Yes, many news outlets have reported today on the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and most seem to insinuate that more progress should have been made. It’s particularly hurtful when most of that onus for progress is placed upon the shoulders of the evacuees, people who didn’t have much in the first place and who now have less than nothing. Even if our government were to expedite the recovery of the affected Gulf Coast areas - and ESPECIALLY New Orleans, one of the largest ports in the world, it would still take many years to aid a major city that has sustained 80% damage.
However, we all know that ‘expedite’ isn’t a word that could be used to describe the inaction that followed the most destructive natural disaster in this country’s history. Mother nature will do what she must, nothing we can do about that, but our government’s disgraceful negligence of its citizens is the real disaster here. I was watching a Hurricane Katrina special on C-SPAN last week and some Katrina victims called in to mention television reports showing Hezbollah workers going out the day after Lebanon was bombed to distribute cash grants of $12,000 to its residents. The day after! And Hezbollah promised to rebuild THEMSELVES! Compare that to a population of people who may have eventually received some trifling cash buyout of their home (the majority of wealth in this country) but who are now homeless, hopeless and lost because their government hasn’t been either compassionate or responsible enough to take the lead to provide a plan for recovery of its city or of its citizens.
I am so sick of another insinuation - that this neglect is not about race. Every facet of this situation is about race: from the media’s representation of Blacks in New Orleans as looters and refugees to the impact of this disaster on whites versus its impact on Blacks to how Ray Nagin was left hanging by state and federal government to this being the largest displacement of Black people since the Civil War to New Orleans being a city with a Black majority … the foundation of this country’s success is built on race oppression and slavery! Hurricane Katrina underlines that.
I think I’ll blow a f**cking gasket the next time someone tries to imply that class was the reason for the pisspoor response. As you correctly stated, race is the very foundation of the problem. It’s the reason why residents couldn’t leave before the storm, the very reason why they were scattered with no thought to returning and how the entire city is up for grabs by the likes of Haliburton and others since the war on Iraq will eventually wind down.
I doubt New Orleans will lose its Black majority, but it’s slowly becoming less so.