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CHICAGO
SUN-TIMES
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13,
2005
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Hurricane looting not over yet |
JESSE JACKSON
T he victims have been dis- persed to states across the country. Many still sleep on cots in arenas, desperately trying to locate family mem- bers separated in the furies of Katrina. They are struggling with a staggering psychological toll -- destruction of homes, loss of jobs, suffering, abandonment, displace- ment to a new city, prospects unclear, past literally under water. But while the victims are simply trying to get their bearings, the bar racudas are circling. Naomi Klein, who witnessed this in Iraq, calls it "disaster capitalism." Congress has appropriated $62 billion already. Hundreds of billions more will be spent on reclaiming the Gulf Coast, rebuilding and relocation. The feed- ing frenzy has begun. Already Halliburton is on hand with a no-bid contract for recon- struction. Fluor, Bechtel, the Shaw Group -- Republican-linked firms -- are lining up for contracts. Lob- byists like Joe Allbaugh, close friend of George Bush, and James Lee Witt, close friend of Bill Clinton -- both former heads of the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- are advising their corporate clients to get teams on the scene. Normal rules of contracting and competition are being waived in the emergency. Big bucks are on the table. It is a |
time to be wired politically. The ideologues are in the hunt, too. Newt Gingrich is circulating memos calling for turning the region into a massive enterprise zone, slashing corporate taxes, reducing regulations. The oil lobby is pushing for drilling in Alaska and off the shores of the United States. Right wing activist Grover Norquist calls for cutting taxes on the wealthy even more to stimulate the economy. Ari- zona Republican Rep. Jeff Flak sug- gests conservatives use the crisis to try out their favorite ideas -- vouch- ers for education and health care. President Bush characteristically issued an executive order effectively lowering the wages of reconstruction workers -- and hiking the profits of their companies. He wiped out the requirement to pay prevailing wages in the disaster region, apparently thinking that $9 an hour for con- struction workers was too high a
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Katrina's victims are |
the next available Super Bowl. Business optimism and energy are vital for rebuilding New Orleans. Big dreams and big schemes are es- sential to the human spirit that will bring the Gulf Coast back. But those who were abandoned in the Super- dome are looking at another man- made catastrophe. Dispersed in 40 states, Katrina's victims are strug- gling to get by, as companies pick up contracts and others get the jobs. If New Orleans is rebuilt as an enter- prise zone, private investors will wait for the government to clean up the mess and then build luxury con- dos to replace affordable housing. They'll turn New Orleans into a theme park, with its former resi- dents unable to afford to come back. We shouldn't let disaster capital- ists make a killing while those who suffered the greatest devastation are left out of the mix. We need a seri- ous plan to rebuild vital infrastruc- ture, to make New Orleans sustain- able, to develop affordable housing and mass transit, to rebuild schools. Tax breaks and enterprise zones will end up building floating casinos and luxury condos. We need public in- vestment, linked to a Civilian Con- struction and Conservation Corps that gives priority to housing, hiring, training and putting to work the poor people who lost. The Bush administration's inac- tion and indifference after Katrina hit abandoned the poor and added to their suffering. It would be tragic now if action by the Republican Congress and the Bush administration added to the misery. These people already have had their past swept away by Katrina's furies. We should ensure that their future is not erased by right wing ideologues rewarding dis- aster capitalists and excluding those who suffered the most from the deal. |