NEW ORLEANS - THIS MAN'S BODY LAY ROTTING IN THE MUD FOR TWO WEEKS - BUT WHO CARES?

In the southern U.S.A, if your skin is dark and you are not rich, your life has no value. If you are dead, the rich and powerful don't care.

Following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, this poor man's body lay in the dirt for two weeks, decaying and rotting. 

Neighbours appealed to the police and the army and the City and to every authority to pick up his body and arrange for its proper treatment. No one did. 

Finally the PBS program DEMOCRACY NOW covered the story and interviewed all these authorities as they stopped close to the body, asking each why they were not taking the corpse away.

The snotty soldiers tell the program's producer, Amy Goodman, again and again - almost as if it was a joke - to speak to their superiors.

Finally, on the 14th day, immediately following DEMOCRACY NOW'S intervention, the dead man was removed from the mud.

Phyllis Carter

 

Democracy Now!

"Over the 10 years, New Orleans is still a story of two cities."

If You are Poor, It's Like the Hurricane Just Happened: Malik Rahim on Katrina 10 Years After

WATCH: Amy Goodman interviews Malik Rahim.

DEMOCRACYNOW.ORG