Letter to the Editor

Here is my letter to the editor of the Washington Post. The article I'm responding to is no longer available-it was basically a decent article that looked at progress in New Orleans without considering race or class:

Dear Post Editors,

In contrast to the picture described in your article "New Orleans: A City Gets to Its Feet, Slowly;" a picture of universal, if slow progress in New Orleans reconstruction, stymied by lack of federal funds, there is another framework with which to understand the situation here, and part of that framework includes the city government’s complicity in the destruction of homes and the refusal to allow residents to come back and rebuild, especially in regards to the Housing Projects throughout the city.

I am a volunteer with a relief organization here in the Lower Ninth Ward. Last week we witnessed the demolition of a church located near the infamous spot where a barge had crashed through the levee and into the Lower Ninth. The city did not attempt to repair the damaged church; it simply demolished the entire structure and hauled it away in trucks. A week before that, the city razed a home next door to a home that our organization uses. What is happening in the Lower Ninth, and what the author fails to point out in his article is that the demolition of homes is proceeding apace as other parts of the city are being rebuilt.

It is under the euphemistically-named "Good Neighbor" policy that residents have to gut their homes, or after an allotted amount of time the city will gut the houses for them. For residents who cannot pay the cost of house gutting or for those exiled residents who have not even been notified of the status of their house (which is not an insignificant number), eviction is the next step. The pink eviction notice nailed to abandoned homes alerts residents to the thirty days they have before the city comes to carry away their demolished house in trucks.

Aside from the fact there has been no support for reconstruction in the Lower Ninth Ward by any level of government, and aside from the ludicrous nature of the “Good Neighbor” policy, the fact is that many of the homes currently targeted for destruction are not blighted homes. Many are homes that have been gutted and have been certified structurally sound by contractors. Still the residents of these homes find their houses on the city’s demolition lists.

Several Housing Development Projects around New Orleans share a similar story: structurally sound and having sustained relatively minor damage from Katrina and the flood, the Housing Projects, instead of being opened up for occupation and restoration by residents, many Projects remain boarded up and surrounded by barbed-wire fence 19 months after Katrina. Notices on these buildings tell residents to get permission from the city before entering the premises to claim their possessions. New Orleans citizen groups are still trying to save four of the largest Housing Projects from being razed by the city.

Residents here feel that no one cares about their existence; that their history is being erased via the creeping demolition of their built community; that this erasing of a community is actually what “restoration” means for the Lower Ninth Ward. Given the slow yet perceptible moves towards gentrification, and a media that conveniently excludes the viewpoint of unequal rebuilding support, I am starting to see why.

Two Stories in Louisiana

In a local newspaper, I read today of a story that's going on in the Lower 9th Ward where I have been volunteering. The City of New Orleans is bulldozing and clearing houses in the Lower 9th that have no reason to be torn down. They are certified to be non-blight, yet these houses continue to appear on blighted house lists in order that they may be torn down.

Another story in Jena, LA near the Texas border goes something like this: 6 black students at the high school get arrested for attempted second degree muder for beating up a white kid. Hmmm. Deeper into the story I hear tensions at the school were high after three nooses were found hanging from a tree in obvious threat to the black students there. Also an alumnus from the high school threatens some black students with shotguns. No one is convicted of anything but the black students for beating up a kid. Hm. Nooses.

Debunking myths to utopia

The Utopianists have to get better at responding to the knee-jerk reactions and unthinking defenses of the status quo by people who are not necessarily in favor of the current state of things, but who lack imagination. We have to do this because, well, things could really use changing, and that starts with the minds of these people.

Okay, so in my small effort to some sort of methodical response to these tired quips, I wanted to share something I've read by David Graeber from "Fragments of An Anarchist Anthropology (available online):

This of course brings up the “who
will do the dirty jobs?” question—one which
always gets thrown at anarchists or other utopians.
Peter Kropotkin long ago pointed out the fallacy
of the argument. There’s no particular reason dirty
jobs have to exist. If one divided up the unpleasant
tasks equally, that would mean all the world’s top
scientists and engineers would have to do them
too; one could expect the creation of self-cleaning
kitchens and coal-mining robots almost immediately.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now this is funny, as all responses to the knee-jerk rationalizations could be to show the irony of the statement!:):):)

Peace, World!

Where’s the money? More broken promises.

Well, we thought construction for the Gulf Coast was going to happen. The outrage was palpable, the politicians heard it; the funding would follow the outrage. The allocations were made, it was just a matter of getting the funding. On Saturday I read that grants that were supposed to be available for people to make their rebuilt homes storm-proof (forgetting the question of whether that’s even possible) are no longer available (Times-Picayune, May 19, 2007). In the same paper, I read that in order for Bush to not veto a war-funding bill that had a time-table for troop withdrawal from Iraq, Democrats sacrificed $1.3 billion item for Gulf Restoration from the bill. So the Dems sacrificed Louisiana in order to give Bush all the money he wants for more war—so troops would start to come home by July.

What is Clean? or Overcoming my Suburban Notions

I was in Home Depot the other day and saw the Clorox Bleach Bottles on the shelves and I shuddered—this is a good thing. Bleach is toxic and not meant for an environment inhabited by humans or any other animals. But usually when I see Clorox (or more importantly, before coming to Common Ground) I thought Clorox just another helpful aid in cleaning things. But it is a pollutant we are putting on our floors and toilet bowls, and the residue that’s left after Clorox (concentrated chlorine) does its job is just as toxic to people and other animals. These are called Trihalomethanes. The municipal water in the industrial nations is chlorinated to prevent pathogens. When chlorine kills pathogens it leaves these THMs which are carcinogenic in themselves.

Okay, but what are we supposed to do? We need to drink water that’s free from pathogens. Well, we can catch rainwater to drink and use. It's free and it doesn't have bad things in it. (okay acid rain for the Northeast aside.)

But to clean things? Counter tops? Dishes? Contaminated homes? Efficient microorganisms are what we use here in the Lower Ninth. It has good germs as opposed to bad, pathogenic germs. It’s what we were cleaning contaminated houses with.

Notes on Fragments

Revolution as a process, not a break. As building autonomous communities in an 'engaged withdrawal,' not as confronting state power. As seeing all of us as the same not as Us studying Them.

Graeber has some interesting things to say in his "Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology."
Another example.

"The Tsimihety are now considered a foko—a people or ethnic group—but their identity emerged as a political project. The desire to live free of Sakalava domination was translated into a desire—one which came to suffuse all social institutions from village assemblies to mortuary ritual—to live in a society free of markers of hierarchy. This then became institutionalized as a way of life of a community living together, which then in turn came to be thought of as a particular “kind” of people, an ethnic group—people who also, since they tend to intermarry, come to be seen as united by common ancestry."

A funny example of subversion:

"Residents of the squatter community of Christiana, Denmark, for example, have a Christmastide ritual where they dress in Santa suits, take toys from department stores and
distribute them to children on the street, partly just so everyone can relish the images of the cops beating down Santa and snatching the toys back from crying children."

One last note (for now):

"This of course brings up the “who will do the dirty jobs?” question—one which always gets thrown at anarchists or other utopians. Peter Kropotkin long ago pointed out the fallacy of the argument. There’s no particular reason dirty jobs have to exist. If one divided up the unpleasant tasks equally, that would mean all the world’s top scientists and engineers would have to do them too; one could expect the creation of self-cleaning kitchens and coal-mining robots almost immediately."

Of course I should be reading more than just white male academics. Thanks for the check, Becca.

New World Bank Report on the Occupation of Palestine

Here are some 'highlights' of a recent report on the effects of the occupation on the West Bank and Gaza. The report is called, "MOVEMENT AND ACCESS RESTRICTIONS IN THE WEST BANK"

"Israeli restrictions have divided the occupied West Bank into 10 economically isolated enclaves, severing financial links and denying Palestinians access to some 50 percent of the land."

"The report notes that the number of physical barriers, including checkpoints, roadblocks and gates, in the West Bank continues to rise. Based on data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Territories (OCHA), the number of such impediments as of March stood at 546, or 44 percent higher than at the signing of the Agreement on Movement and Access in November 2005."

"About 270,000 Jewish settlers live in the occupied West Bank among some 2.5 million Palestinians. The World Court has ruled that settlements built on land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War are illegal."

Now how do that many settlers impact the "safety concerns" of Israelis?

Sunflowers

A quick explanation of our Sunflower Project:

Sunflowers are hyperaccumulators when it comes to lead, which means that the plants soak up lead that is in the soil. How does lead get into the soil? Lead-based paints that are scraped off/sanded off buildings. As with every city New Orleans has significant amount of lead contamination in the soils. This is not a problem associated with Katrina, but has been a chronic problem of the last 50 years.

In a turn on environmental justice, it happens that poorer sections of town have less soil contamination than the richer parts of town when it comes to lead. The reason for this is that the richer people were able to afford the more costly lead-based paint than the poorer sections. Of course children putting their hands in their mouth after playing in the soil is the most important vector of contamination, and the number of children with lead poisoning in New Orleans is truly sad.

So we plant sunflowers in the Lower Ninth to take out the lead. And we will plant mustard greens next growing season to take out arsenic that is also in the soild. In places where there is more contamination, the professor we're working with simply covers the contaminated soild with a foot thick layer of virgin topsoil-too contaminated to try to remediate. I'll let you know how the remediation goes.

The water supposedly doesn't have any lead in it. The Sewerage Board's latest report is from 2005. The Lower Ninth Ward was the last area in the city to have their water turned on. Meanwhile, water leaks from pipes in vacant lots turn parts of our street into mini-wetlands. Okay, it seems like I'm kavetching.

Touristas Go Home

I saw a woman witha shirt on that said, "Tourstas Go Home." She might have meant the people that are in New Orleans merely to take advantage of Bourbon street and the music. She may have been directing the shirt towards people who drive through the Ninth Ward to take pictures of the destruction. She may have meant the people that are volunteering from other states to help rebuild the city.

Whatever her sentiment, I of course liked the shirt. Today while fertilizing the sunflowers (have I mentioned we're growing unflowers to take out the lead in the soil?) there were plenty of cars rolling on by-some local, some from out of state-taking pictures of our organization's signs and our work, and then rolling up their window to take off. Maybe a fraction talked with the person down the road who had literature about the work that we're doing. Maybe some made a donation.

Witnesses to the destruction and the state of things down here in New Orleans are important. They can take what they have seen back to their homes and tell people what they've seen. If their intention is to have a few pictures for themselves, and not tell people what they've seen, then that is not helping people rebuild, that is selfish. But maybe these people need to be informed of their importance. The role that they can play. Instead of leering at these touristas then, I could step forward and inform them of their crucial role as witness.

Oh, and if you haven't, consider stopping by New Orleans for some food, music and solidarity work! :)

Military Police

One thing I haven't mentioned is that the Military Police are still here in New Orleans, patrolling everywhere, and especially in the Lower Ninth Ward. They drive in big Humvees, dressed in fatigues as if they are in a war situation.


They get to accidents quicker than the regular police. I have never seen anyone arrested by the MPs. But why are they here? Afraid of people looting? They instructed a friend of mine to not stand next to his car, which was parked in a park. Um. Useful.

Adventures in LaLaLand

I went somewhere I wasn't supposed to yesterday. Nevermind where. But on Google Earth today, I got to see a very close-up shot of that same place.

It'd be very easy for a company to pay someone like Google to take real-time shots of their property and a computer discerns whether someone is trespassing. Now I dont' want to give ideas to companies. Only to point out how easy it is with simple online tools (forgetting what kind of sophisticated equipment the governments is probably hiding) to track and then to execute some kind of police call (or Death Ray strike from space).

Well, they're doing pretty much the same thing at Toll Booths by taking pictures of people's license plates when they don't pay the toll. Will this kind of surveillance be far away. Probably not. Is it any reason to be worried? Not if the creeping fascism creeps slowly enough.