Weather

Looking at the pics below made me think of talking to my Mum on the phone. In Britain and particularly in Scotland, there is a general preoccupation, some would say obsession, with talking about the weather. It is normal, almost expected, that somewhere in a conversation the question shall be asked 'So, what's the weather like with you today?'.

When my Mum asks me this on the phone I normally chuckle and give my rote answer - "Oh, same as yesterday, warm (or hot) and sunny". Don't get me wrong, sometimes New Orleans can have stunningly dramatic rainstorms that flood the streets, or thunder storms loud enough to wake you in the middle of the night with your heart in your mouth (and we all know about the "H" word), but generally the weather is hot & sunny.

When the weather is generally the same (and generally nice), no one really becomes obsessed with a daily discussion on the weather. But in Scotland when horizontal freezing rain can greet you outside the door for a week its no surprise that it should become a daily topic.

Oh, its warm & sunny today [again] by the way!!

Two Year Anniversary of Katrina

This is one of the public housing "ghettos" that I pass almost on a daily basis and every time it makes me reflect. It reminds me of the empty Warsaw ghettos from the 1940s. It makes me question what the observers of those ghettos thought about where its previous inhabitants had gone.

The inhabitants of this ghetto have not been sent to such a horrific fate but they have still been shipped away. When I talked to a NOPD cop a few months back he said that when the army was brought in, the way they treated people reminded him of Poland in the 1940s.

This ghetto reminds me that there are 90,000 New Orleanians now resident in Houston. This ghetto reminds me that there are people who called this place home for generations and had never left it until Katrina forced them out. I look at the empty gaping windows and wonder who lived there and what they brought to the city they belonged to. There were no doubt criminals and drug lords in this ghetto and whether it was a pleasant or unpleasant place to live is a whole other discussion on American public housing, but there must have been plenty of people who were not those things, who were trying to scrape by, trying to make ends meet anyway they could. There must have been some people who helped create the chants of the Mardi Gras Indians, who encouraged their kids to learn the brass band music of generations and who cooked red beans and rice on a Monday. Where are these New Orleanians now and how to they feel today?

I always wonder how these people coped after what happened to them at the superdome and the convention center. I wonder what they thought as they couldn't get out and faced surviving that huge storm. These are the people this country abandoned, the people who were not important enough to get water to in five days. I always wonder if these people have been offered the chance to return home to this city or not. I wonder if their hearts have been broken living in the total other universe outside of New Orleans.

Guuuuuuuuuulllp...........

Dean is lurking hoping to be classified a grown up hurricane tomorrow. His timing is close to that baytch storm that caused the federal flood. New Orleans in her fragile recovery lie uncertain in the cone of predictions.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried. I would be lying if I didn't say that most of the people in this city are worried. Not that everyone is talking about it. Its eerily quiet. I think we all hope Dean will just go on his merry way to somewhere else. Just the thought of a hurricane is difficult in this city. I am Scottish and have no hurricane experience but considering our over preparations for Ernesto last year, have no fear we will be high tailing it out of here. I have read enough about the state of the levees and the failures of the feds to help secure our safety. I cannot bring myself to think too much about it, let alone blog about it. But rest assured our fear is warranted.

Its scary because I love this place. Our lives are beginning to go well. Its like when you send a loved one off on a journey you pray that no harm comes to them and they arrive back to you in one piece. I am praying right now that New Orleans journey with Dean is a safe one, hopefully observing from the sidelines. God Bless New Orleans!!

Things you see on the way home....

NOLA and Glesga Humour!

I've just read an interesting wee post on longayelander's blog about how my fellow Scots are doing what they always do when faced with a frightening situation - they laugh about it!!

There is a true William Wallace in the midst of Glasgow (that's GlasGO) and his name is John Smeaton. He ruled the airwaves of the British media bringing the big lovely rolled up vowels of the Glaswedgian working class to the confusion of anyone outside of Govan. His heroism has been told and retold - how it was 'ah good job ah wis there' - to knock one of the men from the Jeep to the ground to let the 'polis' arrest him. It has inspired a website where people have bought him 1,000 pints to say thank you! There you can witness the youtube videos of this great man of Glesga patter!

My favourite quote (same as Katie's) on the website is the following:

"Those hapless al-Qaeda boys were to find out that Glasgow has no respect for international terrorism. Nobody gets between 10,000 Weegies and a £99 week in Ibiza booked on Thursday night through Barrhead Travel.

And most of all, no-one messes with The Polis. Not in this town."

It all feels very similar to NOLA. The satirical costumes of mardi gras, the New Orleans satirical paper "The New Orleans Levee" subtitled 'we don't hold anything back'. The bloggers' biting wit.

Maybe this is why I feel at home here. Whilst the rest of America quakes in fear of this war on terror, N'awlins laughs at the ridiculousness and tries to find humour in the sorry state of affairs that is post-K NOLA, so that humour can carry us to another day.

The Blame Game

Wow. I'm quite amazed by Nagin. He's got quite the brass neck.

He's got all the good sound bites. He's got all the answers: its their fault. He blamed the Feds for not coughing up the dough that NOLA was promised by that blithering idiot in Jackson Square in Sept 2005. He blames the State for having a juicy surplus whilst things are still so very much broken in NOLA. But Nagin, aah Nagin!! He's cleaned up the French Quarter to the point that eating the vomit on Bourbon Street doesn't sound so unappetizing... :)

I always feel with Nagin that he wants to be the cool kid that everyone likes. He wants to be on our side. He wants to forget that he is on the side of local government whether he likes it or not and that with that comes the responsibility to actually do something about our problems not complain about them and blame everyone else. In my humble opinion if he blames Bush and Bianco for the lack of cash and (therefore) progress in New Orleans he should have been banging down their doors, screaming blue murder in the halls of Congress and running naked across the White House lawn to get their attention.

Had he done all that then I wouldn't mind hearing him bitch....

The end of his speech I found very interesting and if anyone can help on any of this please do:

In closing, as I stated earlier we as a city are determined to have a full recovery.

[Great!!]

We have the vision.

[What is it?]

We have the plan.

[I don't know it]

We made the tough decisions to position us for a full recovery.

[They were...?]

We have chosen life over death.

[well some of us have been able to.....]

We will rebuild.

[with or without your help....]

One New Orleans, one Louisiana.

[who's he kidding? the rest of Louisiana is so unbelievable redneck that when I get too far along I-10 I want to do a screeching U-turn and head home ASAP]

Post-Traumatic-Stress in Post-Katrina New Orleans

A very good friend of mine from the BBC sent me an email this morning. In it is details of a paper “Prevalence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Following Hurricane Katrina” by Lisa D. Mills MD and Trevor J. Mills MD. This paper will be presented at the 2007 SAEM ( Society for Academic Emergency Medicine) Annual Meeting, May 16-19, 2007, Chicago, IL on Friday, May 18th, in the Psychiatry poster session beginning at 9:00 AM in the River Exhibition Hall A & B of the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers.

This paper is to report that Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is ten times the national average in New Orleans. 38% of people who have visited the Emergency rooms in New Orleans exhibit signs of PTSD compared with 3.6% for the national average. Dr. Peter DeBlieux, MD,
Director of Emergency Services at Louisiana State University in New Orleans was asked about this study and commented:
“The incidence of PTSD in our population post-Katrina reported in this research study is noteworthy and worth following as recovery efforts move forward. The prevalence cited in this study is not alarming to those professionals caring for patients who have been traumatized by the storm and challenged by the recovery efforts.”

This should come as "news" to no one. Katrina turned this city into a war zone and most people involved in war suffer PTSD. Big parts of this city still look like a war zone. I drive up Louisiana Avenue to Clairborne to get onto I-10 and every time I do I look at the huge housing project on the right hand side. It is empty and abandoned after Katrina. The windows are cracked, the roof starting to crumble and it is quite eerie. It always reminds me of photos of war torn Germany during the 1940s. That's what Katrina did. She left big swathes of this city war torn.

I don't know if this paper will include this - although I hope it does - but I look at that housing project and the size of it and its emptiness and I wonder where all those people ended up. The PTSD in this city is 38% but what about all those other souls spread throughout the US? They surely also have PTSD. But being the poorest in society are they getting adequate care? Being the poorest in society they were the ones who didn't leave. They are the ones that really experienced the war zone and all its wrath.

The magnitude of loss here is staggering. It is present on a continuum from the smallest possession to loss of a loved one. As part of the story in my friend's email stated:
"The magnitude and duration of even a single mental health care diagnosis after this disaster demonstrates the need for long term, coordinated mental health response as part of disaster relief. Interim or temporary mental health response is not adequate for this population."

The scars from this disaster run deep. The rate of suicide is up. The number of people who are dying from stress is up. This city needs to be rebuilt but not just physically. Souls are hurt and they should be cared for and helped to heal as best they can.

Stormy Weather

At 2.44 am I was woken with a jolt - a jolt of lightning. There was a terrific bang and my heart leaped trying to escape my petrified chest. Then there was another and a disgruntled animal growled loudly in the distance. The growling and the flashing got more intense until our ears were whipped by a clap of rage. Sleep was impossible with such a battle going on in the dark of night. Nature asserted her superior place and I curled up and closed my eyes waiting for the battle to end.

I have seen and heard some astounding storms in the US. Once in Aspen, Colorado, I was shaken along with the building I was in, when a bolt hit just outside the door. In Cleveland there was a freakish storm that literally rolled in. There was this huge black/green cloud that rolled over the horizon like a wave and engulfed the city in a firestorm of flashes, clashes and splashes. When Dazza and I were moving to Miami we drove from Atlanta to Savannah and went through a series of storms that seemed never ending. We got the fright of our lives when a bolt hit the median just as we were passing with the windscreen wipers on full pelt and rain thrashing out any vision of the road ahead. We saw electric storms with no rain driving through 115 degree heat in the Utah desert.

But last night was the loudest, most ferocious I have ever experienced. The clouds must have been low and the Gods very angry. I generally love listening to storms - probably because we'd hardly ever have any in Scotland - but last night I have to admit they had me a little spooked.

No we are NOT OK - and Boston knows it!

I have just seen a very very interesting article on Ashley's blog. It is an article written by a woman from Boston about New Orleans and the lack of progress here. It is worth taking the time to read - it is a view from outside and gives an impression to those of you who don't live here but saw all that TV footage, of what it really is like here in what a lot of NOLA bloggers have started to "affectionately" call Debrisville!!!

So please go here to the Boston Globe article and get angry, get understanding of why the people in New Orleans feel abandoned by their country and are still saying NO we are not OK!!

High and Dry

How many times have I heard it?
"New Orleans is a bowl. New Orleans is sunk below sea level."
How many times have you heard it?
How many times we believed it?

Now the headline in the Times Picayune:

HIGHER GROUND

A study finds that New Orleans has plenty of real estate above sea level that is being underutilized

And:

Study bust myth that New Orleans is sunken city

French Quarter Fest

This weekend is the French Quarter Festival. It is free (always a good thing) and has all the music, food and drink and atmosphere you could want. Some friends and I (sadly Dazza had to work) went yesterday to enjoy the end of what was a gorgeous day in N'awlins.
Shrimp po'boy from one of the food stands. Amongst us we had crawfish etouffe, jambalaya, creole shrimp pasta, duck, pork and shrimp po'boys and a skewer of grilled shrimp and andouille sausage with pepper jelly .... yum!
We sat in Jackson square and enjoyed the end of the sunshine.
Mango daiquiris - candy in a cup with alcohol ... again, yum!
The sky blessed us with some nice colours whilst people danced and partied to their heart's content.



We made our way to the Brass Band stage. Brass Bands here are funky - nothing like the ones from home!! There is a dance impelling funk line from the sousaphone topped with sparkling trumpets and some right old razzing from the trombones....
We heard the band "Free Agents". [click on the link and you'll understand what I'm wittering on about] They were fantastic. One memorable song being "We made it through that water" ..... That's this town, take a horrible experience and use music and dance to help people get over it - celebrate the fact they are still here in spite of it all!!
I hate using a flash (I need a better camera...) so my night time shots always bring a dash of impressionism to them.

On our way to Frenchman Street we stopped at the Cafe Du Monde for some Cafe au'Lait and Beignets ... my friends complained that I was making us look like tourists by taking photos ...

Again, yum!!
On the sidewalk beside Cafe Du Monde is a guy who sets up most nights with his large telescope and "busks" in astronomy...!! Only in N'awlins....!
We ended the night on Frenchman Street. The Blue Nile is up and running (we'll definitely be checking out some bands there soon) after renovating. The guy standing outside it was very welcoming and when we returned his greeting of 'how you doin?' he said:
"I live in N'awlins, I'm great!"
and we replied:
"So do we"!!!!!!!!
We listened to the Panorama Jazz Band play at the Spotted Cat before heading home....
I love this town!!!

The Way Between The Worlds

I have just left another comment about NOLA as "Third World" and my distaste for the classification on Travelling Mermaid's blog (she has an excellent post on Dr Blakely's comments contrasted with some volunteers who came down here). I have been thinking about this term since I posted on the subject a month ago and got some thought provoking comments.

I was talking on this subject to one of my very good friends who is also Scottish and lives in the US. I have come to the conclusion that another classification is needed. One that communicates the richness, the magic that is almost tangible here. N'awlins often makes me feel like I'm in a novel in the style of Magic Realism. I feel like the upside down craziness of Jeanette Winterson in Sexing the Cherry, or I'm following Alice down that rabbit hole.

The rules here distort somewhat. Expectations are different. People are different. Its on the edge between things. Its like everywhere else and like nowhere else. I said to my friend that it feels a bit like the most magical place from my childhood: "the way between the worlds" in the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. I think this is a better classification of this place than "Third World".

I know that this still leaves other aspects of this place (crime, FEMA failure, federal flood, hurricane relief and recovery, school system) not front and center but I think that's OK (as long as we make sure that no one ever forgets what happened and what is still needed here). The problem with the "Third World" description, for me lets the politicians and people in power off the hook (or at least not working as hard on NOLA's behalf as they could). It says we know we're doomed because this is how we classify ourselves and our position as a city. We need to advertise in our own classification of this city why this city needs to be saved, what is so special, why it matters to the world.

I think it would be good to say farewell to the Third World mantra and take on a more magical definition. Something that tells of the magical mystical NOLA that gets in your blood.

I know I am a newbie but I believe NOLA can be feisty and satirical without being self-defeating in the classification. The third world has no NOLA.

NOLA is the way between the worlds.

Josh Bell plays for pennies

A couple of days ago I read this article about Josh Bell busking at one of the subway stations in Washington DC. There has been a lot of buzz about this. He played and made a paltry $35. But more than that barely anyone even noticed this violin virtuoso playing Bach. A lot of people are reading into this as a sign that people are uneducated about classical music (well that's true...), can't hear greatness or are just too involved with their busy lives to notice great art before them.

Then I read this response by a street musician from New York and went ah ha. It is complicated when you take great art - be it aural or visual - and put it in a different context. Great street musicians are great at playing for their audience. They also have to be great musicians but they need to have the skills to interact with their environment. As someone said of Josh Bell, if he was a good busker he would have chosen the correct time to play when people weren't rushing to get to work and by doing so would be respecting his audience.

I also liked hearing that busking made Josh nervous. Playing for people that had not already bought a ticket to hear him meant he had to validate himself with his playing and that made him nervous. Maybe its just me but playing to the expectations of people who have paid a lot to hear me would freak me out way more.

By the way Josh played the Mendelssohn violin concerto this past Fall with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra at Tulane. He played for a tiny fraction of his regular fee as a way to give back to this city and its orchestra.

All Hail Easter

Today it is cold!! We went to a friend's for a cook-out. We did cook "out" but definitely ate "in"! About two days ago it started to get cold at night and we brought out our duvet again. Today we were bemoaning Entergy and shivering in our shotgun.

And yes, today we actually had HAIL!! This cold snap is affecting a big part of the country - Dazza's Dad was reporting 19 degrees in Indianapolis today. I realise in a very short time I'm going to be dreaming of a day like today. When I post my witterings and groans on the heat I really must remember to link to this post!!

However this isn't really what I envisioned for Easter in N'awlins. There are Easter parades tomorrow - I'm hoping to brave some of the shiver effect and see some of them. But I have a feeling I'll be jealous of the Easter Bunny all wrapped up in his furry suit!

Storm that Bastille

So much I could blog about today - but I've got so much to do (include shower.....). So here is the brief version:

Last night we went to TEACH NOLA fundraiser/awareness shindig at The Howling Wolf in the CBD. Its a great non-profit trying to get good teachers to teach in post-Katrina NOLA. Please check it out and if you are passionate and motivated and want to move here, perhaps this is for you.

The we went with our friends to Tipitinas to see Yo La Tengo play. Tipitinas is a funky place with a great atmosphere. There was some strange music from the opening band (dare I say it but we actually heard bad music in N'awlins!!) and Yo La Tengo seemed bent on mimicking it to begin with but luckily chilled out into their more standard indie emo style.

Today I read some fantastic stuff in Ashley's blog about storming the Bastille (ie city hall, those responsible) on Bastille Day and also he's put up an "official" weblink to the term Federal Flood in Wikipedia. Some NOLAites refer to the Katrina "incident" as the Federal Flood because it wasn't a hurricane that shattered this city it was the failure of the Federal levees.

And finally today was nicely rounded off by the Easter Bunny sending a package from Indiana with two cute stuffed toy peeps and other goodies.

Forecasting the Storms of Entergy

Today I did something I haven't done in quite a while. I actually read a hard copy of a newspaper. We have some dear, old friends in town for a few days and we walked to Rue De La Course for coffee (photo) and to peruse the local rag and the NY Times.

In today's paper I found two stories that I found quite alarming. The first was to do with our storm forecasting capabilities in this country. Apparently we have a less than satisfactory means of predicting hurricanes. This is alarming. We need 400 million bucks to put a Quik-SCAT satelllite into orbit. I personally think this is money that would be totally justifiable. However its not going to be spent and on top of that the Feds are already $700,000 below what the funding should be for hurricane research in this country as it is.

Maybe its just me but surely the huge costs ensuing from Katrina would make hurricane awareness, prediction and evacuation a top priority in this country? But that's just little old naive moi!

The second article which made me mutter was an opinion piece about our lovely energy company in N'awlins, Entergy. Our bill was quite shocking last month and some friends of our had even worse ones ($500 - that's Cleveland winter prices - and a big apartment at that!!). So I read this article with interest. The conclusion particularly had my attention:

The Utility Committee is open to exploring any regulatory structure that will bring rates down. We welcome proposals from community groups.

But let's not repeat our past mistakes under some form of statewide regulation that dumps disproportionate costs onto New Orleans ratepayers.

I think I need to read the paper in hard copy more often.

Monk

A couple of nights ago I was with some friends and colleagues in the DBA on Frenchman. We were fortunate also to have Joe, the new bass player for the new Monk institute there too - he's a friend of one of my colleague's. I hadn't heard about the Monk Institute - and especially not about it coming to New Orleans.

In brief it is probably one of the best, if not, the best jazz program in the country. Seven jazzers get room and board, lessons with the very best, education experience and a stipend for two to four years. For a jazzer its like winning the lottery. With jazz greats like Herbie Hancock, Wayne SHorter, Terance Blanchard, and Thelonius Monk Jr. guiding them, its a dream come true.

This exceptional program has until now been in Washington DC and LA. It is such a wonderful gift that it has now come to New Orleans - for the next seven years!! There are so many bad things to read about this city right now (murder, levees, corruption) that it is just "pure dead brilliant" (to use a good old Glasgow phrase) to hear about this coming to this city. This is where jazz was born and in its time of need, having a resurgence in the very best in jazz returning here is just the best news!!

I'm looking forward to hearing these guys play.

The One Who Keeps Getting Away

OK, this may seem like a trivial post with all the wonderful things to report, all there is to be concerned about, in this astounding city. But right now I am at war.

I have an unwelcome visitor that won't leave - or let me commit squishing murder. There is a N'awlins mosquito in this room and she keeps biting me (someone told me - I can't remember who but recently - that the biting mosquitoes are female - I was unaware there was any other kind until I was informed of this....). I've glimpsed her a couple of times and yelled a lot and cursed a lot (sorry Mum) flailed at her a lot and this is a war that I am currently losing.

You might think this is a trifle but I am extremely tasty to mosquitoes which would be a mild annoyance if I didn't react to every bite by breaking out in a large red itchy welt.

My female foe is slowly welting me to death - well at least my wits end...

And its not even April yet!! sigh.....

Moses you ain't - "They" know!

I have just read Chris Rose's recent article in the TP. I have also been reading a lot of NOLA bloggers posts on this issue. The issue is our wonderful, colourful major (yes, that's sarcasm).

He is famous for speaking his mind, only his mind is becoming something very few of us want to hear from. He is sounding completely nuts. He famously ranted during Katrina and woke up the Feds. He famously referred to this city as having always been a "chocolate city". He panders to the colour of the skin of his audience and says whatever inflammatory thing he thinks they wish to hear.

The latest Nagin saga has been his raving and ranting against "They". "They" want to divide this city up and remove the African Americans from the city. "They" see the aftermath of Katrina as a perfect opportunity to rid the city of the elements they dislike. "They" is a mass conspiracy. Mark at Wetbank blog puts it so well:

What's happening here is not happening to you in particular, or to the people you believe you represent. Listen, man: you're not Moses, the annointed leader of the Children of Isreal. The entire aftermath of the Federal Flood was not Pharoah out to get you and your people, and acting like that's the story line isn't going to bring about biblical miracles to restore the city to what it was. That's the PTSD and whatever else you have going on talking. Somebody who cares about you needs to take you aside and talk to you 'cause your messed up, and every time you open your mouth you mess us all up.

I have always been one (perhaps naively) who has thought that it should be the local leaders that would be those classed in the "They" category. After all if there was a conspiracy wouldn't the major be best placed to head it off, to provide the resources and structure to bring back the very people the so called conspiracy wishes to banish?

Major Nagin seems to be spending so much time these days looking for reasons to New Orleans problems that he's cross-eyed. Maybe its just my naive self but should he be looking for solutions to the problems instead of reasons.

I know Louisiana is famous for corrupt, inept politicians but really isn't Nagin too ridiculous for office? I know, I know, I'm naive.

Pumps, Levees ... follow-up

Thanks to leigh c. for giving me some leads on where to find info on the state of NOLA's pumps and levees. She recommended these two blogs : Fix The Pumps, and NOLA Dishu. Both have lots to read and think about. She also recommended these books:
"Holding Back the Sea" by Christopher Hallowell






"Bayou Farewell" by Mike Tidwell







I am going to find these and peruse them - likely I'll need a glass or two of whisky (Scotch of course!) to steady my nerves as I dig further into this issue. I will write a detailed blog post when I am more informed - I have the feeling I'll have lots to rant about.....