St James Infirmary

Louis Armstrong - St James Infirmary

'The figures show that the New Orleans metropolitan area, and not just the city, remains vastly shrunken in population four months after the storm, having lost 378,000 people, and that those who remained were more prosperous and were far more likely to be white.'

WP

Not that I have anything against white or rich people (well, I might be a little biased towards folks with too much money), being white and coming from a decently well-off middle class background, but this is really sad somehow considering that New Orleans has been the source and concentration of the most amazing group of musicians over the last century, most of whom have been black and poor (Bobby Charles being the notable and outstanding exception I can think of right now). I wonder and fear what will happen to this hotbed of music.


The most troubling aspect of American democracy really is the fact that basically only people who are well-off vote. Am not even going to bother explaining this, but it is really worrisome how low voter-turnouts are and stuff like this ensures that minorites and poorer people (and less-educated ones) simply don't vote.


Last but not least, the US has to stop supporting shady totalitarian groups only because they share an enemy with them. That only leads to militant opposing groups to emerge or consolidate these groups' support in the general population. Plus, from what I have read about this islamic group is not as radical or anti-western as people make them out to be. Looks like the lessons of Vietnam (don't alienate a powerful group simply because they might have something in common with your enemy) have not really been perceived though.