will start at 10,000, but
that is only a guess," he guessed
After
his late arrival and notorious compliment to the now disgraced FEMA
Chief Michael Brown — “You’re doing a heckuva job Brownie” —
Bush finally admitted: "The results are not acceptable."
Duh!
Congress
reluctantly returned from holiday to offer $10.5 billion in aid. The
Pentagon offered national guardsmen to stop looting, not to save
lives or help people.
Hungry,
thirsty and sick refugees at New Orleans’ Convention Center waited
for food, water and medical attention. Bodies wrapped in sheets lay
on the convention center floor. At the hospital, staff had piled
corpses on the stairs. Mayor Nagin cried on radio. He had failed to
tell people to leave before the Hurricane hit, to send school buses
to get people out after it struck, or to mobilize any city resources.
By
June 2008, Nagin and other local, state and federal government
officials had still not mobilized major resources to bring back 9th
ward residents or rebuild for those who stayed or returned. Shirley
pointed to the FEMA trailer where she lived. She hoped it wasn’t
toxic like so many of the others.
Shirley
Jackson, president of a neighborhood council in ward 9, pointed to
the vast acreage of empty lots. “Every lot used to have a home on
it,” she explained. Since the government has not helped, she
continued, volunteers have to do the job. She runs a mini tractor
helping high school volunteers from Concord Massachusetts with their
land clearing project. She pointed to a pseudo sculpture she’d
erected on the site where her house once stood — a few concrete
blocks in a pile.
“The
politicians don’t have anything to do with the people. We elect
them. They’re supposed to do something for us. All they do is
something for themselves.” She spoke of collusion between the mayor
and other government agencies and real estate developers trying to
grab the titles for the empty lots in the 9th
Ward.
A
woman from Needham, Massachusetts, explained that she and other
volunteers had come down to help “because these people need it.
That’s all. Just being good neighbors.”
“Like
new.” The elderly black man admired the floors of his redone house
and then praised three young college students from Americorps for
dedication and craftsmanship. The young women beam, but won’t talk
for camera because they are “working for the government” and
didn’t want to make remarks that could cause them trouble. Hey,
they might lose their $8 an hour jobs.
The
man recalled waiting for the insurance payment. “I thought I had
bought it. They said I didn’t.” He still awaits electricity and
water, but “it’ll come.” He smiled. “I get mail now and nice
young folks cleared my yard and washed away the mold. I can live here
again. I hope some of my neighbors return. I’ve lost track of
them.”
Another
resident felt less optimistic. "The FEMA people pissed away $85
million [worth] of food and beds and stuff that was supposed to go to
the Hurricane victims,” the middle aged black woman commented. “I
saw this on CNN. FEMA kept the stuff in warehouses.”
General
Services Administration records prove that for two years FEMA didn’t
distribute needed goods to Hurricane victims and then gave 121
truckloads of material to other agencies.
http://www.planetizen.com/node/33442
On
the way to New Orleans, Tony, the disabled oil rigger we had met in
Krotz Spring, told us of a “plot” in which Bush “colluded with
local and state officials and real estate interests to force the poor
blacks out of New Orleans.” Evidence, we asked?
“It’s
logical. Look how people got flooded out and can’t come back.”
We
asked a New Orleans lawyer if the local police had links with the
mafia. “They are the mafia,” she laughed.
Paranoia?
Or the thinking that inevitably develops when corruption marries
venality and lives in the White House and lesser government palaces?
It
doesn’t take Sherlock Homes to understand that the Mississippi
River’s power alone didn’t kill and dislodge hundreds of
thousands of mostly poor and black people. Nature also needed Bush’s
priorities, appointments, and values to accomplish its acts of mass
obliteration.
Before
Katrina, Bush and company paid little attention to poor people or
weather reports on TV. Indeed, the world watched as government
officials at all levels ignored the flood victims’ plight. Nero
fiddled while Rome burned. Bush played video golf while New Orleans
flooded. In light of such dramatic negligence and incompetence, and
downright cynicism, how can you blame a mighty river?
In
mid June, we watched a ferry disembark from New Orleans to transport
people and cars to cities on the other side of the Mississippi. The
water flow barely rippled, although upstream it continued to force
thousands of people from their homes.
In
ten days of travel, we had witnessed the erosion of small town
America, its business districts boarded up; its young people leaving
as old factories rusted. People in these now flooded towns and cities
saw their bridges floating away, their dams and levees surrendering,
their aging sewage systems collapsing. Their crops and animals
floated away.
On
July 4, politicians repeated the same old crap: “We’re the
greatest” this and that. “Stop lying,” I want to scream. The
U.S. infrastructure needs “about $1 trillion more …to bring
infrastructure up to par with modern needs and standards,” not
counting costs of “new roads, rails, and sewers … nor the cost to
repair damage inflicted by the recent Midwest floods.” Wastewater
treatment plants mean sewage doesn’t mix with drinking water.
(Andrew Stern – Reuters July 1, 2008)
Bush
requested $1.8 billion for flood recovery. A drop in the proverbial
bucket! While billions per week flow to Iraq and Afghanistan,
thousands of deteriorating bridges, levees and dams await attention.
A
road trip through middle America convinced Old Tom and Huck that
Wal-Mart should replace the Bald Eagle as the American symbol. In New
Orleans, however, we saw how Katrina overwhelmed commerce. “Partying”
reemerged on Bourbon Street. Locals folk dance to Cajun music near
the wharf.
Yet,
nature’s forces seemed to loom over the city along with shadow of
energy-sapping government corruption. Bush continues to offer this
model to the rest of the world! Mark Twain would have said something
caustic. George Carlin, (may he rest laughing) winner of this year’s
Mark Twin award, expressed my thoughts: “A politician’s
insincerity can best be measured by how far around the world our
soldiers are…”
Saul
Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies Fellow. His films can be
found at:
http://roundworldproductions.com/Site/Films_by_Saul_Landau_on_DVD.html
