New Orleans: The 9th Ward One Year Later
Photos and commentary by Tao Ruspoli
We spent several hours in the ninth ward yesterday. We inteviewed 2 brothers who were stranded for 3 days without food or water taking care of their mother in the top floor of their house. They described the horrors in great detail, including watching dead bodies float by. One year later, it looked to us like very little had changed in their neighborhood. The few people left there live in inhuman conditions.
I was shocked to see that the only water they had to drink was donated by Anheuser-Busch. Until we read the can carefully, we had assumed they were drinking beer. Is it paranoia to think this is a calculated plot to reinforce certain stereotypes?
On a final note, a lot of New Orleans DOES NOT LOOK LIKE THIS! It's a beautiful, fun place to be. Come visit! Help with the relief if you are so inclined. But even for a vacation it's a great city and people just coming here and spending money would do the city a lot of good. Who knows, you may not want to leave...
We spent several hours in the ninth ward yesterday. We inteviewed 2 brothers who were stranded for 3 days without food or water taking care of their mother in the top floor of their house. They described the horrors in great detail, including watching dead bodies float by. One year later, it looked to us like very little had changed in their neighborhood. The few people left there live in inhuman conditions.
I was shocked to see that the only water they had to drink was donated by Anheuser-Busch. Until we read the can carefully, we had assumed they were drinking beer. Is it paranoia to think this is a calculated plot to reinforce certain stereotypes?
On a final note, a lot of New Orleans DOES NOT LOOK LIKE THIS! It's a beautiful, fun place to be. Come visit! Help with the relief if you are so inclined. But even for a vacation it's a great city and people just coming here and spending money would do the city a lot of good. Who knows, you may not want to leave...
posted by Tao Ruspoli at 1:35 PM
2 Comments:
Hey Tao, as for your comment, "I was shocked to see that the only water they had to drink was donated by Anheuser-Busch. Until we read the can carefully, we had assumed they were drinking beer. Is it paranoia to think this is a calculated plot to reinforce certain stereotypes?"
Yes, major paranoia to think this is a plot to reinforce certain stereotypes. I live in a small Gold Country (Sierra Nevada, CA) community. I had to evacuate my home 4 times during the major fires of 1987. All power and water was off for weeks at a time due to the fires burning through the lines. We too had Anheuser-Busch drinking water in the same type of cans. The firefighters as well as the locals had this same drinking water and we were incredibly thankful for it. When you're tired and thirsty and have no clean water to drink, it sure is nice to have help from anywhere, anybody. Thank goodness for whoever at Anheuser-Busch who thinks enough to help out any way they can! It blows me away that a big company actually "thinks" about us small folks!
Thanks for the eye opening shots of the Katrina area. More folks need to see this.
Great photos. Great Work!
I'm afraid I have to agree with the Sierra Nevada person about being paranoid. Good or bad, Anheuser-Busch has been donating water in "beer" cans for many years.
Good luck with your continuing adventure.
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