September 7, 2005

Because
Sirindu

The World, September 2nd, 2005-

In New Orleans, 12,000 people are sheltered in the Superdome and another 15,000 in the New Orleans Civic Center, with countless on the streets of the city. The conditions in the Superdome are absolutely wretched. The bathrooms aren't working, there's extremely little food, the flooding, the heat, etc. 12,000 people, all stretched over the football field. NBC managed to get a camera inside the Superdome this morning. The reporter said that most of the footage they shot they couldn't show on television- but had to shoot it so that no one could say it "didn't happen" later on. This reporter knows of at least four people that died in the few hours he was there. People can't get the medications or food they need; they die. This man was being grabbed from all directions, people asking him to come with them and help their dying family members. I saw the look on this reporter's face after he was back outside with the news crew. There's not really much I can say about it.

Retail stores have been broken into, guns have been taken out. Shots have been fired in the streets. What happens when half a million people lose everything, including family, in one day?

There is no law. At least no law that has any control, whatsoever. The 12,000 people in the Superdome are being shipped supplies. Fifteen crates arrived by military helicopter this morning. The first few families that could run fast enough had food. Fifteen crates. They tried to prevent the helicopter from taking off again, but were unsuccessful. Thank God the military didn't have to shoot them for wanting to survive.

The 15,000 people that are in the Civics Center are being held hostage by their neighbors who are beating and raping them. The National Guard tried to get in, but sheer numbers overwhelmed them and they were pushed out. Why are these people doing this? Again, what happens when a person loses everything?

There may still be people that need to be rescued from their attics in the thousands of homes that can still be seen peeking up through the flood waters. So the rescue teams have had to literally push aside the dead bodies aside. That was until there became so many that they were forced to tie hundreds of rotting bodies to the tops of the stop signs in the flooded streets. Some lucky family members have been able to recover their deceased brothers and sisters and are now dragging their bodies behind them wherever they go.
Buses are supposed to be arriving at the Superdome to take the 12,000 refugees to the Astrodome in Houston. This is hardly happening. When it does, it's only a scarce handful of buses- enough to carry maybe a hundred people out of 12,000.

Our government is doing so little for these people. And why? Because they're black. They're blacks, they're dirt. That's what we think of them. I've seen the white man whose house was ripped away by the storm, just like everyoe else. He's shaven, the national guardsmen stand beside him as the news cameras roll. And then they take him and his family to a safe haven, out of state. But a black man's head doesn't mean as much as a white man's. In the Superdome, somewhere around 95% of the people are black. And they're dying. The government is doing a pitiful job of trying to get food and water to these people. Because they're black. Hello, and welcome to what deserves to be (for more reasons than this) the God-forsaken land of America.

(In New Orleans is not just a race issue, it's a social class issue as well. But either way- Rich or poor, black or white, this is wrong.)

It's been like this in many countries in Africa for years. We could send huge amounts of direct aid to the Sudan, save thousands of lives, but we don't. Because they're black. But why not? They're not even ******s, they're "Africans".

This happened in Rwanda, this IS happening in the Sudan and it's happening in New Orleans right now. On our own soil. But why not? We ignored Rwanda, we're ignoring Africa. Our people do not deserve this, but our government does.

Though it's not just the U.S. The whole world quietly values a white man's life as something higher than a black man's life. Everyone hides it so well until something like this happens.

You'll have to excuse me, I've got to go spit this taste out of my mouth.