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"After Me, the Flood", from Paul Jay of Independent World Television (IWT)

Paul Jay, Chair
Independent World Television
www.IWTnews.com

Après Moi, le Deluge

The leader of the most powerful country on earth, with an unquestioned faith in his divine right to rule and the absolute power of the centralized state, was the namesake for Louisiana.

When he died in 1715, Louis XIV had built France into the dominant power in Europe, but he bankrupted the nation, forcing him to levy high taxes on the peasantry while the nobility paid none at all. Most people lived in poverty while the King built an empire.

During the empire's demise, his great great grandson Louis XV ruled France and its possessions, which included the colonial city of New Orleans. He lived for indulgence and luxury as his people descended further into despair. It is said near his end he uttered the words "Après moi, le deluge." After me come the floods.

Centuries later, the people of New Orleans met those floods, as contemporary rulers -- political and economic -- abandoned them to their fate. The words "Après moi, le deluge " have come to epitomize the psychology of those who ruin people and the earth with no thought for tomorrow, and the destruction of New Orleans will stand as the naked exposure of a fading American dream.

"Guardians of freedom and the American way of life," say the recruitment ads for the National Guard. For the 38% of New Orleans residents who lived in poverty and at least 37 million others across the nation who suffer in grim conditions, the fantasy of the "American way of life" vanished long ago. The reality is a growing gap between rich and poor, under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

And unfortunately for the people of New Orleans, too many of their National Guardsmen, instead of helping evacuate citizens at their time of need, had been sent away to bring "freedom and the American way of life" to Iraq.

Of course, that fantasy is also collapsing as the truth is starting to seep through to the American public of the thousands of civilian deaths, the collapse of infrastructure, the developing civil war, the strength of the insurgency, and the creation of conditions for the unleashing of Al Qaeda's fanatic reign of terror against the Iraqi people.

Other mythologies remain intact, like the success story of the liberation of Afghanistan, where life expectancy is just 44.5 years, one in five children die before they reach the age of five and where violence against women remains near Taliban times.

The UN estimates that every year 400,000 Afghans are affected by natural disasters, with little done to prevent them or help the people afterwards. Here the citizens of New Orleans share a new kinship with Afghans.

Perhaps the fact that most of the people who were abandoned to the flood were of African descent may give them a new sense of solidarity with the estimated 85 million Africans that the UN says will die of HIV and other diseases over the next two decades. Millions of people abandoned by the rich, industrialized world.

But not only African-Americans felt abandoned in New Orleans.

In one of those rare moments when television's barrier between viewer and real world breaks down, we saw one of the most gut-wrenching moments of Katrina coverage when Aaron Broussard, President of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, broke down in tears on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"The aftermath of Katrina will go down in history as one of the worst abandonments of Americans on American soil ever in US history," he said. "It's not just Katrina that caused all these deaths in New Orleans here. Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now."

Mr. Broussard continued: "The guy who runs emergency management... he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in a nursing home. Every day she called him and said, ‘Are you coming son? Is anybody coming?' And he kept saying ‘Yeah, Mom, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday.' And she drowned on Friday night.... Nobody's coming to get us.... The Secretary's promised. Everybody's promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences. For God's sake shut up and send us somebody."

Mr. Broussard broke down sobbing, his face buried in his hands. The moment was raw, unfiltered, and powerful. The words "bureaucracy has committed murder here in greater New Orleans" ripping through the rhetoric and evasion by President Bush and Michael Chertoff, head of Homeland Security.

Why can't there be television with this honesty every night?

The rest of the article -- along with your comments -- continues on the IWTnews blog at:
http://www.iwtnews.com/Katrina_essay

posted by Annamarie at 3:12 PM