Laughing on the levee (or not)

It was interesting to see five college girls talking and laughing on the levee of Mississippi River, in the French Quarter, asking a man walking by to take their picture. They were probably students on a holiday, having fun in the lively downtown of New Orleans. A city center unlike any other I have seen in the States, live music on every corner, mimics and acrobats doing their acts.

Only an hour earlier we were driving in Lower Ninth Ward, stopping at a relief center, meeting people coming for an extra blanket, because it had been cold in their FEMA-trailer the night before. Devastated houses and people looking for solidarity not charity was what we met in the Lower Ninth Ward, a poor neighborhood, which was almost forgotten and will probably not be rebuilt. No matter the feelings of the house owners that have little or no possibility to start from scratch elsewhere. It was also shocking to hear that the new levee protecting the neighborhood is to low to stop the flooding if a Hurricane of Katrina’s size would hit again. According to the Government a better levee would just be too expensive. But the decision seems almost inhuman when we drive by houses marked with the letters D.O.A. 1-Body.

U2 and Green Day sang in the Superdome a little more than a month a go: After the Flood all the Colors came out. Hopefully they are right; it was a colorful day for the five college girls on the levee of Mississippi River today. But we still have to hope and pray for more colorful days for the people in the Lower Ninth Ward.