bryanjazz

Two years ago, an American city experienced the costliest and one of the deadliest natural disasters in U.S. history. As a native of that city, New Orleans, Louisiana, it is deeply troubling to note that the devastating effects on the city of Hurricane Katrina still remain largely unaddressed. Those in power in the current American oligarchy continue to channel billions and billions of dollars toward their self-serving imperialist enterprise, while New Orleans and its inhabitants continue to be neglected, largely due to issues of class and race.

And so it goes...

**********************************

Personally, I have been to New Orleans about 5 times since the storm hit. Each visit is bittersweet; a chance to return home (or revisit the question of home), to see family (though my mom has relocated/been displaced to Houston), and to experience the culture...or what's left of it. JAZZFEST still happens, and, as noted here before, it is an anticipated, joyful reunion time for close friends and family. It's still that, yet many discussions about things to do, see or experience in the city end in a brief silence after an acknowledgment of what's "not there anymore." Driving around the city, seeing all the abandoned homes and businesses, only confirms the absences present in the conversations. I didn't drive around the city on my last visit.

So on this second anniversary after the storm, I am wondering about the future of the city that was.

See also:

How to Destroy an African American City in 33 Steps - Lessons from Katrina
Beyond Katrina
New Orleans Independent Media Center

(*listening to John Coltrane's "Lonnie's Lamment)

Got back from New Orleans (to Houston) just yesterday. Will write about that more later. Below is the post I wrote in Baton Rouge Sunday night, before I lost internet access because of the rain. The rain causes so many problems down here...folks just learn to live with it. We are still learning to live with "Katrina"...

Spending few days down here in Mexico, north of the border...or as most Americans affectionately know it, Houston. This is the city to which my mom relocated after Katrina. The city and people of Houston have been very generous to the evacuees. Many have been fortunate to find housing, and several businesses and organizations have provide clothing and furniture. My mom has a nice two bedroom apartment that is partially furnished. This is good, because she lost most of her belongings which were in a ground floor apartment in New Orleans. We're en route to New Orleans now to see what we can recover. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

So this is my first visit to the region since Katrina. It's also my first visit to Houston. I like it. The people here are friendly in that Southernly hospitable way (like folks greeting you when they pass...of course, that could be the influence of all the New Orleans folks here now, LOL). And there is a huge, delightful Mexican influence in the culture. From the plethora of Mexican eateries to Latin music blasting from car stereos, from Spanish signs and language spoken everywhere to Fiesta. Yes, let me tell you about Fiesta. Fiesta is a supermarket chain specializing international and especially Spanish foods. It offers a full range of standard American food store fare, plus a complete selection of Mexican baked goods, prepared foods, frozen foods, and all of the Goya products for which one could search. Plus fresh produce, meats and seafood. All against the backdrop of Latin music. It's awesome. They also sell clothing, liquor and jewelry. I'm hooked!

Houston is large and sprawling, and I have spent much time driving on highways between relatives in different parts of the city. Fortunately, I like to drive. Especially since as I write this, I'm in Baton Rouge...

Me & MomAs I mentioned above, we are going to New Orleans to see what we can salvage. My mom's been once already for a brief visit to survey the damage. Fortunately, it appears as though her area received only about 3 feet of water at most. Not enough to destroy everything, but enough to cause major damage. We'll drive in early in the morning. It will be my first visit to the city of my birth since Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc nearly 3 months ago. Everyone says "get ready...but you can't really be ready." This salvage operation is a perfect excuse reason for me to go down there to satisfy my curiosity. Like many others of the New Orleans Diaspora, I want to see for myself what has become of my birthplace...what has happened to home. A home which, because of my own history, I still have/had so much to look forward to learning. To be sure, "home", in our minds, is always a construct of our imagination, based on experiences and selective memory. Yet there is usually a geographical location with which to connect it. Even if the house may be gone, the neighborhood is still there...or the city. Where is home now for New Orleanians?

It seems that a category 4 hurricane and the failure of the levee system was not enough for New Orleans to endure. As the rest of America is now learning, the city, like many other tourist destinations around the world, was one in which lots of capital and resources flowed through, but also in which the wealth, as I've mentioned before, largely benefited those other than the local inhabitants. The word "exploitation" comes to mind.

Now, in its latest scheme to destroy poor and working class Americans effort to assist in the aftermath of Katrina, House Repugnats Republicans, in their increasingly stingy attitudes and disdain for those in need, have come up with a plan for $750 million dollars in loans to the devastated areas, with the "unprecedented" contingency that the loans are not to be forgiven if the local governments fail to repay them. From the L.A. Times article on Friday:

Lawmakers Put Stringent Conditions on Federal Relief Loans
By Mary Curtius, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- In a sign of the growing backlash to rebuilding costs, lawmakers attached unprecedented strings today to legislation that would provide $750 million in federal loans for hurricane-damaged cities.

The action came just weeks after President Bush pledged to spend whatever it takes to rebuild the Gulf Coast...

Eventually, the [Louisiana] delegation was forced to accept a measure that, for the first time, explicitly forbids the federal government from forgiving the loans if state or municipal governments fail to repay them. In the past, the federal government has often forgiven all or part of such disaster relief, offered under the 1974 Stafford Act.

A crippling prospect. Keep in mind that we are talking about a region in which at least one city (New Orleans) has already laid off municipal workers, or face the prospect of doing so shortly, and face a near non-existent tax base since much of the area is uninhabitable. This, of course, will lead to a region within the United States that mirrors those of other so-called third-world nations. I guess it's a natural extension of international monetary policy within US borders. (For insight into how this policy works in the Caribbean, I highly recommend the film Life and Debt.) Contrast this federal approach with the quick promise of $20 billion to New York City after 9/11.

This is the national response to the most expensive natural disaster in US history...perhaps human history.

Choices, choices...

* (Listening to Jill Scott's, "My Petition")

Another guest post on Katrina, from my friend Audacity:

“Louisiana Goddam”

(based on the composition “Mississippi Goddamn” by Nina Simone; adaptation and additional lyrics by Audacity Audazmenté™)

Eron had Me so upset
Abu Ghraib made Me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Louisiana, goddam

Iraq has Me so upset
North Korea makes Me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Louisiana, goddam

I know U saw it
I know the experts predicted it
Now a stench is in the air
When the people couldn’t take it any longer
Governor Blanco told us to say a prayer

Florida had Me so upset
Ohio made Me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Louisiana, goddam

Gulfport had Me so upset
Biloxi made Me lose my rest
And everybody knows about New Orleans, goddam

Floodwaters rise when the levees fail
Rescues delayed to put people in jail
Buses sit in a flooded lot
Stranded people suffer: sick, hungry, thirsty, and hot

I thought this “superpower” nation was prepared
I thought the “compassionate” administration cared
But nothing’s happening; it goes on day after day
There is no action to back-up what they say
People in New Orleans starve & drown
While we’re assured aid is coming by Michael Brown

Journalists & celebrities arrive where the people wait
Showing us the bodies of those for whom it’s too late
We see it on TV, we watch the suffering continue
It turns-out the man in charge, he has no clue

Well, that’s just the problem (No clue!)
Waters are rising (No clue!)
Partisans are strategizing (No clue!)
People with no home (No clue!)
Convention center & Superdome (No clue!)
Under & overpasses (No clue!)
Officials sit on their asses (No clue!)
People forgotten (No clue!)
The bodies are rottin’ (No clue!)
Mothers are cryin’ (No clue!)
Babies are dyin’ (No clue!)

Where is the help, where is the relief
I don’t know, I don’t know
The people New Orleans suffer for nearly a week
For the rest of the Gulf Coast, the fate is just as bleak
‘Cuz everybody knows about Hurricane Katrina, goddam

Flooded streets, people on rooftops
For food & water people break into shops
But the media rather show Black men carrying TVs
They ridicule the teenage girl with boxes of Nikes

The disaster is declared poverty’s consequence
The culprit is really government’s incompetence
While wars on drugs & terrorism are fought
While new oil & weapons are sought
People pay their taxes, like U & Me
Everyone’s told they’re equal and told they’re free

This whole country is full of lies
We’re all gonna die, and die like flies
Please don’t trust them, and if they ask U to
Remember that they have no clue

And that’s just the problem (No clue!)
National Guard’s on its way (No clue!)
Red Cross will be there today (No clue!)
“Mandatory” evacuation (No clue!)
No transportation (No clue!)
Inaction by Mayor Nagin (No clue!)
Justice is forsaken (No clue!)
Lives devastated (No clue!)
Families separated (No clue!)
Pets not allowed (No clue!)
Officials scared of a Black crowd (No clue!)
Rumors reported (No clue!)
Truth distorted (No clue!)
Lies spoken (No clue!)
Promises broken (No clue!)
Why don’t they fix it?
Why don’t they save them?
I don’t know, I don’t know

U don’t have to be there when the cavalry’s sent
Just do your damn job as President
Everybody knows about Mayor Nagin
Everybody knows about Governor Blanco
Everybody knows about Director Brown
Everybody knows about Secretary Chertoff
And everybody knows about President Bush, goddam!

“Louisiana Goddam” ©2005 Audacity Audazmenté™
Based on “Mississippi Goddam” written by Nina Simone
Additional lyrics and adaptation by Audacity Audazmenté™

I think this is a pretty accurate, insightful update. Maybe someone can record it. LOL. Here is the original, in case you haven't heard it in a while, or don't know the song at all.

“Mississippi Goddam” – written & performed by Nina Simone
(1964 adlib: The name of this tune is “Mississippi Goddam” …and I mean every word of it)

Alabama’s got Me so upset
Tennessee made Me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi, goddamn

Can’t U see it
Can’t U feel it
It’s all in the air
I can’t stand the pressure much longer
Somebody say a prayer

Alabama’s got Me so upset
Tennessee made Me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi, Goddamn

(1964 adlib: This is a showtune, but the show hasn’t been written for it …yet)

Hound dogs on my trail
Schoolchildren sitting in jail
Black cat ‘cross my path
I think every day’s gonna be my last

Lord have mercy on this land of mine
We’re all gonna get it in due time
I don’t belong here, I don’t belong there
I even stopped believing in prayer

Don’t tell Me, I’ll tell U
Me & my people just about due
I’ve been there, so I know
U keep on saying “Go slow”

Well that’s just the trouble (Too slow!)
Washin’ the windows (Too slow!)
Pickin’ the cotton (Too slow!)
Just plain rotten (Too slow!)
Too damn lazy (Too slow!)
Your thinking’s crazy (Too slow!)
Where am I going, what am I doing
I don’t know, I don’t know

Just try to do your very best
Stand up; be counted with all the rest
‘Cuz everybody knows about Mississippi, goddam

(1968 adlib: I ain’t ‘bout to be “non-violent”, honey)

Picket lines, school boycotts
They try to say it’s a Communist plot
But all I want is equality
For my sister, my brother, my people, & Me

Yes, U lied to Me all these years
U told Me to wash & clean my ears
And talk real fine, just like a “lady”
And U’d stop calling Me “Sister Sadie”

This whole country is full of lies
We’re all gonna die, and die like flies
I don’t trust U anymore
U keep on saying “Go slow”
“Go slow”

But that’s just the trouble (Too slow!)
Desegregation (Too slow!)
Mass participation (Too slow!)
Unification (Too slow!)
Do things gradually (Too slow!)
Will bring more tragedy (Too slow!)
Why don’t U see it?
Why don’t U feel it?
I don’t know, I don’t know

U don’t have to live next to Me
Just give Me my equality
Everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Mississippi, goddam!
“Mississippi Goddam” ©1964, 1993 Nina Simone

Nina Simone (1933 -2003) recorded “Mississippi Goddam” several times in her career, most notably in 1964 (included on the Philips album Nina Simone In Concert) and in 1968, recorded at a concert performed the day after Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination (included on the RCA compilation subtitled Sugar In My Bowl). The lyrics vary slightly in these different recordings. One notable lyrical addendum is from a 1983 recording of the song (available on the 1997 compilation My Baby Just Cares for Me), when Nina Simone repeats the line “Everybody knows about…”, finishing the line by interchanging a assortment of names, including Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and Michael Jackson.

There are those times when a story or news article resonates with your past, highlights certain aspects of it. Even more powerfully when it's your recent past...the past several months.

From my trip to Ghana, to my recent visit to New Orleans, via Birmingham, Hurricane Katrrina has sharply recalled much of what I've learned and experienced this year: the joys of culture and sense of home I feel for New Orleans; the experience of being an African American travelling abroad/home to the source of my people in Africa; my road trip through the Southern US, which deepened my sense of race and place in the American South. Katrina brings it all together. Similar to the underdevelopment of Africa, New Orleans is a place whose rich cultural resources are exploited to create wealth mostly for those other than the local inhabitants. And it is stories like these, in which we can clearly see the monied interests versus the people's interest, largely lining up along racial lines, that remind me that W.E.B. DuBois stated problem of the 20th century, color, may be with us well into the 21st.

Rebuilding plans confront turf wars, political strife
Racial tension mars initial discussions

By Robert Travis Scott
Capital bureau

BATON ROUGE - Twelve days after Hurricane Katrina, as the worst of the storm's physical perils subsided, about 60 business people and public officials from New Orleans gathered in Dallas with Mayor Ray Nagin to discuss the future of the city.

...For a city suffering an almost total exodus of residents and standing on the precipice of historic change in its population size and demographic makeup, the challenge of Marsalis' message struck deeply, according to people who attended the Dallas meeting Sept. 10. One huge concern is the potential loss of a disproportionately large number of African-Americans whose neighborhoods endured some of the most damaging flood waters and whose low incomes hinder their return.

What will New Orleans become, and who will determine that? That is the question that many are now thinking about. Of those who I know from the city with a long history of advocacy and activism for local people, not much is expected from Nagin. From the article:

Still, the event fed Nagin's reputation as an aloof leader indebted to the white business establishment that helped elect him. Nagin himself is a businessman with no prior experience in elected office. Few have forgotten that Nagin, a Democrat, endorsed conservative Republican Bobby Jindal in the 2003 governor's race over Kathleen Blanco, the Democrat who won. His relations with Blanco - and hence relations between New Orleans and state government - have been cool ever since.

And that is another challenge that New Orleans has faced throughout its history. The state of Louisiana has an unusual amount of contorl over the cities affairs and finances:

But the city has long been limited in determining its own affairs and revenue base. For example, state commissions own the Superdome and the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, and the Legislature ultimately decides how much room tax New Orleans hotels will charge to pay for the buildings. The state, represented by the governor, is the primary negotiator in deals with the New Orleans Saints. Local sales and property taxes are capped by state law.

...The state at times has been possessive of the city's revenue. For example, the state is the main tax collector for Harrah's New Orleans Casino downtown. Blanco has refused to release millions of dollars of Harrah's tax money that was supposed to be passed on to the city, and pleas from city officials and lawmakers have not convinced her to let it go.

So what will New Orleans become? And what of the city's poor, who existed unnoticed and neglected for years by those generating wealth and filling their private coffers? Another DuBois quote (found here) comes to mind:

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.
W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk