Alternet PEEK editor Evan Derkacz writes that an Army Times article reads. “While some fight the insurgency in the city…” and thus we are perhaps treated to another insight into the slow response time and negligent preparations.”
As so many others have noted, if this were to happen to New England and thousands of white people were trapped, would the response have been so slow? Would gun-toting bandits be labeled “the insurgency”? (New Hampshire, the “live free or die” state, has a lotta guns…)
Xeni Jardin writes: “We are talking about fellow American citizens here — in America.”
“Not insurgents. Not refugees. Not enemies. Americans.” …
Man, I used the term insurgents as snarky satire the other day, and many people here were legitimately concerned. Who knew the Army Times would do it seriously? Thanks for the tip, Evan. OPEN THREAD:
ews Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty International
AI Index: AMR 51/140/2005 6 September 2005
USA: Ensure the safety of victims of Hurricane Katrina
Amnesty International today expressed deep concern over reports that victims of the hurricane that devastated New Orleans and surrounding areas were left for days in increasingly desperate and unsafe circumstances.
The organization called on authorities to urgently deploy adequate resources to ensure that all those now evacuted or who remain in need in the affected areas are protected from attacks and are provided with food, water, adequate shelter and appropriate medical care.
…
READ ALL.
I’ve been using the term “refugees.” No offense intended.
On the whole race thing, I am kind of waiting for the Minutemen project to volunteer to come up to Houston and San Antonio shelters to initiate “patrols” so that none of the “underprivileged” (thanks Babs) escape into the local community and threaten the jobs, lives and security of honest Texans.
I hear people feeling that the word has negative, dehumanizing connotations, implying that a “refugee” is less than a citizen. But personally, using the term to describe those displaced by Katrina drives home for me a key realization — that anyone can be a refugee. Because it ISN’T just the homeless urban minority underclass who are dislocated by this catastrophe.
I remember a long time ago seeing an awareness-raising magazine advert — it was a page chock full of hundreds of perfectly ordinary-looking human faces, and the text of the ad was something like, “Which of these people are refugees?” It was meant to drive home the point that refugees are not some uniquely ill-fated misfortunate Other — they are us, and we could so easily be them, overnight, through any number of twists of life.
Refugees are people who flee their homes en masse for some external reason and thus need … refuge. A refugee arriving in my community requires a compassionate response from me and my neighbors. I think the term “evacuee” is colder, describing merely a fact of transportation, lacking the necessary relationship to surrounding society.
Out of respect for the feelings of people who have suffered more than they should already, I will watch my speech and avoid the term “refugee.” But I see this question of vocabulary quite differently nonetheless.
I noticed in the last day or so, that our local media has started to use the term survivor as well.
This rubs me the wrong way. First, reality TV has completely warped our culture’s association with the term “survivor.” For at least a generation, there will be an undertone of game-strategy or entertainment with the use of that word.
Second, “survivor” taps into the whole “survivalism” mindset. Every MAN for HIMself and dog-eat-dog and ain’t American hyperindividualism just peachy and admirable? A “survivor” is not someone with whom I am called to be in relationship with through bonds of common humanity.
Third — it masks the root injustices that contributed to the horrific scope of this catastrophe. A “survivor” doesn’t need anything save his own wits and guts. A “survivor” survived where others died, and thus that survivor MUST have been a little more clever or far-seeing or stronger or something. The term erases the elements of unfair privilege and dumb blind luck, the lack of which has caused so many needless deaths.
I think it’s just another term for “winner,” and another way to detach from the reality that there is a whole spectrum, an entire population of various shades of victims in this story. It’s another “cold” term, like evacuee.
Hmmm. Being blessedly TV-free, I don’t have that association. Do you really think it’s an issue? What word would you use?
(On one hand, this conversation strikes me as faintly ridiculous. We’re really discussing what’s the best word to use to describe these people? On the other hand, it may be important.)
While I see your point about “anyone can be a refugee”, the concern is that the use of “refugee” in these circumstances will draw on the common usage rather than challenge it. Which may make it easier to treat these people as if they’re other than some of our own.
The Merriam-Webster defines “refugee” as “one that flees; especially : a person who flees to a foreign country or power to escape danger or persecution”, and dictionary definitions tend to describe common usage.
Now in some sense, one could say that how we treat them shouldn’t matter whether or not they’re some of our own. They’re humans, they’re some of our own wherever they come from. But the reality is that it does matter. Being careful to emphasize that they’re (mostly) Americans will help get help to them. Gods know that many of them already have the two strikes of racism and classism against them in that regard.
This information could help displaced students continue their education.
“The University of North Dakota is opening its doors to college students affected by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The University is offering assistance to those students and faculty who are in the impacted areas and associated colleges and universities that are affected by Hurricane Katrina and cannot reopen during this semester.”
More info and toll-free number Here
That’s wonderful! Good for them. The Univ. of Washington is doing that too, but how many I don’t know… even Wash. state kids can’t get into the UW.
The government treated our people in New Orleans not unlike the Isrealis treat the Palestinians. If one among you cracks from the stress of slow death then you will all die. Its sick and sadistic to hold children accountable for the actions of a few desperate people that have broken under the stress or are just trying to feed their families.
heard that on TV last night, and haven’t heard a better one yet.
I’m thinking “displaced”.
“displaced” — this term has connotations to the “displaced persons,” Europeans forced out by the Nazis, so I’m not sure if that’s what we want to use.
But in some aspects might accurately represent the situation regards the beginning of fascism here in our republic.
http://nola.asgard.net/media/orleans.mov
Wow. Speechless.
oh, sybil, wrenching. We had better not forget.
Do you know who put this together?
What that song was in the background?
ooof. that’s all I can say after watching that.
There’s a lot of talent behind that little movie
but I don’t know its origins. It came via Salon.com
An increasingly prominent right-wing preacher, Rick Scarborough, has linked Katrina to the Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip and to the U.S. support of that withdrawal (and of course, on gays and bestiality).
Scarborough has been very active promoting the appointment of conservatives to the Supreme Court. He is close to Tom Delay and Ray Moore, the “Ten Commandments” judge.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/blaming-katrina-on-gays-_b_6856.html
reporting on her trip to NOLA.