It has been more than six weeks since Katrina devastated New Orleans and other coastal communities in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. People are returning to their homes, or what is left of them, to face an uncertain future. Many of those people have lost their livelihood. Schools are closed, city governments are broke and many small businesses have been completely destroyed. The Gulf Coast needs to start over.
This could be a good thing. New Orleans especially could use a clean slate. The public school system before Katrina was a disaster, with schools literally falling apart. The police force was plagued with corruption. There was widespread poverty. The giant cloud of Katrina’s destruction was lined with the silver of rebuilding.
Only that silver lining won’t necessarily help the people hit the hardest by the hurricane. President Bush assured America that the rebuilding jobs would go to people from the devastated areas, but that may turn out to be an empty promise. Immediately after Katrina, FEMA signed millions of dollars worth of no-bid contracts to huge corporations like Halliburton.
The new acting director of FEMA, David Paulison, assured the Senate on an Oct. 6 visit with the Homeland Security Committee that many of these contracts will go under review, and possibly be put up for bid to allow locals an opportunity to benefit from rebuilding. This is a step in the right direction, but as it turns out, only the four biggest no-bid contracts will be affected.
Even where there was competition, Gulf Coast companies were not always given a fair deal, let alone the advantage they deserve. For example, Sen. Carl M. Levin of Michigan noted that a Mississippi modular classroom builder (remember the portables in high school?) lost out on a contract with the Army Corps of Engineers to build 300 classrooms. The deal went to an Alaskan company charging twice as much.
To make matters worse, President Bush suspended the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 in the affected areas. The Davis-Bacon Act requires that government contractors pay workers the prevailing local wage. The effects of this act were almost immediate. Levin brought to light the fact that union maintenance workers at the Superdome and Convention Center were replaced with out-of-state workers. These new employees earn a lower wage and receive no benefits.
Davis-Bacon was there to prevent just such things from happening. The government overpays corporations for work those same corporations underpay their employees to do.
Another one of Bush’s rebuilding proposals is the Gulf Opportunity Zone, which gives tax breaks to small businesses as an incentive for economic growth. This is a good idea, but the tax breaks will also be available to big business, including casinos. Mississippi has already backed down on some of its strict gambling rules and allowed formerly floating casinos to build on the coast. Now Bush is trying to give those casinos the economic incentives Mississippi has consciously denied them. Casinos may provide jobs and revenue to communities, but they also contribute to gambling addiction.
The advantage big business has in America is terrifying at times. A new bankruptcy law goes into affect Monday that makes it more difficult for citizens to default on debts. Just after this law passed through congress, United Airlines defaulted on its employee pension plan. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 4.3 million people have fallen into poverty since 2000. The Washington Post reported that CEO salaries increased 313 percent between 1990 and 2003. High gas prices for consumers mean big profits for oil companies.
Corporate interests have become more important than the interests of American citizens. The media do not report fully on this disturbing trend because they are part of corporate America. For example, in 2004, Sinclair Broadcasting Group, owner of 62 local TV stations nation wide, forbid seven of its ABC stations to air the April 30 episode of Nightline, where Ted Koppel read the names and showed the pictures of the then 721 American soldiers who had lost their lives during the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The special episode was a tribute to fallen soldiers. They gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country, and national recognition was appropriate. A statement from Sinclair read, “The action appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq.” A powerful corporation was allowed to make a moral judgment for citizens; this may be legal, but I cannot see how. The action of Sinclair here blatantly violates the Bill of Rights’ guarantee of a free press.
An informed citizenry is essential to democracy. Equality of opportunity is essential to capitalism. Neither of these ideals is guaranteed in today’s America. Now there is an entire city to be built from the ground up. It is the perfect environment to build a shining example of modern America, but it is also in danger of turning into a corporate playground.
So, as citizens, we must keep an eye on New Orleans. We cannot let the current corporate and political environment dictate the future of this unique city. It is the people of the Gulf Coast who make it what it is. After the Chicago fire of 1871, the displaced residents rebuilt their own city. The same should be done now. No one knows the land better, no one cares as much and no one deserves it more than the locals.

[email protected]