If you didn't watch the two-hour first half of Spike Lee's new documentary about hurricane Katrina on HBO last night, be warned: it's hard to watch. The thing that caught me most off guard was the few shots of bodies bloated and floating in the water. It was horrific.
The documentary consists mostly of interviews with locals and officials and clip footage of New Orleans and the hurricane. And to Spike's credit, he made the decision early on to focus on New Orleans as microcosm of the disaster. What you begin to see (and remember from a year ago) is how much like American refugees the people of New Orleans become. Many had no way to leave the city pre-hurricane--there was no good evacuation plan for the poor, homeless, and elderly. When some tried to walk across the bridge into other cities, cops met them with rifles and shotguns.
Watching the smug and innefectual Bush do nothing to rally his cronies (Rice, Brown, and Chertoff) is just mind-numbing. Truly unbelievable. But props to the public officials who were interviewed. Neither Nagan nor Blanco have anything to be proud of, but both help to provide a real history of what happened. Perhaps my favorite talking head was CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien. She shows a real rage and bewilderment and how our federal government can get aid to Tsunami victims across the world in 2 days , when it takes 5 days to get aid to one of our own cities. It's astounding.
4 comments:
good to hear, g-spot - i can't wait to see it. that makes me happy about soledad, too - i remember her one morning on tv when she went to NO and looked around the stores that had been "looted" and was so shocked that all that was taken was food and essential items - like she couldn't believe these things were needed, besides the fact that no help was in sight for these poor people.
If you think that's scary, check out this timeline of Katrina - the Bush administration obviously was concerned with more important things - http://www.thinkprogress.org/katrina-timeline
Sorry, but Ray Nagin and Gov. Blanco are the über f-ups in the New Orleans Katrina fiasco. They left the Feds holding the bag after they ignored warnings from the Federal government, and refused all help and advice from the Federal government prior to the storm.
Nagin/Blanco didn't order an evacuation until it was far too late. They let resources sit until they were underwater. They sent people to the Superdome and Morial Convention Center without bothering to make one ounce of preparation for their arrival. Saying they "don't have anything to be proud of" is a vast, vast understatement.
Mississippi and Alabma, right next door, took a much harder hit from Katrina - much of the coast, cities I know and love and have many friends in were simply washed away. But Mississippi and Alabama didn't become a helpless debacle like the "Chocolate City." Oh, and the Mississippi and Alabama coasts are well on their way to being rebuilt bigger and better, while New Orleans languishes.
Now that's astounding.
Very interesting...
Accuracy in Media - Myths of Katrina
No One Should Have Been Surprised
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