A City Divided
New Orleans Brings Third World Reality to America             
By Hector Gonzalez

I landed in New Orleans two weeks ago along with a video camera in hopes of documenting the atrocity that Katrina has left behind, and the progress the city has made since. Coming out of the plane it was hard to comprehend what it was that we were stepping into. Once there, I realized that I was far from home in San Jose, California. So far, in fact, that I questioned whether or not I was in the same country.

The Split City
New Orleans is split into what seems like two completely different cities, the French Quarter, which is 90% white and the Ninth Ward, 97% black, many of whom are senior citizens. It is the luxurious and the ghetto, the white and the black. One part is well known for its Mardi Gras Celebration and the other for carrying the title of “highest homicide rate in the country” year after year. One side of the city sees the other as misfortune, but it doesn't hesitate to exploit the others tragedy. One side knows that they are being exploited and forgotten, but the general feeling isn't towards the French Quarter, it is a feeling of anger, frustration and disappointment aimed at the entire country itself.

Everyday we would leave the French Quarter to go to the Ninth Ward, pack up our equipment and then return from the Ninth Ward back to the French Quarter. The contrast between the two places are stark -- one was the reality of New Orleans and the other was a façade. Walking through the French Quarter and seeing the faces of white people, you might get the impression that nothing had even happened in New Orleans because in these areas it's business as usual. Maybe it's because this place was not abandoned, this place will stand many years from now and it will carry the legacy of Katrina, while the many stories of the Ninth Ward, their monuments, and their people will be but forgotten memories that will vanish; just like being washed away into a place nowhere to be found.

What distinguishes traveling in America as opposed to the rest of the world, is that when you travel out of the country, the people whom you see in that particular country usually will not have the opportunity to ever leave their countries. They are essentially trapped where they live. New Orleans felt this way for me, I was the privileged outsider (although I'm considered poor according to American standards) and the black people of New Orleans were the trapped people just like people living in third world countries that spend their time day dreaming of one day leaving such a forsaken place.

Omar Casimire, an African American male and survivor of Katrina says that the government help the people of New Orleans was only for surviving, not re-building. “FEMA gave $2,000 in emergency response to the victims of Katrina, then they gave $2,358 for extended rent money, and then later gave $10,300 for personal loses”.   Omar is a construction worker, who's family-owned company suffered $150,000 worth of damage and estimates his personal loss at $60,000. So while the aid is welcome, it is not enough for him to rebuild his home or company.

Camika Taylor is the administrative coordinator for the Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund, a non-profit that gathers volunteers to help in the re-building process. She says that there are a number of hurdles that is stopping the rebuilding process in pre-dominantly Black neighborhoods. She says, “FEMA is not enough for various reasons, many people were illiterate to the process of filing out paper work, if you miss a dot on an I or a line on a T, then chances were that you weren't going to receive any money, also, only one person per household could apply, so if you were living in someone else's address then you surely were not going to receive any money.”

Camika herself is one of many people from across the country that has come to help repair New Orleans.   She sees time just getting harder for many people who were counting on assistance. “FEMA was suppose to give 18 months of paid rent and utilities for Katrina victims, but they have now stopped aiding many people.” She says for a lot of people who were near poverty even before Katrina, the future is bleak, even while opportunities are sprouting for the more affluent. “The St. Bernard housing project here in New Orleans is going to be tore down. About 15,000 people live there, the building is going to be turned into middle class homes. But there are thousands of people still roaming the streets homeless because of Katrina.”

The French Quarter
Bourbon Street, located in the French Quarter, known for the Mardi Gras celebration, had no evidence of tragedy. At nighttime, the streets were packed with drunk people with beads on their necks and beer in hand. Prostitution did not seem to be shameful or discrete, and the guys with the most girls were older white men. Just like any other third world country, whether it be Thailand, Mexico, or the Philippines, wherever there is an exchange of dollars and drunkenness then prostitution seems to follow. In New Orleans complete sexual intercourse with a prostitute will cost you $150, a price that only an outsider vacationing could afford, and a quantity that women from the ghetto might be willing to sell their body for.

The first night we were there, a free “Music in the Park” event took place on St. Claire Street right next to our hotel. The event gave the impression that this concert was supposed to resemble what New Orleans culture was supposed to look like. Everyone there was white and wore flannels, shorts and sandals. The element of wealth was all around the park, and in the confidence of the people; that they were, are, and will be protected from harms way. It was in their mannerisms. White men laughing, smoking, and drinking.

The 9th Ward
Two miles down the road from our air-conditioned hotel, was the Lower Ninth Ward, ground-zero for the Hurricane Katrina tragedy. The evidence of tragedy stands right before your eyes in all directions you chose to turn, and in all directions you'll see the same thing; cars on top of houses, homes completely crumbled, homes that once belonged to black people. Ten months has passed and nothing has been done.

While I was walking around, I asked a man named Walter Ramsey where I could find alligator meat, a dish I heard to be traditional in some areas of New Orleans. Ramsey said, “Unless you want to pay big bucks, you can't find that here anymore, Katrina has killed our culture.” Fortunately, Ramsey is well off. He was the owner of five homes in the Ward, he seems to be one of the few people that can afford to rebuild his homes. His resting place is no longer New Orleans, he now dwells in Atlanta.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that black people carry weariness in their eyes, often laid low and sometimes watered. An old homeless man told me his story of Katrina and how he had lost it all, including his wife and kids. He caught my attention when walking through the city at around 10pm, he yelled out, “Some men in masks and guns drove off in a van. Don't say nothing! Snitches are not welcomed around here.”

Thousands of cars that were swept away from the water have now been abandoned throughout New Orleans. The city decided to put these cars under bridges where they have become a resting area for those left without homes. Walking under these bridges my attention was caught when I came across a bible with a teddy bear right next to it.

The complete Katrina death toll is said to be around 3,000 people, but the people of New Orleans say that it is much more than that and it could be anywhere in the 5,000 region. Omar spent a week in the Super Dome. He shared with me how everyone would stare at the semi trucks that would pass by, truck after truck filled with bodies. Even now, almost a year from the hurricane, the general consensus of the victims was a feeling of being abandoned, sometimes quoting the rapper Kanye West, “George Bush doesn't care about black people.”

Read Rest of Coverage of New Orleans Nine Months After:
In New Orleans, Black and Brown Rebuild Lives Together
Story and Photo by Adrian Avila
June 14, 2006

New Orleans 9 Months Later
Photo Essay By Elizabeth Gonzalez
May 25, 2006

Post a Comment:
(De-Bug will publish e-mails on this page as soon as possible.)