Mayor: New Orleans will seek aid from other nations

[Solve et Coagula]

Mayor: New Orleans will seek aid from other nations

Feb 6, 7:24 PM (ET)

By Michael Depp

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Shortcomings in aid from the U.S. government are making New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin look to other nations for help in rebuilding his hurricane-damaged city.

Nagin, who has hosted a steady stream of foreign dignitaries since Hurricane Katrina hit in late August, says he may seek international assistance because U.S. aid has not been sufficient to get the city back on its feet.

"I know we had a little disappointment earlier with some signals we're getting from Washington but the international community may be able to fill the gap," Nagin said when a delegation of French government and business officials passed through on Friday to explore potential business partnerships.

Jordan's King Abdullah also visited New Orleans on Friday and Nagin said he would encourage foreign interests to help redevelop some of the areas hardest hit by the storm.

"France can take Treme. The king of Jordan can take the Lower Ninth Ward," he said, referring to two of the city's neighborhoods.

Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city and killed more than 1,300 people in Louisiana and Mississippi.

The Bush administration has pledged billions of dollars to Katrina victims but five months after the storm, New Orleans remains largely in ruins.

Nagin said his message to President George W. Bush would be that the federal government needs to refocus on the devastated area.

"We need your undivided attention over the next six months," he said. "We need backup. We need for you to make the words that you spoke in Jackson Square a reality."

Nagin was referring to the president's September 15 address to the nation from New Orleans, in which he pledged "we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes" to rebuild.

French Transport Minister Dominique Perben, leading the French delegation to a city that was founded by France in 1718, said, "This catastrophe has deeply upset the French people and the French government."

France, Perben said through a translator, "wants to be a long-term partner for Louisiana and New Orleans."

http://reuters.myway.com/article/200602 ... ID-DC.html

[Vladd44]

The Bush administration has no desire to even think about New Orleans. It only serves to remind them, and other people about their failure.

As a person born in New Orleans, its is sickening to see my birthplace be ignored by a federal government simply because it suits them politically. With 200,000 of the poorest (mostly black democrats) in the state moved to Texas, it is a perfect chance for them to bring Louisiana from a marginally republican state to a strong republican state. Texas has more than enough republicans to maintain their stranglehold even while assimilating these new residents.

New Orleans will be rebuilt, but we should not expect the Federal response needed. Louisiana is in dire need of Federal Funds to help restore the coastal wetlands that have been eroding at a staggering rate for most of the last century. Without this restoration project New Orleans will continue to be vulnerable to global climatic changes.

Personally I would LOVE (but i know it wont happen) to see the USA just abandon the city and allow it to become an independent commonwealth. Then I would move back tomorrow.

Bush has once again gotten in front of the cameras to say one thing, while behind closed doors doing something else. But then again, should we be suprised? He has been doing that for 5 years now.