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TechnoratiFrom the Bayou to Baghdad: Mission Accomplished?
During the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, several dozen public-housing residents and activists marched to the headquarters of the Housing Authority of New Orleans. The marchers occupied the offices for hours. As the military and police surrounded the building, Sharon Sears Jasper, a displaced resident of the St. Bernard housing project, spoke: "We are not going to stop. We refuse to let you tear our homes down and destroy our lives. The government, the president of the United States, you all have failed us. Our people have been displaced too long. Our people are dying of stress, depression and broken families. We demand that you open all public housing. Bring our families home now."
In contrast, the day before, I had asked Mayor Ray Nagin if he made any demands of President Bush as they dined together the previous night. Bush had just spoken at a school named for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose issues of race and poverty are starkly laid bare in New Orleans. Unlike those who had lost their homes, the mayor replied, "It wasn't a time for demands."
Tracie Washington is the president of The Louisiana Justice Institute and a lifelong resident of New Orleans. She says only a quarter of the more than 5,000 affordable housing units in New Orleans are filled. "There is a feeling by our government that public housing of old needs to be dismantled, buildings shut. We have litigation going right now to change that, but it's horribly slow, and it's tragic."
She describes the plan by which public housing will be converted to "mixed-income" developments: "Some of these developments that are closed down took in no water. But the decision was made to take advantage of an opportunity. Hurricane Katrina came. 'Look what we can do. We can keep these people away from here, bring in the bulldozers, tear down this housing.' "
It is not just renters. Private housing is being demolished as well. Washington described how the city instituted a stunning policy to allow the legal demolition of homes. Whereas once homeowners would have at least 120 days and several layers of appeals to prevent their homes from being demolished, Nagin instituted an "Imminent Health Threat Demolition" ordinance. He now gives residents only 30 days to stop demolition.
To the tens of thousands of New Orleanians scattered across the country, the city's scant notice-a sticker attached to the property plus mentions on a city website and in The Times-Picayune newspaper-is clearly insufficient. According to The Times-Picayune, in addition to homes being destroyed, liens are placed on properties for the cost of the demolition, setting the stage for the displaced owners to lose their property to the city.
That is why groups like Common Ground Collective, The Louisiana Justice Institute and People's Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition are taking action, on the streets and in the courts.
According to Common Ground's founder, Malik Rahim, of the more than 12,000 people previously in the lower 9th Ward, only about 400 live there now. Where once there was a dense, vibrant African-American neighborhood, I walked with Rahim through tall marsh grass, vacant lots and destroyed churches and schools. A few isolated, damaged brick homes remain.
Curtis Muhammad, a longtime resident of New Orleans and a member of People's Organizing Committee, believes the economic interests driving the failing reconstruction must be investigated. "People see [Donald] Trump down here trying to buy real estate, the big tycoons. The gated communities are growing faster and faster. Look at public housing. They could have knocked that out in a week if they wanted to, cleaned it up. That's a lot of people that they could have just brought home. You can't explain that."
Two years after Katrina, as Bush flew from the bayou to Baghdad, a People's Hurricane tribunal-putting every level of government on trial-was wrapping up in New Orleans. A group was selling T-shirts there that reads: "Don't believe the hype. Gulf Coast recovery is not 'slow'-it is a privatization scheme that takes away our homes, schools, hospitals and human rights." Mission accomplished?
Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 500 stations in North America.
© 2007 Amy Goodman
20 Comments so far
Show AllEshu,
I don't know who P is. I do however understand the concern one might have at the re-population of an area virtually guaranteed to be under water in a few decades with global warming continueing. Though, I believe re-building and re-housing could have and should have been accomplished long ago on higher ground up stream. The exploitation of this disaster is one more mark on their graves--and the marks are adding up exponentially at this point.
Danna
Am I the only one getting tired of whining liberals that pose no real solution? What are we to do, Amy - elect Democrats? That is what you imply, but surely you know that they are part of the problem.
For the neophyte, the reason she poses no solution is because the ONLY solution that cuts the intellectual muster is revolutionary communism, and liberals cannot stomach that prescription. Why? Because they are pro-capitalist! They harbor the preposterous belief (or is it just a politically expedient 'belief?") that a system whose cornerstone is exploitation of the many can somehow be transformed to one that nurtures the many.
We can rage on about Bush all we like, but the real support for this crap in New Orleans comes from "practical" liberals like my friend P., who informed us yesterday that the displacement of thousands of people from the Ninth Ward was acceptable because living in the 9th Ward wasn't "environmentally viable" anyway. P. and many others like her actually believe that environmental concerns are what shapes the slow re-building of New Orleans, that Lousiana, as a state steeped in historic corruption, can expect nothing more than the monumental profiteering that's gone on since the storm destroyed the city.
But then, it's not P. who lost her home, who faces involuntary displacement, who has to start over again. It's not P. who saw her whole community slandered as looters, who had friends, neighbors and relatives drown as the chaos went on. It's not P. yet, anyway. P. thinks she's invulnerable, and to a certain extent, for now she is, being part of a white community of professionals that is rapidly gentrifying.
But her day is coming, whether she knows it now or not. the sharks she overlooks and allows free reign today will grab a chunk of her soft white flesh tomorrow. Her union contract is being flushed down the toilet by the city she lives in incrementally over time, and her soft life is going to whither away. Whether she knows it now or not. But it's not her problem today.
We'll see how big she is on "economic disciplines" and "environmental standards" when her day comes. And that day is not far off. Her mentors in discpline are slavering at the bit, and since people like P. don't want to say anything, they're about to get chewed.
youbetterwork, please check your facts and please quite resorting to stereotypical inferences.
Were you raised in New Orleans, or are you living there to help rebuild for the "gentrification" crew? We all know that affordable housing should be built, but the powers that be would prefer to continue with their ethnic cleansing for their capitalistic goals.
ezflyer - Thanks for the two links - they're fascinating, especially the one on Switzerland. I haven't read enough yet about it to make a comment, but I will, be sure. (In the meantime, it's yea! for the tiddlywinks team!)
In answer to workreno, yes, most definitely, we need a national strike. We need to let this corrupt government of ours know that we run the show - of, by and for the people. Stop consuming and take back our country. Don't accept corporate candidates. Run other ones. Run ourselves. With fierce love, take the arm of the bully and say "No more". Thanks for the lyrics, too.
Unlike those who had lost their homes, the mayor replied, "It wasn't a time for demands."
And apparently, in Washington DC, it isn't a time for holding the Bush Crime Family accountable, for anything.
ezeflyer /
You may be right, you may be wrong.: I am not 100% sure.
But what I believe is that in a fight, we have to ask for 100% to get a maximum return( it may be less than 10% of what we asked for)
If we start with less than 50%, we will always end up with less than cookie crumbs.
ezeflyer: capitalism creates poverty--you can't have great wealth without great poverty, and capitalism is a system that is *organized* so as to exploit the labor of the working class and transfer wealth upwards. It is not possible to have capitalism without great concentrations of wealth.
As someone who rides by those abandoned projects every day I am happy they are closed. When they were open I was chased, attacked and had things thrown at me...
The people who lived in them now get section 8 vouchers that run the rent around here up to NYC levels, they have places to live. The people who lived in 9th ward homes got FEMA trailers and free rental vouchers or free hotel rooms (over $1000 a month for over 2 years now.)
While I love Amy, I belive this article is just out of touch and unreal, clearly written by someone who has no idea what it is like to live in New Orleans.
And the story about home demolitions is just wrong. No homes have been bulldozed without permission from the owner. The signs on people's homes are just warnings. I wish they would tear down these empty homes that just sit there rotting, while the landlords wait for more government money to rebuild them, they are a blight.
ezeflyer - I posted this on another thread, but -
"The trick is, don't confuse democracy with capitalism. You can't have both together, they contradict each other. Unchecked, capitalism always leads to fascism, democracy to socialism" (not communism).
You say - "The problems are and always have been extreme concentration of wealth/power, unlimited growth beyond the earth's carrying capacity and loss of biodiversity".
Now you are describing capitalism just about ready to move into fascism.
I don't think the problem is capitalism any more than it is communism. The problems are and always have been extreme concentration of wealth/power, unlimited growth beyond the earth's carrying capacity and loss of biodiversity. These problems all have solutions that can only be addressed direct democratically. Representative government carries the seeds of its own destruction.
The ethnic cleansing of New Orleans also assures the GOP of picking up Mary Landrieu's senate seat next year.
As I watched Democracy Now today a line from a song rang in my head. It's called Wolves in Wolves clothing.
from NOFX
We are Rome, Aztec Mexico, Easter Island paradigm.
We are followers of Jimmy Jones,cutting in the kool-aid line.
We are Animal Farm Pigs, we are a Terry Gillian film (Brazil)
We are fear of Oligarchy, we are wolves in wolves clothing,
we are this planet"s kidney stone.
In the process of getting passed, metamorphosis from first to last.A system breaking down beyond repair.
A product of three million millionaires and 100 million easy marks
We are Marie Antoinette, we are Joseph McCaethy.
We've finally become the Divided States.
A nation built on freedoms ,fear, and hates,the denotation of Irony.
We all want a hollywood end,but we're getting a forign one
The script has already been penned ,and titled,
"The epitaph of a DROWNING NATION"
Is anyone up for a national strike? Anyone? Anyone?
With people like Ray in charge the people of New Orleans are doomed. So Ray, when would it be a good time to make demands for the people of your city? After the next election perhaps?
Clearly, the government is infested with capitalists. The capitalists do create almost all problems in governance. It's one of those laws of nature - if you don't believe in something, you're bound to muck it up.
This is from Emmanuel Todd, the French political economist who foresaw the fall of the Soviet empire -- and no one believed him:
"The American economy is at the heart of a globalized economic system, and the United States acts as a remarkable financial pump, importing capital to the tune of 700 to 800 billion dollars a year. These funds, after redistribution, finance the consumption of imported goods—a truly dynamic sector. What has characterized the United States for years is the tendency to swell the monstrous trade deficit, which is now close to 700 billion dollars. The great weakness of this economic system is that it does not rest on a foundation of real domestic industrial capacity.
"American industry has been bled dry and it's the industrial decline that above all explains the negligence of a nation confronted with a crisis situation [hurricane Katrina]: to manage a natural catastrophe, you don't need sophisticated financial techniques, call options that fall due on such and such a date, tax consultants, or lawyers specialized in funds extortion at a global level, but you do need materiel, engineers, and technicians, as well as a feeling of collective solidarity. A natural catastrophe on national territory confronts a country with its deepest identity, with its capacities for technical and social response. Now, if the American population can very well agree to consume together - the rate of household savings being virtually nil - in terms of material production, of long-term prevention and planning, it has proven itself to be disastrous. The storm has shown the limits of a virtual economy that identifies the world as a vast video game."
Acsion Miscomplished!
grandma and nickhart:
Pardon me for repeating myself, but check out a country that has the best features of capitalism and communism without oligarchs and commissars. It has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world despite having no natural resources, no wars in over 150 years though surrounded by warring nations, no boom and bust economy, the best healthcare and educational system, few immigration and crime problems and no WOD, a healthy environment and more. All because it is a direct democracy:
http://www.basiclaw.net/Principles/Direct%20democracy.htm
also see:
http://www.nationalinitiative.us/