Let’s talk about the Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina victims in real terms. Let’s name it for what it is: genocide.
That’s what Brother William L. Patterson said of lynching in 1951 after the Convention on Genocide went into effect. Patterson presented a document to the United Nations that showed the failure of the federal government to act against lynching. He used Article II of the UN Convention. And so can we.
The Convention on Genocide defines genocide as acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” The acts that are applicable in this hurricane travesty that ultimately spanned three states include “killing members of that group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group” and “deliberating inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
For years, alarms have been sounded about the sinking city of New Orleans. The state of Louisiana loses about 25 square miles of land a year – roughly the equivalent of a football field every 15 minutes. The historic city, already below sea level, is surrounded by water. Since 2001, the Bush-crony Congress has reduced the budget of the project to build up the levees to withstand Level 5 and 6 storms. In 2004, it was reduced by 80 percent due to monies being diverted for the war in Iraq – the same place all the Louisiana National Guard troops were deployed when they were needed for the greatest natural disaster this country has ever seen.
Last year, a mock exercise was conducted in New Orleans by officials from over 50 local, state and federal agencies using a fake hurricane by the name of Pam. Almost to the letter, what they saw then is what New Orleans got last week. One glaring fact was that over 100,000 people would NOT be able to evacuate because no one in their household had a car.
The scope of devastation and ensuing complications were known and have been publicly stated for at least the last five years by experts from many different fields looking at the doomsday scenario.
Now to the response, or lack of response, by federal agencies. It became painfully clear after the first 24 hours that these poor folks, mainly African-American, were going to be left to fend for themselves. Even Mayor Ray Nagin telling the feds to “get off their asses” didn’t stimulate a faster response. The media people on the ground were compelled to speak to the glaring economic and racial disparities in the situation. Filmmaker Michael Moore said it bluntly when he speculated that white people in Kennebunkport, Maine would not have been left stranded on rooftops for five days.
Tens of millions around the world witnessed the abandonment of the New Orleans poor as their despair and suffering deepened. Nagin predicted that most of the deaths will be caused by the turtle-like speed at which life-giving supplies and evacuators appeared on the scene. He included in this number the suicides that have taken place, including two city policemen. Bush finally began to feel the pressure and decided to cut short his vacation.
Alongside our efforts to give emotional, physical and medical support to Hurricane Katrina victims, this nation must face the discussion of why this happened. We have to frame it in the most graphic and accurate way possible. It is genocide.
We must not let the blame-game degenerate into no one being held accountable. Further, we absolutely shouldn’t tolerate blaming of the victims.
The blame has to start with Bush. Yes, we know he’s inept. Everyone knows he kept reading that children’s book while planes flew into the World Trade Center. That’s no excuse. He still holds the title of commander-in-chief. Our hard-earned tax dollars are not at work where we want them; the dollars are being used to build empire and consolidate greed while U.S. citizens perish in mostly preventable deaths.
There’s one snag that we cannot let hamper us in taking this to the World Court. The U.S. finally signed the Convention on Genocide in 1988, but only with the provision that it had to give approval before any prosecution.