|
|
NewsFeed
|
|
One Year Ago: The chaos and fallout continue as a Black run city is paralyzed as much by bureaucracy as the putrid water coursing through its streets, burying entire neighborhoods. Meanwhile, in the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast communities their rebuilding and quality of life was much farther along, as they relied upon themselves instead of waiting around for governments who either couldn't help them, or didn't care...
Part 2 Katrina Revisited - Chaos and Confusion in Black-Run City as Class Trumps Race Katrina Chronicles Anniversary of historic hurricane's devastation show problems with restoration of Gulf area, direction of a major American city Part II - Chaos and Confusion in a Black-Run City Part I - Katrina Devastates Gulf; Govts Powerless as Millions Affected
Part III-- Politics, Race Laid Bare from Katrina Disaster Part IV - A New American Pompeii? Will we know what it means to miss New Orleans? by Kevin J. Walker, Netitor of the Word Netpaper
An Online Journal of News Analysis, Popular Culture Critiques and Commentary
Websites: WALKERWORLD Kemet & Middle Eastern Travels
WalkerWorld Science
Where Did White People Come From?
WalkerWorld Politics
Part II - Chaos and Confusion in a Black-Run City; conflicting rules and bureaucracy preventing aid from being delivered to those who need it most Electricity has been out for days, and opinions are that it won't be restored for weeks, as in perhaps two months. Without electricity and being underwater the pumps won't work, and begin the process of drying out the submerged city, the 21st century's New Pompeii, but this one was buried under water instead of volcanic ashes, and bureaucratic bungling and indifference. The debate over the ethics of looting have given way to a law and order mentality with store security cameras showing scenes of gleeful looting, and people being openly robbed on the dry streets. New Orleans' police department has crumbled, overwhelmed with the demands, undermanned in the face of the strife, and turning in their badges and seeing to their own families and homes. Richard C. Hoagland, a regular on the Coast To Coast late night radio program said: "this should not be happening in an American city ... the military has generators, water, equipment that could have been airlifted in to help these people, why wasn't it done? "The true heroes are the rescuers; piloting helicopters down past downed power lines is one of the most dangerous maneuvers there are" Hoagland said, all the while being shot at, he added. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT: As this is being written rescue helicopters have been fired upon, but there was a shooting inside the heavily polluted and gang-infested New Orleans Superdome, and medical supply trucks have been carjacked at gun point en route to deliver aid to Gulf areas. Helicopters attempting to pluck people out of the isolated islands of swampy water report that people are threatening them to "come get my family first!" when they try and extricate people. Security cameras have captured scenes of looting, with people casually cleaning out stores as if they were shopping, just not paying for their goods. Prevailing opinion seemed to cut them some slack early on, when aid evacuation or food wasn't being delivered or provided. Then with the visages of people stealing electronics, jewelry and liquor, and topping off their piles with expensive athletic gear and shoes the goodwill turned. MILITARY TOLD: "SHOOT TO KILL" MARAUDERS People were shown being robbed at gun point in broad daylight; shopping carts being wheeled down passable streets laden with loot. The excuses being given by others that they are merely taking the non-food items for later barter for needed foodstuffs, and the expensive team shirts and athletic shoes are to replace soiled and muddy clothing items aren't flying with many. When the organized gangs started to arrogantly show themselves, the plans to send in the police and the military gained steam. More than 10,000 troops will join the 7,000 already posted to put a stop to the looting and terrorizing of citizens. The Calvary has literally arrived, with military dispatched to the most violent areas, and at medical and food supply zones. They have been issued "Shoot to Kill" orders to restore order so rescue proceedings can recommence. Those who survived the flood on island rooftops are daily succumbing to starvation and disease in the stifling heat without hope of extraction since the authorities are not going to risk their personnel and make them victims, nor the volunteers. Russia has offered its assistance in Search And Rescue, but this was a rare case of a nation being rebuffed after offering hope. The reasons are clear after a moment of reflection. This would entail foreign troops having to gun down and kill Americans, and not the sort of thing that would improve foreign relations. The Russians are not particularly fond of the African Descended anyway, as seen in the tragic murder of Enis Cosby, son of Camille and Bill Cosby. In their own battles against the continuing Chechen separatist movement Putin himself has referred to the Muslims of the population about their swarthiness. Condoleeza Rice, Secretary of state and former Birmingham, Alabama resident told them thanks but no thanks, we got this. BUREAUCRATIC BUNGLING GRADE = F: FEMA, HOMELAND SECURITY FLUNK REAL WORLD TEST If the response to the near-miss of Hurricane Katrina and the destruction of a city was anything like the reaction to a perceived terrorist strike that many feel is likely to happen some day then America's bureaucracy and infrastructure has failed the test miserably. The disruption of a region the size of the British Isles completely threw their scenarios planning into the trash heap. Both FEMA and Homeland Security dropped the ball, and have shown any terrorists watching how easy it would be to disrupt America and how little prepared we really are for any coordinated attack. Turning upon ourselves, bureaucratic inertia, finger-pointing, buck-passing and butte covering may show that more Americans were killed by government inaction on the city, state and federal levels than Hurricane Katrina did when it pushed the waters of the Gulf into the coast. The notion is chilling of all those people down there slowly starving and expiring who are trapped in their hot attics, too weak to chop themselves out. Even if they could get out there were doubtless many who were scared to come out if they could, lest they be set upon by the marauders who were shooting at anything that looked official, even and especially rescuers it seemed, is something that many in America will have to deal even though they be thousands of miles away. We think: just suppose that happened here? What would we do? Would I be a Looter, or having to barricade my house and ready to gun down would-be home invaders trying to get in at our food, shelter, my wife and daughter? This is the real fascination of New Orleans. No reality TV could compete with this. There's everything: tragedy of loss, sacrifice; uplifting stories of people coming together under adversity; families separated from one another; there are heroes and villains. The movie scriptwriters will be busy for a long time after this one. LOOTING, LIES & VIDEOTAPE The race factor, crime and punishment, and discussions of situational ethics are in the mix as well about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Peggy Noonan was the late President Ronald Reagan's speech writer who is now a political commentator. Her column last week put the looting business into perspective. To break into a place and get the items "for one's survival isn't looting, its sanity" she wrote, and was quoted by Charlie Sykes on his morning radio show at WTMJ-620 AM. Sykes reiterated, saying it wasn't a crime to take the items needed to survive from a store that was closed, with goods that were going to be ruined or spoiled, and where there were no clerks on duty at the checkout line. "If the window was smashed, yeah, I'd go in there" the Conservative pundit said. Sykes made a distinction between taking what a family needs to survive a crisis and looting items such as electronics, watches, jewelry, expensive team clothes and the like. SO MUCH FOR GUN CONTROL! Meanwhile, there are intimations that the nation was going to have to be prepared for the horrific sights and news of what are estimated to be at least 10,000 deaths in New Orleans alone. The "Mad Max: Thunder Dome" Apocalyptic scenarios of a breakdown of society and a return to the Law Of The Jungle and Might Makes Right have been shocking and thought provoking to the American sensitivities, and shows how thin the veneer of civilization is where some people are concerned. It has also driven another nail in the coffin into the drive for Gun Control. Those who had the guns were the Bad Guys, and they used their looted weaponry, taken from the gun shoppes and departments of Wal-Marts and other discount stores to oppress everybody else, even the police whose frenzied calls to police dispatch were that they were pinned down in a running gun battle and "under fire and running out of ammunition," as if it were a scene from a Hollywood action adventure movie like "Assault On Precinct 13." Ted Koppel gave the local director of FEMA's efforts Michael Brown a hard time on Nightline Thursday night, about the numerous and deadly SNAFUs that has prevented aid from reaching the hundreds of thousands of affected people, especially in Louisiana. "Its been about 5 days... you people do war gaming, practices, what you'd do if a Force 3 hurricane hit. Why weren't you ready? ... Are you satisfied with the lack of response?" And: KOPPEL: "You say you're surprised so many people didn't get out, but 100,000 of them are poor and with no way to get out. If you didn't have the buses to get them out, then why should you be surprised that they stayed? "Why didn't you have the National guards with trucks, or even flatbed trucks; why not Greyhound buses from as many surrounding states as you needed, and why have you still haven't done this today?!" Koppel said, with more than a hint of pique at all the bureaucracy, finger pointing and behind-covering of the last few days. Brown said they were going to do everything in their power to make sure that those in the area would get the help they need, but Koppel just wouldn't let go. KOPPEL: "Mr. Brown, some of these people are dead, they're beyond your help. These people, some of them died because they didn't have medicine, waiting days for someone to come get them. "People are saying that you can send Somalians and Tsunami victims aid, but you can't help the city of New Orleans? ... [A local official said] 'FEMA has been here 3 days and they still don't have any Command And Control posts set up'" to coordinate the delivery of relief to the afflicted. Brown defended himself against the withering attack from Koppel, and said they didn't come in and bogart on the local governor and mayor, "tellin them what is going to be done, we asked them 'what do you want us to do?'" The evacuees have now to be evacuated to another city 230 miles away, placed in the Houston Astrodome. Media attention has shifted there, with cable channels streaming video off to the side of Talking Heads about the disaster. Blue cots by the thousands are shown on the floor of the Houston stadium, with the prone shapes of cleansed, fed and watered evacuees. This is a welcome change from the earlier images: STARK IMAGES: • Older people being floated on air mattresses to help stations, as TV helicopters circled overhead; babies in incubators from Intensive Care Units are floated down the waterlogged streets in skiffs, their nurses holding aloft their tubes and IV bottles after the emergency power batteries in hospitals wound down. • One anchor said it best when he intoned "this is America, but it looks like just another Third World country" under siege, with refugees streaming into relief centers for water and rations. Indeed, with the images of primarily Black refugees teeming around distribution points, wading through waist deep fetid water, it could be run side by side with footage of scenes of India and its recent rains, or African inundations without being able to discern the two. • Maced prisoners standing on raft islands guarded by shotgun-toting guards in a state not known for its hospitality to its incarcerated, a legacy of its slave holding past which were reincarnated in the South as its chain gangs and once segregated prisons. • It can be seen that the primary victims that are moving about are of African descent, the poor, disabled, and hospitalized who lacked mobility or the means to get out of town. The only railways in New Orleans are touristy streetcars, about as useful for large scale evacuations as San Francisco's cable cars. • Gun toting bare-chested youths roam about with arms are seen, as the focus of the police and the soon to be reinforced Louisiana National Guard will be shifted to fighting them instead because relief efforts can't recommence because of the shooting at aid workers. "Shoot to Kill" orders have been issued as US troops are entering the city of New Orleans. EVACUEES NOT ALL ANGELS,SOME HAVE REAL ISSUES The images of shooting and robbing in sunlit streets is enough to have people be cautioned about opening their homes to the affected from New Orleans, especially from the infamous lower Ninth Ward. Many of these people, although they have suffered mightily aren't exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer, and have spent the major portions of their lives as victims of one or another condition or crisis. And that's why they ended up in the predicament they found themselves after ignoring repeated orders to get the hell out of town two days earlier, instead of trying to ride out a Force 4 hurricane that tossed oil platforms onto beaches and steel ships a mile inland like they were bathtub toys. Also, many of those who intentionally stayed behind in a disaster-struck and deserted city are criminally prone, hoping to break without much challenge into the homes of an evacuated city. The die-hard, hard core of these are the very ones taking potshots at the US military and reconstruction forces who are trying to restore normalcy to New Orleans. We'll see for ourselves soon enough: Milwaukee is slated to receive a caravan of 1500 people from Louisiana in a day or two, as other states are urged to take some of the pressure off a beleaguered Texas, which has been guarding the highways into the state and turning away buses trucking in more refugees of which it has about a quarter million and counting. "You'd better have those people screened" the open hearted families were told by those in the know, lest they have some of these anti-social elements with serious drug, attitudinal, sexual and behavioral issues in their homes, and import a heap'a trouble from Louisiana. (But: you didn't hear that from me!). MEDIA REACTIONS AS NEUTRALITY TAKES A HOLIDAY The morning show wags Weber and Dolan at Milwaukee's radio station 1130 WISN-AM Radio are known for their basic, down to earth approach even to pressing and faraway issues which has made them a popular morning listening staple. Wednesday one of them asked the other a pertinent question. "Where would you rather be today: Downtown Baghdad or New Orleans?" "Boy... at least there the electricity works, toilets flush" his co-host mused. "You might have to worry about the bus next to you blowing up, but aside from that... " About the complaints and growling about the rate and delivery of comforts to the rescued, especially those who defied calls to leave the city of New Orleans they had plenty to say Thursday: "People are bitching and moaning saying they wouldn't leave come hell or high water. Well guess what, Hell and high water came! Now, stop bitching and moaning and get in line. And behave," said one of the hosts. • A militant Islamist web site trumpeted "'Private Katrina' has joined the Jihad against America," according to a report on ABCs Good Morning America. • Homer Blow of WNOV-860 Am in Milwaukee, Wisconsin addressed the issue of Black folks looting. "Stealing TVs when there is no electricity, what are you gonna do with those? Clothes that have been waterlogged... where are you taking them when your homes have been destroyed?" asked Homer Blow, co-host of Keepin' It Real" on WNOV-860 AM. • TJ, the Midday hostess of 1290 WMCS-AM radio in Milwaukee has relatives in Louisiana. Thus, she is intensely interested in helping out not just her relations but the area's people. Her station held a support drive Thursday in the Midtown Mall that is popular with the Milwaukee African American community. People dropped off foodstuffs, bottled water, and most importantly checks for the Salvation Army and Second Harvest. • Mark Belling, of 1130 WISN AM radio in Milwaukee The reactionary local talk show host often substitutes for commentator Rush Limbaugh. On his show he said we "should blame the French, for unloading this Under Sea-Level Lemon" on a young America with the Louisiana Purchase. Thomas Jefferson who was president of the newly independent United States of the time negotiated the purchase, which doubled the USA in size. We got taken on that part of the deal, said Belling. (A history of the Louisiana Purchase and its implications, the geography and science of the area, and levee problems are at the end of this series). INHUMANITY: • As civilization breaks down and the laws society are erased, those of the jungle take over. Except these are U.S. cities, and some of the animals have two legs and are carrying newly looted M-16 and AR-15s, which are often mis-identified as "AK-47 Assault Rifles" because they look similar and sometimes use the curved "banana" clips They're operating in roaming packs; looters were reported shooting at the rescue helos to take New Orleans SuperDomers to their new home at the Houston Astrodome. People could hear gunshots in the distance in the on-the-spot news reports from New Orleans' French Quarter. • Police are removing the ammo from broken-into gun shops, so the gunmen can't rearm. • Street gangs were fighting amid the filth of Superdome, where an officer trying to keep order was shot in the leg. ANGELS UNAWARES: • People several states away are offering up space in their homes, or organizing caravans of goods and supplies to take as close to the Gulf as they can get. Milwaukee's African American population has many relatives and loved ones in the affected area, and being almost 1,700 miles away and out of communication has caused an uncharacteristic unity and energy level to be generated amongst them. • Frankie, radio caller to 1290 WMCS-AM radio in Milwaukee: "People need to help themselves, and get off the President's back. He's only one man, and he's given them 10 Billion dollars to use. Ten billion dollars! "What they need is dry land, taken somewhere better, not supplies delivered to where they are, or they'll stay. They're living like cave people. They need people who know how to build homes, there's people who know how connect electricity; there's people who know how to operate day care. "They need to separate the old people and the kids, and get to work because it will be months before they can get back to their homes," said Frankie. • State Legislator Polly Williams of Wisconsin who has relatives in Louisiana started a fund drive in connection with radio station 1290 WMCS-AM. She issued a threat and challenge to the other members of the Unity Caucus to show up with their money ready in their hands: "If you're not here by 5 pm, then I'm calling you out!" said Rep. Williams of her nine fellow African Descended colleagues in the Wisconsin state house, city of Milwaukee elected officials and on the county and public schools boards. MEDICAL WOES: Newborn are without formulas, bloated dead bodies float past in the floodwaters, people are being plucked off roofs with hand-drawn signs: "Come Get Us PLEASE!"; "No Food, Diabetic And Heart Medicine Needed." • WILDLIFE WOES poisonous snakes and water-borne diseases, rabid animals on the prowl for prey • NUTTY ARMED DOPE FIENDS Junkies and addicts have run out of their needed medicines as well, said Roy Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans. They are going bonkers even without the 90-plus heat and humidity, and are armed with stolen weaponry. • BRING OUT THE DEAD More ominous were the codes written on the roofs and doorways of houses by searchers denoting which smashed or flooded houses had become the homes of the dead. It is feared that the death toll cannot avoid being sent into the thousands once the flooded attics of those who tried to "ride out" a Category 4 hurricane are reached, and who were too weak or not equipped to chop through their roofs as the floodwaters rose. • HORRIFIC SIGHTS OF THE DEAD DAMAGING MINDS One witness in New Orleans said on TV news that the overwhelmed authorities were tying the roped together bodies of the floating dead to stop signs on street corners, to be picked up later. Sights such as these have authorities fearing that the psychic trauma of the experiences may be more than the physical hardships they endured, especially for children. • HEAT COOKING UP A WICKED BREW The heat which has been in the 90s actual, in the hundred-plus with Heat Index humidity factored in, is making the bodies fester, and simmering the oil and muddy muck into a sickly, slimy, biological brew. Barefoot people are stepping on submerged glass and nails, and gangrenous conditions are developing. COMMUNICATIONS: Some land lines are operating, and people who have been successful in getting through suggest calling between 1 am and 5 am Central Time, which is what Louisiana and Mississippi is on. • Many of the needed cell phone towers and cells have been brought down by wind and other damage, and the loss of power. • Text Messaging was suggested as an alternate way to reach those with cell phones whose batteries are weak after almost a week. TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION: • Amtrak trains including the ironically named "City of New Orleans" are being halted in Tennessee. • I-10 and the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway are messed up, blocked with debris, which includes boats, wrecked houses and trees. • LPC which is an elevated highway bridge 26 miles long leading north from New Orleans, even in good times often has water lapping at its lanes. (Lake Pontchartrain is what flooded New Orleans after the levees keeping it in check broke apart from the battering from the waters of Hurricane Katrina). • I-10 still has remnants from Hurricane Camille's damage in 1969, the last Force 4 hurricane to hit with such damage. • This disaster on the Gulf has fueled an exodus of people to other states. This is straining their resources much like the nearby states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Delaware after September 11 when millions fled not knowing what was coming next. • Drivers are being turned away, highways were converted north and out of town. People attempting to drive down to the Gulf are being turned away at points as they frantically try to reach people whose cell phones by now have largely been drained of battery power with no way to recharge. SPORTS: • Houston Astrodome's schedule has been cleared past December as it is the new relocation point of New Orleans area refugees. • The New Orleans Saints will have to play someplace else, as will the Texas high school teams in Houston as both cities are affected by Hurricane Katrina. Houston's Astrodome was available after the city lost its professional sports teams, such as what became the mislabeled "Nashville Oilers" after the formerly named Houston Oilers franchise was moved to that Tennessee city in the late 1990s. The support system of extended families has broken down, and not just among impoverished Black people either. • Green Bay Packer QB and NFL golden boy Brett Favre for all his wealth found his own family was affected as if they were country sharecroppers as caught up as their Black neighbors. People in Wisconsin wondered aloud what was the point of being wealthy if you couldn't help your own people in times like this? "He should have chartered a plane, gone down there and gotten his mother out of there!" exclaimed an opinionated White woman on local talk radio, about the weak excuses offered by the QB. Farve said he'd asked his relatives if his presence would be more of a hindrance, why should he go down there and eat the food of people who don't have much, et cetera. Well, if you TOOK DOWN some supplies for the area in a chartered seaplane, Brett, they'd surely welcome you, some have suggested. Just a thought. These are articles and news feeds that were written while the disaster unfolded a year ago. They are being presented again just as they are, except for spelling. This includes such as the erroneous information proffered by the mayor of new Orleans and even his police chief on the supposed carnage happening inside the Superdome. I make no apologies for the errors while as many others we were caught up in the unfolding drama. If the city leaders say people are getting killed and raped inside their city; Junkies crazed under withdrawal are running amok; and street gangs are shooting police; the media would be inclined to take their official word for it. In a media conference we'd be using them as our informed sources because we'd think with their inside access they knew what they were talking about. Silly us. There will be another series of such articles near the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, again presented just as they were of that awful day and the aftermath. (If there is any doubt, just go to the original stories in the authors link by clicking Walker's picture above the stories). We also will be including something we call Terrorism Video Views, or movies with a tie-in to terrorism or similar disasters, such as Denzel Washington's "Under Seige" when multiple sleeper cells wreak disaster after disaster upon NYC; and homegrown terrorists in "Arlington Road" with Jeff Bridges who uncovers a middle class terrorism cell led by Chicagoan Joan Cusack and Tim Robbins, in the government-hating Timothy McVeigh mode. thewordnetpaper@excite.com Milwaukee Wis USA http://wordnetpaper.tripod.com http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/politics | | | |
No Forum