Fanz23 - Trouble In The Water...Trouble Before The Water..
This morning after watching the replay of Oscar De La Hoya literally quit on his stool after taking a beat down from Manny Pacquiuo. I happened to catch a documentary titled, "Trouble In The Water." And it's about a couple and one man coping with the incoming and post [Storm] Hurricane Katrina and trying to find a way to restart their lives.
Cool.
Everyone after such an storm needs to rebuild and restart their lives after such an event. But what got me was the mixed reactions from the main characters, Kim and Scott Rivers.
It seemed that on one hand...ahh wait a minute, a little disclaimer before I continue on.
I believe that a litany of things did not happen and that a lot of folks share responsibility for the what happened or did not happen in New Orleans. One, once folks received warning that indeed a storm or hurricane was approaching 'Nawlins, folks should have gotten out, if they were able body. It seems to this writer, that if you can afford cable, satellite and or internet usage, you can afford a few dollars to get out of the way of the storm. Katrina when it hit, exposed a lot things about black folk that is only talked about, well, by black folk and even that is taboo unless that person is Jesse Jackson or any of the other cronies that make their living being poverty pimps. In the documentary, in the closing credits the film makers said that the public schools were the worst in the country..ALL FAILING. The film makers in the same closing credits said that Louisiana, after Katrina remains the number one in it's incarceration rate. I guess for this discussion and for reading purposes...We can talk about black folk. So for whatever reason you all come up with, racism, sympathy or whatever you may have. Please take notice that blacks and latinos commit a good portion of all crimes..Which! brings me to this, both of the main characters are criminals, both are drug dealers, so before the storms hit, some areas in 'Nawlins had domestic terrorists in it's street terrorizing the innocent and selling poison to it's own.
Yet, strangely someone else gets the blame for that behavior or it's rationalized. Take this for instance:
"I don't have a high school diploma and you need to graduate from high school or at least have two years of college to make at least ten dollars an hour..I figure why do that if I could out to this corner and make fo' or five hunnert and call it a day."
Scott Rivers said that.
In a rap by Kim titled "Amazing," she chronicles her background which was started by her own mother being a crack head and losing custody of Kim and her brother. Kim states that instead of being in a foster home and separated from her brother (who by the way was in jail when Katrina hit) they rolled the streets, stole to get what they needed and when she got tired of doing that, she herself, sold the one thing that her mother failed to overcome. Drugs. Yet it was rationalized and somehow they are now victims for not leaving when told or Scott spending his fo' or five hunnert dollars the day before Katrina hit, so they had to stay.
Another person introduced in the documentary was a guy named "Brian." Now Brian had a sadder story because his mother/grandmother was in a New Orleans hospital and apparently when the storm hit, the hospital abandoned the patients that were in their care. According to Brian, two weeks after the storm, they still hadn't found the body. Next, after moving with Kim and Scott to Tennessee, the couple and Brian tried to get FEMA assistance, but one problem. Brian, himself was a drug addict and at the time was living in sober house, he could not prove residency. And of course, during the credits, it was told that Brian relapsed and returned back to 'Nawlins after Kim and Brian.
So although the documentary was interesting, I got the feeling that the producers and characters, especially the characters deep down inside believe they took some of blame for their situation, Brian most notably. But on the outside, it's the same blame someone else and point the finger at the rich white folks that had the money to get out and they left us behind like we were second class citizens in a third world country.
And they could not be more wrong...Prior to Katrina, you and others were menaces to society and you treated the areas where you lived, as if you were a third world country. No one to blame but yourselves.
Cool.
Everyone after such an storm needs to rebuild and restart their lives after such an event. But what got me was the mixed reactions from the main characters, Kim and Scott Rivers.
It seemed that on one hand...ahh wait a minute, a little disclaimer before I continue on.
I believe that a litany of things did not happen and that a lot of folks share responsibility for the what happened or did not happen in New Orleans. One, once folks received warning that indeed a storm or hurricane was approaching 'Nawlins, folks should have gotten out, if they were able body. It seems to this writer, that if you can afford cable, satellite and or internet usage, you can afford a few dollars to get out of the way of the storm. Katrina when it hit, exposed a lot things about black folk that is only talked about, well, by black folk and even that is taboo unless that person is Jesse Jackson or any of the other cronies that make their living being poverty pimps. In the documentary, in the closing credits the film makers said that the public schools were the worst in the country..ALL FAILING. The film makers in the same closing credits said that Louisiana, after Katrina remains the number one in it's incarceration rate. I guess for this discussion and for reading purposes...We can talk about black folk. So for whatever reason you all come up with, racism, sympathy or whatever you may have. Please take notice that blacks and latinos commit a good portion of all crimes..Which! brings me to this, both of the main characters are criminals, both are drug dealers, so before the storms hit, some areas in 'Nawlins had domestic terrorists in it's street terrorizing the innocent and selling poison to it's own.
Yet, strangely someone else gets the blame for that behavior or it's rationalized. Take this for instance:
"I don't have a high school diploma and you need to graduate from high school or at least have two years of college to make at least ten dollars an hour..I figure why do that if I could out to this corner and make fo' or five hunnert and call it a day."
Scott Rivers said that.
In a rap by Kim titled "Amazing," she chronicles her background which was started by her own mother being a crack head and losing custody of Kim and her brother. Kim states that instead of being in a foster home and separated from her brother (who by the way was in jail when Katrina hit) they rolled the streets, stole to get what they needed and when she got tired of doing that, she herself, sold the one thing that her mother failed to overcome. Drugs. Yet it was rationalized and somehow they are now victims for not leaving when told or Scott spending his fo' or five hunnert dollars the day before Katrina hit, so they had to stay.
Another person introduced in the documentary was a guy named "Brian." Now Brian had a sadder story because his mother/grandmother was in a New Orleans hospital and apparently when the storm hit, the hospital abandoned the patients that were in their care. According to Brian, two weeks after the storm, they still hadn't found the body. Next, after moving with Kim and Scott to Tennessee, the couple and Brian tried to get FEMA assistance, but one problem. Brian, himself was a drug addict and at the time was living in sober house, he could not prove residency. And of course, during the credits, it was told that Brian relapsed and returned back to 'Nawlins after Kim and Brian.
So although the documentary was interesting, I got the feeling that the producers and characters, especially the characters deep down inside believe they took some of blame for their situation, Brian most notably. But on the outside, it's the same blame someone else and point the finger at the rich white folks that had the money to get out and they left us behind like we were second class citizens in a third world country.
And they could not be more wrong...Prior to Katrina, you and others were menaces to society and you treated the areas where you lived, as if you were a third world country. No one to blame but yourselves.
posted by J.C. "Fanz23" Lewis, Jr | 10:33 AM
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