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Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Katrina: the need for an anthropological perspective
I’ve heard it at least two or three times on the radio and television: Hurricane Katrina has brought the best and the worst out in people. As with any disaster, natural or otherwise, this is usually the case. I cannot begin to fathom how anyone could be taking advantage of such a situation as callously as those that have been looting in the hurricane area, particularly in New Orleans. As many have said, it is one thing to “loot” for bare necessities such as food and water, but blatantly stealing electronics, designer clothing, and other goods is the worst display of humanity and a prime example of everything that’s wrong with American culture. I could go on for pages about how our society has nurtured this behavior but I’ll spare you.
What I will comment on is the sad state of affairs in terms of survivors and refugees. Virtually every news image coming in from the New Orleans area, which experienced the worst flooding due to its location below sea level, has been of the poorest of the poor of Louisiana. These are these are the people that could not evacuate the area prior to the hurricane because they did not have the means to, presumably because they did not own or have access to a car. They ended up either at the Superdome, on a rooftop, or dead. I have yet to see footage of middle- or upper-class families sticking it out on a stadium floor or wading through waist-deep water that is most definitely contaminated. Why? The answer is obvious: they all had the means to get out.
While I cannot offer a solution to the poverty problem in New Orleans or elsewhere, I cannot help but place a certain degree of blame on the federal and local governments for the current situation. As some have noted, the mere fact that so many individuals were “left behind” is testament to the government’s lack of adequate disaster planning for the low-income, poor, and homeless population. Many have sympathized with local officials and authorities for doing the best they can in such an awful situation. Indeed they have been but much could have been prevented with a little foresight and planning. Much has been made of the fact that New Orleans as a city was waiting for the hurricane disaster that would sink the city. Why then have so many people been left behind to scrape by in a structure designed for football games and worse, left to die? To plan for the worst after the worst has happened is not acceptable. The majority of these people should have been in the state of Louisiana on Monday morning.
I anticipate a voice from the anthropological community in regards of diaster planning in the coming weeks and months. There is a class structure in America that sadly become very well-defined over the past few days. If one good thing is to come out of the Katrina diaster it is that disaster planning for low-income, disabled, elderly, poor, and homeless communities may now play a more prominent role in the agendas of local governments.
Posted by Will at August 31, 2005 09:20 PM in Anthropology | In the News