I have a unique perspective on the tragedy that is now New Orleans, due to the fact that I lived over a decade in that city and both of my daughters are now displaced from their homes and are struggling to replace all they once had with the exception of their lives.
The 10 million annual visitors to New Orleans have been charmed by great jazz music, jambalaya, wrought iron-laced balconies adorning ancient buildings and young African-American boys tap-dancing in the streets for the quarters tourists throw at their busy feet.
Very few people stop to think just where those boys live or how they live and yet they, like so many, are the other side of New Orleans.
This city that began as a French outpost on the delta of the Mississippi River that once was the possession of France and Spain, was purchased by Thomas Jefferson from Napoleon along with the rest of Louisiana with the intent of making it part of the new United States of America. But the 100-year history it had already experienced remained more entrenched than any influence the new America would have upon it.
The result is Louisiana with the northern section populated by Protestant, conservatives and the south, the city of New Orleans and the surrounding parishes, home to Cajuns, Creoles, African-Americans, and a poor white working class, mostly Catholic.
Yet, this geographic, religionist and often ethic divisions pale by comparison to the real divide between the rich and the poor, those individuals with control, money and power and those who are controlled. The history of Louisiana’s politics is riddled with corruption often coupled with incompetent leadership.
A New Yorker correspondent A.J. Liebling described Louisiana’s politics as “of an intensity and complexity that are matched only in the Republic of Lebanon”. While he made this observation over 40 years ago, the “banana republic” political machine of Louisiana goes all the way back to its beginning. Richard Leche, who was elected governor of the state in the late 1930s said, “When I took the oath of office, I didn’t take a vow of poverty”. He was later convicted of bribery charges and ended up in jail.
Yet, he was not unique in his attitude. Over the past thirty years, numerous elected officials have been convicted of crimes in Louisiana. They include a governor, an attorney general, an elections commissioner, an agriculture commissioner, three successive insurance commissioners, a congressman, a federal judge, a state Senate president, 6 state legislators, local sheriffs, and city councilmen. The list is ongoing. In 1999 alone the FBI arrested 66 people on public corruption charges. This was more than in any other state. In fact, the FBI has stated that Louisiana’s public corruption is a top priority and would remain so for a number of years. As recently as last month, six people were charged in New Orleans in an alleged scheme to skim money from an $81 million energy-saving contract that was awarded under former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial.
Another former politician, Edwin Edwards, known as the Cajun King, served four terms as governor of Louisiana until he was finally convicted of corruption charges by the FBI.
The result of this widespread and ongoing corruption has been a complete breakdown of the infrastructure of the city of New Orleans.
Once home to 500,000 people, with more than one-fourth living in poverty, New Orleans the city and Louisiana the state, failed their people long before the rains and winds of Hurricane Katrina tore through their state.
The murder rate in New Orleans is 10 times the national average. To test the response of the poor living in their numerous projects, last year researchers had police fire 700 blank rounds in a city neighborhood one afternoon. No one called to report the gunfire.
The city’s school system went broke this past year, as they were unable to pay their teachers. Meanwhile, dozens of school employees are under indictment for corruption.
Fifty-five of the state’s 78worst schools are in New Orleans. Mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagin was once the general manager for Cox Communications in southeast Louisiana. Prior to holding this position he had no experience in public office.
While there will be plenty of blame to go around in this tragedy, there can be no denying that the first line of defense in such disasters is the mayor, then the governor, then the federal agencies. The US Army Corps of Engineers have been building levees along the Mississippi River since the late 1800s and it was no secret in New Orleans that they were not built to withstand anything stronger than a Category 3 storm.
The real blame here belongs to a corrupt system of local government that has been tolerated for generations.
In the words of Louisiana’s former Governor Earl Long, brother of the infamous Huey Long, this is how you fit into the Louisianan political system: “Don’t write anything you can phone. Don’t phone anything you can talk. Don’t talk anything you can whisper. Don’t whisper anything you can smile. Don’t smile anything you can nod. Don’t nod anything you can wink”.
The only hope for both the state of Louisiana and what’s left of the city of New Orleans is that along with all the garbage and debris, they clean up their political system, as well.
— Adrienne McPhail is an American journalist located in Yokosuka, Japan.
