The ongoing tragedy that is all over our television screens at the time of writing is nothing short of obscene. TV stations and tabloids blurt out their sickening one liners and sound bites of ‘Anarchy in New Orleans’ and ‘Looters should be shot on site’.
Whilst it is still unknown exactly how many people have died in the tragedy the government, through their corrupt and sponsored press, rather than accept their share of responsibility for the growing catastrophe, maintain an on going barrage of fuckwitted hatred and slanderous abuse toward those they are supposed to represent. Yes it’s them again folks…the poor and needy.
So what, we can hear you ask, has the government got to do with what’s occurred. Surely it was an ‘act of God’?
Whilst New Orleans and the rest of the region are no stranger to terrible weather conditions, reports were coming out atleast a year ago about the need for government aid to reinvest into strenghthening the waterways and levees in the canals leading from Lake Pontchartrain which protect New Orleans. The response from the Bush administration to a request for at least $78 million to fund the project was to splash out an extraordinarily stingy amount of $10 million. The excuse behind this? The ongoing cost of running the war of terror in Iraq.
Days before the imminent hurricane was to sweep into the region, public officials were seen on tv calling for people to ‘get on outta here today’! This led to the extraordinary scenes of hundreds of thousands of people jumping into their cars and heading out of the area to safety.
One thing the public officials didn’t address was how the majority of the poor were supposed to join into such a biblical rush for cover. Already poverty stricken and without cars or relatives to stay with out of state, what provisions were set up for the evacuation of the most vulnerable? None. This certainly was a New Testament case Bush style of ‘get outa ya bed and walk’!
Three days into the event with the majority of the poor areas of New Orleans covered in water and thousands dead, the only help people could rely on was their own. Frustrated by the lack of help, people ‘criminally’ took whatever measures they could to stay alive, something the state so readily screams at us is nothing other than ‘looting’.
What is interesting about this whole sordid affair is that in 2005, the number of families living in poverty in Louisiana is close to double the national average. New Orleans has one of the highest poverty rates of any of the largest cities in the USA.
According to a report by Total Community Action, a New Orleans public advocacy group,
'nearly one out of three New Orleans residents live below the poverty level, the majority of who are Black'.
A spokesperson for the United Negro College Fund noted that the city's poor live in some of the most dilapidated, and deteriorated housing in the nation. No surprise then that fewer than 40% of the residents in New Orleans and the surrounding area will have flood insurance to rebuild their lives.
The great rush to help the people of New Orleans is amazing to watch. After all it is happening isn’t it? Isn’t it?
Well four warships have been sent down to lend a hand…they should be there in about three days time! And one can only wonder of what use these warships will be.
One could almost be forgiven for believing that there are those who are rubbing their hands with glee at this appauling catastrophe.
‘Black, homeless, no place to go? Howz about a career in the marine corps son? You KNOW it makes sense!’
http://www.londonclasswar.org/news.htm
Whilst it is still unknown exactly how many people have died in the tragedy the government, through their corrupt and sponsored press, rather than accept their share of responsibility for the growing catastrophe, maintain an on going barrage of fuckwitted hatred and slanderous abuse toward those they are supposed to represent. Yes it’s them again folks…the poor and needy.
So what, we can hear you ask, has the government got to do with what’s occurred. Surely it was an ‘act of God’?
Whilst New Orleans and the rest of the region are no stranger to terrible weather conditions, reports were coming out atleast a year ago about the need for government aid to reinvest into strenghthening the waterways and levees in the canals leading from Lake Pontchartrain which protect New Orleans. The response from the Bush administration to a request for at least $78 million to fund the project was to splash out an extraordinarily stingy amount of $10 million. The excuse behind this? The ongoing cost of running the war of terror in Iraq.
Days before the imminent hurricane was to sweep into the region, public officials were seen on tv calling for people to ‘get on outta here today’! This led to the extraordinary scenes of hundreds of thousands of people jumping into their cars and heading out of the area to safety.
One thing the public officials didn’t address was how the majority of the poor were supposed to join into such a biblical rush for cover. Already poverty stricken and without cars or relatives to stay with out of state, what provisions were set up for the evacuation of the most vulnerable? None. This certainly was a New Testament case Bush style of ‘get outa ya bed and walk’!
Three days into the event with the majority of the poor areas of New Orleans covered in water and thousands dead, the only help people could rely on was their own. Frustrated by the lack of help, people ‘criminally’ took whatever measures they could to stay alive, something the state so readily screams at us is nothing other than ‘looting’.
What is interesting about this whole sordid affair is that in 2005, the number of families living in poverty in Louisiana is close to double the national average. New Orleans has one of the highest poverty rates of any of the largest cities in the USA.
According to a report by Total Community Action, a New Orleans public advocacy group,
'nearly one out of three New Orleans residents live below the poverty level, the majority of who are Black'.
A spokesperson for the United Negro College Fund noted that the city's poor live in some of the most dilapidated, and deteriorated housing in the nation. No surprise then that fewer than 40% of the residents in New Orleans and the surrounding area will have flood insurance to rebuild their lives.
The great rush to help the people of New Orleans is amazing to watch. After all it is happening isn’t it? Isn’t it?
Well four warships have been sent down to lend a hand…they should be there in about three days time! And one can only wonder of what use these warships will be.
One could almost be forgiven for believing that there are those who are rubbing their hands with glee at this appauling catastrophe.
‘Black, homeless, no place to go? Howz about a career in the marine corps son? You KNOW it makes sense!’
http://www.londonclasswar.org/news.htm
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