More Disturbing News From New Orleans
There is mounting evidence that plans are underway that will end up hurting the evacuees, especially the poor and black citizens of New Orleans.
First, I want to draw your attention to Naomi Klein’s recent article called “Purging the Poor.” According to evidence she has uncovered, “New Orleans is already displaying signs of a demographic shift so dramatic that some evacuees describe it as “ethnic cleansing.” Before Mayor Ray Nagin called for a second evacuation, the people streaming back into dry areas were mostly white, while those with no homes to return to are overwhelmingly black .”
On top of this, Congressional plans to cut medicare and other social
programs to “offset” the costs of reconstruction will end up stripping
many of the displaced poor in New Orleans of needed resources ON TOP of their already devastating losses.
On another, but related topic, I am still very concerned about the rising use of mercenaries (Blackwater, Isralei para-military, etc.) by rivate businessmen AND Homeland Security in New Orleans to police the city. These are private militias that are battleworn and trigger happy. Given their contracts with DHS and being “deputized” by LA’s Governor, these militias are wandering the streets with little or no accountability.
We do not want to solve our problems by imposing ethnic cleansing and police state strategies. And what is happening in New Orleans looks an awful lot like we are heading down that road.
I encourage you to read both Klein’s and Scahill’s articles.