Diaspora U.S.A.
Does anybody really know what time it is?
I don't
Does anybody really care?
--Does Anybody Really Know What Time it Is?, Chicago
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I don't
Does anybody really care?
--Does Anybody Really Know What Time it Is?, Chicago
_____________
Waiting at the meat counter recently, I overheard the butcher proudly giving instructions to the concerned customer before me: "Now I'm from N'awlins, ma'am, and I can tell you how to make a scampi." Enrapt, I listened with pleasure to his bravura explanation.
After he filled my request, I said simply, "I'm sorry about what happened in New Orleans." I told him we wrote a web log, and had addressed the issue. This genial man then came out from behind the counter, and it seemed the words would not stop.
"I've lived here since 1992, but my parents have lived in New Orleans 55 years. They are 76 and 78. They have been living in a FEMA trailer for over two years. They thought they'd be back home for Thanksgiving, but the tile and carpet floor had to be ripped up because the piping laid by the second contractor wasn't done right. So they're still in the trailer."
"The problem isn't money. My father was in the Army, and then retired from the Postal Service. Two contractors have taken their money so far without doing the work. Friends here in town have offered them land to build a new home on, but New Orleans is their home." Not your typical media image of 9th Ward down-and-outers.
"Why didn't the government have some sort of provisions for people, some sort of oversight to have reputable builders in the area?" he asked. Each new statement came after he'd turned to walk away, but something compelled him to return. This time, he stood before me, hands outstretched in an imploring gesture.
I like to think I know what to say.
Labels: katrina shame, new diaspora, new orleans fiasco
posted by Lisa at 1:46 PM
8 Comments:
What to say, I'd be in tears by the time he finished. At one time there some really good people at FEMA and then came the GB loyalty oath and everyone baled. We use to be good at few things in this country but helping people in need with Corp. doesn't work for the troops or civilians. There sure will be a lot of ground to cover to try and regain some trust in the US and a far.
jo6pac
jo,
Yes, a lot of ground to cover to "get right back where we started from." The start homeward cannot be undertaken soon enough. Each day it seems some new iniquity surfaces.
i confessed one of my darkest fears to a life long new orleans musician friend, it was the february after the storm, and we did a benefit show in malibu (which raised obscene money from those rich bastards) for "higher ground" a charity that helped buy new instruments, and find lodgings and work for displaced players. we were backstage talking about what might be the end result of the "rebuilding" and i said you can quote me on this. trent lott and those other racist bastards will not ever rebuild new orleans. they hated new orleans. they will build the epcot center verson of "new orleans land" and call it a job well done. the city we have loved is dead and gone. just like little jessie the gambler, just like delia. dead and gone."
i would have loved to be wrong. i would have been overjoyed to be wrong. they've rebuilt most of the casinos. but the people are gone. never to return.
MB,
"I went down to the St. James infirmary
Saw my baby there
Stretched out on a long white table
So sweet...so cold...so fair"
That is the song I think of when I think of N.O. now. I. too, saw the Disneyfication of the place at the time of the devastation. Antiseptic, with some real life black people playing instruments. Kind of like the pantomimist at Epcot France.
Today I hear they are going to raze more buildings, displacing yet more N.O. residents. The scene is like that of the vultures descending after death in Zorba the Greek.
i left this
for a blogswarm a year after the storm. . .
it's only gotten worse. my dear friend aaron neville cannot even go see the destruction. he has asthma and the air of his home would kill him.
there isn't a circle of hell hot enough or hard enough for these bastards.
MB,
Thank you for your link. I remember hearing Aaron and brothers playing at Tippitina's many years ago. It is hard to imagine that spirit gone.
I'd be in tears if the anger wasn't hot enough to evaporate them as they fell. America needs to watch NO, and not just as a "there but for the grace of God" kind of way. Coastal cities are GOING to start getting this; and our government can't even address this poor Southern "act one" of the global warming opera.
labrys,
Exactly. If projections are correct, all coastal cities will see impact, and we surely are not investing the appropriate resources to counter these inevitabilities. Not just "down and out" N.O., but Manhattan, and other big money areas.
Why always a day late and a dollar short?
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