Post Katrina - Video Documentary and the End.

During our last class we got a sneak peak of the upcoming video documentary on the rebuilding efforts in New Orleans. I thought that the parts of the video that were shown were very interesting. I wish we had more time to watch the video in its entirety.

One part that i found disturbing was the amount of tour buses that passed through the areas that were hardest hit where individuals were attempting to rebuild. First of all, if you are going to tour this area i don't understand how people can sit on a bus and just watch as these people stare back with almost nothing (no home, no possessions) and then go home to the safety of their hotel and sleep. What kind of moral responsibility do these tourists have. I personally have not done anything to help with the rebuilding efforts so perhaps I'm in no position to speak but i just think its wrong that this is allowed to go on. The second question I had is who is profiting from this. Do these tour companies make a significant amount of money, and does a portion of that get recycled in to the rebuilding efforts? Something tells me it doesn't.

Another interesting part was during a town council meeting. It seemed like certain prominent members were trying to feed the local residents a pile of crap. Hopefully they have a better place to turn for advice of how to rebuild and establish a thriving community. During another section we saw how a women was interesting in building a (i believe some sort of coffee pub/restaurant?) and wanted to have all the produce grown locally, turning a significant portion of land into a farming area. I wasn't sure what her motivations were but clearly they were not in harmony with the local residents. During another seen one person was asked what this part of the city needed to complete the rebuilding stage and to develop. The answer was to build a quilty school. I think that local governments need to be involved with this process to ensure that these schools are built

Finally i found it interesting that after hurricane Besty the city prepared the levies to withstand significant amounts of strom surge and damage. Now after hurricane Katrina these same efforts are being taken and engineers are claiming that these levies will survive future storms when completed in the future. I think these claims are misleading, something that brought over confidence to citizens during Katrina.

Over all i thought the video offered a good look into the post Katrina years and way of life in New Orleans.

This is the last post for this blog. It's been a great seminar: Thanks to Prof Svenson for all of his contributions and efforts that went into building the course and thanks to everyone for a great class.

Grassy Narrows

I thought our presenters and the guest lecturer really provided an interesting seminar. I found it very interesting to listen to Alex speak and to hear of his time spent at Grassy Narrows. Some of the people who live there had spent the majority of their lives speaking out against the logging industry that was destroying their land. Even when the road blockade began the logging companies just found a new path to exploit their land.

Another interesting point that was raised was the relationship that those people at Grassy had with the land itself. Nature and the forest was the mother, they viewed the land much differently that a person living in a city or of a different culture might. This relationship is unique and somthing that i think everyone could learn from. One of the main principles was to maintain the land for 7 generations in the future. The reasoning behind this that nobody will be alive to know anyone 7 generations in the future, basically saying that we need to build for future generations that we will never get to meet.

One of the children that Alex met was not exposed to television, and preferred to spend time playing in the woods, and with nature. I think all children enjoy spending time outside, but its a matter that is based upon their parents activity. Parents now plop their children in front of television sets to act as a supervising power. Others are afraid to let their children go play outside in the woods and restrict their access to whenever it is convient for them. I think this was even apparent in Grassy when new generations of children had lost interest in playing outdoors in the forest.

Overall i think we have a lot to learn from these different cultures and if we adopt some of the principles that they preach we could create positive change in our own backyards.