Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies

'Many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable,' he said. 'In America, we do not abandon our fellow citizens in their hour of need. And the federal government will do its part. Where our response is not working, we'll make it right. Where our response is working, we will duplicate it.
'We have a responsibility to our brothers and sisters all along the Gulf Coast, and we will not rest until we get this right and the job is done.'
- George W. Bush, 4 September 2005 weekly radio address


So then, who’s getting the ax for leaving the victims in New Orleans to their own defenses – they left their own people to rot - for four days? Who in leadership is going to jail? No one. Oh. How’s that, you say? That would appear to contradict the official rhetoric. Well, what does he really mean then? He was asked to clarify on WWL TV in New Orleans, and he said that the security situation was unacceptable, not the situation of victims dying for lack of food and water. Or, from this perspective, it was unacceptable that the insurance companies were caused further damage from abandoned people and those in concentration camp surroundings securing food and clothing to survive. Their crime is to have the audacity to want and to take steps to survive after losing one’s home and livelihood. After all, the poor don’t typically vote for Republican administrations, and actually, in racist parts of the South, they were restrained by police from voting in the year 2000. And from the neo conservative perspective, if they don’t vote for neo conservatives, what benefit is there to saving their lives?

So a more accurate reading of the quote would go something as follows:

'Many of our (corporate elite and republican) citizens simply are not getting the help they need, (against the appropriation of resources by opposition survivors) especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable,' he said. 'In America, we do not abandon our fellow (elite) citizens in their hour of need. And the federal government will do its part. (to protect the property of elites and insurance companies) Where our response is not working, we'll make it right. Where our response is working, we will duplicate it. (and that’s a threat)
'We have a responsibility to our (fraternity) brothers and (sorority) sisters all along the Gulf Coast, and we will not rest until we get this right and the job is done.'
What Job? Actions Speak Louder than Words
So far the job has been rounding up the poor and disenfranchised, shipping them to concentration camps at gunpoint, depriving them of food, medical care and water, assassinating their character because they refuse to die peacefully, and now dispersing them to unknown destinations against their wills to stop them from organizing. Can relatives come to pick them up? No, they can’t approach within 17 miles. If the bus passes through a town where relatives have offered food and shelter can they get off the bus? No. And what about the now homeless poor in the outlying areas of Louisiana and Mississippi without television cameras and news crews? Well, the Klan will take care of them. Bet on it.

So far the job has been to transfer the nation’s wealth to the elite, through tax cuts, fraud, energy policy, high fuel prices, war, and whatever distractions are necessary to hasten the transfer. Sound like Enron’s treatment of California? You bet. Only Enron was too transparent to be swallowed by the public. Only executive privilege and a stacked Supreme Court can take care of the transparency issue.

So far, we can look to Iraq as the preferred neo conservative model for the US. Well, it’s the most visible and relevant example at this time. It’s nothing new though. One only need look to our policy against our Latin neighbors in the south to trace this policy back through history. Democrat and Republican alike have doggedly pursued this free-take policy. Of course they can’t do it right away, but step by step, sure. It begins with education. Bring religion back into the schools, so those who want to learn to read will start with the Bible, and many will be put off by the difficulty and remain illiterate. How to get there? Start by assaulting Darwin’s science and replace it with divine miracle. Teach this to 14 year olds, and soon they will be voting for well funded righteous candidates.

Call me a liberal, a flaming liberal, un-American, call me what you like, but you’re wrong. I’ve got nothing against a pure free trade policy. It’s where the corporate led government gets involved that the problems occur. Free trade, but with subsidies for our agrochemical corporate farm conglomerates isn’t free trade. Protection against foreigners buying our assets while applying pressure to liberate the assets of foreigners to domestic corporations isn’t free trade. And if resources are allowed to migrate out of poorer countries to richer ones, so should the people whose resources they were formerly. Ah, but they can’t. Well, you say, they would presumably benefit from the foreign “investment” in the natural resources - this investment would improve their lives. Organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy and USAID ensure that this isn’t the case though. They back overwhelmingly corrupt pro US business candidates, or dictators in the case a coup is necessary, and often the “investment” money never leaves the States, instead finding its way into Miami bank accounts. Just ask Mr. Pinochet. So a corrupted free trade policy becomes in effect a free take policy. Privatization of US utilities has the same potential, except that it needs to be done more gradually to silently defeat public rejection. Once it’s done, all we need is a shortage of energy to hasten the looting of the middle class. Enron, anyone? On steroids. When the economy eventually implodes, then resources can be bought up cheaply and efficiently. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, uh, shame, uh, don’t get fooled again!

I have read, from the same kind of people who would label me a flaming liberal for my rejection of the policies of the corporate US government, the idea that the international community didn’t step up and send in relief for the victims, and therefore, we should stop all the money that flows out of the country in foreign aid. Amen, brother, I say, despite the fact that the list of countries that have offered significant aid is huge, despite non-reporting by the corporate media machine. Let’s start with the largest recipient, the oppressive regime in Israel. Usually the ‘aid’ the corporate government dispenses is neither in the interest of the majority of US citizens, nor in the interest of the majority of the citizens in the region where the ‘aid’ is dispensed. That is, if the money even leaves the US and doesn’t go directly into the accounts of US contractors.

But what about New Orleans? The destabilization is underway. To understand what New Orleans was and represented, one needs to spend some time in the Bible Belt. New Orleans was a cultural outlet, a social outlet for the whole region. An evangelically religious, socially repressive area needs a counter balance, and that was the cosmopolitan city of New Orleans. Now it’s gone, citizen has been turned against citizen, and the rebuilt version will resemble nothing more than a hollow whitewashed shell of the original. Jacksonville, FL, Houston, TX, and Charlotte, NC provide examples of the type of blight that will likely follow. The French Quarter will become a Disney version, nothing like the original except for maybe some of the original architecture. In essence, the South has lost its soul. The heart of the South, when found in cardiac arrest, has been surgically removed, shredded, and disposed of. Call it a model for the nation, if you will. Mission accomplished.

I have put off writing about the disaster in New Orleans because I am still in a state of shock. I feel like I need to write about it because just taking the piss out of public statements doesn’t dignify the defeat, death, torture by starvation and dehydration, and suffering of the victims. In a state of shock, one experiences a toxic soup of emotions, much like New Orleans itself these days. First, from the night of Friday, 26 August, it became apparent that Katrina would build in strength and head northwards. I watched the satellite maps and discussions on Yahoo’s CWEI energy board with fear. I sent messages to friends in the States. Slowly, through the weekend, the hurricane gathered strength and made for New Orleans. Nothing to do but wait in horror and with anxiety for the predicted landfall on Monday. From satellite images, I watched the eye as it just missed New Orleans, and waited for the inevitable reports of flooding. Everyone knew there would be massive flooding because of the category 5 storm surges, the fact that New Orleans flooded even in thunderstorms because of its sub-sea level altitude, and the condition of the dikes. I was sad. No federal response. The Canadians had planes loaded and ready to go, but they were denied permission to enter by the Department of Homeland Security. The feds took a week from the time everyone knew there would be a disaster to get around to delivering drinking water and food. The SWAT teams and riot patrols, however, arrived much faster. Unfortunately they weren’t put to work saving lives, just protecting property. As I read stories of survivors and saw footage, read police and National Guard scanner transcripts, survivors being greeted with guns pointed at them, treated like animals, my sadness turned into anger. When reports surfaced that the Canadian help was refused, my anger turned into outrage. I knew the corporate US government didn’t give a shit about the poor, but this despicable confirmation broke my heart. Mother fuckers.

And finally, I thought the $500,000,000,000 “defense” budget was supposed to cover the possibility of a two front, all-out war. Then, why now do we need to pull troops from Iraq to protect the property of the elites in New Orleans? Why is the answer put forward by the corporate media that the middle class should donate to the Salvation Army and the Red Cross, instead of a swift government response? Hello, Carlyle Group, hello General Electric, hello Boeing, hello Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton, Bush Sr., and all your spooky cronies making over a million a year! How ‘bout a hand, guys? As a taxpayer, there is something I demand to know. Where the fuck’s my tax money!!? What was it spent on? Who has it now? Which bank account in Switzerland? The bastards don’t give a shit.

You think I make this shit up? Liberal corporate press? Right. Follow these links for backup:

truthout.org/docs_2005/090205R.shtml
observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1562429,00.html
counterpunch.org/landau06252004.html
observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1562415,00.html
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4210674.stm
jang.com.pk/thenews/sep2005-daily/04-09-2005/world/w1.htm
alternet.org/bloggers/evan/24905/
wwltv.com/topstories/stories/090205cckatrinaMayor
wwltv.com/topstories/stories/090105cccakatcorp.4aa63005.html
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4207944.stm
bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4210674.stm