HumidCity

In the midst of the Jazz Fest Daily Deluge the following article snuck through between the raindrops:

A federal court judge cleared the way Friday for the Army Corps of Engineers to face trial on claims that defects in its Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet destroyed wetlands and turned the navigation channel into a funnel for storm surge..

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval’s 40-page ruling “paves the way for the first and only trial that will likely be held on how the Army Corps of Engineers drowned New Orleans” during Hurricane Katrina, said California attorney Pierce O’Donnell, who leads the legal team that filed the case two years ago on behalf of a group of plaintiffs that includes WDSU-TV anchorman Norman Robinson, who lived in eastern New Orleans.

The suit alleges the controversial shipping channel flooded thousands of homes in eastern New Orleans, the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish.

After the way previous suits against the Corps have gone this is a lovely breath of fresh air. In order to engender respect from the community there needs to be responsibility, accountability and some from of pennance besides. Accountability has been evaded because of decades outdated immunities still on the books. Need I remind the world yet again that the winds that hit New Orleans were Cat 2, we were on the weaker backside of the storm. The levees were certified for Cat 3.

Now the Corps is using newspapers to seal the gaps in the levees? Drag them through the court system and enforce accountability.

Without proper flood protection the world will lose a lot, not just the residents of New Orleans. Newsweek said it very well recently:

This subtropical port, which looks to the Mediterranean, Africa and the Caribbean for inspiration, has always marched to the beat of a multitude of different and very funky drummers. Which city has more beguiling street names - Abundance, Beaujolais, Cupid, Desire? Other places have the Rotary and the Elks. New Orleans has Social and Pleasure clubs and the Mardi Gras Indians - African-Americans masquerading as Native Americans in a tradition dating from when Indians and slaves were natural allies. A Mardi Gras Indian designs and sews a new costume every year: one chief put the cost, in time and materials, at $100,000 each. There are secret rituals, songs and chants; even parade routes are classified. Masking is crucial - disguise, misdirection, all in the service of nutty, impractical, unclassifiable mystery - and it’s one key to understanding the city and its culture. New Orleans elevates the chores of daily life to a high level of culture. Porch railings are wrought into sculpture. In the kitchen, the humblest food becomes piquant. Even the funeral procession is an art form.

In the wake of Katrina, New Orleans is doing what it does best: making something extraordinary out of next to nothing. There’s no Marshall Plan here - just small miracles in individual neighborhoods. “The culture of New Orleans emanates from the bottom up, not from the top down,” says Ellis Marsalis, pianist, composer and patriarch of the musical clan. The resurrection of the neighborhoods is doubly important because thousands of residents are still trying to come back, and because the city’s culture - particularly its music - is anchored in the neighborhoods. Unless they are revived, “the music won’t have a home anymore,” says saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr., who is also the Big Chief of the Congo Nation, a Mardi Gras Indian tribe. “New Orleans needs the neighborhoods, because it’s the only city in America that retains its traditional styles.”

In the increasingly mobile and digital age the world needs places like New Orleans. This is the last true American bohemia in so many ways, a place with a rich and vibrant (and yes, in many case unfortunate) history.

This is one of those rare moments of sanity over the past three years, I hope it goes the distance!

Now back to my foul weather Jazz Fest Blogging…

Loki, Founder and Cat Herder, HumidCity

Articles will be somewhat sparse for a bit, I have been drafted by WWOZ to assist on the computer end with the pledge drive. Drop by and help preserve New Orleans Musical Culture!

The following is a guest post by my dear friend Chelidon:

Fear is insidious, and it can be used as an excuse to be passive, to be “safe.” And in one of the oldest tricks in the book. we can be force-fed fear by those who have a vested interest in keeping us perpetually afraid — of rapists, of terrorists, and of gays, or “liberals,” or people who don’t look or act like us. And we do live in a culture of fear. What power and freedom do we give up out of the fear of terrorists? What power and freedom do we give up out of fear of rape, of assault, of humiliation, or of just being seen as a ball-buster, an asshole, a bitch, a wimp, not a “real” woman or a “real” man?

Looking at the edges of situations, the boundaries, often teaches something about what’s inside the extremes. Because we’re afraid of pedophiles, of media-hyped myths of poison apples, most kids don’t go out on Halloween anymore, except perhaps to a mall. Children lose the chance to go out on their own and learn to be self-reliant, and to explore grappling with and overcoming an environment which is full of (mostly harmless) fear. They lose that experience of empowerment, of exploring their edges and discovering that they are more capable than they knew, that they can overcome their fears. They lose the chance to make real connections, and have a real experience. Instead, they just get another pre-sweetened neon-lit commercial experience, devoid of any real content, significance, or edgy fun. They learn to hide inside the familiar, and that you can buy the illusion of a safe world, as long as you keep spending and don’t ever go outside the sanitized confines of Bennigans, Gap and Rainforest Cafe, as long as you stay inside the mass-media marketing campaigns and carefully-researched consumer demographics.

Because we’re afraid of rape, or assault, we don’t go out alone for a walk. A bus crashes half-way around the world, two people die, and we hear of it instantly. Should we be afraid to ride the bus? Should we be afraid to take a walk in the woods? We learn to think in worst-case scenarios. Is the chance that I, or you, may be assaulted worth missing out on a perfect sunset, or a midnight walk? Depends on how likely that assault is, perhaps, and it’s impossible to escape the insidious fear when we’re constantly bombarded by horror stories and worst-case scenarios.

But it’s also true that rates of reported rape and assault are down across most of the U.S, and that is, in addition to population dynamics (aging population, shrinking proportion of young males, etc), also, arguably, due to education, some changes in social norms, and, yes, fear — people being, depending on how you look at it, less risky. Is it worth it?

We have had no successful terrorist attacks in the U.S. post-9/11. That may or may not have anything to do with any specific action or actions taken by anyone in government, and there’s no way to make any real causal links, though any number of people are quick to claim credit. There’s no end of people in power determined to milk the situation for all the fear they can generate, and all the power they can grab because people are afraid. How much freedom are we willing to lose in the pursuit of absolute safety? How much risk is “worth it,” and how much is too much?

I don’t have any certain answers, nobody does — if there were easy answers, we’d all have them and it would be a moot point. But asking the questions, and grappling with them, is one of the most important things we do as humans.

Alan’s Blogometer » Crawfish Culture
How fortunate are we New Orleanians to have the crawfish boil. If we didn’t have the crawfish boil, we’d have to invent it. Pity those cultures that have to substitute highly-structured contrivances for civility. (This was so good I had to crosspost it! If you have a comment please leave it for Alan at the original article-Loki)

An excellent examination of the context of our recent election and the “race,” card. Da Po’ Blog post gives a lot of context, including the white flight that made us “Chocolate City,” in the first place. Required reading!

da po’ blog: Long Live the Chocolate City

If this election was about race, it was about racial preservation. The existence of an African-American culture in New Orleans is endangered. Not just African-American political power.

I felt Landrieu was the better administrator of the two candidates, better suited to control the everyday activities of a municipal government. But, if we really want all New Orleanians to return, then reelecting Nagin sends that message.

Need I remind anyone that African American culture is reesponsible for most all of the music you listen to, either directly or as an antecendent?