Giving Thanks

I have just spent the last 5 days in Baton Rouge celebrating Thanks giving with two good friends. I had a great time. I was able to eat my first Thanks giving Turkey, see Baton Rouge, get some Christmas shopping done in the sun and take a drive through New Orleans. I'd like to say thankyou to Amy who invited me down for the holiday.

It's not every day I get to celebrate America's very own creation myth! Born from the screams of a million dying souls the good book's light pierced deep into the American continent and purifed all. And goes marching on. Or some such.

But horrible histories aside it would appear that Thanksgiving is the kick off signal for the Christmas period in America. The day after sees massive knock down sales across the whole country giving hell at a discount for shoppers and retail workers alike (poor old Amy and Christina). I think perhaps it needs to be adopted in Britain since it provides a golden opportunity to tell your relatives face to face not to waste any time or money on more gifts that will only collect dust (or be sold on ebay...) come Boxing day. Did you know they don't have boxing day in America? I didn't. So when do they play their football games then?

New Orleans sends a shiver down your spine, despite the unseasonal heat. I didn't have my camera on me and i'm kicking myself for not. It's hard to describe the scene really. Imagine a war film. As you enter the city the billboards begin to loose panels until eventually all you are left with is stumps. The rooftops are a sea of blue plastic coverings and debris still lines the highways. We drove off the main interstate and into the residential districts. It looks like the hurricane hit only yesterday. Cars are upturned, doors are missing and the smaller roads are blocked with fallen timber, glass and brick. Someone has been through and checked all the houses and spray painted a purple cross on each as they left - presumbly it was now safe, others have big signs that say "Do Not Enter - We Will Return" plastered over the front door. The roadsides are lined with thousands of colourful signs, most of which are handwritten and simply read "House Gutting Service: 479-718-7918". The churches and schools seemed to be getting their act together first and many of these were looking like new. Yet no has returned. The place is like a ghost town, it has just been left the way it was after the water receded. Spooky times in the South.

I hope to return one day to see it lined with gold and extending out another 1000 yards into the sea in an act of daring defiance...

The City

8 million people and me.

Big. Loud. Busy. Colourful. Exciting. Awe Inspiring.

I got the chance to visit a friend this weekend. I had a great time and I can't say thank you enough to them for taking the time out of their busy schedule to show me their home town. New York City.

The first thing that got me was the size. Just how does something get so big? Its amazing to think about how it all grew up from just a few colonists, a few boats. Perhaps a fishing outpost, then maybe a boat yard. I need to buy a history of New York. I still can’t believe something can become so … mind bogglingly out of this world big! I think you could take a year out in the City and never even come close to experiencing all there is.

Shanna tells me she never wants to leave. I can see why. When the world comes to you - why travel?

The architecture is a mix of this sort of mean looking industrial style from the 1930’s, moving through to a sort of silver office block 70’s craze and finally onto some very funky architecture as you reach the 1990’s and 21st century.

It’s also a maze. They say the people are so busy, but the landscape is just as busy. Nothing is left untouched, everything is utilised and crammed in. Buildings over lap buildings and roads twist and turn amongst them before merging into thicker highways that channel a ceaseless traffic of colour, noise and life.

The area around Times Square is something else all together. Moving images flicker over the sides of buildings, news bulletins scroll above building entrances and the colour. The colour is amazing. It’s like being in the future. Star Wars, Blade Runner and the Fifth Element – that isn’t science fiction – it’s just Times Square on a wider scale. (minus the odd flying car)

And the money. The money is breathtaking. It is actually difficult to comprehend how much sheer capital exists within those buildings, within the computer banks and within the black suited men and woman that pass between the buildings.

It is hugely impressive. Worthy of the most powerful nation in the world. It is almost the spiritual heartland of capitalism.

Crime, poverty and decadence? I saw some. Yet not all that much. There are some very desperate people in the city but one of the great things I noticed was how people from all backgrounds - Black, White, Hispanic, Asian and Oriental, the supremely rich and sickeningly poor all walk side by side in the streets as if neither of them has noticed the injustice.

I finally understand what all the fuss is about. New York life is a dream; we see it on television and in magazines, but it is also real. It is what millions of people aspire too. It is where the whole world comes together in one place. For better or worse.

I’d like to thank my friend for taking the time to show me her inspiration.

Katrina

Whilst waiting for a special lecture on the Katrina disaster I got talking to an actual survivor. This man of African American origin had previously lived in New Orleans, when the hurricane came he was unable to escape and he himself was one of those people stuck on a rooftop awaiting rescue. He lost his house and his job and he saw close friends die. Yet he and his family were able to escape mostly unharmed to Houston where they were looked after at a nearby army base, staffed mainly at this time by volunteers. He was later moved to temporary housing in Fayettville, Arkansas. Which is why I met him. He is currently working at the campus Burger King.


The talk itself was very interesting. It stated the obvious points in obvious terms. First the inner city residents couldn't escape because they didn't have cars - inner city residents don't require them, so don't own them. Secondly the 'looting' reported was seen by the media as a criminal act by those dastardly blacks - yet we must remember that all the stores were closed - those that remained had no access to food other than by breaking windows. The lecturer (a reporter from Kansas) also noted how no African American reporters were sent and he made a good case for a sort of postmodern argument that reporters only ever report what they can connect with - white upper class American reporters can't connect with poor urban African Americans - hence the media has twisted against the victims.


Katrina exposed what African Americans had known for decades - that they are mostly a poor underclass living very close to poverty. Yet despite this the American media has still yet to fully acknowledge what lessons should have been learnt, the BCC in my opinion has done a far more accurate job at asking the right questions. America has almost already forgotten the tragedy and from what I can see Bush has got off pretty lightly. How many more tragedies like these are required before real changes are made?