In case you missed the Emmy's on Sunday, which were actually pretty funny and entertaining, George Clooney won the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award (watch his acceptance speech here).
Why post such "breaking news" on this blog? Well, his two-minute acceptance speech actually spoke a lot to our work, particularly in the Gulf Coast. Clooney talked poignantly about the need to keep tragedies and disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake in Haiti, and the floods in Pakistan, front and center in the months and years after they happen.
As he talked about how we've largely failed at maintaining support after the rush of the initial media attention, I couldn't help but feel some pride about our work in the Gulf Coast. Five years after Katrina, JFSJ remains very much committed to the region. In the next two months, the Isaiah Fund will deploy $400,000 for affordable housing development in the Treme neighborhood (same as the HBO series) of New Orleans. Our service learning program sends hundreds of volunteers to work with local community organizations in New Orleans. And we continue to collaborate on the Gulf Coast Fellowship for Community Transformation, which supports community organizers throughout the Gulf Coast.
Thank you, George Clooney. For the speech, and well, just for being you.
Thanks to the 85 oral history interviews and the 2700 digital objects collected as part of “Katrina’s Jewish Voices,” the story of how Jews experienced Katrina — the trauma, fear, and loss as well as the strength, resilience, and generosity — will be preserved forever.
Lots of interesting stuff happening in New Orleans these days. The upcoming five year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is nearly upon us, and the long-term effects of the oil spill remain somewhat unknown. Add in a new mayor and a major city budget deficit, and the activity is more than palpable.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu addressed a gathering at the National Press Club last week. Among other statements, he predicted that the joint recovery from Katrina and the BP oil spill will take at least another five years. While that timeframe doesn't come as a surprise, it does reinforce just how much rebuilding work remains.
For other Katrina anniversary media coverage, check out this NPR guide to television retrsopectives airing this week in honor of the five year anniversary. And for a jolt back to present day, today's New York Times has an article about the progress of the city's new defense system against future mega storms.
Lastly, for a look at what's happening locally, the Times Picayune just posted this listing of Katrina fifth anniversary events taking place throughout the city this week. There's an incredibly rich collection of talks, tours, and service events planned. Also included in the post are some of the photos originally published before, during, and after the storm.
Five years after Katrina and 4 months after BP, all is not well in the Big Easy. A recent Kaiser Foundation report is being hailed by the Times-Picayune as evidence that the city is moving in the right direction, but Lance Hill from the Southern Institute for Education and Research sees a darker picture in the data. He writes:
Some of the responses were broken out by race and they provide some useful insights into the difference of opinions between black and white storm victims and the different ways they continue to experience the impact of the storm.
As we near the five year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, check out this sampling of photographs by Getty Images photographer Mario Tama. Some photos were taken immediately following the hurricane, and others depict life since the storm.
While some photographs serve as a clear reminder of the horrors of the days right after the storm, there is remarkable imagery in the photos that depict conditions in the years since Katrina.
The full collection of photographs, titled "Coming Back: New Orleans Resurgent," will be published by Umbrage Collections on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
With the fifth anniversary of Katrina coming up later this month, the Louisiana Justice Roars blog helpfully provides this disturbing (and also hopefull) update of the facts on the ground. The report was compiled by a collaboration amongst local academics, in cluding Lance Hill from Tulane who has met with many of our service teams over the years, and Davida Finger from Loyola, a Jewish New Orleans native a human rights attorney who came back to her hometown after the storm and has been a leader in the local just recovery movement.
In sum:
The challenges of post-Katrina New Orleans reflect the problems of many urban and suburban areas of the US - insufficient affordable rents, racially segregated schools with falling populations, great disparities in income by color of households, serious pollution from remote uncaring corporations, and reductions in the public services like transportation. Katrina made these more visible five years ago and continues to make a great illustration of the US failures to treat all citizens with dignity and our failure to achieve our promise of liberty and justice for all.
The lighter side of oil spills, brought to you, of course, by The Onion. This 1997 article that followed the Castrol oil spill in Alaska is equally relevant today. Just replace the word 'seal' with 'shrimp' and you'll be all set for a heartbreaking laugh.
A couple of days ago, I watched the first episode of Treme, the super-hyped, widely anticipated new show on HBO. “Treme is a neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. The series takes place three months after Hurricane Katrina where the residents of New Orleans, including musicians, chefs, Mardi Gras Indians, and ordinary New Orleanians try to rebuild their lives, their homes and their unique culture in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricane.” It was great and I’m excited to watch more of it.”
