Katrina: One Year Later

It’s hard to believe that Katrina was one year ago when so little has been done…

 

Katrina, FEMA, and a Confederacy of Dunces

Another strange coincidence occured today: this morning I read a little more in Confederacy of Dunces (which by the way is an excellent and hilarious read), the story of a misanthrope and his antics in New Orleans. Later in the morning, I read this article in The American Prospect. An interesting quote:

The soul of New Orleans is gone. What you’re left with is a lot of ruins and remnants of a culture that once was. Cities are about their people. Even though the architecture is gorgeous in the old town and one can still look at the balconies in the French Quarter, with whole great African American neighborhoods abandoned, you don’t feel that freedom spirit in the air, the laughter, the gaiety, the music, the kind of humming in the air that made New Orleans an exotic port city. Its spirit is gone somewhere else, and it went with the people. Hundreds of thousands of those people will probably never return. The reformulated city is much smaller and will take on a different vibration. But something died on August 29.

I don’t believe that I am the only one who finds this quote both pessimistic and underestimating. New Orleans, dare I say, is the most culturally diverse and alive city in the United States; and while Katrina destroyed much of the physical body of the city, the spirit still remains. I simply refuse to believe that the trumpets of street performers in the French Quarters will remain silent forever. Jambalaya, Jazz, and Bourbon will (actually is) returning in full force to the ruins of the city.

But what makes a city, I wonder: is it the landmarks or the people and its culture? When I hear the word city I uncontrollably yearn for San Francisco, my home and true love. And with all of this talk of the upcoming earthquake and memories of the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, I can sincerely emphasize with the survivors of New Orleans. Or what about the 1906 San Francisco fire? This is the centennial anniversary and we in the Bay Area are still remembering the destruction.

Mother Nature is one tough bitch, but human beings are tougher. Katrina was a national travesty, exposing both the socioeconomic discrepancy and bureaucratic incompetence; but perhaps more optimistically, it revealed the human will to survive.

Like Ignatius, the protagonist from Confederacy, New Orleans has and always will have bittersweet appeal. And from what I know about Ignatius, he wouldn’t let something like a hurricane get in the way of his bantering, eccentric confidence, and nostalgic romanticism.

 

Kanye West and Hurricane Katrina

Kanye West shocked the nation by saying “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” in the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Were his comments excessive? Check it out here.

Perhaps West is correct, the delay and seemingly lack of concern for the residents of Mississippi and Louisiana by the Bush administration is a sign of disinterest toward a certain group. Needless to say, the media is portraying the victims in a mostly colored light. Media, as West has correctly stated, has portrayed the white and black victims of this disaster in different terms. Why are black people stealing food when whites are finding it? Simple racist tendancies still exist in our media unfortunately, and it needs to be dealt with.

But perhaps this issue is deeper than that. The lack of preparation and support for the southern states affected by this disaster shows a lack of concern by the current administration. While I will not go on an extreme edge as many Berkeley Communist papers have gone and say that Bush killed these people, he did not exactly deliever many of them from destruction. While helicopters and armored tanks are being shipped to Iraq every week, people in New Orleans were dying of thirst and malnutrition. Where are our priorities?

An interesting thought was brought up today at work. My boss pointed out that she did not appreciate the Daily Californian calling the victims “refugees”. Upon further review, we discovered that “refugee” refers to someone who is forced from their home and seeks asylum or “refuge” from another state. Are these victims refugees because they must travel to Texas? No, Cubans sailing to this country are seeking asylum and are thus refugees. People forced from their homes in New Orleans are simply victims of a terrible tragedy exacerbated by a lack of support from their government.