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Madison Community Responding to Crisis in New Orleans
, 04.09.2005 19:08
A group of citizens and clergy from Madison Zion Baptist Church will be sending 5 empty Van Galder buses to the Katrina hurricane stricken area on Tuesday to pick up 40 families and bring them back to Madison, as early as Friday next week. Apartments have already been found for the families, but monetary and other donations are needed to cover the first 2 months of rent and provide basic house ware needs for the families. Money/checks can be taken to the Dane County Credit Union (checks made out to "Katrina Disaster Fund") today by noon. Clothing and house ware contributions can be taken to Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 2019 Fisher St., Madison (the sooner the better).
Hey Baby! Girls in Hyde Square Will Not Be Silent in the Face of Sexual Harassers
, 04.09.2005 17:08
As school kicks into motion, a group made up primarily of teenaged girls in the Hyde Square neighborhood of Jamaica Plain are speaking out about sexual harassment on the streets of JP.
comunicació (ca)
, 04.09.2005 16:07
video files: especials indy bcn 2005: un any sense l'hamsa ::: video manifestació orgull 2005 ::: Video de l'acció a la Repsol contra el canvi climàtic i el G8 ::: video mayday 2005 ::: /a> ::: video No a la Constitució Europea ::: video mani valència 30 abril ::: mani manifestació joves d'hospitalet experiències de passes de films i documentals: [8 set] Documental CASA sobre la vivenda a les festes de Bellvitge ::: octubre]festival de cinema en valencià ::: calsuís:cicle de cine a la fresca "la rodríguez connexshon" ::: la quimera: documentals i reciclatge ::: +info:: >>>comunicació +++ newsreal
1,2,3...Acció!
videoactivisme a la xarxa: dvactivisme ::: Indymedia ::: new global vision ::: undercurrents ::: akkraak ::: kanalb ::: real2reel ::: videoactivism ::: beyondtv ::: glassbeadcollective ::: telenoika ::: riereta +++ web cams, can ricart i l'ull ciutadàEs busquen videos per la propera edició de l'European Newsreal
Beyondtv 25-26 nov.2005 Swansea.UK: envia els teus videos
films recomanats: el malson de darwin ::: cinema amb contingut social ::: Zapata en las montañas de chiapas ::: Vídeo sobre el campo de maniobras de Chinchilla (Albacete) ::: producciones subversivas presenta: génova libera
comunicació (es)
, 04.09.2005 16:07
video files: especiales indy bcn 2005: un año sin la hamsa ::: video manifestación orgullo gay 2005 ::: Video de la acción a Repsol contra el cambio climático y el G8 ::: video mayday 2005 ::: /a> ::: video No a la Constitución Europea ::: video mani valència 30 abril ::: mani manifestación jóvenes de hospitalet experiencias de pases de pelis y documentales: [8 set] Documental CASA sobre la vivienda en las fiestas de Bellvitge ::: octubre]festival de cine en valenciano ::: calsuís:ciclo de cine "la rodríguez connexshon" ::: la quimera: documentales y reciclage ::: +info:: >>>comunicación +++ newsreal1,2,3...Acción!
videoactivismo en la red: dvactivisme ::: Indymedia ::: new global vision ::: undercurrents ::: akkraak ::: kanalb ::: real2reel ::: videoactivism ::: beyondtv ::: glassbeadcollective ::: telenoika ::: riereta +++ web cams, can ricart y el ojo ciudadanoSe buscan videos para la próxima edición del European Newsreal
Beyondtv 25-26 nov.2005 Swansea.UK: envia tus videos
films recomendados: el malson de darwin ::: cinema amb contingut social ::: Zapata en las montañas de chiapas ::: Vídeo sobre el campo de maniobras de Chinchilla (Albacete) ::: producciones subversivas presenta: génova libera
From the bin...
, 04.09.2005 15:37
On being young and being old A mediatation on what the young are like to day. Has capitalism won them over totally Plus a meditation on the significance of the New Orleans disaster. Some international reaction to New Orleans flooding My meeting with Howard Guille did however highlight how much the last 30 years have consisted on an attack on the common good. If proof of this are needed one has only to look at the disaster of Katrina and New Orleans. The media got into town three days before the hurricane struck. Yet after four days of disaster, help had still not arrived to the beleaguered victims who have been forced to hunker down amid dead bodies and their own excrement by the Bush government. Never since the Irish Famine of 1846-8 has the logic of the market been so starkly revealed. Millions died in Ireland, not because of the lack of food but because the British government wanted the land of the Irish peasantry to rear their sheep and cattle on. See an ">an account of how the likes of Nassau Senior, economic adviser to the British Govt, thought that a million deaths from the famine "would scarcely be enough to do much good". In the end he got his million and many more. The crime of the Irish peasantry was to be poor and in the way of Capital’s plans. Similarly the crime of Afro-Americans is to be poor and in the way of Capital’s plans. In New Orleans the poor who are mainly blacks were abandoned in the city. They did not have the cars to take them to safety. The authorities provided no means to get them out of the city. They were herded to the Superdome and left to rot without medications, clothing, water or food. The mayor it seems was worried they might graffiti the dome, but he didn’t worry about them starving. Indymedia Ireland also supplies Pay check heads, semantics , survival hints and other analysis. Elsewhere the city of Lestat the vamire and the baton rouge has got its IMC together A mediatation on what the young are like to day. Has capitalism won them over totally Plus a meditation on the significance of the New Orleans disaster. The Bin September 2005-09-03 1. Of the young and the old… I remember well standing some years ago in the underground in London and opposite me was an advertisement for Irish whiskey. The ad compared the beginning of Robert Burns poem To A Mouse: On turning her up in her nest with the plough, November 1785. Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie, O, what a panic's in thy breastie! Thou need na start awa sae hasty Wi bickering brattle! I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee, Wi' murdering pattle. with the opening lines from Yeats’ The Wild Swans at Coole "The trees are in their autumn beauty The woodland paths are dry, Under the October twilight the water Mirrors a still sky; Upon the brimming water among the stones Are nine-and-fifty swans. Poetry on an advertising hoarding might sound strange, but nothing is sacred to capital, when they wish to appeal to an audience that likes to have their sense of their own cultural capital acknowledged. The point being made was that Irish whiskey like Yeats’ poem was much smoother than the rough Scotch. Though partial to a drop or two, I am not really enough of a connoisseur to pass judgment on the relative merits of Irish and Scotch whiskey. Moreover it is a moot point of course which of Yeats and Burns is the greater poet. Burns gets my vote, but I confess that I read him much less than Yeats. For I have loved Yeats’ poetry since first studying him nearly 50 years ago with Brother McGee at the Christian Brothers Grammar School in Omagh. McGee was a charismatic teacher, but also a man with the most terrible of politics. He was violently anti-modern and totally committed to Catholic dictatorships as the ideal form of government. He and the late pope would have gotten on famously. Still he made an enormous impression on me and everyone he taught. I can see McGee now in my mind’s eye clearly, standing at the lectern declaiming the poem in that deliberately cadenced non-prosaic style that Yeats himself favoured, because he hated poetry to be read like prose. Here is the rest of the poem "The nineteenth autumn has come upon me Since I first made my count; I saw, before I had well finished, All suddenly mount And scatter wheeling in great broken rings Upon their clamorous wings. I have looked upon those brilliant creatures, And now my heart is sore. All's changed since I, hearing at twilight, The first time on this shore, The bell-beat of their wings above my head, Trod with a lighter tread. Unwearied still, lover by lover, They paddle in the cold Companionable streams or climb the air; Their hearts have not grown old; Passion or conquest, wander where they will, Attend upon them still. But now they drift on the still water, Mysterious, beautiful; Among what rushes will they build, By what lake's edge or pool Delight men's eyes when I awake some day To find they have flown away? Several things have brought the poem to mind today. Recently I bumped into my old friend Howard Guille down in the city. Howard is the secretary of the NTEU and has spent a life time fighting for a society which is based on a sense of collective decency and care and one which is also committed to building up the common good. He seemed weary and hard pressed. The current burst of class war from above, namely the pushing of Australian Workplace Agreements by the Federal Govt was I thought taking its toll on him. He lamented to me the fact that young Australians would never have known a society, which was not dominated by the dog-eat-dog values of the market. He worried that might have made them total strangers to the necessity of looking out for others. The other experience that made me think of Yeats’ poem was a couple of guest lectures I gave recently to aspiring journalism students. I spoke to them of the current crisis faced by journalists. The almost absolute control of the media exercised by the corporate barons, has meant that the public in their desperation to learn the truth of such things as the Iraq war, had turned to independent documentary film makers such as Michael Moore. How did I find the journalism students? Well as always with my students I did not find them besotted with market values. They hope of course to get jobs and to be able to have a good life. That is entirely praiseworthy. But their young hearts are also full of the hope and desire for a better world. They know things are not going well. Every night on the television they behold the slaughter bench of history groaning under the weight of its countless victims. Every day the corporate media preaches to them the doctrine of TINA -There is no Alternative. Yet the heart of the young is a lonely hunter, and the desire for a better world cannot be choked out by a thousand Murdochs or even a thousand years of neo-liberal economics. So what then of Yeats and his swans? The poem is of course about growing old and the loss of the animal-like vigour and energy that Yeats as a Nietzschean valued so much. Passion and conquest are the two qualities of the young that most inspire envy in the ageing poet. It should be clear from my remarks above that I do not see the young in the same way. I do not doubt their energy and long may they enjoy it. That however is a trivial matter compared to the qualities of hope, courage and generosity of spirit that the young have in such abundance, and which makes teaching them such a joy. Contrast that with their elders. Here I like to quote from Aristotle’s portrait of the elderly. "The old have lived long, have often been deceived, have made many mistakes of their own; they see that more often than not the affairs of men turn out badly. And so they are positive about nothing; in all things they err by an extreme moderation…they think evil; that is they are disposed to put the worse construction on everything… they are slow to hope; partly from experience – since things generally go wrong, or at all events seldom turn out well; and partly, too, from cowardice." So Yeats as an ageing male of 54, lamented the loss of his energy and envied the young. My friend Howard worries how the young have not been exposed to the ideal of a society which values the common good: an ideal which he has given his life to. Myself, the oldest of them all, am quietly confident that the world belongs to the young and the young will make a better world. 2. The meaning of the New Orleans disaster My meeting with Howard Guille did however highlight how much the last 30 years have consisted on an attack on the common good. If proof of this are needed one has only to look at the disaster of Katrina and New Orleans. The media got into town three days before the hurricane struck. Yet after four days of disaster, help had still not arrived to the beleaguered victims who have been forced to hunker down amid dead bodies and their own excrement by the Bush government. Never since the Irish Famine of 1846-8 has the logic of the market been so starkly revealed. Millions died in Ireland, not because of the lack of food but because the British government wanted the land of the Irish peasantry to rear their sheep and cattle on. Go to < ">http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/61/010.html> for an account of how the likes of Nassau Senior, economic adviser to the British Govt, thought that a million deaths from the famine "would scarcely be enough to do much good". In the end he got his million and many more. The crime of the Irish peasantry was to be poor and in the way of Capital’s plans. Similarly the crime of Afro-Americans is to be poor and in the way of Capital’s plans. In New Orleans the poor who are mainly blacks were abandoned in the city. They did not have the cars to take them to safety. The authorities provided no means to get them out of the city. They were herded to the Superdome and left to rot without medications, clothing, water or food. The mayor it seems was worried they might graffiti the dome, but he didn’t worry about them starving. Meanwhile the President sat holidaying on his million dollar property, the Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, shopped for thousand dollar shoes, and the mayor declared a day of prayer even though the Governor had already urged people to “pray the cyclone down to a 2”. The poor broke into shops to get food for themselves and their families. The government and the media raised the spectre of black looters and dispatched the army to shoot them. Rescue operations were suspended so that property could be protected. The true victims, the black poor of New Orleans, were thus effectively criminalised, while the true criminals have been able to escape scrutiny. The absolute truth is that this disaster had been foreseen. There have been warnings after warnings about the vulnerability of New Orleans to a hurricane. Yet money to repair the levees had been spent on the slaughter that is the Iraq War. The Louisiana Guard, which should have been mobilised to help the poor, has been busy in Iraq killing and being killed. Wetlands too had been cleared and developed and that left the city even more vulnerable. I will not mention global warming and the criminal refusal of George Bush to do anything to alleviate the problem. All in all there is a lesson to be learned in New Orleans. George Bush’s government is a government for the rich and the powerful American ruling class. As he himself said the “haves and the haves mores” are his “base”. The same rich and the powerful are determined to have everything their own way. For them the poor are expendable and if they are black then they matter even less. Yet this is the government that we Australians are so devoted to. To placate this government we send our young into danger. Our Prime Minister has told us we must not criticise America or “Western Values” for that will lead to terrorism. Look at New Orleans and see those same “Western Values” in operation. The Bush government has found a way to slaughter thousands anywhere in the world in a matter of moments. Yet it will not bring aid and comfort to the sick and the starving poor of their own country. For the sick and the poor do not have the money to become customers and so the disciples of the market think of them as worth nothing. It matters not to the rich and the powerful that the blacks of New Orleans have given the world a unique artistic culture in the form of its jazz. What do the rich and the powerful care about working class culture? In cultural terms they are only interested in how big a fool you are prepared to make of yourself on Reality Television. That is the true meaning of “Western Values”. http://www.indymedia.ie/attachments/sep2005/save_us.jpg
Project Brotherly Love: Philadelphians Respond to Katrina
, 04.09.2005 14:37
The following is an announcement from the Department of Human Services:
As you may be aware, Mayor Street has announced that the City will providing emergency housing and support to 1,000 families made homeless as a result of Hurricane Katrina. He has also committed the city to spend $1 million to provide food, transportation, medical and counseling services for the approximately 3-5000 individuals in these families.
Notes From Inside New Orleans
, 04.09.2005 14:37
[from Left Turn] I just left New Orleans a couple hours ago. I traveled from the apartment I was staying in by boat to a helicopter to a refugee camp. If anyone wants to examine the attitude of federal and state officials towards the victims of hurricane Katrina, I advise you to visit one of the refugee camps.
Acções contra as fronteiras na Grécia e Bulgaria
, 04.09.2005 14:37
Acções contra as fronteiras na Grécia e Bulgaria
Liberdade para os cinco cubanos mantidos presos pelos EUA
, 04.09.2005 12:37
Liberdade para os cinco cubanos mantidos presos pelos EUA
Rehnquist Dies: Bush Can Now Appoint Two New Judges
, 04.09.2005 04:37
On Saturday September 3rd, Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist died.
When Chief Justice Warren Burger retired in 1986, then-President Ronald Reagan nominated Rehnquist to fill the position. Since becoming Chief Justice, Rehnquist has lead the Court's move towards taking a broader view of state powers in the U.S. federal system. For example, he wrote for a 5-to-4 majority in United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995), striking down a federal law as exceeding Congressional power under the commerce clause. Rehnquist has also led the way in establishing more governmental leniency towards state aid for religion, writing for another 5-to-4 majority in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 536 U.S. 639 (2002), approving a school voucher program that aided parochial schools. Read More On Wikipedia
On July 1, 2005, Justice O'Connor announced that she would retire from the Supreme Court when her successor is nominated and confirmed. Bush has nominated Judge Roberts for the position. With Rehnquist's death, Bush will now have two open positions on the Supreme Court to fill.
Past Coverage Of The Roberts Nomination: Supreme Court Town Hall Meeting and March | Who is Judge Roberts? | Roberts' Interviews with White House Officials Prior to Gitmo Ruling Raise Questions
another portland bicyclist killed
, 04.09.2005 03:38
i was riding home on my bike at 3am and came upon the scene. many, many cops, a mangled bike, and a dead rider covered with a white sheet in the middle of the road. it seemed that a black buick (or similar model) was the car involved. apparently the body had been in the street for an hour at that point. as far as i could tell, there was another rider on a bike with a baby trailer who was not hit but was riding with the person who was killed. i can't find any information whatsoever on the local news websites and was sure i'd see something on indymedia today. does anyone have any info besides my eyewitness account?
The situation in New Orleans goes from bad to worse
, 04.09.2005 01:07
In possibly the biggest natural disaster of US history, hurricane Katrina has left devastation in New Orleans and surrounding areas. Things have gone from bad to worse. Martial law is declared in New Orleans City. The National Guard is deployed, with the order to 'Shoot To Kill' in an attempt to 'stop looting'. However, reports say the National Guard is also blocking supplies getting into the affected area's. A group of 500 airboat pilots trying to support the rescue effort were stopped and sent back. It is estimated 300,000 people are still trapped by the water. In an interview, the Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, lashed out at the Federal Authority, telling them to 'get off their arses'. Download interview. The US government is receiving a lot of criticism as rescue efforts have been chaotic and aid started to arrive only four days after the hurricane struck. Priorities of a corporate empire: Bush cut $20-$40 million needed to strengthen levees - a 2004 project that was 80% complete. Needing troops, he sent 35% of Louisiana's National Guard to Iraq. Then he pushed to privatise disaster services including the N.O. disaster plan, and disabled FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). >>> Updates on the hurricane disaster on New Orleans Indymedia >>> Coverage of the refugee situation on Houston Indymedia Houston Indymedia Coverage: Video: 1 | 2 | 3 Reports from New Orleans: 1 | 2 | 3 How to help: Donate: Red Cross | Second Harvest Other: Katrina Help Wiki More Links: Weather Warning (28th August) | Democracy Now! reports (Aug. 30) (Aug. 31) (Sept. 1) (Sept. 2) | Explanation about Hurricanes (MP3) | Further analysis: 1 , 2 , 3 | Insane looting? - Not at all! | An analysis of the 'anarchy' in New Orleans' streets Commentary from the Newswire: Katrina open letter to radical/progressive community (From Houston) | In Praise of Looting | American Genocide in New Orleans
Katrina Timeline
, 04.09.2005 00:37
Hurricane Hits Florida:
On Wednesday August 24th Katrina became a Category 1 hurricane, as it crept toward an overnight landfall on Florida's densely populated southeast coast. Two people were killed by falling trees after it made landfall along the Miami-Dade and Broward county line between Hallandale Beach and North Miami Beach The death toll had risen to seven by Friday August 26th as South Floridians coped with local floods, sweeping power outages and forests of toppled trees.
Warning Signs: On Saturday 8/27, the National Hurricane Center in Miami extended a Hurricane Watch for Louisiana and President Bush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana. Mandatory evacuation orders were issued for some of Louisiana's low-lying areas and Katrina was expected to increase to become a Category 4 hurricane; "This is a very, very dangerous hurricane," said NHC Director Max Mayfield on CNN Saturday.
By Sunday 8/28, news reports called Katrina the most powerful hurricane ever to menace the United States and said it was expected to slam into the nation's most storm-vulnerable city, New Orleans. "Some 25 feet of standing water is expected in many parts of the city -- almost twice the height of the average home -- and computer models suggest that more than 80 percent of buildings would be badly damaged or destroyed"
Monday 8/29: As the hurricane hit the coast, news reports were sparse. First reports that came in reported that since the storm was downgraded to a category 4 storm damage was expect to be less than was feared.
Katrina derails production | Hurricane Tears Holes in Superdome Roof | Democracy Now: Global Warming And Hurricanes
Tuesday 8/30: "Yesterday Katrina's remnants brought drenching rains, high winds and killer tornados to a swath of the central US as the system moved to the north-east. But sections of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama may remain virtual ghost lands for weeks or longer, populated by expanses of debris, downed trees and crumpled homes. Nowhere is more stricken than New Orleans, most of which lies below sea level. At first the city seemed to have dodged the worst of the storm. But overnight one of its protective levees buckled beneath the weight of water from nearby Lake Pontchartrain and broke open in two places."
Trent Lott's home destroyed | Prisoners Riot, Take Hostages in New Orleans
Wednesday 8/31: The total number killed in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama remained unknown but officials feared it might be several hundred. New Orleans became an unimaginable scene of water, fear and suffering Tuesday after a levee breach in the 17th Street Canal sent billions of gallons of Lake Pontchartrain coursing through the city. As the day wore on, the only dry land was a narrow band from the French Quarter and parts of Uptown, the same small strip that was settled by Bienville amid the swamps. Mayor Ray Nagin said pumps were being overwhelmed and warned that a new deluge would bury the city in up to 15 feet of water. With solid water from the lake to the French Quarter, the inundation and depopulation of an entire American city was at hand.
Bush rules out significant federal aid to hurricane victims | New Orleans police ordered to stop saving lives and start saving property | Katrina refugees will go to Houston's Astrodome | narrow escape from martial law
Thursday 9/1: About 100 people have died at the Chalmette Slip after being pulled off their rooftops, waiting to be ferried up the river to the West Bank and bused out of the flood ravaged area. The mayor of New Orleans issued a "desperate SOS" Thursday as violence disrupted efforts to rescue people still trapped in the flooded city and evacuate thousands of displaced residents living amid corpses and human waste. "They don't have a clue what's going on down there," Mayor Ray Nagin told WWL-AM Thursday night. "They flew down here one time two days after the doggone event was over with TV cameras, AP reporters, all kind of goddamn - excuse my French everybody in America, but I am pissed." Fights and fires broke out, corpses lay out in the open, and rescue helicopters and law enforcement officers were shot at as flood-stricken New Orleans slipped toward chaos. "We are out here like pure animals. We don't have help," the Rev. Issac Clark, 68, said outside the New Orleans Convention Center, where corpses lay in the open and he and other evacuees complained that they were dropped off and given nothing - no food, no water, no medicine. Residents expressed growing frustration with the disorder evident on the streets, raising questions about the coordination and timeliness of relief efforts. Video from the city's convention center showed a group chanting "we want help, we want help," as mothers tried to console their tired and hungry children.
A "witch's brew" of heavy metals, chemicals, sewage, fuel and pesticides is swilling through New Orleans and the waterways of Louisiana and other US coastal states. | Anger spreads across New Orleans | satellite views of New Orleans: before and after
Friday 9/2: Bush finally made it to the US flood zone yesterday, amid fury at his administration's failure to give prompt help to New Orleans. As a Louisiana senator awarded a "grade F" to the response to the crisis and warned of more than 10,000 dead, large-scale aid was at last beginning to arrive in the swamped and lawless city. 46-year-old Michael Levy said, "They should have been here days ago. I ain't glad to see 'em" — words that brought shouts of "Hell, yeah!" from those around him. He added: "We've been sleeping on the ... ground like rats. I say burn this whole ... city down."
Jobs With Justice Rallies Latinos in Morristown
, 03.09.2005 20:08
A National Labor Relations Board election has been set for the workers at the Koch Foods poultry processing plant in Morristown for Thursday and Friday, September 8th and 9th. This is exciting news and represents the culmination of a lot of work by people on this list and others. JWJ of East Tennessee has been asked by the United Food and Commercial Workers and the workers' organizing committee at Koch Foods to help them at this crucial time by recruiting community supporters for a solidarity rally on Sunday, September 4th at 3:00pm.
Santa Cruz Bus Drivers Threaten Strike
, 03.09.2005 18:07
An ongoing contract dispute between bus drivers, and Santa Cruz Metro Transit officials has reached a breaking point. Drivers have threatened to walk off the job September 8 if no deal is reached.
FRSC reporter Vinny Lombardo has more.
Audio: Download the mp3 (4 minutes)
see also: Santa Cruz METRO | METRO's page on the Labor Situation || United Transportation Union Local 23
Emergency Rally Held Friday
, 03.09.2005 18:07
On Friday September 3rd, World Can't Wait held an emergency rally and speak-out at Powell and Market in San Francisco to demand that the government be accountable to the people of New Orleans. Many frustrated and angry community members made thier voices heard.
Photos | FEMA Directs Hurricane Relief Donations To Pat Robertson | Malik Rahim reports from New Orleans | More Hurricane Coverage On Indybay's Poverty Page
Flooding Of New Orleans Was Predictable
, 03.09.2005 18:07
You go down to the west bank FEMA office, you find out they're predicting 27 feet of water in New Orleans, in New Orleans, where a million people live, 27 feet of water in a category four storm...
W. J. TAUZIN -- MARCH 21, 1996 U.S. House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
New Orleans was founded in 1718 by the French under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville. The site was selected because it was a rare bit of natural high ground along the flood-prone banks of the lower Mississippi. Until the early 20th century, construction was largely limited to the ground along old natural river levees and bayous, giving the 19th century city the shape of a crescent. In the 1910s engineer and inventor A. Baldwin Wood enacted his ambitious plan to drain the swampland in the central part of the city which was bellow sea level. Some pumps designed by Wood and used to drain the original swampland were still in use in 2005. Ever since New Orleans was drained, all rain water has had to be pumped up to the canals which empty into Lake Pontchartrain. As groundwater has been pumped from underneith the city, the city has sunk, increasing the danger of flooding.
The devastation after Katrina hit was predictable. "40% of Louisiana, is classified as coastal zone; 90% of this zone being near or below sea level; and 70% of Louisiana’s population residing in the coastal zone. This includes New Orleans with its 500,000 population at risk, and estimated potential insured losses exceeding $25 billion". The levees surrounding the city of New Orleans were designed to withstand a Category 3 storm but it was known that the city risked major flooding if anything larger hit. In 1965, a Category 3 hurricane named Betsy made landfall within 20 miles of New Orleans, killing 75 people. Since then New Orleans has worked to strengthen its levee system but "computer models have shown that a Category 3 storm moving at 5 to 7 mph would leave much of New Orleans under eight feet of water". "All of a sudden you'll start seeing flowing water. It'll look like a weir, water just pouring over the top," an engineer who was studying the impact arned. The water will flood the lakefront, filling up low-lying areas first, and continue its march south toward the river. There would be no stopping or slowing it; pumping systems would be overwhelmed and submerged in a matter of hours. "Another scenario is that some part of the levee would fail...It's not something that's expected. But erosion occurs, and as levees broke, the break will get wider and wider. The water will flow through the city and stop only when it reaches the next higher thing. The most continuous barrier is the south levee, along the river. That's 25 feet high, so you'll see the water pile up on the river levee."
It was also known that evacuation of the city would be difficult. When Hurricane George almost hit the city in 1998, Charlie Ireland, assistant director of emergency management stated "New Orleans is a real problem. It takes a long time to evacuate, plus it's surrounded by water and levees." The director of the American National Hurricane Centre warned that New Orleans, which is protected by levees from the water which surrounds it, was especially difficult to evacuate because it is connected to the rest of the country by only two main roads.
Massive numbers of deaths in the US following Hurricanes are not new, "The greatest natural disaster in U.S. history occurred on September 8, 1900, when a hurricane struck Galveston, Texas, killing more than 6,000 people." Dealing with the flooding of New Orleans was third on a FEMA list of worst dangers facing the US and when Hurricane Lili hit Louisiana in 2002, the Mississippi Valley Divisiona activated an operation plan that for the first time, transferred responsibility for executing FEMA missions in Louisiana from the New Orleans District to the Memphis District in case the devastation was bad enough that the New Orleans district would be unable to respond.
The Big One | New Orleans preparing for hurricanes | The Lowdown of Levees
Emergency Rally Held Friday
, 03.09.2005 16:37
On Friday September 3rd, World Can't Wait held an emergency rally and speak-out at Powell and Market in San Francisco to demand that the government be accountable to the people of New Orleans. Many frustrated and angry community members made thier voices heard.
World Cant Wait demands:
1) All the people still in New Orleans and the other devastated areas must be immediately and safely rescued and evacuated before any more needless deaths occur due to government criminal negligence. The massive resources of government--the ships, helicopters, and transport planes--must be immediately put at the disposal of the rescue effort.
2) The people should be housed in decent places and their needs must be immediately met.
3) People who are attempting to meet their basic needs must NOT be shot down or arrested! Bush's Azero tolerance orders must be withdrawn immediately. Government should meet all expenses involved in getting food, water, medicine, and other basic needs to people immediately.
4) The censorship of people in New Orleans and other devastated areas must immediately cease, and people must be allowed to tell what is actually going on.
5) The full truth of what happened and how this came to be, including the deep responsibility of the Bush administration, must be immediately made known, and those responsible up to the very highest levels must be held accountable.
6) Volunteer rescuers should be assisted and supported, and not repressed by government agencies, police, and national guard.
Photos | The World Can't Wait
What Are We Going to Do About Katrina?
, 03.09.2005 16:07
Impressions and questions from the community
Rapez! Violex! Sul-africana inventa preservativo feminino anti-violação
, 03.09.2005 11:37
Rapez! Violex! Sul-africana inventa preservativo feminino anti-violação
Salem hearing Sept. 8 on Oregon Health Plan cuts
, 03.09.2005 09:37
Public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 8 in room 50, Oregon State Capitol, 900 Court St. N.E., Salem. Sign-ups will begin at 8 a.m., and the hearing will begin about 8:45 a.m. Submit written comments to mary.reitan@state.or.us The cuts were mandated by the state legislature, including the Democratic majority in the state senate. Every session for the last few years they've cut OHP. It appears that the poor have few friends in Salem. Talk back to your state legislators [ here ]
PPRC Circles Fed Building Sidewalk
, 03.09.2005 09:37
We headed for the federal building across from Terry Shrunk Park behind 3 No War Drummers. Our intention was to express that Bush should voluntarily leave the office due to incompetance. We chanted on the sidewalk in front of the federal building, "Iraq, Afghanistan, New Orleans...We need change in this regime."
Shortly, 4 security guards came out and stood in a military stance. One came up and told us to leave federal property or she'd call the police. We said it was a public sidewalk and that we were citizens. She said the feds owned it and we couldn't stand there, but we could stand on the sidewalk across the street. We weren't about to go across the street...
Kirchner responde con la plaza cercada
, 03.09.2005 06:07
Viernes 02 de Septiembre 2005 | ANTE EL RECLAMO MULTISECTORIAL
Kirchner responde con la plaza cercada y un gigantesco operativo
Kirchner responde con la plaza cercada
, 03.09.2005 06:07
Viernes 02 de Septiembre 2005 | ANTE EL RECLAMO MULTISECTORIAL
Kirchner responde con la plaza cercada y un gigantesco operativo
Malik Rahim reports from New Orleans
, 03.09.2005 03:07
From The Newswire:
New Orleans, Sept. 1, 2005- It's criminal. From what you're hearing, the people trapped in New Orleans are nothing but looters. We're told we should be more "neighborly." But nobody talked about being neighborly until after the people who could afford to leave … left.
If you ain't got no money in America, you're on your own. People were told to go to the Superdome, but they have no food, no water there. And before they could get in, people had to stand in line for 4-5 hours in the rain because everybody was being searched one by one at the entrance.
I can understand the chaos that happened after the tsunami, because they had no warning, but here there was plenty of warning. In the three days before the hurricane hit, we knew it was coming and everyone could have been evacuated.
We have Amtrak here that could have carried everybody out of town. There were enough school buses that could have evacuated 20,000 people easily, but they just let them be flooded. My son watched 40 buses go underwater - they just wouldn't move them, afraid they'd be stolen.
People who could afford to leave were so afraid someone would steal what they own that they just let it all be flooded. They could have let a family without a vehicle borrow their extra car, but instead they left it behind to be destroyed.
There are gangs of white vigilantes near here riding around in pickup trucks, all of them armed, and any young Black they see who they figure doesn't belong in their community, they shoot him. I tell them, "Stop! You're going to start a riot."
Read More
“No More Lost Lives” Memorial in Stockton on September 5th
, 03.09.2005 02:37
September 5th will be the one-year anniversary of the death of Dyron Brewer in the CYA's Chaderjian prison for youth ("Chad"). A mass memorial and march called /A> will be held in Stockton on Monday, September 5th, from 12pm to 3pm, to honor Dyron's life. The cause of Dyron's death is unknown, but he was the fourth prisoner to die in the CYA system last year. Durrell Feaster, Dion Whitfield, and Roberto Lombana also lost their lives inside CYA’s youth prisons in 2004. Joseph Daniel Maldonado, 18, from Sacramento, died in Chad on Wednesday, August 31st. Officials reported that he had committed suicide by hanging. On September 26th, the new head of California’s eight youth prisons may close the most brutal facility: Chad. The CYA's new director, Chief Warner, ordered his staff to stop accepting new youth at Chad. The facility's high school lost its accreditation this year. Read more
Read more on Indybay's Police Brutality and Prison News Page
FEMA DIrects Hurricane Relief Donations To Pat Robertson
, 03.09.2005 02:37
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is the lead federal agency in the rescue & recovery operation at work in New Orleans and the Mississippi gulf coast. FEMA has released to the media and on its Web site a list of suggested charities to help the storm’s hundreds of thousands of victims. The Red Cross is first on the list. The Rev. Pat Robertson’s "Operation Blessing" is next on the list. Robertson founded "Operation Blessing" in 1978. Robertson’s shell organizations have already collected more than $25 million from the federal government under various "faith based" federal-handout programs. And with millions of distraught citizens looking to FEMA for help in finding reputable organizations to help Katrina survivors, Robertson stands to profit magnificently from the horror that has fallen on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Robertson's extreme fundamentalist view were recently brought to light when he called for the assasination of the democratically elected president of Venezuela. Besides the American Red Cross, the only other secular group listed on FEMA's Web site is Chicago-based America's Second Harvest, which is one of the nation's biggest hunger-relief organizations. Read More
Notes From Inside New Orleans
, 02.09.2005 23:07
Race has always been the undercurrent of Louisiana politics. This disaster is one that was constructed out of racism, neglect and incompetence. Hurricane Katrina was the inevitable spark igniting the gasoline of cruelty and corruption. From the neighborhoods left most at risk, to the treatment of the refugees to the the media portayal of the victims, this disaster is shaped by race.
Gas lines come to Georgia & Sherman Avenues
, 02.09.2005 22:07
While riding into town today, I noticed severe traffic backups on Ga and Sherman Ave. They were in each case caused by long lines of cars waiting to enter gas stations!
Genocide americano en New Orleans
, 02.09.2005 21:37
I was seriously hoping that I would not have to write this article. But it has been too long now, and I have to say something. Regardless of whether the deaths en masse of poor black folks in New Orleans is due to neglect or maliciousness, the end result is constructively a genocide on poor blacks in America, right now, in 2005. The lack of aid to New Orleans at this late hour (7 pm, Sept. 1) is not explicable. I have only one explanation that I can muster up. And that explanation is classism and racism.
English version: 
http://cleveland.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/17024.php
Audio from radioActive sanDiego: http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/6575.php
//
Esperaba seriamente que no tendría que escribir este artículo. Pero ha sido demasiado largo ahora, y tengo que decir algo. Sin importar debido a si el masse del en de las muertes de la gente negra pobre en New Orleans es la negligencia o maliciousness, el resultado final es constructivo un genocide en negros pobres en América, ahora, en 2005. La carencia de la ayuda a New Orleans en esta última hora (7 P.M., sept. 1) no es explicables. Tengo solamente una explicación que pueda reunir para arriba. Y esa explicación es classism y racismo.