Snip from a piece by Bill Quigley in Mother Jones:
Dr. Arjun Sengupta, the United Nations Human Rights Commission Special Reporter on Extreme Poverty, visited New Orleans and Baton Rouge last week.
He toured the devastated areas and listened to the evacuees still in shelters and those living out of town with family.Dr. Sengupta described current conditions as "shocking" and "gross violations of human rights." The devastation itself is shocking, he explained, but even more shocking is that two months have passed and there is little to nothing being done to reconstruct vast areas of New Orleans.
"The US is the richest nation in the history of the world. Why cannot it restore electricity and water and help people rebuild their homes and neighborhoods? If the US can rebuild Afghanistan and Iraq, why not New Orleans?"
Link.
A related commentary by Mike Davis in the same issue: Gentrifying Disaster — In New Orleans: Ethnic Cleansing, GOP-Style. Link.
And via CNN: Rare historic documents lost to Katrina — New Orleans archives dating back to 1892. Link.
(Thanks, Ned Sublette)
