When I lived in New Orleans it was most often called the
Crescent city after the bend in the river.
Da people used to shake dare heads and call it the city that care forgot and I have been hearing those people’s voices all during this sorrowful week.
As an anthropologist, it is apparent that what is happening in the American South is the result of a "perfect storm". It is not only a natural disaster but also a human disaster. For the last past 25 years the Republican political strategy called "starve the beast" has reduced spending on the public sector while enriching the private sector. This intensifies not only socioeconomic inequities, but also intensifies the decay of critical public infrastructure like roads, schools, hospitals, and even levees. Citizens still have the expectation that the public sector (government) will take care of them, while the people in power expect the private sector to replace the public sector in disaster relief.
Dan Cring, Lafayette, Louisiana
Mr. Bush's performance last week will rank as one of the worst ever by a president during a dire national emergency. What we witnessed, as clearly as the overwhelming agony of the city of New Orleans, was the dangerous incompetence and the staggering indifference to human suffering of the president and his administration. By BOB HERBERT
The Chicago Tribune reports that the U.S.S. Bataan, equipped with six operating rooms, hundreds of hospital beds and the ability to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, has been sitting off the Gulf Coast since last Monday - without patients.
Experts say that the first 72 hours after a natural disaster are the crucial window during which prompt action can save many lives. Yet action after Katrina was anything but prompt. Newsweek reports that a "strange paralysis" set in among Bush administration officials, who debated lines of authority while thousands died.
What caused that paralysis? President Bush certainly failed his test. After 9/11, all the country really needed from him was a speech. This time it needed action - and he didn't deliver.
But the federal government's lethal ineptitude wasn't just a consequence of Mr. Bush's personal inadequacy; it was a consequence of ideological hostility to the very idea of using government to serve the public good. For 25 years the right has been denigrating the public sector, telling us that government is always the problem, not the solution. Why should we be surprised that when we needed a government solution, it wasn't forthcoming? By PAUL KRUGMAN
Frank Rich: Falluja Floods the Superdome
Not much has been said about the Louisiana National Gaurd, they have 5,000 trained for a hurricane disaster, but they have been deployed to Iraq. Many of the best and brightest of the Louisiana Army Corps of Engineers are now rebuilding Iraq, some as independent contractors.
Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Project - New Orleans ...
New Orleans, the city that care forgot is a Catholic city and always has been foreign to Anglo-America.
American Red Cross Building a Better Community
Help Hurricane Victims Rebuild Their Lives KatrinaSafe.com.