greatest ideas ever

I used to work with my friend Scott, when I wasn't grumbling or scowling we came up with some awesome ideas. He wrote about them here and here. They're damn funny. So are Cheat Commandos

Local Kid Makes Good

Jacob Applebaum used to frequent Santa Rosa Food Not Bombs, where I sometimes ribbed him about using the royal "we" to describe the project. He has spent the past year consistently impressing me, first cruising to Iraq and delievering some of the best technerd on the streets blogging I've ever read, now he's in NOLA working his ass off to document the scene and improve the quality of life of the holdouts. He grew up alright. To mar myself with an odious retro slogans: "Jacob Applebaum, live like him"

Robert "King" Wilkerson found and safe, Ahmad Nelson abandoned in prison

I posted earlier about Robert "King" Wilkerson, he has been located and is safe. He wa s interviewed on Flashpoints on Tuesday the show can be downloaded here, the interview with King starts around minute 8.

Ahmad Nelson is also mentioned in that earlier post. I just recieved this e-mail:

Ahmad Nelson, a native of New Orleans, was in the Orleans Parish Prison on the day the Hurricane hit. He was there on trumped up charges of trespassing (he is a black male, and this happens to him all-too frequently).

A really good friend of mine is close friends with him (they have a baby boy together) and just talked to him over the phone. Ahmad is in Houston now, with a portion of his family.

Ahmad told Maga (my friend) that he was LEFT IN ORLEANS PARISH PRISON, along with every other prisoner, when the Hurricane hit and the flood waters rose. The prison guards and other staff left, evacuated the prison and left the inmates there to fend for themselves - most of which were locked in their cells (the cell doors were stuck due to power outages).

Ahmad tells of riots and total panic within the prison as it started filling with water. He says "the whole prison is going to have to be rebuilt" as the inmates literally tore the place apart, trying to escape anyway they could.

Ahmad went four days and nights locked in the prison WITHOUT ANY FOOD OR WATER.

It is unclear to me how he escaped, but he did, and swam what he said seemed like MILES in flood waters feet above his head (he is over 6" tall) until he finally came to an interestate bank above the flood waters... Along his swimming path he tells of seeing people throwing their babbies and themselves into the water, starved and tired after being alone, stuck on their rooftops for over four days and nights in the summer sun without any food, water or shelter - or any relief in sight.

Ahmad is safe now, miraculously. He is in Houston and has found many members of his family their. I am not sure where they are going next, but am told, amazingly that they are in good spirits and are very positive and happy to be with eachother.

My friend Maga and I are working with friends in Houston to ensure that Ahmad and his family find proper care, etc.

I am writing this to those I know, as this is a story that I have yet to hear on the media - and it is a story that must be told!

It is one of the more disturbing stories outlining the examples of governmental neglect and racism towards the people of New Orleans.

I thought I would write friends and collegues to share this story, as I know many of you do work within independent (and public) media. If anyone would like to learn more about Ahmad's story and the story of the New Orleans prisoners left behind in the rising flood waters, please feel free to contact my good friend Maga. Her e.mail is :

Maga Merello
goodlittlebird@hotmail.com

She is on contact with Ahmad and his family on a day-to-day basis.

More "Good" News

The grassroots are growing back

Notes From Inside New Orleans

by Jordan Flaherty

Friday, September 2, 2005

I just left New Orleans a couple hours ago. I traveled from the apartment I was staying in by boat to a helicopter to a refugee camp. If anyone wants to examine the attitude of federal and state officials towards the victims of hurricane Katrina, I advise you to visit one of the refugee camps.

In the refugee camp I just left, on the I-10 freeway near Causeway, thousands of people (at least 90% black and poor) stood and squatted in mud and trash behind metal barricades, under an unforgiving sun, with heavily armed soldiers standing guard over them. When a bus would come through, it would stop at a random spot, state police would open a gap in one of the barricades, and people would rush for the bus, with no information given about where the bus was going. Once inside (we were told) evacuees would be told where the bus was taking them - Baton Rouge, Houston, Arkansas, Dallas, or other locations. I was told that if you boarded a bus bound for Arkansas (for example), even people with family and a place to stay in Baton Rouge would not be allowed to get out of the bus as it passed through Baton Rouge. You had no choice but to go to the shelter in Arkansas. If you had people willing to come to New Orleans to pick you up, they could not come within 17 miles of the camp.

and resistance is building

Displaced New Orleans Community Demands Action, Accountability and Initiates A People's Hurricane Fund

Not until the fifth day of the federal government?s inept and inadequate emergency response to the New Orleans disaster did George Bush even acknowledge it was "unacceptable." "Unacceptable" doesn't begin to describe the depth of the neglect, racism and classism shown to the people of New Orleans. The government's actions and inactions were criminal. New Orleans, a city whose population is almost 70% percent black, 40% illiterate, and many are poor, was left day after day to drown, to starve and to die of disease and thirst.

The people of New Orleans will not go quietly into the night, scattering across this country to become homeless in countless other cities while federal relief funds are funneled into rebuilding casinos, hotels, chemical plants and the wealthy white districts of New Orleans like the French Quarter and the Garden District. We will not stand idly by while this disaster is used as an opportunity to replace our homes with newly built mansions and condos in a gentrified New Orleans.

Saw It Coming

Got this today:

The October 2004 issue of National Geographic magazine contained an article that predicted the New Orleans disaster in detail. The article was written as though it were reporting on an event that had occurred, although it was predicting the future, not reporting on events that had occurred. It is chillingly accurate, and gives the lie to Bush and Homeland Security Czar Michael Chertoff's assertions that noone could have predicted this. National Geographic (and others as well) predicted it all too well.

Please forward widely.

Jack

http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/

chilling

Anti-racist parlor game

Last night a friend of mine was severly bothered by a dinnertime conversation of the "well, evacuation was mandatory and those people knew what was coming and didn't follow instructions" variety. I've been going to these leadership training classes at the local community college, where we have to suffer through an "ice-breaker" or "trust building" exercise every 45 minutes. I decided to combine two pet peeves into one minor annoyance:

The challenge of the game is that the players have leave one room for another, but they cannot use their arms, legs or roll.

The solution is to break the rules (or do some kind or legless version of the worm).

If this doesn't illuminate your bigoted aquaintences, you are allowed to talk them through the lesson is a condescending "I would have thought a fucking millionaire knew better" voice, or kick them in the teeth until they pass out.

Being unable to use arms legs or roll is an analog for not having a car or access to any liquid cash and being required to travel over 100 miles to safety with about 40 hours notice. The optional teeth kicking is an analog for the abandoned public transit system, and America's legacy of racism. I suppose you could add another layer and wait for the players to recover from the teeth kicking and then hit them in the head with a 2x4 while screaming "I'm the National Guard, HERE TO HELP, HERE TO HELP!"

Progress!

My friend Caitlin sent me this link, I especially urge folks to aid FFLIC (Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children), who's contact info is about half way down the page.

what should we do

Yesterday a good friend asked what we are going to do about the Gulf Coast. This was my answer:

depends on which "we" you're asking about, the "international proletariat we" will prolly have to suffer through crap like this for a (long) bit longer, the "progressives in america we" have a great chance to point out the utter impotence of the Democrats and the vicious amoral inhumanity of capitalism and the Republicans, the "sniviling do-gooder we" can send toys to kids (in process) adopt a hurricane refugee dog (in process) and just be nice to the people around us (working on it), the "cynical we" can wait for Sean Hannity et al to suggest that folks who can afford it should fly refugees to their homes where the refugees can stay for free in exchange for yard work and house keeping while ignoring the similarities between this arrangement and slavery, the "panic stricken fucking terrified we" should prolly turn off the TV and eat some ice cream while petting a cat or dog and then jerk-off, the "fan of teenage hooligans with gumption and a built in sense of social justice and community service we" should read this: and hope to fucking God we don't have to fly to Houston and spring Jabbor Gibson from jail.

I think the worst is over. I don't envy the folks that'll be cataloging the dead. I hope this derails the international permanent war, or at least costs the system some popular legitimacy. I hope that the Bay View and KPFT in Houston keep finding progressive community folks to give air time and print to and that some of those stories percolate out into the mainstream.

Honestly I've been trying to find someone from there that I can connect with personally and directly to help. I've also been thinking that some kind of fund to rebuild radical community infra-structure should exist, the typical charities are fine but I want to direct my $ to folks who will work for the long haul to make the world better not just to a short term Red Cross shelter.

xoxo

Ben

I wrote that before I read this

NEW ORLEANS — Combat operations are underway on the streets “to take this city back” in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“This place is going to look like Little Somalia,” Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. “We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.”

It seems like no matter what the people in power in this country will find a way to make the terrible worse.

I've been trying to connect directly with people from the Gulf Coast area without much success, I've also been trying to locate a dog to foster/adopt from the area. Of course it is easier to track down an object (to unfairly catagorize critters) than a person, and I found this form that enters info in a database used by animal shelters to place rescued animals. I'll continue to try to link up with real live people from the area and support their work.

DIY or die

Eighteen-year-old Jabbor Gibson jumped aboard the bus as it sat abandoned on a street in New Orleans and took control.

"I just took the bus and drove all the way here...seven hours straight,' Gibson admitted. "I hadn't ever drove a bus."

The teen packed it full of complete strangers and drove to Houston. He beat thousands of evacuees slated to arrive there.

This kid is my hero

watch this or read this.

update: the above links are dead try this

faith based flood prevention

"we believe that Katrina was in league with Al-Queda"

"the federal government will release funds to initiate a new anti-hurricane faith based prayer campaign"

"floods are unamerican, if you support water or large bodies of it you are a traitor"

okay those aren't actual quotes but they might as well be.

I've been looking into some folks that I know of from New Orleans because I am a media tool and only look folks up when bad things happen around them. I found out that Ahmad Nelson (who gets a shout out in the Black Box song Pigs and Murder) succesfully beat charges of cop killing, no indication of where he is now. If anyone knows please share it here. Unfortunately Robert "King" Wilkerson and several other key people from the Angola 3 campaign are still missing.

For those that haven't seen this yet it's white supremacy new and improved live from the news wire.

What is happening on the Gulf Coast is an accurate reflection of the priorities of capitalism, mitigated by the brutal ugliness of white power. Black peoople loot, white people find, "zero tolerance for looters," "shoot to kill." New Orleans has a 38% poverty rate (the federal measure of poverty is totally inaccurate, skewed towards minimizing the problem), one of the lowest personal vehicle ownership rates in the nation, and no subsidized evacutation transportation. Food, clothes and shelter are human rights, whether or not they are enumerated in the constitution. It is a basic assumption of free people that they have a right to eat and be warm. If there is an empty building full of food and water and clothes; and I'm wet and hungry and thirsty, I'm gonna take what I need. Throw some capitalism on the top of that and I'll be selling what I don't need because that is the name of the game. That is how capitalism works, scarcity = profit.

the morality of capitalism

when Charles Hurwitz loots a Savings and Loan to clearcut a forest it is entrepenurial.

when someone in New Orleans takes a TV it is looting.

scream with me: ARRRRRGH!

the naked amorality of this system is blinding today. the top dog was on Good Morning America essentially saying if people on the Gulf Coast take food, water, clothes or medicine without paying they are criminals and will be prosecuted. people are literally dying in the designated waiting areas. there's some ivory tower blogger locked in a building off of the grid, with armed security, streaming video of the action outside and pretending he's Mad Max. from the safety of desktops everywhere people are debating the fine points of ethics and morality, which is a good thing, it'd be a great thing if it was coupled with an outpouring of action.

talk-action=0