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The Second Looting of New Orleans

By Jordan Flaherty, AlterNet. Posted January 18, 2007.


The city is an international symbol of neglect and racism. But the federal government isn't the only one to blame.

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A year and a half after New Orleans became an international symbol of governmental neglect and racism, the city remains in crisis. Students are still without books, healthcare is less available to poor people than ever, public housing is still closed, and infrastructure is still in desperate need of repair. In an open letter to funders and national nonprofits, a diverse array of New Orleanians declared, "From the perspective of the poorest and least powerful, it appears that the work of national allies on our behalf has either not happened, or if it has happened it has been a failure."

In a recent conversations with scores of New Orleans residents, including organizers, advocates, health care providers, educators, artists and media makers, I heard countless stories of diverted funding and unmet needs. While many stressed that they have had important positive experiences with national allies, few have received anything close to the funding, resources, or staff they need for their work, and in fact most are working unsustainable hours while living in a still-devastated city.

Research backs up the anecdotal reports. A January 2006 article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy argued that the amount given to post-Katrina New Orleans was "small-potato giving for America's foundations, which collectively have $500-billion in assets." The article also asserted, "just as deplorable as the small sums poured into the region are the choices foundations have made about where the money should go." In other words, very little of the money had gone to organizations directed by or accountable to New Orleanians. One prominent New Orleans-born advocate and lobbyist called this phenomenon the "Halliburtization of the nonprofit sector."

A February report from New York City's Foundation Center points out that the Red Cross, which raised perhaps two billion dollars for Katrina relief despite widespread accusations of racism and mismanagement, "ranked as by far the largest named recipient of contributions from foundation and corporate donors in response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita," receiving almost 35 percent of all aid. At the time of the report, another 35 percent of the money the foundations designated had not been spent. The Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, Salvation Army and United Way together made up another 13 percent. The rest was generally spread between other national relief organizations.

Community Responses

After nearly fifteen months of shuttered storefronts, a block of Black-owned businesses in New Orleans celebrated a rebirth this week. The street, on Bayou Road in the seventh ward neighborhood of New Orleans, is a hopeful sign in a city where 60 percent of the population remains displaced and many businesses are shutting down or moving. As recently as August, most of the area remained shuttered and empty. Now, almost every shop is open. The Community Book Center, a vital neighborhood gathering spot in the middle of the block, reopened this week, despite still having no front windows and a floor in major need of work. "Step carefully," Vera Warren-Williams, the owner, warned guests as they entered the store during the reopening celebration.

Neighborhood spaces like the Community Book Center have long been a vital part of New Orleans organizing, serving as a gathering place for people and ideas. The revitalization of Bayou Road is just one example community pulling together -- friends and strangers coming by to help gut houses, clear debris, cook food. Anything to help, as the people of New Orleans struggle together against incredible odds in a city that was already devastated by poverty and privatization and neglect pre-Katrina.

Although Community Book Center is a crucial resource, spaces like these have received little outside support.

Foundations, according to the Chronicle article, "seem to have been preoccupied with the issue of accountability. Many foundations wondered how they could be certain that grants to local groups would be well spent and, therefore, publicly accountable."

While those are reasonable concerns, many in New Orleans see a double standard in this view. The Chronicle writer goes on to state, "the question of accountability didn't seem to bother the large foundations that gave so generously to the Red Cross, which had a questionable record of competence to begin with and attracted even more criticism in the aftermath of Katrina over its unwise use of funds, high administrative costs, and lack of outreach to minorities."

Many feel that the message from major funders has been that New Orleanians cannot handle the money appropriately. "Twenty seven years running a business, and they don't trust us with money," Jennifer Turner of the Community Book Center, comments, when asked about her feeling towards national funders. "They think we're all stupid or corrupt."

In the aftermath of Katrina, the people of New Orleans were depicted in the media as "looters" and violent criminals, or as helplessly poor and ignorant. In other words, as anything but a trustable partner in the rebuilding of their city. Even today, many news stories about New Orleans post-Katrina focus on FEMA payments that were misused or obtained through fraud, rather than the bigger story of corporate fraud.


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Jordan Flaherty is a union organizer and an editor of Left Turn Magazine.

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locoadele
Posted by: locoadele on Jan 18, 2007 6:39 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In addition to other sins committed against African Americans in their native city of New Orleans, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development has decided to raze over 5,000 low-income housing units which were lightly damaged by Katrina. The site will be turned over to private developers for construction of high-end apartments and condos. Residents of the affordable units were sealed out of their apartments, and their possessions sealed in, at a cost of hundreds of thousands dollars. A recent court decision went against residents' appeal of tHUD's decision. THIS AMOUNTS TO RACIAL CLEANSING OF NEW ORLEANS!

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Thanks, AlterNet
Posted by: hbw on Jan 18, 2007 6:49 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Thank you for publishing Mr. Flaherty's account. I have been following his Left Turn dispatches since just after Katrina, and have found him both thorough in his reporting and persuasive in his analysis.

The mess in Iraq may get big, splashy media coverage, but the mess in and around New Orleans is our own domestic gushing wound, which may take decades to patch up at the current rate. Shameful, that.

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Katrina -gate
Posted by: Conservasaurus on Jan 18, 2007 7:20 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
“The city is an international symbol of neglect and racism. But the federal government isn't the only one to blame.?? “ ---– you got it… Governor Haley Barbour of Miss seemed much more visible and proactive than Kathleen Blanco and Mayor Ray Nagen is incompetent (and reelected so you have to say they get what the voted for) tons of finger pointing between Nagen, Blanco (Nagin and Blanco were criticized for failing to implement New Orleans' evacuation plan and for ordering residents to a shelter of last resort without any provisions for food, water, security, or sanitary conditions. Perhaps the most important criticism of Nagin is that he delayed his emergency evacuation order until 19 hours before landfall, which led to hundreds of deaths of people who (by that time) could not find any way out of the city.)

“A year and a half after New Orleans became an international symbol of governmental neglect and racism, the city remains in crisis.” ---– and why is that..media hype and it seel advertising… black leaders making outrageous statements like Farrakhan's conspiracy theory rhetoric about the government bombing the levees in New Orleans. (with respect to race and class the percentage of black victims among storm-related deaths (49%) was below their proportion in the area's population (approx. 60% )…

Red Cross et all seem more concerned with “high profile” projects that show their donors big bang for the buck but ignore the small person sitting in a trailer. Insurance companies play their normal game of refusing to pay for anything..”just give me your money and don’t ask for anything”…

Consider the following…Despite $3 billion donated for Katrina victims ---
"Even if we doubled, tripled or quadrupled what we have, we still wouldn't be able to meet the need," said Gary Lundstrom, director of projects for Samaritan's Purse, which is rebuilding homes along the Mississippi coast and in Louisiana's ravaged St. Bernard Parish with much of its $34 million.”. (where has all the money gone???)
Despite the charitable outpouring, some victims feel shortchanged. And there is often a disconnect between the realities of how much has been contributed and the vastness of the need.

Johnnie and Hurley Smith clung to their bedroom skylight to survive Katrina after eight feet of water inundated their home in Biloxi, Miss. They got $1,000 from the Red Cross to use for daily expenses such as lodging and food, and $100 and a new mattress from the Salvation Army. They also ate Salvation Army and Red Cross meals, and their wrecked home was gutted by a church group.

Nevertheless, Johnnie Smith, 57, says she wishes a little more of the billions in donations had come her way.

"I should have been given more assistance," said Smith, a real estate agent who is still unable to work and needs therapy to deal with the trauma of Katrina. "There was a lot of money donated, and there is still a lot of money being donated."

Some small groups along the coast complain that the big charities are ignoring them
(BECAUSE, they are not high profile – no benefit in future fund raising efforts!)
So where is all the money? Well, maybe spent on issues such as this ---

The Baton Rouge Area Foundation has hired planners and other consultants at a cost of $15 million to devise a blueprint for development in southern Louisiana, a task normally taken on by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It also is spending $1.2 million on consultants to map out a regional health care system. The foundation has yet to raise all the needed cash, having exhausted the millions in relief funds it raised earlier.

No wonder it’s still a mess down there.. If Giuliani had been mayor in NO , it would have been much much different.

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» RE: Katrina -gate Posted by: roonie
» RE: Katrina -gate Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: Katrina -gate Posted by: roonie
» RE: Katrina -gate Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: Katrina -gate Posted by: roonie
» RE: Katrina -gate Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: Katrina -gate Posted by: roonie
» RE: Katrina -gate Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: Katrina -gate Posted by: kelly.nickell
NO and LA most corrupt place in the USA
Posted by: albrechtkrausse on Jan 18, 2007 7:49 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
and its about time that Alternet, finally, realised that they have to blame themselves for their problems. A city which thrives on booze, corruption, racism, and 'girls gone wild' as their source of income is bound to get into trouble when a real crisis arrives. Remember this is the state that gave us Edwin Edwards, Huey Long, David Duke, and the current mayor of NO. Corrupt police departments, corrupt sheriffs, awful prisons, corrupt politicans, 'drive-thru' daquiri stores, etc.

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Good Source
Posted by: fanny666 on Jan 18, 2007 9:24 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Reconstruction Watch

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The Big Money in the Big Easy
Posted by: NoPCZone on Jan 18, 2007 5:16 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The moneyed interests want a smaller & whiter New Orleans that is essentially a Creole Disney World for adult tourists. That tells you most of what you need to know. You can figure out the rest.

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POST KATRINA RACISM DOWN SOUTH
Posted by: winderje on Jan 18, 2007 9:24 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Shortly after Katrina, Dow Chemical Co. in St. Charles Parish, 40 minutes west of New Orleans, terminated several black workers for returning to work late. These employees were from the New Orleans area. They lost homes , family members, etc. They phoned in and were granted permission to take extended time off without pay, but when they returned , they were harrasssed and threatened by racist production leaders in the Hydrocarbons Dept. Law suits have been filed. Dow is trying to cover up and protect the racist leaders who were involved. Some of thes employees had 20 plus years of service.. The EEOC issued right to sue letters. They would not intervene directly, and gave Dow time to cover up and lie. Stay tuned.

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IT IS ALL BELOW SEA LEVEL
Posted by: nihthuntr on Jan 19, 2007 8:57 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I have read all the commentary as whom to blame for this tragedy.and there is an awful lot of blame to spread around,but, why rebuild a city that is atleast six feet below sea level . an other plan is needed

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Excuse my French
Posted by: mizipi on Jan 21, 2007 12:16 AM   
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I live in south Mississippi and when people far and wide asked me why there was little help to the poor, I replied, "Because most people and the government view us as rednecks and niggers." I received a lot of AMEN BROTHER from both blacks and whites. Government and NGO officials were and are scared of us rednecks and niggers. Just like they are scared of Saddam (R.I.P) and Osama. Few of us were willing to go into certain neighborhoods to offer assistance. These certain neighborhoods were the poorest of neighborhoods and received the least amount of help. Many Christians who are hellbent to post the 10 Commandments everywhere have never understood the Sermon on the Mount. Billions of dollars for Katrina relief have yet to be distributed, because those in charge are still figuring out ways to pocket the money for themselves and their cronies. Indiviuals and churches provided the best relief and did it with smiles on their faces and love in their hearts. Things would be better without FEMA. My Sen Trent Lott, who is worth million$, is still whining about his unsettled insurance claim, while those who lost everything they owned have to comfort themselves by saying, "When you ain't got nuthin', you got nuthin to lose."

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What led to catastrophe
Posted by: kbest on Jan 21, 2007 6:00 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Obviously poverty was a problem post- Katrina. People couldn't even afford to evacuate New Orleans. But wait, how could this be so. After all, The War on Poverty was declared over 40 years ago by a Democrat president. Congress has been in control of the Democrats the majority of the last 40 years. Louisiana has had a Democrat governor for the last 40 years, as well as New Orleans having a Democrat mayor the last 40 years. So you tell me how their policies helped pre-Katrina.

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