Promises, Promises: The Shameful Response to Hurricane Katrina Continues

Nearly three months after the devastation suffered in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, residents have still not received the assistance they need to return to their communities. On Dec 10, 2005 the citizens of New Orleans rallied to demand their rights to return to their homes.

Several organizations including the New Black Panther Party, N’COBRA, the Millions More Movement, New York Solidarity Committee, the Million Worker March Movement, the Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights and many more have combined their efforts to assist residents and created a coalition to investigate and create some oversight into the distribution of relief be it financial or otherwise.

The residents of New Orleans are not happy with the help they have received to date and have accused FEMA of racism and The Red Cross of corruption. Organizer and resident Malcolm Suber remarked to a crown outside New Orleans City Hall, “This government left us here to starve and to die. We are here to stand up and fight to ensure we get what we deserve”.

While the government has purportedly allocated billions of dollars for “citizens” affected by the hurricane, FEMA has not yet come to their aid and threatens to cut off aid it has provided in the form of trailers in the near future. Yet some how the Bush Administration had the hubris to re-hire the incompetent, callous FEMA boss Michael Brown as a consultant, and pay him the same salary he would have made had he not been fired. So anyone out there that thinks Kanye West was hasty in making the statement heard round the world, “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people” think again. Kanye West had amazing insight and clarity when he made that passionate statement.

On December 6th at congressional hearings angry residents described being trapped in temporary shelters where one New Orleans resident said she was “one sunrise from being consumed by maggots and flies.” Another woman said military troops focused machine gun laser targets on her granddaughter’s forehead. Others said their families were called racial epithets by police. But when Congressionman Shays (R) Conn. accused the grandmother that testified about the machine gun incident and Dyan Cole French "Momma D" of being disingenuous and "speeching in tougues" when she described hearing an explotion prior to the breach of the 17th Street levy the debate got very heated. The soft tone of Congressman Shays' voice did not hide the venom and racism in his statements. Go to C-Span by clicking on this title "Challenges Facing African-American Evacuees from Hurricane Katrina". If the hyperlink on the title doesn't work cut and paste the title here and put it into C-Span's search engine http://www.c-span.org/Search/advancedsearchform.asp otherwise you won't be able to find it and watch this chilling hearing. You'll think they're testifying about 1955 and Jim Crow was in full effect when you hear the indignities they were made to endure as people of African decent. Watch Momma D put Congressmen Shays and Miller to shame.

Perhaps this is why residents are now shouting racism and genocide at FEMA and the Bush administration and setting up their own organizations for oversight on any funds that where supposed to be for the residents of New Orleans. However, we would be remise if did not point out that other organizations such as the The Red Cross, which raised millions for hurricane victims, that have not lived up to the challenge of providing relief. The Red Cross was one of the prime sources of public and private donations for hurricane relief. Celebrities and performers from all over the world used television, radio and the Internet to raise money for Red Cross relief—so what happened? Show us the money!

Clearly the response in the distant aftermath is as negligent, callous and hypocritical as the response in the immediate aftermath of hurricane Katrina. Our politicians, members of the Congressional Black Caucus, state and local politicians have no power in the one party state that we have become.

As usual the White man giveth with one hand and taketh away with the other. They are using the same “corruption” argument they use for not providing promised aid to New Orleans that they've used in developing countries in Africa, South America and Asia and have the arrogance to refuse aid from Venezuela and Cuba. They keep talkin’ about the money, but as usual, it ain’t comin’ and power concedes nothing without a demand!

We at Rootznews advise anyone wanting to assist the residents of New Orleans and the Gulf not to donate to any organization that has not proven to be a true advocate of the victims of hurricane Katrina. You can visit http://www.communitylaborunited.net/ to get more information on how to help but as we have said before on this site we need a plan for our future. A plan for survival in the new millennium.