CBC had a very insightful report on New Orleans this AM.....worth a listen

The Current is one of the finest radio programs I have ever listened to. I listen on shortwave on the morning and now that the time is back on Standard Time, it's on when I wake up instead of earlier. I prefer this show even to what's on the BBC.

Scroll down to Part 3 for the audio....The blurb below really doesn't get to the heart of the report, which really is a commentary on how race permeates the situation. By the way, the report says that 40% of the city is without electricity and only 80,000 people have returned. In the 9th Ward, people are in the houses without any services because they have no where else to go. People want to keep the community together and that is the real battle going on...



http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2005/200511/20051118.html


The Current: Part 3


Rebuilding New Orleans

We started this segment with the sounds of cities from around the world. A sampling of where we're going to take you this season on The Current. Into the slums and subways, into the offices of the people in power, and into the apartments and houses and shelters of people who live in some of the most vibrant places on the planet.

And this morning we go to a city that's missing many of its pieces, a place that's lost a lot of its groove and its vibrancy, and most of its residents in the process. We're going south to New Orleans.

Natural disasters sometimes create more than the destruction of property. In the case of Hurricane Katrina it also created horrific, indelible images. When the 230-kilometer winds bore down on the Gulf States of Louisiana and Mississippi--the hurricane literally skinned houses whole. Buildings were stripped of siding and bricks. The sideways rain pierced windows and took down ancient trees.

But what most of us remember---what's been seared in most of our minds---were the images of the stranded victims, the poor and unfortunate masses left huddling on rooftops--the word "help" spelled out with whatever they could find.

As the flood waters receded, New Orleans was revealed to be a city riddled with race division and class struggles, nowhere better illustrated than in the putrid Super Dome, filled mostly with thousands of poor black people. They escaped the flood only to land in a kind of hell--alleviated only by the limbo land of temporary, subsidized housing. Incidentally, the US government recently announced that they will have to find other housing by December the first.

Well, almost three months later, with a city reduced to rubble, there is a sense this is a chance to start over. A chance to learn from past mistakes, to ensure the city won't repeat them. Last week The Current's Aaron Brindle traveled to New Orleans to find out what this "NEW" New Orleans might be. He joined us in our Toronto studio.

You can hear more of Aaron's trip of what's left of the Big Easy in the coming weeks as he brings us a documentary on the New Orleans diaspora. One estranged family that came together to escape the storm is now returning home to pick up the pieces of the lives they left behind in New Orleans.

Click here to view pictures from Aaron Brindle's visit to New Orleans


Last Word: Barbara Bush

After disaster strikes it's often hard to come up with just the right words to express sorrow and sympathy. So, we say exactly the wrong thing. Always, of course by accident. But according to the columnist and professional agitator, Christopher Hitchens, there's a word for saying the inappropriate thing at the wrong time. It's called a tumbril and its meaning is derived from a crude cart used to carry condemned prisoners to their execution.

In the current issue of Vanity Fair, Mr. Hitchens says he was inspired to write about famous tumbrils, after the former first lady, Barbara Bush, stopped in at the Houston Astrodome to visit Hurricane Katrina refugees. When she opened her mouth and commented on their changed fortunes, a camera mike caught what Mr. Hitchens considers a perfect tumbril.

In case you couldn't make that out: to paraphrase, the former first lady said many of the people were so poor anyway that being packed in a public sports arena was probably a step up for them. Much offense, of course, was taken.



Listen to The Current: Part 3

and that includes the libertarian shows....