OIL AND LOGIC DO NOT MIX

Every time there is a major world-altering crisis, it seems the smartest thing humans do is find the smartest humans. So, if there is, say, a flu virus that emerges and threatens various populations, the greatest medical minds pool their cerebral resources and find treatments, or suggest necessary precautions or whatever it takes to fight the threat. If there is a world economic crisis, the greatest financial brains all throw their fiscal-loving hats in the ring and come up with some sort of plan. That makes me wonder: When the largest oil spill in the history of the U.S. happens in the Gulf of Mexico, where are the great environmentalists, marine life researchers, chemists and oil industry minds and why have they not gathered to figure this out? Is it just me, or have others wondered this, as well? I don’t know, because not one talking head in the media has yet to come forward with this query.

It is somewhat understandable that the international oil company experts have not come forward. After all, guess where the biggest oil companies are located. Give up? Watch this list: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, Iraq, Abu Dhabi, Libya, Russia and China. I rest my case. You didn’t really think Iranian oil experts were going to take a goodwill trip to Grand Isle, LA, now did you? Libyans to Biloxi? Not likely. Saudi Arabians to Plaquemines Parish? Right.

That leaves the U.S. oil companies to pitch in with boots on the ground, cutting edge tech equipment and a collaborative spirit to end this crisis before it gets bigger and badder. So, where are Exxon-Mobil, Chevron and Conoco-Philips? And why does the U.S. government continue to use knowledgeable researchers to simply identify the problem, rather than help fix it? As recently as May 31 a team of researchers from the University of Florida revealed that a hidden deep sea oil plume was headed toward the Alabama coastline, an area hugely populated by marine life. Associated Press quoted an LSU fish biologist who said, "Every fish and invertebrate contacting the oil is probably dying. I have no doubt about that.”

BP counters each such statements with its own declarations that naysayers are overstating the problem. BP CEO Tony Hayward (right)
claims that oil naturally gravitates to the surface, and sees no reason for alarm about underwater plumes. It bears noting that CEO Hayward also looked straight into a news camera last weekend and said, “There’s no one who wants this over more than I do. I’d like my life back.” So do thousands of Gulf Coast fishers and their families, Hayward. The difference is that Hayward’s life involves an annual salary from BP of roughly $1.5 million, according to Forbes. Oh, and let’s not forget his 2009 bonus of just over $3 million. Who wouldn’t want that life back? Gosh Hayward, we just can't tell you how sorry we are to inconvenience you like this. Really. We can't. Hayward, who has a tendency to speak before he thinks, also said, the oil spill is “relatively tiny” in comparison with the size of the ocean.

Clearly it is up to President Obama to convene the oil gurus, wildlife advocates and marine life rescuers, so that together they might find solutions. BP is not motivated to do so because it does not have to. The U.S. government has limited authority over BP. Obama, who spent a short three hours in Louisiana last week, has yet to take any further measureable steps toward solving this crisis since his visit. And unlike BP, he should be motivated to do so. He is now being compared to George Bush during Katrina. Talking heads are referring to the oil spill as Obama’s hostage crisis, measured in days. Politicos offer dire prognostications about Obama becoming the first one-term president since Jimmy Carter, if he does not exhibit strong leadership and become a catalyst for action in the Gulf.

The oil spill, you may have noticed, is not at the top of the media’s headline list each day, the way Katrina was. The story is not as sexy. There are no photos of New Orleans underwater. Nobody is stranded on a roof with giant signs that read “HELP!” Gulf Coast residents are not scattered coast to coast in refugee fashion. Katrina was tailor made for media drama, and make no mistake – these days, drama often trumps truth. Instead of oil spill headlines, we get juicier stories that just serve to piss us off – did you hear the one about Louisiana Senator David Vitter coming out in support of BP? True. I couldn’t make this stuff up.

You may also have noticed that George Clooney and the rest of Hollywood’s elite have not rallied to come to the aid of the fishers. No telethons, no emotional requests for immediate help. No food drives, no national coming together for the needy. Let’s face it: George and Oprah and Madonna and fill-in-the-blank boldface names know very little about small fishing towns in Louisiana that are facing extinction. You cannot really rally for something you don’t understand. And is America really going to toss coins at Louisiana just after Nashville went under water? Not likely.

We are dealing with the ultimate loss of a vital eco-system here in Louisiana. We are facing a culture shift that could significantly alter the national seafood market in a most unfortunate way. And just as New Orleans was regaining its pride and some sense of real life, we walk out of our houses on evenings when the air is still and we smell something quite foul. Is it oil, or is it chemicals used to disperse the oil? We do not know, and apparently no one else knows either. And if it is chemicals we smell, how dangerous is it to ingest them? Are there respiratory illnesses yet to be seen that may fully emerge long after the immediate crisis is negotiated down? We don’t know that, either. And since the oil spill is being reported in a rather laissez faire way, America seems to have a distorted view of what is happening here. Some people are cancelling their vacations to New Orleans. Associations are wondering if their already contracted annual conventions might be better placed elsewhere. Visitors are unsure about eating the seafood in world-famous seafood restaurants. You begin to see the trickledown effect on the state’s economy.

Right now, as a Louisiana citizen, I place this crisis squarely at the feet of President Obama. I expect him and Congress to make this oil spill every bit as much of a priority as the national unemployment crisis. I urge him to do just what I suggested earlier – assemble the great minds to find solutions, release enough funds to implement the solutions and manage the crisis on an hour to hour basis. Perhaps he could cancel his still-scheduled trip to Australia next month. I'm thinking maybe there is no pressing diplomatic business with Australia that would trump the President's obligation to manage the biggest oil crisis in the history of this country.

It matters not who is to blame here for the spill. The political ramifications of this crisis will have to wait until the human crisis is addressed and solved. Ponder this: If the oil spill resulted from a terrorist attack, rather than an accident, would our government be more mobilized to fix this? I believe they would. So why is it that the circumstances under which this happened dictate the aggressiveness or lack of such that characterizes the response? Obama and all elected officials need to get busy. Now. We cannot wait.

After all, in addition to our current Gulf crisis, be aware that hurricane season officially began June 1. The oil spill likely happened due to human error. If Mother Nature reigns terror on our little corner of the earth while the spill is still wreaking its own havoc….well, let’s not borrow trouble. Let’s just fix this – now.

NEW ORLEANS: The Fastest Growing Forgotten City in the U.S.

Seven weeks after Hurricane Katrina, upon returning from exile, a friend of mine took me to see the edge of Lake Pontchartrain. It is where old, established New Orleans seafood restaurants were located. “Let’s go to the lakefront and eat some crawfish,” was part of the easy local lexicon. A long line of old clapboard buildings lined the lakefront, along with a couple that had been built more recently – meaning sometime in the last 40 years or so. You could get lucky and grab a table outside and spend the evening talking and drinking and eating Louisiana seafood. You could watch the sun set on the lake, or watercraft buzzing by. Sometimes people would drive their boats right up to the restaurant, disembark and have dinner. It was a lovely part of the city.

When my friend took me to see it after the storm (below, right), there was no trace whatsoever of anything that had been there. Not an intact board or rooftop, not one recognizeable thing. I lost my bearings for a few moments, actually not being able to figure out exactly where I was. It was a barren space that just looked out over the water. All traces of the ‘forget your troubles’ kind of a place this used to be were eradicated. Of all the post-Katrina moments I have had, that may have been one of the most devastating. Standing there taking it in I was struck by the fully unwelcome silence of the place. Standing in the exact spot where the old restaurants had been, my friend and I looked at each other and quietly we knew this was one of those ‘you had to be there moments.’ Nobody who isn’t here is going to understand how this feels.

Fast forward almost four years later: It Is July 1, 2009 and the U.S. Census bureau reports New Orleans is the fastest growing city in the United States. Last year alone, the population in New Orleans grew by 8.2 percent. We have about 311, 000 people now. That is, however, down from approximately 484,000 in the 2000 census. Still, I can report that New Orleans feels more like itself, finally. The population no longer feels sparse, as it did for the first couple of years after the storm.

The city looks better, but if you get out into some of the outlying areas, such as New Orleans East and the Lower 9th Ward, things are still rough. In some places, not a lot of progress has been made. The much ballyhooed “Musician’s Village,” (left) a housing development for local musicians, spearheaded by Harry Connick, Jr., is a sight to behold. Amazing. But spitting distance from there, for years after Katrina, was the graveyard for all the New Orleans Police Department vehicles killed by the floods. You can see some new housing developments in New Orleans East, but the Lake Forest Plaza Shopping Mall, once a commercial hub, was virtually destroyed by the hurricane and the subsequent flooding. It sits as a giant reminder of nature’s wrath.

In the Lower 9th, Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation is doing a phenomenal job in raising money and building highly innovative, storm-resistant homes. But a stone’s throw from the development you can drive down streets in the Lower 9th that look like Katrina hit yesterday. The grass may be higher, but the devastation remains visible. If you have been here before, the devastation tells a sad story. Part of a house remains that was built a century ago, and across the street are the remains of the home of the first house’s descendents. Just down the street might be a pile of rubble that once housed the grandchildren. This was a community that had rich family heritage. There was no great wealth here; no one boasts of a U.S. President hailing from the lower 9th, but there is important cultural history here, just the same. So why, four years later, is it all still crumbling foundations, waist high weeds and nothing but memories?

Recent reports indicate there are approximately 3,800 vacant properties in the lower 9th. If you are not in New Orleans, what you do not know is that you can walk right up to some of the smashed houses, look in the windows and still see dishes in the sink from August 29, 2005, or clothes hanging neatly in closets – the door may be torn off but the garments are still there, waiting. The homeowners are still spread far and wide from Texas to Maine, Virginia to California. Those who are back often live on blocks where theirs is the only inhabited house. It is not uncommon to see residents whose houses show signs of repairs that were started, but then stopped. Often that has much to do with contractors who took their money and ran, without completing the job. An over-taxed, under-financed District Attorney’s office in Orleans Parish has countless such cases waiting to be settled.

Elsewhere in the city, the Army Corps of Engineers came forward recently to admit that it is running behind on 13 levee repair projects. Some of these projects were not due to be completed until 2011, but now may take even a couple of years longer. That is, unless we have a Katrina-like storm that decimates even more of the existing levee system. The government allocated $15 billion to repair the levees, but that figure was tied to a repair schedule the Corps can no longer meet. If the levee repairs cost more than originally anticipated, no one knows from where the additional funding will come.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) reported that much of the money allocated for repairs throughout the Gulf Coast region was tied up in red tape. FEMA promised $5.8 billion to repair roads, schools, libraries, sewer systems and other infrastructure, but a good portion of the rebuilding has yet to begin. Meanwhile, the facilities that should have been repaired by now continue to rot. How long do government officials think an old school building or library with all of the windows blown out (above, left) can sit idle before it is not longer repairable? Or, perhaps that is the wrong question. Maybe the real question is, Do government officials think about the Gulf Coast and/or New Orleans anymore? Or are we yesterday’s news?

The answer depends on your location. If you are anywhere outside of the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Katrina is history. However, those of us who live in New Orleans, or the surrounding areas, see Katrina in present tense. A Katrina-like catastrophe could happen in Anytown, USA. Maybe even your town. And once it does, be aware that you will ultimately be out there on your own – even if you live in the “fastest growing city in the United States.”

GEORGE BUSH IS HISTORY - KATRINA LIVES ON

Although President George Bush’s demeanor over the past eight years has been less than gracious, and even though his communication has always lacked finesse, his final comments to the press and the public have been alternately conciliatory and defensive. In his farewell press conference he became indignant at suggestions that the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina was too slow. It was the first time he has uttered the word “Katrina” in quite some time, and only to defend the indefensible. In his final address to the nation, two days after the press conference, there was no mention of the mighty triumvirate that will define his legacy: Iraq, 9/11 and Katrina.

Those of us who live on the Gulf Coast, a quadrant of the United States that has been severely disfigured and then dismissed by our government, are unwilling and unable to let Bush off the hook for his administration’s inexcusable inaction since the 2005 hurricanes. Further, it is now up to us to keep hope alive in the Gulf South, since we have become yesterday’s bad news in the nation’s Capital. We who live here see Katrina in present tense, while the rest of the nation has moved on. We always believed that we would be relegated to second-tier status if and when another natural disaster occurred on U.S. soil. What we had no way of predicting was that the next disaster would be economic, rather than natural.

The combination of the worldwide economic crash plus an administration that chose not to do its job has resulted in a slow crawl back to normalcy in our cities. In New Orleans, crime incidents are increasing in both frequency and violence. Joblessness is the rule, rather than the exception. Infrastructure, which was already crumbling pre-Katrina, is now in true crisis. Local government is so fragmented and fatigued that there is talk that the District Attorney’s office may have to declare bankruptcy. No one quite knows what to do with New Orleans now. There are neighborhoods in the lower Ninth Ward that look as though the storm hit yesterday. Cracked, broken roads, abandoned houses and eye level overgrown yards are common. So baffling is our predicament that during last year’s dynamic presidential campaigns, people with names like Clinton, McCain, Palin, Obama and Biden scarcely mentioned New Orleans or Katrina. What should have been a serious campaign issue instead became a subject of deliberate avoidance.

As usual, the numbers tell the true story: There were 9,000 Louisiana families still living in trailers as recently at September 2008, and more than 30,000 residents of Gulf states receiving disaster housing assistance. Five of 23 acute-care hospitals in the New Orleans area remain closed. The city's bus system carries less than a third of its pre-storm passengers. Of 125 pre-Katrina public schools in New Orleans, only 85 remain, and trying to find qualified, dedicated teachers has been an uphill climb. This is my New Orleans. I do not know much about George Bush’s romanticized image of New Orleans. And since many of you respond most acutely to dollars and cents, consider this: The Louisiana Recovery Authority estimates that of the $121 billion in Federal Aid that was approved in the years following Katrina, only $15 billion has been spent on the entire rebuilding effort in Louisiana. The rest was either spent on immediate rescue and recovery, or has not yet “trickled down,” as they say.

Finally, just days before he was to leave the presidency behind, George Bush had this to say in response to a reporter’s question about the federal response to Katrina:

“You know, people said, 'Well, the federal response was slow.' Don't tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed."

Response to Bush’s outrageous claim was swift and hot. Watch:


I left New Orleans two days after Katrina. By then, there was really only one way to get out of town, and it included driving down Convention Center Boulevard, which fronts the Morial Convention Center. I had a friend in the car, and we both were shocked to see thousands of people, mostly black, standing and sitting on the massive sidewalks in front of the Convention Center. Since we had no radio, TV or Internet after the storm, we had no idea why these people were gathered at the Convention Center. Now, of course, we all know the story of those citizens, and of the others who were hopelessly trapped at the Louisiana Superdome.

It is demoralizing to hear the President defend the government’s actions in those few days. What he does not tell you is that too many of those who were not rescued from their rooftops were hopefully ensconced in their attics, the highest point they could reach in their homes. Many of their decayed bodies were found months later in house-to-house searches of the most affected areas. What he also does not mention is the number of elderly people who were transported to the steamy-hot Superdome, and who had no food or water or medical supplies, and who sat in the dark, wondering if the cracks they saw in the roof of the dome would mean certain death if the waters rose higher. No mention was made by Bush of the fact that life-saving supplies did not reach one of the nation’s most historic and populated urban areas until fully four days after the storm had passed.

Why, I wonder, did President Bush fail to acknowledge that once the senior citizens were moved from the Superdome, many of them had to spend the night sleeping on luggage carousels in the Armstrong International Airport? Why did the President not leave his Texas ranch until two days after the storm hit? Why did FEMA, under Bush’s watch, not direct the U.S. Department of Transportation to send evacuation buses to New Orleans until 48 hours after the storm hit? Why were essential supplies not pre-positioned for the city of New Orleans when everyone knew of the impending storm for days before it hit?

And what about the stream of broken promises from the Bush administration? On September 15, 2005, George Bush, in powder blue dress shirt, collar open, sleeves rolled up, with St. Louis Cathedral as a backdrop, bathed in lights the same shade of blue as the President’s shirt, delivered his dramatic Katrina speech.

The promises: (1) A Congressional oversight commission, evidently to be something akin to the 9/11 commission. No such body was ever formed. (2) To get citizens out of shelters by October. In the end, thousands lived in shelters through the balance of 2005, and some well into the following year. (3) Bush committed the Department of Homeland Security to examining emergency evacuation plans in every major city in America. If such a nationwide survey was undertaken, the results have never been made public. And there were other promises, including specific citizen relief programs that never saw the light of day.

As long as we’re looking back at the powder blue speech, does anybody remember Bush’s promise of “Worker Recovery Accounts?” This was the deal in which the federal government would provide accounts of up to $5,000, which these evacuees could draw upon for job training and education to help them get a good job, and for child care expenses during their job search. Remember that? No, I didn’t think you would. It was never mentioned again. Ever.

George Bush should be held accountable by the American people for many things, including an unnecessary war, a lack of economic foresight, the exceedingly slow pace of necessary social change during his term, and possible war crimes typified by the treatment and alleged torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. But here in the Gulf South, he will always be remembered as the President of the United States who simply failed to protect hundreds of thousands of tax-paying, law-abiding citizens, and then defended his inexcusable job performance up until the end of his presidency.

While Mr. & Mrs. Bush enjoy the comfort of their palatial new home in Preston Hollow, former New Orleanians are still scattered coast to coast in what were to be their temporary relocations. Many, if not most, will never find their way back to their beloved home town. That is the legacy. That is the truth. No press conferences or nostalgic farewells will erase historical fact.

George Bush failed to honor the oath of his office. He did not preserve, protect and defend the United States Constitution. Amid the fanfare of his departure from the nation’s Capital, let us remember the 4,227 Americans who have died in Iraq, and the 1,464 Americans dead after Katrina. Then let us consider the countless citizens of America and the world who have suffered needlessly because of this president’s incompetence, insensitivity and dedication to a set of wayward principles that have left the United States in disrepair and increasingly powerless.