- Sixty percent of homes still lack electricity.
- Less than half of the city’s pre-storm population of 460,000 has returned.
- Nearly a third of the trash is yet to be picked up
I saw Greg Palast last night on Democracy Now! (Link TV). His persona doesn't appeal to me that much -- but for his politics (swerve left) he would be an excellent anchor person for Fox. He was talking about the contrast between what Bush said the gov't would do and what they've actually done (see above). The claim was made that the refugees are kept in secure trailer parks and journalists are "discouraged" from talking to them by security people who have recently returned from Iraq [I've also heard these charges made somewhere else (NPR?) some time back, I believe]. I find this scenario very believable, since refugees are likely to be anti-Bush and people who aren't card carrying Bush-lovers get arrested if they darken the doors of a Republican campaign event.
But the thing that rang sooo true was Palast's point that New Orleans is becoming a white city now. Much of the industry that employed the poor is gone, he claimed. Poor people whose homes had been in their families for generations (owners, not renters) have not been allowed back. Louisiana, which has been the southern state least likely to be in the Republican column, is becoming less so. And as a conscious motivation for the rebuilding that has not happened, a motivation which would have been in previous administrations simply outrageous, this is very very plausible. Of course, the Bush people would deny such a thing in very heated terms ... but their lips would be moving, and you know how truthy they are when that is happening.
No comments:
Post a Comment