when the levee breaks
so lest i be completely engulfed in my own little world, i read the news today. and like every fricking day: oh boy.
katrina
rita
george
dick
it's like the worst double blind date you could imagine.
it's like going to a birthday party at Molotov's, and having to drink rounds of his incendiary cocktails.
death, flooding.
anti-war protests around the white house
of course bush was away.
and dickie's in the hospital getting his arteries fixed up again. that man will soon be the first human to have a completely artificial vascular system!
people ask me: as an american, what do i make of the situation in new orleans. and now, have i heard the latest on rita. what about all the deaths, coffins floating in streets. (i surely cried when i saw the pictures of the animals needing to be rescued.) or Bush's absence; aren't americans upset (YES) and what do they make of the unbelievable delay in the federal government responding to the biggest humanitarian crisis to hit america in years.
it almost seems like they expect me to have the answer to why the US federal government couldn't get its act together sooner.
people also ask me "is oxfam doing anything about the crisis?" and usually, "are they delivering food?" Oxfam is well known here (uk) for delivering food and water sanitation in response to natural disasters (tsunami) or to persistent food crises (ethiopia, sudan).
usually oxfam responds to such situations in countries that don't have the resources, infrastructure, money, etc that the US has. all well and good. but the communication breakdown that seems to have happened at various levels of the US government response, on top of a variety of other things, surely did not show the US in a positive light.
as far as oxfam goes, within just a couple days after katrina, oxfam america had staff on the ground, meeting with partner organizations there, and as of the end of last week had made cash grants of some $300,000 to local organizations. (at least i remember reading that somewhere, maybe in a press release, but i am not official spokesperson; the point is they responded quickly).
then, related to this, of course i get questions about the terrible way minorities are treated in america. and specifically in new orleans, and how they got shafted the hardest during these storms.
i was searching for this photo on Google Images...
...when i came across an article by Vijay Prashad (who teaches at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, USA) that really tied many of all these strands together in a very articulate and no-bones-about-it sort of way. apparently the city of new orleans sees $5B/year in tourist revenue, with 98 per cent of that coming from its world famous French Quarter. yet as Mr. Prashad notes, "the city has spent a generation to move the mainly black poor away from the tourist hub."
The esteemed Professor Cornel West of Princeton University (who i almost had as a thesis advisor) wrote in London Observer (Sept 11):
in any case, in amongst the flood of bad, i did manage to find some good news from this weekend: the International Monetary Fund agreed to wipe out debts it is owed by 18 of the world's poorest nations (with the World Bank expected to follow suit). apparently $52B of debt to these institutions will be written off. that is a boat load of cash. which should help those countries... hopefully they'll spend it on education, health care, etc.
basically a lot has happened from the time i went to see Sol Samba play last night (a 30-piece mad drumming, percussioning, dancing troupe):
sol samba at the zodiac, 24 sept 2005
...to the Iffley Village Harvest Festival Dinner and Barn Dance tonight.
It's a crazy world out, there. Be safe, kiddies.
katrina
rita
george
dick
it's like the worst double blind date you could imagine.
it's like going to a birthday party at Molotov's, and having to drink rounds of his incendiary cocktails.
death, flooding.
anti-war protests around the white house
of course bush was away.
and dickie's in the hospital getting his arteries fixed up again. that man will soon be the first human to have a completely artificial vascular system!
people ask me: as an american, what do i make of the situation in new orleans. and now, have i heard the latest on rita. what about all the deaths, coffins floating in streets. (i surely cried when i saw the pictures of the animals needing to be rescued.) or Bush's absence; aren't americans upset (YES) and what do they make of the unbelievable delay in the federal government responding to the biggest humanitarian crisis to hit america in years.
it almost seems like they expect me to have the answer to why the US federal government couldn't get its act together sooner.
people also ask me "is oxfam doing anything about the crisis?" and usually, "are they delivering food?" Oxfam is well known here (uk) for delivering food and water sanitation in response to natural disasters (tsunami) or to persistent food crises (ethiopia, sudan).
usually oxfam responds to such situations in countries that don't have the resources, infrastructure, money, etc that the US has. all well and good. but the communication breakdown that seems to have happened at various levels of the US government response, on top of a variety of other things, surely did not show the US in a positive light.
as far as oxfam goes, within just a couple days after katrina, oxfam america had staff on the ground, meeting with partner organizations there, and as of the end of last week had made cash grants of some $300,000 to local organizations. (at least i remember reading that somewhere, maybe in a press release, but i am not official spokesperson; the point is they responded quickly).
then, related to this, of course i get questions about the terrible way minorities are treated in america. and specifically in new orleans, and how they got shafted the hardest during these storms.
i was searching for this photo on Google Images...
...when i came across an article by Vijay Prashad (who teaches at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, USA) that really tied many of all these strands together in a very articulate and no-bones-about-it sort of way. apparently the city of new orleans sees $5B/year in tourist revenue, with 98 per cent of that coming from its world famous French Quarter. yet as Mr. Prashad notes, "the city has spent a generation to move the mainly black poor away from the tourist hub."
The esteemed Professor Cornel West of Princeton University (who i almost had as a thesis advisor) wrote in London Observer (Sept 11):
"New Orleans was Third World long before the hurricane... . People were quick to call them refugees because they looked as if they were from another country. They are. Exiles in America. Their humanity had been rendered invisible so they were never given high priority when the well-to-do got out and the helicopters came for the few. Almost everyone stuck on the rooftops, in the shelters, and dying by the side of the road was poor black. From slave ships to the Superdome was not that big a journey."
in any case, in amongst the flood of bad, i did manage to find some good news from this weekend: the International Monetary Fund agreed to wipe out debts it is owed by 18 of the world's poorest nations (with the World Bank expected to follow suit). apparently $52B of debt to these institutions will be written off. that is a boat load of cash. which should help those countries... hopefully they'll spend it on education, health care, etc.
basically a lot has happened from the time i went to see Sol Samba play last night (a 30-piece mad drumming, percussioning, dancing troupe):
sol samba at the zodiac, 24 sept 2005
...to the Iffley Village Harvest Festival Dinner and Barn Dance tonight.
Cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
Now, cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.
It's a crazy world out, there. Be safe, kiddies.
posted by Joel Bassuk at 2:32 AM
2 Comments:
So what you're saying is we should just stop electing mayors and governors, since they're useless in a crisis anyway, and just give the federal government the power to intervene anytime it thinks the job isn't being done properly? And would you like the troops to wear armbands too?
no, i'd say mayors and governors are critical. not that i agree with his politics now, but rudy guiliani was amazing guiding nyc through the hell that was 9/11. just makes me think that for all the technology and resources around, you'd think communication could be better amongst the various levels of goverment. and there could be less posturing, less in-fighting, and less delay. i surely don't have all the answers; running a government, whether local, state or national, is no walk in the park. but if there is one that yanks my chain, it's bureaucracy.
Post a Comment
<< Home