Fwd: [NOLA_C3_Discussion] River Center in B.R.

[Guest guest]

Below is a post made to the NOLA_C3 activist list speaking of the Evacuee

encampment at River City in Baton Rouge.

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------

e

Sep 17, 2005 2:56 PM

RE: [NOLA_C3_Discussion] River Center in B.R.

 

 

 

Here is my account of spending several hours there today. I'll be back there

tomorrow. This is where the work needs to be done right now, in my view. The

people are very angry. Read my account. Blanco and Nagin are in political

trouble, in my view. It would be good if we could re-route the march to the

front of the convention center. Don't know how this would fly with security

there though. Just don't know how these people are going to get to the

capital steps. We need to bring the protest to them, in my view.

 

*I just came from the River Center in B.R.*

5000 people here. I was able to go into the center after being searched and

having to pass through a metal detector. No one asked why I was there. I

handed out fliers for our march on the 24 in B.R. on the Capital Steps to

coincide with the DC march.

 

Evacuees were eager to talk to me. I guess because I am from the " outside " .

All of them asked me when they could go back to their homes. We chatted

about neighborhoods and I told them what I had heard.

 

The anger is palpable. Barely below the surface. People are really angry,

and they are angry at Bush, Blanco and Nagin, not necassarily in that order.

 

 

One elderly woman, slightly senile and childlike, was able to make this joke

about FEMA relief. I said FEMA moves slowly and it might take a while to get

her check.

 

" As slow as Nagin? " she asked. " As slow as Bush? " " As slow as Blanco? " She

looked at me mischievously.

 

She was arrested, btw, at the local greyhound station, after being attacked

by would be robbers. Strange story. There was also the New Orleans female

deputy at the shelter whose son was arrested and " beaten " by B.R. police.

The son didn't have an arrest record, she said. Now he does.

 

It is sad inside. I didn't want to disturb anyone's space, as this is their

home right now. I spent all my time outside. The FEMA people were obviously

overwhelmed with the human need, as I watched one fellow deal with those

coming to him with questions.

 

The Red Cross was busy, but some relief workers sat idle waiting for people

to help. They would only give vouchers to those staying at the shelter.

Everyone else has to call the 1-800 number that you can never get through

on.

 

Anyone with a strong spirit and a desire to work with people,

improvisational skills emphasized, Louisiana could use the help right now.

 

What would counteract this gloomy description by Stu Piddy is a flood of

help from private individuals from the outside, willing to work one-on-one.

 

The more light that shines on what is happening, the better chance we have

to create a different scenario.

 

Here is Stu Piddy's essay from

www.boomantribune.com<http://www.boomantribune.com>

:

 

NOLA Slave Owners Want Their Negroes Back

 

*by* Stu Piddy <http://www.boomantribune.com/user/Stu%20Piddy>

*Sat Sep 17th, 2005 at 12:59:18 PM EDT*

*[Historical note: Indentured servitude, which Stu correctly labels as

slavery, also existed in the U.S. before black slavery ... they were the

Welsh, the Irish, and so on . . . Now, from the diaries by susanhu w tiny

edits. Stu always -- and fearlessly -- reveals the unspoken reality.]*

 

Like an alcoholic, the United States can never forget its history. Or its

long addictive history of slavery and its urge to return to human bondage

for profit. (The following covers too much ground and it wanders a bit, but

bear with me, please)

 

The personal history of an individual person cannot be erased or ignored. So

it is with Nations and the soul or culture(s) and the institutions that make

them up. Everything we do as individuals' stays with us and we become what

we have done. What we do forever becomes a part of us. The United States has

a centuries long history of Slavery. Slavery has existed for a longer period

of time since the settling of this country than since the time it was

" abolished " . Slavery and the using and abusing, the demeaning of people for

profit is still a part of American culture and will always be. It is a

cultural trait much like a character trait in an individual. Character

traits are not easily changed. Traits are not meant by nature to be easily

changed. They are permanent. There will never be any change in the negative

character of any nation unless there is a painful realization of the

traiti.e. what we are as individuals and as nations.

 

 

Of course there are other conflicting character traits that make up the

culture of the United States. One is the high value placed on Freedom which

conflicts with the value of Equality and these two conflicts create the

vagaries of language, the convenient confusion that allow for the

oppression, the inequality of minority groups for the self serving freedoms

of the " wealthy landed gentry " of the South and North.

 

The impulse of slavery, the intention, the urge for Slavery lives on.

Slavery did not end with the Emancipation. Nothing ends abruptly. Slavery

has shifted and morphed, sometimes submerged itself since the civil war.

 

Today, Slavery exists worldwide and is well documented. Some estimate that

27 million people are

slaves<http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0901/p16s01-wogi.html>

 

Slavery exists in various forms and it exists on a continuum. There are East

European girls (among many others) forced into prostitution, there are slave

driven clothing factories all over the world, there are human slaves in the

jungles of Brazil who have been kidnapped into forced labor. It is

everywhere. In a world that is becoming more and more fundamentalist and

capitalist, it is thriving.

 

In the United States indentured servitude followed slavery immediately after

the civil war. Indentured servitude is simply another form of slavery and is

the form we are closest to returning to today albeit in a new, altered form.

 

 

Slavery had been denuded in the United States but has never been destroyed.

The impulse, especially prevalent in the South, has been uncovered and given

new life by a strong gust of wind and rain from a Hurricane called Katrina.

The Hurricane has blown off the phony façade of racial equality. Racial

inequality is observable to the naked eye. Why do so many Black people live

in segregated areas in Chicago and New Orleans and so many other cities in

the United States after 140 years since slavery ended? It is because slavery

has never ended.

 

Slavery has changed; it now has a modern more obscure, harder to identify

face. It is obvious. In our very language and manner slavery and prejudice

hides. We pretend it's not there. Liberals and conservatives are afraid we

might have to ask the question...Why are so many black people poor? And the

answer might be: They are poor because they are inferior. They are not as

intelligent as white people.

 

Liberals cannot stand the possibility that this could be the answer. So they

approach blacks with delicacy. They are careful.

 

Conservatives are more forthright having consciously come to the conclusion

that blacks are inferior. Liberals feel " confused " and don't want to have to

address the question. The question should be asked. The answer might be

surprising.

 

There are different kinds of intelligence. How intelligent is it to make an

entire race of people slaves for 300 hundred years? What is intelligence?

 

If human beings knew what intelligence was, we would become aware how

utterly stupid we all are. Humanity is entirely disturbed and perverse. This

is a sick Planet. A planet in need of rescue. A planet that cannot rescue

itself because it does not admit to itself that it is in danger. It

considers its insanity; it's wars as " normal " . It is not intelligent to war

and not intelligent to enslave for the simple reason that it is ultimately

self-destructive. Intelligence has nothing to do with education. It has to

do with how well an organism is able to sustain itself under the conditions

in which it is placed. In a world full of abundance, human beings have

chosen to destroy. There is enough for everyone. Greed is a form of

stupidity and self-destruction. Slavery, and racial discrimination are

self-destructive.

 

Now, meandering back to the South: Most of the Slave owners from 1619 to the

1860's were farmers. Most of the Slaves were considered valuable live

-stock. As cows chickens and plants were and are being bred, so were the

human livestock then. Most valuable was a well-bred, compliant slave,

healthy, strong and dependable.

 

Those slaves who were not compliant escaped, were killed or eliminated in

some other way. People were bred to be compliant. Many slaves, early on,

were Indians and there were even imported White European women.

 

But it came to pass that Black slaves became predominant. It was especially

because they were displaced. Indians were not considered good slaves

precisely because they were at home and not disoreinted in the same way

Black slaves were. (Why are so many people from the Hurricane being

displaced?)

 

Until recently it is only been through many generations that one can

eliminate or alter a genetic characteristic or trait in the genetic make up

of a species though selective breeding. Selective breeding was encouraged

and forced by white slave owners on their black slaves with varying degrees

of success.

 

But there is another way to control behavior and social traits and achieve a

kind of social acquiescence. This has occurred specifically with the forced

adoption of " White religions " by the black slaves.

 

As with the Catholic Jews in Spain who never told their children they were

Jews for fear the children would inadvertently reveal this in school or at

play, children grew up believing in Christianity and never stopped because

when they became adults they were just as dangerous to their parents as

fervent Christians. So it is with Black Slaves. This is most graphically

seen with the Mexican Indians and their conquest by the combined forces of

the Church and the Conquistadors working in unison. All conquered peoples

adopt the ways of the conquerors. Look at modern capitalist Japan and

Germany. In any case, authority and control can be achieved culturally. And

it can be achieved genetically through generations of selective breeding.

 

Today the descendants of the White Slave Owners (whose antecedents

themselves were once non-believers conquered by Political Christians) are

inclined to return to the position they once held as overseers of the South

in the swath of destruction left by Hurricane Katrina.

 

A small population of very wealthy aristocratic landowners with English

roots once ruled the South. Their descendants want the land of their

forefather's back.

 

The Houston Astrodome is like a giant corral where human livestock are held.

There are other areas. This from AlterNet:

 

" But behind the doors of the Astrodome, survival and frustration were the

order of the day. Jamel Bell, who fled his flooded Ninth Ward in New

Orleans, found no salvation here. " Inside it feels like prison, " he said. At

curfew, he says, the evacuees were locked in. "

 

At the River Center in Baton Rouge, curfew is 10pm. Food consists of Bagel

and Orange Juice in the morning, peanut butter in the afternoon and ravioli,

corn and bread for dinner. Many people are not allowed to wear gym shoes,

instead are forced to wear slippers as gym shoes are considered gang

clothing. There are no papers, only 3 television sets and 3 computers for

4.000 people. There is virtually no information. Access is extremely limited

especially to non-mainstream media. This has been reported on Democracy

Now! <http://www.democracynow.org/>

 

In New Orleans, Private Contractors and Military personnel occupy the city

in much the same way that Baghdad is occupied. Perhaps this is protection,

the security for the New Slave owners preventing the return of former Black

residents.

 

New Orleans is the testing ground for the new Security

State<http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/CfCAHV.html>to be employed

in other cities where civil unrest or natural disasters

occur. Once Black Water arrives in a city, they will want to keep working,

they may never leave.

 

According to Democracy Now! Mexican workers too are being shipped in from

Texas to do work in Louisiana and being held in hotels owned by Louisiana

Republican millionaire Patrick Quinn. They are presumably paying for their

rooms with money earned (are they illegal immigrants?-another form of slave

labor) while black people are being held in camps who are seeking

employment. Perhaps the Mexicans are more to Patrick Quinn's liking as

workers.

 

Evacuees are being shipped all over the country with one-way tickets. There

is no paid return. Many can leave their camp or their shelter but they

cannot return if they do leave. How can a New Orleans native return from

Michigan with no money. How can they leave their camp? They cannot and so it

is easier to create a White New Orleans, isn't it?

 

Perhaps the plan of our Southern controlled United States government (which

seems to think it was Jefferson Davis, not Abraham Lincoln who retained the

Presidency of the United States after the civil war) is to put these

corralled people in the Astrodome to work at something below the minimum

wage for private contractors and corporations like Halliburton to rebuild

the areas in the south destroyed by Hurricane Katrina so that white people

can live on the land their ancestors once owned 140 years ago. Land now

occupied by those in the Astrodome. Dislplaced people like those in the

Astro Dome will return to their homes-not to live in them but to tear them

down and build them back up at below minimum wage so that white and perhaps

wealthy blacks can live in them. This, if enacted will become the new

indentured servitude and it will be perverse.

 

It's basically White's only or at least wealthy only for those returning to

New Orleans. It seems Bush will build first a corridor to the Garden

District and the French Quarter in New Orleans, bypassing the flooded area

of the Negroes. Mayor Nagin is allowing these people to return but not those

of the 9th ward. Should the 9th ward ever become habitable again it will be

revitalized by the descendants of slaves for the purposes of providing

housing for the descendants of their once white slave owners.

 

 

 

 

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