WELCOME TO RELIEFNET
Links to information and agencies seeking and offering help to Katrina victims. Check often for interesting new links. PLUS! the Opinion and WorldView section is quite a collection. Please visit.
SATIMAGES
from DigitalGlobe
PANORAMIC AERIAL PICS
KATRINA TIMELINE
see independant multi source timeline from 7/23/04 thru 9/15/05 at the botom of this blog in "what happened when"
V O T E to I M P E A C H + M A R C H on W A S H I N G T O N 9.24
VOTE TO IMPEACH!
Impeachment Movement Responds to Bush's Speech
We need your support to bring Impeachment to the White House door!
George Bush went to New Orleans tonight. In the devastated city, he brought generators to provide electricity solely for his elaborate photo-opportunity. Those guilty of criminal negligence rarely have an opportunity to go on national TV for nearly a half an hour to camouflage and conceal their criminal conduct. This is precisely what George Bush did tonight on prime time national television. Two weeks after the fact, Bush and the spin doctors at Fox Newsand other corporate media are now attempting to do damage control - that is, political damage control, not human damage control.
Bush's handling of the Katrina catastrophe, and the actions of the administration prior to the hurricane, constitute a clear pattern of criminal negligence and gross misconduct.
Here are just a few of the facts that highlight the criminal negligence and Presidential misconduct:
The Bush administration is spending $200 million each day or $1.4 billion each week for its criminal war of aggression in Iraq
Despite the fact that scientific experts had widely publicized predictions of the coming catastrophe in New Orleans, the Bush administration was hell bent on diverting resources to the Iraq war, while it slashed funds for flood control operations in New Orleans.
Bush's war on Iraq left the Corps of Engineers only 20% of the needed funding to protect New Orleans from flooding from Lake Pontchartrain. Before the Iraq war, FEMA officials warned of a looming disaster in New Orleans. The Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project (SELA) is authorized byCongress to protect the people of New Orleans and the port facilities as well as oil refineries. After the start of the shock and awe invasion of Iraq however, SELA's monies were diverted. The Times-Picayune, the daily newspaper of New Orleans, published numerous articles during the last two years citing the danger causedby the loss of hurricane protection funds to the war in Iraq. Bush has taken the money needed to protect and serve the needs of society and spent it on his war of aggression against the people of Iraq, on multi-billion dollarcontracts for his corporate friends, and on tax cuts for the super-rich. Although he turned away as hundreds of people - including babies and the elderly - drowned and starved, now he is compelled to at least pretend to take action. This is not out of concern for the well-being of the suffering people, but concern for his popularity - the people of the United States have turned against his
criminal administration.
The impeachment movement has responded powerfully to the criminal neglect and subsequent charade of the administration. Thousands of organizers around the country are preparing to make the trip to Washington DC on September 24. Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark will be speaking at the White House on the Ellipse calling for Impeachment.
You can help mobilize a massive contingent for the September 24 National March on Washington DC. This is a demonstration initiated by the peacemovement and is shaping up to be the largest demonstration since the beginning of the Iraq war. We will make the demand "Impeach Bush" highly visible throughout the day. The ImpeachBush movement will be assembling at the south side of theWhite House (an area called the Ellipse at 11:00 am). You can pick up ImpeachBush
banners, placards, signs, literature, hats, and petitions. We need volunteersto help us dispatch people and materials starting in the early morning of September 24.
If you can help out, please send an email letting us know your availability to be an ImpeachBush.org volunteer.
We have one week left - we need your help today to make impeachment resound at the White House and throughout the streets of Washington on September 24. In the last few weeks, 30,000 new people have voted to impeach in our
grass-roots referendum. Every day people are taking petitions and literature and spreading the word.
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O P I N I O N .and. W O R L D V I E W
* * *
Katrina marks Year One of our new calendar, the start of an age in which the physical world has flipped from sure and secure to volatile and unhinged. New Orleans doesn't look like the America we've lived in. But it very much resembles the planet we will inhabit the rest of our lives.
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R E L I E F . I N F O R M A T I O N
NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF MENTAL ILLNESS
There are many victims of the flood who are suffering from mental illness and who need medication and treatment. They are already victims of their illness and are now especially pushed to the brink. The National Alliance on Mental Illness has established a relief fund and resource center to offer support and information as well as post notices about missing persons with mental illness in the affilicted region. Also resources for victims concerning medication, housing, financial assistance and more; resources for those who want to donate or volunteer;information on NAMI's Katrina Hurricane Relief Fund.
FUNDRAISER IDEAS
MercyCorps is a humanitarian disaster relief group who have many ways to help thru them, or thru their shared posts of grass roots ideas that you can do right where you live. Check out their good works and be inspired.
NEXT OF KIN LOCATOR
OFFER OR FIND HOUSING
NAACP DISASTER RELIEF FUND
Gov Blanco sets up fund for state
KATRINA SAFE LIST
HAVE YOU SEEN ANY OF THESE KIDS?
National Voluntary Organizations Active In Disaster (NVOAD)
VICTIM EMOTIONAL SUPPORT SERVICES
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A N I M A L . R E L I E F . O P E R A T I O N S
HELP THE ANIMALS
HELP MORE ANIMALS!
PET FINDER
CHATTANOOGA AREA EFFORTS TO HELP THE ANIMALS
In response to the overwhelming interest from people wanting to donate itemsto help the displaced, wounded, and frightened animals affected by Hurricane Katrina, the Animal Care Trust and Chattanooga Police Department have partnered to collect items and get them to the Gulf Coast region. Needed items for dogs and cats are kennels/crates/carriers, bowls, food, leashes, collars and lots of
bottled water. Keep in mind that items will have to be put on pallets and then covered in shrink wrap so they're looking for new or gently used items(it;s helpful if you have the original packaging).
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VICTIM STUDENTS LOOKING FOR SCHOOLS in TENNESSEE?
Governor Bredesen announced plans to open Tennessee's public colleges and universities to students from Mississippi, Alabama,Georgia and Louisiana schools that have been closed due to storm damage. The University of Tennessee and Board of Regents systems are making arrangements to allow students from these effected institutions to continue their studies in Tennessee. Eligible and interested students should call 800-669-2678 which rings at the University of Memphis admissions office. They will serve as the facilitator for both Board of Regents Schools and the University of Tennessee.
Please pass this number along to anyone who knows of displaced college students. More information will be passed along about Hurricane relief activities and programs by the State of Tennessee as it becomes available.
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HELP THE FiYiYi INDIANS
Dr. TT. RaShon-Ste. Marquette is a priest, scholar, and artist whose documentary work explores the rich complexity of African cultural realities with a focus on retentions and expressions of the ABIA clanDr. RaShon, who graduated from the Certificate in Documentary Studies at Duke University this past spring, has been immersed in a video documentary about the FiYiYi Indians, who live in the Ninth District in New Orleans (a description of her project is below).
The people of the Ninth Ward, predominantly African American and poor, were not given sufficient warning to leave New Orleans. No buses were sent to the community, even as the city government was in meetings with the tourism industry to get travelers out of New Orleans. As Tulane University shipped their students to Georgia Tech, students at Xavier were still in Friday afternoon classes. From the media coverage alone, it is clear that class and race is playing as great a part in the wake of a disaster as it always has in New Orleans, though the stakes are now considerably higher.
Rashon is fiercely committed to documenting the current situation in New Orleans. She is asking for help to purchase mini-dv tapes, audio recorders, a video camera, and plane tickets. She is heading to Houston next Thursday to look for the members of the community she has been documenting for several years ; one in which she now plays a significant part.
You can make pledges toward expenses for RaShon's project thru Duke University's Center for Documentary studies. They are moving quickly to send her the gear she needs; if you would like to contribute, just let them know the amount, and they'll organize and collect the money in mid-September. Even five or ten dollars will pay for mini-dv tapes. All contributions will be made through CDS and will be tax-deductible. call 919-660-3663.
Rashon also lost everything in the flooding, including all of her footage and images she's collected over many years in New Orleans.
Dr. TT. RaShon-Ste. Marquette
Fo Day: The Third Coming of the Spirit of FiYiYi
Mardi Gras, March 2004, represented the twentieth year, the second anniversary, and the third coming of the spirit of The FiYiYi. According to urban legend, The FiYiYi took possession of Chief Victor Harris and first appeared wearing a black suit on Mardi Gras Day 1984. Every ten years (1994, 2004) the spirit renews itself, creates another black suit, and parades through the community honoring the spirit of the warriors past. This act renews the spirit and strengthens the soul of the Mandingo Warriors, a community of New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians, to continue on for another decade. Fo Day: The Third Coming of the Spirit of FiYiYi, uses photography and video to document the preparation and presentation of The FiYiYi on Mardi Gras morning. This short piece visually captures the contained chaos as the chief and his entourage are prepared for presentation.
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Louisiana 1927
by Randy Newman
The lyics, by singer/songwriter Randy Newman, tell the story of the Louisiana flood of 1927, which killed hundreds and displaced hundreds of thousands across six states. The disaster is credited with sparking one of the great voting movements of the 20th century -- the shift in Southern black allegiance from the Republican to the Democratic Party -- and with spurring the New Deal politics of big government. Will history repeat?
What has happened down here is the winds have changed
Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain
Rained real hard and it rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline
The river rose all day
The river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood
Some people got away alright
The river have busted through clear down to Plaquemines
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
The president say, ''Little fat man isn't it a shame
What the river has done to this poor crackers land."
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
posted by acmecatalyst @ 10:22 AM
