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Katrina 1: New Orleans State of Mind
By JULIETTE ROSSANT  Yesterday, according to Reuters, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez tried to create a "New Orleans state of mind" during a speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, saying: He noted that the American private sector has already donated some $487 million to relief efforts. New Orleans and the U.S. Gulf Coast will only "truly be reborn" if companies return to provide the region with goods and services and jobs, so he urged companies to give "strong consideration" to basing operations there. Secretary Gutierrez also announced that the U.S. Department of Commerce (USDOC) has set up a Hurricane Relief Call Center (HRCC) that assigns caseworkers to specific donations from the business community. USDOC's HRCC call-in number is 1 (888) 4USA-DOC, or 1 (888) 487-2362: at present, USDOC has no specific webpage(s) for HRCC. What Reuters and others did not report is Secretary Gutierrez's response to a question including the term "refugees": He went on to describe how the U.S. Government was going to get poeple housing and jobs, whether they remain in their foster communities or return to the Gulf Coast. Afterwards, the Secretary told Reuters and other journalists that the federal government would ensure that building materials for reconstruction are available but would not comment on whether President Bush would lift current duties on Canadian lumber and Mexican cement. It's the old "We're here from the Government, and we're here to help" -- but not that much. Although our country is in crisis and although the U.S. Government is able to mobilize resources through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), our government is making no commercial exception to allow emergency-based imports of Mexican cement or Canadian lumber. By the way, did anyone ask whether the Canadians and Mexicans would offer cement and lumber at emergency discounted prices? And did anyone ask Katrina refugees (sorry, "evacueees") whether they have any objection to any source of cement or lumber or any other goods that helps them return to the normal way of life?  What is passing before our eyes every minute and day, on Television, Radio, Print, and Web, is not just a lack of medium- and long-term strategic thinking: it's a lack of logical thinking -- of thinking through. Instead of leadership at the head of the federal government, we've got -- you guessed it -- spin doctoring going on. First, the President shaved just a few days off of his five-week vacation in beautiful, sunny Crawford to come view the havoc of Hurricane Katrina from the overhead safety of Air Force One. There follows the parade of Cabinet down to the Gulf Coast in show of assistance. Then there is the firing of close Bush friend Michael Brown, carefully orchestrated over the news-slow weekend days of this past Friday and Monday. Why weren't more federal troops deployed earlier in the disaster area? Because our leaders were spending our tax dollars most carefully on spin control, not relief of our fellow Americans.This is not the time to spin issues or play semantics. Nor is it the time to worry about public reaction to Media coverage. Take Newsweek's August 31 article "Katrina Refugees: Homeless and Losing Hope" -- Washington spin doctors must have wrung their hands over this new "R" word! Sorry to differ, Mr. Secretary, but a refugee is someone who flees, usually implying flight from his or her home from some kind of force majeure (that's legalese for a "greater force" than an individual can bear) like war, pestilence -- or natural disaster. The people who left the Gulf Coast and cannot go home -- are being barred from their homes by the U.S. Government because their residences are too dangerous -- have not been evacuated for near-term return. They have been forced to flee their homes. The natives and lovers of those lands will of course try to go home, but many who are either non-native or not so much in love with those places will very likely stay away once they find and settle into new homes and new lives. With all due respect, Mr. Secretary (& Company), if you feel compelled to spin a disaster, keep it to yourselves this time and don't tie up national attention in your sideshows: the rest of us have work to do.  Of course, New Orleans could hardly be farther from a federal government mentality anyway. Remember Sean Connery as "balmy Barley Blair" in The Russian House (MGM 1990)? A jazz musician (and honorary New Orleans resident thereby), he was interrogated by British and American intelligence about dubious jazz world connections. Jazz can be radical stuff to officialdom: CIA Interrogator: Have you ever met any jazz musicians you would describe, or who would describe themselves, as anarchists?The Russia House is full of such quotes: just substitute New Orleans for Moscow, and you have the same basic antagonism. In describing his love of Russia (New Orleans), Barley says: You've got to be there... You're taking a leak in some filthy public urinal, and the man in the next stall leans across and asks you about God, or Kafka, or Freedom versus Responsibility. So, you tell him because -- you know -- because you're from the West. And before you've finished shaking your d__k you think "What a great country!"Who lives in such places? Barley says, "Moral outcasts... a writer..." And Barley is one of them; he describes himself darkly "Actually I don't live with myself. I tend to give myself a pretty wide berth." How would someone like Barley have reacted to the Feds after Katrina? That's easy: he would have told them, "Any decent church would have burned you bastards years ago."  In this day and age, with its Thousand Points of Light, he counters the Bush father-son rhetoric, saying: "You have to think like a hero merely to behave like a decent human being." So, while they pussyfoot around in Washington, Americans will go on with rebuilding, with or without federal help. As Barley says, "We have to save each other because all victims are equal and none is more equal than others." Maybe someone in the White House had better listen a bit more closely to our homegtown Barley Blairs - starting with Aaron Neville and brothers. Meanwhile, everyone should keep an ear open for the new music that Katrina is generating, "from Memphis to Mobile"... Sounds like there's another "Stormy Monday" brewing, and this time the people may be the hurricane: They call it stormy Monday, yes but Tuesday's just as bad.Previous articles: [complete Hurricane Katrina coverage] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, super chef, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, charity, Katrina --> back to superchefblog |
posted by Juliette Rossant at 9/13/2005 02:18:00 PM
1 Comments:
If only the government and its citizens had prepared better, this would not have happened. The hurricane would still have hit, but far fewer lives would have been lost and far less damage would have occurred. It is a complex situation, but the simple principle of preparation should have been more fully applied before Katrina made landfall. I believe that proper disaster insurance would have helped many of the affected families and individuals if they had purchased it beforehand. If families and agencies alike had done their best to ensure that food storage, evacuation plans and other preventive measures were in place, we might now be rejoicing rather than weeping. I only hope we can all learn from this awful experience to be better prepared for the next big hurricane or the next monster disaster.
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