Refugees to Evacuees to Tourist Spectacles, more of my post Katrina anger

So I’m perusing the New Orleans Ladder blog for articles of interest and I see a link Editilla placed on his site stating “the ignored recovery of New Orleans” and had to click it. It’s an article on CNet (odd, because I thought that was only about techie stuff) with an image that you simply can’t ignore (see below)…

The article explains that this sign is hanging in the lower 9th ward which has apparently been part of a city tour stop.

People’s devestation turned into a photo opp? I don’t get it. Does this community benefit monetarily from these tours? Do the tours even employ staff from these communities? If we’re going to resort to this then we might as well legalize prostitution, gambling, and marijuana across the board because this America is no longer about ethics and morals.

This reminds me of a memorable trip I made to Yosemite National Park during the summer after my freshman year in college. One of my darling aunts treated me to the trip. I rode in a truck for what felt like a hot flaming eternity from San Jose out to Yosemite with no air conditioning and hills scorched from fires (I digress, but I want you to feel my pain). Anyhooz…one of the exhibits there told the story of how the Native Americans originally owned the land, kept it well protected since they regard nature and wildlife more than we do as a whole, and we essentially took over and forced them to “migrate” elsewhere. There was an area, kind of like a museum I guess, that you walked in and could see real live Indians behind red ropes, like they have at nightclubs, reenacting jewelry making and such inside these lit displays. It absolutely made me sick, and I was in my major young, “collegey”, social activist phase which made me want to protest on the spot. I just felt it was disrespectful to put real live people on display like that and hide it behind the concept of education. I much would have rather this Native American take me on the tour and tell me his perspective, or show me where his tribe has been moved to over the years or tell me about how many species of wildlife are now extinct or endangered in Yosemite because of the over-tourism (I could barely find a bear sighting when I was there).

So read the article and let me know what you think.

The Ignored Recovery of New Orleans

I’ve got to make plans for real to head out and do some service work in New Orleans. Besides Habitat and Red Cross, if any of you know of any other organizations doing work and taking volunteers for a few days, let me know. I had been talking with one of my sisters recently about going there together for like 3 or 4 days to do some volunteer work. I know it’s not a long time, but it’s a start for me.

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