I established a big grassroots organization in Iraq implementing community based micro-projects in Baghdad and the nine cities of the south. The work was based on reconstructing both the built environment and the civil society, or more precisely, reconstructing the built-environment through rebuilding the Iraqi civil society.
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to go all the way down to NOLA and take a part in one of the emerging reconstruction campaigns there. Well, as a brand new US tax payer, a part of me went to check where my greens are being spent.
I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, and maybe add some comments here and there.
Ladies and Gentlemen: Welcome to St. Bernard Parish.
Mr. Taxi driver is the first part of this story. He gave me a better price after he knew I was a volunteer. He lost his house in St. Bernard Parish, and took me around New Orleans and St. Bernard to show me the post-Katrina destruction.
After six months of Katrina, the city looks like it came out of the disaster just yesterday. Thousands of houses are still destroyed, hundreds of cars around the streets, and tons of junk everywhere.
The "Golden Arches" in New Orleans are neither golden nor arches.
You can drive for hours with such images.
The size of destruction is unbelievable. It looks like the area was nuked. I had never seen such a huge disaster in my life.
