a nother must read Hurricane Katrina, one week later

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Adam Peake <ajp () glocom ac jp>
Date: September 8, 2005 8:48:02 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: (for IP?) Fwd: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Hurricane Katrina, one week  
later


Prof Shrum is an interesting guy, the event he's coordinating for  
WSIS in Tunis later this year looks like it will be one of the  
highlights <http://worldsci.net/>  And his comments on what he's  
seeing in Louisiana also worth a look.  Hope he reports more.

Adam




> From: "Wesley Shrum" <shrum () lsu edu>
> To: <plenary () wsis-cs org>
> Cc: "'Rick Duque'" <rduque1 () lsu edu>
> Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Hurricane Katrina, one week later
> Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2005 08:16:48 -0500
>
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> _______________________________________
>
> This is Wesley Shrum, from Louisiana.  I'm a professor of sociology at
> Louisiana State University and I'm organizing the "Past, Present, and
> Future" event just before the summit in November.  I know many of  
> you from
> the PrepComs and the Geneva summit. With luck, I will still see you in
> Tunis.
>
> I have not seen anything on this list about Katrina, but I have not  
> had much
> opportunity to keep up this past week.  Things are bad, and there's  
> not much
> anyone can do from afar, but I'd like to get this out somehow, and  
> I'm not
> on many listservs.
>
> From the emails I've received, I guess everyone knows what  
> happened.  But
> I'd like you to know some things, because the media--not all, but
> some--sometimes make it seem like we are a bunch of looting animals  
> here in
> Louisiana.  Some may remember, back at PrepCom 2 before Geneva, I  
> was the
> semi-official CRIS videographer.  And today two of us are going  
> down to
> Plaquemines, south of New Orleans in the swamps, to film there.  But I
> wanted to tell you about what we found on Monday, partly to counter  
> some of
> what you might be reading or seeing.
>
> On Sept 5, one week after Katrina, our group of ten from the  
> Department of
> Sociology here in Baton Rouge did some video ethnography.  We  
> conducted
> interviews in the parking lot with approximately 50 displaced  
> persons at a
> central Baton Rouge location. Afterwards, we met for a couple of  
> hours, to
> abstract a consensus view of what we had learned.  It is important  
> to keep
> in mind that we spoke with individuals with some mobility (own car,  
> other's
> car, bus) that had been displaced by Hurricane Katrina and we have  
> not yet
> interviewed those living in collective shelters.
>
> --The vast majority are from the New Orleans metropolitan area  
> (including
> Kenner, Metairie, Chalmette, but not the New Orleans North Shore or
> Plaquemines).  The vast majority of displaced persons are staying  
> in private
> homes.
>
> --The further one goes away from hurricane areas, the more, the  
> better, and
> the quicker is the assistance (people came back to Baton Rouge  
> because they
> want to be closer to home, even in spite of reduced assistance).
>
> --Crime and fear of crime was universally unobserved or  
> insignificant, both
> for early and late evacuees.
>
> --Blacks are more committed to returning home to New Orleans than  
> whites,
> who express more reservations about returning (note, this does not  
> take into
> account social class).
>
> --Displaced people have received assistance from (in order of  
> importance),
> family, friends, and strangers.  Churches have helped.  Public  
> (government)
> assistance was not just negligible-no member of the team recalled any
> instance of government assistance reported by this group of  
> individuals (in
> the rare cases where help was requested, it was not provided).
>
> --Most people consider themselves to be very lucky, doing well, or  
> doing
> reasonably well given the circumstances.  They are not requesting  
> assistance
> (beyond that they are receiving, and some of the most fortunate  
> have their
> own means).  But the minority of persons who are not doing well  
> DESPERATELY
> NEED HELP.
>
> --The main concerns are financial, for a place to stay, and  
> education for
> their children.
>
> Put simply, depending on how long before they move back (if they  
> do), people
> are worried that they will wear out their residential welcome.
>
> Summarized by Wesley Shrum, 5 September 2005
> http://worldsci.net     world summit side event
> http://4sonline.org    society for social studies of science
> http://worldsci.net/global     science, internet, & development  
> project
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Plenary () wsis-cs org
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