Human Rights and the Realities of Returning to New Orleans
By JEFFREY BUCHANAN
CounterPunch
Buried amidst video montages of a still devastated Lower Ninth Ward and sound bytes from the pundits and politicians who have come to New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina's one year anniversary, the biggest story will continue to be who is not in the city. Sadly our nation's greatest tragedy continues for a displaced and dispossessed American community unprecedented in scale.
Katrina was more than just a failed levee system or a botched response to disaster. The storm displaced over a half million people, uprooting them from their homes and property. As they were being evacuated, these people trusted their government to help them eventually return home and to protect their rights. Now their geographically divided voices remain inaudible in the halls of government as their rights are gradually ignored.
Citizen groups in New Orleans like the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now insist that all the storm's displaced survivors have a right to return to their neighborhoods, an idea backed up by internationally accepted human rights standards developed by the United Nations.
"After the storm, virtually every aspect of daily life became a struggle, particularly for displaced low- and moderate-income families," explains Stephen Bradberry, head organizer for ACORN New Orleans. "As we discover the city's new future, it is only right that these folks are fully engaged in the rebuilding process and can come home to benefit from its outcomes."
Mayor Ray Nagin and even some federal officials have begun giving the right to return lip service without enacting meaningful legislation to allow the displaced to exercise this right.
More than half of New Orleans' pre-Katrina population, predominately African Americans from working class communities like the Lower Ninth Ward, Gentilly, and Holy Cross, has not returned. These were the vibrant neighborhoods that gave birth to the food, music and culture of the city and their residents were the backbone of the city's economy; small business owners, line chefs, hotel maids, and even the most revered musicians like Fats Domino.
More than 200,000 displaced former residents of New Orleans, spread across 46 different states, who have been denied their human right to return face numerous obstacles to be able to come home. They have no way of knowing the current state of their homes and neighborhoods-basic issues like whether the water and electricity are running, or whether their local schools are open. Their remains no centralized source for this information, neither government-run services nor private news sources. Most government decisions affecting their neighborhoods do not make it into the news broadcasts in their new communities. Without this necessary information it is nearly impossible for displaced people to make an informed decision to move back home.
I find it dificult to take seriously a writer who composes the following words: "As they were being evacuated, these people trusted their government to help them eventually return home and to protect their rights" If this is even remotely true then I can only say that our black leaders have been guilty of the most massive hoax ever perpetrated on a single people. No, I'm not a cynic - but is he kidding!?
Posted by: Ron Francis | Sunday, October 29, 2006 at 11:08 PM