New Orleans True Video

Click Image to Download the VIDEO 8 mgs 13 minute segment

“Marchin’ to New Orleans” tells the story of American veterans who have been radicalized by what they have witnessed while working as tools of our administration, and have returned home to see their country with a fresh perspective. More than just victims of reckless foreign policy, these individuals have chosen to use their use their experiences to raise consciousness about a capitalist system that values economic interests over human life.

This is a segment from a piece that chronicles a six-day march along the Gulf Coast that began in Mobile Alabama and ended in a rally at New Orlean’s historic Congo Square Park. Along the way, veterans are joined by residents of the Gulf Coast who share stories of abandonment first by FEMA and then by the American media. Marchers are shocked and outraged to see that eight months after Katrina the repair of the Gulf Coast seems to have barely begun, while the general public has little knowledge of the continuing devastation.

Parallels and connections between the situation at home and abroad emerge as the march approaches New Orleans. Exploitation of immigrant labor recruited to rebuild the city emulates the presence of foreign contractors in Iraq. Many in Iraq and on the Gulf Coast continue the struggle to survive without the basic infrastructure of daily life—electricity and clean water, healthcare and education. Taxpayer’s dollars that are being used to tear down Iraq are concurrently absent in the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast.

Related Links ::: Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, United for Peace and Justice Coalition

Bayou Sauvage Tour + City Hall Rally
Click Image to Download the VIDEO 13 mgs 8 minutes

Stop the Illegal Dumping in New Orleans East!

We are one big inter-connected tidal pool of humanity floating on a gorgeous and endangered wetlands. This is a VIDEO tour of the Bayou Sauvage and Chef Mentuer Landfill Site for the new illegal dump for millions of tons of hurricane debris plus views of the May 10 rally against the landfill at City Hall.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the region is left with literally millions of tons of debris to collect and dispose of as an essential part of the recovery process. New Orleans Mayor Nagin, who is up for re-election on May 22, claimed “emergency powers” and circumvented public hearing processes and safety standards to designate and begin dumping debris in New Orleans East - not 20 yards from the Bayou Sauvage wetlands and a mile from a community of thousands of predominantly Vietnamese and African-American families.

Not only is New Orleans East a profound and unique multi-generational community that spans time and geography from New Orleans back to 3 villages in Vietnam, but it is also bordered by the nation’s largest urban wildlife refuge, the Bayou Sauvage, and home to many endangered species as well as alligators, turtles, egrets, nutria and other swamp critters.

Despite massive flooding and lack of government support, the Vietnamese community in New Orleans East has accomplished profound recovery and rebuilding on their own initiative, organized largely through the Mary Queen of Vietnam Church, to account for the welfare of community members, gut and rebuild homes, and host many volunteers who have come to the region and need support for their work.

The Vietnamese community in New Orleans East is leading the fight against this landfill which Mayor Nagin approved by sideswiping law that demands community hearings before a landfill can be built. On May 10th, members of the Versaille Community and the Mary Queen of Vietnam Church, together with the Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy civil rights organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and also representatives of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network gathered together at City Hall and demanded that Mayor Nagin hear their protest. A 3 day moratorium was put on the dumping (to be lifted on Monday) until, Mayor Nagin said, he could “prove… that it is safe”.

The landfill is designated to be 100 acres, 30 feet deep and another 80 feet high. See the video tour of the Bayou Sauvage and the Chef Menteur Landfill site with Father Dung Nguyen and feel for yourself the unique and interconnected landscape that is threatened by the city of New Orleans’s illegal dumping.

For more info about the New Orleans East community after Hurricane Katrina, scroll down to story and view video.
For more info about the Landfill, see the story posted by Citizens for a Strong New Orleans East:::>>>
Related Links ::: FACTS ABOUT THE LANDFILL, Mary Queen of Vietnam Church

keywords: New Orleans East, landfill, Hurricane Debris, Katrina, environmental racism, Vietnamese community, wetlands, Bayou Sauvage, Illegal Dumping, Toxic Waste

Click Image to Download the VIDEO 41 mgs 25 minutes
Here’s a Bandwidth Challenged Version 7.5 mgs

The Four Directions Relief Project was started in early October in recognition that the Native American communities of storm ravaged southern Louisiana remained under-served and in urgent need of relief efforts. Despite the immense pride and independence of these communities, Katrina and Rita created an intense burden on the people, and storm assistance was requested.

Four Directions was organized to help gain both short and long term storm relief, working in solidarity and respect for the pride of local communities, and the preservation of their cultures. Working in solidarity with tribal leaders, Four Directions was formed by community organizer/spiritual activist Naomi Archer and medic Dave Pike who had been working on the ground in southern Louisiana building the innovative mutual-aid relief work of Common Ground in Algiers.

Between October 2005 and January 2006, Four Directions, in collaboration with our tribal partners, NGO partners, and a very limited number of volunteers facilitated: * 27 tons of food and material aid collected and distributed * 1600+ volunteer hours in the community * 8 home repair projects including 2 emergency housing projects for homeless families * 30 classroom teaching kits to the most damaged elementary schools * 26 large and small appliances bought and distributed * 2 tons + of trash collected * 1200+ holiday meals distributed * Stories, interviews or links in 20+ native, commercial, and independent media outlets

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I spent a great deal of time doun de bayou in Chauvin the last couple of months in Louisiana. Much love & respect to the Courteaux’s for allowing me to hang around , mostly working on other projects from the Wonder Pod Satelite internet hook up, camping at the Volunteer Center. It was magical … as long as you had bug spray. The locals have systematically developed their natural defense to the mosquitos by feeding children increasing doses of a local berry… Unprepared volunteers however, often ran, flapping & screaming across the yard.

During the first weeks after Hurricane Katrina I followed my friend Naomi’s blog and wished I could be there, she kept me interested in coming to New Orleans.. even though I was sure I’d missed it all. How ridiculus to think it was all over in November. 6 months later and New Orleans is truely a thing of the past, most of the coastal communities are STILL completely wiped out and some have just begun to return … it’s STILL long from “over”.

Related Links ::: Four Directions Solidarity Network, Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw of Louisiana, Sustainability Research & Education Project, Plenty International, Islamic Relief, Hurricane Autonomous Workers Collective, Seventh Generation, National Relief Charities, New Orleans Voices for Peace

technorati tags ~ four directions solidarity network, FEMA, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, Red Cross