Let The People Rebuild New Orleans

[mirror]

Let the People Rebuild New Orleans

On September 4, six days after Katrina hit, I saw the first glimmer of hope. "The people of New Orleans will not go quietly into the night, scattering across this country to become homeless in countless other cities while federal relief funds are funneled into rebuilding casinos, hotels, chemical plants.... We will not stand idly by while this disaster is used as an opportunity to replace our homes with newly built mansions and condos in a gentrified New Orleans."

The statement came from Community Labor United, a coalition of low-income groups in New Orleans. It went on to demand that a committee made up of evacuees "oversee FEMA, the Red Cross and other organizations collecting resources on behalf of our people.... We are calling for evacuees from our community to actively participate in the rebuilding of New Orleans."

It's a radical concept: The $10.5 billion released by Congress and the $500 million raised by private charities doesn't actually belong to the relief agencies or the government; it belongs to the victims. The agencies entrusted with the money should be accountable to them. Put another way, the people Barbara Bush tactfully described as "underprivileged anyway" just got very rich.

Except relief and reconstruction never seem to work like that. When I was in Sri Lanka six months after the tsunami, many survivors told me that the reconstruction was victimizing them all over again. A council of the country's most prominent businesspeople had been put in charge of the process, and they were handing the coast over to tourist developers at a frantic pace. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of poor fishing people were still stuck in sweltering inland camps, patrolled by soldiers with machine guns and entirely dependent on relief agencies for food and water. They called reconstruction "the second tsunami."

What a superb idea. Let the victims in on how the city is to be rebuilt rather than making them the victims once again.

[WordsAreDead]

That may be a good idea. But what are some repercussions you, mirror, can see arising from such a proposal?

[mirror]

There is big money in government contracts for disasters like Iraq, Katrina. Haliburton, etc. would not make the big bucks they are used to making.

[Montgomery Burns]

There is big money in government contracts for disasters like Iraq, Katrina. Haliburton, etc. would not make the big bucks they are used to making.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Halliburton has made a measly 1.5 to 3.7% net profit in Iraq. Even Wal-Mart has better margins with their tiny 3.6% net profit. For most businesses, 6% is a decent average net profit.

Another liberal myth busted.

Halliburton: Profitless Profiteering

[mirror]

"Well you can beat up on me all you want in the media, but me and my buddies are laughing all the way to the bank"

Guess who is thinking that?

Follow the money here folks. First you allow things to deteroriate, and then you make the money are the repairs. brilliant strategy. It's not that governments are bad, it's just when people like Bush control them they go bad.

Firms with Bush-Cheney ties clinching Katrina deals

[ValleyForge]

New Orleans needs to be shoveled in with dirt and buried. Do not rebuild this city. Just put an end to the soup bowl city so this will never happen again.

[mirror]

Can't have that.

Then the Republicans won't be able to give out those lucrative government contracts to rebuild the city.