Last night I watched When the Levees Broke, Spike Lee's documentary about Hurricane Katrina & its aftermath. It was the most riveting 4 hours of television I've seen this year. Best documentary, by far. Please watch/DVR this if you have HBO, or rent it if you don't. It's split up into 4 Acts.One of the more interesting portions of the first hour was a group of interviews with people who swear they heard and felt an explosion, after the strongest winds had passed. That's when the levees broke, and water levels rose rapidly, emptying raw sewage into the streets.
I'd think that this was just another crazy consipracy theory, if it hadn't happened before. During the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the Army Corps of Engineers decided, along with local politicians, to blow the dams to save the high-rent French Quarter. This ended up minimizing damage to the most affluent areas of New Orleans, but decimated St. Bernard Parrish, killing hundreds of people, and leaving thousands homeless (all poor).
Now, I'm not saying that anyone blew the dams this time around. There is no solid proof (it would have washed away anyway). However - factor in the fact that it took the federal government 5 full days to get water to these people...women and children were literally dying in the heat, bodies & feces floating around in the flood waters...and you can see why people would think that way. According to Mike "Heckuva job, Brownie" Brown, the president was warned a full 2 days in advance of the storm that this was to be a disastrous event unlike any other.
During the entire documentary, Spike Lee makes a point to show that the government's lack of response linked directly to class. Not race. But with a population of about 68% African-American, you can see why Kanye West said those infamous words, "George Bush hates black people." It's an undeniable link. While visting "refugees" at the Houston Astrodome, his own mother said, "so many of the people in the arenas here, you know, were underprivileged anyway. This is working very well for them."
It's hard not to get upset, watching that documentary. I've decided to find out what more I can do - last year, I ran a canned food & supplies drive. I'm going to find out what more we can do, because the worst civil-engineering disaster in the history of the United States is far from over.
2 comments:
Thanks for the heads up; I just made a note to record this.
What Kanye West actually said was, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." I think that's even more telling; you have to care about a people before you can hate them. And yet like you my immediate reaction upon hearing that was, I'm sure W has some black friends. Who he doesn't care about are poor people who aren't likely to influence his life or career in any way.
I think I'm done getting upset about all the shit the Bush Administration has pulled. I'm saturated. All I know is 51% of Americans voted for him, and this country's going to Hell in a handbasket.
Thanks for clearing that up; I think that a lot of people are becoming more savvy to the Bush-Cheney exploitation, and it helps that they screwed the people of the South in a major way.
There's other ways to kickstart the economy. Build a missle-defense system. Better protect the borders. Build an abitious levee system for the Big Easy like Delta Works.
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