8/18/2007 Community Gumbo

Listen | Democracy Now (8/15/07)

• KPFT Targeted: Bullet Pierces Studio Window of Pacifica's Houston Station
• Naomi Klein: From Think Tanks to Battle Tanks, "The Quest to Impose a Single World Market Has Casualties Now in the Millions"

Listen | Naomi Klein: Hurricane Katrina and Disaster Capitalism

Naomi Klein's celebrated posts from the front line in the war against corporate tyranny have appeared in The Nation, the Guardian UK, the L.A. Times, and many other publications. Her new book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, examines how corporate economic power exploits conflict and disaster -- natural or manufactured -- to enrich the few and disenfranchise the many by exploiting the disorientation and chaos of states of disaster.

Klein examines how the shock doctrine was used for profit in the wake of Hurricane Katrina when the Bush administration corporatized the recovery. Later, according to Klein, the dismantling of the public schools was another attempt to exploit the displaced population in order to privatize education and dismantle subsidized housing.

Naomi Klein is returning to New Orleans, this time to present her new book:

Saturday | August 25th | 6:00 p.m.
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
7214 St. Charles Avenue, rm. 405 (fourth floor, the large lecture theater)

(Note that (at last check) the Loyola calendar has the event listed as starting at 7:00 p.m. This is wrong (to my understanding). Email exchanges I received moved the time back to 6:00 p.m. under the logic that 7:00 was too late.)

You can also hear a recorded interview by Amy Goodman with Naomi Klein on Democracy Now, and later on WTUL's Community Gumbo. That's Saturday morning, from 8-10 a.m., 91.5 FM.

Blogging for Recovery

Mark Folse writes for the New Orleans blog, Wet Bank Guide. He visited the WTUL studio to offer his perspectives on how the medium transformed from a forum for response to disaster, into a tool for recovery. The second New Orleans blog conference, Rising Tide 2, is scheduled for Saturday, August 25th.

Announcements:

Rising Tide 2
Do bloggers matter? Over 100 New Orleans bloggers think so, and they’ve formed a nitch -- unique in the world -- filling a media void for eloquent narratives, personal stories, rage and angst, investigative journalism, civic activism, humor, and whatever else is on their minds. What began as a need for communication in the wake of Hurricane Katrina is now recognized around the world as the place to go to find out what average citizens are thinking about and doing as they struggle to recover their lives, their homes, their neighborhoods, and their institutions. Katrina-related short films open the Rising Tide 2 conference of New Orleans bloggers at Buffa’s Restaurant and Lounge on Friday, August 24th. The main conference activities take place on Saturday, August 25th, at the New Orleans Yacht Club. More information at RISINGTIDENOLA.COM.

Music Played:

The Clash, "London Calling"

Randy Newman, "New Orleans Wins the War"

Susan Cowsill, "Just Believe It"

Wynton Marsalis, "Supercapitalism"