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How to Destroy an African-American City in Thirty Three Steps - Lessons from Katrina
Step One. Delay. If there is one word that sums up the way to destroy an African-American city after a disaster, that word is DELAY. If you are in doubt about any of the following steps — just remember to delay and you will probably be doing the right thing.
Step Two. When a disaster is coming, do not arrange a public evacuation. Rely only on individual resources. People with cars and money for hotels will leave. The elderly, the disabled and the poor will not be able to leave. Most of those without cars — 25% of households of New Orleans, overwhelmingly African-Americans — will not be able to leave. Most of the working poor, overwhelmingly African-American, will not be able to leave. Many will then permanently accuse the victims who were left behind of creating their own human disaster because of their own poor planning. It is critical to start by having people blame the victims for their own problems.
Step Three. When the disaster hits make certain the national response is overseen by someone who has no experience at all handling anything on a large scale, particularly disasters. In fact, you can even inject some humor into the response — have the disaster coordinator be someone whose last job was the head of a dancing horse association.
Step Four. Make sure that the President and national leaders remain aloof and only slightly concerned. This sends an important message to the rest of the country.
Step Five. Make certain the local, state, and national governments do not respond in a coordinated effective way. This will create more chaos on the ground.
Step Six. Do not bring in food or water or communications right away. This will make everyone left behind more frantic and create incredible scenes for the media.
Step Seven. Make certain that the media focus of the disaster is not on the heroic community work of thousands of women, men and young people helping the elderly, the sick and the trapped survive, but mainly on acts of people looting. Also spread and repeat the rumors that people trapped on rooftops are shooting guns not to attract attention and get help, but AT the helicopters. This will reinforce the message that "those people" left behind are different from the rest of us and are beyond help.
Step Eight. Refuse help from other countries. If we accept help, it looks like we cannot or choose not to handle this problem ourselves. This cannot be the message. The message we want to put out over and over is that we have plenty of resources and there is plenty of help. Then if people are not receiving help, it is their own fault. This should be done quietly.
Step Nine. Once the evacuation of those left behind actually starts, make sure people do not know where they are going or have any way to know where the rest of their family has gone. In fact, make sure that African-Americans end up much farther away from home than others.
Step Ten. Make sure that when government assistance finally has to be given out, it is given out in a totally arbitrary way. People will have lost their homes, jobs, churches, doctors, schools, neighbors and friends. Give them a little bit of money, but not too much. Make people dependent. Then cut off the money. Then give it to some and not others. Refuse to assist more than one person in every household. This will create conflicts where more than one generation lived together. Make it impossible for people to get consistent answers to their questions. Long lines and busy phones will discourage people from looking for help.
Step Eleven. Insist the President suspend federal laws requiring living wages and affirmative action for contractors working on the disaster. While local workers are still displaced, import white workers from outside the city for the high-paying jobs like crane operators and bulldozers. Import Latino workers from outside the city for the low-paying dangerous jobs. Make sure to have elected officials, black and white, blame job problems on the lowest wage immigrant workers. This will create divisions between black and brown workers that can be exploited by those at the top. Because many of the brown workers do not have legal papers, those at the top will not have to worry about paying decent wages, providing health insurance, following safety laws, unemployment compensation, workers compensation, or union organizing. They become essentially disposable workers — use them, then lose them.
Step Twelve. Whatever you do, keep people away from their city for as long as possible. This is the key to long-term success in destroying the African-American city. Do not permit people to come home. Keep people guessing about what is going to happen and when it is going to happen. Set numerous deadlines and then break them. This will discourage people and make it increasingly difficult for people to return.
Step Thirteen. When you finally have to reopen the city, make sure to reopen the African-American sections last. This will aggravate racial tensions in the city and create conflicts between those who are able to make it home and those who are not.
Step Fourteen. When the big money is given out, make sure it is all directed to homeowners and not to renters. This is particularly helpful in a town like New Orleans that was majority African-American and majority renter. Then, after you have excluded renters, mess the program for the homeowners up so that they must wait for years to get money to fix their homes.
Step Fifteen. Close down all the public schools for months. This will prevent families in the public school system, overwhelmingly African-Americans, from coming home.
Step Sixteen. Fire all the public school teachers, teacher aides, cafeteria workers and bus drivers and de-certify the teachers union — the largest in the state. This will primarily hurt middle class African Americans and make them look for jobs elsewhere.
Step Seventeen. Even better, take this opportunity to flip the public school system into a charter system and push foundations and the government to extra money to the new charter schools. Give the schools with the best test scores away first. Then give the least flooded schools away next. Turn 70% of schools into charters so that the kids with good test scores or solid parental involvement will go to the charters. That way the kids with average scores, or learning disabilities, or single parent families who are still displaced are kept segregated away from the "good" kids. You will have to set up a few schools for those other kids, but make sure those schools do not get any extra money, do not have libraries, nor doors on the toilets, nor enough teachers. In fact, because of this, you better make certain there are more security guards than teachers.
Step Eighteen. Let the market do what it does best. When rent goes up 70%, say there is nothing we can do about it. This will have two great results. It will keep many former residents away from the city and it will make landlords happy. If wages go up, immediately import more outside workers and wages will settle down.
Step Nineteen. Make sure all the predominately white suburbs surrounding the African-American city make it very difficult for the people displaced from the city to return to the metro area. Have one suburb refuse to allow any new subsidized housing at all. Have the Sheriff of another threaten to stop and investigate anyone wearing dreadlocks. Throw in a little humor and have one nearly all-white suburb pass a law which makes it illegal for homeowners to rent to people other than their blood relatives! The courts may strike these down, but it will take time and the message will be clear — do not think about returning to the suburbs.
Step Twenty. Reduce public transportation by more than 80%. The people without cars will understand the message.
Step Twenty One. Keep affordable housing to a minimum. Use money instead to reopen the Superdome and create tourism campaigns. Refuse to boldly create massive homeownership opportunities for former renters. Delay re-opening apartment complexes in African American neighborhoods. As long as less than half the renters can return to affordable housing, they will not return.
Step Twenty Two. Keep all public housing closed. Since it is 100% African-American, this is a no-brainer. Make sure to have African-Americans be the people who deliver the message. This step will also help by putting more pressure on the rental market as 5000 more families will then have to compete for rental housing with low-income workers. This will provide another opportunity for hundreds of millions of government funds to be funneled to corporations when these buildings are torn down and developers can build up other less-secure buildings in their place. Make sure to tell the 5000 families evicted from public housing that you are not letting them back for their own good. Tell them you are trying to save them from living in a segregated neighborhood. This will also send a good signal — if the government can refuse to allow people back, private concerns are free to do the same or worse.
Step Twenty Three. Shut down as much public health as possible. Sick and elderly people and moms with little kids need access to public healthcare. Keep the public hospital, which hosted about 350,000 visits a year before the disaster, closed. Keep the neighborhood clinics closed. Put all the pressure on the private healthcare facilities and provoke economic and racial tensions there between the insured and uninsured.
Step Twenty Four. Close as many public mental healthcare providers as possible. The trauma of the disaster will seriously increase stress on everyone. Left untreated, medical experts tell us this will dramatically increase domestic violence, self-medication and drug and alcohol abuse, and of course crime.
Step Twenty Five. Keep the city environment unfriendly to women. Women were already widely discriminated against before the storm. Make sure that you do not reopen day care centers. This, combined with the lack of healthcare, lack of affordable housing, and lack of transportation, will keep moms with kids away. If you can keep women with kids away, the city will destroy itself.
Step Twenty Six. Create and maintain an environment where black on black crime will flourish. As long as you can keep parents out of town, keep the schools hostile to kids without parents, keep public healthcare closed, make only low-paying jobs available, not fund social workers or prosecutors or public defenders or police, and keep chaos the norm, young black men will certainly kill other young black men. To increase the visibility of the crime problem, bring in the National Guard in fatigues to patrol the streets in their camouflage hummers.
Step Twenty Seven. Strip the local elected predominately African American government of its powers. Make certain the money that is coming in to fix up the region is not under their control. Privatize as much as you can as quickly as you can — housing, healthcare, and education for starters. When in doubt, privatize. Create an appointed commission of people who have no experience in government to make all the decisions. In fact, it is better to create several such commissions, that way no one will really be sure who is in charge and there will be much more delay and conflict. Treat the local people like they are stupid, you know what is best for them much better than they do.
Step Twenty Eight. Create lots of planning processes but give them no authority. Overlap them where possible. Give people conflicting signals whether their neighborhood will be allowed to rebuild or be turned into green space. This will create confusion, conflict and aggravation. People will blame the officials closest to them — the local African-American officials, even though they do not have any authority to do anything about these plans since they do not control the rebuilding money.
Step Twenty Nine. Hold an election but make it very difficult for displaced voters to participate. In fact, do not allow any voting in any place outside the state even we do it for other countries and even though hundreds of thousands of people are still displaced. This is very important because when people are not able to vote, those who have been able to return can say "Well, they didn't even vote, so I guess they are not interested in returning."
Step Thirty. Get the elected officials out of the way and make room for corporations to make a profit. There are billions to be made in this process for well-connected national and international corporations. There is so much chaos that no one will be able to figure out exactly where the money went for a long time. There is no real attempt to make sure that local businesses, especially African-American businesses, get contracts — at best they get modest subcontracts from the corporations which got the big money. Make sure the authorities prosecute a couple of little people who ripped off $2000 — that will temporarily satisfy people who know they are being ripped off and divert attention from the big money rip-offs. This will also provide another opportunity to blame the victims — as critics can say "Well, we gave them lots of money, they must have wasted it, how much more can they expect from us?"
Step Thirty One. Keep people's attention diverted from the African-American city. Pour money into Iraq instead of the Gulf Coast. Corporations have figured out how to make big bucks whether we are winning or losing the war. It is easier to convince the country to support war — support for cities is much, much tougher. When the war goes badly, you can change the focus of the message to supporting the troops. Everyone loves the troops. No one can say we all love African-Americans. Focus on terrorists — that always seems to work.
Step Thirty Two. Refuse to talk about or look seriously at race. Condemn anyone who dares to challenge the racism of what is going on — accuse them of "playing the race card" or say they are paranoid. Criticize people who challenge the exclusion of African-Americans as people who "just want to go back to the bad old days." Repeat the message that you want something better for everyone. Use African American spokespersons where possible.
Step Thirty-Three. Repeat these steps.
Note to readers. Every fact in this list actually happened and continues to happen in New Orleans after Katrina.
Comments
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64 Comments so far
Show AllIf, as Vince Lawrence maintains, New Orleans was a city that couldn't be saved, then possibly it would seem a natural consequence of such reasoning to stop building dykes on the Mississippi. So the city was sinking and conditions were made worse by the oil industry's depletion of the natural delta wetlands protection, one doesn't give up keeping the water at bay. The Dutch have been in that game for 400 years and they are not giving up.
Vince don't give the bush kakistocracy any excuse for what they did.
Dafoe: I am not in any way shape or form excusing the government for what they did and did not do. Don't let your hatred of the Bushies blind you to reality. You are correct in your comment about the levies along the river. You can't abandon the levies and continue to occupy that locale. The Dutch don't have anywhere else to go, we do.
It is only an irrational pride and obstinate stubborness that would insist on inhabiting and uninhabitable place.
I have to agree that New Orleans should not be rebuilt. Anyone who lives in a swamp protected by a levy (New Orleans), flood plane, beach (San Francisco earthquake country) or living above ground in tornado alley must deal with the consequences of their actions without federal aid. Extreme weather will only turn these places into what they should be, uninhabitable pieces of land, and more extreme weather is on the horizon.
New Orleans only magnifies the plight of certain minorities in America that has been happening for a long long time. You only send mercenaries (Blacwater security) into a disaster area of your enemy. In the case of your friend you send the national guard with supplies, the red cross, foreign aid and you head off the relief effort in person on the ground with your sleeves rolled up.
They want New Orleans for themselves, let them have it. Katrina II is coming.
There are many cities that are in dangerous locations.. For example, NYC is surrounded by water, Manhattan is situated on an ancient fault line, and there's also a nuclear power plant only 25 miles north of the city. Would anyone suggest that NYC remain lost if it were in a similar massive disaster? I think not.
The lesson here is not 'where should we build', but 'why weren't people who needed it given the proper help'. If there is no help for national disaster victims then why does FEMA even have a budget?
BekkaPoo: I did not mean to diminish the truth of Mr. Quigly's article. Hardly. The story of New Orleans/Katrina is one of purposeful neglect, and yes racism.
New York is not New Orleans. It isn't built on alluvial mud that is sinking while oceans rise and it isn't situated as an inevitable target for a Category 5 hurricane. However, New York is vulnerable. Though much less vulnerable than New Orleans it has been hit with several major hurricanes since Western civilization populated this continent.
But you are wrong. If the worst case scenarios concerning global warming are correct there will come a time when much of New York also will be abandoned. And San Franscisco, Miami, Savanna, Tokyo, etc.
Pick up a copy of the recent edition of Scientific American. Human arrogance knows no bounds. OK, so we somehow miraculously get the government to be responsible, just, and efficient, and we rebuild the city. Only to see it wiped out again so we can go through this sorry exercise once more. Yeah, every locale has its inherent risks, life is inherently dangerous, but there is such a thing as unacceptable risk.
Hi Vince,
I guess I'll have to respectfully disagree with you.
As you said there is no way to avoid risk in life.
But by that logic all coastal cities should be relocated to safer, high elevation areas where there is less risk. Most humans on Earth live in urban coastal areas. How would you suggest this be accomplished?
I live near Miami now (transplanted NY-er), and I plan to leave this area well before the glacier/ice cap melting raises ocean levels (I don't believe the predictions, and I think changes are going to happen sooner than predicted rather than later).
I think your heart may be in the right place, but for now the reality is that there IS a city on that alluvial plain and has been for a few hundred years now. If the earth/nature changes the shape of our coastlines in the near future, then people will be relocated anyways, but as we know from human nature, we are mostly not preventative in nature, but reactionary. It may take another disaster to wake people up.
Sorry for the double post.
This editorial is correct on all points. However, the reality of building a city in a location such as New Orleans cannot be ignored. It was a disaster waiting to happen, and it happened. A levy cannot stop flooding indefinitely. If people move back into New Orleans another disaster such as this is going to happen. Weather is getting more severe. Areas such as this (and parts of Manhattan, too) cannot be inhabited forever. Just as a person living in a flood plain should expect floods, a person living below sea level should expect the sea. The physical location of New Orleans, however, does not change the horrifying racist and unethical response by the US government to this disaster.
there are 3 issues here: 1) the state of new orleans before the flood, 2) the state of new orleans immediately after the flood, 3) the future of new orleans.
in all 3 cases, gov't neglect is the major issue, the only issue. whether or not n.o. should be rebuilt is an issue worthy to debate, but no one can deny the horrible neglect & incompetence & corruption that has ensued. even if you decide not to rebuild n.o., you can relocate survivors w/in 50 miles of each other and rebuild there. the indifference to human life is just staggering. and let's not forget that n.o. is a major cultural center of american life. something that is completely lost on the bushie crowd.
34: Whenever possible, remind the public you're doing God's work and that a great leader never "leaves a city behind."
35: Deny everything.
BekaPoo: the migration will happen exactly in the way that YOU plan to deal with it, and while it is possible that reaching a tipping point in global temperature could cause a "sudden" cataclysm, it probably won't play out that way and coastal populations will gradually retreat to higher ground. But you continue to ignore the fact that there actually is no functioning city where New Orleans once was and the fact that no matter how much money and resources we pour into it will most likely suffer the same fate again.
Your logic implies that our knowledge and our reason does nothing to inform us. Consider: only during the last decades of the past century did the formulation of "plate tectonics" reveal the true structure and history of Earth's crust. Knowing what we know now, would New York city be allowed to be so vertically densely populated? Possibly: that portion of the planet is not now in a zone of high tectonic activity, even though because of the nature of the underlying strata there, a moderate intensity earthquake would have much greater surface violence than one occuring in San Franscisco.
Here in Ohio I live on the stable North American craton, but sometimes it too experiences earthquakes (actually quite regularly, though they are very small.) About 20 years ago one occured that was felt by most people in central Ohio and immediately afterward the insurance companies revised all homeowners policies to exclude damage caused by earthquakes. The insurance companies get it.
this article about says it all. now imagine that this disaster is country-wide, affecting 27 million people, not caused by a natural disaster, but by bombs & bullets, and you have iraq.
Step 21 Fire the mayor. He let thousands of school buses go underwater even when they could have been moved. These could have moved people out of N.O.
step 22 Hand out blank checks. Lose 460 million to fraud.
step 23 Blame it all on race, not stupidity and incompatence.
Global warming will eventually take New Orleans, and New York and London. The point is that our government did not try to help. OUR government did not care about anybody in New Orleans unless they were members of the ruling class. Poor and middle class people exist to serve the government, not be served by it. Not even our votes count any more. We are the slaves, they the masters. We get exactly what they want to give us.
It's time to stop licking the master's hand.
Has anyone lived in New Orleans? Before you give your comments, go visit. Better yet, go visit during the tourist seasons. If the French Quarter can survive, all other places can survive as well. I was amazed at the vast difference between the French Quarter and the "Lower Ninth Ward", which is only a block away from the Quarter. Of course, the Quarter is where a large chunk of tourist dollars come in...
All who live in New Orleans know that they live below the sea level. They also know that the so-called levees were not built appropriately. It is amazing the technology we have that can enable a large port city in this country to sustain itself and be protected, but is never used.
Do you ever wonder what the colleges teach in New Orleans? Try a course at the University of New Orleans about Urban Planning. Better yet, Environmental Geology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_geology).
I am a graduate of the University of New Orleans, and just want to pass along that Mr. Quigley interpreted a valid list of lessons that can be applied to pretty much any city in this country. New Orleans is and will remain a port city where people will remain to live, no matter the cost. And racism will remain an issue to keep power and control in the hands of a few, no matter how many lives are ruined.
Mr. Quigly: What I'm going to say is going to create a lot of hate and dissatisfaction, but I hear no-one else saying it. Please believe me when I tell you it has nothing to do with race or class. I can verify, through watching these sorry events unfold, the truth of your recounting, and yes it is despicable, hateful, and cynical. But there is a larger issue.
NEW ORLEANS SHOULD NOT BE REBUILT. Even without the consensus forming in the scientific community concerning the probable effects of global warming, New Orleans was always a doomed city. Built on alluvial sediment that is continuously subsiding due to compaction and dewatering, located at the apex of a funnel-shaped ocean gulf of shallow warm water, a worse place for a major city can not be imagined. Add the almost certain rise in ocean levels to come, to the sinking profile of the delta, and New Orleans looks more and more like the mythical city of Atlantis.
I've been wondering for some time, and incresingly as I read your littany of abuses and failures, if the non-rebuilding of New Orleans has not been the intention of the Bush Administration all along. It has been revealed that a report prepared by the military some years ago warned the government about the coming effects of climate change. Actuarial studies prepared by insurance interests also recognize the coming upheaval in population distribution and land use. The Bush Administration is guilty of many serious transgressions against justice, democracy, and progress, but I have never believed they are stupid.
After denying for so many years the reality of climate change they cannot now say to America that rebuilding New Orleans is a doomed enterprise. To do so directly would be an admission that they have been lying all along. Instead they chose to implement this choice in 33 "quiet" ways (by your accounting.)
Taking the long view of history I see two possible outcomes. The current policies you enumerated will continue and the community that was once New Orleans will remain a diaspora and gradually fade from memory. That is the probable course of events. The second possibility would be for some courageous leaders to recognize that rebuilding that city is an exercise in futility and begs a repeat of the last disaster, or an even worse one. Then those leaders could build a movement to insist that the State of Louisiana and the Federal government provide the funds and the legislation to enable the founding of a new city, away from the sinking muds and the rising waters of the delta - built, operated, and populated by the re-assembled diaspora that comprised the community of New Orleans.
It is my firm conviction that rebuilding the city of New Orleans would be an exercise in futility, a collosal waste of shrinking funds and resouces, and to those who would return no better than playing Russian Roullette with four of six chambers loaded. I suspect that in addition to the purposeful program you delineated, many are not returning with hope and determination because they realize the futility of the attempt.
Sounds like a new day in Amerika. Negligent homicide for all. Your tax dollars at work. Too bad we can't get the press to work. This should be in the news every day until this city has been rebuilt and the former residents have returned.
"Step Three. When the disaster hits make certain the national response is overseen by someone who has no experience at all handling anything on a large scale, particularly disasters. In fact, you can even inject some humor into the response – have the disaster coordinator be someone whose last job was the head of a dancing horse association."
priceless...
I like Mr. Quigley's list. It is longer and more detailed than I thought it would be but that is part of its' message. The fact is that many people in the disaster preparedness community tend to say that this happened to New Orleans because they were...corrupt, ill-prepared, disorganized, poorly led (Nagin, the governor, et al). This is, in fact, a version of, "This could not happen in my community."
But as someone who is on the edge of disaster response planning in my community we have been told categorically in regard to a pan-flu epidemic, "Do not expect outside help; everyone will be in crisis so no one will help you."
Now, in part this statement is purely factual. But in another perspective it is reflective of what has happened to our helping systems. They have been systematically dismantled. Quigley's impressive listing of thirty-three "steps" reflects this systematic dismantling of helping systems. I count myself as someone who does not mind paying taxes--truly--when they are by and far used responsibly. But particularly under this president we have seen government treated as something that is for the plucking. (See Halliburton no-bid contracts, etc.)
Good work, Mr, Quigley.
I want to be perfectly clear here. The governmental actions/inactions that Mr. Quigly accurately detailed and the conclusion that I stated are not two seperate issues, but actually one and the same. The same logic that drove the neocons to plant our right foot squarely in the Persian Gulf compelled them to cut off our left foot in the Mississippi Gulf.
We are (to their mind) hoplessly dependant on cheap abundant oil to maintain our economic viability and therefore it is necessary to ensure access to that oil by interveening in the affairs of producing states. All of the outrage of liberals, progressives, pacifists, and environmentalists to them is just the incoherent babbling of immature children. What do you think Bush meant when he said "The consequences of failure in Iraq would be catastrophic"?
The same inexorable logic have led them to cruelly and cynically obscure their conclusions about New Orleans. It is a lost cause and all the King's horses and all the King's men cannot shield the Big Easy from destruction again.
I wholeheartedly sympathize with Bill Quigly and all those residents of New Orleans that have been screwed over repeatedly by a devious regime. You have the moral high ground but you wish to join this battle in a geological cul-de-sac. Find better ground, regroup and marshall your forces, then see if they have the stomach for a fight.
A major factor that wasn't discussed in this article was illegal immigration.
Failure of the Bush administration to enforce employer immigration regulations has made the economic situation for African Americans much worse. This is reflected in deep concern among the poorer African American voters who want illegal immigrants treated gently-but less overall immigration.
Too many steps. The only step you need to dismantle every last vestige of civil rights and liberties in what used to be America: elect a Republican.
the effects of a hypothetical katrina-like storm hitting new orleans were the subject of a cover article in scientific american magazine. anybody who claims that "nobody could have predicted..." is either a fool or a liar.
here in the northeast u.s. and elsewhere, eminent domain is being used as a tool of racial/ethnic cleansing (officially known as "redevelopment")---effective, but time-consuming, and sometimes a judge can be found who still understands the "public purpose" clause of the fifth amendment. allowing the inevitable to happen to new orleans was a much more cost-effective way to accomplish the same desired goal.
trippin sez:
"Too many steps. The only step you need to dismantle every last vestige of civil rights and liberties in what used to be America: elect a Republican."
Any conservative will do.
Boy, it sure appears to me that immigration is the new American scapegoat, responsible (apparently, according to remarks on the article re SICKO) for the "health care" system, and now for the outrageously irresponsible inaction by the U.S. govt and its agencies after Katrina.
Perhaps if people think of the low-income and sometimes illegal immigrants as enabling big U.S. business to outsource without having to leave the country, it would be easier to see that it is outsourcing, rather than immigrants, that work against the best interest of low-income black Americans. That, and the horribly low minimum wage.
To Vince Lawrence, wdmax and all the other New Orleans haters: that's the dumbest thing I've seen on these posts. You say don't rebuild New Orleans? Well how's this, if California cities and towns get devastated by earthquakes and midwest towns get devasted by tornadoes, let's not rebuild them either. You both should be ashamed to live in the strongest country in the world but a country that can't or won't help it's own citizens. And you guys call yourselves homosapiens? You don't qualify. To be a homosapien one must not only have speech, but compassion as well. In fact you are not even primates, because even primates have compassion. You people make me sick.
Nietszche said:
"Global warming will eventually take New Orleans, and New York and London. The point is that our government did not try to help. OUR government did not care about anybody in New Orleans unless they were members of the ruling class."
This is absolutely true.. it will come to pass (sounding like a Cassandra here).
Vince, I can wholly understand your point of view. People do things (the impossible/improbable) that defy logic all the time. Building below sea level port cities, as well as ignoring massive calamity.
The thing is that we have so much potential and we squander it. This city was purposely allowed to fail. And I'm sure regardless of it's previous state, we could do better for NO. There's a gajillion dollars for war in Iraq, but none for a destroyed American city. Somehow that doesn't make any sense to me..
Vince Lawrence: thank you for taking the time to explain the environmental aspects. I remember a documentary on the Discovery Channel that showed divers at the mouth of the Nile showing underwater photography of what once had been a thriving city filled with marvelous archaeological sites, temples with pillars, statues, and so forth. There were different theories as to what sunk this port city; but most concluded the shifting tides had basically undermined the integrity of the soil it was all built on. The earth has been changing since it began, but as most of us realize, global warming will now speed this process. Civilizations have been buried under the sands of time. We read the historical records but never presume they can apply to ourselves. And this in no way diminishes any sense of empathy for the suffering of the people who endured the destruction of their city, both with weather and a care-less presidency co-conspirators of it effectively sinking.
Indifference to our fellow human beings is the greatest disaster -- and that will lead to unnecessary pain and suffering to a city no matter where it's built.
Disaster can happen to any one of us, in any number of ways, and deep in our bones we know that the support we would need is likely to be met by an insidious choir saying that somehow it was our fault.
I can tell you as someone who has been on the ground since 2/2/07 that everything Bill Quigely has written about is true.
It is shocking to watch daily the realities that he has documented unfold.
Those who can hear - will hear the truth in his message.
Those who can not - well life has a way of helping us all to evolve and awaken to the truth.
In my opinion the response to New Orleans (was) and is racially based AND the contempt for the ongoing suffering in the region crosses all racial lines. When I heard Conway West (sorry if the name is wrong) say "President Bush doesn't care about black people", I didn't know what he meant. I was living in MA and had never been to New Orleans.
NOW I UNDERSTAND with perfect clarity.
It is the Black Americans who are suffering the greatest in New Orleans.
Thanks to all who have come down to New Orleans, the Gulf Coast and Mississippi. Thank you's to those who continue to come to help in the rebuilding effort. It is mainly due to the hard work, love, and committment of the volunteers and non-profits that the 9th Ward is slowly healing.
I guess what is unfolding in New Orleans and the region is what President Bush has had planned all along - to have the Government stand down whilst the churches and non-profits stand up - except for the military.
The poor, the elderly, the sick, the despairing, are "dying" to get out of New Orleans.
Yes, Bill Quigely has defined the situation in New Orleans perfectly.
PEACE.
1 Volunteer
www.postkatrina2007.blogspot.com
I can truly see all points of view in this discussion, but money is the driving factor here. California had a devestating earthquake a few years ago, and I can tell you that we are up and running again, and will be again after the next one hits. Four months ago, a horrific crash closed down one of the busiest highways in the state. One month ago, it reopened, completely finished. Money buys this kind of speed, unfortunately. The country hates California on an almost viseral level, but I notice that they sure love our money (we are a donor state that gives more than it gets in federal programs), and don't mind that we pay our bills on time. Don't know if we got federal money for the highway, but the important thing is that the highway WAS rebuilt, and quickly. Two years later, New Orleans looks nearly the same. God help us in the last year of this man's administration. The least he could have done was give people the job of rebuilding SOMETHING in their own city, even if it was inland. But no, they are not his base, so no money or jobs.
Is there any place truly safe, for enough of the people to relocate to, and I do not mean just New Orleans people.
East coast: hurricanes.
West coast: earthquakes.
Middle: tornados and floods.
That about leave the mountains, only, really.
And even so, there's a fault line that runs from Charleston through Charlotte North Carolina into the mountains, and they say that SC is well OVER DUE for it's OWN earthquake, and I saw recent documentation on TV about mid state fault lines for earthquake activity, too.
That said, New Orleans had an exceedingly unusual situation of being deeply beneath sea level.
I cannot address whether it "should" be rebuilt or not. It certainly is unwise, but so are most of the other situations, many mentioned above in other posts.
So, I guess the question is: what are reasonable risks.
Bill Quigley
Excellent article....
Make no mistake about it....
The willful incompetence, gross negligence and fraud will leave Bu$hCo's legacy truly catastrophic...
Heck of a job Bushy and Dicky....
I cant believe that nobody has gone to jail over this yet. There has been no plausible explanation from this administrations for its failure to fulfill its responsibilities to Katrina victims. There was a program on the other night about the health problems faced by some of the families who have been "lucky" enough to qualify for a trailer home. Apparently the trailers contain harmful levels of formaldehyde making them virtually useless.
Didn't the Pentagon issue a report a couple of years ago stating that in the event of sea levels rising, the poor from other countries will try to take refuge in America? Both the Pentagon and the poor may want to reconsider.
Only rebuild the part of N.O. that is not on the floodplain. Build NICE apartment communities, but not in flood zones.
Outstanding article by Quigley and good response on Vince Laawrence's part. The best thing that could happen to most African- American New Orleaneans is if they take their rich cultural heritage and their solid work ethic, and be able to go somewhere else that will appreciate them better than where they came from. I know for many that place has become Houston Tx and for some it has even been western Canada.
Then New Orleans can become just another Gulf Coast collection of suburban sprawl. African American's say NO to New Orleans. The only thing you have to lose is their disrespect.
msmutt: I knew someone would take me to task for my interpretation of my observations from afar concerning the rebuilding efforts. And rightly so. What they continue to show on TV seems to be the same streets and areas rebuilt and not. I truly hope for those that love New Orleans that you can reclaim the place that you love and are attached to. People of course will always live near the water and of course port cities will always be important, and as many have noted here, rebuilding in the wake of disaster is a testament to the human spirit.
I decided about a week ago not to post to any article that was not of special interest to me. My thoughts concerning New Orleans are tempered by my experiences while working in strip mine reclamation and stream repair. I was involved in the cleanup of the Pipe Creek and Wegee Creek flood in Belmont County, Ohio about 16 years ago. The Feds and the State poured money into the entire region, not only for the recovery of those valleys, but of most of the waterways in this area. We cleared floodways of debris and obstructions and repaired retaining walls and culverts and I learned much more than I wanted to know about the National Flood Insurance Rate Plan. It bothered me then and it bothers me now that so much money and resources go into rebuilding structures and homes that will be destroyed again, and again, and again (and possibly take more lives.) This didn't diminish my sympathy for those affected, but it made me wonder about the wisdom of those who stayed and a policy that enabled them to do so.
I apologize to Bill Quigly for seeming to dilute or divert the thrust of his article. Shortly after Katrina I submitted several pieces to Common Dreams that contained much of what I said in my first post, but of course those would never get an airing here. I'm sure if anyone on the CD staff even read them they probably tossed them in the "hazardous materials" bin.
gwmRNpozSC: the mid-states faults; the most active and the most serious is the New Madrid Fault underlying the Central Mississippi Valley. Beginning on December 16, 1811 that region experienced three magnitude 8 earthquakes within three months and were felt as far away as Boston and Washington, D.C. Although it is a matter of debate, Tecumseh is reputed to have predicted the first one.
Vince Lawrence:
Thanks for a closely reasoned, patiently explained series of posts that have a good dose of scientific knowledge. Some people here are insinuating that you are a racist simply because you are pointing out the science and possible solutions that may actually be better for African Americans economically than rebuilding New Orleans on its original site as I will expalin presently. You and Mr. Quigly are talking about two different things; and you have pointed that out so many times in your post that it is nauseating that people here do NOT carefully read a person's logic and reasoning and full posts before climbing on whatever bandwagon is rolling past. Mr. Quigly pointed out that the Bush regime was racist in the way it handled the Katrina crisis. But the Bush regime's racism has been an obvious fact since Bush stepped on the throne in 2001. Is Iraq anything other than Katrina writ large on a brown people?
Today's Supreme Court decision makes him popular in the 30% base that he has in the country that is made up of mostly white folks. Since America has 300 million people, and about 30% of it is non white, that means about 210 million people are white. If Bush's base is a solid, unchangeable 35% of true believers, being largely white Christian fundamentalists and a sprinkling of what Harry Bela Fonte called . . .(or coconuts like the mayor of New Orleans, Collin Powell, Condi Rice and Clarence Thomas - - In my youth I lived in colonial British Africa, and I have seen plenty of those), then by simple arithmetic, it follows that Bush has solid support among 110 million whites. Then there are about 20- 30 million "independents", also mostly white, who are "fiscal consvervatives" meaning they like "market approaches" to all economic problems. They usually lean Republican, live in the burbs and go to work in cushy jobs. So "liberal progresive" white America has only 70-80 million whites from 210 million. That is the reality of America.
I have been condusting an experiment here on this site for about 3-4 weeks, and I have discovered that the majority, if not most of the bloggers, are white, liberal, romantics who are also essentially Luddites. Many are your soul mates from Canada. Most here have good hearts. But they spout romantic airy-fairy screeches and Messiah waiting for deliverance from the Bush/Chenney Darkness instead of practical steps to do anything. That is why most here are Kucinich supporters who has a snowball's chance in Hell of winning. Then again he appeals to the folks here because he also is like them - - a white-liberal romantic who has no chance of carrying the minority vote, without which any victory against the Republican DARKNESS is pure delusion.
Why aren't minorities flocking to him, Gravel, or Nader? Not because these progressives are bad people at heart, but they have had enough of white liberal romantics who gave us 8 years of Bush by taking away their 2 million votes from Gore and giving them to Nader to "make a statement". That is a luxury that a drowning country (Katrina II?) can ill afford And that is all most folks are doing here - - making statements and screeching for a mythical "third party" and some Messiah candidate at this critical eleventh hour when the fate of the world may be in balance.
Now Vince in you posts you mention that one should build a new "New Orleans" in a safer place and provide the African American diaspora from the "old" New Orleans with the economic wherewithal to actualy participate meaningfully in a white dominated economy. But the Luddite romantics here dismiss your sane suggestion because they have a a fairy-tale nostalgia for a New Orleans where African Americans were a realy happy lot churning out great jazz, Cajun food, and dancing in the Mardi Gras. If it was not for their good hearts, I would call such romanticism racist because it is precisely white liberal romantics who keep African Americans and other minorities down with their unconscious patronizing. Even on this site, has there been any serious minority intellectual (or in your minds they don't exist?) whose articles have been seriously discussed in regards to, say, the economic deprivation of African Americans, which in the inner cities is worse than the third world? No. In fact, you patronize everyone who does not have a "christian" romantic name, doesn't share the same cultural experiences and idiom.
Was New Orleans in any sense of the word a PROSPEROUS African American city? Yes African Americans lived here in large numbers, but as mostly poor and lower middle class persons and because of racism elsewhere. But was New Orleans economy anywhere close to San Fransico's (yes I know about Silicon Valley. I taught at Stanford for several years, so please do not lecture me, as some here are prone to do (with a name like AYMON that I deliberately chose for my experiment) about American geography)/ It was most likely closer to Oakland, the twin of "Frisco. San Francisco is white and Oakland is black. You cross over on the Bay Bridge from white to black and you really see what America is really all about.
White america discovered the "real" (not their fantasized one) New Orleans only AFTER Katrina. Most of the folks here fall in that category. Many will snarl at that suggestion because it is the truth that they see in the mirror, and they don't like what they see.
So all you Luddite, white, liberal romantics, what do you find unscientific in Vince Lawrene's article? What do you find that is actuually economically worse for African Americans, who would get brand new homes and businesses in a safe area? They won't stop producing great jazz, will they? Why would they be happy to return to a city that cost four to five times to rebuild on that dangerous alluvail plain as Lawrence cogently argues, rather convicingly I should say, and not in a brand new SAFER city at less cost?. The remaining money could be used to provide the most fantastic schools and health care system in a planned city which will act as a magnet for African Americans who want to simply live an ordinary life and provide the best for their children. Why is that solution not better than your romantic vision of rebuilt New Orleans providing your white pallettes with Cajun food and Mardi Gras without giving a damn as to whether the population would be safer and happier?
At any rate, this is the end of my experiment here on this site. I found out that America has no hope with people like you who will get another extreme right winger elected by default as you did in 2000. African Americans and other minorities will then thank you heartily when the KKK is unleashed on them by a fully fascist state. I am going over to read only Counter Punch. At least Alexander Cockburn is not a white, romantic Luddite, who will relect the "rethugs" as you folks here describe them by their own stupidity.
I can't believe I have to go into this, esp. on this site.
New Orleans was not destroyed by a hurricane, but by the failure of levees built by the federal government. The city could have been protected; it just wasn't.
Furthermore, people didn't sail up the Mississippi River a few hundred years ago and think "Hey, let's build a city in a flood plain." NO is where it is for very good reasons: upriver, the river narrows quickly. Downriver, there is no more high ground.
"Only rebuild the part of N.O. that is not on the floodplain. Build NICE apartment communities, but not in flood zones."
"Nice apartment communities"...... sheeesh. Look, I lived there for 7 years, and while the city had more than its share of troubles, it was the most joyous, vibrant, alive place I've ever been. What's been lost is beyond calculation, and won't be fixed with "nice apartments". When historians write about the 20th century, one of the main topics will be the influence of African-American music on American culture. That all started in NO, in Congo Square, but the people who started it are GONE, scattered to the winds. It's beyond tragic, and the great national apathy about this just goes to show how much of our soul we've lost.
Vince, the Dutch were reclaiming that land behind the dykes, they have other land that is not "threatened" by the North sea. To give up New Orleans gives one the impression that it isn't worth the effort and if that isn't worth the effort who's next? New Orleans was so unique, hell one could do without Washington DC that soulless place but not one of the cities that represent the soul of the nation!? I mourn the loss of that "soul" and damn the bastards that carelessly discarded the heart of the place and the people there.
Come on now, Vince. This is all just a fancy way of blaming the victims once again. Is it really the fault of the poor people of New Orleans that they happened to be living there when the hurricane struck? Are they now supposed to be punished by making sure they will never have a home to come back to? When are we going to see that it is only racism, greed and cold-hearted selfishness on the part of this government that doomed New Orleans? Location is everything. If a hurricane struck the homes of the wealthy, it would probably be labled a terrorist hurricane and some third-world country would have to be bombed in retaliation.
I am a multi-ethnic person who comes from a family of social activists. I can agree with aymon on the lapse of really hearing a true voice of all who live, (survive) in this country supposedly based on equal rights, etc.
However, I appreciate the fact that those like Vince can take the time to clarify and provide an explanation. My main issue is the continuous need to attack others, on both sides. I understand that reality will not provide "peace and harmony", but we now live in an age where we can educate ourselves and learn to agree to disagree without attacking. Which obviously won't happen as long as others feel it's a way to control groups of people.
I am mixed with black, white, native american and a variety of other races. I enjoyed New Orleans because there was a group of people that are mixed among a variety of races. There is plenty of history about that. And for those who didn't know, the state of Louisiana had an African-American governor during Reconstruction. But we all know why he wasn't able to last.
If we can learn that mixing of the races will continue, then perhaps we can see that there is no need to keep trying to separate everyone in this country. One group is not superior to another group. Before a city can rebuild, the underlying truths need to be let out. Mr. Quigley provided us with an education on how we can learn from our continuous failure of so called "mistakes".
We could reinforce the New Orleans levees and do 1000 times more every year, year after year, if we only first BURY "laissez-faire" capitalism and start allocating resources in the public interest.
Aymon said (among other things):
"I would call such romanticism racist because it is precisely white liberal romantics who keep African Americans and other minorities down with their unconscious patronizing."
I've heard this said many times before. It sounds like another divisive psy-tactic of not allowing/shaming whites from fostering a healthy appreciation of their 'other' neighbors whether black or any other color/ethnicity.
And I find it almost comical that you are so sure that most of the posters here are white 'liberal luddites'. So do you work for the NSA..are you watching us all now on your TIA tv screen? Did you survey the posters of this message board to confirm your assumptions? I'm just curious how you came up with your conclusions.
America is becoming more and more tan by the day, whether that is because Anglos are having less children or because our borders are wide open (and not closing anytime soon), or a combination of many factors. So I am pretty sure that the more disasters happen, the less help there will be for the victims in the future.. I can envision a graph where dollars for disaster go down conversely as the numbers of tan/brown/black population goes up.
The real solution for black people is what it's always been.. to rely on themselves since no one else really wants to help.
so many things so little time
1) Bush did not cause Katrina
2) New Oleans was the Murder/Crime Capitol of the universe
3)Yes black folks should look after themselves (everyone should)
4) Most people had plenty of time to get out they chose not to
5) It's been years now folks drop the victum mentality and move on
6) I'm an apt. manager in Houston and they are quickly ruining our city now
7) Something like 80% of the pop. on N.O. was/is on governmet assistance
8 ) When a majority white community is hit with a nat. disaster you dont hear a thing about FEMA not comming to their aid
9) Everyone involved has accepted resposibility for mistake except Ray Nagin (who should bear the most)
10) If the Mayor of Houston said "Houston will be a vanilla city again" not only would he be fired but I would fear for his life
11) why is someone racist or a N.O. hater if they dont just jump in lock step with what you think is right
There's plenty more but what it boils down to it has absolutly nothing to do with race, it's culture. Liberalism is a plight on America, if more people were taught to live up to potential instead of being taught that you are inferior and let big daddy government take care of you America would be a much better place.
hehe sorry about the spelling and grammer.trying to type too fast.
Just an after-thought would those 30 things not destroy a .... Jeez dont even know what to call it.... European American city? If not why not, if so then why are we even trying to split the races more?
"let big daddy government take care of you"
So what exactly are they responsible for then? I pay taxes. I want benefits. I want my neighbors to also benefit. Period.
If I'm in a major disaster that affects a few hundred thousand people then you better believe I'm going to expect help-- I don't think that is classified as having a 'victim mentality'. Whether that help comes from a neighbor or a government agency whose directives are to assist in disaster recovery matters not to me. But I'm not expecting something for nothing.. the government apparently thinks they can always get something and give nothing back.
So if Houston is so bla- er bad Ronsimonson, why don't you leave?
If it wasn't for all the 'liberals' throughout history most of us would be in a lot worse position in life today. No women voting, no black folks voting, etc etc. Civil rights benefit everyone not just groups that are tradionally targeted because they have little or no political clout/value to the establishment.