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 From the Bayou to Baghdad: Mission Accomplished?Posted on Sep 4, 2007By Amy Goodman During the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, several dozen public-housing residents and activists marched to the headquarters of the Housing Authority of New Orleans. The marchers occupied the offices for hours. As the military and police surrounded the building, Sharon Sears Jasper, a displaced resident of the St. Bernard housing project, spoke: “We are not going to stop. We refuse to let you tear our homes down and destroy our lives. The government, the president of the United States, you all have failed us. Our people have been displaced too long. Our people are dying of stress, depression and broken families. We demand that you open all public housing. Bring our families home now.” In contrast, the day before, I had asked Mayor Ray Nagin if he made any demands of President Bush as they dined together the previous night. Bush had just spoken at a school named for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose issues of race and poverty are starkly laid bare in New Orleans. Unlike those who had lost their homes, the mayor replied, “It wasn’t a time for demands.” Tracie Washington is the president of The Louisiana Justice Institute and a lifelong resident of New Orleans. She says only a quarter of the more than 5,000 affordable housing units in New Orleans are filled. “There is a feeling by our government that public housing of old needs to be dismantled, buildings shut. We have litigation going right now to change that, but it’s horribly slow, and it’s tragic.” She describes the plan by which public housing will be converted to “mixed-income” developments: “Some of these developments that are closed down took in no water. But the decision was made to take advantage of an opportunity. Hurricane Katrina came. ‘Look what we can do. We can keep these people away from here, bring in the bulldozers, tear down this housing.’ ” It is not just renters. Private housing is being demolished as well. Washington described how the city instituted a stunning policy to allow the legal demolition of homes. Whereas once homeowners would have at least 120 days and several layers of appeals to prevent their homes from being demolished, Nagin instituted an “Imminent Health Threat Demolition” ordinance. He now gives residents only 30 days to stop demolition. Advertisement  That is why groups like Common Ground Collective, The Louisiana Justice Institute and People’s Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition are taking action, on the streets and in the courts. According to Common Ground’s founder, Malik Rahim, of the more than 12,000 people previously in the lower 9th Ward, only about 400 live there now. Where once there was a dense, vibrant African-American neighborhood, I walked with Rahim through tall marsh grass, vacant lots and destroyed churches and schools. A few isolated, damaged brick homes remain. Curtis Muhammad, a longtime resident of New Orleans and a member of People’s Organizing Committee, believes the economic interests driving the failing reconstruction must be investigated. “People see [Donald] Trump down here trying to buy real estate, the big tycoons. The gated communities are growing faster and faster. Look at public housing. They could have knocked that out in a week if they wanted to, cleaned it up. That’s a lot of people that they could have just brought home. You can’t explain that.” Two years after Katrina, as Bush flew from the bayou to Baghdad, a People’s Hurricane tribunal—putting every level of government on trial—was wrapping up in New Orleans. A group was selling a T-shirt there that reads: “Don’t believe the hype. Gulf Coast recovery is not ‘slow’—it is a privatization scheme that takes away our homes, schools, hospitals and human rights.” Mission accomplished? Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 500 stations in North America. © 2007 Amy Goodman Distributed by King Features Syndicate Elsewhere: . CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig. Add Your Comment
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Obama’s Third Way in Afghanistan
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By ron, October 2, 2007 at 7:49 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Now you know how the Iraqis feel.
Report thisBy Dan Uu Noel, September 9, 2007 at 3:36 am #
Driving Bear has a point. The U.S. government does not have a monopoly on stupid, expensive and cruel policies. Louisiana and New Orleans are known for their entrenched corruption too.
The true question is: what will get governments to start understanding that “we the people” have raised our expectations since WWII?
Love,
Report thisBy driving bear, September 7, 2007 at 2:47 am #
I have one thing to say to Ms. Goodman ; Is she proposing that NO return to “good old days” of pre Katrina. Before the storm every aspect of the city was a failure,(crime, education , employment). Is privatization the answer I don’t know , however the old way was a costly failure.
Report thisBy Andrew A., September 6, 2007 at 2:36 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Hey Georgy,
Republicans are all about taking land from the poor.
According to one of the people on Democracy Now they’re demolishing hundreds of homes in New Orleans to build 2 pro golf courses. A shitty deed for an overrated game.
Report thisBy Lyn leJeune, September 6, 2007 at 7:53 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
We will do ourselves!
THOSE WHO HONOR THE WRITTEN WORD TOUCH THE DIVINE ON EARTH
Every culture in the world is just one good shove away from the precipice of barbarism. Dan Fesperman, author of The Prisoner of Guantanamo and The Amateur Spy. One reason why public libraries must survive.
Bonjour “six degrees of separation” theory—the idea that six links separates everyone in the world from everyone else, or simply put its a small world after all (will that tune be in your head while you try to sleep?) But thats why I started The Beatitudes Network to help rebuild the public libraries of New Orleans. I am donating ALL OF THE ROYALITES from the sale of my book, The Beatitudes, DIRECTLY to the New Orleans Public Library Foundation; no money passes through my hands. The Beatitudes by me, Lyn LeJeune, is available at Amazon.com, or any online bookstore, or bricks &mortar;stores, or you can read all about me on my Myspace page or at http://www.beatitudesinneworleans.blogspot where you can read excerpts.
If you go to Amazon.com page you see that that the Foundation is noted as the co-author.
COME AND JOIN THE BEATITUDES NETWORK AND DO YOUR PART TO HELP REBUILD NEW ORLEANS .BUY A BOOK, BUILD A LIBRARY. PASS THE WORLD AROUND MYSPACE, YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, SCHOOL, WORK .LETS CATCH A CAUSE FOR NEW ORLEANS at http://www.amazon.com type in Lyn LeJeune, The Beatitudes.
Lyn LeJeune, The Beatitudes, Book I in The New Orleans Trilogy at Amazon.com. A paranormal thriller .who is trying to take over New Orleans? Two strong women, ex-social workers Hannah Dubois (nicknamed Scrimp) and Earline Washington (nicknamed Pinch) are determined to find out.
Report thisBy Outraged, September 5, 2007 at 11:22 pm #
If you want to be truly sickened, check out this site:
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14647
Make sure you read the “next article” and the next and the next and the next…..........honestly, its so sickening and outrageous, I had to read it in two sittings. I just couldn’t keep reading…....
Report thisBy Georgy, September 5, 2007 at 6:31 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Finally, an issue where both liberals and conservatives will be equally repulsed - the former by the social injustice and the latter by the abuse of government power to destroy people’s private property and charge them for it…
Report thisBy purplewolf, September 4, 2007 at 11:56 pm #
AMERICAN HOLOCAUST II
written by: the Bush Administration
directed by: George W. Bush
filmed in real time on location in NEW ORLEANS
starring: PEOPLE YOU KNOW AND LOVE
opening soon in a theater near you!*
* Also showing
AMERICAN HOLOCAUST I
written by:
General George Armstrong Custer
filmed in real time on location at
WOUNDED KNEE
starring: The 7th Cavalry and the Native
American Indians from across America
Report thisBy farmertx, September 4, 2007 at 11:33 pm #
Nagins’ comment that this wasn’t the time for demands addresses the reality of dealing with the Shrub.
Report thisNagin would have done as well addressing his demands to a wall.
Granted that there was a lot of blame to go around about the pre storm preparations, the post storm response was an eye opener to many that thought Shrub was a leader.
There was almost a Keystone Kops aura about the FEMA response.
Comparing Louisianas’ situation to that of Florida showed a huge difference.
Then there was the reaction this year in South Texas. Millions were spent in Disaster Readiness for a storm that was never fully expected to target Texas. Indeed, Shrub issued the first Pre Disaster Disaster Declaration. All for what amounted to a Tropical Storm, bringing rain and some wind.
By cyrena, September 4, 2007 at 11:01 pm #
....“According to The Times-Picayune, in addition to having their homes destroyed, the owners have a lien placed on the property for the cost of the demolition, setting the stage for the displaced owners to lose their property to the city.”...
This is another real life nightmare, happening right here in our midst. It’s all so surreal, like most everything has been for the past 6 and 1/2 years. These mass purges of humanity, that have scattered so many of us to the winds. Those from New Orleans, who are not the victims of a natural disaster, but rather the victims of their own government, have joined the already growing number of “internally displaced Americans”.
The scariest part is that this privatization of New Orleans, (for whites only) was in fact predicted, within a week after the storm hit. I remember it well, because it jarred me out of the shock of the disaster. It was a piece published in the Black Commentator, which is an on-line publication that focuses on issues concerning the African-American communities. It was titled, “Will the New New Orleans be Black?”
At that moment, I thought it was an odd title. Why wouldn’t it be, I thought. It always has been. How could it NOT be? It wouldn’t be New Orleans without it’s population.
But, as I began to read, I understood just how it could all happen. And, it has. That’s the nightmare that has come true.
Seems like all of our African-American communities are just falling apart. We’ve recently lost our hospital in LA, allowed to deteriorate due to politicized mismanagement, among other things. Oakland seems to have exploded, as if they haven’t already been under socio-economic siege for years now..there’s only more poverty, leading to more hopelessness.
And, those are only a few. Still, in spite of the utter immoraity and hubris of the “occupiers” (this administration) we can and should be grateful for, and supportive of this group of courageous people who have unified to fight this out.
I’m glad to know about the People’s Organizing Committee, as well as the Common Grounds Collective are active and organized to see this through. There’s really no choice. Once they’ve taken it away, there’s no getting it back. That’s just the way it is.
So, thanks Amy. This is important news. It should be main-stream headlines.
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