One of the first blogs I wrote was about Katrina. I have not written about it or New Orleans since then because almost all of the stories I have heard since then has been bad news. Rebuilding has been slow and lots of people will never go back. There was the story of the trailers provided by FEMA that caused allergy or asthma reaction in young children. Numerous stories of people cheating the government to get money for free and numerous stories of people really needing help not getting it. Finally today I saw a program on Dateline NBC that was a good story.
This was about the Vietnamese community which had to relocate to Houston and elsewhere after Katrina. Unlike many other communities the Vietnamese have rebuilt in New Orleans. There are several reasons why they are successful. First of all they did not depend on the government. They did not wait for handouts which may never come as many have found out. In fact the local government made things worse for them by trying to not allow rebuilding of the neighborhood. Ultimately the passion of the community won out. Many of these people came to the U.S. as refugees. Having survived typhoons in a war-torn Vietnam and then the high seas after they left their hoemland, Katrina did not seem to be an unbeatable enemy. Finally they were tied together by the Catholic church. They had a great priest as their leader and the organization of the church to help them.
I am not a big fan of organized religion but in this case the church and the priest deserve a lot of credit. It also show that we can't depend on the government. Unfortunately many people have to come to expect the government to bail them out even in much less dire situation than Katrina. Finally this shows that immigrants give strength to our country because many have survived disasters. They have learned how to rebuilt their lives before.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
3 comments:
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What I can't figure out is why it is taking so long to get the devestated neighborhoods fixed up.
ReplyDeleteEven though the French Quarter was not hit as hard, it is up and running along with most of the business district now. I also believe the Garden District is now back to near normal. What's the common denominator for all these areas? Money. These are money-rich areas and are important to the infrastructure of the city itself.
I personally believe, and I have no proof, that the areas like the 9th ward are not being rebuilt as fast because no one really cares about them or the people who live/lived there.
The people that lived there were not and probably won't be a vital part of the city's economic growth. In fact, I would think that the poor areas were a drain to the economic situation. Seems to me that no one wants these people back. I truly think that the government could have had these neighborhoods back up by now.
Now if you were a poor person and was displaced but living off government assistance, would you spend money and rebuild or live where you are now and use that extra money for other things? It's a matter of priorities and a sense of survival for some and for others it's about entitlement.
I totally agree with you about not depending on the government.
It's good to hear about the Vietnamese community and how the church helped the members out, but where are the church leaders for the non-Vietnamese? Where are the Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons? Oh yeah, it may not be high-profile enough for these guys to show their faces and help out.
LBOAYM
Actually I remember writing about the reconstruction of N.O. on 4-12-06. At that time Mexicans were flodding into N.O. because there were construction jobs offering $16 per hour. Some of it was funded by FEMA. So essentially the government was idirectly hiring illegals. The funding eventually decreased probably because they didn't want the city becoming Hispanic. This maybe one of the reason the rebuilding is so slow. The Sharptons and Jacksons can't complain since they can't bring in ex-residents of the city who are willing to do the hard work themselves. The Vietnamese were successful because they do the work themselves. Now think about construction the wall on the border with Mexico. I believe that there is no way it can be built underbudget and in reasonable time without hiring illegals!
ReplyDeleteHah! That is so true. So I guess getting these neighborhoods fixed isn't as important as it seems. I don't understand the way people think. So it's better to let the land get unused and rot than to have someone willing to clean it up and be a part of the community that is willing to work? It could actually boost the economy of the area. And to think that New Orleans was a huge melting pot giving it a unique community.
ReplyDelete-LBOAYM