The Katrina Files

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2007-08-25T04:13:00.000-07:00

Home razing angering owners in New Orleans

Katrina victims feel trapped by trailers

And in other news of injustice from the Pelican State.

Racism and Resistance:The Struggle to Free

The Jena Six

By Jordan Flaherty

August 14, 2007

Almost a year ago, in the small northern Louisiana town of Jena, a group of white students hung three nooses from a tree in front of Jena High School. This set into motion a season of racial tension and incidents that culminated in six Black youths facing a lifetime in jail for a schoolyard fight. The story that has unfolded since is one of racism and injustice, but also of resistance and solidarity, as people from around the world have joined together with the families of the accused, lending legal and financial support, adding political pressure, and joining demonstrations and marches.

The nooses were hung after a Black student asked permission to sit under a tree that had been reserved by tradition for white students only. In response to the three nooses, nearly every Black student in the school stood under the tree in a spontaneous and powerful act of nonviolent protest. The town's district attorney quickly arrived, flanked by police officers, and told the Black students to stop making such a big deal over the nooses, which school officials termed to be a "harmless prank." Walters spoke in a school assembly, which like the schoolyard where all of this had begun was divided by race, with the Black students on one side and the white students on the other. Directing his remarks to the Black students, District Attorney Reed Walters said, "I can make your lives disappear with a stroke of a pen."

The white students who confessed to hanging the nooses never received any meaningful punishment. Nor did the white students who months later beat up a Black student at a school party, nor did the white former student who threatened two Black students with a shotgun. But, after these incidents, when Black students got into a fight with a white student, six Black youths were charged with attempted murder, and now face a lifetime in prison. The white student was briefly hospitalized, but had no major injuries and was socializing with friends at a school ring ceremony the evening of the fight. The accused students may not have been involved in the fight, but they were known to be organizers of the protest under the tree. They were also star athletes in the school football team, and had no history of discipline problems.

The Black students were arrested immediately after the fight, in December of last year. School officials and police officials took statements from at least 44 witnesses. The statements do not paint a clear picture of who was in the fight. Statements from white students refer to a group of "Black boys," but most testimonies are unclear as to the identities of who was involved. Some of the arrested youths are not implicated in the fight at all. Despite this, when Mychal Bell, the first youth to go to trial, refused to take a deal in exchange for testifying against his friends, he was quickly convicted by an all-white jury. Bell's public defender Blane Williams, visibly angry at Bell and his parents because the youth did not take the deal, called no witnesses and gave no meaningful defense. This attorney's behavior gives a vivid example of our nation's broken and underfunded public defender system. Some have called Jena a throwback to the past, but in fact Jena presents a clear vision of the current state of our criminal justice system.

In Paris Texas, a white teenager burns down her family's home and receives probation, while a Black student shoves a hall monitor and gets 7 years in prison. Genarlow Wilson, in Atlanta, is sentenced to ten years in prison for participating in consensual oral sex with a 15 year old when he was 17. Like these and many other cases, the case in Jena is textbook proof that there are still two systems of justice functioning in this country, one for Black people, and one for white. The unpunished incidents in the days and months leading up to the fight clearly demonstrate that the students of Jena would never have faced charges if white students had beaten a Black student.

Local Resistance

Immediately after the arrests, parents of the accused began organizing. Their call, "Free the Jena Six," was initially heard by activists from other parts of Louisiana, such as the Lafayette public access TV show, "Community Defender," which was the first media from outside their immediate area to give coverage of the case. Noncorporate media has been vital in spreading word of the case, beginning with blogs and YouTube videos, which then led to articles in grassroots publications and high profile stories on Democracy Now and in The Final Call. LaSalle parish, where Jena is located, is 85% white.

The town is still mostly segregated - from the white barber who refuses to cut Black hair to the white and Black parts of town, separated by an invisible line. LaSalle is also one of Louisiana's most wealthy parishes, with small oil rigs in many back yards contributing to area wealth. The parish is a major contributor to Republican politicians, and former klansman David Duke received a solid majority of local votes when he ran for governor in 1991 - in fact, he received a higher percentage of votes in LaSalle parish than in any other part the state. Jena was also the former site of a notoriously brutal youth prison, which was closed after years of lawsuits and negative media exposure. The prison is now scheduled to be reopened as a private prison for the growth business of immigrant detentions.

Only one church in town has allowed the parents to hold meetings. There has been local pressure on family members and their allies to stay quiet. However, in the face of opposition, their voice has grown louder. Without an infrastructure of support, without any paid organizers, this struggle was initiated and is still led by six courageous families. Three hundred supporters, most from the immediate region, but some from as far away as California, Chicago and New York, descended on Jena on July 31 to protest District Attorney Reed Walters' conduct and call for dismissal of all charges. The largest groups included Millions More Movement delegations from Houston, Monroe and Shreveport, and nearly fifty members of Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children from Lake Charles and New Orleans. Other delegations from across Louisiana included members of INCITE Women of Color Against Violence, Critical Resistance, Common Ground and Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. The demonstration marched through downtown Jena - reported to be the biggest civil rights march the town of 2,500 residents has ever seen - and delivered a petition with 43,000 signatures to the District Attorney's office.

In the two weeks since the demonstration, more major allies have begun to come on board. The Congressional Black Caucus - representing 43 members, including Senator Barack Obama - issued a statement calling for charges to be dropped, while the city of Cambridge Massachusetts passed a resolution in support of the families of the Jena Six. Al Sharpton and other national leaders have visited Jena, while Jesse Jackson brought the support of members of the state legislative Black caucus. ColorOfChange.org, which has coordinated much of the outside support, has gathered 60,000 signatures on a petition to Louisiana Governor Blanco, calling for her to pardon the accused, and investigate District Attorney Reed Walters. Blanco, a Democratic governor elected with the overwhelming support of Black residents of Louisiana, responded with a condescending statement, tersely informing petitioners, "The State Constitution provides for three branches of state government - Legislative, Executive, and Judicial - and the Constitution prohibits anyone in one branch from exercising the powers of anyone in another branch." This is the same governor who, as Katrina approached, urged gulf coast residents to "pray the hurricane down" to a level two. When New Orleans was flooded and people were trapped in the New Orleans Superdome and convention center, she informed the nation that she was sending in National Guard troops, and "They have M-16s and they're locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so, and I expect they will." More recently, Blanco created a program to bring federal money to homeowners rebuilding after Katrina – the "Road Home" – that has been a dismal failure on every level.

Mychal Bell's sentencing is currently scheduled for September 20. The families are planning another demonstration for that date, and also have assembled a legal team for Bell and the other youths. National organizations such as Southern Poverty Law Center and NAACP joined initial supporters such as Friends of Justice (from Tulia, Texas) and ACLU of Louisiana. Legal expenses for the youths could be hundreds of thousands of dollars, and funding is still needed. Except for Mychal Bell, who has a bail hearing scheduled for September 4, all of the youths are out on bail. The case of Jena Six has served as a wake-up call on the state of US justice. It shows vividly the racial bias still inherent to our system. But is has also shown something else. That this group of families refuses to be silent in the face of injustice, and that hundreds of thousands of other people around the world have chosen to stand with them. Together they have said that we are drawing the line, here, in Jena Louisiana.

Jordan Flaherty is a New Orleans-based journalist and an editor of Left Turn Magazine. His May 9, 2007 article from Jena was one of the first to bring the case to a national audience. Please see http://http://www.leftturn.org/ and http://www.freethejena6.org/ for more coverage of the Jena case.

Resources:Donate to support the legal defense fund:

Jena 6 Defense Committee

PO BOX 2798

Jena, LA 71342

Donate online at:

https://secure.colorofchange.org/jena_fund/

Sign the petition at:

http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/

For more information or to offer concrete support,

email:jena6defense(at)gmail.com

Media coverage:

The Final Call:

http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_3753.shtml

NPR (News and Notes):

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11756302

Democracy Now:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/10/1413220

Mychal Bell, who has been behind bars since December of 2006, has asked to receive letters from supporters.

Please write to:

Mychal Bell

Inmate, A-Dorm

LaSalle Correctional Center

15976 Highway 165

Olla, LA 71465-4801

YouTube videos in support of the Jena Six:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpOBKTwkIoo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebGY2XONJVM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuoiZnr4jLY

Support Organizations:

http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/

http://www.colorofchange.org/

http://www.millionsmoremovement.com/

http://www.laaclu.org/

2006-12-24T22:36:00.000-08:00

Louisiana population down 5 percent after Katrina

NFL 2006: Saints excite and inspire their ravaged city

Judge demands answers on Katrina housing

Families blame more deaths on Katrina

Catastrophic Failure
Foundations, Nonprofits, and the Continuing Crisis in New Orleans

By Jordan Flaherty

December 16, 2006

Fifteen months after New Orleans became an international symbol of governmental neglect and racism, the city remains in crisis. Students are still without books, healthcare is less available to poor people than ever, public housing is still closed, and infrastructure is still in desperate need of repair. In an open letter to funders and national nonprofits released yesterday, a diverse array of New Orleanians declared, “From the perspective of the poorest and least powerful, it appears that the work of national allies on our behalf has either not happened, or if it has happened it has been a failure.”

In conversations this week with scores of New Orleans residents, including organizers, advocates, health care providers, educators, artists and media makers, I heard countless stories of diverted funding and unmet needs. While many stressed that they have had important positive experiences with national allies, few have received anything close to the funding, resources, or staff they need for their work, and in fact most are working unsustainable hours while living in a still-devastated city.

Research backs up the anecdotal reports. A January 2006 article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy argued that the amount given to post-Katrina New Orleans was “small-potato giving for America's foundations, which collectively have $500-billion in assets.” The article also asserted, “just as deplorable as the small sums poured into the region are the choices foundations have made about where the money should go.” In other words, very little of the money had gone to organizations directed by or accountable to New Orleanians. In discussions this week, one prominent New Orleans-born advocate and lobbyist called this phenomenon the “Halliburtization of the nonprofit sector.”

A February report from New York City’s Foundation Center points out that the Red Cross, which raised perhaps two billion dollars for Katrina relief despite widespread accusations of racism and mismanagement, “ranked as by far the largest named recipient of contributions from foundation and corporate donors in response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita,” receiving almost 35% of all aid. At the time of the report, another 35% of the money the foundations designated had not been spent. The Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, Salvation Army and United Way together made up another 13%. The rest was generally spread between other national relief organizations.

COMMUNITY RESPONSES

After nearly fifteen months of shuttered storefronts, a block of Black-owned businesses in New Orleans celebrated a rebirth this week. The street, on Bayou Road in the seventh ward neighborhood of New Orleans, is a hopeful sign in a city where 60% of the population remains displaced and many businesses are shutting down or moving. As recently as August, most of the area remained shuttered and empty. Now, almost every shop is open. The Community Book Center, a vital neighborhood gathering spot in the middle of the block, reopened this week, despite still having no front windows and a floor in major need of work. “Step carefully,” Vera Warren-Williams, the owner, warned guests as they entered the store during the reopening celebration.

Neighborhood spaces like the Community Book Center have long been a vital part of New Orleans organizing, serving as a gathering place for people and ideas. The revitalization of Bayou Road is just one example community pulling together – friends and strangers coming by to help gut houses, clear debris, cook food. Anything to help, as the people of New Orleans struggle together against incredible odds in a city that was already devastated by poverty and privatization and neglect pre-Katrina.

Although Community Book Center is a crucial resource, spaces like these have received little outside support.Foundations, according to the Chronicle article, “seem to have been preoccupied with the issue of accountability. Many foundations wondered how they could be certain that grants to local groups would be well spent and, therefore, publicly accountable.”While those are reasonable concerns, many in New Orleans see a double standard in this view. The Chronicle writer goes on to state, “the question of accountability didn't seem to bother the large foundations that gave so generously to the Red Cross, which had a questionable record of competence to begin with and attracted even more criticism in the aftermath of Katrina over its unwise use of funds, high administrative costs, and lack of outreach to minorities.”

Many feel that the message from major funders has been that New Orleanians cannot handle the money appropriately. “Twenty seven years running a business, and they don’t trust us with money,” Jennifer Turner of the Community Book Center, comments, when asked about her feeling towards national funders. “They think we’re all stupid or corrupt.”In the aftermath of Katrina, the people of New Orleans were depicted in the media as “looters” and violent criminals, or as helplessly poor and ignorant. In other words, as anything but a trustable partner in the rebuilding of their city. Even today, many news stories about New Orleans post-Katrina focus on FEMA payments that were misused or obtained through fraud, rather than the bigger story of corporate fraud.

Many feel this media depiction, and the bias and racism that it in many cases reflected, is in part to blame for the reluctance of major funders to give money directly to the people most affected.“They figure if they give poor people money they’ll buy crack and cigarettes,” People’s Organizing Committee and People’s Hurricane Relief Fund co-founder Curtis Muhammad summarized.

MONEY AND RESOURCES

At a small corner bar in New Orleans’ Central City neighborhood, community activists and organizers from grassroots base-building organizations such as Critical Resistance, the New Orleans Worker Justice Coalition and Safe Streets/Strong Communities gathered to celebrate a victory. After a year of organizing, protesting and lobbying, Safe Streets won city funding for an independent monitor over the city’s notoriously corrupt and violent police department.The Safe Streets victory is the result of several years of struggle by many organizations and individuals. More importantly, it is a part of an overall effort grounded in, and led by, those most affected. While there has been some funding for base building organizations such as those listed above, it has been pennies compared to the hundreds of millions directed elsewhere.

For a region of the country that has been historically underfunded, these issues are nothing new. “I’m very much afraid of this ‘foundation complex,’” civil rights organizer Ella Baker said in 1963, referring to the changes happening then in the structure of grassroots movements.In an article in an upcoming South End Press anthology about New Orleans post-Katrina, members of INCITE Women of Color Against Violence write, “Though hundreds of nonprofits, NGOs, university urban planning departments, and foundations have come through the city, they have paid little attention to the organizing led by people of color that existed before Katrina and that is struggling now more than ever.”

Echoing this analysis, the Chronicle of Philanthropy article complains of a “long-term lack of concern and neglect that foundations that operate nationally and in the Gulf Coast region have shown for poor and minority Gulf Coast residents, even as some grant makers proudly strutted their awards to national antipoverty and antiracism programs.”The INCITE authors posit that successful organizing is rooted in the community and takes long time to bear fruit. Mainstream funders don’t appreciate this, and, “a look at who and what gets funding in New Orleans, from foundations to support work, reveals the priorities of these foundations and the entire nonprofit system. Organizations that represent their work through quick and quantifiable accomplishments are rewarded by the system. Foundations are not only drawn to them but are pressured by their own donors to fund them.”

For many in the nonprofit field nationally, post-Katrina New Orleans has been an opportunity for career advancement. While local residents have been too overwhelmed by tragedy to apply for grants, a few well-placed national individuals and organizations have not hesitated to take their place in line. Although some have no relation to New Orleans, they often have previous relationships with the foundations, as well as resources that translate into easier access to funding, such as development staff, website designers, and professional promotional materials.

SYSTEMIC FAILURE

Foundations are not to blame for the continuing crisis in New Orleans, nor do they possess a special responsibility to help the city. However, many foundations have expressed a desire to support New Orleans’ recovery, and funding is desperately needed on the ground. Because of this, their actions have taken on added scrutiny from people in New Orleans.Foundations are an integral part of the current structure of US nonprofits, a system that INCITE has called the Nonprofit Industrial Complex, to emphasize the intersecting, dependent and corporatized ways in which the system is constructed. It is a system in which organizations are frequently pitted against each other for funding, where organizers are discouraged from being active in their own community, and where accountability to and leadership from those most affected has become increasingly rare, and in many cases, the priorities of the “movement” are guided by those with money rather than being led by those most affected.

Perhaps the biggest lesson of Katrina for people concerned about social justice is that the structures of US movements are in serious crisis. As the director of one base-building organization posed the question, “what’s wrong with the 501c3 structure that everyone could come down for a 5 day tour but no one could come to actually do the work for a month? What’s wrong with a 501c3 structure where everyone is already so under resourced and then tied to projects and promised outcomes that the biggest disaster this nation has seen in decades occurs and no one can stop what they are working on to come down and help? What’s wrong with the foundation world that they have to produce 207 fancy glossy interview reports to their board in order to shuffle a few thousand dollars our way?”One thing that is clear is that the current paradigm simply doesn’t work. Without community accountability, projects aimed to bring justice to that community are weaker and sometimes counterproductive.

ACCOUNTABILITY

Writing in the South End Press book, INCITE members argue that the structure of a non-accountable movement stopped organizations from responding more capably to the disaster when it happened, and that a movement more responsive to local community would have been more effective. “

Community organizing and community –based accountability are the things we have left when the systems have collapsed,” they argue.Many organizers told me that, in dealing with foundations, they were expected to be responsive to the foundations instead of to any concrete needs on the ground. “Its not just that you have to jump when they tell you to jump,” the manager of one organization told me, “you also have to act like you wanted to jump anyway.”

Again, these issues are not new - more than forty years ago, Fannie Lou Hamer, civil rights leader and co-founder of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, complained. “I can’t see a leader leading me nowhere if he’s in New York and I’m down here catching hell.” “What’s wrong with our movement and our organizations,” the director of another grassroots organization asked me, “that they couldn't collaborate and coordinate and offer us some organized plan of assistance instead of asking us to do more and more to help them help us? What’s wrong with funders that they couldn't coordinate, the way they ask us to, so that they could come down once, together, and not on 15 separate trips?”

MOVING FORWARD

When asked for solutions, many in New Orleans called for allies to bring a deeper respect for the experiences of the people on the ground. Others expressed an overall need for movements to move away from reliance on foundations and large donors.Several organizers highlighted the examples of positive experiences. “National Immigration Law Center (NILC) came here in a principled way, looking to hire someone local, and to support already existing local projects,” Rosana Cruz, who works with NILC and the New Orleans Worker Justice Coalition, explained. “Advancement Project does litigation led by and in support of grassroots organizing campaigns. OXFAM is a major international organization, but they came in and worked responsibly with small organizations on they ground they had previous relationships with. And they made multi-year commitments. They didn’t just come and dump money – or worse, come and promise money then disappear, as some did.”

“Ironically, many of the folks who have come through for us are Southern groups, who are themselves under resourced,” the managing director of one organization told me. “Organizations like Project South and Southerners On New Ground (SONG) have been stronger allies than many larger national groups.” The Chronicle article asks foundations to play a role in “strengthening nonprofit organizations that serve low-income people and African-Americans, as well as other minorities…America's foundations need to move from a policy of neglect of the nation's most vulnerable organizations to one of affirmative action, an approach that will mean changing the way many foundations do business.”

“I would ask national organizing groups to send a staff person down for 6-12 months,” begins the executive director of another organization, “I would also recommend all progressive and liberal foundations with Katrina money to do an analysis of funding and jointly release the results along with the plan for funding in 2007 and 2008.”Others listed specific needs they felt were unmet. “We need seed money, technical training and leadership development,” explained Mayaba Liebenthal, an organizer active with the New Orleans chapters of Critical Resistance and INCITE.”

The stakes are far beyond New Orleans. This is a struggle with national and international implications. If the people of New Orleans are supported in their struggle, it will be a victory against profiteering and privatization. Questions of race, class, gender, education, health care, food access, policing, housing, privatization, mental health and much more are on vivid display. “Everyone is here right now, or has come through,” Curtis Mohammed comments, referring to the vast array of organizations and individuals who have visited the city. “If the movement continues to grow, New Orleans will be seen as a turning point.” But, despite all of the resilience on display here, the people of New Orleans can’t do it alone.

Resources Mentioned In Article:

1) Letter From New Orleans Grassroots:
http://www.leftturn.org/NewOrleansLetter.aspx
(Note: Letter will soon move to:http://www.leftturn.org/NewOrleansLetter.htm)

2) CorpWatch Report:http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14023

3) After Katrina: What Foundations Should Do, By Pablo Eisenberg, in The Chronicle of Philanthropy:http://www.nng.org/news_detail.html?news_id=61

4) Foundation Center report:
http://foundationcenter.org/gainknowledge/research/pdf/katrina_snap.pdf

News and an Interview

2006-12-10T21:33:00.000-08:00

Audit says FEMA squandering Katrina aid

Community Justice Interview with Robert “Kool Black” HortonBy Jordan Flaherty with Jacqueline SoohenRaised in New Orleans’ St Thomas Public Housing Development, Robert “Kool Black” Horton is a dedicated community organizer and father, as well as a former hip-hop artist and current gospel choir singer. He began his organizing career as a founder of Black Men United for Change, a grassroots community-based organization that initiated local responses to community problems. For fifteen years, he has been a trainer with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, a New Orleans-based anti-racist training organization. He is currently Campaigns and Project Director for Critical Resistance, a national prison-abolition organization. This Saturday and Sunday, Critical Resistance is sponsoring a Weekend of Reconciliation and Respect, featuring a keynote address by former political prisoner, professor Angela Davis. For more information on the Critical Resistance Amnesty Campaign, please see http://www.criticalresistance.org/katrina/

Jordan Flaherty: What is your organizing background?

Robert “Kool Black” Horton: I’m a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. For the past fifteen years or so I’ve been doing work dealing primarily with issues effecting Black men, particularly in public housing. I started with an organization called Black Men United for Change, in the St. Thomas public housing development about 15 years ago.Black Men United for Change was part of a larger effort that was taken on by the St. Thomas Residents Council and the St. Thomas Irish Channel Consortium, to do grassroots organizing and educate people about what was happening in their neighborhoods, to deal with issues around teenage pregnancy prevention, the high risk of HIV in the community, and also issues around tenant’s rights as public housing residents. These meetings would go beyond conversation on these issues, into dialogue about housing issues, the murder rate, police brutality, drugs, employment - those kind of basic things people need for their survival. So because this community was already pretty organized, we had one or two retreats and Black Men United for Change was established. We started by bringing employers to the table to help brothers get jobs. We acted as a job referral, and we had about 60 or 70 people connected with our organization that we were able to find work for.Then we started working on these issues of crime and policing. The murder rate was so crazy, there were two areas in particular, one was called Death Alley, and the other one was called Cutthroat. You didn’t want to be in these neighborhoods after dark. The murders were occurring, and there was no intervention. The police would come out and lay the yellow tape down and draw the chalk lines but this was after the blood was spilled, and we felt it was too late by then. We realized that, had someone stepped in sooner, we could save lives.So Black Men United for Change developed a community-policing model called the St. Thomas peacekeepers, which was conflict resolution based on the relationships we had with folks in that neighborhood.A person would get killed, for instance, on a Tuesday evening. But it didn’t start then. It was initiated a few days earlier, on a Friday or Saturday night at the neighborhood block party or a dice game. And because no one said anything then, it was allowed to filter over later.We had a large presence wherever there were community events or large gatherings.

We would be present in the neighborhood, and because we had relationships with the people involved, we knew how to approach them and get them to at least listen and some to some sort of reasoning. There were times where the situation was too complicated for us to get involved, or we were too close to the situation - then we would bring in an outside, neutral, party.As a result of our work, we began to watch the murder rate drop in St. Thomas, from 31 murders to zero, in a three-year period. The murder rate was about 31 people when we began – that’s 31 killed in one year, just in the St. Thomas development. That went down to fourteen the next year, then to six, then zero.

We were also able to address police brutality. There were rumors that people were being targeted and gunned down by the New Orleans police department. There was this group (of police) called the headhunters, who rode around with black baby doll heads on the hood of their police car. We were able to deal with that matter and have those officers removed from out of not only St. Thomas, but the entire 6th district police area, because they were terrorizing not only St. Thomas, but also the other public housing sites in that district.

JF: How would you describe Police/Community Relations in New Orleans?

KB: Folks are being criminalized. When the issue of race in particular comes into play, the New Orleans police department is not unique. When you look historically, the police department has been one of the biggest terrorists in our neighborhoods, and that’s across the country, and those relationships haven’t changed much. The faces of politicians have changed, that’s it

.JF: What do you mean when you say your community was already organized?

KB: New Orleans has been doing organizing for years, and people who want to come in solidarity should be respectful with when and how they enter a community. There was a lot of organizing in St. Thomas; we developed a lot of leaders. The people who were 9 to 12 years old when we started, in 7 years, led that program, and were the staff. That was the intention, to pass it on to that next generation of leaders.

JF: St. Thomas was later torn down, and the former residents were dispersed across the city. Now, HUD is talking about demolishing virtually all public housing in the city. Are public housing residents being demonized?

KB: People are being blamed for crime. They say that crime is a public housing issue. Ask yourself, where did the dollars for housing go? We saw our greatest deterioration in public housing and downsizing of funding and staff in the 1970s and 80s. This was a backlash to integration. Fifty percent of St. Thomas was vacant. The money was pulled out of public housing. The staff was downsized.“Hope VI” (the federal program to transform public housing) is a joke. This country is getting out of the public accommodation business. Look at health care; look at charter schools and the privatization of schools. The country is downsizing from public responsibility. Public education was developed for white people initially. In the 60s, people of color integrated the system, and it became time for the government to get out of that service.

JF: What was your work after Black Men United For Change?

KB: I also worked with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. I’m what’s called a core trainer – I’ve been training with them almost all of my years as an organizer. They do Undoing Racism workshops, a training model to become an antiracist organizer. We believe that skills alone are not enough to become an organizer. You have to understand the culture and time we live in. Just because you develop skills, that doesn’t make you a better organizer. If you don’t address the issue of racism, then you just become a skillful racistWe developed Freedom Schools, modeled on the freedom schools that came out of the 60s, to take a message of antiracism to a younger audience. Kids as young as 9 years old would participate. We would help kids get clarity on institutional power as it relates to racism. That experience helped shape my political perspective.

Now I’m working with Critical Resistance. I appreciate how they work as an organization: nonhierarchical, and conscious of issues of accountability.Being one who went through the criminal justice system I know what it means to be on the inside of those walls just as much I know how important it is to be on the outside bringing light to the inhumane treatment people get on the inside.

JF: What is Critical Resistance’s current campaign?

KB: Amnesty for prisoners of Katrina is the campaign Critical Resistance has taken on. We are asking for forgiveness for all charges of those who were arrested for so-called looting, for trying to survive after the stormWe have people a year later who still haven’t seen the inside of a courtroom, mainly because the court system was destroyed. The evidence was washed away, records have deteriorated, public defenders were laid off, and people are lost in the system. People cannot prepare for trial because evidence has been destroyed. A young man appeared last week who was lost in the system for thirteen months. They just found him. How many other cases are there like that? The law says the District Attorney is supposed to accept or deny charges within 60 days for state charges, yet there are people missing in the system for months. There’s no real rehabilitation, just warehousing.

Camp Greyhound (The prison set up in New Orleans greyhound bus station in the first week post-Katrina) is not the best way to rebuild New Orleans – and yet it was the first piece of infrastructure rebuilt in the wake of Katrina. We need food, shelter, clothing, and jobs. We need that for the right of return, for people to have safe communities.

JF: What is your experience with the criminal justice system?

KB: December 1 of 1988, I was arrested for drugs and a gun charge. Just like many teenagers, I made a mistake. I was 19, there were things pushing me into that kind of lifestyle. But I made choices for myself and I decided not to have myself pushed into that system.

JF: How long were you incarcerated?

KB: I only did two and a half years. That’s mainly because growing up I was always around folks that talked about the plight of black folks in this country, and the issues that are impacting us. That spirit, the lessons from those conversations, would visit me in prison.I want to say this, as it relates to amnesty: For two years before Katrina, I was unemployed. I could not find work in this city. For something that happened 18 years ago, I couldn’t get a job in this town. When does a person pay his debt to society? I served two years in prison. I’ve worked with youth around this country. I’m involved in all kinds of civic organizations, I made a complete change in my life and I still can’t get work. Now there’s legislation saying if you’ve ever been convicted you cant get financial aid for school. How does this effect people who are trying to turn their life around? What are we talking about when we talk about safety?When I was in Orleans Parish Prison (OPP), I stayed in what was called “Tent City,” which has now been re-erected, post-Katrina. It was a makeshift jail outside. It was 14 degrees and we were sleeping outside on cots without a heater. OPP had at that time at least12 different facilities in this city. We should question that – why are there so many jails in one town?

Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the nation, and New Orleans has the highest incarceration rate in the state. We also have the third poorest education system in this country. With the No Child Left Behind act, people are being pushed out of school.What’s going to be the focus when we rebuild this city? Is the focus on bricks and mortar, or people? There’s a lot of talk about levees and infrastructure and hotels and businesses, but very little talk about bringing people back and making sure they have wages and benefits, a quality education and health care. Politicians and media talk about crime and safety, but there’s another agenda, and that agenda has racism written all over it. There’s no plan to bring people back to this city. People have been planning to remove the poor Blacks of this city. Using the issue of crime has been one way to do it. So it’s another mass gentrification scheme. Right now, they’re talking about tearing down public housing that could provide housing and right of return for 5000 families, but developers are talking about money-making schemes right now, and planning to benefit from other’s misery.

JF: What happened to St. Thomas?

KB: St Thomas was a painful experience for me. It helped me understand this thing called community organizing, so that’s positive. But it is painful because of the end results. They said they would turn our community into a mixed income community. Community folks that participated didn’t know the scope of what they were dealing with. Developers ended up gentrifying and developing the community out of existence.

JF: What are the organizing lessons you’ve learned in New Orleans post-Katrina?

KB: One lesson I’ve learned is that this is bigger than me. We can’t use the model we used to use. We have to look for different models. We can’t see the issue of prisoners as a civil rights issue; this is a human rights issue.

New Orleans News

2006-12-04T17:58:00.000-08:00

Nagin picks director for recovery office

200,000 returned to N.O. by August

Louisiana legislature to take up insurance crisis

Some Updates

2006-11-18T13:33:00.000-08:00

FEMA homes were destroyed in storage

Football eases Katrina victim's move

New Orleans park recovers, but slowly

33 Katrina victims still unidentified

2006-10-15T01:02:00.000-07:00

33 Katrina victims still unidentified

La. voters to weigh fate of levee boards

Continuing Crisis in New Orleans' Schools
By Jordan Flaherty
From Left Turn Magazine, Fall 2006

This week I visited New Orleans’ John McDonogh High School, where students organized a press conference to call attention to the conditions at their school. At the school, which is is one of 17 former city schools now under state control, security guards outnumber teachers, school lunches are sometimes served still frozen, and many textbooks and other vital supplies are unavailable. The state-run school district began hiring teachers just weeks before the school year started, and is still short 21 teachers in its five high schools. “Our school has 39 security guards and three cops on staff, and only 27 teachers,” one McDonogh teacher with 250 students on her roll explained. Young, untrained, security guards were involved in three fights with students in two days last week, she added.

“Being at John Mac feels like I’m in prison,” one of the John McDonogh students declared to the assembled media and allies. “The bus ride to school feels like a trip from court to jail.”Post-Katrina New Orleans has become a battleground in the national fight over competing visions for the future of urban education. In September of 2005, with the city evacuated and all the schools closed, with no parents or students or teachers around, suddenly anything became possible. Instead of making gradual changes to an existing system, there was no system, and virtually no rules or limits on what could be changed. “The framework has been exploded since the storm,” confirms New Orleans-based education reform advocate Aesha Rasheed. “It’s almost a blank slate for whatever agenda people want to bring.”

Before the storm and displacement, New Orleans had 128 public schools, 4,000 teachers and 60,000 students. The system was widely regarded as in crisis. Three quarters of eighth-graders failed to score at the basic level on state English assessments. In some schools, JROTC, the high school military recruiting program, was a mandatory class, mostly because funding wasn’t available for other programs. Ten school superintendents in ten years had been fired or quit. Many parents, especially white parents, had pulled their kids out of the system—almost half of the city’s students were enrolled in private schools and parochial schools. Advocates accused the most underfunded schools of functioning as little more than a warehousing program for Black youth.

While the city’s private schools saw almost 90% of their students return, public school enrollment is at fewer than 25,000, less than half the previous levels. For those that have returned, they are attending a system completely different from the one they left, what some have referred to as a grand experiment in school reform, with more than 30 out of the 53 schools open this fall transformed into charter schools. In other words, it has become a system that now consists of a majority of publicly-funded schools freed from many of the rules and oversight that previously applied to public schools in the system.

Transformed System

From the beginning, many saw the post-Katrina landscape as an opportunity to reshape the city. Days after New Orleans was flooded, The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank based in Washington, DC, was already advocating for vouchers and “market solutions” to the city’s education problems.For advocates, the radical transformation of New Orleans’ education system has created a new field of concerns. They worry that the new administrations running the schools are inexperienced and unprepared to take over the New Orleans system. “They say this is an experiment,” Tracie Washington, NAACP lawyer and education advocate, explains, speaking about the plans of advocates of charter schools. “Tuskegee was an experiment. We have reason to be suspicious of experiments.”

The question of the role of the teachers’ union—previously the largest and perhaps strongest in the city—is another contentious issue tied up in the dispute over charters. The School Board voted in fall of 2005 to lay off all but 61 of the 7,000 school system employees, and in June let the teachers’ union contract expire with little comment and no fanfare. Those rehired at charter schools return without their union.For many New Orleanians, the union represents an important Black-led political base advocating for justice within the education system. “Elites of the city may prefer the teachers don’t come back because they represent an educated class of Black New Orleans, with steady income, seniority, job protection,” Jacques Morial, community advocate and brother of former mayor Marc Morial, said at a recent forum.

According to education activists, students whose parents are able to actively advocate for them have been able to get into better public schools, but for those who have difficulty managing the system of applications and red tape, their options are reduced. “Suffice it to say that the old system worked for people with higher education, with more resources,” Mtangulizi Sanyinka project manager of New Orleans’ African American Leadership Project tells me. “It wasn’t that the system didn’t work at all, it didn’t work for poor people.”“There is an access barrier,” Rasheed confirms. “In the old New Orleans, charters were an island in a sea of city schools. That’s no longer the case. There’s currently a big group of kids that don’t have a school. Some think it was one or two thousand in the spring semester. That’s a lot considering you had only 12,000 total enrolled.”

Pre-Katrina, thousands of kids every year didn’t pre-register for any school—they simply showed up at their neighborhood school on the first day, and the school found them a place. Now, most of those neighborhood schools don’t exist, and those that do are no longer obligated to place students who just show up.

Crossed Boundaries

Nationwide, the fight over charter schools has crossed traditional boundaries of left and right, with many progressives supporting charter schools as a potential tool for community control of schools, and an opportunity to try education strategies that would not be possible through the common bureaucracy of public schools. Opponents see charter schools as a back-door strategy used by conservatives to undermine public schools, and to create a two-tiered “separate but equal” hierarchy within the public school system.The struggle over what form the education system will take is also fundamental to the larger issue of who will return and when. At forums, at neighborhood meetings, and throughout the city and its Diaspora, parents are anxious. In Houston and Atlanta, displaced parents are asking if their kids will have a school if they return.

In the city, high school students at some of the most underfunded schools have formed an organization, the Fyre Youth Squad, to advocate for change in the schools. The group organized this week’s press conference, and many adult allies have attended the group’s twice-weekly meetings at John McDonogh to support the student’s organizing efforts.Students and their allies are fighting to not be left behind, but it’s an uphill struggle with more questions than answers. Despite all of the promises from charter school advocates, Tracie Washington, NAACP lawyer and education advocate, is suspicious of their motives. “If you kick me out of my kitchen because you say you can cook better than me,” she says, “then your gumbo better taste better than mine.”

Saints reflect on season of displacement

2006-09-23T18:36:00.000-07:00

The team that everyone loves...and hates, is bringing new hope to New Orleans.

Arm Against Katricians

2006-09-23T18:32:00.000-07:00

Arm Against 'Katricians,' Gun Dealers Tell Houston

Hurricane evacuees protest as hostility spills out over rising crime rates in the city.

By Miguel Bustillo, Times Staff Writer
September 18, 2006

HOUSTON — When the "Katricians" rise up in violence, Houstonians had better be packing some serious heat.That's the inflammatory message of a new gun-shop commercial on the radio that gives Hurricane Katrina evacuees a vaguely alien-sounding name, and advises Texans to take up arms to defend themselves against crimes committed by the newcomers.

"When the 'Katricians' themselves are quoted as saying the crime rate is gonna go up if they don't get more free rent, then it's time to get your concealed-handgun license," warns the radio ad by Jim Pruett, who co-hosts a bombastic talk-radio show and owns Jim Pruett's Guns & Ammo, a self-styled "anti-terrorist headquarters" that sells knives, shotguns, semi-automatic rifles and other weapons. As Pruett describes the dangers posed by "Katricians," glass can be heard shattering, and a bell tolling ominously.

The radio spot highlights what many gun-store owners say is a hot trend in Houston: trade in weapons amid a surge in the homicide rate that police attribute to the more than 100,000 hurricane evacuees still in the city. Though the gun sale reports are largely anecdotal, Texas officials said applications for concealed-weapons permits were up statewide: 60,328 from Jan. 1 to Sept. 1 this year, compared with 46,298 for the same period last year.

The Houston Police Department estimates that one in five homicides in the city now involves Katrina evacuees — as suspect, victim or both. Many Houston residents, including some evacuees, are worried that crime will only get worse once housing and other public assistance end.Hurricane evacuees and the nonprofit groups that have been helping them rebuild their lives are saddened by what they see as a growing tendency in Texas to stereotype the predominantly African American newcomers as hoodlums, based on the crimes of a few.

Parnell "Herb" Herbert, a spoken-word artist and community organizer from New Orleans who wound up in Houston after the hurricane, said he chafed at being called a Katrina evacuee because he believed the label had taken on a negative connotation in the media and did not describe who he was."I am not a Katrina evacuee; I am a New Orleanian living in Houston. I am a father, a grandfather, a Vietnam vet," Herbert said."Now this guy wants to call me a 'Katrician' or 'Katrinanite' or whatever, which sounds like Martian or something," he added. "It's frightening to see what is happening. When we were brought here from Africa, we were dehumanized."

Though evacuees see the over the generalizations, they are no longer surprised to hear them expressed. This month, Texas gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman, a cigar-chomping humorist and musician running a populist campaign, joined the chorus of anti-evacuee sentiment. "The musicians and artists have mostly moved back to New Orleans now," Friedman said. "The crackheads and the thugs have decided to stay here. They want to stay here. I think they got their hustle on, and we need to get ours."Friedman later clarified that he was not calling all evacuees in Texas crackheads and thugs, and his campaign disclosed that the independent candidate had been housing a New Orleans musician friend since the storm.

Nonetheless, evacuees and activists accused him of pandering to voters' racial prejudice.Hostility toward evacuees also spilled out during an emotional community meeting in west Houston on Aug. 30, when a packed crowd of 1,700 demanded that Mayor Bill White send the Louisianans home. The west Houston area has been housing the majority of evacuees, and has been particularly hard hit by the increase in homicides. Houston's Police Patrolmen's Union, which is in a nasty political fight with Police Chief Harold Hurtt, has put up billboards that portray the city as unsafe.

In that climate, many gun dealers report strong sales and maintain that customers are citing an evacuee-fueled crime rate as the reason they are choosing to arm themselves."When crime rates shoot up, business goes up. It's that simple," said Art May, 50, owner of the Republic Arms shop. "Right now, with the news talking about crime being high in Houston because of all the Katrina people, people who have been putting off getting a gun are finally coming in. These aren't people looking for high-dollar hunting rifles. They're looking for weapons of self-defense."

May said he believed gun buying had peaked, because his sales, which were up 50% at one point, had slowed in recent weeks. Some gun dealers questioned whether there ever was a trend, saying that although sales were strong just after the storm, they quickly trailed off.But at Jim Pruett's Guns & Ammo, in a strip mall on the northwest outskirts of town, the staff said business was booming, thanks in part to Pruett's ad.The store has always sold its gear with a sense of humor: Its website plays "Bad Boys," the theme from the television show "Cops," and advises, "Be polite and courteous, but have a plan to KILL everybody you meet." The walls are lined with pistol-grip shotguns and semiautomatic rifles, and glass cases full of oversize knives and handguns for seemingly every taste — from $400 pistols to a massive tiger-striped Desert Eagle for $1,600.

During the lunch hour on Friday, Pruett, 62, played a recording of his radio spot and sounded quite pleased with himself. "God, that's great," he said. As he sat behind the counter, beneath coils of ornamental razor wire along the ceiling, he said he did not consider his commercial racist and had no regrets."The storm washed up a lot of people who live off crime and getting the loot," he said. "The people who are here and have gotten jobs, that's a wonderful thing. They're Houstonians now. But the people who are still unemployed a year later, who are just sitting around doing nothing, they're 'Katricians.' That's the way I see it."

miguel.bustillo@latimes.com

How are things in New Orleans

2006-09-09T19:56:00.000-07:00

Finding Faith in Our Darkest Hour
A New Orleans Update
By Xochitl Bervera
Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children
(www.fflic.org)

Friends from around the country ask us: “How are things in New Orleans? Are things getting better?” I always have to pause, surprised that people haven’t heard. I forget that the national media has abandoned us, that George Bush flew into town for five minutes to make promises of federal support which gave the rest of the country and the world permission to look away. I am stunned that people don’t know how much worse it is in New Orleans today for our organization, for our members, for our community than it was even six months ago.

When people ask, I have to tell them: It’s worse than you think. It’s not what people want to hear, but it’s the truth that isn’t being reported in the mainstream media, so I have to keep telling them. And every time, I draw on a renewed commitment on the part of FFLIC and many others in New Orleans and around the country to hold onto faith and to the knowledge that the spiritual and material power of people who believe in and work for justice will one day prevail - and so we keep moving forward. Because it is always darkest before dawn and New Orleans, a year after Katrina, is due for the brightest of dawns.

How are things in New Orleans? For the young people and families who are FFLIC’s heart and soul, things are not well. Besides the chaos of still-unrepaired infrastructure (traffic lights are still broken, garbage pick up remains illusive, levees are insufficiently repaired, and entire neighborhoods remain exactly as they did in October of last year) the clear plan of developers and the business community to deny the right of return to New Orleans’ Black community is being implemented in the ugliest of ways. HUD recently unveiled its plan to demolish 5000 units of public housing. The Recovery School District will simply not open its schools that serve poor Black neighborhoods. Officials refuse to re-open Charity Hospital, the source of health care for New Orleans’ poor and working class. All are part of a plan that has been in the works since the day after the storm. We are witnessing the normally gradual process of gentrification sped up to its logical conclusion, with developers interested in eliminating (and quickly!) all public infrastructure that supports the lives of poor and working class Black communities, and politicians eager to accommodate them. Politicians publicly make their commitment to welcome everyone back while quietly making the policy decisions that guarantee its impossibility.

And yet, people keep coming home! Black New Orleanians, whose land and city this is, are finding their way back every day despite all the predictions and efforts to the contrary. Our families and communities made it back to vote and made their numbers and power felt. Folks are back looking for jobs which don’t exist and housing which is boarded up and vacant.What does this mean? It means there are hundreds of children in the city with no public schools to attend in their neighborhood. It means there are thousands of people suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (only psychologists tell us there is no “Post” to our PTSD as the stress of daily life in New Orleans is newly traumatizing each day) with no mental health care. It means people still have no consistent place to live, no sense of protection from a future storm, no jobs to make a living, no health care to treat even basic medical needs. It means folks come back, are forced to leave again, come back and forth and back and forth…It means that the institutions that stabilize a community – like churches, schools, and grandmas – are absent, while instability and stress factors are through the roof.It means that there has been a 25% jump in the mortality rate, including a threefold increase in the suicide rate. It means that Arsenio and Markee Hunter, Warren Simeon, Iraum Taylor and Reggie Dantzler, – all New Orleans youth and several of whom were friends and children of FFLIC’s – were slaughtered on a street corners not 5 blocks from our offices, gunned down with a submachine gun that somehow make it back into the city and onto the streets. It means we have lost Kerry Washington, a son and a father, who died mysteriously inside the overcrowded, overheated Orleans Parish Prison –where he paid with his life for an old warrant of simple drug possession. It means Ronald Smith who was gunned down by police will never get to see how beautifully his brother testified at a city council hearing two months ago. It means our members and families live in fear of both the violence on the streets and the violence of the police who are supposed to protect them.It means, in short, that the clash between the gentrifying forces and the Black community - who were not meant to survive, endure, and return – has turned deadly. Where the lack of schools, housing and healthcare fails to keep people away, those in power will turn to the police and prisons.

If there was ever any doubt that the criminal justice system would be used to keep Black New Orleanians from returning, the last few months have eliminated the last of it. With 300 National Guardsman called in to patrol (with M-16s which are “locked and loaded”) the empty streets of the neighborhoods where the lack of infrastructure has slowed efforts to rebuild, the NOPD has been able to turn its attention to “protecting” the neighborhoods that have been rebuilt. By consistently profiling, harassing and arresting poor people of color, NOPD are now making over 140 arrests per week. The vast majority of these arrests are for minor violations, including spitting on a sidewalk. The kinds of charges being put on people – resisting arrest, obstruction of justice, battery on a police officer - speak more to the tension between NOPD and community than to public safety. The rise in NOPD arrests occurs at a moment when the Orleans Parish Prison is becoming made increasingly dangerous by its overcrowding and lack of adequate health care. Harsh criticism from national media and lawyers of Sheriff Gusman’s operation of OPP has not stopped him from opening new “temporary” beds at breakneck speed and sending hundreds of prisoners up to the state penitentiary in Angola to try and keep up with the new arrests.So how are things in New Orleans?

But, there is a beacon of light. Undeniably, organizing has taken root in the city. From neighborhood associations to workers rights, environmental justice, and public safety reform groups, people are beginning to come together and use their people power, their power to disrupt, to shame, to confront elected officials and demand that they do what they were elected to do: serve the people of this city.

An inspiring example of how organizing and reform work are together making a difference is in the juvenile justice system itself. Even as news coverage concentrates all the blame for crime on young Black men, and the demonized threat of these young Black men is used to justify everything from shutting down public housing to bringing in the National Guard, the juvenile justice system itself is continuing on the path of reform that had just begun when the storm hit. The changes in New Orleans’ juvenile justice system are real. During the six months before Katrina, there were over 4000 juvenile arrests in New Orleans. In these last six months, there have been 169. After the storm, Orleans Parish Juvenile Court Chief Judge David Bell took leadership in implementing many reforms that had previously been discussed, but never implemented. For starters, he brought in Attorney (and FFLIC friend) Ilona Picou to work as the court's recovery coordinator. Ilona, well versed in juvenile justice reform, coordinated 38 volunteer attorneys from outside Louisiana to winnow down the number of active cases from 26,500 to 2,500. A new set of procedures on how to deal with kids has dropped the number of kids being arrested by police from over 100 a day to an average of 17 per day. Police are no longer arresting kids for trespass, for example, for sitting on a basketball court after school. The Court has been able to use savings from such basic changes to upgrade its computer and phone systems. It has also purchased vehicles for use by families in need of supervision, drug court, weekend detention and alternatives to detention programs. Money that had been used to put kids in jail before the storm is now being used to bring support families need to keep their kids at home. So, why is juvenile justice improving at the very same moment criminal justice for adults is spinning out of control, and despite the recent blame-the-victim policy responses of curfews and increased law enforcement? In part, it is because juvenile justice reform efforts – led by FFLIC and the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana – were already underway when Katrina hit. Before the storm, FFLIC, a voting member of the Children and Youth Planning Board was actively engaged in getting the many stakeholders to agree that detention reform in Orleans Parish was necessary. After touring the decrepit Youth Study Center and witnessing first hand the horrific conditions in which over 100 of our children were detained on any given day, FFLIC made a commitment to ensure that any reforms of the juvenile justice system would include the closure of that facility and the reduction of the number of children held at any given time. FFLIC worked hard with other stake holders, including the juvenile court judges, to recruit the Annie E. Casey Foundations Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) to come to Orleans to implement their proven program to reform local juvenile justice systems and help jurisdictions spend less on incarceration and more quality community based programs for kids and families.

So when the storm hit, the adult system and the juvenile system responded in precisely opposite ways. The juvenile system which had been forced to see children as the precious human being they are, and detention beds as the costly, ineffective burden they are, chose to speed up its reform process. The adult system which had made no such culture shift and no such commitment to change, has continued down its path of death and destruction.What does this mean? To FFLIC, it is a reminder that our work has impact, value and indeed can make a very real difference in people’s lives and in the systems which affect our lives. To all of us, it shows that issue based organizing has the potential to result in system shifts that can withstand a racist onslaught even of the magnitude we are witnessing in New Orleans today. It also tells us that FFLIC must not be content to just see the changes in the juvenile system, knowing more children each day are being bumped into the adult system and that no matter what the courts say, our 17 and 18 year old children are no less human, no less ours, no less worthy of our commitment to keep them safe from the harm of the streets, safe from the harm of law enforcement, safe from the harm of racism and displacement. As FFLIC looks forward, we must re-commit ourselves to organizing, to building our membership base and to our mission of improving the lives of Louisiana’s youth, especially those at risk of getting involved in the juvenile justice system in the context of today’s it’s-worse-than-you-think New Orleans. If we and the many others in New Orleans who have begun, keep on organizing, we have hope that we may soon be able to answer the question differently, “So how are things in New Orleans?”

Xochitl Bervera
Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children
188 Williamsburg Street
Lake Charles, LA 70605
(337) 562-7083

1600 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd
New Orleans, LA 70113
(504) 606-8846

Jordan Log 8-21-06

2006-08-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

THE KATRINA ANNIVERSARY

By Jordan Flaherty
August 21, 2006
(A different version of this article appears in the Summer 2006 issue of Colorlines Magazine – www.colorlines.com)

“I want as many people to come visit here as possible,” a lower 9th ward resident named Calvin told me as we walked past the infamous breached levees and destroyed homes of his neighborhood. “The national media has forgotten us, the politicians in DC have forgotten us. I support anything to get the word out.”Among many people I've spoken with in New Orleans, this sentiment is common; the idea that the country has moved on, and if people would just come here and see for themselves, they’ll bring attention and consciousness.

Beginning days after the storm, New Orleans hosted a stream of celebrities and political players, from Sean Penn to Spike Lee, a United Nations Human Rights envoy, and a series of PR visits from president Bush. Later, Women of the Storm, a nonpartisan group led mostly by wealthy white women from New Orleans, raised a lot of cash and publicity for their mission to fly to DC and convince congressional representatives to come here and view the devastation.

Now, we are days away from the long-heralded anniversary of the destruction of our city, and once again the tour buses are filling up.To commemorate the anniversary, the Nagin administration announced a party – fireworks at the superdome, a masquerade, and a comedy show at the downtown casino were all initially a part of the official city festivities. Although those plans were widely seen as offensive – and have since been cancelled – there is still, for many, an unsettled feeling around this anniversary.

How do you commemorate the anniversary of something that is still happening? The devastation of our city is not just something that happened a year ago, it's something that is going on yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Half of the people of New Orleans remain dispersed around the US. Suicide rates have tripled. The national guard is still patrolling the streets. Most schools and hospitals — especially those serving poor people — are still closed. Central issues related to the planning of the city – including what neighborhoods will be rebuilt, how they will be rebuilt, and who will make the decisions – remain unresolved. Perhaps most importantly, few people here feel protected by the levees that surround this city.

We in New Orleans know that our moment is ending. This anniversary will bring one last deluge of media attention, but after that – barring another catastrophe – the spotlight will move on. The corporate media will reassign their reporters. Liberal foundations will redirect their money to the next urgent priority. Activist volunteers will be going back to school or onto the next volunteer hub.“It was frustrating and painful at first,” former mayoral candidate and lower ninth ward resident Greta Gladney recalls, referring to the people that have come to walk the streets around her home. “Before December, in order to see our own neighborhood, we had to ride on a tour bus, while contractors, insurance adjusters, journalists and police and soldiers could walk around there as much as they wanted. Politicians were using our neighborhood for leverage, to get more money from the federal government. But they don’t want the lower nine to be rebuilt, so the money they get from our suffering is not going to come to us.”

Driving through the lower ninth ward on any given day, you are likely to see scattered groups on guided or unguided tours, tourist-filled buses and vans filled with church volunteers or scruffy activists on bikes. People come to see the levee break - now rebuilt - and to view the general devastation - which is still very much present. In fact, until recently, bodies were still being discovered regularly, and few doubt that more remain buried amongst the rubble. Virtually no one from this large neighborhood has been able to return. Most of the area still has no electricity or running water. Grassroots organizers have organized alternate plans for the anniversary, including vigils, press conferences, a tour of condemned public housing, and a memorial and march - beginning in the lower nine - organized by a coalition called the United Front to Commemorate the Great Flood. Local groups continue to organize in the neighborhoods of the city, and in the diaspora. Whatever happens in these coming weeks and months, for the people of New Orleans, the struggle – and the mourning – continues, with or without the attention of the world.

Jordan Flaherty is an organizer with New Orleans Network and an editor of Left Turn Magazine.
His previous articles from New Orleans are at:

http://www.leftturn.org/Articles/
SpecialCollections/jordanonkatrina.aspx

ONE YEAR AFTER KATRINA, a new report from Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, will investigate the state of the post-hurricane Gulf Coast; profile innovative community leaders; and outline the challenges ahead for a just and sustainable renewal. The report will feature 200 indicators and in-depth reports on 13 major issue areas, including Demographics, Housing, Economy, Schools, Healthcare, Arts and Hurricane Readiness. The report will also feature a comprehensive directory of organizations working on Gulf Coast issues in Louisiana, Mississippi and nationally. The report is due to be released Tuesday, August 22.

Katrina Commemoration Events

2006-08-21T19:22:00.000-07:00

Dear Nola:

The one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall and the
devastating levee breaches that flooded most of New Orleans and took so many
lives is fast approaching. Over the next week New Orleanians will
gather to honor our dead and reflect on all we have endured over the past
year.

New Orleans Network has compiled a list of more than 50 events planned
around the one-year anniversary of Katrina. We'd like to particularly
draw your attention to two events coming up this week and the
community-driven commemoration march on August 29th.
This Tuesday at 4 p.m. you can join levees.org (www.levees.org) at the
Hale Bogg's Building as they release a report card on the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers. Then on Friday the African-American Leadership Project will
kick off a series of activities leading up to the anniversary with a
panel discussion from 7 to 9 p.m. at Ashe' Cultural Arts Center.
On August 29th, about 30 local organizations have worked with People's
Hurricane Relief Fund to plan a commemoration march beginning with a 10
a.m. ceremony at Jourdan and N. Galvez (site of the L9W levee breach).
The march will proceed to Congo Square and end with reflections from
families who lost loved ones and community leaders.

Those are just a few of the more than 50 events planned to commemorate
our tragedies and rally against the continuing injustices. Read on to
learn about many other events or visit the anniversary section of our
site at www.neworleansnetwork.org/anniversary. While you are there, you
can also check out the calendar to get a glimpse of other meetings and
community events on tap for the week.

Thanks for all your help building this resource.

AUGUST
8/16, 8/21-22, 8/29-Spike Lee's cable-TV documentary about New Orleans
devastation by failed levees, described by one network executives as
"one of the most important films HBO has ever made," will be hosted by
the New Orleans Arena on August 16 at 7pm, five days before it airs on
the cable network. An estimated 10,000 seats will be made available for
the event, which Lee is expected to attend. You can get tickets for FREE
on ticketmaster.com. The two-part TV premiere of the four-hour film,
titled "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," will be Aug. 21
and 22. And four hours will repeat on Aug. 29, the one year anniversary
of Hurricane Katrina's landfall.

8/21-8/24 – NAACP Housing Hearings and Public Action Event will occur
in several cities including New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette/Lake
Charles, on the North Shore and Wash, D.C. with possible satellite
meetings in Houston and Dallas. NAACP will take public testimony and comments
on housing issues and rights to return. On the last day there will be a
public action in Wash, D.C. to gather information and demand response
to problems from federal officials.
Coordinator: NAACP Gulf Coast Advocacy Center
Contact: Tracie Washington, twashington@naacpnet.org

TUESDAY, AUGUST 22
8/22 – Levees.org will observe the worst engineering disaster in U.S.
history with the release of a report card on the performance of the U.S.
Corps of Engineers since August 29, 2005, the date of Hurricane
Katrina’s landfall. At the event the group will also unveil a commemorative
poster made up of photos of flag-draped flooded homes.
The event begins at 4 p.m. on Aug. 22 in the courtyard of the Hale
Bogg’s Building at Magazine and Poydras streets.
Coordinating group: Levees.org (www.levees.org)
Contact: Sandy Rosenthal – (504) 616.5159 or sandy@levees.org

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23
8/23 – New Orleans Council on Aging: Katrina Theater
The performance will feature employees and seniors of the New Orleans
Council on Aging in recognition of the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
The event begins at 10 a.m. at the council’s temporary headquarters at
2020 Jackson Ave.
Coordinating group: New Orleans Council on Aging
Contact: Howard Rodgers – 504.827.7843 or primemin3@aol.com

8/23-8/28 – “HEAR ME NOW! Reflections One Year After Katrina-Rita” The
National Coalition on Black Civic Participation will kick-off a five
day listing tour of the Gulf South with a press conference at 10 a.m. on
Aug. 23 at Loew’s Hotel (300 Poydras Ave).
The tour, which will provide an outlet for Gulf Coast women to talk
about their experiences and outline their current needs will travel
through five cities in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.
The tour itinerary:
Aug. 24: Mobile, Ala.
Aug. 25: Gulfport, Miss.
Aug. 26: New Orleans, La.
Aug. 27: Lafayette, La.
Aug. 28: Jackson Miss.
Coordinating group: National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
Contact: Leslie Watson Malachi, 202.256.8531, 202.659.4929 or
leslie5560@aol.com

FRIDAY, AUGUST 25
8/25 & 8/26 – One Year Later: What Have We Learned
Loyola Center for Environmental Law and Land Use host this daylong
conference and tour.
Conference: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25 @ Loyola University School
of Law (526 Pine St.)
Tour: 9 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 26 @ Holy Name Church (6363 St. Charles
Ave.)
Coordinator: Loyola Center for Environmental Law and Land Use
Contact: 504.865-2011

8/25-8/29 – The African-American Leadership Project is planning a
series of commemorative events and collaborating with People’s Hurricane
Relief Fund as part of the United Front to Commemorate the Great Flood, a
coalition of more than 30 New Orleans-based grass-roots organizations.

8/25 – National Dialogue: What We learned from Katrina – panel
discussion, 7 – 9 p.m. @ Ashe' Cultural Arts Center

8/26 –Hands around the Dome – An Umoja Circle around the Superdome
followed by a march to the Convention Center in memory of the lives lost
during Hurricane, 12 – 3 p.m. @ the Superdome and Convention Center

8/27 – Ecumenical Interfaith Worship Service, 2 – 4:30 p.m. @ Watson
Teaching Ministries
White Buffalo Day and Katrina Observance, 4:30 p.m. @ Congo Square in
Louis Armstrong Park

8/28 – Katrina Lecture Series featuring Dr. Ivan Van Heerden, author of
“The Storm” and deputy director for the LSU Hurricane Research Center
with possible appearance by Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, author of “come Hell
or High Water,” 7 – 9:30 p.m. @ Ashe' Cultural Arts Center.

8/29 – Great Flood Commemoration March from Lower 9th Ward to Congo
Square in conjunction with the United Front to Commemorate the Great Flood
(a coalition led by People’s Hurricane Relief Fund), 10 a.m. assemble
at Jordan and N. Galvez streets
- Closing Event: Let the Circle Be Unbroken featuring the premier of
“Unmasking New Orleans” (a DVD from The Final Call) and town hall meeting
on the future of New Orleans 6:30 – 9:30 p.m. @ Ashe' Cultural Arts
Center
Coordinator: African-American Leadership Project (in collaboration with
United Front to Commemorate the Great Flood)
Contact: Mtangulizi Sanyinka, wazuri@aol.com

SATURDAY, AUGUST 26
8/26-ACORN's Tour of Hope will leave Saturday, August 26 at 2:00 p.m.
from 1024 Elysian Fields in New Orleans. The tour bus will stop at
locations in the neighborhoods where non-profits and others have made
contributions to save the community and return residents. For reservations on
the bus, contact ACORN 800-239-7379 x 127. To trail the bus in your own
vehicle, please contact 800-239-7379 x 127.

ACORN's Katrina Memorial Event will be held Saturday evening, August 26
at 6:00 p.m. Reservations required: Contact 800-239-7379 x 127 for more
info.
8/26 The New Orleans City Council is inviting the youth of New Orleans
to participate in “the Children’s Village of Healing – Nurturing What
Eyes Have Seen and Ears Have Heard” from 2 to 5 p.m. at Duncan Plaza,
across from City Hall. Children will express their feelings through arts
– painting, poetry, dance and creative writing. Artist Dixie Moore will
lead the children through a Katrina mural project. Author Laverne Dunn
will lead a creative writing workshop. Many community organizations
that serve children will be providing informational materials and
children’s activities. They include Children’s Hospital, Agenda for Children,
the Parenting Center, the Children’s Museum, Total Community Action,
Healthy Start, the Umoja Committee, the New Orleans Public Schools
Homeless Education Program, the Children’s Defense Fund, the state Department
of Social Services Office of Family Support, O. Perry Walker, the Ashe
Cultural Center and the Greater New Orleans Chapter of the Louisiana
Association for the Education of Young Children.
Coordinator: New Orleans City Council

8/26 A Candlelight Ceremony for Katrina Victims will begin at 8:30 p.m.
at Algiers Point. At this event sponsored by Councilman James Carter a
candle will be lit for each person who died as a result of the storm
and flood.
Coordinator: Councilman James Carter
Contact: New Orleans City Council at 504.658.1000

8/26 – Rising Tide Conference
Daylong conference with panel discussion about Hurricane Katrina, the
immediate aftermath of the storm and flood and the role of bloggers in
the struggle to rebuild to be held at the New Orleans Yacht Club (403 N.
Roadway St.)
8:00 - 9:00: Keynote Address: Christopher Cooper and Robert Bloch,
authors of Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland
Security.
9:15 - 10:15: Panel Discussion: Personal Viewpoints moderated by Mark
Moseley, including bloggers who stayed through the storm.
10:30 - 11:30: Think New Orleans by Alan Gutierrez.
1:00 - 2:00: Panel Discussion: New Orleans Politics moderated by Peter
Athas.
2:15 - 3:15: Panel Discussion: Influence of Journalists and Bloggers
moderated by Maitri Venkat-Ramani and Mark Folse, with NOLA.Com editor
Jon Donley.
3:30 - 4:30: Panel Discussion: Bloggers & Neighborhood Associations
moderated by Morwen Madrigal and Peter Athas with blogger/neighborhood
activists representing the Gentilly, Mid-City, Northwest Carrollton and B
neighborhoods.
Contact: Mark Folse 504.872.0091 or 701.200.6424 (cell phone for day of
event)

SUNDAY, AUGUST 27
8/27 – Members of the Lower 9th Ward Neighborhood Council will hold a
Memorial Tribute to the Victims of Hurricane Katrina at 1 p.m. at the
corner of Claiborne Avenue and Tennessee Street.
8/27 – Katrina Memorial Concert
A free Katrina Memorial Concert commemorating the one-year anniversary
of the catastrophe and featuring several of the area's most
distinguished musicians, including sopranos Phyllis Treigle, Thais St Julien,
Cyril Hellier, Libbye Hellier and Melissa Brocato; flautist Louis Hackett;
and organists James Hammann, Marcus St Julien and Brian Morgan. The New
Orleans Musica da Camera will also perform. Composers heard will
include Stephen Adams, Jacques Berthier, Joseph Gelineau SJ, George Frideric
Handel, Nicola A Montani, Gerald Near and Ethelbert Nevin.
The concert begins at 3 p.m. at the Church of Our Lady of Good Council
(1235 Louisiana Ave.)
Contact: Brian Morgan, (504)710.0891 or brianjaemorgan@aim.com
OLGC rectory at (504)891-1906 or olgc@archdiocese-no.org.
8/27 – New Orleans is the Soul of her People
Poet Brenda Marie Osbey and others from the William Faulkner Society
will present works. Event also features a concert by Davell Crawford and
other gospel singers. Concert begins at 4:30 p.m. at St. Louis
Cathedral followed by reception and book signing in the Cabildo.
8/27 – Baton Rouge Community Worship: A community gathering of
"Remembrance, Thanksgiving, and Hope" on the anniversary week of Hurricane
Katrina will be held on August 27, 2006 at 4:00 pm at First United
Methodist Church, 930 North Blvd, in downtown Baton Rouge. This worship service
of light will help remember those who have suffered loss in the tragedy
of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, express our unity in prayer and spirit
with all those in need, and to lift up the hope of God who brings light
out of darkness and hope out of despair. We remember those who lost
loved ones, those forced to evacuate, those who are homeless, those
serving in rescue and relief, those in the medical profession, those in
leadership, and others. We gather to give thanks to God for guiding and
sustaining us through difficult days and nights.
Baton Rouge Training Event: "Best Practices Used in Disasters" is a
community training event which precedes the Aug. 27 worship. The training
begins at 2 p.m. in the same location as the 4 p.m. worship (First
United Methodist Church). Teams are invited to come to learn the best
practices for shelters, food distribution, donations, volunteers, and
handling a crisis. Register by August 23 at 225-343-8270 or online:
www.volunteerbatonrouge.org
Coordinator: Greater Baton Rouge Federation of Churches and Synagogues

MONDAY, AUGUST 28
8/28 Town Hall Meeting sponsored by the NAACP Gulf Coast Advocacy
Center
Panel discussion about the city's redevelopment and lack of progress
moderated by Michael Eric Dyson. Participants include NAACP President/CEO
Bruce Gordon, America’s Second Harvest President/CEO Vicki B. Escarra,
New Orleans Council President Oliver Thomas, State Sen. Diana Bajoie,
Xavier University President Dr. Norman Francis, Loyola University
Professor Bill Quigley, and other invited elected officials and policy
makers.
6 to 8:30 p.m. @ Xavier University Student Center (1 Drexel Dr.)

8/28 – KaBOOM!’s Week of Play
KaBOOM!’s and its partners, The Home Depot, Playworld Systems and Hands
On Network, will build ten playgrounds in the Gulf Coast during the
last week of August. On August 28, a playground will be built at Nelson
UNO Charter School.
Coordinator: KaBOOM!
Contact: info@kaboom.org.

8/28 – “Reality Check” Tour
Survivor’s Village, a tent city protest for the reopening of public
housing in New Orleans, is putting together a media exclusive tour of the
state of public housing and public housing residents in New Orleans.
The tour is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Coordinator: Survivors Village
Contact: survivorsvillage@gmail.com for more information or to RSVP.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 29 -- ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF KATRINA LANDFALL
8/29 – Come Back Home Campaign
Around 5,000 survivors who are still displaced and scattered all across
the U.S. will be traveling to New Orleans to make their demands to
return home heard by the city council of New Orleans. The People’s
Organizing Committee is working with survivor’s councils around the country to
build toward this coordinated effort. This event is the last part of
the Come Back Home Campaign.
Coordinator: People’s Organizing Committee
Contact: Ishmael Muhammad, ishmaelmuhammad@yahoo.com

8/29 – Trinity Episcopal Church (1329 Jackson Ave) will host a musical
vigil to mark the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. From 12 noon to 12
midnight, the church will be open to all who seek a space to pray,
meditate, grieve, hope, walk the labyrinth, listen to music, and find
strength for the future. The vigil will begin with Noonday prayer, and will
also include musical prayer services at 5 pm (Evensong) and 9 pm
(Compline), with music and readings in between. The vigil will conclude at
12:01 am on Wednesday August 30. We also invite the public to write,
draw, or paste their memories, losses, burdens and fears in a Book of
Remembrance. Please come as you are and stay as long as you like.
Coordinator: Trinity Episcopal Church
Contact: Albinas Prizgintas – aprizgintas@trinityno.com, 670-2520; Nell
Bolton – nbolton@trinityno.com, 670-2543

8/29- New Orleans Jazz Funeral Requiem - In Honor of the Victims of
Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and the flooding of New Orleans caused by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
* As an invitation to New Orleans: Cultural Artist & Activists, Social
Service Organizations, Neighborhood Organizations, and Citizens.
Where: New Orleans Superdome, Poydras St.
Time: 11:30am, Procession to Congo Square
PHONE FOR PARTICIPATION: THE NEW ORLEANS STREET ARTS COUNCIL
phone: 504-312-9546 or email: nola_saw_hammer_nails@yahoo.com

8/29 – United Front to Commemorate the Great Flood memorial march
People’s Hurricane Relief Fund is working to coordinate a memorial
event around the anniversary of H. Katrina’s landfall and the ensuing
Flood. PHRF is working with more than 30 grassroots organizations to plan
and execute the memorial. Current plans center on a memorial march from
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Aug. 29 beginning at the levee breach in the Lower
Ninth Ward and ending at Congo Square.
March Schedule:
- 10 a.m. gather @ Jourdan and N. Galvez, the site of the 9th Ward
Levee Break. Olayeela Daste will preside over a memorial ceremony that
includes the Franklin Avenue Baptist Choir and Zion Trinity, along with a
number of spiritual leaders and Patricia Jones of the Lower 9th Ward
Neighborhood Association. Commemoration planners are requesting that
people bring candles and white flowers.
- 11 a.m. march across the Claiborne Street Bridge, take a left onto
Poland and a right onto St Claude. The Hot 8 Brass Band will join the
procession as it crosses Franklin to provide a Second Line beat for the
remainder of the march. From St Claude, the march will proceed to Rampart
Street and end at Congo Square.
- 1 p.m. commemoration activities continue at Congo Square with
reflections from family members whose loved ones have passed and from
community leaders including Jerome Smith (aka Big Duck) and Malcolm Suber, as
well as the next generation of community spokespeople, including hip hop
artists: Skip UTP, Mia X, Ms. Tee, Sess 4-5 and Mr Meana. These artists
will speak about their experience during and after the Great Flood.
Music appropriate to the commemoration will include gospel, Mardi Gras
Indians, African drums, Suga and others. Sunni Patterson and Wild Wayne
will emcee. A healing tent and memorial wall will also provide support
for people at Congo Square.
Free bus transportation has been arranged for people from Houston,
Jackson, Baton Rouge and Atlanta who want to attend the Commemoration. For
information about Atlanta buses, call Addis at 770-256-1882; for
Houston buses call Gina at 713 433-4194; for Jackson buses call Chokwe at
601-353-4455 and for Baton Rouge buses call Demetrius at 504-931-2065.
Visit www.peopleshurricane.org for more information
Contacts: Malcolm Suber - 504.931.7614, msuber4366@yahoo.com
Arlene (to arrange interviews)- (504)301-0215 (PHRF office) or (415)
305-7835

8/29- Desire Street Ministries and Desire St. Academy
On the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Aug. 29 at 10 a.m.
CT, students, faculty, family and friends will all gather in the New
Orleans' Upper Ninth Ward at the former ministry and school headquarters of
Desire Street Ministries and Desire St. Academy, at 3600 Desire Street,
for a time of prayer, remembrance, and thanksgiving lead by executive
director and former New Orleans Saints quarterback Danny Wuerffel.
Desire Street Ministries was established in the Upper Ninth Ward in
1990 when Mo Leverett, a pastor, musician and missionary, moved into the
Desire Street neighborhood to reach out to children who were trapped in
poverty and crime. Fifteen years later, the ministry was supporting a
church, an academy for urban young men, a pediatric clinic, and various
programs designed to help revitalize the Desire neighborhood, most of
which was lost on Aug. 29, 2005, during Hurricane Katrina, as is
completely devastated the Ninth Ward and dislocated the entire Desire St.
neighborhood.
In the aftermath of the storm, Leverett and Wuerffel worked tirelessly
to locate the students currently enrolled in the academy who had been
scattered throughout the United States, and find a suitable location to
restart the school, and to care for staff, family, and friends. Shortly
after, Desire Street Academy relocated to Camp Timpoochee, a 4-H camp
located in Niceville, Fla., operated by the University of Florida,
Wuerffel's alma mater.
CONTACT: Marcia Peterson, (866) 633-0070, mpeterson@desirestreet.org

8/29 – 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. -- To commemorate the anniversary of Hurricane
Katrina, The Historic New Orleans Collection will host an all-day event
on Tuesday, August 29, 2006, featuring presentations by the
Times-Picayune reporting staff, winners of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Hurricane
Katrina coverage, and a lecture and book signing by Richard Campanella
(Geographies of New Orleans: Urban Fabrics Before the Storm, August
2006). The anniversary event, free and open to the public, will be followed
by a reception and exhibition viewing.
8/27-8/29 – The City of New Orleans has planned Hurricane Katrina
memorial activities themed Remembrance, Renewal, and Rebirth on Sunday
August 27, 2006 and Tuesday, August 29, 2006. All City events are free and
open to the public.
Schedule of Activities:

Sunday, August 27, 2006

3 p.m. - 5 p.m.: Gospel Concert in the 2nd Floor Auditorium, Hall H,
Ernest N. Morial Convention Center (900 Convention Center Blvd.). The
concert will reflect on the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, honor
survivors and memorialize the lives that were lost through songs of praise
and worship. The concert will feature a performance by the One New
Orleans Mass Choir and other gospel artists.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

8:30 a.m.: Prayer Breakfast at Asia Baptist Church (1400 Sere Street).
Mayor Ray Nagin will be the special guest of Dr. William J. Shaw,
President of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. and Dr. R. B.
Holmes, Jr., President of the National Baptist Congress of Christian
Education at a prayer breakfast to pray for the rebuilding of New Orleans.
9:38 a.m.: Ceremonial Bell Ringing and Wreath Laying
Mayor Nagin and Mrs. Nagin will be joined by community leaders, elected
officials, dignitaries, city employees, and the public at 9:38 a.m. on
the front steps of City Hall (1300 Perdido St.) to ring ceremonial
bells signifying the series of levee breaches that occurred throughout the
city. Bells will ring for two minutes. (9:38 a.m. – 9:40 a.m.)
Simultaneously, members of the New Orleans City Council will lay wreaths on
levees throughout the city.
10:30 a.m.: Mississippi River Heritage Park Dedication Ceremony
Mayor Nagin will join City Council President Oliver Thomas and members
of the New Orleans City Council, to dedicate a monument titled, “A
Place of Remembrance,” at the Mississippi River Heritage Park (1100 block
of Convention Center Blvd) in remembrance of the victims of Hurricane
Katrina.
Noon: Citywide Interfaith Service
National, state, and local leaders will reflect and offer inspirational
words of encouragement at the Citywide Interfaith Service at the Ernest
N. Morial Convention Center (900 Convention Center Blvd.). Clergy from
various religious backgrounds will offer scriptural readings and
prayer. Bishop G.E. Patterson, Presiding Bishop of the Church of God In
Christ Inc. and Pastor of Temple of Deliverance Church of God In Christ in
Memphis, Tennessee, will deliver the Keynote Address.
2:00 p.m.: One New Orleans Procession in the tradition of a Jazz
Funeral from
the Convention Center to Superdome
The Traditional New Orleans Jazz Funeral Procession will be a 1.5 mile
march, led by Lieutenant General Russel L. Honoré, from the Ernest N.
Morial Convention Center to the Louisiana Superdome. The procession will
include first responders, national, state and local elected officials,
dignitaries, jazz musicians and the community at large. The traditional
jazz funeral procession will honor first responders and the victims of
Hurricane Katrina.
A traditional New Orleans Jazz Funeral is a musical tribute honoring
the passing of noted members of the community. This cultural ceremony is
distinguished by an assemblage of musicians, usually featuring several
brass band elements who stage a procession. The procession begins with
the playing of the dirge, a slow, mournful, solemn tempo that expresses
a somber respect for the deceased. At a certain point, the procession
picks up the tempo and energy in celebration of the positive
accomplishments of the individual and an acknowledgement of his or her zest for
life.

Contact: For more information about memorial activities, please e-mail
katrinaanniversary@cityofno.com.
8/29 – St. Bernard Parish daylong remembrance beings at 10 a.m. with
the dedication of an illuminated, stainless steel crucifix and stone
monument bearing the names of the 129 St. Bernard Parish residents who died
in Hurricane Katrina. The monument will be located at the site of the
Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet
Coordinator: St. Bernard Parish Council
Contact: Tony “Ricky” Melerine, parish councilman and committee
co-chair and Charlie Reppel, chief of staff for Parish President Junior
Rodriguez

8/29 –Back to the 9th on the 29th
Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans plans a “Back to the 9th
on the 29th” lunch (12 noon) at the Shirley Landry Benson PACE Center
at St. Cecilia (4201 N. Rampart St.) to recognize Catholic Charities’
dedication to models of excellence in healthcare, education, housing and
economic development in the neighborhoods of New Orleans.
Coordinator: Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans
Contact: Sarah Comiskey, associate director of communication -
504-596-3023, scomiskey@archdiocese-no.org
www.ccano.org

8/29 –Interfaith Prayer Service
The Archdiocese of New Orleans will hold a prayer service from 7 to 8
p.m. on August 29 at St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square hosted by
Archbishop Hughes. Members of 12 faiths, including Catholic, Jewish,
Muslim and Hindu will participate in this service. The Louisiana
Philharmonic Orchestra will play in Jackson Square from 8:00-8:55, and at 8:55,
the Katrina bell (twin to the 9/11 bell in New York City) will be rung to
commemorate the lives lost in Katrina.

SEPTEMBER
Early September – Student Hurricane Network will coordinate a lobbying
effort in Wash, D.C.
Coordinator: Student Hurricane Network
Contact: Lauren Bartlett, lauren_bartlett@yahoo.com or Michael
Goldstone, mgoldstone@gmail.com

9/1 (early Sept.) – Planned opening of Women’s Health Clinic
With Charity Hospital shuttered, adequate and accessible health care
for New Orleans' uninsured returning residents is in poor shape. The
women of Incite! Women of Color, a collective of feminist activists
dedicated to ending violence against women of color, has partnered with other
local organizations to attempt to open a free health clinic for women
and children in the historic Treme district.
Coordinator: New Orleans Women’s Health and Justice Initiative
Contact: Shana Griffin, ambkeysha@yahoo.com
9/12 – Community Forum on Katrina Arrests
Critical Resistance New Orleans will host a forum to discuss the plight
of hundreds of New Orleanians who were arrested in the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina for committing “crimes” while trying to care for their
basic needs and the survival of their families. Many of these citizens
spent nearly a year in prison and some still remain behind bars awaiting
charges on issues such as public intoxication or trespassing. Critical
Resistance will host community forum at 7 p.m. on Tues., Sept. 12 at
Ashe’ Cultural Arts Center.
Coordinator: Cricitical Resistance New Orleans
Contact: 504.304.3784 or visit www.criticalresistance.org/katrina

Newslings

2006-08-02T08:51:00.000-07:00

Shootings tarnishing New Orleans' image

Newsies

2006-07-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

Many see accused New Orleans MD as hero

We Here Our Train Comin'!

2006-07-29T20:04:00.000-07:00

It was New Orleans hot. Blazing. Sticky.

But it was on the west side of Cleveland on July 16 where five hundred people were gathered under a tent in sprawling Lincoln Park. From the middle of the crowd, Carvell Holloway, head of music for Compton's middle schools, began to walk toward the stage playing his trumpet. The tune was only vaguely familiar. He came at the melody with angles and curves. It was unspeakably beautiful. At the mic, Ernie Perez, front man for the Boxing Gandhis, began to sing.

Oh when the trumpet sounds the call
Oh when the trumpet sounds the call
Oh Lord I want to be in that number
When the Saints go marching in

The words were familiar, but still not the tune. Perez deliberately sang it out of time, with no resolution, to put all the focus on the lyrics. The words, he explained, were the "unknown" verses written by Louis Armstrong and brought to light by Bruce Springsteen at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in April.

When the rich go out and work
When the rich go out and work
Oh Lord I want to be in that number
When the Saints go marching in

When the air is pure and clean
When the air is pure and clean
Oh Lord I want to be in that number
When the Saints go marching in

When we all have food to eat
When we all have food to eat
Oh Lord I want to be in that number
When the Saints go marching in

When our leaders learn to cry
When our leaders learn to cry
Oh Lord I want to be in that number
When the Saints go marching in

All the pent-up pain and energy under the tent flowed toward the mic and Ernie had to take a step back while Carvell continued to prod things along on trumpet. Once Ernie regained his composure, he asked the crowd to clap and sing along. Now the tune became the familiar one and the response was immediate. Ernie dug deep into his gospel roots and his Apache past, tearing the song apart and putting it back together as five hundred people helped to push it to an end. The tent erupted in wild applause. If you listened closely, you could even hear the echoes of handclaps by the Gulf Coast artists who had wanted to be there but couldn't make it because they had gigs they had to play in the South--The Soul Rebels Brass Band; trombonist Craig Klein of Bonerama and also of the Arabi Wrecking Krewe, which helps local musicians rehab their flooded homes; and Mississippi rapper David Banner, whose Heal the Hood organization has delivered aid to thousands of Katrina victims.

This was the conclusion to the "Artists and Katrina" panel at the National Truth Commission, which brought together victims of poverty from across the country to give testimony on what is really happening to millions of Americans in the richest nation on earth. The "Artists and Katrina" panel began with Tenel Curtis and Kennieth Williams describing their film Reality TV: Live From New Orleans, the first time the post-Katrina situation has been summed up by those who actually lived through it. Their film is so raw and real that they haven't been able to show it in New Orleans. The next speaker was Antoinette K-Doe, widow of New Orleans musical pillar Ernie K-Doe and owner of the legendary Mother-In-Law Lounge in New Orleans, which was destroyed by Katrina. It has been rebuilt with considerable help from the R&B star Usher and will soon re-open. "You will have a place to show your film in New Orleans," she said. "You can show it at the Mother-In-Law Lounge."

The National Truth Commission brought together Kansas farmers, Ohio leaders of the blind and deaf, Philadelphia homeless, Detroit women fighting that city's water shutoff of 40,000 families, and mothers who've had their children taken away simply because they're poor. It brought together people from housing projects and rural byways. All races and ages. Lots of languages were in the air--English, Spanish, Chinese, French, and American Sign Language. Besides the poor, there were those being pushed toward poverty in the near future--hardhat workers savaged by health care costs and formerly middle class professionals who've lost their jobs. The testimony of several dozen people was heard by a group of Truth Commissioners from around the world, including the U.S., India, Italy, Ecuador, Colombia, and Argentina (the U.S. government would not allow South Africa's Winnie Mandela into the country to join us in Cleveland). The commissioners will quickly fashion the testimony, along with their recommendations for solutions, into a document for worldwide distribution.

The energy in the tent spun people out across the park where they gathered in groups big and small. New friends and new alliances were made. The leader of a three month occupation of the office of the Tennessee governor's office traded ideas with the head of the Labor Heritage Foundation. There was a meeting of hip-hop activists, ministers, and union leaders spearheading a drive for universal health care. There was a hook-up between artists from Chicago housing projects and New Orleans housing projects with plans for a delegation to visit New Orleans soon. After an evening showing of Reality TV: Live From New Orleans, Truth Commissioner Alexis Ponce of Ecuador jumped to his feet and cried out: "If you give me a copy of that DVD, I will make sure it gets seen throughout Latin America!"

One of the most remarkable things about the National Truth Commission was its heavy emphasis on culture. As Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign director Cheri Honkala put it: "Art and culture are the most important part of our struggle. They carry us past our pain, they unite us, they spread information, and they inspire us with visions of a world without poverty." To that end, there was a constant parade of performances in between the testimonies on July 15. And July 16 was designated Arts and Culture Day. There was spoken word from Mike the Poet, Sarah Cruse, Tamika of Yale Divinity School, award-winning New York playwright Tim Dowlin, Hip-Hop Congress president Shamako Noble, Pawnee/Seminole rapper Quese IMC of Oklahoma, and dozens of others. There were the gospel stylings of Togo and Donnie, there was the World Peace Drum Ensemble, and there was Joe Uehlein, union leader and professional musician. A group of Los Angeles artists assembled on stage while photographer/poet Charles "Bomani" Watson read the following statement, signed by 47 L.A. artists:

"Most people have an image that artists in Los Angeles all live like rock stars. They party it up in their mansions and travel around town in limos. It's one glittering opening, party, or shopping spree after another.

"Those of us who actually are creating in Los Angeles and trying to survive know a very different reality. We have trouble getting health care or paying for health insurance. It's a constant struggle to pay the rent, buy food, and keep a car running. We have to spend time we should use for creative pursuits hustling gigs or grants or, even worse, working one or more dead end day jobs.

"As artists, we are the conscience of the world. Through our creations we spread joy and make people think. We should not be struggling to make ends meet in the richest nation on earth."

There was an art and photography show nestled among the trees next to the tent. There was live graffiti painting. There was a mini film festival and an open mic that went on late into the night. World-renowned hip-hop journalist Davey D was there to speak, to make connections, and to do a number of interviews for international distribution. To top things off, there was a Shakespeare festival going on in the park in the evenings.

The bottom line of the National Truth Commission is this: The combination of the poor, their allies, those being pushed toward poverty, and culture isn't just a winning combination, it's the winning combination. If we embrace it on a vast scale, everything is possible.

Rock A Mole Productions (www.rockamole.com)

NOLA Stands Against Israeli War Crimes

2006-07-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

New Orleans Organizations Stand Together Against Israeli War Crimes
by Jordan Flaherty

July 21, in downtown New Orleans more than a hundred demonstrators protested US diplomatic and financial support for the Israeli seige of Lebanon and Gaza. The demonstration linked local issues with the current horrors in the Middle East. "Gaza, New Orleans and Lebanon, People die while Bush looks on," was one of the chants.Representatives of the community appeared on almost every local TV station and also local radio, as well as in the Times-Picayune newspaper (see below for links). The demonstration clearly got the attention of local authorities. Volunteers from the ACLU of Louisiana and National Lawyers Guild reported that they had never seen so many law enforcement agents at a demonstration.During the demonstration - outside the Hale Boggs federal building in downtown New Orleans, where local congressmen and Senators have their offices - members of the community took a letter to the representative's offices.

The letter read, in part, "just as we, the people of New Orleans, deserve equality, human rights and fairness under the law, so to do the civilians of Lebanon and Gaza. As our elected representative, we ask that you commit to hold Israel to account for its killing of civilians and destruction of civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip."The protest was organized by a wide coalition of Arab and Muslim groups, standing together with local grassroots social justice organizations. Muslim and Arab organizations that sponsored the event included the New Orleans Shura Council, New Orleans Muslim American Society, Palestine American Congress of New Orleans, Tulane Muslim Student Association, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of New Orleans.

Amr Ahmed of the Muslim American Society led the rally in chants and spoke to the assembled crowd, defending Islam against media bias and calling the crowd to action. Local antiwar groups, including Pax Christi New Orleans and New Orleans Palestine Solidarity were also sponsors. Representing Pax Christi, human rights lawyer Bill Quigley spoke out against US complicity in Israeli war crimes. Jews, Christians and Muslims stood together at the rally. Dana Kaplan, a local organizer on criminal justice issues who has been to Palestine, told the assembled crowd, "As a woman of Jewish descent, its especially important to stand here and say, no, not in New Orleans, and not in the middle east...No to racism and militarization."Grassroots organizations that co-sponsored the event included New Orleans INCITE: Women of Color Against Violence, The New Orleans Women's Health & Justice Initiative, Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, and C3/Hands Off Iberville. INCITE representatives shared their organization's statement in solidarity with the palestinian struggle. Lauren Bartlett of Advocates for Environmental Human Rights linked US racism in its domestic policy - particularly in New Orleans post-Katrina - and US policy in the Middle East.

This was perhaps the largest demonstration the Muslim community of New Orleans has had, and the first time such a wide coalition has come together to protest US suppoort for Israeli aggression. Many in the assembled cord said that this was just the beginning. From the stage, Amr Ahmed of the Muslim American Society told the crowd, "A lot of people have seen the news and felt despair. I didn't feel that. I felt that I had to act."

New Orleans and Lebanon

2006-07-29T19:24:00.000-07:00

July 21st, in downtown New Orleans more than a hundred
demonstrators from a wide range of organizations protested US diplomatic and
financial support for the Israeli seige of Lebanon and Gaza. The
demonstration linked local issues with the current horrors in the Middle
East. "Gaza, New Orleans and Lebanon, People die while Bush looks on,"
was one of the chants.
Link to some of the radio coverage of the demonstration:
http://roselund.com/2006/07/22/war-in-the-dog-days-of-summer/

Hear Left Turn Magazine founding editor Bilal El-Amine reporting from
Southern Lebanon at:
http://www.flashpoints.net/

More news from Lebanon and Palestine at:
http://www.leftturn.org/Articles/SpecialCollections/GazaLebanon.aspx
http://ElectronicLebanon.net
http://ElectronicIntifada.net
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/

See more information about New Orleans Palestine Solidarity, including
a new short film by Roxane Assaf about the Arab community in New
Orleans at http://www.nolaps.org

Check out the newest Palestinian hiphop from New Orleans at
http://www.myspace.com/intafadarecords

Toxic Trailers

2006-07-29T19:06:00.000-07:00

Are FEMA trailers ‘toxic tin cans’?

Private testing finds high levels of formaldehyde; residents report illnesses

3 arrested in New Orleans hospital deaths

Feds confirm fears of New Orleans flooding

Saudi help to NOLA and other news

2006-07-15T17:41:00.000-07:00

Weddings at fever pitch in New Orleans

Religious leaders quit Katrina Fund panel

It's hard to stay here, but harder to leave

Mr. T sheds gold after Katrina destruction

ROYAL WELCOME

The Saudi ambassador tours N.O. and discovers signs of optimism
Thursday, July 13, 2006

By Gwen Filosa

Prince Turki Al-Faisal, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, toured the devastated neighborhoods of New Orleans on Wednesday, representing the oil-rich kingdom that has given more than $250 million to Hurricane Katrina efforts.

Even in plain sight of 2,000 dying trees in City Park, FEMA trailer parks lining St. Claude Avenue and the vastly abandoned Lower 9th Ward, the prince said he found optimism and hope for recovery.

"It must have driven people to the end of their wits," Turki said after taking in the ruins of the Lower 9th Ward. "But to see how much people want to come back, that gives you all the hope you can aspire to as to the nature of human beings. The things I have seen are so admirable."

The Saudi people, who began donating in December by giving $2.88 million for clothing, household goods and furniture to the St. Vincent de Paul Council, continue to keep the New Orleans region on their charitable list, the prince said.

"I bring you the friendship of the Saudi people," he said. "The kingdom is here, making contributions in kind. It is an Arab custom to take those in need and give them shelter without asking questions of anything in return. From jazz to jambalaya, New Orleans has made important contributions to the global community, and now the global community is making contributions to New Orleans."

The Saudi kingdom has for the past 10 months contributed to relief efforts such as Habitat for Humanity, Second Harvest Food Bank, Louisiana State University Health Science Center and the American Red Cross.

Turki spoke earnestly of helping a poor, battered city recover and restore its place in the world.
"We especially want to see Charity Hospital restored," he said of the once integral health center washed away by the floodwaters of Aug. 29.

The prince spoke at a luncheon at the Plimsoll Club, 30 stories above the French Quarter, before taking an extensive tour that included City Park, Bayou St. John, the Lower 9th Ward and stretches of neighborhoods in between.

In an elegant speech at the white tablecloth luncheon, Prince Turki included quotations from Robert Kennedy and Herman Melville. He also tapped Bob Dylan, saying that in New Orleans, "the past does not pass away so quickly here."

The Quran teaches that it is good to be charitable in public, but that it is preferred to do good works in secret, he said.

"We are all human; we need warmth and shelter, food and clothing," Turki said.

"Little else matters without that which allows simply to live. . . . You can't simply erase the spirit of a community," Prince Turki told the group of business and political leaders. "You have picked yourselves up to rebuild your families and your lives. "

Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, state Sen. Derrick Shepherd, The Rev. Luke Vien of Mary Queen of Vietnam Church, attorney and former mayoral candidate Virginia Boulet and Charles Baquet, a former ambassador to Djibouti now at Xavier University, were among the local dignitaries receiving the Saudi ambassador.

One glaring omission from the guest list, however, was Mayor Ray Nagin. Spokesman Terry Davis said, "The prince's schedule team made previous arrangements" to meet the mayor, but he wouldn't say why Nagin did not attend the luncheon.

City Council members Shelley Midura, Cynthia Willard-Lewis and Cynthia Hedge Morrell each spoke to welcome the prince on behalf of the city, Midura beginning her remarks with a greeting in Arabic. Willard-Lewis later rode beside the prince in one of the minivans that carried a group of local leaders through the battered remnants of the Lower 9th Ward.

In a wheat-colored hat and sunglasses, the prince absorbed the sights of devastation with the respectful awe that other leaders have shown. It was his first visit to New Orleans.

The prince stopped to greet a woman and her two grandchildren, who left their temporary trailer to catch a glimpse of visiting royalty in the 1400 block of Caffin Avenue.

Turki, the youngest son of King Faisal, who attended a New Jersey preparatory school and Georgetown University, knelt to say hello to 4-year-old Kiante and her grandmother, Stephanie Andrews.

Later, after learning what the spray-painted rescue messages on vacant, gaping houses meant, and that the floodwaters rose to 18 feet in the Lower 9th Ward, the prince marveled at meeting Andrews and her family. Amid collapsed homes and debris piles, the woman greeted him with warmth.

"She was smiling," Turki said.

A Drought in the Swamp Lands?!

2006-07-12T18:51:00.000-07:00

Of all the things I thought Louisiana would suffer from...

Drought makes La. feel more like Texas

Ynet: "Look who's been kidnapped"

2006-07-10T17:36:00.000-07:00

Ynet: "Look who's been kidnapped"
July 5th, 2006

http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/07/05/ynet-kidnapped/

Hundreds of Palestinian 'suspects' have been kidnapped from theirhomes and will never stand trialby Israeli reservist Arik Diamant, Yedioth AhronothIt's the wee hours of the morning, still dark outside. A guerillaforce comes out of nowhere to kidnap a soldier. After hours of carefulmovement, the force reaches its target, and the ambush is on! Inseconds, the soldier finds himself looking down the barrel of a rifle.A smash in the face with the butt of the gun and the soldier falls tothe ground, bleeding. The kidnappers pick him up, quickly tie his handsand blindfold him, and disappear into the night.

This might be the end of the kidnapping, but the nightmare has justbegun. The soldier's mother collapses, his father prays. Hiscommanding officers promise to do everything they can to get him back, his comrades swear revenge. An entire nation is up-in-arms, writing inpain and worry. Nobody knows how the soldier is: Is he hurt? Do his captors give himeven a minimum of human decency, or are they torturing him to death bytrampling his honor? The worst sort of suffering is not knowing. Will he come home? And if so, when? And in what condition? Can anyone remainapathetic in the light of such drama?

Israeli terror

This description, you'll be surprised to know, has nothing to do withthe kidnapping of Gilad Shalit. It is the story of an arrest I carriedout as an IDF soldier, in the Nablus casbah, about 10 years ago. The"soldier" was a 17-year-old boy, and we kidnapped him because heknew "someone" who had done "something."

We brought him tied up, with a burlap sac over his head, to a Shin Betinterrogation center known as "Scream Hill" (at the time we thoughtit was funny). There, the prisoner was beaten, violently shaken andsleep deprived for weeks or months. Who knows.No one wrote about it in the paper. European diplomats were not calledto help him. After all, there was nothing out of the ordinary about thekidnapping of this Palestinian kid. Over the 40 years of occupation wehave kidnapped thousands of people, exactly like Gilad Shalit was captured: Threatened by a gun, beaten mercilessly, with no judge or jury, or witnesses, and without providing the family with any information about the captive.When the Palestinians do this, we call it "terror." When we do it,we work overtime to whitewash the atrocity.

Suspects?

Some people will say: The IDF doesn't "just" kidnap. These peopleare "suspects." There is no more perverse lie than this. In all theyears I served, I reached one simple conclusion: What makes a"suspect"? Who, exactly suspects him, and of what?Who has the right to sentence a 17-year-old to kidnapping, torture andpossible death? A 26-year-old Shin Bet interrogator? A 46-year-old one?Do these people have any higher education, apart from the ability tointerrogate? What are his considerations?

I all these "suspects"are so guilty, why not bring them to trial?Anyone who believes that despite the lack of transparency, the IDF andShin Bet to their best to minimize violations of human rights isnaïve, if not brainwashed. One need only read the testimonies ofsoldiers who have carried out administrative detentions to be convincedof the depth of the immorality of our actions in the territories.To this very day, there are hundreds of prisoners rotting in Shin Betprisons and dungeons, people who have never been -and never will be- tried. And Israelis are silently resolved to this phenomenon.

Israeli responsibilityThe day Gilad Shalit was kidnapped I rode in a taxi. The driver told mewe must go into Gaza, start shooting people one-by-one, until someonebreaks and returns the hostage. It isn't clear that such an operationwould bring Gilad back alive.Instead of getting dragged into terrorist responses... we shouldrelease some of the soldiers and civilians we have kidnapped. This isappropriate, right, and could bring about an air of reconciliation inthe territories. Hell, if this is what will bring Gilad home safe-and-sound, we have aresponsibility to him to do it.

Arik Diamant is an IDF reservist and the head of the Courage to Refuseorganization

From Gaza by Mona al-Farra

2006-07-10T17:34:00.000-07:00

THE IRONY IS almost beyond belief. Since the capture of an Israeli soldier on June 25, the Gaza Strip has been subjected to a large-scale military operation, what Israel calls ``Summer Rain." Because Israel bombed the power plant, and the area needs electricity to pump water, most of Gaza now has almost no access to drinking water. In the heat of summer, rain would be a blessing far more welcome than the ongoing bombings.I am already starting to lose track of days and nights, of how many bombs have dropped. Since the main power plant was destroyed, we have had to live with no electricity.

What we do get is patchy, and barely enough to recharge our mobile phones and our laptops so that we do not lose all touch with each other and with the outside world.As a physician, I fear for our patients. Twenty-two hospitals have no electricity. They have to rely on generators, but the generators need fuel. We have enough fuel to last a few days at most, because the borders are sealed so no fuel can get in. The shortage of power threatens the lives of patients on life-support machines and children in intensive care, as well as renal dialysis patients and others. Hundreds of operations have been postponed. The pharmacies were already nearly empty because of Israeli border closures and the cutoff of international aid. What little supplies were left have gone bad in the absence of refrigeration.

Food too is spoiling without refrigeration, and food supplies are low. West Bank farmers threw away truckloads of spoiled fruit after sitting for days and then being denied Israeli permission to enter Gaza. Children grow hungry as we watch the food that could nourish them thrown into the garbage instead. More than 30,000 children suffer from malnutrition, and this number will increase as diarrhea spreads because of the limited supply of clean water and food contamination.As a mother, I fear for the children. I see the effects of the relentless sonic booms and artillery shelling on my 13-year-old daughter.

She is restless, panicked, and afraid to go out, yet frustrated because she can't see her friends. When Israeli fighter planes fly by day and night, the sound is terrifying. My daughter usually jumps into bed with me, shivering with fear. Then both of us end up crouching on the floor. My heart races, yet I try to pacify my daughter, to make her feel safe. But when the bombs sound, I flinch and scream. My daughter feels my fear and knows that we need to pacify each other. I am a doctor, a mature, middle-aged woman. But with the sonic booming, I become hysterical.This aggression will leave psychological scars on the children for years to come. Instilling fear, anger and loss in them will not bring peace and security to Israelis.Ostensibly, this bombing campaign started because of the soldier's capture.

To the outside world it might seem like an easy decision for Palestinians: Let the soldier go, and the siege will end. Yet for Gazans, even in the face of this brutal violence, another decision comes, not with ease, but with resolve. He is one soldier who was captured in a military operation. Today, several hundred Palestinian children and women are locked in Israeli prisons. They deserve their freedom no less than he does. Their families mourn their absence no less than his family does. So while Gazans endure Israel's rainstorm, most want the soldier held -- not harmed -- until the women and children are released.

Most Gazans also believe that Israel's latest assault was pre-planned, that the soldier's capture is merely a trigger. Israel dropped thousands of shells on Gaza, killing women, children and old people, long before his capture. This time, Israel attacked Gaza within hours of a national consensus accord signed by Fatah and Hamas, which could have led to negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis. That would have pushed Israel to give up control of Palestinian land and resources.

Gazans believe that the goal of Israel's military campaign is the destruction of both our elected government and our infrastructure, and with it our will to secure our national rights.Though we do not now live with ease, we live with resolve. Until the world pressures Israel to recognize our rights in our land, and to pursue a peace that brings freedom and security to Israelis and Palestinians, we both will continue to pay the price.Mona El-Farra is a physician and human rights advocate in the Gaza Strip.

http://www.fromgaza.blogspot.com/

And Now...A Man Made Disaster

2006-07-10T17:23:00.000-07:00

In Gaza's rocket rain
What follows are excerpts from the blog of Mona Elfarra, a Palestinian physician and women's rights activist who lives in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. You can see much more of her personal reporting online on her Website:

www.fromgaza.blogspot.com.

July 6, 2006

The power is still off. It comes on and off irregularly. The electricity company is trying hard to supply power to 1.5 million people who used to get electricity from the power plant that was completely destroyed two nights ago.Tonight another electrical generator was attacked and destroyed completely. I tried to explain to my daughter the complicated mechanisms of power distribution and how the electrical company is trying hard. But she was so frustrated to learn that we will be receiving patchy power for another three months at least.They are attacking Gaza City right now, Jabalia and Beit Lahia. The emergency room at Al Awda Hospital received seven casualties (moderately injured). They launched at least 15 missiles, and the noise of the jet fighters and Apache helicopters interrupted my already interrupted sleep. I am fully awake now. I have not gotten good sleep for four days.

Saturday, July 1

My friend Hoda lives next to the Ministry of Interior building in Gaza, which was hit last night with two rockets. The attack occurred at 2 a.m. yesterday. (Please forgive me about the accuracy” I am starting to lose track of days and nights, and how many times we were attacked).Hoda told me that her whole building was shaking. She went out in her pajamas, and all the residents were out in their nightwear; children's faces were too pale, some of them were crying hysterically. The fumes filled the place. I live 150 meters [about 164 yards] from Hoda's place. Nobody is safe, no one is immune.

The power is still off. We had it for three hours yesterday, enough to recharge my laptop and mobile phone and to do some cooking. I am highly concerned about the hospitals; the fuel supply to run the local generators is running down. The medication and medical supplies are running down too. Water is scarce too. We need to ration our water use. We are going through a big humanitarian disaster.Sonic booming happens when the jet fighters go quickly through the sound barrier. We experience this sort of terrifying raid at least seven times during the day and night. How can I let you know my personal feelings during these raids?

If I am sleeping, my bed shakes tremendously; my daughter jumps into my bed, shivering with fear and then both of us end up on the floor. My heart beats very fast. I have to pacify my daughter; now she knows we need to pacify each other. She feels my fear. If I am awake, I flinch and scream loudly; I cannot help myself. OK, I am a doctor and a mature middle-aged woman with a lot of experience, and an activist too, but with this booming I become hysterical” after all we are all humans and each have our own threshold.

Monday, July 3

We in Gaza face great pressure. For those who need to be reminded, since the start of this intifada (in September 2000), Gaza's economy has been severely affected by the continuous Israeli atrocities: roadblocks, border closures, destruction of agricultural areas and home demolitions. The current rate of unemployment more than 50%. The vast majority of Palestinian families are living on humanitarian aid, and an increasing number of families live under the poverty line. Gaza is just 360 square kilometers [about 139 square miles] with nearly 1.5 million residents, so we have a very high population density.After four months of economic sanctions, we in the health field face a collapsing health system. We do not have medications in our stores and have had to prioritize surgical operations due to lack of medical supplies. The last thing we needed is the power cut off.

Wednesday, July 5

1:45 a.m.

Big explosion, very big and so loud; I'm fully awake, and so is Sondos. We hardly can see anything. It is very dark. The drone hit the Ministry of Interior building again with a missile. That completely destroyed the building, according to the news from the radio.I contacted Hoda, who lives next to the building, and found her hysterically screaming and shouting in pain, trapped under her broken windows, all the windows of her flat broken, the fumes filling the place. She is waiting for the emergency team to evacuate her.I can hear the hysterical sounds of her neighbors over the phone. I feel helpless and don't know what to do. Five of her neighbors were injured, some of them the terrified kids I mentioned in one of my previous blogs.

When I visited Hoda four hours ago, we both were tense. A third friend asked us to talk about anything but not politics or what is going on in the Palestinian scene. We tried to but couldn't. I left her, walked home.I have no analysis. Maybe you can try to help me to know why they would hit an empty building twice. I see it as desperation, eagerness to revenge themselves.It is not because of the soldier. They dropped thousands of shells on Gaza, killing women, children and old people, even before he was captured. Fatah and Hamas signed a national agreement. There could have been negotiations.But Israel would have to give up control of our land, our resources. They want to destroy our government. They want to destroy our will to get our rights, to live a normal life in our land.3 a.m. It is dark. Sondos is asleep. I cannot go to bed. I have no batteries for my transistor. I do not know where Hoda is. My mobile needs to be recharged. I have no power; I am restless, anxious and helpless. My laptop is gasping too.

For Palestinian arts and culture:
www.suheirhammad.com
www.ellenogrady.com
www.liberationgraphics.com
www.arabrap.net

For more information on Palestine and Palestine solidarity
activism:
www.palsolidarity.org
www.pengon.org
www.stopthewall.org.
www.al-awda.org
www.electronicintifada.net
www.jewsagainsttheoccupation.org

News sites for first-hand updates from Palestine:
www.rafah.vze.com
www.palestinenet.org/english
www.imemc.org
www.jayyousonline.org
www.beitfurik.levillage.org/journal/
www.between-lines.org

Overall news:http://english.aljazeera.net

Linky Loo

2006-07-10T17:21:00.000-07:00

Other Resources for information and action:

Reconstruction Watch
http://www.reconstructionwatch.org

New Orleans Network
http://www.neworleansnetwork.org

Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children
http://www.fflic.org

A Fighting Chance
http://www.a-fighting-chance.org/

People's Organizing Committee
http://www.peoplesorganizing.org

Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund
http://www.peopleshurricane.org/

Justice for New Orleans
http://www.justiceforneworleans.org/

Common Ground
http://www.commongroundrelief.org

Color Of Change
http://www.colorofchange.org

Black Commentator
http://www.blackcommentator.com

Newlings

2006-07-10T17:18:00.000-07:00

Evacuees encounter obstacles in job hunt

The People United: Worker’s Rights Organizing in New Orleans

2006-07-10T17:11:00.000-07:00

By Jordan Flaherty
July 6, 2006

According to a powerful new report released today by the Advancement Project, the National Immigration Law Center and The New Orleans Workers Justice Coalition, Black and Latino workers in Post-Katrina New Orleans have faced a shocking catalog of abuses, including wage theft, widespread and massive health and safety violations, racism and discrimination, law enforcement violence, and more.

Through first hand accounts, the report paints a detailed and dramatic picture of declining worker’s rights in the city. Despite a huge need for labor to restore the city, and billions of dollars spent on rebuilding, Black and Latino workers have been pitted against each other in a race to the bottom, while well-placed businesses and contractors have gorged on huge profits. With housing still unavailable for many, profiteering and displacement has been the rule.

Pre-Katrina, Latinos made up 3% of New Orleans population (although a larger percentage in New Orleans’ suburbs). Most were long-term residents, and there was very little in the way of social services and infrastructure specifically for the recent immigrant community. When thousands of immigrant workers arrived for work in the city’s reconstruction, they faced hostility and exploitation, with few allies and very little infrastructure of support. Simultaneously, African-American workers from New Orleans have faced personal loss and displacement, combined with a legacy of workplace exploitation that goes back to New Orleans' status as a center of the southern slave trade.

The demonizing of immigrant workers, while blatant violations of worker’s rights were ignored, set the stage for the abuse that followed. In October, Mayor Nagin asked a gathering of businessmen, “how do I ensure that New Orleans is not overrun by Mexican workers?” Later, in a mayoral debate, he added, “Illegal is illegal, so I'm not supportive of illegal aliens or illegal immigrants working in the City of New Orleans.” For the most part, the New Orleans media has followed this same framework.

Progressive organizers in the Black community have also expressed reservations about the new arrivals. “I’m not disputing the desirability of all oppressed peoples uniting against a common oppressor,” Mtangulizi Sanyinka, project manager of New Orleans’ African American Leadership Project tells me. “But right now this idea of Black-Brown unity is more of an idea than a reality.

“You have to put this into perspective,” continues Sanyinka. “Latinos are working in horrible conditions that ought to be illegal, and being exploited. At the same time, many black people resent Latinos for coming in and working under those conditions. Its like when you have a strike, and a group is brought in as strikebreakers.”“Who is to blame?” Sanyinka asks, “Who is always to blame; those that control the money and power. When you see Blacks and Latinos on the street, they don’t act antagonistic. It’s not a personal antagonism. But there is an institutional antagonism.”

Its not just poor Black and Latino workers that have been exploited in New Orleans – the Black middle class has also been devastated. The United Teachers of New Orleans – UTNO, the teachers union – was the largest union in the city, and a majority of those represented were Black workers. The School Board voted in the fall to lay off all but 61 of the 7,000 employees, and last week let the teacher’s union contract expire with little comment and no fanfare. “Elites of the city may prefer the teachers don’t come back,” Jacques Morial, community advocate and brother of former mayor Marc Morial, said at a recent forum. “Because they represent an educated class of Black New Orleans, with steady income, seniority and job protection.”Rosana Cruz, Gulf Coast field coordinator for the National Immigration Law Center, is sympathetic to the apprehension from the Black community. “There are anxieties that are incredibly valid about a cultural genocide of this city,” she tells me. “This is a city that was built on racism. The organizing we’re doing is a counter to the racism dividing immigrants and African-Americans against each other.”

“It’s a conversation that’s so juicy,” Cruz adds, discussing the media complicity in framing the debate as Black versus Latino. “Whenever white folks get to not be the bad folks, when communities of color are pitted against each other, it spreads like wildfire. When the boss starts making people compete, its no accident. It’s not immigrant workers who started this discourse of, ‘we like to work harder than anyone else,’ it’s the business community. Its not immigrant workers that left people on rooftops or didn’t have an evacuation plan, or left the school system to decline. It’s the elites of this city. Immigrants and people of color have been used throughout history to break unions. As long as people keep talking about Black-Brown tension, no one’s talking about the real power brokers in this city.”“We have to redirect the conversation to white accountability,” Cruz adds. “What it means to be an antiracist white ally is central to this discussion. There needs to be a focus on the real stakeholders here, the real players. We’re talking about fundamental issues to our society. What are the sources of power, who is benefiting, and how can they be held accountable. It’s not just about immigrant workers. Both immigrants and African-Americans are dealing with a lot of the same issues, whether is right of return or housing or voting or law enforcement violence, all these issues have connections. Trying to bridge this artificial divide is key.”

On May First in New Orleans, thousands of Latino workers demonstrated for immigrants’ rights, filling several blocks of Canal Street in the heart of New Orleans’ business, hotel and tourist districts. While small compared to the hundreds of thousands who marched in cities such as Dallas and Los Angeles, the March was still one of largest the city has seen in decades. “Being part of the Latino community in New Orleans, we’ve always had issues of visibility around immigrants,” said Cruz. “Now for five thousand people to come out and do something so public and visible…it’s amazing and beautiful.”Despite the media, politicians and contractors pitting workers against each other, the Mayday march demonstrated that these alliances are both possible and important. As the march flowed through the city, residents I spoke with expressed their support. Jerome Smith, a Black community organizer from New Orleans’ Treme neighborhood, came to express his support for the immigrants’ rights struggle. “I heard from Houston evacuees they were excited by your walking out (of schools and jobs during the national day of action) and wanted to join but didn’t know to get involved,” he told the crowd. “I want you to know that your struggle is in the heart of my people.”

“Cheap labor from Blacks has been integral to this city’s history and still is,” Smith told me later. “Its woven into the fabric of this city. And now, corporations are benefiting from exploiting Latinos just like the old money of this city benefited from slavery.”Out of town visitors to our city are still shocked by the miles of darkened streets, the piles of trash and the shuttered storefronts. Just over a third of the city’s 3,400 pre-Katrina restaurants have reopened, and a much smaller percentage of other businesses are back.

With most businesses that have reopened concentrated in white areas such as the French Quarter, the Loyola/Tulane area, and the Garden District, historically underserved neighborhoods are even more devastated. For a rebuilding with justice, a wide and united movement is needed, now more than ever.Walking along with the mayday March, I met Taz, a young African American from New Orleans who had heard about the march through friends. “This is what this city needs,” he told me, excited at the huge exuberant mass.

Wanting to join in, Taz asked what the marchers were chanting. When told they were chanting, “the people united won’t be defeated,” in Spanish, Taz nodded and smiled. “Yeah, that’s right, we wont be defeated.”

Left Turn Article

2006-06-29T15:12:00.000-07:00

Dissolving Barriers
New Orleans’ Latino Health Outreach Project
By Catherine Jones and Jennifer Whitney
From Left Turn Magazine, Summer 2006

The sun is still below the horizon when we arrive. Three cars, many boxes of supplies, five to ten people wearing scrubs, most of us women. Hazily, as the coffee is still kicking in, we begin to set up treatment stations on the hoods of cars and the beds of pickups. The parking lot we’re in and the one across the street are sparking with activity as around one hundred people, mostly men, mostly Latino day laborers, look for work in the still-devastated city of New Orleans.

The men gather, ask each other what vaccines they should get, share information about employers who don’t pay, tell us about their families back in Texas, or Veracruz, or Bahia. The wind picks up, sending gravel dust swirling around us, and people chase after bandaids and alcohol swabs that took flight in the gust. A regular comes by to show us how much better his leg is doing, and to ask for some more vitamins. Someone else drops by to invite us to his daughter’s quinceañera, her 15th birthday party. Several people come for their final dose of hepatitis B vaccine; we’ve seen them off and on for six months.

These Latino Health Outreach Project (LHOP) clinics are always busy, as is every functional health care provider in this city, from the first aid stations to the ERs. The terrifying reality in New Orleans these days is that there is virtually no public health infrastructure, and so our scrappy little clinic in the parking lot is, for some of our patients, the option they feel safest with. Never mind the fact that we can’t dispense medication, rarely have a doctor onsite, can’t do lab work, or even full physical exams. We're here every Wednesday, we speak our patients’ languages, we don’t ask about immigration status (or even last names), and we do our best to respect the dignity of each of them.

Healthcare Needs

In the second week after Katrina hit, the Common Ground Free Clinic opened in Algiers, an unflooded neighborhood on the west bank of the Mississippi. At the time, it was one of only two places offering health care in the region. A few weeks later, some of us began assessing healthcare needs in the flood zones. We quickly realized that among the many gaps in the city’s public healthcare infrastructure was a source of culturally competent, bilingual healthcare for pre-Katrina Latino residents, as well as the vast numbers of recently-arrived workers.

We began setting up clinics on sidewalks and parking lots in areas where mostly Latino workers were staying. Initially, the clinics consisted of two of us giving tetanus shots and over-the-counter medications. Within a few weeks, more providers were added, including MDs, nurse practitioners, acupuncturists, and herbalists. We now do one clinic a week early morning at a day-labor pick up site in downtown New Orleans, one in a church out in suburban Kenner – where we do limited primary care and family medicine – and we occasionally hold clinics at other sites.

In addition to providing health care, we are committed to improving our patients' access to healthcare across the city; supporting struggles for justice for immigrants and working people; and building relationships with organizations who have a history of working in New Orleans’ Latino community, as well as with post-storm initiatives dedicated to supporting residents’ right of return. At every step we charge ourselves to remain accountable to and take leadership from local people and organizations of color.

Before the storm, there were few Latinos in the city. As one national day laborer organizer points out, “New Orleans and Pittsburgh were the only two cities of their size in the country where race was almost entirely a black and white issue. Both had remarkably small Latino populations.” New Orleans’ outlying areas counted with seven percent Latinos, but the city proper had only three percent prior to the storm.

New Context

Meanwhile, nine months after Hurricane Katrina, almost 60 percent of New Orleans’ original residents have yet to return, as much of the city still lacks basic services. The planning and reconstruction continue to move forward without their input. This diaspora of New Orleanians still scattered across the US – who tend to be overwhelmingly African American and lower-income than those who have made it back – have no assurance there will be housing, schools, hospitals, utilities – not to mention childcare, employment, and protection from future flooding if they are to be able to return.

With such a large sector of the local labor force unable to contribute to (and benefit from) the reconstruction of the city, it is no surprise that workers are arriving in droves from other states and countries to seek employment. They are black, Asian, white, and Latino; they come from places as diverse as California and Texas, Colorado and Georgia, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, Brazil, and Mexico. These new workers have arrived in a city with few Spanish speakers, little awareness of immigrants’ needs and issues, and with five times as many agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE – what used to be known as the INS) as agents from the Department of Labor, who, in theory, enforce labor laws.

In this new context, organizers see this situation as an historic opportunity to build a multiracial workers' justice movement uniting (mostly local) African-Americans and (mostly newly-arrived) Latinos. Soon after the storm, the New Orleans Worker Justice Coalition, a diverse group of organizers, advocates, residents, and service providers based in New Orleans’ Latino and African-American communities, started planning a multiracial workers’ center, whose vision is to use organizing as a way to build bridges across race lines in a city where people of color are beginning to be pitted against one another.

We are excited to be a part of this coalition because it allows our work to concretely support organizing for workers' and immigrants' rights in New Orleans, even as we maintain our role as healthcare providers, not organizers. In a way, we envision our clinics as a tool to help dissolve the barrier between service provision and organizing that commonly exists. In the absence of a functioning workers’ center, where ideally, service provision, advocacy, and organizing would take place, our clinics are a potential focal point for just such a hybrid of activity, support, and leadership development. For now, the day laborer clinics serve as an excellent connection point between our patients and the organizers from the Worker Justice Coalition. At times, organizers have come to our clinics to hand out know-your-rights materials or talk with workers about upcoming events. We’d love to see our clinics serve as a steady point of contact between workers and organizers as the work of the coalition grows.

Significant Questions

Like most organizations that began in New Orleans after Katrina, we are struggling with our own transition from a stop-gap emergency response crew to a rooted, long-term community organization. We are facing significant questions as we try to determine the future of our work and how it fits into the service-vs-organizing paradigm. Do we see our clinics ultimately as an organizing tool or as a valid source of primary healthcare? Can we legitimately be both? How does our vision for our clinics coincide with our patients’ needs, or their understanding of our work? How does our limited capacity affect what we can provide?

We also find ourselves struggling with our relationship to Common Ground Clinic, the free clinic out of which LHOP began, which is now one part of a much larger organization of primarily white volunteers, mostly from outside New Orleans. In the months after the hurricane, Common Ground has received significant feedback from local, people-of-color-led organizations concerning accountability to the larger struggle in New Orleans, as well as a need to examine racism within the organization.

In recent months some Common Ground volunteers, with enormous support from local African-American organizers from the People's Insitute for Survival and Beyond and white allies from San Francisco's Catalyst Project, formed an anti-racist working group, which has begun to do an incredible amount of work shifting the organization to a more accountable focus. LHOP coordinators work closely with the anti-racist working group, and although the Common Ground Clinic and others hold us up as a model within the organization of accountability and local leadership, we recognize how far we still have to grow.

In addition to these challenges, over the last few months workers near our day laborer clinic have been targeted by increasing police and ICE harassment and arrest. Partially because of that, among other reasons, workers are fanning out to other neighborhoods. This dispersal means that a single mobile clinic can’t serve the majority of day laborers in New Orleans, and that day laborer organizing itself will become more challenging.

One Component

Meanwhile, we continue to face challenges finding reliable healthcare providers for our primary care clinic in the church, which still lacks lab services and other elements that could greatly increase continuity of care for our patients. Finally, neither of these clinics are ultimately the best options for patients who need more in-depth services, such as acute care, women’s gynecological and prenatal care, specialty care, or long-term monitoring.

We’re realizing that these realities are forcing us to make decisions about where to direct our limited resources. At first, we thought we’d have to do one of two things: invest more time and resources into our church clinic, making it a viable source of bilingual healthcare for Latinos in the Greater New Orleans area; or shore up the mobile clinics and focus on using them as support for worker-led organizing. Now we’re realizing that our ultimate path probably won’t fit firmly into either category.

It’s been important for us to make these decisions in light of our strengths and limitations, the relationships we have with patients and other providers, and an awareness of the larger picture of healthcare and community organizing, especially among Latinos and low-income working people in New Orleans. Right now a feasible option for us is to continue to build up our mobile clinics while maintaining a presence in Kenner. In addition, since we know that many of our patients have medical needs that stretch beyond the capacity of primary care, we are beginning to build up a base of translators and patient advocates who can accompany our patients to emergency rooms, prenatal care appointments, and specialists.

Focusing more on the mobile outreach clinics also means that we can begin to more concretely use these clinics as an organizing tool. Most likely, this will begin happening in our health and safety trainings. We have seen the interest among our patients when we have done safety and environmental health trainings while we distribute protective gear for workers involved in mold remediation, demolition, and house gutting. We see this as a concrete capacity-building tool, a necessary service, and a bridge to connect health issues with labor organizing. We’re excited to expand that to include consistent legal trainings, wage-claim support, and more. Ultimately, we see our work as one component of a large, vibrant, multifaceted movement for racial and economic justice in the Gulf Coast and beyond.

*****

Catherine Jones and Jennifer Whitney are Louisianians who coordinate the Latino Health Outreach Project. Among other fabulous things, Catherine is a third-year medical student and Jennifer is a Wilderness EMT and a massage therapist. Both would like to thank all our volunteers – past, present, and future – as well as our advisors and mentors, and everyone who has given us their time, money, resources, support, or advice along the way. Most of all we thank our patients, whose dedication and generosity continue to humble and inspire us. To volunteer, donate, or get more information, please go to http://www.cghc.org/lhop.html or write us at lhopla@lycos.com.Left Turn Magazine - www.leftturn.org

News

2006-06-29T00:53:00.000-07:00

New Orleans poor blacks charge racism over housing

Suit claims New Orleans plan discriminates

New Orleans justice system struggles

Some News from Home

2006-06-20T21:37:00.000-07:00

My blog entry on Katrina news.

The National Guard is coming to New Orleans. La howla wa laa quwatta illa billah.

Bulldozing Hope
HUD to New Orleans' Poor: "Go F(ind) Yourself (Housing)!"
By BILL QUIGLEY

And I'm adding a new group called Justice for New Orleans.

Newsies

2006-06-16T17:23:00.000-07:00

Census outlines face of today's New Orleans

Ga. to exclude Katrina students' scores

La. 'open primary' law may face challenge

Superstar Cleans Up in N'awlins

2006-06-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

Ha-ha-ha! Usher helps out in New Orleans! He's...Caught Up, in cleaning....

You can see the other photos here.

Here's some other news....

HUD to change landscape of public housing

Levee work nears completion, other projects to start soon

Flash Flood Interactive Map from the Times Picayune

Corps takes blame for New Orleans flooding

2006-06-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

Really, after all this time. Lovely.

Jordan's Log--6/19/06

2006-05-20T18:58:00.000-07:00

5 Reasons Tomorrow’s Election Doesn’t Matter
By Jordan Flaherty
Friday, May 19, 2006

Local and national media have proclaimed that tomorrow New Orleanians will participate in an historic election. Scores of media from around the world have descended on our city to cover the results, and two mayoral debates have been broadcast nationally. However, in a city where elections are always a major production, many organizers opinions on the candidates begin with a resigned shrug. “I’m voting for Nagin,” Cedric, a recently returned seventh ward resident told me last week, after a long sigh. “I never thought I’d vote for him, but I guess I never thought any of this would happen.”

“I’m voting for Nagin,” Cedric, a recently returned seventh ward resident told me last week, after a long sigh. “I never thought I’d vote for him, but I guess I never thought any of this would happen.” “Maybe Mitch can do something, I don’t know,” a former neighbor says with resignation. Beyond the distrust of the candidates, there’s a feeling that the fate of the city has moved far beyond the influence of any local elected official. “I don’t believe either of them are telling the truth,” said a New Orleans-born health care worker. “And even if they are, I don’t think they can make a difference.”

Countering the media hype, below are five reasons – out of many – that Saturday’s election doesn’t matter.

1) Hurricane FEMA With their recent announcement that they are ending rent subsidies for thousands of New Orleans’ displaced, FEMA has continued their tradition of exacerbating tragedy and loss. For anyone that has had to deal with FEMA, the federal agency has come to represent all that is wrong with our country’s disaster response. No matter who is mayor, its clear that the federal government will not be on our side.

2) Public Housing Under Attack
New Orleans residents did not elect Richard Baker, the Baton Rouge congressman who said, “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did." They didn’t have a say in the selection of Alphonso Jackson, the HUD secretary who announced last September that New Orleans is “not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again." For the thousands of former public housing residents who have been prevented from returning home - even to undamaged apartments - there are no elected officials advocating for them.

3) "Separate But Equal" Schools
New Orleans education system has been falling apart for decades; especially since the integration battles of the sixties, when white families pulled their children – and their tax dollars – out of the schools. Now, of 119 schools, only twenty have re-opened, fifteen of them as charter schools, not accountable to the school board, the mayor, or Black communities. In a recent article describing the seizing of Fortier– a historically Black high school – for a white-run charter school, Vaughn Morton writes, the “wealthy white elite and their middle-class supporters had no place for black people in their vision of a better New Orleans. First they starved the schools to death by refusing to fund them adequately; now they are building a new city on the bones of the old.”

4) No More Free Health Care
For years, Louisiana state politicians have been hoping to eliminate Charity Hospital System - the nation's only statewide healthcare network built to provide free quality care for poor people. Ignoring the objections of former doctors from the hospital - who affirm that the New Orleans Charity Hospital is safe and ready to re-open - state officials refuse to act, leading to a city without enough hospital beds for its current population, and limited health care options for those without health insurance.

5) The Fix Is In
No matter who wins, this election will be decided under the shadow of the disenfranchisement of a huge percentage of New Orleanians. Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater brags that twenty thousand absentee and in-state satellite votes have been received, as if it’s a huge accomplishment. However, with more than 200,000 New Orleanians displaced, that number is a drop in the bucket. “They act like 36% voter turnout (for the primary) is a victory,” one voting rights activist told me, “but in an election like this, it should be more like 70%.” With this many people kept from voting, he added “the word turnout is a misnomer, we need another nomenclature.” Maybe something like theft.

For many displaced New Orleanians, the results of this election were decided long ago, and there is little surprise at the obstacles placed in the way of their votes. For some, this Saturday represents the fulfillment of the city’s white elite’s chance to finally get a white mayor, for the first time in a generation. “It looks like they’re giving it to Mitch,” Theron, a New Orleans-born spoken word poet, told me during February phone call from Dallas, where he has resettled. “Its all been decided, and there’s no place for us anymore." There is no doubt that our local politicians failed us – as did state and federal politicians, relief agencies, and the corporate media, who promised a national dialogue on race and then quickly went back to reporting on trivia.

New Orleans needs a mayor who will lead a fight nationally for justice for our city, explaining the relevance of New Orleans’ plight to a skeptical nation and linking our struggle to the issues of racism and corporatization people are facing everywhere, but few here foresee either Nagin or Landrieu playing that role. However, there is a grassroots movement that is doing just that, and they will continue to do so, no matter who our mayor is.

Nagin Leads in Early Big Easy Returns

2006-05-20T18:56:00.000-07:00

Oh, boy.

You must read this!

2006-05-17T20:10:00.000-07:00

An account of the evacuations of Charity and Tulane Hospital

Katrina wreckage dump causes anger

2006-05-12T19:16:00.000-07:00

Dispute touches on politics, money, race and history

By LESLIE EATON

New York Times
NEW ORLEANS - Block after block, neighborhood after neighborhood, tens of thousands of hurricane-ravaged houses here rot in the sun, still waiting to be gutted or bulldozed.
Now officials have decided where several million tons of their remains will be dumped: In man-made pits at the swampy eastern edge of town, out by the coffee-roasting plant and the space-shuttle factory and the big wildlife refuge.

But more than a thousand Vietnamese-American families live less than two miles from the edge of the new landfill. And they are far from pleased at having the moldering remains of a national disaster plunked down in their backyard, alongside the canal that flooded their neighborhood when Hurricane Katrina surged through last year.

Environmental groups are also angry, accusing local and federal officials of ignoring or circumventing their own regulations, long after the immediate emergency has ended. The same thing happened after Hurricane Betsy in 1965, they warn, and that dump ended up becoming a Superfund site.

The new landfill, known as Chef Menteur after the highway that borders it, sits across a canal from Bayou Sauvage, the largest urban wildlife refuge in the country: 23,000 acres of marshland, canals and lagoons, home to herons, egrets, alligators and, in the fall, tens of thousands of migratory ducks.

It lacks some of the safeguards that existing dumps do, like special clay liners. The government says they are not needed because demolition debris is cleaner than other rubbish.
Residents and environmentalists think otherwise, because after Hurricane Katrina the state expanded the definition of construction and demolition debris to include most of a house's contents, down to the moldy mattresses and soggy sofas.

"It's essentially the guts of your house, all your personal possessions," said Joel Waltzer, a lawyer representing landfill opponents. "Electronics, personal-care products, cleaning solutions, pesticides, fertilizers, bleach."

State officials say the new landfill is safe and that they are moving quickly to protect public health and the environment. The new site was chosen to speed up the cleanup, they say, because the debris will not have to be hauled far. The state estimates that 7.2 million tons of hurricane debris remains to be cleaned up; the Chef Menteur landfill will take 2.6 million tons.
"You cannot rebuild until you clean up," said Chuck Carr Brown, an assistant secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, which issued a permit for the landfill.
The state has agreed to extra monitoring of groundwater, Brown said. But it has determined "there's nothing toxic, nothing hazardous," he said.

Like so many disputes that have erupted since the hurricane, this one involves highly charged issues: politics, money, history and race.

Unlike most residents of eastern New Orleans, the Vietnamese have returned, rebuilt and drawn up elaborate plans for their 30-year-old community's future. Now they feel unwelcome, said the Rev. Vien thé Nguyen, the pastor of Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church and a leader in the fight against the landfill, which opened on April 26.

"They're threatening our very existence," he said of the government agencies that approved the dump site, which residents fear will tower 80 feet or more above their neighborhood.
"Maybe we're not the right kind of people he wanted to return," Nguyen said.

New Orleans Real Estate Market Booming

2006-05-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

New Orleans Real Estate Market Booming - Yahoo! News

The True State of NOLA

2006-05-12T19:11:00.000-07:00

As published in The Washington Post

By Howard Kurtz
Sunday, May 7, 2006; Page B01

NEW ORLEANS I walked down the street next to a failed levee here the other day and saw house after house that had been pulverized by Hurricane Katrina. Eight months after the storm, and nothing, not a single cinder block, had been touched. An exterior wall of one home had been ripped away, revealing, amid the rubble, a sneaker, some batteries and a cardboard box for an NFL football. A thriving family once lived here, and in the next house, and in the house after that.

But it's old news, this tableau of destruction. Even if a reporter could track down the families on this block and recount each tale of woe, the camera lens would still be too close; it simply could not capture the magnitude of what happened to New Orleans last summer. And if you pull back the camera too far, you get those aerial shots we've all seen so many times, which provide a sense of the hurricane's scale but not of the human misery that each ruined home represents.

President Bush, who vowed in that floodlit Jackson Square speech last September that "this great city will rise again," was here again during my visit. But this time, aside from an interview with NBC's Brian Williams, the president's trip drew only modest coverage.

I understand why. Bush made no new proposals. He visited with residents and volunteers, and spent a few minutes helping with the construction of new housing. With no drama and no controversy, it was easy for the media to dismiss the trip as a photo op. The next day, the nation's front pages focused instead on rising gasoline prices, economic growth figures, the movie about United Airlines Flight 93 and a Spanish-language version of the national anthem.

We are in a short-attention-span business, always chasing the Next Big Thing, whether it's the Duke rape case or Patrick Kennedy's car crash. And eight months after wind, rain and floodwaters devastated this city, the media -- and perhaps a good chunk of the country -- are suffering from Katrina Fatigue.

Like many Americans, I've followed the Katrina story closely, but then tuned out for days when other news or the daily strains of life intervened. After eight months you assume they must be making some progress. Downtown and the French Quarter basically look fine; the worst damage by now must be limited to a few of the hardest-hit areas, such as the Lower Ninth Ward.

But then you come here and see the devastation up close, and discover that things are far worse than you imagined. And you realize that, despite the millions of words and pictures devoted to the hurricane's aftermath, the normal rules of writing, photography and broadcasting are just not equal to the task.

When Katrina struck, television thrived on the dramatic footage of attempts to rescue thousands overwhelmed by water and wind or suffering under horrid conditions in such places as the Superdome. But the painfully slow reconstruction of a city taking place today doesn't yield great video; the absence of progress is the story. The 250,000 people who have been unable to return -- more than half the city's population -- are not easily available for interviews. And even if they were, I don't imagine producers getting terribly excited over displaced folks talking about having to stay in motels or trailers or with relatives.

Most of those left behind in the storm were poor and black -- "A National Shame," a Newsweek cover story declared last fall -- and it seemed, briefly, that we were on the verge of a national conversation about race and poverty. But it never materialized. And even though middle-class whites may have had the wherewithal to evacuate, many of the houses I saw in ruins clearly belong to them. But who wants to rebuild in a city with such spotty basic services and so many unanswered questions? And how do you cover this diaspora without bumping up against the limits of journalism?

We all have defense mechanisms to shield ourselves against tragedy overload. From the Asian tsunami to the Pakistani earthquake to the latest Midwestern tornadoes, it can be a bit much. Perhaps I believed that New Orleans must be making modest progress because it was comforting to think so, and besides, if it was still a huge, stinking mess, the media would tell us, right? But then I came here and encountered Ruel Douvillier.

I met the Fire Department captain because he was being interviewed by NBC's Williams, who was making his eighth trip here for a story that has become his cause. Douvillier has perhaps the most unenviable job around: He heads the search-and-rescue teams that, with the aid of sniffer dogs, go house to house, looking for victims of the storm who somehow still have not been discovered.

Two weeks ago, Douvillier found two brothers in the same house, casualties forgotten by time. And he believes there are many more. A dog led one colleague to an attic in the Lower Ninth Ward that contained a large, rotting fish, a sign that some of the remains may simply have washed out to the Gulf.

"We can't just shove somebody's grandmother in an incinerator or landfill," the Army veteran told me. "We're not going to let it happen here. You remind yourself that this is somebody's mother, father, brother, sister, and this person is important to someone."

Ride around the area and you find yourself staring in disbelief. Houses dented and bent and smashed like papier-mâche, many marked with the ubiquitous blue FEMA spray paint, destined for demolition. Massive trees, uprooted and lying in front yards. Cars caked with dirt, trunk lids open, many stripped of tires. And the tires -- piles of old tires everywhere -- and waist-high weeds covering the front yards are silent markers of abandonment.

I met people with varying accents who were desperate to share their misery, frustrated by the lack of progress and feeling ignored by the rest of the country. A spunky lady named Carmen Morial said she had lost her home, her clothes, her car. She is 91.

The day after my visit to Lakeview, the close-in neighborhood near the damaged levee, I went to St. Bernard Parish. The car ride there featured mile after mile of strip malls, their stores rendered useless hulks by the hurricane. You can still see the bright logos: Wal-Mart, McDonald's, Office Depot, laundromats and chicken joints, still standing like archaeological relics. The storm destroyed just enough of these buildings to make them uninhabitable, but not so much that you can't see that they were once busy little places of commerce.

And further out in St. Bernard, a jaw-dropping sight: a large white shrimp boat with blue trim, called the Dolphin, that sits smack in the middle of a suburban street, listing to one side. It is said to be three miles from the waterway where once it sailed, when it had sails. I cannot envision the kind of winds that deposited it among the brick split-levels. It was a vivid backdrop for Williams's newscast, but again, one image, one street, one snapshot, merely begins to hint at the larger picture. It is journalism by metaphor, the haunting shot that must stand for the vast, unseen reality.

Across St. Bernard you see houses that are collapsed like accordions. You see holes in the roofs, where perhaps the residents escaped by helicopter. You see seaweed clinging to other roofs and no water line along the windows, which tells you that these entire blocks, this entire neighborhood, was utterly submerged.

And then there is the unsettling quiet. There is no one for miles around -- no traffic, no children, no dogs. The front yards of these upscale houses are now piled high with rubble, from slabs of plywood to mildewed rugs. Wherever you look, normal life has been obliterated. How does journalism convey that? How do you communicate that so many months later, vast swaths of a major American city remain paralyzed?

It is a depressing story, hardly a ratings grabber. It is like Iraq, day after day of numbing sameness: violence and suicide bombs there, a frozen-in-time lack of recovery here. Reporters like to cover tangible issues -- the battle over small-business loans, the race to buttress the levees, the failures of FEMA, the campaign for mayor, the first post-storm Mardi Gras. Everyone knows what happened to New Orleans; it is not new news.

But it is still news, if news is defined as a catastrophic event that alters a community and a country forever. Williams, dismissing some viewer complaints and nasty e-mail saying that he devotes too much air time to this city's struggles, stays on the case, as do a handful of other television and print journalists.

CNN's Anderson Cooper has been here several times, and ABC maintains a bureau for rotating correspondents. Major newspapers have devoted plenty of resources to the region. Since Jan. 1, the New York Times has run more than 110 news stories on New Orleans, the Los Angeles Times about 90, The Washington Post about 75, dissecting the current state of hospitals, schools, housing, even Cajun cooking and jazz.

But can anyone really say that New Orleans remains an urgent, top-of-the-newscast issue, that the recent coverage captures the raw emotion of a crisis that continues unabated? By and large, the plight of this crippled city seems to have become background noise.

Reporters by trade parachute into disaster zones, steeling themselves against sadness. You start out as a young scribe chasing car accidents and then graduate to plane crashes. Later you might find yourself in Oklahoma City or in Lower Manhattan, trying to chronicle the aftermath of a terrorist attack, or in Bosnia or Baghdad, filing dispatches about military conflicts. Then the war ends, the community rebuilds, and you move on. Collectively, we all move on.

That is not possible in New Orleans. Yes, many people are tired of the Katrina saga. In a world filled with problems large and small, in a business that gravitates toward the latest buzz, the up-to-the-minute news flash, that's easy to grasp. If people saw what I saw, however, they would understand why journalism's work here is not done -- not by a long shot.

An article from HoustonChronicle.com

2006-05-12T19:10:00.000-07:00

NEW ORLEANS

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is closing itslong-term recovery office in New Orleans, claiming local officialsfailed to meet their planning obligations after Hurricane Katrina.The office is responsible for helping the city devise a blueprint torebuild destroyed houses, schools and neighborhoods." FEMA cannot drive the planning — our mission is to support it. We canonly do so much and then we look to the city to embrace and beginplanning and managing," said FEMA's national spokesman Aaron Walker.

"Once they begin planning, we can re-engage with them."Of the 35 employees who initially worked in the long-term recoveryoffice, only five remained early last week, and they were waiting to bereassigned. Those five may continue to work on long-term recovery in adifferent office, Walker said.City officials were angered by the move, saying New Orleans is againbeing abandoned by the federal government. Deputy Mayor Greg Meffertsaid the FEMA office and the city worked in tandem initially, but had afalling out over funding earlier this spring."

We have a city that has an enormous planning need and you needplanners. To date, we haven't gotten any monetary support to bring inplanners," Meffert said.Several employees of the disbanded office agreed with Meffert, sayingthat at the beginning the office worked closely with city officials,helping implement their plans. They say the relationship with FEMA soured after the mayor's rebuildingcommission, a group of businessmen and community leaders asked tocreate plans for redevelopment, requested FEMA money this spring tohelp fund their planning effort.Brad Gair, then-director of FEMA's long-term recovery office, made averbal promise to city officials to fund the effort, Meffert said.

Gairhas since left the New Orleans office. "It appears the mayor's office misunderstood the commitment made: WhileFEMA is committed to the long-term recovery of the Gulf Coast region,providing funding for planning does not fall under the federalguidelines of public assistance," Walker said.Eight months after Katrina, rebuilding has barely begun. One majorhold-up was the late release of FEMA's flood elevation advisories,which offer guidelines on how high homeowners should raise their homesfor flood insurance.

Women assaulted during Katrina Speak out!

2006-05-12T18:42:00.000-07:00

http://www.nola.com/abc26/video/content.ssf/0510nevillerape

Singer Charmaine Neville speaks out on her terrible ordeal.

Hutchison urged to help keep evacuee aid flowing

2006-05-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

By MIKE SNYDER
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Dozens of housing advocates, social workers and others have asked Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to help extend housing assistance for another four or five months to Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
The letter, signed by more than 80 individuals and nonprofit groups, asks Hutchison, R-Texas, to add language to an emergency hurricane appropriations bill instructing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to continue assistance for a year from the date evacuees enrolled. For most, this would be in early fall.

Hutchison serves on a conference committee that is expected to try next week to resolve differences in House and Senate versions of the appropriations bill.

Chris Paulitz, a Hutchison spokesman , said the senator is aware of the letter but could not immediately say whether she would comply with the request.

"Numerous public officials in Houston and throughout Texas have expressed their sincere gratitude for Senator Hutchison's tireless efforts in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita," Paulitz said. "The senator will continue her work to keep the $1.5 billion she secured for Texas emergency funding whole."

FEMA is moving evacuees from the emergency assistance program, which provides vouchers that cover rent and utilities, to an individual assistance program that only covers rent. As many as 20,000 Houston evacuees recently received letters from FEMA stating that they were ineligible for the individual assistance program.

Mayor Bill White has said many of the ineligibility determinations were inaccurate, and FEMA has agreed to continue assistance through June 30 while it reviews each case.

John Henneberger, co-director of the Texas Low-Income Housing Information Service, one of the groups that signed the letter, said the request would not require any additional funding.

Policy shift could leave thousands of evacuees homeless

2006-05-12T18:39:00.000-07:00

Policy shift could leave thousands of evacuees homeless
By Bruce Nolan Staff writer - The Times Picayune

A coalition of advocates for displaced New Orleans residents called on the city’s mayoral candidates Wednesday to speak up for thousands of families exiled to Houston and elsewhere who are about to lose FEMA rental assistance, and perhaps their apartments. A FEMA spokesman in Austin confirmed that about 7,000 of the 36,000 New Orleans area families now living in Houston are at risk of losing rental vouchers because they do not qualify for a longer-term federal assistance program with tougher eligibility requirements. Local families displaced to other states after Hurricane Katrina are in a similar bind, although national numbers were not available Wednesday.

The news distressed local housing advocates for the poor, who said they worry that New Orleans tenants evicted in Houston may try to make their way back home, where there is little to no affordable housing for them. “Would you want to be homeless in a strange city? Or would you try to make your way back,” asked Malcolm Suber of the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund & Oversight Coalition. Suber’s group and others called on Mayor Ray Nagin and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu to come to the aid of displaced families, whether by stabilizing rental assistance for them where they are, or preferably, opening more affordable housing in New Orleans to receive them.

The scarcity of low-cost housing remains one of city’s most severe problems, affecting the ability of some businesses to reopen, as well as the future of schools and neighborhoods. Nine months after the storm, fewer than 1,000 public housing units have re-opened to accept former tenants. Before the storm, the city had 14,000 units. Neither Landrieu nor Nagin immediately responded to requests for comment. Published reports in other cities, including Houston and Charlotte, N.C., describe local officials’ alarm at FEMA’s decision to switch tens of thousands of tenants from an emergency, few-questions-asked housing program that directly paid landlords, to a longer-term voucher program with tougher eligibility requirements. FEMA originally told families their aid was up June 1.

In Houston, where it appears that about 20 percent of households cannot meet the eligibility standards, that deadline has been extended by a month. Part of the problem, Suber and others said, is that FEMA had assured tenants, landlords and city and state officials who distributed the housing funds that the agency would commit to 12 months of support. “FEMA is breaking a promise it made to these people,” said Suber. But Frank Mansell, a FEMA spokesman in Austin, said the families have known for weeks or months that this switch was coming. Mansell said most families are ineligible because of deficiencies in paperwork — an incomplete form, for instance — or because FEMA believes their New Orleans homes are habitable. But Houston Mayor Bill White has questioned FEMA’s eligibility requirements.

Last month he went so far as to send Houston building inspectors to New Orleans to document wrecked houses that FEMA said could be lived in, the Houston Chronicle reported. Still other families were ineligible for further housing aid because, paradoxically, they were homeless in New Orleans, said FEMA representative Ross Fredenburg in Baton Rouge. The logic is that the emergency rental assistance was available only to displaced homeowners or renters, meaning homeless people were ineligible from the get-go and cannot be given extended aid now, said Fredenburg. “We can’t help them if they didn’t have a residence before,” he said. Mansell said those families were being referred to other federal programs.

You Just Can't Kill That Party Spirit

2006-05-01T17:53:00.000-07:00

New Orleans Gears Up for Jazz Fest

New Orleans Jazz Fest: celebration among the ruins

And, in other news....

Irma Thomas, the New Orleans Queen of Soul, talks about life after Katrina

Senate Panel Recommends Abolishing FEMA

Bush visits New Orleans as FEMA criticized

Katrina Report Rips the Bush Admin. Again

Newlings

2006-04-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

It's Election Time! Time to pull out that good old race card!

Urgh. Let's just vote for the best man, okay?

Big Easy Mayor May Need to Court Whites

Tears flow with votes at polls

Voters Shift in New Orleans Mayoral Race

Katrina's Children Struggle With Fears

Election Time! and Other News

2006-04-23T10:40:00.000-07:00

New Orleans Police to Return Seized Guns

FEMA Wants $4.7M Back From Katrina Victims

New Orleans Residents Head to the Polls

From Saturday's results, the mayorial race is between Mayor Ray Nagin and Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu. May the best man win! (Go Landrieu!) :-)

Dirty Secret of SF Quake: 1906 Disaster Was Like Katrina for Asians

2006-04-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

I'll bet you've never heard THIS part of the SF Quake story before.

Fortunately, my good friend and mentor Bob Wing penned this eloquent testimony. It describes, in part, his own family's experience of the racially-motivated displacement that followed the 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco.

"Natural" catastrophes often lead to human-made ones.

And, unless we are vigilant, it is those who are already on society's margins who are made to suffer the most. On its 100th year anniversary, let us commit, at long last, to learning ALL the lessons from the disaster.

Ruin, Rubble and Race: Lessons on the Centennial of the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906
By Bob Wing*

It's as if the spotlight that Hurricane Katrina cast on the inequities of disaster relief never happened. San Francisco's high and mighty are in full-throated self-celebration of the City's "rising from the ashes" of the April 18, 1906 earthquake and fire.

Forgotten are people like my great-great grandfather Lee Bo-wen who immigrated to San Francisco Chinatown in 1854 and reared two generations at 820 Dupont Street. My whole family was forcibly evacuated, never to return.

Even Dupont Street itself vanished forever, as post-disaster faux Chinese architecture buried the people's Chinatown and made its successor, the now famous Grant Avenue, the centerpiece of the City's newly minted Chinese tourist industry.

Indeed the same scandalous profiteering, racism, incompetence and mendacity that have characterized the response to Katrina had an antecedent in the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906.

It is now fully documented that during and after the 1906 disaster, developers, insurance companies, corporations led by the Southern Pacific railroad, City leaders, newspapers and Army brass shamelessly lied and promoted anti-Chinese racism to downplay and distort the disaster in order to advance their own selfish agendas.

The 1906 earthquake and fire rendered homeless half of San Francisco's population of 500,000. It destroyed 28,000 buildings and 498 city blocks.

Authorities claimed that only 300 people had died, the better to undercut claims against the city and the business community. It took decades of painstaking documentation by Gladys Hansen, the city's archivist, to prove that in fact more than 3,000 had died.

The newspapers and city leaders talked only about the fire because it was considered a more normal event than an earthquake, which they feared would terrify potential investors and affluent homeowners. The San Francisco real estate board met a week after the earthquake and passed a resolution that the phrase "the great earthquake" should no longer be used; it would be known instead as "the great fire."

The Army and the police blamed their failure to control the fire on a lack of water. Later it was proved that this was a bald faced fabrication. Water was plentiful: the problem was that the City and the Army grossly failed to mobilize enough manpower to pump the water and fight the fire.
Meanwhile insurance companies paid up to $15,000 per photo--real or falsified--that could "prove" that a building was damaged by the earthquake rather than the fire, because they were not required to pay for earthquake damage. Businesses and building owners countered with massive arson in order to collect on fire insurance.

And everyone from the Mayor to labor unions promoted gross racism in order to justify their attempt to grab the prime real estate upon which 25,000 Chinese lived.

The San Francisco Chronicle railed: "Great as the recent catastrophe has been, let us take care lest we encounter a greater one. We can withstand the earthquake. We can survive the fire. As long as California is white mans country, it will remain one of the grandest and best states in the union, but the moment the Golden State is subjected to an unlimited Asiatic coolie invasion there will be no more California."

Take care they did: A recent article by the National Park Service reports that Hugh Kwong Liang, only 15 at the time, recalled, "I turned away from my dear old Chinatown for the last time& city officials directing the refugees' march approached us and told us to proceed toward the open grounds at the Presidio Army Post." Despite the presence of the military newspaper reports tell of extensive looting, including "the National Guard& stripping everything of value in Chinatown."

At the same time, the police and National Guard were unleashed against any Chinese suspected of looting. Historian Connie Young Yu recounts that her great-grandfather was suspected of looting in his own store and bayoneted. A white crowd stoned to death a young man who was trying to salvage items from his home.

Chinese refugees quickly flooded relief camps in San Francisco, Alameda and Oakland. As the Chinese exited Chinatown, city officials sought to prevent them from returning. A committee of top leaders was quickly established that focused exclusively on the permanent relocation of the Chinese, finally settling upon Hunter's Point as a likely new location.

The Overland Monthly editorialized: "Fire has reclaimed to civilization and cleanliness the Chinese ghetto, and no Chinatown will be permitted in the borders of the city.... it seems as though a divine wisdom directed the range of the seismic horror and the range of the fire god. Wisely, the worst was cleared away with the best."

But for the active fight waged by the Chinese community and actively supported by the Chinese consulate, this racist prediction might have been fulfilled.

The San Francisco Examiner reported, "The committee's protestations that what it intends is for the benefit of the Chinese is received with suspicion on the part of the Chinese." In fact, few Chinese voluntarily took advantage of relief help when they discovered it meant being held as virtual prisoners in squalid, segregated camps. Despite their estimated population of 60,000, only 186 Chinese refugees remained at the Fort Point camp by May 8.

Meanwhile, Chinatown merchant/property owners who owned one-third of the Chinatown property organized to defend their rights. Dupont Street Improvement Club representatives pointed out that trade in Chinatown the previous year had amounted to $30 million, that the Chinese paid their share of municipal taxes and that property owners could rent to anyone they wished.

The Chinese government's consulate also made clear its intention to rebuild on its property in San Francisco Chinatown and to protect the rights of overseas Chinese.

Although many Chinese residents were never able to return, the power elite's plan to destroy Chinatown was foiled by a combination of Chinese resistance and the City's desire for Chinatown taxes. That latter desire merged with the interests of Chinese merchants in shaping the new Chinatown around a tourist theme park. But at least Chinatown was saved for many of its residents.

My family, like many others, finally settled in Oakland, where they were greeted by the likes of the Oakland Herald: "One of the evils springing from the late disaster to San Francisco, one that menaces Oakland exceedingly,...is the great influx of Chinese into this city from San Francisco. Not only have they pushed outward the limits of Oakland's heretofore constricted and insignificant Chinatown, but they have settled themselves in large colonies throughout the residence parts of the city, bringing with them their vices and their filth."

To frustrate Oakland's racist redliners, my great-great grandfather anglicized his name from Lee Bo-wen to Lee Bowen and was thereby able to record his purchase of a home in what was then the segregated, lily-white Fruitvale district. Thousands of other Chinese took advantage of the destruction of San Francisco's records to claim U.S. citizenship.

We failed to learn the lessons of the San Francisco earthquake before Katrina. We must learn the lessons of both now.

It should be crystal clear that disasters are not purely natural events: they can be caused or seriously aggravated by human action like global warming, racism, poor city planning, economic inequality, incompetence, greed, politics and war.

When a disaster like the SF earthquake or Katrina hits, your average person empathizes with the appalling loss and pain of the victims, and joins in to help by volunteering with rescue and reconstruction efforts, contributing money or any number of other humanitarian acts.
But many businesses and politicians act like sharks in bloody waters: they know that disasters open up new opportunities to remake the city in their interests, to make vast sums of money and to reorganize political power in their favor. They know these events provide a chance to rid themselves of poor communities, especially communities of color, that they consider a blight on their vision for the city and an obstacle to their own enrichment.

Disasters not only reveal hidden inequalities but also grossly aggravate the existing power imbalances between rich and poor, between white and non-white. The power elite has usually planned ahead for disaster, suffers less and recovers faster from the shock. They have lawyers, bankers and politicians, ready to fight for their interests.

For most of us, the most vital response to natural disasters--before, during and after the event--is organizing our communities and workplaces to survive, rebuild and fight for our interests against the predators in our midst. In areas susceptible to disaster, it is critical to integrate disaster planning into our day to day organizing against gentrification and for social justice.
For example, in the Bay Area we should include planning for the next big earthquake in the ongoing struggle against the gentrification of the Bay View, West Oakland and other poor communities in the region.

And of course the fight in the Gulf region is still at fever pitch. It is crucial to support the fight to prevent the transformation of New Orleans from a largely black working class city into a gentrified theme park featuring jazz, creole food and gambling.

*Bob Wing is an Oakland Bay Area based activist and writer. Thanks to Nicole Derse, Donna Linden, Richard Marquez, Jane Kim and David Ho for organizing the Ruin, Rubble and Race symposium in San Francisco that inspired and informed this article.

Elections Fever

2006-04-19T17:51:00.000-07:00

Elections Fever
By Jordan Flaherty
April 17, 2006

The coming days will bring another step towards the new New Orleans. On April 22, voters in the city (Absentee and in-state satellite voting began last week) will choose between 22 mayoral candidates, as well as sheriff, city council, and other positions. If no candidate in a race receives more than 50%, there will be a run-off between the two highest vote-getters on May 20. Elections have always been a big deal here in the state that gave the nation Clinton campaign manager James Carville and Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile, but this election feels more weighted with significance. While local media has made a division between the “serious” candidates and less likely contenders such as Manny 'Chevrolet' Bruno (“A troubled man for troubled times”), the truth is that in New Orleans politics, even the front runners are, if nothing else, uncensored. “Early on, the media sorted based on name recognition and financial backing,” says community organizer and mayoral candidate Greta Gladney. “But they haven’t presented the full picture. Yes, we have some crazy people who qualified. But there are also some important messages from candidates that aren’t receiving attention. And among the main contenders, you have some crazy people running too.”

In a city where the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow-era racist laws are still alive and well, where former Klansman David Duke received alarmingly high percentages of the vote in the city’s white neighborhoods when he ran for governor, where Mardi Gras parades were desegregated just over 10 years ago, and most schools and neighborhoods remain deeply segregated, themes of race are bound to dominate the mayoral contest. Peggy Wilson - a white former city councilwoman who is seen as one of the leading candidates - so obviously represents white racist New Orleans, it’s almost refreshing. Phrases other white politicians might say in an unguarded moment are her talking points. With her relentless racially coded attacks on public housing residents and “welfare queens,” she sends a clear message about the real themes of this election, and what’s at stake. Wilson clearly feels that the Black vote will be suppressed. "I figured the demographics might have changed now and I could run,” she told the Times-Picayune in a recent interview. Wilson’s political future, and that of the other candidates, will ride on the answer to a question everyone is asking: how many of New Orleans’ former residents will be able to vote.

Everyone expects far less African Americans to vote in this election than anytime in decades. Congressman John Conyers has called it “the largest disenfranchisement in the history of this nation.” According to a local voting rights coalition that includes the ACLU of Louisiana, NAACP, ACORN and others, the guidelines for absentee voting “are unclear, complicated, and conflicting.” Looking at the hurdles placed in the way of potential voters, I have no doubt that if I were displaced and attempting to vote, I would give up. As one advocate told me, “you practically need a legal consultation to figure out how to vote. It would be easier if they just instituted a poll tax.” The changed demographics of the city, brought about by the forced expulsion of most of the population, has complicated surveying. Ron Forman, who in recent surveys pulls one percent of the Black vote, is seen as one of the front-runners, and received the endorsement of the Times-Picayune, our daily paper.

The paper’s enthusiastic endorsement of Forman is indicative of the city’s divisions. The Times-Picayune won a Pulitzer today for its breaking news reporting and its public service, and while their reporting in the months post-Katrina was breathtaking, excellent and vital, many Black residents question what public the paper actually serves. “There is an historic disconnect between the community and the paper,” one former Times-Picayune reporter told me. “I don’t think they reflect the city and I think most people inside, working at the paper, would agree with me…I know 50% more about the city now than I ever did when I worked as a reporter.”“There was a moment, post-Katrina, where all of us in the city had the same interests and concerns,” a long-time community activist confirmed. “During that time, the Picayune finally became the newspaper of the whole city. That time has ended, unfortunately, and they’ve gone back to their old ways.”

At a debate last month sponsored by the African American Leadership Project, issues of race were front and center. Before candidates spoke, community organizers, including Steve Bradberry of ACORN, Beverly Wright of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, and Khalil Shahyd of the Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund, gave powerful commentary on the racial contours of the disaster and aftermath. During the debate, candidates often spoke candidly about race in the city, such as when mayoral candidate Tom Watson, a community leader and outspoken advocate for evacuees and criminal justice reform, said “I live in a mixed neighborhood uptown, and white people wont talk to me. I walk my dog, and they’ll talk to my dog and not to me.”Mayor Nagin, who was elected four years ago with a minority of the Black vote, is now seen by many as their only chance to keep Black control of city government. “People of color think if they don’t vote for Nagin they’ll be completely cut out of the process,” Gladney tells me.

“I’m not confident any of the front-runners will do anything to help African Americans and in particular the lower 9,” says Gladney, referring to her neighborhood, the lower ninth ward. “I’m seeing a reluctance towards bringing Black people back.”I recently visited Renaissance Village, an evacuee community of over 500 trailers located North of Baton Rouge on land owned by a youth prison. Residents I spoke to were aching to come home. “Last year I was a middle income American, a homeowner – I never imagined I’d come to this,” said Hillary Moore Jr, a former city employee and New Orleans property owner exiled in a small trailer in the middle of the complex. Living alone, Moore barely fits in his trailer. When he talks about the family of five living next door, I can’t imagine how they could possibly squeeze in.As with all of the residents I spoke with, Moore was unhappy in his trailer home. “Why would they buy this for as much money as they paid? This thing is designed for a weekend – can you imagine someone trying to live in here for 6 or 7 months?” he asked.

I asked him why he agreed to move in. “When you’ve been living in a gymnasium with 100 plus people, a travel trailer sounds like a mansion to you, and when they tell you sign here so you can end standing in line to get a shower, you don’t question anything, you sign and you jump at the opportunity.” An over-capacity housing market from Baton Rouge to New Orleans makes other options scarce.On the day I visited, residents voiced some of their recent complaints, most involving the logistics of living in this isolated, underserved community: the cafeteria serving the complex is scheduled to be closed; and management had threatened to stop fixing the washing machines, which were being vandalized. Many of the occupants had no means of transportation in and out, and the only bus service was to Wal-Mart and back.Residents, displaced from their own neighborhoods, are attempting to form new community in the camp, but there are obstacles, high among them being the stress and pressures of living in such close and uncomfortable conditions. “Living here, you meet people under unusual circumstances,” Moore explains politely. Many people I spoke with complained about children running wild in the camp. Imagining the youth, already traumatized from the disaster and evacuation, trying to adapt to life in these prison-like conditions (we had to be signed in by security guards, and press are not permitted), behavior problems seem inevitable.

Not long after moving in, Moore and others organized a resident’s council. “We got tired of a lot of things Keta (the contractor company managing the park) was doing and we decided to organize because we realized there is strength in numbers,” he tells me. The residents’ council has an elected board and open meetings every week.Despite all obstacles, New Orleans’ survivors keep organizing and fighting, whether exiled in FEMA-paid trailer parks, or internally displaced within the city. Two weeks ago at the St. Bernard housing development, located just a few blocks from where Jazz Fest happens every year, former residents and supporters confronted the police and broke through the fence surrounding their former homes. For some, it was the first time in months they’d been able to see their apartments.Terry Scott, a Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) employee working in the complex was sympathetic. “We want them back. Without them living here, we don’t have jobs.” However, Scott told me, at the current pace, it would be years before most residents would be allowed back. “It’s been seven months, and they’re still working on Iberville (the smallest and least damaged complex). Every corner of New Orleans, you have HANO housing, but they haven’t even started on the Lafitte,” he said, referring to another mostly-undamaged complex, second in line for repair. For now, thousands of livable units, including those at St Bernard, sit empty, with fencing around them and guards patrolling.

“We’ve been having mold, mildew and backed up sewers for years,” Pamela Mahogany, a St Bernard resident told me. “I’ve been here 42 years and it’s been a hazard the whole time. They never cared before. This is part of their goal to tear our development down.”For residents like Mahogany, community is what they miss most about their homes at St Bernard. “They say it’s unsafe here. When I lived here I didn’t have a burglar alarm. Now I have one, ‘cause I don’t know the people around me. They say people here didn’t have jobs. Guess what. I’m a nurse. I go to work every day.”Terry Scott, the HANO employee, agreed. “People say this is a high crime area. The truth is you could’ve walked right through here any time and be fine.”These elections are vital. But the truth is, what’s really going to bring people back to our city are the people themselves, fighting on the front lines to come home. In hundreds of small struggles, in grassroots organizing and demonstrations around the city, the fight continues. As Beverly Wright, director of Dillard University’s Deep South Center for Environmental Justice said during the African American Leadership Project’s mayoral forum, “they’ve underestimated the determination of people like me to fight to our last breath."

FEMA: La. Homes Must Be Raised Off Ground

2006-04-16T19:14:00.000-07:00

Tell us something we don't know. We've been raising our homes off the ground for years!

Bill Cosby Tells Blacks to Give Up Crime

2006-04-08T19:44:00.000-07:00

And I feel like gagging once more as Mr. Cosby, a man who has avoided racial issues like the plague, has now made himself into a social commentator on Black issues. Ugh!

Seven Months After Katrina

2006-04-05T06:06:00.000-07:00

Seven Months After Katrina: Sleeping in Your Car in, in Front of Your Trailer, in Front of Your Devastated Home, Tales of Lunacy and Hope from New Orleans

In New Orleans, seven months after Katrina, senior citizens are living in their cars. WWL-TV introduced us to Korean War veteran Paul Morris, 74, and his wife Yvonne, 66. They have been sleeping in their 2 door sedan since January. They have been waiting that long for FEMA contractors to unlock the 240 square foot trailer in their yard and connect the power so they can sleep inside it in front of their devastated home. This tale of lunacy does not begin to stop there. Their 240 square foot trailer may well cost more than their house. While FEMA flat out refuses to say how much the government is paying for trailers, reliable estimates by the New York Times and others place the cost at over $60,000 each.

How could these tiny FEMA trailers cost so much? Follow the money. Circle B Enterprises of Georgia was awarded $287 million in contracts by FEMA for temporary housing. At the time, that was the seventh highest award ofKatrina money in the country. According to theWashington Post, Circle B was not even being licensed to build homes in its own state of Georgia and filed for bankruptcy in 2003. The company does not even have a website. Here is how it works. The original contractor takes their cut and subcontracts out the work of constructing the trailer to other companies. Once it is built, they subcontract out the transporting the trailers to yet other companies which pay drivers, gas, insurance and mileage. They then subcontract out the hookups of the trailers to other companies and keep taking cuts for their services. Usually none of the people who make the money are local workers.

With $60,000 many people could adequately repairtheir homes. Why not just give the $60,000 directly to theelderly couple and let them fix up their home? AskCongress. FEMA is not allowed to give grants of that much. Money for fixing up homes comes from somewhere else and people are still waiting for that to arrive. While many corporations are making big money off of Katrina, Mr. and Mrs. Morris wait in their car.

Craziness continues in the area of the right to vote. You would think that the nation that put on elections with satellite voting boxes for Iraqis and Afghanis and Haitians and many others would do the same for Katrina evacuees. Wrong. There is no satellitevoting for the 230,000 citizens of New Orleans who are out of state. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Advancement Project, ACORN and the Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund have all fought for satellite voting but Louisiana and the courts and the U.S. Justice Department have said no. The rule of thumb around here is that the poorer you are, the further you have been displaced. African Americans are also much more likely to be poor andrenters – the people who cannot yet come back to a city where rents have doubled. They are the ones bearing the burdens of no satellite voting.

The people already back are much more affluentthan the pre-Katrina New Orleans. The city is also much whiter. Many of those already back in New Orleans are not so sure that all of New Orleans should be rebuilt. The consequence of that is not everyone will be allowed to return. Planners and politicians openly suggest turning poor neighborhoods into greenspaces. No one yet has said they want to turn their own neighborhood into green space – only other people’s neighborhoods – usually poor people’s neighborhoods. Those who disagree are by and large not here. New Orleans has not been majority white for decades, but it is quite possible that a majority of those who are able to vote in the upcoming election will be white. Thus the decisions about the future ofNew Orleans are poised to be made by those who have been able to get back and will exclude many of those still evacuated. Guess what type of plans they will have for New Orleans? There are many, many more tales of lunacy all over town as all systems have melted down: criminal justice, healthcare, public education, churches, electricity, water, garbage, our environment – you name it, it melted down and is not yet fully back up.

But, there are also clear signs of hope. Across New Orleans neighborhood groups are meeting every weekend planning their own comebacks. People catch rides back into town and visit ruined neighborhoods and greet neighbors and together make plans to recover. Because governmental action and contractors are so slow, groups are looking to their own resources and partnering with churches and community groups and universities and businesses to fill in the gaps where the politicos have not yet beenable to respond. The citizens themselves are our greatest hope. We also have allies that give us hope.

We have been amazed and refreshed by the thousands of college students who took their springbreak in New Orleans helping our elderly and uninsured families gut houses, clean up streets and advocate for justice with Common Ground Relief, the Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund, Catholic Charities, ACORN and many other church and civic groups. Even law students! Over 1000 law students helped provide legal aid and are providing the first comprehensive documentation of abuses of local and out of townworkers by businesses. Over 100 clergy from across the US visited New Orleans with the PICO Network, as did hundreds of other people of faith with the Jeremiah community. The Protestant Women are here now and the InterfaithWorker Justice group meets here soon. Together, these groups raise the voices of their faith communities and call for justice in the rebuilding of our communities.

On the national level, we see rising support from numerous social justice groups. Several created the Katrina Information Network, an internet advocacy group that enables people across the country to take action with us to influence all levels of governmentin the rebuilding effort. We are inspired by the veterans and allies who marched from Florida to NewOrleans to highlight the diversion of money from ourcities to war efforts. Yes, we have lunacy in New Orleans. But there are also signs of hope. Whether lunacy or hope will triumph in NewOrleans is yet to be determined. But we appreciate those of you who are working in solidarity with us to try to keep our hope alive.

Some New Orleans News and Jordan's Log

2006-03-27T17:35:00.000-08:00

Fridges Gone, but Cars Remain Post-Katrina

New Orleans Flood-Map Delays Create Angst

Judge Refuses to Delay New Orleans Vote

FEMA to Prep Gulf Coast for Hurricanes

New Orleans Mayor Endorses Rebuilding Plan

Some Katrina Victims Struggle With Guilt

And Jordan Flaherty's Log

"Guantanamo on the Mississippi"

March 10, 2006

Sometimes the injustices here in New Orleans leave me numb. But the continuing debacle of our criminal justice system inspires in me a sense of indignation I thought was lost to cynicism long ago. Ursula Price, a staff investigator for the indigent defense organization A Fighting Chance, has met with several thousand hurricane survivors who were imprisoned at the time of the hurricane, and her stories chill me “I grew up in small town Mississippi,” she tells me. “We had the Klan marching down our main street. But still, I’ve never seen anything like this.”Safe Streets, Strong Communities, a New Orleans-based criminal justice reform coalition that Price also works with, has just released a report based on more than a hundred recent interviews with prisoners who have been locked up since pre-Katrina and are currently spread across thirteen prisons and hundreds of miles. They found the average number of days people had been locked up without a trial was 385 days. One person had been locked up for 1,289 days. None of them have been convicted of any crime.

“I’ve been working in the system for the while, I do capital cases and I’ve seen the worst that the criminal justice system has to offer,” Price told me. “But even I am shocked that there has been so much disregard for the value of these peoples lives, especially people who have not been proved to have done anything wrong.” As lawyers, advocates, and former prisoners stressed to me in interviews over the last couple of weeks, arrest is not the same as conviction. According to a pre-Katrina report from the Metropolitan Crime Commission, 65% of those arrested in New Orleans are eventually released without ever having been charged with any crime. Samuel Nicholas (his friends call him Nick) was imprisoned in Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) on a misdemeanor charge, and was due to be released August 31. Instead, after a harrowing journey of several months, he was released February 1. Nick told me he still shudders when he thinks of those days in OPP.

“We heard boats leaving, and one of the guys said ‘hey man, all the deputies gone,’ Nick relates. “We took it upon ourselves to try to survive. They left us in the gym for two days with nothing. Some of those guys stayed in a cell for or five days. People were hollering, ‘get me out, I don’t want to drown, I don’t want to die,’ we were locked in with no ventilation, no water, nothing to eat. Its just the grace of god that a lot of us survived.”Benny Flowers, a friend of Nick’s from the same Central City neighborhood, was on a work release program, and locked in a different building in the sprawling OPP complex. In his building there were, by his count, about 30 incarcerated youth, some as young as 14 years old. “I don’t know why they left the children like that. Locked up, no food, no water. Why would you do that? They couldn’t swim, most of them were scared to get into the water. We were on work release, so we didn’t have much time left. We weren’t trying to escape, we weren’t worried about ourselves, we were worried about the children. The guards abandoned us, so we had to do it for ourselves. We made sure everyone was secured and taken care of. The deputies didn’t do nothing. It was inmates taking care of inmates, old inmates taking care of young inmates. We had to do it for ourselves.”

Benny Hitchens, another former inmate, was imprisoned for unpaid parking tickets. “They put us in a gym, about 200 of us, and they gave us three trash bags, two for defecation and one for urination. That was all we had for 200 people for two days.”State Department of Corrections officers eventually brought them, and thousands of other inmates, to Hunts Prison, in rural Louisiana, where evacuees were kept in a field, day and night, with no shelter and little or no food and water. “They didn’t do us no kind of justice,” Flowers told me. “We woke up early in the morning with the dew all over us, then in the afternoon we were burning up in the summer sun. There were about 5,000 of us in three yards.”Nick was taken from Hunts prison to Oakdale prison. “At Oakdale they had us on lockdown 23 hours, on Friday and Saturday it was 24 hours. We hadn’t even been convicted yet. Why did we have to be treated bad? Twenty-three and one ain’t nothing nice, especially when you aint been convicted of a crime yet. But here in New Orleans you’re guilty ‘til you’re proven innocent. Its just the opposite of how its supposed to be.”

From reports that Price received, some prisoners had it worse than Oakdale. “Many prisoners were sent to Jena prison, which had been previously shut down due to the abusiveness of the staff there. I have no idea why they thought it was acceptable to reopen it with the same staff. People were beaten, an entire room of men was forced to strip and jump up and down and make sexual gestures towards one another. I cannot describe to you the terror that the young men we spoke to conveyed to us.”According to the report from Safe Streets Strong Communities, the incarcerated people they interviewed described their attorney’s as “passive,” “not interested,” and “absent.” Interviewers were told that “attorneys acted as functionaries for the court rather than advocates for the poor people they represented….the customs of the criminal court excused – and often encouraged – poor policing and wrongful arrests. The Orleans Indigent Defender Program acted as a cog in this system rather than a check on its dysfunction.”

Pre-Katrina, the New Orleans public defender system was already dangerously overloaded, with 42 attorneys and six investigators. Today, New Orleans has 6 public defenders, and one investigator. And these defenders are not necessarily full-time, nor committed to their clients. One of those attorneys is known to spend his days in court working on crossword puzzles instead of talking to his clients. All of these attorneys are allowed to take an unlimited number of additional cases for pay. In most cases, these attorneys have been reported to do a much more vigorous job on behalf of their paid clients.“We have a system that was broken before Katrina,” Price tells me, “that was then torn apart, and is waiting to be rebuilt. Four thousand people are still in prison, waiting for this to be repaired. There’s a young man, I speak to his mother every day, who has been in the hole since the storm, and is being abused daily. This boy is 19 years old, and not very big, and he has no lawyer. His mother doesn’t know what to do, and without her son having council, I don’t know what to tell her.”

Pre-hurricane, according to the Safe Streets report, some detainees were brought to a magistrate court shortly after being arrested, “where a public defender was appointed ‘solely for the purposes of this hearing.’ The assigned attorney did not do even the most cursory interview about the arrestee’s ties to the community, charges, or any other information relevant to setting a bond. Other interviewees were brought to a room where they faced a judge on a video screen. These individuals uniformly reported there was no defense lawyer present.” The report continues, “after appointment, (defense attorneys) by and large did not visit the crime scene, did not interview witnesses, did not check out alibis, did not procure expert assistance, did not review evidence, did not know the facts of the case, did not do any legal research, and did not otherwise prepare for trial…with few exceptions, attorneys with the Orleans Indigent Defender program never met with their clients to discuss their case. Appointed council did not take calls from the jail, did not respond to letters or other written correspondence, and generally did not take calls or make appointments with family members…(defenders) frequently did not know the names of their clients.”

“This ain’t just started, its been going on,” Nick tells me. “I want to talk about it, but at the same time it hurts to talk about it. Someone’s gotta start talking about it. It’s not the judge, its not the lawyers, it’s the criminal justice system. Everybody who goes to jail isn’t guilty. You got guys who were drunk in public, treated like they committed murder.”I asked Price what has to happen to fix this system. “First, we establish who was left behind, collect their stories and substantiate them. Next, we’re going to organize among the inmates and former inmates to change the system. The inmates are going to have a voice in what happens in our criminal justice system. If you ask anyone living in New Orleans, the police, the justice system, may be the single most influential element in poor communities. Its what beaks up families, its what keeps people poor.”

How can people from around the US help? “Education, health care, mental health. All these issues that exist in the larger community, exist among the prisoners, and no one is serving them. We need psychiatrists, doctors, teachers, we need all kinds of help,” Price says.“One thing I can’t forget is those children,” Benny Flowers tells me. “Why would they leave those children behind? I’m trying to forget it, but I can’t forget it”Sitting across the table from Benny, Nick is resolute. “I’m making this interview so that things get better,” he tells me. “The prison system, the judicial system, the police. We got to make a change, and we all got to come together as a community to make this change. I want to stop all this harassment and brutality.”

Rescue efforts lead to arrest nightmare for N.O. businessman

2006-03-16T18:07:00.001-08:00

Abdulrahman Zeitoun of New Orleans writes about his experiences rescuing storm victims, and about his arrest and ordeal on suspicion of terrorism and looting:

My name is Abdulrahman Zeitoun. I am the owner of Zeitoun A. Painting Contractors LLC, and Zeitoun Rentals LLC. I have been in business in New Orleans for almost 12 years. I have a very good reputation through out the City of New Orleans, and I am listed with the Better Business Bureau.

I am originally from Syria, and I came to the United States in 1973. I started my life from scratch, and worked my way up to where I am now. I am married to Kathryn M. Richmond, I have 3 daughters and a son with her.

Saturday - August 27, 2005
My wife and kids evacuated from New Orleans due to hurricane Katrina and headed to Baton Rouge. I decided to stay behind to try and minimize any damage that may happen to my property.

Sunday . August 28, 2005
Day 1
By Sunday evening, I lost my electricity and my roof started leaking due to the strong winds and heavy rain.. It seemed like it was raining as much inside my house as it was outside. I quickly went to the kitchen and got as many pots and pans as I could get. I put them under the leaks to contain the damage to the hardwood floors. I dumped water out of those pots and pans all through the night, and didn't stop until Monday afternoon. All I could think of was, man, had I not been here, those floors would have been ruined.

Monday . August 29, 2005
Day 2
The rain finally stopped falling. I looked outside my door and saw that we had a couple of feet of water in the street, and a few trees were down. I went on top of my roof, and saw that Katrina caused roof damage to my sun room and a few other areas on my house. I tried to temporarily patch them as best as I could just incase, it was to rain again. Anyway, after that, I took my canoe and went around the block to see what kind of damage my block had. I greeted a neighbor with his family, saw that more trees were uprooted, and a few power lines were down. I circled the block, then went back home. I spoke to my wife a couple of times on my cell phone, and told her that it was safe to come back. I was very exhausted from constantly draining the water out of the pots and pans, so I turned in for the night and went to sleep.

Tuesday . August 30, 2005
Day 3
I heard a strange noise coming from outside when I woke up so, I went to see what it was. When I looked outside, I saw the water passing in the street . It was moving so very fast, just like a rapid river. It was moving all around my house, and it looked like it was steadily rising. My first thought was the levee had broken. All I could think of was what to do next.

Should I move my vehicles? No, it was too late for that, so I quickly went inside and started bringing things upstairs as fast as I could, like food, water, any necessities. Then, I emptied all of the closets on to the kids beds upstairs and stacked all of the drawers on top of the dressers. I moved some of the kitchen stuff into the upstairs closets, and all of the books on the book shelf up to about 5 feet on top of my daughters' bookshelves and dressers. Then, I stacked the mattresses on top of chairs and end tables, the dining room chairs on top of the dining room table, and one sofa on top of the other.

My wife called and confirmed that the levee did break and to get out of there. I thought if I stayed there, I might be able to take care of my other properties, or even help people if they needed help. The only thing I could do next was wait. The water was moving too fast to go out in my canoe, so I went back inside my house and waited. By evening time, it was too hot and humid to sleep. I tried to call my wife, unfortunately, I couldn't because the cell phone battery died and the house phone wasn't working.

Wednesday . August 31, 2005
Day 4
The water was still rising when I woke up, it was now in my house. Around afternoon, the water finally stopped rising, so I took my canoe, and went out. I saw the same neighbor with his wife and children out on their porch. I asked him if he needed any help. He asked me if I would take him to see his truck on FontaineBleau Dr where he had it parked on the median.

I told him I was going to look at my properties on Claiborne so I wouldn't be able to come right back. He said he didn't mind then he climbed in my canoe and we started up Vincennes Pl. We reached the place on Fontainebleau Dr. where he had his truck parked. It was submerged. We continued up Nashville where we saw an elderly woman and her husband calling out to us for help. I told them I was afraid to put them in the canoe. It was small and might flip over and that we would go look for help and come back for them.

My neighbor and I continued heading up Nashville Ave. until we heard this muffled scream coming from somewhere. We couldn't find where it was coming from. I think the only reason we heard it was because the streets were so quiet. We yelled out to it. Asking "Where are You?" The muffled voice was found coming from a house on Nashville Ave. I hopped out the canoe and swam to the door. I tried to open it, but it was stuck. The lady inside kept yelling "Please help me!" "Please help me!" I kicked her door and finally got it open.

I found this old lady in a one story house, floating on her back, holding on to a piece of furniture calling for help. I told her I came to help her. She said she can't swim. I grabbed hold of her and tried to pull her out of the house. She was a heavy set woman, so it was very hard. When I got her out of her house, I told her to hang on to her porch railing. She said "Please don't leave me, Please don't leave me." I told her ," I can't put you in the canoe, it might flip," I promised her that we would be back with help. She yelled " I can't hold on very long. Please hurry, please hurry!"

I got back in my canoe and we continued up Nashville to look for help. As much as I was happy to have this little canoe, was as much as I hated that it was so small.We found many rescue boats going back and forth from Medical Memorial Hospital towards Jefferson Hwy. We tried to get them to stop. No one would. We called for them, begging for help. Not one of them stopped for us!Three men on one boat finally did stop and asked us if we needed help. I took him to where the lady was. She was still holding on to her porch railing. We tried to get her on the boat. She exclaimed she is a diabetic and couldn't use her feet, and we couldn't lift her cause she was too heavy. Then someone suggested that we use a ladder. The lady said that she had one by her garage. One of the men on the boat swam and got the ladder. Then we realized it wouldn't do any good because she couldn't climb.

One of the men suggested that maybe if we use the ladder as a stretcher, we could lift her up and put her on the boat. That was a great idea. With all of our might, and with much difficulty, we tried and succeeded to get her on the boat. On our way to pick up the first couple we met, we heard people calling for help. We searched for them all over until we finally found them on a little side street between Nashville and Octavia. We went to them and saw that there was an elderly couple. We picked them up and put them on the boat. Then we went to the first elderly couple we met.While we were getting the elderly lady on the boat, she told us that she has a canoe, and we could have it if we need it. We said our thank you's, and goodbyes - then the men took the people to safety.

My neighbor tied the lady's canoe to my canoe. I dropped him off at his home with the canoe, then I went home. I think he left with his family, cause I didn't see him or his family after that. After a little while I took off to my properties on S. Claiborne Ave. I saw that a few of my tenants, and neighbors stayed behind as well. I saw that the downstairs tenant was going into the upstairs tenants apartments. I asked him what he was doing there, he said he had permission. He tried to salvage some of his things by storing them upstairs. I asked him if the phone was working, and he said that it was. So I called my wife. She told me she was very unhappy in Baton Rouge, and wanted to go to her friends house in Arizona. I told her to enroll the kids in school as soon as possible because, we had no idea when they would be coming home.

While I was there, I found my neighbors German shepherd. We put her on the porch of the upstairs apartment and fed her. After this, I went home. It was very dark at night since there were no street lights. Thank God I made it safely. Other than a few barking dogs, the neighbor hood was pretty quiet.

Thursday . September 1, 2005
Day 5
As I was getting in the canoe to go to my houses on S. Claiborne Ave., I noticed that the dogs were still barking. I decided to look for them. I found them at the house diagonally across the street from my house. I knocked on the door. No one answered. I thought that perhaps the owner of the house might be upstairs because of the water. So I climbed the tree and got on to the balcony. The dogs were still barking inside the house. I knocked on the balcony door. No one answered. Then I walked around the balcony, looking in the windows. I did not see anyone. However, I did see 2 medium dogs in a cage with no food or water. I went back to the balcony door, pushed it open, and then took the cage outside on the balcony and let them out. They looked so skinny and weak. I went home to get some food and water for them. When I brought them the food, they were yelping, like a "gimmie, gimmie, gimmie" yelp. They scarfed that food down like there was no tomorrow. The poor things were making so much noise when they were eating, that the dogs next door started barking.

I went to the house next door to look for the other dogs, but there was no way to get in this house. So I found a large board that was floating in the yard next door. I took this board, and put it on the balcony on one house and on top of the carport on the other house. I walked across the board to the other side. I looked in the window, and saw 2 big dogs. They were in much better shape than the first 2 dogs I fed. I opened the window and called for the dogs. One of the dogs came to me, but the other one would run away when he saw me. I went home, got more food and water, and brought it to the dogs. The one dog woofed that food as fast as it could.The other dog refused to come and eat while I was there so I put food in the window for it, then I left.

I headed for S. Claiborne Ave. to call my wife. I saw my tenants from my house on the corner of Claiborne Ave. He said he wanted to leave. I brought him to a rescue station on St. Charles Ave and Napoleon Ave. I went back to my property on S. Claiborne and called my wife. She told me one of my neighbors from Vincennes Pl. called and asked if I could check out his house. After I finished my phone call, I headed back towards Dart St. I stopped at the mans house and accessed the damage. I saw that some of his trees were down, and the there was a lot of water in his house. He has a raised basement house and the water completely covered the basement section of his house and went up towards the windows on the second floor.I continued home. When I got there I got some food and water for the dogs, and fed them. Then, I went back home.

Friday . September 2, 2005
Day 6
Friday morning, I got up, went and fed the dogs, then headed towards S. Claiborne Ave. It was a windy day. it made it hard for me to row my little canoe. When I got there I called my wife, and my brother who was in Spain. They begged me to leave and then asked me how long I plan on staying there. I said as soon as I find out what is going to happen to our city. Meaning, if it was going to be a while for the water to leave the city, then I will leave. If it will only be a few days longer before the water goes down then I will stay. They asked me about food, I told them I had plenty. My wife did all of her shopping before she left for Baton Rouge. So my house was stocked with canned and frozen food.

While I was at this house, my neighbor from Dart St., who is a professors at Tulane called me and asked if I would check on his fraternity. He was in charge of this Fraternity and was worried about it. He wanted to know what the condition of it was. I finished using the phone, so I decided I would go and check on his fraternity on Burthe St. It seemed like the further I got out, the lower the water became. By the time I reached Burthe St., the water was about less than a foot deep. I saw that there were a few fallen trees, but the damage was not so bad in that area. I went inside the fraternity. I met up with an old friend. He was very happy to see me. He said that he had been there since the first day of the flood. I asked him if he wanted to come with me or stay there. He quickly decided to leave that place and go with me.

By the time we left there, the wind had gotten stronger. We turned back towards Claiborne Ave. When we got to my rental properties, I saw my neighbor who lived caddie-corner from my house. He asked me for help. He said he was out of his medication, and needed medical help. He had an elderly lady with him. She was taking care of him, but she needed medical help to. I told him, I would go and look for someone to bring him to safety. I promised him I would be back with help when I was leaving. He is a pastor, and he was in a wheel chair. He knew me for my word. He trusted me. I could not let him down.

I had a very hard time steering my canoe to the Memorial Medical Plaza. I finally made it. I tried to go inside. There was a lot of military men there. I told them about the pastor who needed help. They were very, very, cold, cruel and mean. They in a very ugly tone, told me they can't do anything for him, and I need to go St. Charles and Napoleon Ave. where the medical station was. I told them I can't go that far. The wind is making my canoe very difficult to steer my canoe. Not only that, it started sprinkling. I asked someone if they could come and get him. They are the military. With all of the technology they have, they could have called someone for this man. But THEY REFUSED! THEY REFUSED TO CALL FOR HELP FOR THIS MAN WHO WAS SICK AND IN A WHEEL CHAIR!

I felt like I had to do it myself. I had no choice. It took me a long time to get to St. Charles Ave and Napoleon Ave where the medical station was. But, I finally made it. When I got there, I saw many more military men. I spoke to someone, who told me to speak to someone else, who referred me to someone in charge. I gave him all of the information for the pastor. He told me he would get someone over there to the pastors house. The man in charge said he would. I believed him, cause he wrote the information down in his book. I left there and headed back to Claiborne Ave. and made a few phone calls. I saw at that time that my tenant had obtained a small motor boat. I asked him where he got it. He said someone gave it to him so he could help people in need of help. I thought, hey, that's great. As I was leaving, I thought I would check on the pastor to see if he and the lady had been picked up. That man was still sitting there since the time I left him. he was sitting in the rain on his porch, in his wheel chair waiting for me, because I said, I would bring him help. All those hours he waited. No one came for him. That doctor lied to me. I went and got my tenant because he had bigger boat than mine. We tried lifting the man and his wheel chair up. It was very hard, but with all 3 of us (me, my tenant, and old friend) we managed to lift the man, with great difficulty and put him in the small motor boat. He was yelling "Thank You! Thank You!" Then we helped the older lady in the boat as well. We asked him where he wanted to go. He said, anywhere that he could get help. We took them to the medical station on St Charles Ave, and Napoleon Ave. We left them at the medical station, and I took my friend to my house. When I went to give water and food to the dogs, I saw that one of the smaller dogs had been blown off the balcony by the wind. He was holding on to the tree branch with his teeth. I picked him up and put him back inside. I gave all of the dogs food and water, then went back home.

Saturday . September 3, 2005
Day 7
I made my usual rounds of feeding the dogs, and heading up to my properties on S. Claiborne Ave. Every time I would go to S. Claiborne I would take a different route. Hoping that I would be lucky enough to find someone in need of help. I mean, the feeling you get when you help someone is indescribable. This day, I took a really long route to S. Claiborne Ave. I went to FontaineBleau to Napoleon Ave, then from Napoleon Ave, to S. Claiborne. I found with box of water in the street, picked it up and put it in my boat. I also found a fog horn. Which I used when I would pass through neighborhoods. I would hope that someone would hear it and call out if they needed help.

When I arrived at my house on S. Claiborne Ave, I saw that the neighbor who left her German shepherd, came back for her. I invited everyone to my house to eat. The meat in the freezer had thawed out by now, and if I didn't cook it soon, it would have all been ruined. So everyone came to my house, and I started the barbecue grill on top of the flat roof at my house. My wife must have bought out the store. She had all kinds of meat in the freezer. We had lamb, beef, shrimp, fish, and a bunch of other stuff. I cooked enough food for 50 people. We ate all that our stomachs could hold. I gave everyone plates of food to take back with them, then I fed a lot of it to the dogs. By this time, it was all I had left to feed them anyway. Trust me, they didn't seem to mind. I saw a huge fire while I was on the roof. I got in my canoe and headed in the direction of the fire. I thought either my warehouse/office was on fire or it was one of the neighbors places. When I got there, I saw the entire block next to my office was on fire. There was a fire station just 2 blocks down. But no one was there to put out the fire. The staff must have re-located. The fire was out of control and there was nothing I could do so, I went back to my house on Dart Street.

Sunday . September 4, 2005
Day 8
When I got up, I went and fed the dogs, and gave them water. I went home and did a few things around the house, and then relaxed for the rest of the day. I did not venture out on this day.

Monday . September 5, 2005 .
Day 9
I got up early, gave water and food to the dogs, got in my canoe, and traveled to Claiborne. When we got there, I called my wife. She told me she was now in Arizona. I asked her if she enrolled the kids in school. She didn't have a chance at that time. She arrived in Arizona late Sunday afternoon, and Monday was labor Day so the schools were closed. We spoke for a while, then she said they might be forcing people out of the city by military force. I told her I feel like I am of some use here, but, if they tell me I have to leave then, I will. She also told me that a client of mine called and asked if I could go and check out their house on N. Hagen. I told her I would go tomorrow and look at it. She also asked me if I could find their cat. It went outside before the storm, and they couldn't find it before they left. I told her to tell them I would. I went back to Dart St, fed the dogs left over bar-b-que, then went home, ate, and relaxed. We really didn't get much sleep the past few days. There were many helicopters flying above our roof at a very short distance. They were very noisy.

Tuesday- September 6, 2005
Day 10
Tuesday morning, I fed the dogs, then headed to N. Hagen to my clients house. I passed my cousins house on Canal St., I didn't see his car, so I continued on to N. Hagen. On my way to N. Hagen, I saw a military boat with some journalist on it. They stopped an asked me questions, like why am I here, and who am I with. I told them I am here for anyone who needs me, and I work with everybody. Anyway, Some of the areas we traveled in had much water, other's had no water at all. In these areas we had to carry the canoe. It was very heavy for being so small. My friend accidentally dropped his side of the canoe. When he did this, my side somehow, twisted, and started hurting. When I got to N. Hagen, I looked for my client's cat. I couldn't find it. Then I started looking at the damage. I saw that he had a couple of feet of water in his house, and a couple of broken windows. After checking on my clients house on N. Hagen, I headed towards, S Claiborne Ave.

I saw a helicopter hovering in one spot for a few minutes. he was close to the ground. I didn't want to go close to the helicopter cause, every time I did, my canoe would spin around and almost flip over. So I waited for it to leave. When he left, I saw why they were hovering that area. They were marking the areas where the dead bodies were. This was the first time I saw dead bodies in our area. I went back to my house on Claiborne. As I walked up the stairs, I heard the phone ring. It was my wife. She was worried about me. It was unusual for me to go this long in the day without calling her. I told her about my clients house, and about the bodies I saw. She asked me if it was anyone we knew. I told her I didn't have the heart to look. After I spoke to my wife, I spoke to my brother in Spain. When I was finished, I tried the water to see if it was working. To my surprise, it was. I quickly took a shower. It felt so good to be clean. When I was finished, I told my friend that he should take a shower before the water runs out.

When I entered the area where the phone was, I saw a strange man there. I asked my tenant who he was, and what he was doing here. My tenant said that he was with the search and rescue team, and he needed to use the phone. I told him, "Oh, ok." We heard people outside. My tenant went to talk to them. It was the military. They asked him if we needed water. We told him no thank you, we have some. Then they jumped out the boat, went inside the house with their machine guns, and they were yelling at us to get in the boat. One of the military persons searched the house, for what? Only God knows. They treated us like hard criminals. They asked to see our ID cards, we showed it to them, they didn't even look at it. They only returned it to us. I told them I own this house, and my tenant was trying to prove to them that he lived there. They didn't care. They forced us out by gunpoint. We asked them where they were taking us. They said, "talk to my boss." We were taken to St. Charles Ave and Napoleon Ave. As soon as we got out of the boat, the military personnel jumped on us in a very rough manner, and handcuffed us. We were treated very, very badly. Then they put us in a white van. We asked the military who were they and why are they doing this to us. They said they were from Indiana, and they were only following orders, and doing their job.

They brought us to the bus station. We saw lots and lots of military personnel with many different types of weapons/guns. They made us sit down and wait to be as they called it "processed". They took our fingerprints, and photos. They had us under maximum security. We did not know what was going on. There were guards from Angola and New York prisons that were running the bus station like a prison camp. After processing us, they put us in a make shift chicken cage. Actually, it was the bus terminals that they turned into prison cells. It looked like a giant chicken cage. It was filthy dirty. They left us there for 3 days on this stinky, oily, filthy dirty floor. With no blankets or pillows. I swear, had we been in a prison in Afghanistan or Iraq, we would have been treated better. Somehow, I got a splinter the size of a tooth pick in my foot. It was the size of a tooth pick in width, and about half the length. It was getting infected, and caused me quite a bit of pain. I asked them if I could see a doctor. They refused me. Every day, I asked for a doctor. the splinter was lodged in my foot. I couldn't get it out. I saw a doctor helping other prisoners. I called out to him for help. He yelled at me in a very rude voice, that he was not a doctor. But he was a liar. He was a doctor. He was wearing green clothes, and he had a stethoscope. No one would help me.

On the third day I was in this hell hole, they fed us an MRE that came with a small glass bottle of Tabasco. I broke that bottle on that nasty floor, picked up a shard of glass, then cut my foot open where the splinter was. The skin had grown over the splinter. My foot was infected. So much puss came out. Very painfully, I managed to get the splinter out. I squeezed out as much pus as I could, and hoped for the best. We would ask the soldiers why we were here. One would say because of looting, another would say because of terrorism, and another would say something else. They were trying to stick us with whatever they could.Later that afternoon, they moved us to Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabrielle. They so called "processed" us again. They filled out a paper on each of us. It was asking us if we had any allergies to food/medication. We told her that we do not eat pork. We are Muslim, and it is forbidden in our religion. She also asked us if we had any medical problems. I told her about the left side of my body. I was in a great deal of pain from it. I didn't even bother telling her about my foot. Would not have done me any good anyway. She wrote this down in my file.

They brought us to a maximum security section of the prison. I asked if I could use a phone to call my wife. They refused me. Flat-out told me no. They treated us like we were hardened criminals. They put 3 of us in a cell the size of my bathroom. The cell was only 8'x8'. They had on open toilet in the room. So, everyone would see me use the bathroom. There was no privacy on the toilet. The pain in my left side was hurting so much. I tried to control it as much as I could. I asked to see a doctor. I was refused. I continued to ask for a doctor. they told me I had to fill out a form. So I did. A week went by, and still no doctor. I asked where is the doctor. They said I need to fill out another form, because they lost the last one. This was all a bunch of bullsh*t to me. I was suffering. I was in so much pain, I had to grit my teeth to stop from screaming. I filled out another form, and turned it in. I continued to ask for a doctor. Since a doctor wouldn't come, I asked for a Tylenol. They said I need to see a doctor to get any medication. But I couldn't see a doctor cause not one of them would come to me. Another week went bye. Still no doctor. Within the first week, an individual from homeland security came to us and interviewed us. He asked me a lot of questions. Then he said, I was clean, and he had no interest in me, and never has had any interest in me, nor my friend. I kept asking for the phone. After about 2 weeks they said we could finally use the phone.

There were 50 people trying to use the phone. Each one of them was allowed 3-5 minutes only, and we were only able to use the phone in the late ours of the night. Bye the time it was my turn, I had fallen asleep. I must have dozed off waiting. They did not wake us. They simply went to the next cell. In the morning, I asked for my turn to use the phone. They said I missed it. I was really upset. I knew my wife was worried. I needed to find a way to contact her and let her know where I was. But everyone I begged/pleaded to call my wife, just told me no. I had to talk to her. Oh, my God I was in so much pain. Still no doctor came. The guard told me it takes up to 3 days after the doctor gets your form before he will see you. It has been over two weeks. Two weeks and we weren't even allowed to leave our cells. We ate, slept, and crapped in one room. We didn't see the light of day. Also, every meal they served us, had pork on it. I was unable to eat. I was very lucky when they didn't put pork on the grits. Otherwise, I starved. They served pork just about 2-3 times a day. They knew I couldn't eat this. So many days, I did starve.

The next night I stayed awake the whole night waiting to use the phone. By the time it was my turn, they cancelled the phone service to us. I did not know that. The guard came to me when he saw me awake in the late night/early morning and asked me why I was still awake. I told him I was waiting to use the phone. He said the time was finished. I asked him to please let me use the phone. He spoke with another guard, and they agreed to let me use the phone. I tried to call my wife, but cell phones do not accept collect calls from prison. I felt I lost all hope.The first court date I had, the public defender told me not to say a word. Just listen. The judge came out and set the bail to $75,000. he said I was being charged with looting, and possessions of stolen goods. I couldn't believe they were charging me with that. I didn't have anything on my possession except my wallet. Which they took. They were just trying to stick us with anything they could. Since the terrorist accusations didn't work, they were going to pin us as looters. This was a bunch of bull.

Also, $75,000. for a bond. They knew that no one could come up with that kind of money. No banks were open in New Orleans, and the city was upside down. I needed to get in touch with my wife so she could get the papers and prove that this was my house. The Judge told me, that he was not here to hear me. Only to set a bond. Even if we did have the money, there was no place to pay the bond. There was not one in existence at that time. There was no bond system for New Orleans prisoners at that time. I felt I was really being screwed.The next court date, my real lawyer was there. Someone must have called my wife. She had MY lawyer there. However, there was no court system set up, so not much could be done for me at that time. I was very disappointed again. He said he could try to get the bond lowered, and the only way to get out was to pay the bond, or put up property. Still, there was no place to pay any bond at that time.

Finally, on the third week I was there, they decided to improve our living conditions. They moved us to a minimum security level of the prison, and we were now allowed to go outside for a couple of hours a day. Still, no doctor looked at my side. Which left me moaning through out the night, and sometimes I could deal with the pain. Other times, I couldn't. I can't believe it. I constantly asked for medical treatment. They didn't give me any. What did I do to deserve this treatment? Why were they treating me like this? I truly feel in my heart that I was discriminated against. Why else would they arrest me?Finally, my wife was able to come to New Orleans. She dug through a collapsed building to get the property documents to help get me out. On Thursday she signed over our the warehouse as collateral for my bond. I still wasn't released that day. They made me wait till Friday. They made me stay a total of 23 days in that place. I feel sorry for my friends that are still in there under bogus charges.While I was being released, I asked for my wallet. The Hunt Correctional Center said they didn't have it. they said it was in New Orleans.

All I had on me for ID was a prison ID. I couldn't travel with this. When my cousin, and wife came to pick me up, they took me to his apartment, where my Aunt, Uncle, and cousin's wife were waiting for me with delicious food. After I showered, I ate, then I was taken to Our Lady Of the Lake Hospital. I lost 15 pounds while I was in prison due to the food they were trying to serve me.They did blood work, and X-rays on me. It was documented that I have a torn muscle. I still suffer from this till now. I have been seen by three real doctors and I am on medication. I suffer so much from this. I think it would not have gotten so bad had they let me see a doctor at least one of the 23 days they kept me in there.

On that following Monday, My wife and I went to the bus station where they kept me. I asked for my wallet. At first, they said they couldn't find it. Then they said they need it for evidence. My wife did not except this. They told her she needed to speak with the District Attorney. She saw Mr. Eddie Jordan there and asked him for the wallet. he refused to give it to her. So she went in and fussed a little. She told them that I couldn't travel with a prison ID. She said I was Arab, and they might think I was a terrorist. Finally someone went and got my ID, green card, social security card, and drivers license. They stole my wallet, and all of my credit cards. They either kept, stole, or lost, my wallet, visa card, master card, Lowe's, and home Depot cards, and a lot of business cards. Well, at least I got my Green card back, and my driver's license.You know, the sad thing about all of this is, those dogs, that I saved from starvation, died. I pleaded with the people who arrested us to please take care of the dogs. I gave him the address where they were. He wrote them down and said he would send someone to get them. HE LIED. Those dogs died. When my wife and I went back to our house on Dart St, we saw the owners of the dogs. I told them what happened and I asked about the dogs. They wondered why there was a board leading from their house to the other. They thanked me for taking care of their dogs, and then they told me they found them dead in the house. They also found the other 2 dogs from the neighbors house. They were dead too. All of this could have been avoided.

The tenants apartment had been looted after we were arrested. All of her Jewelry had been stolen, along with the downstairs tenants laptop computer and a few other items. All the trouble he went thru to save what little bit of stuff he did have, was all in vain. He saved it from the flood, but had it stolen by the looters after we were arrested. My family, neighbors, and friends call me a hero. The military that were in this city called me a terrorist. When that didn't stick, they switched it to looter. What a bunch of liars.My wife tried numerous times to reach me. They refused her all of her rights. She was not allowed to speak to me, visit me, or anything else. They said she had to speak with the District Attorney. She left many messages for them to call her back. Eddie Jordan never called her back. She fought for me to see a doctor. Yet no one ever came. She wasn't even allowed to see me at the trial/bond hearing. It was all done at the prison. No one was allowed to see me.

She was told to come to court for me, she even brought people with her. No one was allowed in. I wasn't even convicted of anything. Yet I was treated like I had killed someone. My rights were violated, and so were my wife's. It is suppose to be innocent until proven guilty. In my case it was guilty until proven innocent. My wife asked me if I was read the Miranda Rights. You know, they didn't even do that. I guess that is why they didn't give me any rights. If they didn't read me my rights, then, I guess, that means I didn't have any.

Nothing Stops Mardi Gras

2006-03-09T21:30:00.000-08:00

by Jordan Flaherty

In New Orleans’ Central Business District, a prominent billboard advertising Southern Comfort liquor proclaims “Nothing Stops Mardi Gras. Nothing.” The festive ad haunts me, seeming callous and cruel, "you've faced a huge loss, and now we want to use your city and cultural traditions to sell a lot of alcohol."Citywide, Mardi Gras is everywhere, but not without controversy. Many are angry at the idea of a huge party taking place while bodies are still being recovered in Ninth Ward houses, And in diaspora communities such as Atlanta, there is a lot of anger at the idea of a huge party going one while they are kept out. A past leader of the Zulu Mardi Gras Krewe even sued his organization (unsuccessfully) to stop them from parading this year.

I have mixed feelings. I love Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Not the parades and Bourbon Street you see on TV, but the other Mardi Gras that the media doesn’t show. There are Mardi Gras traditions for nearly every neighborhood and community, a series of cultural customs ranging from King Cake and the lewd displays of Krewe Du Vieux to the dogs parading in Barkus; the clown punks and shopping cart battles of Krewe Du Poux; the fabulous costumes of the St Ann Parade; and more than anything the cultural traditions of Black Mardi Gras, encompassing everything from Zulu, the one Black major parade, to neighborhood celebrations involving the masked Mardi Gras Indians, Skeletons, and Baby Dolls.I spent a recent Sunday evening participating in an annual tradition called Indian practice in New Orleans’ Central City neighborhood. As preparation for the music, dancing, and rituals involved on Mardi Gras day, more than a hundred people from the community packed close and sweaty into a small bar, singing, drumming and dancing to songs that everyone knew every word to, the room all singing and chanting together the classic song of Black Mardi Gras, Indian Red: “Here comes the Big Chief / Big Chief of the Nation / the whole wild creation / He won't bow down / not on that ground / you know I love you hear you call, my Indian Red.”

In the midst of this crowd, I could forget for a moment all the devastation outside. However, when I asked Nick, who had spent his life here, living in this neighborhood that decades ago was filled with Black-owned jazz clubs and businesses, how many of his neighbors were back, he estimated less than 10 percent. While official estimates are higher, the fact remains that even in a Black neighborhood like Central City, which was not heavily damaged or flooded like the now-famous Ninth Ward, people have still not been able to return. A range of obstacles, including redlining by insurance companies, the mass layoffs of city workers, closed schools and hospitals, and continued fear and uncertainty about the safety of the levees surrounding the city, has kept people out.During a recent Sunday service at a church a few blocks away, the Reverend Jesse Jackson asked the 500 people in the room how many of them had evacuated. Every hand went up. He then asked how many still had family and loved ones who had not returned, and again every single hand in the room went up.

Adding to the emptiness, Calliope and Magnolia, two public housing developments in the neighborhood that were mostly undamaged, remain deliberately empty; most residents have not been permitted to return.In fact, this week our at-large city council representative, Oliver Thomas, declared publicly that many of the residents should not be allowed to return. Reinforcing the stereotype that people are poor because they don’t want to work, Thomas stated, "There's just been a lot of pampering, and at some point you have to say, 'No, no, no, no, no,” and added, "we don't need soap opera watchers right now."

At the same meeting, Nadine Jarmon, the appointed chief of the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) declared Thomas’ position reflected their policy, adding if “they don't express a willingness to work, or they don't have a training background, or they weren't working before Katrina, then (we’re) making a decision to pass over those people.” These statements were made while, six months after the hurricane, thousands of undamaged units sit empty, thousands more homeless New Orleanians face eviction from FEMA hotels on March 1, and tens of thousands of renters that lived in damaged homes have no where to move to, and no governmental officials seem to care if they come back. In the midst of this crisis, Thomas, two other council members, and the chief of HANO blamed the victims. What about single parents and caretakers? What about the elderly, injured or disabled? Don’t they deserve housing, even if they don’t have training or an extensive job history? Why are only public housing tenants asked if they intend to work?At a recent demonstration organized by New Orleans Housing Emergency Action Team (NO-HEAT), former residents of the St Bernard Housing Development, many of them visiting for the day from their exile in Houston, expressed their desire to return to their homes. One resident proclaimed that he was going to move back into his home as a form of civil disobedience. While his action is inspiring, the idea that it requires civil disobedience to move back into your own undamaged home is profoundly disturbing. Is this what we’ve come to?

At a recent presentation at Tulane University, Thomas Murphy of the Urban Land Institute spoke about the Institute’s recommendations to the city, including their plan to develop the (wealthier, whiter) areas of the city on high ground first. He also recommended three books to the mostly student audience, including The Prince by Machiavelli and Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky, saying, “our mission should be to stand up for those with no voice.” When I asked him how he reconciled his passion for the voiceless with his recommendations to build up wealthy areas first, and why he wasn’t standing up for renters or those in public housing, he evaded the question with comments about a “criminal sociology” that develops in public housing.The victims are being blamed. People of this city, who have contributed so much to the culture of this country, who have created a culture that is now being enjoyed by tourists and others, have always been left out of the profits, and are once again shut out, and put last in line. As Loyola Law Clinic Director Bill Quigley has said, “what if we turned the priorities upside down, instead of saying that we are going to start with building up the high ground, what if we prioritized restoring housing and justice for those who had the least to begin with?”

Even for many of us who lived in areas with minimal flooding, like my relatively privileged block in the Seventh Ward just off the high ground of Esplanade Avenue, the coming months hold a mostly unspoken fear. We have little faith in the levees, little faith in the Army Corps of Engineers, little faith in our government. As one friend who lives a few blocks away from me said to me yesterday, “it’s just a flip of the coin, and it’ll be us next time.”For many of us privileged enough to be here, its bittersweet to see another Mardi Gras. It’s a time of year we used to look forward to, and while there is much to mourn, we also want to embrace our loved ones, embrace our city, and maybe even embrace the decadence. Meanwhile, the city rolls on – plans are made, funds are distributed, some neighborhoods are declared unviable, more people are evicted, and that Southern Comfort billboard taunts us, “Nothing stops Mardi Gras. Nothing.”

Jordan Flaherty is a resident of New Orleans, an organizer with New Orleans Network and an editor of Left Turn Magazine. His previous articles from New Orleans are at http://www.leftturn.org/articles/SpecialCollections/katrina.aspx

Imprisoned in New Orleans

2006-03-09T21:26:00.000-08:00

By Jordan Flaherty and Tamika Middleton
From Colorlines Magazine (www.colorlines.com)
February 2006

When hurricane Katrina hit, there was no evacuation plan for 7,000 prisoners in the New Orleans city jail, generally known as Orleans Parish Prison (OPP), or the approximate 1,500 prisoners in nearby jails. According to first-hand accounts gathered by advocates, prisoners were abandoned in their cells while the water was rising around them. They were subjected to a heavily armed “rescue” by state prison guards that involved beatings, mace and being left in the sun with no water or food for several days, followed by a transfer to state maximum security prisons. Although their treatment brought national attention to the condition of prisoners in Louisiana, and comparison to prison abuse scandals from Attica to Abu Ghraib, local government officials have attempted to dodge accountability and continue with business as usual.

Raphael Schwartz, a 26-year-old Missouri man arrested and imprisoned for public intoxication in New Orleans on August 27, was sprayed with mace and abandoned by officers in a locked cell with seven other prisoners. According to papers filed by the ACLU of Louisiana, the man had no ventilation and nothing to eat or drink for four days. Quintano Williams, a 31-year-old office manager picked up on marijuana charges just before the storm hit, testified in ACLU papers to being abandoned for days and then relocated to Hunts Correction Facility, a rural Louisiana maximum security prison, where he was left with thousands of detainees on a football field. There, he witnessed stabbings, but, he said, prison staff “did not interfere with anything that was going on as long as people did not try to get out of the area.” Rachel Francois was arrested in mid-August, and as far as her family was able to discover never had charges filed against her. “We tried to bail her out,” her mother, Althea Francois, said. “It was the day before Katrina, and the bail bonds places were all closed. If they had been open, she would have been released that day. Instead, we could not get her released until two months later.” Francois, a prisoner-rights advocate, searched for two weeks before she found out where her daughter was being held. Rachel and other women were taken to Hunts and then Angola, an all-male prison. “When I found out she was at Angola prison, just the idea really broke my heart,” her mother said. “She didn’t have a bed until the last few days she was there. She had no food for four days. She saw them throw food at the men like they were animals, but even then they didn’t give the women anything. The women were having panic attacks and were in fear for their lives."

Most of the people trapped in this brutal web of governmental abuse and neglect would have been released within a few weeks even if convicted. However, as of this writing several months later, many remain locked in maximum security prisons such as Angola, Louisiana’s notorious former slave plantation. The flooding of New Orleans showed vividly the results of local, state and federal governments’ misplaced priorities, as well as the privatizing and militarizing of relief. In the months after the disaster, while the people of New Orleans wanted to return and rebuild their city, what they got instead was “security.” Hundreds of National Guard troops, as well as police forces from across the U.S. and private security forces including Blackwater, Wackenhut and an Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International began patrolling the nearly empty city. Long before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was hit by hurricanes of disinvestment, deindustrialization, corruption and neglect. Louisiana has the highest rate of incarceration in the country—816 sentenced prisoners per 100,000 state residents. By comparison, Texas comes in a distant second place with 694 per 100,000.

Although Blacks make up 32 percent of Louisiana’s population, they constitute 72 percent of the state’s prison population. Pre-Katrina, New Orleans industry had already left, and most remaining work involved low-paying, transient, insecure jobs in the service economy. Orleans Parish Prison was the eighth largest jail in the country, made up of several buildings located in Midcity New Orleans. The population of the jail was predominantly people from the city’s many low-income communities and communities of color. The jail also rented out cells to the federal government to house immigration detainees and other federal prisoners. However, most of the prisoners left behind as the jail flooded had not been convicted of any crime, but were being held pre-sentencing. Lawyers and researchers working on behalf of the prisoners say that most were accused of misdemeanors, such as minor drug possession, parking violations and public drunkenness. Mary Howell is a civil rights lawyer who has been active in defense of prisoners from OPP for years. “Last year, 80,000 people came into OPP as arrestees,” she said. “Very few were eligible for rehabilitation programs. This prison has mostly been warehousing people. We’ve suffered under a policy where the city builds a huge jail that is then required to be filled with human beings, or else it's a waste of money.”

“Being a sheriff in Louisiana is one of the most powerful positions in the state,” adds Howell.
“There's virtually no oversight. At the time of the hurricane they had about 1,200 employees under the Sheriff in Orleans Parish. Those employees, under state law can also be used by the sheriff for political campaigns. That adds up to a political empire and a patronage empire.” Ursula Price is a staff investigator for A Fighting Chance, a nonprofit organization that works for indigent defense in Louisiana, as well as a part of Safe Streets Strong Communities, a coalition dedicated to transforming New Orleans' criminal justice system. She has been working around the clock since the hurricane hit, despite losing everything she owned in the flooding of New Orleans. “Investigating what happened to these prisoners and where they are is not supposed to be our job. This should be the city’s concern,” she said. Initial reports gathered from testimony of both inmates and guards put the number of inmates unaccounted for anywhere between a dozen and several hundred. Sheriff Marlin Gusman has been sticking with an official statement that, "all inmates housed in Orleans Parish were safely evacuated from our 10 facilities by boat and transported to state and parish facilities by bus." He also suggested to media that reports of abuse come from “disgruntled” inmates who “lie.”

Human Rights Watch and ACLU responded that these reports are consistent from many different prisoners and also match with reports from interviews with guards at OPP. In late November, Gusman’s office quietly put out arrest warrants for 14 inmates, while still denying that any were missing, other than two who had been recaptured. The defense of these prisoners has been managed by just a few organizations and individuals. Phyllis Mann, a lawyer from rural Alexandria, Louisiana, found that many of the OPP prisoners had been moved to a prison near her, and she started visiting them. According to Price, Mann dropped everything in her private practice to dedicate herself to their legal defense—and had 12 former prisoners living in her house. Official negligence is just the beginning of the obstacles advocates have faced. “Immediately after the flooding, the governor issued an order suspending the clock on court proceedings,” Price said. The state no longer had a time limit—formerly 60 days—under which to present charges or release prisoners. “It's stopped due process,” Price continued. “Almost all of the public defenders have been laid off. There are only seven left in Orleans Parish. Meanwhile, in trying to defend these folks, we have massive travel costs and almost no funding.” For the prisoners, there are other hardships. “These are Katrina survivors, but they’re not getting their FEMA money or Red Cross aid or food stamps," said Price. " They’ve lost contact with their families; many have children and they don’t know where they are.” Ross Angle, who has since been released, told Human Rights Watch, “Picture waking up everyday in a prison somewhere—you don't even know where you are—knowing you were supposed to be free, not knowing how long they were going to keep you there. Not knowing if it would ever end. After they moved me, I kept asking for someone to look at my case, and they just kept telling me, ‘We're waiting on the DOC guys, we don't know anything.' If my lady wasn't seven months pregnant, calling them everyday and yelling, then I would probably still be there…It made me feel worthless.”

After the hurricane, the incarceration of suspected “looters” was the first city function to restart. Due process and civil liberties were almost nonexistent for new arrestees, who were put in cages in a makeshift prison at a Greyhound bus station, with no access to phones or lawyers. When ACLU attorney Katie Schwartzmann went to observe proceedings, a sheriff’s deputy at first refused her access, as well as taking and reading her notepad. According to advocates and recently released prisoners, new arrestees are offered a choice—either plead guilty and be put to work on city cleanup crews, or plead not guilty and face months in Angola prison with no access to a lawyer. From the initial images broadcast around the world, demonizing the people of New Orleans as “looters,” and criminals, there have been two very different visions struggling for the future of the city. One vision is a vision of “security,” exemplified by Governor Blanco bringing in National Guard troops with the words, “They have M-16s and they are locked and loaded...These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so if necessary, and I expect they will.”

This is a vision of corporate security and restructuring, handing the city over to Blackwater Security’s armed guards and Halliburton’s disaster profiteers, while “redeveloping” Black neighborhoods into golf courses and luxury housing.The other vision is of justice and human rights. This vision involves restoring jobs, health care and housing for New Orleans, rather than offering minimum wage dead-end jobs, crumbling infrastructure and more prisons. It is a vision supported by the work of countless activists and organizers from around the US, as well as the overwhelming majority of the people of New Orleans. “Despite all of the horror we are seeing daily, my hope is this is an opportunity for change,” Price said. “OPP corruption is being laid bare—people being held past their time is nothing new in this system, it’s just more extreme now. This is something to organize around and fight against.”

(This article has been slightly altered from the version appearing in Colorlines Magazine)
Tamika Middleton is the Southern Regional Coordinator for Critical Resistance and a member of the People's Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition.

End Report Slams 'Passivity' Katrina Met

2006-02-14T20:15:00.000-08:00

Why am I not surprised?

Some news that you already know about

2006-02-06T18:19:00.000-08:00

La. Officials Focus on New Orleans Future

No New Katrina Aid in Bush Budget

The King comes to N'awlins

2006-02-06T11:08:00.000-08:00

Hey, did you guys hear about King Abdullah coming to New Orleans?

Glossary of the Struggle for New Orleans

2006-02-02T15:01:00.000-08:00

by Jordan Flaherty

The flooding of New Orleans has become a defining event across the political spectrum. For concerned people around the world it has become a vivid symbol of the Bush Administration’s misplaced priorities, for developers and corporate profiteers it has been an opportunity to remake the city in their vision and for Gulf Coast residents it has been a continuing catastrophe.

The promise of hundreds of billions of dollars flowing into the Gulf as well as the struggle for political power has created a perfect storm of exploitation. Just as prisons and the military attract an industry that both sustains and profits from their existence, so the modern disaster has its own parasites that survive and prosper only due to the suffering of others. The intermixing of multinational corporations, Bush administration cronies, developers, think tanks, relief organizations, religious institutions and local elites have combined in an orgy of greed and opportunism to form a Disaster Industrial Complex.

As of this writing, five months after Katrina, hundreds of thousands of New Orleanians are still dispersed around the US. Most have had limited or no access to their homes, and feel the city and developers are deliberately attempting to keep them out. "If that's the plan, then it's backfiring," Tanya Harris, a lower ninth ward resident told the New York Times in early December. "I'm not seeing that laid-back New Orleans character right now. I'm seeing a fighting spirit. I mean, my grandmother would chain herself to that property before she allowed the city to take it.” Below is a quick guide to some of the players on both sides of this struggle.

Army Corps of Engineers – Will they be held accountable? Investigations into the failures of the levees have found serious evidence of negligence and incompetence on the part of the Corps.

Blackwater Security - Notorious for their role in Iraq, Blackwater was among the first disaster profiteers to come into New Orleans. Deputized by the governor, they were free to shoot to kill with no consequences. Along with Wackenhut and other private security firms, including an Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International, they represent the new alternative to relief and reconstruction: security first, relief later. "This is a trend. You're going to see a lot more guys like us in these situations,” one Blackwater employee told journalist Jeremy Scahill.

Churches - In line with the Bush administration’s goal of privatizing social services and increasing the social role of religious institutions, churches and other religious charities—from Salvation Army to Scientologists—have played a central role in the relief efforts. Some have been benevolent, but the overall effort has contributed to the re-positioning of relief as a nongovernmental function.

Common Ground Collective - While many people fled the city, and others around the world were overwhelmed by shock and sadness, former New Orleans Black Panther Malik Rahim refused to leave, and invited concerned individuals from around the US to join him in fighting for New Orleans. Within a month the newly-formed Common Ground Collective had a distribution network reaching 16,000 people in the New Orleans area, and a free health clinic serving hundreds of patients, many who had not seen a doctor in years or even decades. By November, they had issued a mass call out for volunteers, with at least three hundred mostly young and white activists coming through on the week of Thanksgiving, and hundreds more arriving in the weeks that followed.

Community Labor United/ Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund - In the first days after the disaster, progressives around the world responded to the call put out by the eight year old coalition, Community Labor United. “The people of New Orleans will not go quietly into the night, scattering across this country to become homeless in countless other cities while federal relief funds are funneled into rebuilding casinos, hotels, chemical plants and the wealthy white districts of New Orleans, like the French Quarter and the Garden District.” Their high profile and deliberative pace has brought criticism. However, PHRF has united a wide coalition with the potential and desire to lead a principled, radical struggle for reconstruction with justice.'

Congressional Black Congress - Amidst the dismal responses of elected officials, including Louisiana’s hopeless political class, the Congressional Black Congress put forward a legislative proposal for the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast that is actually worthy of support. Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney was key in inviting local organizers such Dyan French Cole (“Mama D”) and Ishmael Muhammad to speak at congressional hearings in December, and she even came to New Orleans to join in a protest march to the white-flight suburb of Gretna.

Congress of New Urbanism - Brought in by Mississippi’s Republican Governor to brainstorm strategies for reconstruction of Mississippi's Gulf Coast, the Urban Land Institute has been called an “architectural cult” by author Mike Davis, who says they have become an “accomplice to the Republicans' evil social experiment on the Gulf Coast.”

Contractors - The rebuilding of New Orleans is a huge task; in garbage hauling alone, the city needs to dispose of 22 million tons, according to state estimates, about 15 times the debris removed after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Unfortunately, very little of the funding for this work has gone into creating good paying jobs for New Orleans residents. Instead, Bush suspended the Davis-Bacon legal protections for workers and gave the rebuilding contracts to his political allies, opening the door to low wages, exploitative working conditions and an influx of workers from everywhere but New Orleans.

Entergy - Although its parent company reported profits of hundreds of millions of dollars nationally, Entergy, the power company for New Orleans residents, allowed its Louisiana affiliate to go bankrupt. At a town hall meeting in early November, homeowner Dennis Scott spoke for many New Orleanians when he said, "I know you have financial problems, but whatever happened to contingency planning? We're talking about a Fortune 500 company here…. Entergy, you need to be—I hate to say it—shot."

Families and Friends Of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children - As a radical, people-of-color-led organization on the front lines of the disaster, FFLIC was everywhere at once: helping unite families in shelters, providing direct relief to prisoners and their families, and initiating Safe Streets/Strong Communities, a coalition dedicated to keeping the issues of poor people and those victimized by the prison industrial complex central in the reconstruction of New Orleans.

FEMA - The incompetence of FEMA and obvious cronyism of Michael Brown helped crystallize opposition nationally to the Bush administration, showing clearly, as Kanye West said, “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people.” Despite personnel and policy changes, they remain a focus of anger and a symbol of ineptitude.

Governor Kathleen Blanco - Although she was elected in part because of Democratic votes from New Orleans’ Black communities, Blanco showed her true colors in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, sending in National Guard troops with the words, “They have M-16s and they are locked and loaded... These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so if necessary, and I expect they will.”

Labor Movement - The labor movement pledged hundreds of thousands of dollars towards relief, and AFL-CIO president John Sweeney came to speak at a November rally in Baton Rouge. Individual union locals, such as SEIU-1199 Ohio pledged money to radical organizations like the People’s Hurricane Fund. Union organizers and activists came down to struggle with grassroots groups. Louisiana unions co-founded New Opportunities for Action and Hope (NOAH), a coalition to fight legislatively for justice in reconstruction. But the movement as a whole seemed unaware of the potential of this struggle; with the financial and political support of the labor movement, progressive organizers in New Orleans could create a union city deep in the traditionally non-union south. But, so far, labor has remained mostly on the sidelines

Latino Health Outreach Project (L-HOP) – As thousands of Latino day laborers arrived in New Orleans, they were welcomed by hostile and racist local politicians and radio personalities, exploitative employers, and a city little to no infrastructure geared towards Spanish-speaking immigrants. Started with no funding or institutional support by a handful of medical volunteers and activists affiliated with Common Ground, L-HOP immediately began to fill the gap, providing medical services, legal support and organizing resources.

Loyola Law Clinic - Staffed by student volunteers and progressive lawyers, such as Loyola Law professor and clinic director Bill Quigley, the Loyola Law Clinic has been a vital force in the legal struggles around the city of New Orleans, most notably working with the Grassroots Legal Network and winning a court order stopping evictions of absent tenants for 45 days, and another court order halting demolitions in the lower ninth ward.

Mardi Gras Krewes - The white Krewes of Rex and Momus are seen as the unofficial, backroom leadership of New Orleans. A central moment of Mardi Gras occurs when the Kings of Rex and Momus greet each other. According to The Wall Street Journal, the leadership of these Krewe’s remained uptown during the flooding of New Orleans, with a heliport and Israeli security team, planning their vision of the corporate reconstruction of the city.

Mayor C. Ray Nagin - A former corporate executive elected with 40% of the Black vote and 80% of the white vote, Nagin has placed himself firmly on the side of developers and corporations. His “blue-ribbon commission” on rebuilding New Orleans is weighted with corporate executives and has only one community leader.

Military - The Pentagon has requested $6.6 billion dollars for hurricane reconstruction; $2 billion of that is a direct corporate payout to defense contractor Northrup Grumman who operates a Southern Louisiana shipyard. The rest is to pay for National Guard reservists and repairs to nearby military bases. The Navy said it will later ask for an additional $800 million for Northrup. During the days after the storm while the people of New Orleans were at their most desperate, the military sent recruiters into the shelters. National guard troops patrolled the city for months, bringing little in the way of real relief. Bush has proposed giving the military a bigger role in future disasters.

New Orleans Housing Emergency Action Team (NO-HEAT) - A housing justice coalition including members of Common Ground, People’s Hurricane Fund and New Orleans antiwar group C3, NO-HEAT is “dedicated to resisting the mass evictions of poor and working class people in New Orleans and fighting the illegal dismantling of public housing. It will mobilize to aid fellow residents whose housing is being threatened. NO-HEAT will use legal strategies, protest, direct action, and petition of the government to fight individual battles for housing and to wage war on the policies that are being designed to rebuild New Orleans as a ‘sanitized’ and pale imitation of itself.” NO-HEAT has already won important victories for tenants, and has potential to be a vital organization in the fight for justice in New Orleans.

Pres Kabacoff - A major power broker in New Orleans, real estate developer Pres Kabacoff sits on Mayor Nagin’s Bring New Orleans Back Commission. NPR and other corporate media portrayed him as a liberal visionary out to create a Paris on the Mississippi. The truth is that Kabacoff represents the worst of New Orleans' local disaster profiteers. It is Kabacoff who, in 2001, famously demolished affordable housing in the St. Thomas projects in New Orleans' Lower Garden District and replaced it with luxury condos and a Wal-Mart. "New Orleans has never recovered from what Kabacoff did," says one housing activist. "It was a classic bait and switch. He told the city he was going to revitalize the area, and ended up changing the rules in the middle of the game and holding the city for ransom. He made a ton of money, the rich got more housing, and the poor got dispersed around the city." This year, Kabacoff has had his eyes on razing the Iberville housing projects, a site of low-income housing near the French Quarter. While Iberville residents were in their homes, they were able to fight Kabacoff's plans. Now that many are still gone, their homes (which were not flooded) are in serious danger from Kabacoff and other developers seeking to take advantage of this tragedy to "remake the city."

Red Cross - In the weeks after Katrina, Red Cross raised hundreds of millions of dollars in donations from around the world. However, slow response time and widespread reports of racism and discrimination in Red Cross shelters have damaged Red Cross’ reputation. According to Jodie Escobedo, a doctor from California who volunteered in the Baton Rouge shelters, “Red Cross personnel...have managed to get themselves into positions of power where their prejudices result in the hoarding of supplies, vilification of the needy and substandard treatment of volunteers and refugees alike... At the River Center Shelter, the Red Cross hoarded hygiene supplies and basic necessities on a giant loading dock while kids could not go to school because they had no pants or shoes, babies drank from dirty baby bottles, people slept on the floor and donated clothes sat inaccessible.” In the first days after the hurricane, while people were suffering inside the New Orleans Superdome and Convention Center, Red Cross was nowhere to be found – they were under orders from FEMA to not provide relief to people in the city, so people would be encouraged to leave.

Urban Land Institute - Brought in to advise the Mayor’s Bring Back New Orleans Commission, the Urban Land Institute (ULI) immediately drew criticism from New Orleans residents. One New Orleans activist calls ULI a “pro-profit think-tank for the real estate industry.” According to their website, “ULI members control, own or enhance the value of more than 80% of the US commercial property market.” With the release of their report in mid-November, including recommendations to leave vast, mostly poor areas of the city undeveloped, they gave their stamp of approval to a vision of New Orleans rebuilt for corporations and developers first.

Historical homes up for demolition?

2006-02-02T15:00:00.000-08:00

Link here

Privatizing New Orleans

2006-01-22T06:47:00.000-08:00

“I can’t stand it anymore, being lifted up and then smacked down again, just when we were all trying so hard to experience hope,” a friend tells me. She was one of several people I know who were bystanders to Saturday’s shootings in New Orleans. Last weekend, revelers filled the streets for one of our city’s most vital cultural traditions, the second-line – a roving street celebration put on by New Orleans community institutions known as Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs. This second-line was the biggest anyone I spoke to had seen, put on by 30 different Clubs. Many people came from out of town just for the day, and during the parade thousands were chanting, “we’re back, we’re back!”

The day of hope and celebration was shattered when, towards the end of the route, three people were shot in three separate incidents on Orleans Avenue between Claiborne and Broad, in the Treme, a Black neighborhood with a long history and culture of resistance. Michelle Longino, one of the event's organizers, was quoted in the Times-Picayune as saying, "It just breaks my heart that some people on the outskirts could do such a horrible thing and have it be associated with the beautiful, glorious, peaceful thing we were putting together," adding that the event was organized to “testify to the importance of the social clubs and the importance of providing affordable housing and decent schools so people can return.” The violent end to a hopeful day was devastating. It was horrifying to see a broad community effort shattered and to see a return of the violence that has marred our city.

On top of our personal sorrow, there is also a pressure all of us here in New Orleans feel, this awareness that we are being judged by the media and by politicians in Baton Rouge and Washington. The question constantly comes up, are we deserving of rebuilding? I feel certain no other US city would be facing this questioning, but we have to constantly prove ourselves as being “worthy.” All of us were immediately aware that those who do not want the city rebuilt would use this incident as evidence against us, just as recent news reports have gloated over the “lack of crime” that has been brought by the mass displacement of our city’s population.

Last week, the mayor’s Bring Back New Orleans commission released its recommendations on rebuilding, which are filled with the expected double talk and half promises regarding what neighborhoods can be rebuilt, pegged to vague tests and benchmarks. But most infuriating, featured in all the coverage of the report, is the estimate given by the commission, politicians, developers, and media that only half of the city’s population is expected to come back to New Orleans in the next several years. The so-called experts advise us to be “realistic,” and accept that the city has to have a “smaller footprint” because so many people will not be returning. Where do the reduced population statistics come from?

The truth is that the “experts” are manipulating the truth for their own ends. They are creating a situation where half the city is kept from returning; then saying that we need to reduce our expectations to this reality they have created. This week, 90% of Tulane University students came back to resume classes in uptown New Orleans. The majority did not have long-term ties to the city, but they returned because Tulane and the city wanted them back, and worked to get them back. With housing and encouragement, the majority of New Orleans would be back today. This is a completely avoidable displacement, happening in slow motion before our eyes. It is also paternalistic, with experts brought out, one after another, to tell us – especially poor and Black New Orleanians – what is best.

"You can’t come to this neighborhood yet, it’s not safe for you. You can’t rebuild, we don’t know if your neighborhood will be viable. You can’t move back to New Orleans – we think you’ll be better off somewhere else, where the welfare is better." For the city’s poor, more hurdles are being put up. Some residents who have returned are blocking the installation of FEMA trailers in their neighborhoods. Hotels are planing evictions of New Orleanians in preparation for Mardi Gras tourists. The city plans to demolish homes before people can even come back to see them. It's perhaps a symbol of Republican dominance and Democratic cowardice that free-marketers have chosen this overwhelmingly Democratic city as a front line in their war on government institutions created for the poor.

Charity Hospital is forced to remain closed. Public housing tenants are pressured to remove their belongings. The public schools remain mostly closed, while the school system becomes the landscape for social experimentation by right-wing school privatisers. Within the first two weeks after New Orleans was flooded, the right wing think tank The Heritage Foundation released its plans to capitalize on the disaster. Near the top of the list was promotion of “school choice” and school vouchers. Pre-Katrina, New Orleans schools were among the most segregated in the nation, with some of the nations lowest spending going to public schools, which had a wide array of problems including collapsing infrastructure and so little money for elective courses that in some schools JROTC, the military recruiting program for high schools, was a mandatory class. The proposed changes do nothing to address these issues, instead they exacerbate the problem, diverting funds from the poorest schools, and continuing a system with two tiers of schools, one for those with the privilege, and one for everyone else.

As an added benefit for privatisers, the teachers union - previously the largest union in the city - faces virtual elimination under this scheme, as staff are laid off and new schools open with mandates to cut salaries and eliminate health insurance. Charity Hospitals, Louisiana’s public health care system, were setup by Governor Huey Long in the 30’s. The system was a shining example of state-provided health care, and Louisiana remains the only US state with a network of hospitals dedicated to free care for the poor. Even in recent years, Charity boasted world-class care in some units – such as trauma care, and the huge New Orleans Charity Hospital, one of the two oldest hospitals in North America, served thousands of uninsured patients every week. People from New Orleans, born in the hospital, proudly refer to themselves as “Charity babies.” Doctors at Charity claim the hospital is clean and safe and ready to re-open, but they have been prevented from doing so – instead, there are plans to demolish the massive structure.

Public housing residents face some of the biggest opposition to their return. As Baton Rouge Congressman Richard Baker gloated shortly after the hurricane hit, "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did.” I spoke with Elizabeth Cook, an activist with New Orleans Housing Emergency Action Team (NO-HEAT) and C3/Hands Off Iberville, a local group that combines antiwar and global justice activism with local issues such as public housing. Cook has spoken with a wide range of tenants at B.W. Cooper Housing Complex, and has worked with tenants who are fighting hard for their right to return.Aside from politicians and developers not wanting them to return, Cooper residents have also faced opposition from the management of their complex. A B.W. Cooper management representative told Cook – “(residents) gotta change their attitude before we let them back in.”As I’ve reported previously, Cooper residents have also experienced widespread robbery, much of it pointing to a suspicious level of access. Cook, who has spoken with many residents who have been robbed, reports, “It seems extremely likely that someone with a key, someone with access is responsible…HANO was in charge, and they could’ve provided some kind of security. Any indication that it could’ve been employees, they needed to do something right away. Even now, this is still happening – we’re still getting reports, and HANO has done nothing.”

At the same time, Cook feels there is also reason for hope – some units have been re-opened in the Iberville projects, and more are scheduled for Lafitte and Cooper. “The pressure on HANO has been successful. Its something of a success that they are reopening (some of the units) at all.” Cook feels she’s seen direct results from publicity, phone calls and letters.“They are feeling the public pressure – it’s affecting them,” she says. “At B.W. there was always a great deal of community involvement, and they are continuing to fight back,” joined by advocates and activists. “Word of mouth and the residents are pushing this movement, and we’re following them. We have to counter the propaganda that the majority of New Orleans doesn’t want them back.”

Mayor Nagin says God is angry with US

2006-01-16T17:17:00.000-08:00

I just had to post this article. I just had to. And I quote...

"Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it's destroyed and put stress on this country," Nagin, who is black, said as he and other city leaders marked Martin Luther King Day. "Surely He doesn't approve of us being in Iraq' under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We're not taking care of ourselves."

Also.. New Orleans Colleges Face Huge Obstacles

Jordan's Log--1-9-06

2006-01-10T14:31:00.000-08:00

Loss and Displacement at the Calliope
By Jennifer Vitry and Jordan Flaherty
January 9, 2006

Rebecca G. Brown has lived at 3317 Erato in the BW Cooper Public Housing Complex for 24 years. A retired certified nursing assistant, she is known around the area for her tidy, well-decorated home. According to her neighbor, Dorris Johnson Frohm of 3316 Erato, she has “the loveliest house on the block, and always welcomes ya in.” Last week, Ms. Brown stood in her doorway crying. Her home was destroyed – not by flooding or wind damage, but by theft. Two beautiful mirrors that hung in her stairwell are gone. The computer that her son uses for college work is gone. Her TV and two DVD players are also gone, along with most of her pictures and valuables. Nearby, Yasmond Perry, 13, and his brother, Deseon Perry, 12, stand outside of their home at 3201 Erato, waiting for their mother, Josephine. “We haven’t been inside yet,” she says. “I’m kind of scared. Everyone’s been calling me saying that they are taking all of our stuff—furniture and all. We were only here once right after the storm—but I’m hearing people have been in here since.” “Oh my God, they took everything!” The boys stare in shock.

Surveying her home, Josephine goes down the long list of furniture items that is missing from their home - sofa, loveseat, television, table, and chairs—all gone. “How did they have time to take all this,” exclaims Josephine, who had been home a few weeks after the storm to check on her house. “It was fine really then. Not much different than I’d left it.”During that visit, her son Yasmond “was standing on the porch and the National Guard pulled up within 5 minutes pointing guns at him.” She ran outside and showed the military proof that she lived there. “So, if they are here in minutes pulling a gun on my boy, how do people have the time to unload whole households without any notice? And, it’s not just me, it’s my whole block!” Upstairs, the rooms were turned upside down, with drawers and boxes emptied. In shock, the boys each grabbed two things and walked downstairs. “This is all I need I guess,” said Deseon with a grim look, “everything else is messed up.”

The B.W. Cooper Housing Development –popularly known as the Calliope projects - was home to 1,400 African American working-class households in 1,546 units on 56 acres of land. It is the third largest housing development in Louisiana and the largest tenant-managed housing development in the country. Most of the complex was not damaged in Hurricane Katrina or the subsequent flooding. After Hurricane Katrina, residents were scattered throughout the United States, including many in shelters and motels here in Louisiana. Although most of these dispersed residents ache to return to their communities, the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) posted a general notice in the projects informing residents that they may not move back, and some Cooper tenants report receiving notice that they have to clear out their possessions. HANO has also hired a Las Vegas company named Access Denied to install 16-gauge steel plates over windows and doors at B.W. Cooper and other city projects, including the Lafitte projects in the Treme neighborhood.

In previous interviews with the Times-Picayune and other media, HANO spokespeople expressed concerns about “looting,” “troublemakers” and “squatters.” Although its true that there appears to have been massive theft from homes in these projects, in a recent visit to at least twenty homes that been broken into, most had their locks intact - the apartments had been broken into by someone with keys and access. In several interviews, residents placed the robberies as having occurred within the last few weeks – long after Mayor Nagin began urging people to return to the city, and weeks after the National Guard had finished breaking into homes to check for bodies.More than four months after Katrina, public housing tenants are still facing displacement and victimization. Grassroots groups such as NOHEAT (New Orleans Housing Emergency Action Team) and advocates such as the Loyola Law Clinic and grassroots Legal Network are calling for justice for public housing tenants, but for many residents, the city seems to be sending them a louder message – “stay out.” This fight is nothing new.

For years, developers have coveted the city’s public housing projects, many of which occupy prime real estate. New Orleans real estate mogul Pres Kabacoff, who currently sits on Mayor Nagin’s rebuilding Commission, transformed the St. Thomas projects into condos and a WalMart. Kabacoff has made clear his designs on the Iberville housing projects, which occupy prime real estate near the French Quarter. Now, more than ever, housing is the front lines of the battle for New Orleans, every day’s headlines are full of bulldozers vs. injunctions, and evictions vs. restraining orders - words and phrases that have come to shape the daily struggle over what – and who -New Orleans will become.

Yasmond and Deseon desperately want to return to New Orleans. “The kids in Houston don’t like us. They treat us funny. I just want to come home.” Josephine had a meeting at her previous job. “They are offering us something to come back. I’d be happy to come back. I just don’t have nowhere to live.” Josephine is a cook, and before the storm worked at two jobs. “I don’t mind working, as long as the kids have a solid home.” Josephine said she spoke with a woman identified as Ruth Hayes, assistant manager at the Calliope project office. “She told me to get my stuff out by December 31st or it would be thrown into the dumpster. Then, she said the deadline was pushed back two weeks.” Josephine cannot move her or her son’s possessions, as she has nowhere to store them. The boys don’t want all of their toys and books thrown away. “We don’t get a say I guess,” says Deseon.

Many of the residents and occupants of B. W. Cooper stayed during the storm. Rebecca Brown ended up at the Superdome for 5 days without food or water. “Oh, don’t even ask me about those days,” said Brown, “I am trying everything to forget them—it was so painful to watch people suffer and die.” Five days later, Brown boarded a bus for Fort Worth, Texas. She and her family made their way to Arlington, Texas. From there they headed to Atlanta, Georgia. And, finally, landed in Houston, Texas.While Brown was away, her daughter, Tanya Glover, returned about 2 weeks post-Katrina to check on her mothers’ home. She noticed the National Guard’s spray painted message—“0 dead—0 animals” outside. Her mother’s door was unlocked. Tanya checked inside, and everything was orderly—just as she had last seen her mother’s home. She called her mother and reported the lack of any water damage, and that her valuables were intact. Tanya locked the house and left. Weeks later, Brown returned to the house to find the front and back doors again open. This time, her son’s computer was missing. She also noticed “a pair or two of Leon’s jeans missing,” but that was it. The house was not in disarray. She locked the front door and boarded up the back door before she left. A week later, Brown received a call from her neighbor, Ms. Sylvia Hall. Ms. Hall told Brown that her door was open, and the house had been ransacked.

“Someone stole my mirrors on the wall, went through my jewelry, dumped every drawer out, stole my kids computer and many other things. The storm did not hurt my house, someone with a key destroyed it.”Brown also reports being told by HANO that she had to have her property out of her dwelling by December 31st, or “it would be thrown away, " and if she came back to her property after December 31st, she would be arrested for trespassing. Brown phoned HANO last week to let them know she had reserved a storage unit. They informed her, according to Brown, that she had an additional 2 weeks “because of the holidays” within which to “get everything out.” Brown worries about many elderly residents who have no way of getting around. “Everything they have in the world is in that apartment. And, ‘cause of the storm—they are in some other state, unable to get back.”Reached by phone today, Ruth Hayes, an assistant manager at BW Cooper, confirmed, "we are experiencing a high volume of burglary.

People are coming home and what they expected to be there is not there," she said. However, Hayes had no other information on the robberies. “The crimes that were reported here reported their doors broken down," she said. As to whether and when people would be allowed back in, she had no information. "There is no policy at this time," on when people may return. "There is no timeline," on when a decision would be made. In addition, she said, "there is no plan, currently" to throw out peoples possessions. She did say that tomorrow HANO and BW Cooper management would be meeting, and its “possible” a decision on when or if people can move back could come out of that meeting.

Dorris Johnson of 3316 Erato, was also busy sifting through her wrecked home. “They trashed my house—look at this. The storm didn’t do this!” Last week is the first chance Johnson had to return to New Orleans. “I called HANO to find out what was going on. They told me to get my stuff out or it was going in the dumpster. Good thing I have a good son who could bring me all the way here.” Johnson wants her house back. “There’s nothing wrong with these houses. We could all be back living here.” Johnson’s house, like every other apartment on the river side of Galvez, did not get water. Only half of the development, located on the far side of Galvez Street - commonly called “back-a-town” - flooded on the first floor. Johnson estimates approximately 2000 people lived on the dry side of the complex. “That’s 2000 people that could have housing tomorrow,” she said.

Johnson and her son sifted through their apartment in search of pictures and memorabilia. “This is what I came for,” holding up a picture of her granddaughter’s graduation picture. “It was clean around here,” motioning to her area. “No kids sat on these steps. This was a family area. No drugs around here.” Johnson is saddened by the disregard and neglect of her neighborhood, and community. She is outraged by those that trashed her apartment: “I know that I come into this world with nothing and leave with nothing—but let me decide what I get to keep in the meantime. I worked hard for those few things.” In interviews conducted while walking through the neighborhood, family after family reported similar, heartbreaking, stories.

Barbara Trymore and Caroline Clark, also Cooper residents, were told to get their items out of their homes before mid-January or it will be in the trash. They were told if they step foot on the project grounds to get their things after that date, they will be arrested for trespassing. Despite the struggle they’ve been through, Trymore, Clark, and Brown all want to return to New Orleans—if only they had a place to live.We may never find out who broke into all of these homes in the Calliope. However, one thing is certain: if residents had been allowed to return, this massive theft would not have happened. Calliope is by no means a dream home, but it did offer a community for many people, and community brought a kind of security and comfort that is now notably absent from the city.

New Orleans, now more than ever, is a city with different laws for rich and poor, and for Black and white. We are supposed to accept that because people are poor, because they live in public housing, they have less right to return, less say over their housing decisions, than other people in the city. Somehow, it becomes ok for HANO, or the mayor, or the federal government, to make decisions, “for their own good.” In a recent interview, Denny LeBoeuf, Director of the Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana notes, “these people have the right of return. This humanitarian principle is good for our NOLA folks as well as for Rwanda refugees. After the war, and the air clears, people have the right to return to their home. Poor people of color occupy 100% of the Calliope and other dwellings where return has been refused. These folks make our culture what it is—whether thru music, or food, or other venues—they connect us to this authentic thriving culture. They are the unbroken line of history to the 1800s.”Ms. Trymore stares at her wall. She is missing her framed picture of Rosa Parks. “We saved to get that picture, ya know,” says Trymore. “It cost like $200. We didn’t have that kind-of money. But, we admire that woman, ya know. Now it’s gone. Who would steal that?"

Jennifer Vitry is a defense fact investigator for homicide cases and a death penalty abolitionist. She teaches forensics, and formerly worked with Sister Helen Prejean and the Moratorium Campaign.

Jordan's Log: January 8, 2006

2006-01-08T09:09:00.000-08:00

From the Ground Up: Race and the Left Response to Katrina
By Walidah Imarisha

In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, thousands of progressives, radicals, anarchists, activists, hippies and college students — the majority of them white — have gone down south to aid in relief and rebuilding efforts, and white organizations across the country have dedicated time and resources. But in their rush to help, are they recreating the racist dynamics we have seen from the government?

Is the white left racist? Sakura Koné would answer this question, for the most part with a “no.” “I’ve been impressed with the response of the white left, liberals, progressive and radicals who have joined us out here.” Kone’ works as the media coordinator for Common Ground Collective, Common Ground Relief and Rebuild Green, three different arms of a New Orleans grassroots organization started after the hurricanes to provide relief and focus on alternative energy/sustainable rebuilding. “They are not just coming down here and telling us what to do, but they are listening to what we have to say. They do it our way. They are not coming like missionaries. We welcome the white left to our communities here.”

“Our church is full of white volunteers right now,” Victoria Cintra of Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA) says. “We have hundreds of volunteers from the North Carolina Baptist Men Disaster Relief. They were here before FEMA, before Red Cross, when no one was helping out, and they’ve committed to being here for two years.”

Others, however, have had serious problems with white volunteers’ behavior and attitude throughout the south. Curtis Muhammad, of Community Labor United and the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund, would answer the question of whether the white left is racist with a qualified “yes.” “Every white person who shows up has the disease called white supremacy, and if they don’t confront it and work on it, they are going to continue to have it. That’s just the reality of racism.”

Tamika Middleton, southern regional coordinator for Critical Resistance — a national prison abolitionist organization with an office in New Orleans — applauds people’s willingness to come down and do work, but wants white people coming to acknowledge the privilege inherent in that. “For a lot of people, people of color from New Orleans and the south, we’re all trying to put our lives together. If we had the means, if we had the same privilege, we would be here too, we would be organizing and fighting for our community. It’s important for people to realize the privilege they have and others don’t have.”

Au Hyunh, who is working in Vietnamese communities throughout the south, says that there are different cultural standards people are not aware of. “When I was at Common Ground, the volunteers would be really disrespectful. They are serving a historically disadvantaged community, but they’re not bathing or showering and they’re serving people food, and they don’t see that. A lot of white activists are appropriating poor culture when they have a lot of class privilege.”

White supremacy

Muhammad says that PHRF is working to counter that disease of white supremacy. “We are talking about doing trainings, we are asking some groups down here who specialize in this to help train volunteers about their white supremacy. Some of them are taking it and some are not. Some are running around acting like slave masters.” Kone’ says Common Ground provides that kind of orientation. “We tell them, ‘Look, you’re not from here, listen up, this is what’s happening. This is what the community is about, this is the history of the community, this is what’s been going on since Katrina. You’ve got a good heart, because you’re here. You have to take the leadership from the community.’”

“White people are going to have to learn to obey and follow directions. They are not runaway slaves. They aren’t now and they weren’t during the Underground Railroad days. They can help us, feed us, house us, but they are not the slaves. They can’t lead us,” Muhammad finishes.

It’s not just individuals who are having race issues. Organizations are also bringing their own assumptions and agenda to the table. “Some white organizations are trying. But white folks don’t like to chastise themselves. The left does that too, it will not punish white people for their white supremacy, they won’t hold white folks accountable and as long as they can do this stuff without punishment, they’re going to keep doing it.” Tamika Middleton says the white left has wasted a lot of time and energy focusing on debating whether the issues in the gulf are the result of class or race. “It’s impossible to separate race from class, especially in the south, because historically, culturally, it is one and the same.”

Untold stories

Many populations are just being ignored both by the mainstream and the white left. John Zippert is the director of program operations for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives in Alabama, and works primarily with poor black farmers, a population he says has been greatly overlooked by government, media and nonprofits alike. “Our experience is that the Department of Agriculture takes care of the largest farmers first, rather than the smallest and poorest, which is generally where black farmers are… So the government isn’t there for people. We have gotten some assistance from organizations, but it’s been limited.” Big corporations are getting huge contracts to do construction, and many of them are using immigrant labor to do so. MIRA says many people they work with — the majority of whom are Latino — are either not being paid the wages they were promised or not being paid at all, are working under unsafe conditions, and are not given any accommodations and forced to sleep in tents in the cold.

Workers are being recruited to the south to do this rebuilding work. When the job is done, they are fired and then arrested by the INS, often by the prompting of their former employers, according to Cintra. “That’s sad and sick. They are rebuilding our coast and we are treating them like animals,” she says.

In New Orleans East, the Mary Queen of Vietnam Roman Catholic Church is seeing first hand that the city’s rebuilding plan is quite literally built on top of people of color. The church, which is in the heart of a thriving Vietnamese community and has served as a distribution center and gathering place for people coming back to the community, is serving 1500 people a week. It is also right in the middle of an area that the city wants to build an airport and business industrial complex on. “They are going to take our community away; they are going to dismiss us,” says Father Luke, one of the priests at the church. “We come back here as an action to say to them that we are here, we are back here to rebuild the community, to rebuild New Orleans.”

History class

New Orleans and the south are what they are because of the input of people of color, and people have to be aware of the culture they are coming into. “Why do people aspire to come to New Orleans? The music, the culture, the food, and what is the origin of those? Black people!” Kone’ intones. All of the people interviewed for this article spoke of the history of slavery, immigration issues, labor rights, gentrification, police brutality, governmental misconduct, a history of neglect and racism, and the need for white organizations and individuals to understand that. It’s vital that people understand the roots of the poverty and deprivation. “The problems that are happening now are not happening because of Katrina. They didn’t just arrive; they didn’t come out of smoke. These things are historical,” says Middleton.

“You have the compounded issue of race and poverty together, a concentration of people who are poor and black and have been that way since slavery, even in the urban areas,” Zippert explains. “You can see the intersection of race, class and gender by who was left behind in New Orleans. Most of the images you saw of people who were left behind, who were stranded, are poor single black mothers. That’s the fall out in a culture that is racist and patriarchal,” Malcolm Woodland of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement says.

Salvation army

While this is the largest fundraising effort in the history of the US, with hundreds of millions of dollars pouring into groups like the Red Cross and Salvation Army, people on the ground are skeptical as to how effective those organizations are. Cintra summed up the sentiment when she said, “I wouldn’t give a penny to Red Cross, and I would encourage others not to.” The problem is the way major non-profits have operated in communities of color globally, says Woodland. “The fact that people continue to give to organizations that have historically not operated in the best issues of people of African descent suggests that people aren’t fully aware of the history of these organizations, and what they are doing now, and not aware of alternative methods of being able to give directly to the people affected.”

Several people interviewed for this article talked of the ways in which the Red Cross gives preferential treatment to areas that are predominately white and was much slower to react in communities of color. Middleton says her biggest problem is the criminal background checks that keep out people who were formerly incarcerated, and that this is a race issue as well. Hyunh spoke of the language and access barriers that aren’t being addressed. Hyunh, an activist who moved just outside of New Orleans after Katrina, offered her services as a professionally licensed Vietnamese translator to both Red Cross and FEMA. “They both turned me down, they said they didn’t need any interpreters.” Hyunh went down to the south to see for herself, and found a complete lack of translation.

“The police were trying to evict a single Vietnamese mother living in a housing project in Biloxi. The entire projects were flooded. The police tried to arrest her for remaining there, but there was nowhere for her to go, and she didn’t speak English. She couldn’t even find out where the Red Cross shelter was,” Hyunh explains. Cintra said it is even worse than ignorance or benign neglect on Red Cross’ part. “Red Cross is evicting people from shelters because of the color of their skin. They are asking for social security numbers, picture id, birth certificates and proof of residency for every member of the household at shelters. That’s alienating a large group of people.”

Middleton says the issue is really about giving funds to organizations that can build for the future. “Red Cross and other big non-profits create a different kind of problem. It’s like, ‘I’m going to deliver all this food to you, but not create sustainable options for you to grow food.’ There is no long term plan; there are no ways for people to be part of rebuilding their communities.” The People’s Hurricane Relief Fund (PHRF) was started to provide an apparatus for survivors, local grassroots organizations and displaced people to have control over funds coming in. “We demand resources to rebuild our community under our control,” Muhammad says.

Leadership position

That’s why it’s important, organizers say, for people of color to have a leadership position in the relief and rebuilding efforts. James Rucker, who helped found Color of Change (www.colorofchange.org) after Katrina as an online mobilization tool to enhance black people’s political voice, says black people have to mobilize to lobby politicians and hold them accountable. Color of Change grew to over 10,000 members in the first month and had thousands of people sign different petitions. Rucker says it’s so important for organizations of color to speak up because it can push white organizations. “Race is just not a focal point for liberal white America… When groups like ours are out there, we can embolden other white organizations to talk about race more. They will do better than if there weren’t any organizations of folks of color speaking in terms of race.”

While Color of Change is working to build up political pressure, others feel the way to change lies in grassroots organizing. Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (mxgm.org), a national black human rights organization, put out a call on Sept. 13, 2005 that framed the issue again in terms of race and class. It was a framing of the issue around race that had historical memory and was not often being articulated. The demands included a right of return, the right to organize, the right to an income, the right to living wages, the right to access, the right to education and health care, and the right to self-determination. Woodland, one of the coordinators for MXGM’s Katrina Relief program, says it’s really about the black community relying on itself. “My inclination is not to worry about what white folks are doing, because they’re going to do what they have done historically. Every once in a while they will surprise you and I’ll take it as a surprise, but my concern has been with how folks in our community have really stepped up, and I’m particularly proud of the response of black organizations.”

Long term

It is not enough, though for organizations of color to lead the rebuilding efforts, but for those organizations to be made up of people most directly affected by the disaster. “Many of our black leadership, non-profits and all, are from the middle class. Our coalition said upfront, we are listening to the voices of the poor,” Muhammad says. MXGM says they are working to provide resources and training to displaced people. “Here in New York we’re already seeing this develop so that people who have been displaced are beginning to say, ‘Hold on, we don’t need people to speak for us, we can speak for ourselves,’” Woodland explains. Woodland hopes that other organizations will support those affected, as well to take the lead. “I think you will see MXGM move to the periphery in terms of being visible and really be a back up and provide support for those individuals as needed and requested,” he finishes.

Most of the organizations interviewed are working on long term plans and goals that would empower the communities affected while furthering the rebuilding efforts. Zippert says the Federation of Southern Cooperatives is encouraging people to use cooperatives and credit unions as tools poor people can use to rebuild. “We want to help people create worker owned cooperatives to do certain jobs created by the storm that went to Halliburton and these other companies. We can help poor people get the training and assistance to best deal with this post Katrina situation.”Common Ground wants to rehabilitate the 9th ward, which was the most heavily damaged section of New Orleans, “to show people and the powers that be that contrary to their observations, the 9th ward is salvageable,” Koné asserts.

Everyone I spoke with agreed that if changes are going to happen, it will happen only by people on the ground pushing for those changes, and that as we move forward, race will continue to play an intricate part in the south, as it has since this country’s inception.“We all have to get on ground, roll up our sleeves and go to work. I do not believe FEMA or the American government...is capable of rebuilding our city; they have no intention of helping poor black people return. We are going to have to demand it,” Muhammad declares.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Walidah Imarisha is a poet and an independent journalist who works with the Philly-based prisoner family organizing group The Human Rights Coalition, AWOL Magazine and is part of the poetry duo Good Sista/Bad Sista (www.poetryoffthepage.com). This article was published in Left Turn Magazine

Newslings

2005-12-19T17:41:00.000-08:00

Body Found, Bringing Katrina Toll to 1,321

New Orleans' Historic Streetcars Return

GOP Approves $29B More in Katrina Aid

Where's Bush? Not in New Orleans. By Eugene Robinson

Some Newlings

2005-12-15T20:32:00.000-08:00

American Red Cross President Resigns

Next stop in New Orleans: Disaster trip for tourists

New Orleans Company to Offer Disaster Tours

Jordan's Log 12-15-05

2005-12-14T23:35:00.000-08:00

Death, Abundance and New Orleans
By Jordan Flaherty

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

On Sunday, I drove past streets named Abundance, Pleasure and Humanity
to a memorial for Meg Perry, a 26 year old Common Ground Collective
volunteer from Maine. Meg died on Saturday when the bus she was in
crashed near downtown New Orleans. She had come to New Orleans in September,
then left and returned with more volunteers. The memorial was in a
community garden she had been working on in the Gentilly neighborhood.
All around were empty houses. It was a small moment of mourning, in a
city of mourning. Mourning that feels like it won’t end, because the
disaster hasn’t ended.

Walking the streets of New Orleans, it’s hard to escape the feeling of
death and loss. The city is heavy with the weight of those not
present. Many neighborhoods are still dark, not even streetlights or stop
lights, with long stretches of houses that have been abandoned for months.
Even Central City, a mostly Black neighborhood that saw little
flooding, is mostly dark and empty, although nearby (whiter) neighborhoods like
the Lower Garden District are more populated.

You almost never see children in the new New Orleans. And there is
still a 2 am curfew. I’ve heard several reports of people being arrested
for sitting on their porch at 2. As temperatures drop, much of the
city doesn’t have gas service. Every door has a spray painted symbol from
the National Guard, marking that they entered the house to look for
bodies.

Compared to much of the city, my neighborhood was not hit hard by the
storm, but months later there are still mountains of debris on the
street and no regular trash pick up. I haven’t received mail from August,
much less September through December. FEMA left a note on my door saying
that because they couldn’t see our roof from the street, they reserve
the right to break into our home anytime in the next six months to
inspect it.

The longer homes stay empty, the worse things get. Houses that were
left empty have been infested with insects and refrigerators left with
food are filled with maggots. New Orleans already had a massive termite
infestation – I can only assume that while the city was empty it got
worse. I’ve heard the rat population has multiplied. In garbage hauling
alone, the city needs to dispose of at least 22 million tons, 15 times
the debris removed after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
Disaster response has political repercussions. Corruption and stealing
of post-earthquake disaster aid in 1972 contributed to the fall of the
Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua. The faulty federal response to the
1985 earthquake that hit Mexico City ignited a grassroots movement in
Mexico that helped to end the PRI government’s decades of one party rule.
And, of course, the 1927 flooding of the Mississippi River helped to
elect Huey P Long governor of Louisiana.

Within two weeks post-Katrina, Michael Brown of FEMA resigned. New
Orleans police Superintendent Eddie Compass followed soon after. Now,
Marsha Evans, president of Red Cross, has also been forced out. As soon as
we are able to have an election in our city, Mayor Nagin will be gone.
And Bush administration poll numbers have been in free fall. The stakes
are high, and the possibilities for change are real.

When I saw the floodwaters rising in New Orleans, I expected poor
people would be cut out of the reconstruction money. What has surprised me
is the extent to which the entire city has been left out. While some
local elites have profited, much of the money has gone to disaster
profiteers from Halliburton and Blackwater and bureaucrats from major relief
organizations. And, on a deeper level, the money necessary to rebuild
New Orleans simply hasn’t come. We still don’t even know if the levees
will be rebuilt, or to what level. As the New York Times pointed out
in a powerful editorial this week, we are facing the death of a city,
and we feel the rest of the country has forgotten us.

Money for rebuilding and relief has arrived from across the US.
However, only pennies compared to the 1.5 billion dollars Red Cross has
collected so far. And many organizations are providing only a dubious
service. “Can anyone tell me why the SPCA is still breaking into homes to
look for animals?” a friend asked. “It’s been almost four months.
Peoples pets have either survived or they haven’t.”

Another friend who is working for a big relief organization expressed
her concerns to me “We’re getting $35 a day for food, on top of our
salaries,” she said. “Things take forever to be approved - sometimes so
long that by the time we have the support we need, the effort has passed.
There’s so much money behind us—we can do pretty much whatever we want
and don’t have to worry about funding, but it feeds lifestyles that are
much more demanding than I’d hope relief workers would be.”

Progressive resources have been scarce. With the financial and
political support of the labor movement, progressive organizers in New Orleans
could create a union city deep in the traditionally non-union south.
The labor movement pledged hundreds of thousands of dollars towards
relief, and some union organizers and activists came down to struggle with
grassroots groups. But, so far, the vast resources potentially
available from labor have been absent.

Progressive and liberal foundations and nonprofits will spend millions
of dollars more, but its very likely most of that money will not go to
New Orleans-initiated projects. One funder I spoke to told me that
foundations have received very few funding requests from new Orleans-based
projects – no doubt because many excellent New Orleans based projects
are too overwhelmed to write grants right now. She told me that several
outside organizations have leaped into this vacuum to apply for this
money, while local projects will be left out.

New Orleans – and the south in general – has a long history of
outsiders spending large sums of money for organizing without community
leadership or involvement. Efforts like this always fail. The AFL-CIO spent
millions of dollars in the late 90s on an effort called HOT-ROC to
organize the hospitality industry in New Orleans. Several years and
hundreds of organizers later, the campaign quietly folded up shop, without
organizing a single worker. Meanwhile, vital local efforts go unfunded
and unsupported.

For example, NO HEAT – the New Orleans Housing Emergency Action Team, a
local organization with no paid staff or grants – has set up a phone
tree, currently with at least 50 people, to respond immediately to any
evictions. They’ve had demonstrations, press conferences and community
meetings, and work closely with the People’s Hurricane Fund legal
network.

The Latino Health Outreach Project is another small local effort that
has been doing vital work with virtually no funding or attention from
outside New Orleans. They have been setting up clinics for Latino day
laborers wherever they can find them – from the hotels and campsites
they’re staying in to a restaurant on Canal Street many hang out at on
Friday nights.

Catherine Jones, who helped initiate the project, writes,
“The stories we are hearing from workers are so monumental we don’t
know what to do with them. Some people are working in mold-infested houses
with no masks or protective gear; some contract laborers are being
imprisoned in hotels by their bosses, who won’t let them leave the premises
once they return from the day’s work. People are working six and seven
days a week, often for ten or more hours a day. We have talked to many
day laborers who don’t get paid after working for a day or even an
entire week. These cold nights, many people are sleeping in tents while
their bosses stay next door in heated trailers. Some people sleep under
cars or bridges. Everyone is worried about flu, what it will mean to get
sick in this climate where no job is guaranteed and a day’s wage helps
support as many as ten people back home.

“A friend who used to live near the clinic told us how one day, when he
and some other people were going to work in Chalmette, they got stopped
by the police at the checkpoint and the police asked them for their
green cards. Our friend showed his Texas drivers’ license and explained
that he didn’t have a green card since he’s a US citizen. ‘You need a
green card,’ they said. They turned back the entire truck and told
everyone they couldn’t go to work that day.”

I’m no voice for New Orleans. I’m white, I’ve only lived here a few
years, and my house didn’t flood. There are many people who can speak
more effectively about what is happening in New Orleans – and some have.
At the same time, there are still so many stories that aren’t getting
out. And many of the people who would be the best ones to tell them are
too overwhelmed with the losses we’ve all faced.

So, on behalf of everyone in New Orleans too overwhelmed to write right
now, please, don’t forget us. We’re still drowning.
=====================================
Jordan Flaherty is a union organizer and an editor of Left Turn
Magazine. This is his thirteenth article from New Orleans. Jordan’s
previous articles from New Orleans are at
http://www.leftturn.org/articles/SpecialCollections/katrina.aspx
=====================================
Based on conversations with organizers and community members, Left Turn
Magazine has compiled a list of grassroots New Orleans organizations
focused on relief, recovery, social justice and cultural preservation
that need your support. The list is online at
http://www.leftturn.org/Articles/Viewer.aspx?id=689&type=W
=====================================
If you want to know what’s up in New Orleans, and read more about the
Latino Health Outreach Project, racial profiling in the city and more,
see these writings by Catherine Jones:
http://floodlines.blogspot.com/
You can also listen to Catherine interviewed at
http://www.againstthegrain.org/audio12.12.05.mp3
Comprehensive website for information and action related to prisoners
in New Orleans: http://www.criticalresistance.org/katrina/
More info on Meg Perry:
http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2005/12/6551.php
Other Resources for information and action:
Reconstruction Watch - http://www.reconstructionwatch.org/
Common Ground - http://www.commongroundrelief.org
Peoples Hurricane Fund - http://www.communitylaborunited.net
Resource for Journalists - http://www.katrinainfonet.net
Justice for New Orleans - http://www.justiceforneworleans.org/
New Orleans Housing Emergency Action Team - http://www.no-heat.org/

Some Yahoo News

2005-12-12T16:07:00.000-08:00

Katrina Deaths Lead to Real-Life 'CSI'

Katrina victims blame racism for slow aid

2005-12-12T16:04:00.000-08:00

Emotions flare as black survivors testify before special House panel

NBC News and news services

Updated: 7:31 p.m. ET Dec. 6, 2005

WASHINGTON - Black survivors of Hurricane Katrina said Tuesday that racism contributed to the slow disaster response, at times likening themselves in emotional congressional testimony to victims of genocide and the Holocaust.

The comparison is inappropriate, according to Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla. “Not a single person was marched into a gas chamber and killed,” Miller told the survivors.

“They died from abject neglect,” retorted community activist Leah Hodges. “We left body bags behind... The people of New Orleans were stranded in a flood and were allowed to die.”

Angry evacuees described being trapped in temporary shelters where one New Orleans resident said she was “one sunrise from being consumed by maggots and flies.” Another woman said military troops focused machine gun laser targets on her granddaughter’s forehead. Others said their families were called racial epithets by police.

“No one is going to tell me it wasn’t a race issue,” said New Orleans evacuee Patricia Thompson, 53, who is now living in College Station, Texas. “Yes, it was an issue of race. Because of one thing: when the city had pretty much been evacuated, the people that were left there mostly was black.”

According to a recent Gallup poll, NBC News’ Kerry Sanders reported on Tuesday, six out of every 10 black New Orleans residents said if most of Katrina’s victims were white, relief would have arrived sooner.

Discussions about race began almost immediately after Katrina hit on Aug. 29. On Sept. 9, according to NBC News, President George W. Bush told the public, “The storm didn’t discriminate and neither will we in the recovery effort.”
But victims disagree.

“I blame local. I blame state. I blame federal,” Katrina victim Doreen Keller said at Tuesday’s hearings. “I think we got disappointed by every rank of government that exists.”
‘I just don't frankly believe it’Not all lawmakers seemed persuaded.

“I don’t want to be offensive when you’ve gone though such incredible challenges,” said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn. But referring to some of the victims’ charges, like the gun pointed at the girl, Shays said: “I just don’t frankly believe it.”

“You believe what you want,” Thompson said.

Shays also questioned a claim that the federal government unleashed this tragedy on New Orleans’ black residents on purpose.

“I was on my front porch,” Diane Cole French said at the hearings. “I have witnesses that they bombed the walls of the levee.”

“I don’t know if that’s theater or the truth,” Shays responded.

‘We have to acknowledge it’The hearing was held by a special House committee, chaired by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., investigating the government’s preparations and response to Katrina. It was requested by Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

“Racism is something we don’t like to talk about, but we have to acknowledge it,” McKinney said. “And the world saw the effects of American-style racism in the drama as it was outplayed by the Katrina survivors.”

The five white and two black lawmakers who attended the hearing mostly sat quietly during two and a half hours of testimony. But tempers flared when evacuees were asked by Miller to not compare shelter conditions to a concentration camp.

“I’m going to call it what it is,” Hodges said. “That is the only thing I could compare what we went through to.”

Of five black evacuees who testified, only one said he believed the sluggish response was the product of bad government planning for poor residents — not racism.

How the museums are faring in NOLA

2005-12-10T18:52:00.000-08:00

Some news about the recovery efforts of New Orleans museums.

New Orleans Evacuees and Activists Testify

2005-12-10T18:30:00.000-08:00

Here's an article from Democracy Now!

Gulf region's hospitals struggling after Katrina

2005-12-06T20:49:00.000-08:00

Here is it.

New Orleans unhealthy, groups say

2005-12-06T20:23:00.000-08:00

By Tom Kenworthy, USA TODAY

Federal and state environmental agencies are downplaying long-term health dangers posed by chemicals in sediment that covers much of the New Orleans area, several environmental groups charged Thursday.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), one of the nation's largest environmental groups, and several local Louisiana environmental groups said that heavy metals, petroleum components and pesticides in the dusty residue left behind by Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters pose such a risk that families with children shouldn't return until it is cleaned up.
"The cancer risk and the risk of other long-term health effects is quite significant according to (federal) standards," said Gina Solomon, a physician with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The groups, including the non-profit Advocates for Environmental Human Rights law firm in Louisiana, based their assessment on tests they conducted in September and October. The tests found:

• Average levels of arsenic that are 31 times higher than the level at which federal Environmental Protection Agency guidelines require that soil in residential areas be cleaned up. Exposure to arsenic can cause a variety of cancers.

• The presence of banned pesticides in soil samples taken near an abandoned industrial facility in New Orleans' Gert Town neighborhood west of the French Quarter. Levels of pesticides such as DDT and dieldrin exceeded EPA cleanup standards.

• High levels of cancer-causing hydrocarbons from petroleum products near a federal toxic waste site in New Orleans' Bywater neighborhood northeast of the French Quarter. Tests found levels as much as 20 times higher than EPA cleanup standards.

The groups' test results largely conform with what the EPA and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality found in samples taken since September. But the groups and government agencies disagree on the implications.

"It's how they interpret it," said Dana Shepherd, a toxicologist with the Louisiana environmental department. Some toxic standards, she said, are based on "a child eating that dirt for 350 days a year for a lifetime."

The government agencies recommend that residents take simple precautions when exposed to sediment, such as wearing respirators and washing exposed skin. However, Shepherd said, the state sees "no immediate health issues" that should concern the public.

State and federal regulators aren't focusing enough on the threats from long-term exposure, the environmentalists said. "We feel that they are grossly misleading the public in the way they represent their own data," said Erik Olson, an NRDC attorney.

The NRDC's Solomon said that healthy adults who take precautions shouldn't fear short-term exposure to sediment. Children and adults with respiratory or heart problems should avoid it, she said. "People can return, but at the same time the cleanup needs to proceed," Solomon said.

Documents Show FEMA Knew Response Was Broken

2005-12-06T20:09:00.000-08:00

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - FEMA realized its response to Hurricane Katrina was "broken" and braced for rioting over woefully low supplies in Mississippi in the days just after the storm, according to new documents released Monday. The correspondence among Federal Emergency Management Agency officials, provided by a special House committee investigating the government response to the storm, follows the release last week of more than 100,000 documents by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. Taken together, the details from both states provide evidence that FEMA was unable to provide fast help at disaster sites — even when the needs were obvious.

"This is unlike what we have seen before," William Carwile, FEMA's former top responder in Mississippi, said in a Sept. 1 e-mail to officials at the agency's headquarters. He was describing difficulties in getting body bags and refrigerated trucks to Hancock County, Miss., which was badly damaged by the Aug. 29 storm.

"I personally authorized Hancock County to buy refer (sic) trucks that had been carrying ice becasue (sic) the coroner was going to have to start putting bodies out in the parking lot as his cooler was getting full," wrote Carwile, who has since retired from FEMA. "Still lots and lots of bodies out there."

The next day, in another e-mail to headquarters about substandard levels of food, water and ice being distributed in Mississippi, Carwile reported: "System appears broken."

In a Sept. 1 exchange, FEMA regional response official Robert Fenton warned headquarters that the expected levels of water and ice being sent were far below what was needed.

"If we get the quantities in your report tomorrow we will have serious riots," Fenton wrote.
Responding, Carwile wrote: "Turns out this report is true. .... There seems to be no way we will get commodities in amounts beyond those indicated below. And it turns out these shortfalls were know much earlier in the day and we were not informed.

"Will need big time law enforcement reinforcements tomorrow," Carwile's e-mail continued. "All our good will here in MS will be very seriously impacted by noon tomorrow. Have been holding it together as it is."

The special House committee, chaired by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., released eight pages of e-mails. While some Democrats are participating, their party leaders have asked lawmakers to boycott the inquiry that they believe should be done by an independent commission.

In all, the House committee is reviewing hundreds of thousands of documents from local, state and federal officials who were involved in the disaster relief effort.

The Louisiana documents released late Friday revealed delays and state claims that requests for federal help weren't received, and reflected partisan battling between the Republican Bush administration and Blanco, a Democrat.

The Mississippi documents, though only a handful were released, showed no political tensions between local officials and Washington. But FEMA officials in the state were among the first to admit that needs weren't being met.

"Gulfport Ms only has enough commodities for roughly 3 hours distribution tomorrow," FEMA deputy chief of staff Scott Morris wrote in an e-mail sent at 11:46 p.m. on Aug. 29 — just hours after the storm roared ashore. "Apparently, the local law enforcement officials have allowed evacuees back into city."

Replying to Carwile's e-mail about body bag shortages, Scott wrote: "Let me know how I can help. 24/7 whatever you need."

The House committee will hold a hearing Wednesday focusing on the response in Mississippi, at which Carwile and Republican Gov. Haley Barbour are scheduled to testify.

"These exchanges point once again to problems of coordination and communication — unfortunately, a recurring theme throughout our investigation," said committee spokesman Robert White.

FEMA spokeswoman Nicol Andrews said the agency is undergoing an internal review for changes as ordered by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

"One of the things we have learned is that our logistic resources weren't up to the task, and the technology that we were using wasn't up to the task." Andrews said. Chertoff "has said that one of his priorities is retooling FEMA and, as part of that, making it a 21st century agency."

Students Happy Elsewhere

2005-12-04T20:59:00.000-08:00

Some New Orleans Students Happy Elsewhere

Updates...

2005-12-04T20:07:00.000-08:00

New Orleans Mayor Asks People to Come Home

E-Mails Show How Katrina Swamped La. Gov

Architects Envision New Orleans Rebuilding

2005-11-24T18:34:00.000-08:00

Architects Envision New Orleans Rebuilding - Yahoo! News

Some Food Banks Say Katrina Drained Aid

2005-11-24T18:28:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK - After Hurricane Katrina, Americans sent waves of trucks loaded with food to the many thousands of people driven from their homes by the storm. But that generosity may have had a hidden cost.

Some hunger-relief charities in cities far from the disaster are reporting a decline in donations, largely because many contributors have been sending food to the Gulf Coast instead.
The Food Bank for New York City, which supplies 1,300 soup kitchens and food pantries, said it collected about 2.4 million pounds of food in the past four months, 1 million fewer pounds than it gathered during the same period last year.

"We are tapping into our reserves," said spokeswoman Lisa Jakobsberg. "I have not seen our shelves as empty as they are right now since 9/11."

The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank said donations have declined about 12 percent.
In Milwaukee, an annual fall food drive held by a regional food bank collected 19,216 pounds of food, down from 40,594 pounds last year. One reason: Only 49 schools volunteered to be collection points, compared with 103 in 2004.

"We heard specifically from many of the schools that the reason why they weren't collecting this year was that they had already collected for Katrina victims in September," said Gina Styer, spokeswoman for the Wisconsin chapter of America's Second Harvest, the nation's largest network of food banks.

Charity administrators said the problem is not that people are giving less.

Donations of food are up 40 percent this year to America's Second Harvest, which supports 210 food banks nationwide. Much of that increase in aid, though, has been in the form of hurricane relief, said the group's spokeswoman, Mara Daley.

Since the storm, the Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana has been distributing more than three times its average volume of food.

Individual donors account for only a small portion of the food served in soup kitchens and food pantries. Most comes from either the U.S.

Department of Agriculture, which spends more than $50 billion a year on anti-hunger programs, or in bulk donations from manufacturers, supermarket chains and other food retailers, which give excess inventory to relief agencies.

The food eventually makes its way to places like Brooklyn's Neighbors Together soup kitchen, which feeds 300 people a day from a room just big enough to hold three picnic tables and a serving counter.

Ed Fowler, the cafeteria's executive director, said it has not had any shortages. But he said that could change if the donation pattern remains unbalanced for months.

"I'd hate to be worrying about how to feed 300 people in the middle of winter," he said.
On Wednesday, as people began lining up for a lunch of chicken soup, his problem was turkeys. The kitchen had a dozen ready to go for Thanksgiving, but would be left with zero for Christmas.
Then, in a minute, the problem was solved. A van pulled up and out hopped a group of off-duty postal workers carrying an unexpected gift of a dozen frozen birds.

"This is fantastic," Fowler said. "This is the one time of the year at which people are conscious of hunger. But don't forget that we're here for 363 other days of the year, too."
___

Community and Resistance--Jordan's Log

2005-11-24T18:25:00.000-08:00

A couple months before New Orleans flooded, I remember walking through my neighborhood on a beautiful weekend afternoon and hearing music. I followed the sound a couple blocks, to where about thirty people, all of them Black, followed a few musicians through the streets. They were mourning the death of a loved one, New Orleans-style. Most folks were wearing custom t-shirts with a picture of the deceased. Next to the photo were the words “sunrise” along with the date of his birth, and “sunset,” above the date of his (recent) death - he was 20. Also on the shirt were the words, “No More Drama.”On the back, the shirts were individualized, with the relation of the wearer to the deceased. One woman’s shirt said “momma.” A few teenagers had shirts that said “cuz.” A small child’s shirt said “daddy.” Despite their loss, they were dancing through the streets. When the band finished their final song, everyone danced their hearts out. I don’t know what else to say, except that's how we do it in New Orleans, and the image of those people mourning through celebration sticks with me as I see New Orleans today, struggling with so much loss and tragedy.

Cornel West, who has visited New Orleans often, said shortly after the city was flooded, “New Orleans has always been a city that lived on the edge, with Elysian Fields and cemeteries and the quest for paradise. When you live so close to death, behind the levees, you live more intensely, sexually, gastronomically, psychologically. Louis Armstrong came out of that unbelievable cultural breakthrough unprecedented in the history of American civilization. The rural blues, the urban jazz. It is the tragicomic lyricism that gives you the courage to get through the darkest storm. Charlie Parker would have killed somebody if he had not blown his horn. The history of black people in America is one of unbelievable resilience in the face of crushing white supremacist powers.”More than anywhere else in the US, New Orleans is a city where people live in one neighborhood their whole lives, where generations live in the same community. According to a recent census, of all US cities, New Orleans ranked second in the percentage of its population born in the state, at 83 percent. (Santa Ana, Calif., was first; Las Vegas last.) 54 percent of the residents of the Lower Ninth Ward had been in their homes for 10 years or more, far above the national average.All of this is to say that New Orleans is not just a tourist stop. New Orleans is a unique culture, one that is resilient, and with a history of community and resistance. And, despite everything, resistance continues.

The People’s Hurricane Fund has been doing direct outreach and organizing in cities across the US for their People’s Tribunal and March for Justice, scheduled for December 8-10 in Jackson, Mississippi and New Orleans. They have organized communication centers in Jackson and New Orleans with plans for centers in Houston, Baton Rouge and Atlanta.On a national level, organizations such as colorofchange.org have mobilized thousands of people to pressure politicians, and the Congressional Black Congress has worked to keep this issue alive, both through legislation, and through joining protests, as Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney did by showing up for a march from New Orleans to Gretna a few weeks ago.Meanwhile, just days after DC organizers announced plans for a protest at FEMA headquarters, FEMA officials announced that they were pushing back the date after which they would stop paying for hotels for Gulf Coast evacuees from December 1 to December 15. Continued pressure from across the US caused them to move the date again, to January 7.Here in New Orleans, volunteers with the Common Ground Collective have set up neighborhood distribution centers with food and supplies, have served hundreds of people in their free health clinic, setup a media center complete with a community radio station, and embarked on a project to rehabilitate houses in the Ninth Ward. This week, hundreds of volunteers have arrived to continue this work, most of them staying on mattresses on the floors of warehouses and houses, sometimes thirty or more to a room.

Any convergence of hundreds of mostly young and white activists in a overwhelmingly Black community is bound to bring skepticism and controversy, and Common Ground has received criticisms from some local organizers. However, Common Ground in many ways represents a big step forward for the global justice movement. Rather than coming in, leading a protest, and leaving, activists were invited by Malik Rahim, a longtime community organizer, and have followed through and done real work in communities. They have been true to their commitments, and have shown by example that people with a vision of radical change and social justice can put FEMA or Red Cross to shame.Finally, yesterday saw a major legal victory in the struggle for housing. According to the statement from the New Orleans Grassroots Legal Network, lawyers representing a range of organizations, “brought suit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, Orleans Parish, and Jefferson Parish on behalf of the People's Hurricane Relief Fund, UNITE-HERE Local 50-2, SEIU Local 21, ACORN New Orleans, and individual tenants being victimized by landlords post-Hurricane Katrina. Because of the immense pressure that has been placed on the government and the landlords by the people, Plaintiffs were able to achieve the following result from this lawsuit:

(1) All evictions in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes are immediately stayed — meaning, all eviction proceedings in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes stop immediately against residents who are not in the area and whose whereabouts are unknown to landlords.

(2) Under the judge's order, FEMA is required, upon request, to provide to the Orleans and Jefferson Parishes, current contact information for the tenants who landlords are seeking to evict. Upon this contact information being provided by FEMA, the Parishes have to provide written notice of eviction to the tenants at the tenants' most current addresses. Tenants then have at least 45days from the date of the mailing of the notice respond to the eviction action.“This victory means that displaced people have an almost two-month reprieve from having to face loss of their personal property and their homes. This victory also means that for the first time FEMA has finally agreed to provide information to protect survivors. This is huge. “But overall, this case is just another step that the Grassroots Legal Network has taken to bring recognition that people who have suffered the worst impact by the natural and government disaster of Hurricane Katrina have a right to return to their homes. This victory also provides an opportunity for political and social rights activists to organize with grassroots people to assert pressure on those in power to respect their humanity.”

“This victory means that displaced people have an almost two-month reprieve from having to face loss of their personal property and their homes. This victory also means that for the first time FEMA has finally agreed to provide information to protect survivors. This is huge. “But overall, this case is just another step that the Grassroots Legal Network has taken to bring recognition that people who have suffered the worst impact by the natural and government disaster of Hurricane Katrina have a right to return to their homes. This victory also provides an opportunity for political and social rights activists to organize with grassroots people to assert pressure on those in power to respect their humanity.”All of this leaves me feeling, for the first time in a while, that all of this fighting really does mean something, and New Orleans lives on.