Chronicleworld Debate
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Post by Chronicleworld Debate on Sept 7, 2005 12:30:32 GMT -5
Hi Everyone,
It is a little known fact that Blacks built the dams and levees protecting New Orleans and then by laws of segregation were settled in the environmentally dangerous low-lying areas now engulfed By Katrina.
Some say race prejudice was factor in the delayed response to the tragedy. Others blame President Bush's poorly planned emergency management plan.
Given the toxic conditions of their city homes, some survivors are now seeking greener pastures elsewhere.
"This is a whole new beginning, a whole new start. I mean, why pass up a good opportunity to go back to something that you know has problems?" - CHEVON ALLEN, who was evacuated from New Orleans to Houston and has no plans to go back.
What do you think about all this? And what can Blacks in Britain do to help? Post your ideas and opinions on our Message Board.
Chronicleworld Disaster team
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Post by Alex Pascall on Sept 7, 2005 12:33:30 GMT -5
It is sad to read the stories of the plight of the Black folk in New Orleans and neighbouring States. Worst are the pictures that we see on live TV. Certainly the leadership of the World's most powerful nation is at the lowest level in its history.
What seems to me most pathetic is Condy Rice. How can she as a Black woman on the highest level of the political arena not see the Racist behaviour of her own party. If she is colour blind, then Fannon's theory is certainly full proof beyond the slightest doubt.
No more can America call the rest of the underdeveloped world THIRD; it is morally and politically wrong to treat any of any colour creed or race like that. The rest of the Blacks who support Republicans should watch out.
Best regards
Alex
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Career Communications
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Post by Career Communications on Sept 8, 2005 5:18:16 GMT -5
From www.blackengineer.comSouthern University and A&M Alum Heads Joint Task Force Katrina Army Lieutenant General Russel Honore, a graduate of Historically Black Universities and Colleges is heading the joint task force to coordinate Department of Defense active duty support for disaster relief efforts in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. Honore commands the First Army, part of a highly specialized team of active army soldiers, active guard and reserve soldiers, and the department of army civilian employees. The First Army is one of two continental armies in the U.S. A Louisiana native, Honore earned a Bachelor of Science degree in vocational agriculture from Southern University and A&M College in 1971. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant of Infantry the same year. In August 2003, Honore, then commander of the U.S. Northern Command Standing Joint Force Headquarters-Homeland Security in Norfolk, VA, was bestowed an honorary Ph.D. in public administration. The award followed his delivery of the keynote address at the Southern University and A&M College summer commencement in Baton Rouge, LA. © Copyright 2003 by Career Communications Group, Inc
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Post by William Moss on Sept 8, 2005 5:23:18 GMT -5
Dear Chronicleworld readers: Ref: Historically Black Colleges and Unversities Support for Students affected by Hurricane Katrina If you or someone you know was a student at one of the HBCUs affected by Hurricane Katrina, please have them visit HBCUConnect.com We are posting news daily on assistance and programs to help those in the HBCU family that were affected. Right now, we are very, very excited to share news about a program at Delaware State University that is offering to WAIVE Tuition for applicable students in the Hurricane Katrina affected states! For details goto: HBCUConnect.com and please spread the word! Delaware State Program: Direct Link Again, please let others know about these opportunities for assistance! Thank you, William R. Moss III President/CEO www.HBCUConnect.comwww.HBCUCareerCenter.com614-864-4446
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Post by US Black Engineers on Sept 9, 2005 5:21:41 GMT -5
The Black Faces Driving Katrina Recovery
Black Generals who are taking change and leading Katrina recovery. It is the story every American needs to hear.
By Garland L. Thompson and Tyrone D. Taborn Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of Gulf Coast communities is painful for Blacks to watch, for obvious reasons and ones that seem not so obvious to white fellow citizens. History returns to haunt. Almost all Blacks are themselves Southerners or the descendants of Southern families freed by the Civil War, lifted from peonage by the Great Migration. And almost all have relatives, friends and college classmates still in the affected states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas. Now, with the lives of thousands jeopardized by floods, destruction of homes and businesses, and ailments spread by contaminated water, comes the disheartening news of widespread lawlessness among the hurricane’s victims. This we get while watching a disaster unfold that should never have happened in the first place. TV pictures keep showing lines of Black evacuees, not looting or shooting at police, but holding on as best they can, waiting for the emergency help their government has rushed to other disaster victims, in America or halfway around the world. Waiting still, even as their leaders from Washington congratulate themselves on their coping skills. The image of Black looters and criminals keeps getting resurrected, while the images of Black leaders driving the recovery efforts is minimized. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, struggling to keep order after an estimated 70 percent of his police force walked off, is still working, in a city with filthy water covering 70 percent of its streets. Lt. Gen. Russell Honoré, a graduate of historically Black Southern University, took charge as soon as he was sent, changing the dynamic on the streets as he ordered soldiers and civilian police to point their guns toward the ground: “This is not Iraq.” Brig. Gen. Robert Crear, who actually capped oil wells in Iraq, cleared up in days a problem the armchair experts said would take weeks: blocking the gaps in two levees whose failure let Lake Pontchartrain flood the whole of the New Orleans basin, so pumping operations could begin. Ex-Army Lt. General Joe Ballard, another Louisianan and the first Black commander of the Corps of Engineers, makes the most painful point of all: This disaster, predicted by “every Corps of Engineers commander since 1927,” did not have to happen. What he’s talking about is that New Orleans’ levees, built in the mid-1950s to withstand a Category Three storm, could not in fact stand up to that much battering. The Mississippi River, made to run straight by high levees after devastating floods in 1927, washed away barrier islands that should have protected the city from the full brunt of Nature’s fury. With the barriers gone, Army engineers kept asking their leaders in Congress and the White House for money to build up the levees to prevent exactly the kind of flooding New Orleans has endured. Gen. Ballard, for his part, put forward a plan that Congress denounced as wasteful in the extreme. He wanted to spend more than $100 million to build up the levees to withstand a “100-year storm,” but was excoriated as a would-be big spender, and retired after that. Now that a 100-year storm has proved his point, Congress has targeted $68 billion for a cleanup many experts believe will cost $150 billion, and Gen. Ballard’s spending plan looks to have been the more prudent investment. Who’s the big spender now? It was all so unnecessary, especially the negative characterizations of the Blacks, who are after all American citizens. So few of gave up to lawlessness, amid a catastrophe so great its police force disintegrated, that the continued focus on criminality is an affront to the dignity and nobility so many have displayed. That, sadly, magnifies the tragedy we witness. Garland Thompson is Editorial Director and Tyrone D. Taborn is Editor-in-Chief of US Black Engineer magazine
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Help Student Katrina Victims
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Post by Help Student Katrina Victims on Sept 23, 2005 12:16:34 GMT -5
US BLACK COLLEGES SEEK HELP FOR KATRINA STUDENT VICTIMS The Emergency Black College Hurricane Relief Fund aims to assist the thousands of students, faculty, staff, administrators and families of those Historically Black Colleges and Universities ravaged by America's worst-ever natural disaster, Hurricane Katrina. Displaced students will be assisted to enroll in other HBCUs across the country at no additional cost to students who have their fees paid to their home institution. For further information, contact: www.hbcuconnect.com/katrina.shtml Mention the Chronicleworld.org
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Solidarit avec nos frres
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Post by Solidarit avec nos frres on Sept 23, 2005 12:24:13 GMT -5
Solidarité avec nos frères et sœurs de Louisiane
Samedi 24 septembre, 15 h, à Paris Rassemblement au pied de la statue de la liberté, sur le Pont de Grenelle, Allée des Cygnes, 15ème arrondissement Métro : Passy ou Bir Hakeim. RER C : Avenue du Pdt Kennedy- Maison de Radio France Bus 70 ou 72 - arrêt : Pont de Grenelle
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nous, Guadeloupéens, Guyanais, Martiniquais et Réunionnais, descendants d’esclaves des colonies françaises d’Amérique et de l’Océan indien, sommes révoltés et meurtris par la tragédie qui frappe nos frères et sœurs de la Louisiane ! Rien, non, rien ne pourra justifier le spectacle que nous ont offert les Etats-Unis d’Amérique après le passage du cyclone Katrina !
Des centaines de milliers de nègres, nos frères et sœurs, les citoyens les plus pauvres du pays, entassés pêle-mêle dans des hangars et des stades… Des centaines de milliers de nègres, nos frères et sœurs, les visages marqués par la faim, la soif et le désespoir… Des centaines de milliers de nègres, nos frères et sœurs, traités comme des animaux et plongés des jours entiers dans un enfer sans nom… Des centaines de corps de nos frères et sœurs nègres, les descendants d’esclaves des Etats-Unis, flottant inertes au gré des eaux… Rassemblons-nous, le samedi 24 septembre, pour rendre hommage aux victimes de l’ouragan Katrina, exprimer notre soutien aux survivants, et dénoncer l’incurie criminelle du gouvernement américain.
Contact : Suzy Flainville. GSM : 0684536903 E-Mail : s.flainville@cm98.org
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Rev Jackson condemns racism
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Post by Rev Jackson condemns racism on Oct 5, 2005 15:59:35 GMT -5
"Martial Law on Civil Rights" in New Orleans: Jesse Jackson Agence France Presse and truthout.org
Tuesday 4 October 2005
US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson showed up unannounced in a hurricane-ravaged New Orleans neighborhood and condemned the latest developments in the US response to the storm as "martial law on civil rights."
Jackson called it "corrupt" that storm survivors were left jobless and about half the city staff was being laid off in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, while contracts to rebuild the region go primarily to out-of-state corporations.
"There is no job being done right now by Halliburton and Bechtel that can't be done by people who live here," Jackson said, making reference to a pair of major corporations, one with ties to US Vice President thingy Cheney.
Responding to the crisis by suspending minimum wage laws, environmental regulations, and race considerations in employment and subcontracting is tantamount to declaring "marshal law on civil rights," Jackson said on a roadside in the hard-hit Ninth Ward.
Jackson condemned a decision announced earlier in the day by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to lay off about half of the city's employees because there wasn't money to continue paying them.
Storm-savaged cities in the region have had their tax bases stripped away, and federal rules bar federal funds from being used for routine worker wages. The state governor has asked President George Bush to suspend that rule in Louisiana.
"If the mayor says he doesn't have the money, then where is the money?" Jackson asked. "Maintaining the local workforce should be a priority."
"All displaced citizens should have a right to return home to jobs, job contracts, and training."
Jackson said he was delivering to FEMA, the Red Cross and local officials copies of a petition bearing the signatures of 100 storm "exiles" in Chicago asking for help returning to return to New Orleans.
Preventing people from returning to New Orleans threatens to alter the demographics of the city, which was predominately African-American before Katrina struck August 29, Jackson said.
Not rebuilding the poor, predominately African-American Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood that was nearly obliterated in the storms would amount to "racial profiling," Jackson said.
"It is more than just a black culture," Jackson said. "Everywhere that was hit by the hurricane, whether they are white or black or brown, those who have been displaced have a right to return home."
A levee protecting the neighborhood from nearby Lake Pontchartrain broke in two places, and a colossal barge rode in with the water and crushed homes. The neighborhood flooded anew during Hurricane Rita.
Engineers from the Army Corps of Engineers hoped to have the last of the flood water pumped from the neighborhood by Wednesday.
Jackson, a well-known public figure, has visited the hurricane zone repeatedly and has been a fierce critic of the government's response to the disaster since it began on August 29.
Jackson raised the sensitive issue of race, simmering below the surface in New Orleans, even before the hurricane tragedy, pointing out that many of those trapped in the city by the storm were poor and black.
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