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Brown does appear to have been the fall guy, with responsibilities only
handed over to him on Aug.30/05.
The story following is a whole other kind of report on the current New
Orleans activity; one that describes a ghost town with emaciated people who
emerge from the shadows to ask for food or water still. No signs of armed
forces, relief workers, or the Red Cross. Authorities won't let them in. The
police they do meet are basically just "drawin' down on people"--meaning they're
just drawing their guns on them, offering no hope or supplies that are supposed
to be there, according to reports we've been hearing. A high number of reporters
and camera people (possibly in the thousands) with no relief activity to
focus upon, staying in their comfy trailers. This report is provided by an
individual who would normally describe himself as a coward, yet has
found no danger with which to contend, and looters only looking for
sustainance from the well-shelved empty stores.
Certainly, it is for these poor mostly black people who have no means to
relocate, that the 25,000 body bags brought to the area are waiting.
I heard an amazing poem on the radio written by a N.O. fellow. Sounded like
a Russian immigrant really. It's focus was on the New Orlean's people's beloved
and slow-paced way of life, perfumed nights, food fare and music. It also spoke
of the collective guilt its citizens now feel for allowing Katrina to happen.
How they all knew that corruption was rampant, but they were too busy
enjoying life to bother to protest; how they knew, from previous storms,
that their city could easily be devastated. It was indeed so sad because this
was hardly their guilt alone to bear. Both the Feds and the State
over-developed the region, then the Feds cut their best line of defense with the
levies construction cuts. There was nothing to stop help from arriving except
for indifference and political posturing. Further, there was no incriminating
evidence to rush in and remove. They will reconstruct New Orleans whatever
way is most sound and viable, but without its former residents (even in
their diminished numbers) rightfully returned to restored homes, the city won't
be the same. It is not a place that makes a town, it is its people. Without
them, it will doubtless become another Disney Corp.
Natalia Kuzmyn
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Below, UNDERNEWS
SEP 14, 2005 FROM THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW EDITED BY SAM SMITH Since 1964, Washington's most unofficial source E-MAIL: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] LATEST HEADLINES & INDEX: http://prorev.com UNDERNEWS: http://www.prorev.com/indexa.htm |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| KATRINA |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| CHERTOFF WAS THE FIRST AND MAJOR SCREW-UP IN KATRINA MESS KNIGHT RIDDER - The federal official with the power to mobilize a massive federal response to Hurricane Katrina was Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, not the former FEMA chief who was relieved of his duties and resigned earlier this week, federal documents reviewed by Knight Ridder show. Even before the storm struck the Gulf Coast, Chertoff could have ordered federal agencies into action without any request from state or local officials. Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown had only limited authority to do so until about 36 hours after the storm hit, when Chertoff designated him as the "principal federal official" in charge of the storm. As thousands of hurricane victims went without food, water and shelter in the days after Katrina's early morning Aug. 29 landfall, critics assailed Brown for being responsible for delays that might have cost hundreds of lives. But Chertoff - not Brown - was in charge of managing the national response to a catastrophic disaster, according to the National Response Plan, the federal government's blueprint for how agencies will handle major natural disasters or terrorist incidents. An order issued by President Bush in 2003 also assigned that responsibility to the homeland security director. But according to a memo obtained by Knight Ridder, Chertoff didn't shift that power to Brown until late afternoon or evening on Aug. 30, about 36 hours after Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi. That same memo suggests that Chertoff may have been confused about his lead role in disaster response and that of his department. http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/12637172.htm |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| IT'S NOT LIKE THEY SAY ON TV [Excerpt from the diary of an anonymous news cameraman posted on Boing Boing] NEWS CAMERAMAN - There are almost no news crews in the field trying to cover the story. Hundreds, if not thousands of media people are in the region - but I have driven back and forth through some of the worst neighborhoods in the city and you don't see them. You don't see the National Guard. . . you don't see anyone, except for the poor unfortunate souls wandering the streets looking for food or water. Many of them are on their last legs; they are literally not long for this world. It is surreal; it's like a zombie scene from Dawn of the Dead. It's disgraceful that in our times, we are seeing the complete disintegration of our ability to care for our own. . . These are the poorest of the poor. The people left behind in New Orleans are there for one reason only; they had no means to remove themselves from the city. Everyone who could get out, got out. What's missing from the rescue is apparent to anyone. A simple plan. It's like no one ever gave it a real thought. Simple things like storage of emergency rations, clothing, tents, etc. in strategic locations. . . communications that allow different entities to talk to one another, emergency plans and routing for moving large numbers of people (easily done with the hundreds of public and school transit buses available locally), and the list goes on. Everyone on the street that I have met is so grateful for anything that you can give them. You have to be careful or you could start a riot just giving away a bottle of water. Driving or walking through the flood area, you see people in the shadows on every block. As you walk around - they come out and they are so dehydrated, carrying babies, or leading you to their father or their mother or a friend who needs help. They all say that they want to get out; they just don't have a way. And they uniformly complain about the police not stopping to help. Over and over you hear the same thing...."They just drawin' down on people", meaning they are pulling their guns. I can only judge from what I saw, but in walking through the worst areas, every looter I saw was taking food and water. They could be shot for entering supermarkets, which by the way are mostly fully stocked with food, water, juices and soda. It's disgraceful, it's been almost a week and yet there seems as though no one in Washington, or Baton Rouge who gets the enormity of what is unfolding. . . I have driven from one end of New Orleans to the other - a drive of over 7 miles, and repeatedly not seen one cop, guardsman, trooper. . . And where is the Red Cross? Not one. Everyone on the street says, "Where's the Red Cross?". . The cops I've asked say they are not here because they are afraid. The Red Cross says that the authorities are not letting them in the city. . . What is particularly sad to me is that I'm no hero. I'm basically a coward, but I don't find anyone I've met on the street to be threatening. They are suffering and desperate and no one has uttered a word other then "help me" or "thank you". I watched one of these news robots on the air last night standing at Camp and Canal Street - where it is safe - doing a national live shot saying that "everything is in place now" and "food is being distributed", and "the National Guard is deployed in force. . . on the street" - it was pure fiction. This guy hasn't left the safety of his air conditioned trailer complete with Subway sandwiches (from Baton Rouge) and Gatorade. It's pathetic. . . We all know that if it were somewhere else, like an affluent resort town or a Bush county in Florida, things would be different. Yes, there was looting and gunfire, and there are criminals out there, but they were a small minority of the population. There were tens of thousands of poor, black folk who stayed out of it, and they are still waiting today for any kind of help. http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/13/katrina_a_cameramans.html All mail scanned by NAV |
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