Mariama in the Gulf

Check Out My New Blog

2006-02-17T10:46:00.000-08:00

Based on my experiences in the Gulf Coast I decided to take a group of youth to the Gulf Coast to witness for themselves and to help raise awareness in Massachusetts about what is going on in the Gulf Coast region. If you want to see what I think you can check out that blog projecthiphopboston.blogspot.com . You will get some input from me but even more input from the 4 youth who are going on our trip.

Hope you will follow us on this new journey!

Wilma Survivors Are Organizing

2005-11-14T15:52:00.000-08:00

From: Miami Workers Center <MWC@democracyinaction.org >
Date: Nov 11, 2005 7:41 PM
Subject: From FEMA to City Hall: Where Does the Buck Stop?

Update from Miami:
16 days after Hurricane Wilma stormed through Miami, city, county, state, and federal agencies continue to fail to support its people. Along with 40 or so displaced residents and allies, the Miami Workers Center (MWC) and Low-Income Families Fighting Together (LIFFT) held a press conference and sit-in at the City Mayor's Office.

ïNot one more night, Homes not Cots, Viviendas Ahora, read the signs of families who rode up to city hall on a school bus from the only Red Cross shelter in the county. Those families made a political decision to go to city hall instead of negotiating the constant barrage of service workers who were now having evacuees fill out form after form without ever delivering housing.
The group gathered in front of city hall held a banner declaring, Housing Now. Several strong women from the Tamiami shelter led the call for immediate assistance from the local government and FEMA. Gihan Perera of the Workers Center addressed the press, 16 days after Hurricane Wilma, and 3 months after Katrina, what have we learned? Where are those that are supposed to be responsible? Where is the government? We are here today to ask the Mayor of Miami to stand up and take responsibility for the people of Miami and to ask him to hold FEMA accountable to doing its job as the Federal government.

Then Sushma Sheth and Rosalie Whiley of the MWC and LIFFT led a delegation of displaced residents and allies with the entire crowd into city hall to demand a meeting with the mayor. The mayor, who was out of the office, refused to return to city hall for a meeting. However City Commissioner Gonzalez promised an immediate 'solution' to the people's problems. He and the city manager assured the crowd that they would get FEMA to handle it. It never happened. Finally, a meeting was granted with the mayor's chief of staff. The city's position was that it is Miami-Dade County's responsibility to deal with FEMA. However, the chief of staff refused to arrange a meeting between the city, county, and FEMA.

Outside the meeting, the city's homeless assistance service provided a few families with motel accommodations which will more than likely last for a night or two. The mayor was quoted on NPR this morning saying: The City of Miami is doing everything to make sure that its residents have housing, through shelters or hotels.

This is yet another disappointment for people who have lost almost everything not only due to the storm but also to the neglect of those who are charged with taking care of them. This is the reality of the new urban politics. Disaster is the role of the state.

Shelter residents protest, seek solution
Miami Herald
By: Mike Vasquez

Organizing Background:
Organizers from the MWC went to the shelter in Tamiami on Sunday night in order to check out the conditions as well as to see how people were doing. People were fed up with the conditions in the shelter, a shrinking staff, inaccessibility to their children's schools, their jobs, medications etc. We encountered at least 75 families who felt it was time to directly confront the city and FEMA for failing them.

On Monday November 7 Mayor Manny Diaz announced a new initiative. This step was directly in response to the MWC led campaign for immediate hurricane recovery policies. The mayor's plan seemed to be a clear victory. It included the creation of a city wide housing fund for renters and homeowners, exactly the design a coalition, which included the MWC, had proposed just a week before. However, it would only be helpful in conjunction with FEMA funding, and that was growing difficult. Moreover, even in the combination of FEMA and city programs, the affordable housing crisis in Miami makes the reality of utilizing the program highly unlikely. By admission of many city staff, it would only be good for people who already have resources to utilize it. Most people in the shelter do not.

We Keep Moving:
Although the action at city hall was not an immediate success in regards to having demands met we do not consider it a total loss. We are continuing to grow and build. Two of the women who were given housing in motels last night took buses back down to the Tamiami shelter today to organize. They told MWC that they are not going to give up the fight and plan on building with more displaced people. Currently there is an organizing meeting scheduled at the Tamiami shelter for Monday night.

From FEMA to the Red Cross

2005-11-13T04:17:00.000-08:00

Because so much of what happened in Katrina is repeating itself for the victims of Wilma I feel the need to focus my blog entries on tracking what is going on in Miami. Please read and feel free to contact the Worker's Center if you can help. A friend that I have known since high school, Terry Marshall, has been working with the Worker's Center since his roof was damaged in the storm and eventually collapsed destroying everything inside.

A Saturday Night Dispatch from Miami Workers Center (Nov. 5th)

Last night the Miami Workers Center and a group of displaced residents faced down FEMA and demanded housing [see our previous email or website www.theworkerscenter.org)] The FEMA representative threatened the group of displaced residents with arrest. But the county police refused to arrest anyone. The police, in an odd turn of events, sided with the residents against FEMA. They claimed to not want to enact the "double indignity" of arresting people who were already facing such trying circumstances. The police assured the residents they could stay the night and again confront the FEMA officials in the morning. The residents decided to return to where they were staying, cars and ruined apartments with soggy mattresses, choosing familiarity over the cold shoulder of the government.

We thought the police siding with us against FEMA was weird...then when we arrived at the Miami Workers Center office today we were greeted by two representatives of the Red Cross, Tonya Frazier and Luis O. Riva. These officials stated they were responding to the press coverage the Miami Workers Center and the displaced residents have been getting. They claimed to be ready to provide temporary local housing, EBT cards and hot meals for the residents the Miami Workers Center had been working witrh over the passed weeks. The Red Cross came to get direction from the Miami Workers Center on where to go and what to do.

We spoke with the Red Cross representatives and negotiated with them around what exactly was needed on the ground. We worked with them for hours while we simultaneously pulled together displaced residents to update them on the situation. We also gathered the resident's contact information so they could be contacted by Red Cross case workers, as promised to us. The representatives left our office around three o'clock to check out a site for temporary shelter in the neighborhood. They said they were going to return and never did. Red Cross case workers still haven't contacted the residents. A hot food line was never set up at the evicted buildings where the displaced residents have been gathering.

MIAMI - Displaced Hurricane Victims Confront FEMA (Nov 5)

2005-11-12T07:32:00.000-08:00

Fed up with the continued run around from FEMA and the Red Cross, displaced residents and their children along with the Miami Workers Center and allies, marched on the FEMA Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) at the Joseph Caleb Center in Miami. The delegation of 40 people occupied the lobby for 7 hours after being blocked from entering the office The group carried pillows and blankets signs. They chanted for immediate housing vouchers, and demanded a meeting with the head FEMA official.

Negotiations with FEMA were disastrous. The first FEMA official in charge of the Recovery Center, Randy Proudy, gave a number of false promises, lied about the negotiations, and ultimately snuck out the back door during the middle of the event. He was later fired. Things were so bad that the Miami Dade County police had to call national FEMA executives to locate someone that was accountable. When the regional director arrived 4 hours later, he delivered nothing but excuses, and threatened to have the entire group arrested immediately.

BACKGROUND
This direct action was taken after days of mass evictions following in the wake of Wilma - one of the most devastating storms that Miami has seen in 20 years. These evictions are a result of building condemnations due to worsened conditions in already inadequate housing throughout poor neighborhoods of Miami. As apartments were deemed unfit for human habitation people were forced from their ruined homes. Eerily reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina, there is an empty vacuum of support for the working poor.
Working with displaced residents of poor neighborhoods the Miami Workers Center in coalition with ten other organizations put forward a policy proposal called "Hurricane Economic Recovery Policies" on November 3. This proposal was released at a lively press conference attended by over 80 people and 20 organizations involved in grassroots organizing, advocacy, and service work. The crowd was brought to their feet clapping and yelling as three displaced women called for people to stand up to the city government, national government, their landlords and large aid agencies and demand the help they need. Several of these same women led the group into the FEMA center today.

PRESS:

November 3
his article has an in depth look at what poor residents in Miami face in the destructive wake of Hurricane Wilma.
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=52225988&url_num=1&url=http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13056573.htm
This article examines the lack of housing for the displaced victims of Hurricane Wilma in Broward County. It contains some very startling numbers.
http://www2.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/MIA10407/

November 4
Articles summarizes the press conference, a brief look at what displaced residents face, the Red Cross response, and the policy proposals-
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/13077048.htm

November 4
The Editorial Board of the Miami Herald. endorsed the major policy recommendations of the Hurricane Economic Recovery
Policies
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/13077546.htm

November 5
This column in from the Miami Herald condemns the local governments faulty response to the disaster while holding up main points of the policy proposal.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/ana_menendez/13087295.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Wilma and FEMA vs. the Poor
The underreported story...
Joseph Phelan, MWC Communications

As days turn into weeks the situation worsens for the poor people left behind not only by aid relief but by society as a whole. People who had been living under slumlord conditions are evicted from housing that has been deemed unsafe for human habitation, yet at the same time there is no alternative housing offered. People living paycheck to paycheck are facing the stress of lost jobs do to homelessness or business closures. They are also facing a hostile city government which refuses to spend reimbursable money on temporary vouchers for hotels.

The situation in Miami is very similar to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, if not in scale than in intention. A system of aid and relief failed poor people of color. This failure is not a sudden breakdown of an otherwise functioning society. It is a sharp illustration of the structural problem of underdevelopment in particular communities, namely poor, urban, and black and immigrant. Evictions and death due to lack of health care, hunger, and poor living conditions are a reality for these populations. These permanent conditions under the neo-liberal policies of today's capitalism are only accelerated by the crisis of natural disasters.

The tragedy of New Orleans was highlighted by immense press coverage, as it should have been, do to the severely dramatic nature of bursting levees and massive flooding. Press coverage and public outcry at the lack of support for low income communities of color leading up to, during, and after Katrina forced President Bush to acknowledge "that poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America," a line that cuts sharply against the right wing push to dismantle hard won civil rights.

While poor people of color were displaced in relatively large numbers in both Miami and New Orleans the cities' tourist destinations were up and running with electricity first. In Miami, the beach and other wealthy and tourist areas were sealed off and protected by police and national guard under curfews and martial law. This indignity only served to further highlight the sad reality of the U.S. society as illustrated by Gihan Pereara of the Miami Workers Center, "We are living in two cities, two worlds, one poor and working class, the other rich."

Victims of Katrina in New Orleans and victims of Wilma in Miami lived through a storm of immense natural power and destruction. But more destructive than the winds and water is the disaster of economic injustice and racism This killer does not find its origins in the the Atlantic but in the board rooms of corporate developers, the meetings rooms of real estate speculators and the back rooms of banks. Katrina has now rendered all of New Orleans a clean slate for mega-casino's and luxury hotels, Miami's poor black and immigrant communities were already facing an ironic affordable housing crisis in the middle of an unprecedented building boom with the promise of 70,000 luxury condo units to be built in the next four years. The forced removal of these communities was on the horizon before Wilma, the destructive nature of the hurricane just happened to be more immediately violent. Wilma and Katrina's displacement of poor communities is a windfall for developers.

In the wake of Katrina a lot of the talk from political leaders focused on re-building. Because of strong national attention on the area there is a possibility that this rebuilding process will not completely exclude the communities that originally lived there. But with no state-sponsored support prior to and immediately following the storm, a terrible to non-existent tracking program for displaced people, and a legacy of disenfranchisement for poor people of color the question has to be raised: Who will direct and benefit from the rebuilding of New Orleans, and Miami and who will be left out of the picture?

The answer to that question is all too clear under the present political regime. It is the poor, the black. the immigrant, the low wage earner, the mother, the children of them all that pay the price. It is on their backs that a few may prosper handsomely, and it is those few that make decisions for all of us.

Wilma Victims Will Be Heard (Nov 4th)

2005-11-11T04:37:00.000-08:00

This is a reprint of the updates being sent out by the Miami Worker Center where a friend of mine, Terry Marshall, is helping other Wilma victims to organize for food, shelter and human decency.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the wake of Hurricane Wilma hundreds of low-income black and immigrant residents of South Florida are facing two disasters, one natural the other economic. We are proud to report that immediate actions taken by a broad grouping of organizing, social service, legal advocacy, and faith-based organizations are exposing FEMA and local government's lack of response to the needs of poor people of color in South Florida.

At a press conference, we unveiled "Hurricane Economic Recovery Policies" a proposal that could bring immediate relief and make up for what FEMA fails to provide. Today, the Miami Herald editorial board endorsed this course of action.

Editorial - http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/13077546.htm

News Coverage - http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/13077048.htm

An Update on Florida after Wilma

2005-10-31T16:27:00.000-08:00

This post is a reprint of an article written by a friend of mine who recently moved to Miami and returned back to his apartment right after Hurricane Wilma had passed. The devastation continues....

Miami Crisis Update 10/27/05

Miami is known for its night glow of bright neon lights. They are supposed to represent all that is glitter and gold about the city. The first night after Hurricane Wilma, the lights (or lack of) showed how race space, and class were intertwined. On that night one could drive over one of the bridges that connect the main land to Miami beach and see what parts of the city were given priority (south beach and downtown still shined) and what’s parts didn’t (Most of the mainland, Liberty city, Overtown, North Miami).

And The Days Go On
Miami is experiencing its 5-day without power (Florida Power and Lights reported in the Herald that 42% of the city has regained power). I have been back in Miami for 4 days now. Luckily I was out of town when the hurricane hit. I say luckily because I came back to see that my apartment ceiling caved in from rain (right over where I sleep—on the couch). After spending the last few days trying figure out my housing situation, I took time today to help out with the broader situation.

I volunteer with the Miami workers center. The Miami Workers Center (http://www.miamiworkerscenter.org/index.php) is a strategy and organizing center for low-income communities and low-wage workers in Miami-Dade County. The Center organized teams of volunteers to go out into the community to interview and document how folks were doing and assess the crisis.

My Team was assigned to Ward Towers and Claude Pepper, two senior citizens homes in North Miami. We were armed with clipboards and fliers. On the back there was a list of emergency numbers that people could call for help with hurricane related problems.
Our tasks were to dialogue with folks and document there stories, assist in any emergency needs, and to let them know that the center was open as a resource (the center is based in liberty city and just regained power today).

The first thing I noticed about the two buildings was how nondescript they were. It’s as if the city didn’t want to let anyone know that elderly folk live there. The stories I heard once I got inside help me see how the city makes the poor and elderly even more invisible than just the buildings appearance.

The building is occupied by mostly by older black and Latina women. They are experiencing their 5th straight day without electrical power. The first 3 days they got no help at all. They did not have access to an elevator until today. Because of this some people who lived on the higher floors (the building is 16 Stories, 200 units) to sleep on the first floor in the common room on hard steel chairs! One woman, who has arthritis, lived on the eighth floor and had to walk up and down the stairs. Needless to say here knees are causing her more pain as of late. They did not receive any ice or water until last night. Many folks believe this was because a couple of news stations came by and did a story on them. Exposing the conditions. Windows were blown in and apartments flooded. To date the city has done nothing about this but board up some windows. Residents had to clean up the water themselves. One Latina resident told us that a store around the corner was price gouging, selling candles that usually cost $1.25 for $5!
But don’t let these stories lead you to believe the elders in this building were helpless victims. A man confined to a wheelchair told us after the first 3 days of no help that the residents were discussing sitting in the middle of the cross street and getting arrested. “How would that look, the police arresting a 85 year old woman because she wanted food and water and lights? How would that look!”?

An elder Black woman, Ms. Emma Brown, told us “The is no color here! We all, all of us, helped each other out, as neighbors. All the different people you see around you, we all worked together to help one another. We didn’t see color!” In a city that is known for its racial tensions between Cubans (primarily) and Blacks, That’s huge!
My team would not have been able to so effectively get folks stories if it wasn’t for Ms. Mae Catherine Smith. Ms. Smith is a member of L.I.F.F.T. (Low Income Families Fighting Together, a initiative of the Miami Worker Center) and a resident the Ward tower senior citizen home. She took us around and introduced us to people. Explaining who we were and what we were doing. You could tell that she was an organizer within the building and people trusted her. She was breaking down to folk how they could get help and what needed to be done. It was her leadership that guided us this afternoon.

When we got back to the center to debrief with the other teams we shared some of the stories we heard things we’ve seen.
- Distribution Centers being mismanaged: no set times, running out of supplies early, telling people wrong locations, no coordination between agencies (county not knowing where or when federal was coming, or military). Some officials at distributions center admitted that they had know idea when the center would re-open or where.

- People are not being able to get transportation to centers either. The bus system is horrible in Miami and even if you have a car you will be an in 2-mile line trying to get gas). No Spanish speaking cops in largely Spanish speaking areas. To top it off the packages of food that they are handing out to people is hardly anything to eat. The items in one package were: Jell-O pudding, small package of cereal, chocolate milk, and a small can of beeforoni)

The Miami Workers Center is planning on sending people out to spots again tomorrow. Their work is proving to be essential in this time of need. All of the neighborhoods (Liberty city, Opa-locka, Allaphatta, and Little Havana) that we investigated today were low-income communities of color (black and Latino). In the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma these resource depleted areas are still suffering from neglect. The hardest hit being the elderly and women and children.

There are completely opposite stories going on in neighborhoods like The Design District, Downtown, and South Beach. Places that are known for being playgrounds for the upper classes had power and services back on within 24hrs of the hurricane. Race, Space, and Class (Gender and age as well) seem to come together again. This experience is showing (along with that of the Katrina victims) that it’s not a question of where hurricanes hits. It’s a question of where the resources are missed.
More updates to come….

Terry Marshall
Independent ResearcherBLOC Network (http://www.blocnetwork.org/)

This Is the Maddest I Have Been. Has America Learned Anything About Human Decency?

2005-10-18T15:04:00.000-07:00

Last night around midnight I got a call from a friend Kristy in Mississippi. I have gotten used to Kristy sounding really sad on the phone, but I could immediately tell that something was even more wrong than usual. Kristy and I got connected through First Missionary Baptist Church (FMBC). Kristy was one of the first people to come to the church's Disaster Center. The roof in Kristy's apartment was partially torn off during the hurricane and so her house was flooded. There was mold and moisture in the apartment and so almost all of her furniture and clothing were destroyed. Her apartment was unhabitable so she had to move in with her mother. Without a car and pretty far from her children's school, Kristy was really anxious to move back into her own place and try to put her life back together.

The day that Kristy came into the FMBC Disaster Center, Sis Jenkins called me so that I could try to help with her list of needs. I listened to what she had been through, we prayed and we exchanged information. From Sept. 10th until I got to Gulfport on Sept. 29th, Kristy and I stayed in touch. Over the two weeks I was there we got to hang out a little bit, I met her three children and we talked about her possibly moving to Boston. While it was obvoious that the storm had taken a toll on her spirit, it was also clear that Kristy was a woman who wanted to make a better life for her kids. She encourages them to do well in school and they are well behaved kids.

A day before I left Kristy's apartment complex called to tell her that she could move into a new apartment that had not been damaged. She jumped at the change and moved in on the 11th. Her first day in she got someone to bring a truck so that she could move things from her old apartment to her new apartment. After some items were stolen from the truck she decided to wait and get more help before she moved anything else. She told me that she was going to find some people to help her move this week.

On Monday, October 17th, less than a week after she moved to her new apartment, Kristy noticed some construction work going on at her old apartment building. When she got closer she saw some men throwing her things out of the second story window. They had thrown out her dining room table, her dishes, her framed pictures. They had walked past the door on her front door that said " I will be returning for the items I can salvage" and they started demolishing apartment. With no regard for all that she had already gone through, they got rid of some of her most prized possessions - the porcelin doll that she bought her youngest daughter for Christmas, her children's framed HeadStart graduation certificates, cute photos from the days when the kids all got along before the natural process hits when a 12 year old can't get along with an 8 year old.

She tried to pick things off the ground, but when it was obvious that she couldn't carry much and that they were not going to stop, she went to the management office. The property manager claimed that she had told her they were coming. Nothing in writing, just a claim that she told her. Finally Kristy had to run to the local church and ask people to help her move her things. By the time that she got back, they were throwing sheet rock on top of her cushed possessions. At that point the only thing she could salvage was 2 TVs, her stereo, and her computer. How did those survive being thrown out the window? They weren't - the demolition guys set them aside near their truck planning to take them home for themselves.

This morning she went to the rubble again and there was fiberglass on top of the sheet rock, making it even more dangerous to sort through the debris. Then they did more bulldozing making it harder to get to the stuff.

I am not even going to hide how I feel about this - I am pissed off. There is to reason that this family should have had to go to another traumatic experience. To think that you lost everything and then to be able to salvage something and have it destroyed this way. This should not happen to anyone. Kristy's apartment building is owned and/or managed by the Lynd Corporation, a Texas-based company that boasts 750 million in property acquisitions. Their website says that they are helping the victims of Katrina by relocating evacuees in Texas. What about the victims in Mississippi. Didn't this family at least deserve some notice before a truck on contracters came from Texas and demolished the few things they had left?

So I am going to get off of my soapbox, but I am so angry that I refuse to rest until Kristy gets some justice. At first she was scared to say anything for fear of being evicted but then she told me that she doesn't even care anymore. She said that she didn't know if she could even live there anymore. Despite the fact that she did nothing wrong, there is not a one of us who would not be embaressed to have to pick your prized possessions out of the rubble while the whole neighborhood watched.

Keep watching for more information on what you can do to help bring justice to this family......

I Am Missing Mississippi

2005-10-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

When I was brushing my teeth this morning I was careful not to swallow any water. It was not until I was putting my toothbrush away that I remembered that I was not in Mississippi anymore and that I don't have to worry about the water anymore. It was good to be back to some of the comforts of home - not to have an 11pm curfew or have to search for a functioning gas station that actually had gas in stock or see destruction on my way to work ever morning. But when I landed in Boston in my short sleeve shirt and hit the cool fall air, I realized that there were a few things I was going to miss about Mississippi. So I want to take some time to acknowledge some of the people and places that I came to love in the two weeks I was in Mississippi.

The Weather - It is not the most important thing, but it sure was nice to be in short sleeves in October. I know that warm air and water is what brings the hurricanes, but it sure is nice when it is sunny.

The Food - I gained 6 pounds in Mississippi and I don't regret a thing I ate. Southerners know how to cook and unfortunate for my hips I took full advantage of the Southern hospitality I ate lots of pound cake and red velvet cake. The Pearse's had me over for dinner. Sis Kathy Williams made a special, non-pork gumbo for me which was good and spicy. And even Charles, Jr., my surrogate brother, cooked for me while I was there.

The First Missionary Baptist Family - Part of the reason I ate so well in Mississippi was because of the First Missionary Baptist Church Family. I had Sis. Pearse's velvet cake and Sis. Williams shrimp & chicken gumbo. When I stood up in church to introduce myself as a visitor people came up and hugged me and thanked me for being there. The church was so welcoming and no doubt that is in part due to the leadership in the church. Pastor Adolph is the nicest man you could ever meet. On my second day at the center he had already given me a nickname. Despite the amount of stress that he was under just from the damage to his own house, he always came in with a smile and kept going.

Pastor Adolph's sermons challenged the congregation to give even in a time where they were uncertain of their own situation. He talked about the importance of the church being a place where people could receive refuge and service. Many in the congregation seemed to take his words to heart and I was the personal beneficiary of their compassion.

The Disaster Center volunteers- Working at the FMBC Disaster Center had its ups and downs. Some day people would come in with heartbreaking stories and others would come in with difficult attitudes. No matter how hard the work or how much difficulty we had getting the computer to work with us, there is no doubt that the company was good. We were working on tough problems but we had a lot of laughs while I was there.

Chisa and I spent most of our time doing in-take - talking to people and finding out what they needed then making sure it was in the database. Then there were times where we just chatted about life, love and being broke. Sis. Pat was an inspiration to me. She lost many of her possessions in the storm but her faith seemed unshaken. She was a constant testimony about the power of God in her life and how she just kept on going and knowing that God would take care of her.

Bro. Brian Pearse loved to give me a hard time. He always had jokes, and sometimes I deserved them. I still owe him a workshop of hip hop for his youth Bible study.

Sis. Marcia was a dedicated volunteer who would come in even when her body was aching and she should have stayed home. She was the first person I met when I came to work at the Disaster Center. She knows how to work and she knows how to cook.

Marcus got a bad rap in the center, but he did do some work. He is 18. He's a college freshman, and he works at being a young. Need i say more.....

There were many more people that I could talk about, but I won't over do it or I will never get done with my blog entry; however, there is one more family that I need to thank

The Jenkins Family - From the moment I came home with Sis. Lillian, I felt at home. Like my own family, the Jenkins' a grounded straight forward and really welcoming. Being in the house I laughed more than I had in a long time. Family dinners were always filled with laughter as talked about the days events. Sis. Lillian and I would tell about the trials of the Disaster Center and Bro. Charles would crack jokes. After Sis. Lillian and Bro. Charles went to bed, Charles Jr. and I would stay up watching movies, trying to get out computers to access a really weak wireless signal and talk about how hard it was to be young and single in Southern Mississippi (actually Charles Jr. talked about that and I just laughed and listened while typing more information into the database).

While being in the Gulf Coast was no walk in the park, I have to say that those 2 weeks I felt really at peace with myself, with God and with the World. The peace was not from feeling like everything was okay, but because I recognized both the preciousness and frailty of human life and I became part of a community. In those two weeks I reaffirmed my belief that strong communities can and will come together to overcome.

Thank you to my FMBC family and to the people of Gulfport for letting me become a part of their community. I look forward to keeping the relationship alive!

The Land Grab Begins

2005-10-11T23:05:00.000-07:00

Where there is overwhelming destruction, there is always a window of opportunity that opens. An opportunity to bring people together, to change things, to make things better. But there is also the opportunity for circling vultures to use devastation to scavenge even better than before. So I will stop waxing poetic and get right to the point. In the last week I have seen how the issue of how and what to rebuild in the Gulf Coast has the potential to be divisive and down right dirty.

The CASINOS
Last Friday, October 8th, the casinos were given the right to build within 800 feet onshore instead of having to be on the water like they were before the storm. The crazy thing is that the legislation was filed so quickly that you might think that they had written the legislation before the storm hit. So the casinos will start breaking ground any day now.

Feelings about the casinos are somewhat mixed down here, but with so few jobs I think that most people are happy to have the casinos gearing up. In a place with few good jobs a lot of folks want to see the casinos come back so they can bring tourists back to the coast. In addition the casinos brought great restaurants and other luxuries to the Mississippi Gulf Coast that probably wouldn't have been economically viable if the casinos were not bringing such big tourist traffic.

There were a lot of folks in the evangelical Christian community who were against the casinos moving on land, but given the lack of jobs it was not a winning battle. My personal opinion is that all big business much be monitored, especially ones that often make their money by basically trying to rob people blind. Some people's lives get ruined by the slot machines, even if they bring jobs and entertainment.

"WE BUY LAND" SIGNS
So as I suspected the land grab is really on. A few days after Katrina hit a friend of mine was talking about the hurricane at his real estate office. One of the other agents commented that the real estate market on the Gulf Coast was going to be incredible when the whole thing was settled. Before you get disgusted that he would say that while people were still stuck on roofs and in their homes waiting to be rescued, you should know that that agent is just one among many people who are looking at this situation as a money-making prospect. As you can see from this picture, the drama has already begun.

There are so many people who live in houses like the one I have in this picture. If you look closely you can see that the house probably wasn't in great shape before the storm. The roof is blue because it has been covered by FEMA because it must have been damaged by the storm. When I looked at it closer I couldn't tell if anyone was living in the place. Once the blue roof goes on you can't tell how much damage the house has experienced. They may have lost a patch of the roof and had tons of water damage or they may have only had a little damage - but nonetheless the house doesn't look that sturdy.

The question is - will people who have lost everything and who might just have a condemned house on a peice of land have enough money to keep their property without having to sell it to land vultures or without falling into possible foreclosure.

"Public" Planning Sessions that People Don't Know About
On my way to pick up a friend in Biloxi, MS I happened to turn on NPR (my favorite news station) and Brent Warr,the mayor of Gulfport, MS, was on the radio talking about a charette they are about to have to decide what should happen on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. First of all a charette is a planning process that brings different people together to decide out to develop or redevelop a parcel of land.

The mayor seemed nice enough, not the kind of person that would hatch any sinister plans to disenfranchise his citizens. He kept talking about this meeting to decide the future of the Gulf Coast and how many experts they have coming from around the country. I called a local leader to ask if he was listening to the radio program. I asked if he had heard about the charette. He said he knew about it, but that he wasn't invited.

Planning projects often fail because they didn't bring the right people to the table. I didn't see any signs up in the central shopping areas. I didn't hear a location on the radio. The church I work with didn't get any letter of invitation. So the question is - who is invited? Who will make decisions about redevelopment and who will be left out.

A Few Words About The Red Cross & The Real First Responders

2005-10-07T14:26:00.000-07:00

A few minutes ago I finished trying to help some folks figure out what is going on with their Food Stamps. In the midst of that process, I have been on the phone with a few people and the honest truth is that far too often, those of us in relief work are united by our frustration with FEMA, the Red Cross and the Department of Human Services. On one hand I don't want to talk bad about people that are trying to help, but on the other hand I feel like the point of this blog is to tell it like I see it. I want to acknowledge that every region is different and that what I saw from the Massachusetts Red Cross was a credit to that organization, but what I have seen here has made me sad.

It has been more than a month since the storm and it feels like the Red Cross has just started going full blast in the last week. In fact, on Monday night I was staying in a suburb of Gulfport where power has been restored, most people are able to live in their homes adn most folks don't even need to apply for Food Stamps and the Red Cross sent out a truck offering hot food and cold drinks. The family I am staying with just laughed and the mother, Sis Lillian, told us we needed to stop because it really wasn't funny that they were showing up just now after the neighbors had banded together to give food to each other for 2 weeks while they waited for relief.

Despite the fact that there are many elderly and disabled folks in need of services, there was no special line for them at the Red Cross office so they had to wait for hours in the hot sun with everyone else. So I won't go on a tirade about the Red Cross, but I will say that there are three main problems with them that I have heard repeated again and again. So here are my humble suggestions to the Red Cross.

MY SUGGESTIONS FOR THE RED CROSS (and all other relief organizations)

1. Be clear about who is making decisions, and have a good way to communicate the decisions to the front-line staff. If you ask one Red Cross volunteer they will tell you one thing - if you ask another person you will get another answer. The lines of communication are clearly not good and when the Red Cross is confused, the people end of being confused. If you have ever had to wait in a long line you know how frustrating it is to get to the front of the line only be told that you are in the wrong place or that you have brought the wrong things. The Red Cross needs to work on communication.

2. Have a coordinated way to get services to the most needy. As I said before the elderly and disabled were required to stand in the same lines with everyone else. In 90 degree heat, it was a wonder that no one had a heart attack in the lines. For those that are healthy, it was find to have them wait in line - but in my world - there is no way that a 25 year old should come before a 85 year old with a cane. To do this work, they might have needed to set up another place for the elderly and handicapped and if they had guaranteed that one person would be able to register themselves if they transported an elderly or disabled person, all of the elderly or disabled would probably have been able to get rides to the centers. But this problem is linked to my next suggestion.

3. You have to build strong relationships with grassroots organizations like churches and community centers. If the Red Cross had built relationships with churches and community centers before the storm, they would have been able to call on their friends and get things moving right away. Instead the churches hit the ground a few days after the storm hit and the Red Cross just got their trucks here on Monday. It would seem to me that too many Red Cross staff have focused on acquiring supplies and building a big international organization and not enough time knowing their community and beign sure that they are able to reach the people. You can't wait until the storm hits to try to build relationships. They need to consider it a

So in the midst of all the relief confusion, the real first responders have been the churches like First Missionary Baptist Church, Pass Road Baptist Church and organizations like Turkey Creek Community Initiatives. Organizations like this got started helping when there was no help from the big national organizations. Where I am working they just put up a sign and started working with the people.

These are local folks will good hearts and strong administrative and planning skills that have taken up the task of working with their neighbors. To learn more about what they have done, visit the websites of two organizations whose work I admire. I ask that you specifically consider a donation to First Missionary Baptist Church, where they are going to continue to work with families in need. TCCI has done great work, but they are trying to close down their relief work and get back to their central work.

http://www.fmbchandsboro.org/
http://www.turkey-creek.org/

On that note I will close out for the day. I hope that I have given a "fair and balanced" approach to the problems with the REd Cross and other relief organizations.

Peace (because we all need some),

Mariama

The Destruction is Really Bad (10/1)

2005-10-06T15:30:00.000-07:00

So after writing a long blog that I lost, I am going to keep this short. I have not been able to write that much because I have been busy doing work, even when I have the time I often don't have a reliable internet connection. I will try to publish more frequently and may post quite a few things this weekend to keep you up with everything that I have been seeing and doing.

The house in this photo belongs to a friend of the Jenkins (the family that is hosting me while I am in Gulfport). While the destruction seems overwhelming, unfortunately it is one of the more preserved houses that I saw. All along the coast, most of the houses were just completely gone. You can see the foundation of most houses, but often it is only little things that tell you that there was ever a house there. For instance I saw a house where the only thing left was the foundation and the front steps. At another place the house just looked like a pile of wood boards, some tiles and other random household items.

Again this house was in pretty good shape. Going along the beach there were many businesses and houses that were totally demolished. Feel free to click on this image for a closer look, but this is all that is left of the Long Beach Burger King. As you can see the only thing left standing is those metal chairs that they nail to the ground. The McDonald's looked even worse and the KMart looked like a bombed out building. But the crazy thing about the whole thing is that as bad as things are along the beach in Long Beach, most of these homes were nice enough that the owners probably had insurance and will get the money to either rebuild or relocate. The sadder thing is all the cases of people that I have seen in the past week that don't have flood insurance so they are not going to get any money to rebuild.

The saddest thing is to see the elderly who don't have any insurance, are on a fixed income and don't even have a way to get around. Right now we are working to make sure that people in this situation have their needs addressed. It has become very clear that most of the aid organizations are not going to do the grassroots work to find the elderly and make sure that they get services. In fact in many places, elderly and disabled folks are forced to wait in line with everyone else, and often people are so focused on themselves that they are not willling to let the elderly move to the front of the line.

More than a month after the flood, you see that despite everything that has happened, many people are going back to being just as selfish as they were before. I will have to get into this subject much more in a future post. For now I need to get home and have dinner with my new extended family, The Jenkinses. On a quick sidenote, it has been a pleasure to stay in their house. Despite adversity, Mr. Jenkins and Charles, Jr. keep the jokes coming so we have a good time over dinner every night. Since we don't have cable we spend most of our time hanging out and talking about the events of the day. They are from New Orleans originally and most of their family has lost everything, but in the midst of it all - we are having a good time.

The real storm is hitting now as the free stuff is starting to shut down and people have to figure out how to rebuild their lives. There is supposed to be a lot of money coming, but right now most folks are just surviving on their FEMA checks (if they got them) and don't have any clue how they are going to find housing. Thank God for being in a house where there is still a strong sense of faith and a good sense of humor. I thank the Jenkinses for providing me with a sense of calm in the midst of the storm.

Peace (because we all need some),

Mariama

A Lesson Learned About Good Giving

2005-09-30T16:07:00.000-07:00

Today has been a long day. Most of it has been manual labour lifting donated clothes and other items to put them in a storage unit. In fact we spent 4 hours packing, loading and unloading clothes and these boxes of birthday decoration kits. Why are we storing donations? Because the church has been given so many donations and they didn't have enough volunteers to go through the donations.

For instance there were the hundred boxes that came from Chicago that had labels like "Women's Clothes" while I am happy that people were giving it was too much work to go through all the boxes and figure out what size was what. When we tried to do it the whole distribution center was a mess. On top of that we had so many boxes that we just couldn't do it when most people don't even have a place to stay so they don't have a closet or dresser to put clothes in.

I guess the bottom line is that far too many people are sending things that people don't need or are sending them in a way that makes it more difficult for people that are here trying to put their lives back together or volunteer to help others. So 2 lessons from this:

1. Before you send supplies contact someone and ask them what they need and how much of it they need. Unneeded supplies are just a burden on the people receiving them who now have to figure out what to do with your stuff when they should be helping people.

2. If you are going to send supplies do everything that you can to make it easy for the person receiving the supplies which means-

a. Only give what you would be happy to receive (i.e. Sort for junk) - some people will donate things that are just wrong to give another person. No one who has survived a tragedy wants to wear your old stained T Shirt that has a hole in it or your old underwear or toiletries that you have already used with crust on the side.

b. Organize by size, gender and age - ex. women's clothes size 18-20 dressy or baby supplies, diapers and pacifiers. Labelling will make you the best person in the world

c. CASH ALWAYS WORKS - if you can't get what people REALLY need. Then send them cash so they can get it for themselves.

d. You may give more by giving your time then by giving your old clothes. Look for specific ways to volunteer. For instance, we could have used a good web designer here, but no one volunteered so others stepped in the gap.

I will post some pictures tomorrow of what I have seen, the devastation is unreal and the pictures can't capture it, but I will do the best I can.

Going home to rest,

Mariama

I'm Finally in the Gulf Region

2005-09-28T22:50:00.000-07:00

I am in the lobby of a motel in Hammond, LA. Today started with me missing my flight. That set off a chain of events that has made this entire day about pressing my way to get here. I had to fly into Baton Rouge instead of New Orleans and since there is a curfew in Gulfport I could not drive into there tonight.

Tonight 1st Missionary Baptist dedicated their prayer meeting time to a meeting with FEMA. I am so sorry that I missed that meeting because I would have been really interested to see what FEMA has to say and to see how people reacted. I will have to get reactions from Sis. Jenkins tomorrow and share them with you.

From the moment I landed at Baton Rouge airport I knew that I was in Louisiana. Instead of CNN the airport plays Fox News. The O’Reilly Factor was on and they were talking about the federal response to Katrina. A Republican congressman from New York was arguing that the media distorted the story to put too much blame on the federal government and damage President Bush. He also stated that President Bush has done at least as much for the poor as President Clinton did. I have learned not to waste energy arguing with Fox News but it is interesting that they are the standard news service here.

I picked up my rental car and it was tuned to a hip hop/ R&B station then a contemporary Christian station before settling on 104.1 a Clear Channel New Orleans radio station. Apparently all of the broadcasters from various New Orleans stations and programs are broadcasting on this one channel. I tuned in to a talk show where people were calling in talking about their struggles in trying to rebuild. Despite their troubles, folks seemed to have a good spirit about the problems. One woman admitted that her family is just trying to keep from killing each other since they are 14 to a 2 bedroom house. The woman called frustrated because her family was hit by Rita and she was told that the Red Cross in Slidell was only helping victims of Katrina. Another woman called because her insurance company keeps sending adjustors and she is trying to figure out when she is going to finally get a check.

So I guess from what I have seen so far folks don’t seem outraged, but I will see if and how that opinion differs when I get off of the radio waves and talk to real people tomorrow.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:
You can still send Walmart Cards (see Sept 25 entry) but I have a new request.

Sis. Lillian Jenkins is the former emergency management director for New Orleans who has come out of retirement to serve the community of Gulfport where her husband pastors 1st Missionary Baptist Church.

The church is serving as the hub for assistance right now and she needs a laptop computer so that she can better coordinate the relief efforts. To really meet her need the computer would need the following capabilities:
- At least 30G of memory
- Preferrably 512Ram or more
- Wireless capability- either built in or with a card slot
- Preferrably Power Point installed so that she can do community presentations more easily

I am starting work at the church tomorrow and would really like to make sure that we get this to the center so that we can be even more organized. If you have any leads they can e-mail me divamariama@gmail.com , they can post to this blog, they can call me 617-271-3698 or they can call Sis. Jenkins directly 228-896-0106.

Peace (because we all need some),

Mariama

The Overwhelming Countdown Until I Leave

2005-09-26T08:34:00.000-07:00

So many people have given me encouragement about this trip, and I am thankful for all of the prayers that people have sent up for me. But I still have to admit that I am a little worried. I am on my way down and there are a lot of things that are still up in the air. Some of the folks I am trying to work with are in constant flux so it is hard to get a call back and be certain that everything is going to be straight when I get there.

But even as I write this I realize that this feeling of uncertainty and fear does not even compare to what people who live in the Gulf must feel. If things don't work out I can always get on a plane and come home, because I have a home to return to.

Anyway, I don't have too much time to pontificate because I need to focus on my preparations; but posting somehow creates a space for me to reflect in the midst of my flurry of preparation activity.

On a practical note I am still trying to get people to donate Walmart and Home Depot gift cards. The cards can be sent directly to one of the places I will be working at in Gulfport, Mississippi. You can order cards on-line but make sure you order the cards that can be used in the store and not the cards they can "on-line gift cards." Walmart gift cards can be bought at www.walmart.com but Home Depot cards you might have to buy in the store and mail.

1st Missionary Baptist Church
c/o Mrs. LillianJenkins
PO Box 6175
Gulfport, MS39506

Also, if you want to send money directly to me, you can send it to my paypal account to the e-mail divamari@yahoo.com. I will use that money mostly to pay for gas to transport people, and the purchase of other random things that people need. I might be working in a school so I might have to buy supplies for that also. Give however makes you feel comfortable.

If you want to get in touch with me feel free to send me info at divamariama@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading and I hope that you will take an opportunity to take action,

Mariama

Why this blog?

2005-09-21T10:04:00.000-07:00

This is my first blog. I decided to start it because I am going on a journey that I want to share with others. Next week I leave for the Gulf Coast and I have no idea what to expect. I have seen the pictures on television, but I have also heard from so many people that the pictures don't even begin to describe what it feels like to really be there.

So I am going because I feel led to be in the Gulf. To bear witness and to give service. I can only curse at the television so much before I roll up my sleeves and pitch in. I want to connect with real people and help to stand in the gap the way many people have for me in much less dire circumstances. Just writing a check was not enough. Collecting clothes and toiletries didn't quite make me satisfied and now I need to give of myself.

So I figured why not share my journal with everyone else. Hope this blog will offer some insite and some hope, and that it will provide you a way to get involved and help folks directly.

Mariama