Thank You FEMA

Todays blog is a little disturbing to talk about because we are discussing the effort “or lack of” put forth during Hurricane Katrina by the emergency relief organization known as FEMA. It makes me angry at the blatant apathetic approach towards helping relieve New Orleans after one of the nations biggest disasters. Due to outdated rules and unrevised policies FEMA has failed to handle their responsibilities when they were needed most.
With no way to communicate with the outside world it took FEMA 3 days to realize the gravity of the situation. When FEMA finally responded to the cries for help and sent in teams to perform search and rescue functions they redundantly searched buildings and neighborhoods that were already cleared by state personel. Some tend to wonder who trains these people. The ineptitude of FEMA doesn’t just fall on the men and women in the field but also to their support staff mainly being logistics. State worker claimed they had to order twice as many supplies to get half of what they needed, primarily because they had no confidence in the system. Who can we trust these days even the president of FEMA , Micheal Brown during an interview stated that FEMA’s workers were a close knit community highly trained in specialized areas and that the rescue effort was going well and according to plan. However in a later interview with Front Line he said the reason he said those things in the previous interview was to quell panic.
Nine months after the waters receeded and most of the Lower Nine was left in shambles a mere shadow of its former self half the area still had no electricity or potable water (Hiles). Some residents who did receive a FEMA trailers were pretty much left stranded with no power or water for six weeks. One resident stated “FEMA if your not gonna help get the hell out of here!.” These are the people that we trust to save us.
In short I would like to say thank you to FEMA for showing us what not do in a national crisis, maybe we will get it right the next time around. Good job Brownie is what Bush would always reference to in speaking about the most incapable, dimwitted, dolt to ever hold office in a federal agency. He managed to spend over 13 billion in tax payer dollars to fund this lame attempt , so thank you again.

The Undying "Big Easy"

Hey all you bloggers out there, this assignment is an opportunity to apologize and redeem myself from the trite, lack luster information filled blogs that I have been forcing down everyone’s throats, so lets try something different. When I first heard I was supposed to be writing about New Orleans, vivid images came to mind. Visions of drunken masses stumbling through Bourbon Street, flashing tourists, oversized drinks, and loud jazz music flew through my head. However there is another side to New Orleans, aside from the party atmosphere the city is more than just jazz, drinks, and naked women. It is ripe with rich history, old world architecture, a soul infused by the blood sweat and tears of many people that left there mark such as Paul Travign, Louis Armstrong, and so many other influential artists poets, and writers. New Orleans is the only place where slaves were allowed to buy their freedom. It’s the only place where slaves were aloud to work wherever they chose on the weekends. New Orleans had the first desegregated schools, and the first black daily news.

First founded by the French in 1718, they were drawn by its unique location being surrounded by rivers such as the Mississippi and dense swampland. The French ruled for about 45 years till they ceded to the Spanish who remained in control till 1801, later going back to French rule. Napoleon then sold New Orleans to the Americas during the Louisiana Purchase. The city grew rapidly with many influences including French, Creole, American’s, Spanish, and Africans. The Haitian revolution of 1804 brought in refugees both black and white they also brought their slaves with them.

Geographically New Orleans is mostly below sea level surrounded by water, Pierce F. Lewis, the author of New Orleans (The Making of an Urban Landscape) says, “New Orleans depends much more heavily on income from overseas maritime commerce than any other large port in the eastern United States. New Orleans has very little to fall back on but tourism, which is undependable”.

Though New Orleans may still be considered unique, it is rapidly becoming like any other city in America. Sparked from the white flight of city dwellers, certain parts of the city are rapidly turning into ghettoes. In the Fauburg Treme documentary Irving Travign descendant of Paul Travign says, “they tried to make New Orleans like the rest of the country”. He spoke about waking up at 6:30 in the morning and seeing the street flooded with drugs and hearing automatic weapons go off. Lewis spoke about the I-10 highway butchering North Claiborne Ave.which once was the main street to the biggest African American neighborhood in New Orleans. It broke my heart to see pictures of how it used to be and further more hear the breaking down of Mr. Travigns voice as he referenced to the I-10 as being cold hard concrete slapped down right in the middle of his city.

Personally, when I first saw the devastation wrought by hurricane Katrina, it broke my heart. Seeing the hundreds of disenfranchised citizens swimming for their lives, standing on their roofs, waving for rescue choppers to save them nearly brought me to my knees. I was staring at the television dumbfounded watching the horror unfold. Then the aftermath when the waters receded and the thousands of homeless, starving masses gathered in the superdome who were lined up to get clothed and fed was another tragedy that unfolded on live TV. As Douglas Brinkley, author of The Great Deluge, Bienville the founder of New Orleans had he been able foresee the future he would have definitely moved new Orleans inland to higher ground after the Great Hurricane in 1722. Economic reasons caused Bienville to stay where the island is today. Another way that history could of prepared us for Katrina is by looking at the failed attempts to build dykes and levees in 1803. Had these situations been taken care of a lot of lives would have been saved.

Finally after much contemplating, the idea of New Orleans is not dead it lives in film, memories, rumors and in our hearts. This city will never die, it will live on and rebuild stronger than ever. In short The Big Easy will endure the test of time.

Should I Shouldn't I

I was on the train the other day, and as usual it was a bit too crowded for me. There were so many kids on the train, and the whole car smelled like sour milk. To my luck there was a seat and I didn't mind the smell anymore because I was praying for a seat, I had a lot of studying to catch up on. Even though the train was so loud from all the different conversations going on I was able to get some work done .... Yayyyyyy. On Ave M this elderly man enters the train and and he seems to be struggling to get to his seat its not that it wasn't available its just he was using a cane and he was a bit wabbly. One of the kids on the train tried to help him to his seat but to his suprise as well as mine and the entire cars the elderly man rudely said he didn't need help and kinda pushed him away. I felt bad for the kid and also for the elderly man.
What does one do in that situation. I mean on one hand the kid was nice enough to help out the man, but on the other here we have this man who probably never really needed help to do anything, further more sit down. I mean I don't know what its like to need help to do simple things like sit down but I'm sure that it can't feel too good. I guess by that kid offering to help him out made him feel helpless and dependent. What does one go through when your independence is lost?