As we approach the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina destroying New Orleans, I am heading out to the annual APSA convention. Once again the conference is in Washington, DC - as it was on that weekend in 2005. Posts will be - at best - intermittent through Sunday.
But here are a set of essays by Rebecca Sonit on lessons for the post-Katrina world - from The Nation here, The L.A. Times here, and from Yes! here. Solnit points out, once again, that the dangers in NOLA in the immediate wake of the storm emerged more from ineptitude and malign neglect on the part of government, the misrepresentations of the media and the violence of mercenaries, police and white vigilantes - all animated largely by racist fear fear and animosity - than from the poor residents whom the storm displaced.
