Back to New Orleans- A Photo Essay

[buzzsaw_23]

http://network.news.com.au/image/0,10114,5046942,00.jpg
A 70% African-American city where resistance to white supremacy has supported a generous, subversive and unique culture of vivid beauty. From jazz, blues and hiphop, to secondlines, Mardi Gras Indians, Parades, Beads, Jazz Funerals, and red beans and rice on Monday nights, New Orleans is a place of art and music and dance and sexuality and liberation unlike anywhere else in the world.


They were ordered NOT to use their amphibious landing craft, hospital facilities, 6 operating rooms, water trucks, MRE's etc. to benefit the people of New Orleans. They were on station Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were ordered to leave.



A New Orleans resident walks through floodwaters coated with a fine layer of oil in the flooded downtown area on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)

New Orleans adds a new chapter to the Bush digest of calculated bigotry. While the wealthy white families were able to beat a hasty retreat out of doomed city, the poor and black were left to sink in the toxic stew unleashed by America's greatest natural disaster. 


People await aid and treatment outside the New Orleans Convention Center September 1, 2005 in New Orleans. Thousands are awaiting medical treatment and aid which has not arrived at the site. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

"It's not so much that the government is not responding ,
they are obstructing the response. They are telling us we can't bring people
the basic necessities of life because that would give them hope. It is a
question of oppression vs. mutual aid." - Jesse, an organizer with MayDay DC
volunteering in the Common Ground Wellness Center, Algiers, NOLA


S. Claiborne Avenue. Photo by Sidney Smith.
While New Orleans is undergoing a slow motion catastrophe, Bush mugs for the cameras, cuts a cake for John McCain, plays the guitar for Mark Wills, delivers an address about V-J day, and continues with his vacation. When he finally gets around to acknowledging the scope of the unfolding disaster, he delivers only a photo op on Air Force One and a flat, defensive, laundry list speech in the Rose Garden.


Military May Play Bigger Relief Role


By ROBERT BURNS

AP Military Writer

Bush did not define the wider role he envisions for the military. But in his speech to the nation from New Orleans on Thursday, he alluded to the unmatched ability of federal troops to provide supplies, equipment, communications, transportation and other assets the military lumps under the label of ``logistics.''

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-528...



"You can't start a clinic here . That would give people hope.
My job is to make their lives as hopeless as possible so they will leave." -
New Orleans Police Dept. officer berating relief workers in the 9th Ward


"The government needed to reinforce the supremacy of private property, and it did so with bullets. The government paid no attention to the people of New Orleans when all they were doing was dying, because the government could care less about a few thousand lower class black people. Once they started taking matters into their own hands and looting from private property, however, they became a major problem. Never mind that the vast majority of the looters were simply taking food and water to try and keep themselves alive."



I encourage everyone to go to this link http://citypages.com/databank/26/1294/article13694.asp to read first hand stories from survivors.

[Sydnie]

1. Interesting name on THAT vehicle

[mirandapriestly]

7. "tactical unit"

that is what it said on the bullet casings found with the dogs that were tortured and shot to death in those middle schools even though they were housed by their owners with their names and addresses and left with plenty of food. (The owners weren't allowed to take them)

"Police state" , they aren't mincing words are they?

[Chico Man]

12. Photoshopped?

Look at this one.

[buzzsaw_23]

13. Noticed that also- Compare and contrast

with a scene from Haiti.



Where are we Going? Where have we Been?

[Sydnie]

14. If it is then it is being hosted by

news.globalfreepress.com ... while the one with the title you posted is being hosted by informationclearinghouse.info/ . I don't think the first one is photoshopped, but I can't say for sure.

[DistressedAmerican]

2. Unreal Photos! Nominated. Especially Shiver At This...

[buzzsaw_23]

4. Occupied New Orleans and Homegrown Resistance

I'd like to hear more first hand accounts of what the conditions are like on the ground today.



Occupied New Orleans and Homegrown Resistance
by Mike Whitney

The appearance of fully-armed mercenaries on the streets of New Orleans tells us that the city is currently under occupation. Whenever foreign troops are deployed within an urban area it can only mean one thing; the loss of sovereignty. It’s no different here. Blackwater mercenaries are part of a privately owned army that has seized control of the streets from their rightful owners, the people of New Orleans. They are an integral part of a much broader plan to militarize the nation and turn America into a garrison-state.

Blackwater employees may work for the United States government, but, in fact, they represent the exclusive interests of an elite cadre of corporate globalists who are transforming America into a base for future operations. New Orleans is simply the testing-grounds for their radical theories of establishing order. It provides a pilot-program for working out the kinks that inevitably arise from revamping society from the ground up.

<snip>

The soldiers and mercenaries will be part of a permanent military contingent in New Orleans performing routine policing activities, assisting NGOs, and executing various disciplinary functions. The Red Cross is already being assisted by Blackwater employees; ensuring that vital assistance is meted-out according to strict guidelines rather than mere need. These same restrictions have been applied in Afghanistan and Iraq to make sure that victims meet certain political criteria before they can get aid. This is how the Pentagon enters NGOs into the overarching military goals of the operation and turns relief into a subtle form of coercion.

<snip>

The shifting political realities in New Orleans are bound to create a growing sense of unease and horror among the public. In Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti, that disquiet has evolved into indigenous resistance movements. We expect the same will take place in New Orleans. The deployment of troops is a deliberate provocation and a direct threat to the fundamental principles of a free society. It cannot stand. Democracy is incompatible with occupation; whether it’s in Iraq or New Orleans. Any talk about freedom in America is pointless until every soldier and mercenary is removed from the streets of our cities.

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=8595

[intheflow]

3. Nominated. It is so easy to forget.

This post brings it back in full color urgency. The oppression of poor people in America has GOT to stop!

[buzzsaw_23]

5. History-1927 gov't exploded levees to flood poor black neighborhoods

In 1927, the government did indeed explode the levees to flood low-lying poor (read: black) neighborhoods in downriver New Orleans in order to save the uptown

The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in United States history until the Hurricane Katrina flood of 2005.

The Mississippi River broke out of its levee system in 145 places and flooded 27,000 square miles or about 16,570,627 acres (70,000 km²). The area was inundated up to a depth of 30 feet (10 m). The flood caused over $400 million in damages and killed 246 people in seven states.

<snip>

As the flood approached New Orleans, Louisiana 30 tons of dynamite were set off on the levee at Caernarvon, Louisiana and sent 250,000 ft³/s (7,000 m³/s) of water pouring through. This prevented New Orleans from experiencing serious damage but destroyed much of the marsh below the city and flooded all of St. Bernard Parish. As it turned out, the destruction of the Caernarvon levee was unnecessary; several major levee breaks well upstream of New Orleans, including one the day after the dynamiting, made it impossible for flood waters to seriously threaten the city.

By August 1927 the flood subsided. During the disaster 700,000 people were displaced, including 330,000 African-Americans who were moved to 154 relief camps. Over 13,000 refugees near Greenville, Mississippi were gathered from area farms and evacuated to the crest of an unbroken levee, and stranded there for days without food or clean water, while boats arrived to evacuate white women and children. Many African-Americans were detained and forced to labor at gunpoint during flood relief efforts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927

[intheflow]

11. I hadn't heard that before.

I've been thinking Galveston, 1900. Now I see New Orleans, 1927 is a more apt historical correlation. Thanks for the history lesson.

[AuntiBush]

6. Thank You for this Much Needed Reminder

Less we should "ever" forget. This breaks my dismayed American heart.

"It's not so much that the government is not responding, they are obstructing the response. They are telling us we can't bring people
the basic necessities of life because that would give them hope. It is a
question of oppression vs. mutual aid." - Jesse, an organizer with MayDay DC volunteering in the Common Ground Wellness Center, Algiers, NOLA

Not in this American's name.

[bobbieinok]

8. could this be permanently archived somewhere....available in a year??

2 years??

[buzzsaw_23]

15. To be bookmarked

and filed for the archives.


Levees Made of Lies
Rage, Grief, and the Chimera of the American Dream
by Phil Rockstroh

An entire American city has become an uninhabitable mire of fetid water, sodden ruins, and toxic sludge. Moreover, the destruction will not end there: the financial, political, and psychological spill-off, incurred by the deluge, will cause our nation to sink further into a morass of debt, denial, and despair.

<snip>

Moreover, the high cost and banality of (not to mention brain-damage incurred by) those activities left the nation susceptible to the platitudinous, confidence man assurances of power and prosperity, without sacrifice, promised by Ronald Reagan. As, all the while, through the 1980s, George W. Bush hid himself among mountains of the afore-mentioned disco marching powder and Arnold Schwarzenegger brandished fists full of anabolic steroids, creating for himself a body that is a precise metaphor for his adopted land -- a nation that worships the appearance of strength, but whose interior life is as stunted as that of a narcissistic bodybuilder, a preening twit for whom the larger world serves no greater purpose than for the adoration of his over-sized, oil-lacquered muscles.

<snip>

And thus far, we Americas have risen to meet the challenge of these perilous times -- by dozing off before our televisions. With crumbs of Doritos stippled in the folds of our double chins and upon our sagging chest, the garish glow of our sets flickers over our sleep-slackened faces, while the programming fare proclaims that "reality" is now comprised of the stuff of contrived competitions between corporately-neutered, would-be pop stars and of Weather Channel remotes, in which legions of blow-dried, sub-cretinous blathering heads are dispatched to hurricane-battered coastal regions to be blown about on camera for the amusement of viewers afflicted with a voyeuristic fetish for "live" disaster footage. And it was big fun, until the appearance of floating corpses put a damper on everyone's festive mood.

More at:http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Sept05/Rockstroh0912.htm

[populistdriven]

9. What Repukes have always wanted to do to the Rainbow Coalition:

[me b zola]

10. I will never forget

:cry: :grr: :cry: :grr: :cry:

[Tsiyu]

16. Studying these pictures

I hate what America has become now that Repukes have their way with everything. This is the Repuke vision of what America should be.


Why? How is this Christ-like? How is this Pro-life? How is this moral, gawdly, sane?

Is this what "Good Government" looks like? Is this what compassionate conservatism looks like?

If so, all Repukes heed my words: You can shove your godly, moral compassionate conservatism right up your greedy, drunk, racist assholes.

[Swamp Rat]

17. kick and recommended! n/t

[buzzsaw_23]

18. Cory Delany Tells his story

Cory Delany, 24, resident of Waggerman, Louisiana, was in New Orleans with his family during and after Katrina

When we got out of the boat , we meet a police officer. He had a M16 in his hand telling everybody, "They're coming to get you, walk up to the top of the bridge. The buses are coming to get you, they'll be here in like two hours." We had to walk like four miles, pulling my mama 'cause she didn't have no foot pedals on her wheelchair. They was out in the water somewhere. By that time her neck wasn't moving too much and she wasn't too responsive.

We had to go sit on the interstate and wait for the bus to come. That was better than being in the house. We went and sat with about 2,000 people on the interstate over by Claiborne Avenue by Circle Food store, which was also under water. They had some water. When we seen the buses come, everybody would crowd up for them and the buses would just ride past. We was all in this one little spot, like 2,000 people in this one little spot. Elderly people, infant babies, handicapped people, sitting in this one little spot waiting on these buses that was supposed to come get us in an hour or two. This is now night, we got out there at 10:00 in the morning and the buses and the police officers are riding past us.

The second day, 50 buses was riding past us. All the police officers rode by. Nobody stopped to tell us nothing, all they did was show us their guns and stick them out the window. As much as they like to put people in the back of their car, they didn't put nobody in the back of their car. They didn't say nothing on they intercom. They just kept going. We went three days with the buses just passing by us, everybody getting frustrated.

http://citypages.com/databank/26/1294/article13694.asp?page=8


Daryl Thompson holds his daughter Dejanae, 3-months, as they wait with other displaced residents on a highway in the hopes of catching a ride out of town after Hurricane Katrina August 31, 2005 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)