After Katrina, gentrify the city

真正的Hurricane比電玩的絕技厲害的多，轟出了眾多謊言、種族歧視、美國式資本主義的惡果；轟出了布希政府的「偏心」、侵略有力搶救無能的本質，比起古巴面對天然災害的應變與救災能力，簡直與其擁有的武力成反比。

右派論者當然可以熊彼得的「創造性的毀壞」來彼此自勉。事實上，他們正如此做著。

雖然我很喜歡kanye West的批判，但Naomi Klein的提醒更殘忍：自然災害後，什麼是最有力量的意識形態？答案當然不是布希或是下達國民兵令格殺勿論的州長，而是房地產與都市規劃者。城市中的窮人都走了，正是都市高級化（gentrification）的好時機，未來的紐澳良如果不能如當地低收入勞動者團結組織所堅持的，將會是一個充滿旅館或度假勝地而豪華大廳裡有著死去的爵士聲響的城市。

Power to the victims of New Orleans, Naomi Klein, The Guardian

On September 4, six days after Katrina hit, I saw the first glimmer of hope. “The people of New Orleans will not go quietly into the night, scattering across this country to become homeless in countless other cities while federal relief funds are funnelled into rebuilding casinos, hotels, chemical plants. We will not stand idly by while this disaster is used as an opportunity to replace our homes with newly built mansions and condos in a gentrified New Orleans.”The statement came from Community Labor United, a coalition of low-income groups in New Orleans. It went on to demand that a committee made up of evacuees “oversee Fema, the Red Cross and other organisations collecting resources on behalf of our people. We are calling for evacuees from our community to actively participate in the rebuilding of New Orleans.”

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There are already signs that New Orleans evacuees could face a similarly brutal second storm. Jimmy Reiss, chairman of the New Orleans Business Council, told Newsweek that he has been brainstorming about how “to use this catastrophe as a once-in-an-eon opportunity to change the dynamic”. The council’s wish list is well-known: low wages, low taxes, more luxury condos and hotels.

Before the flood, this highly profitable vision was already displacing thousands of poor African-Americans: while their music and culture was for sale in an increasingly corporatised French Quarter (where only 4.3% of residents are black), their housing developments were being torn down. “For white tourists and businesspeople, New Orleans’s reputation means a great place to have a vacation, but don’t leave the French Quarter or you’ll get shot,” Jordan Flaherty, a New Orleans-based labour organiser told me the day after he left the city by boat. “Now the developers have their big chance to disperse the obstacle to gentrification – poor people.”