Kalamu

I can't stand that writers from outside of New Orleans are there now, writing about it, and here I am stranded in the Midwest. But David Remnick has a pretty good article in the New Yorker about New Orleans, the city's poor black refugees, their conspiracy theories, their plight.

He interviewed Kalamu ya Salaam, who I think is a bit of a blowhard (he used to do a show on WWOZ and he could be annoying) and who I regret to report is willing to believe the paranoid theories that The Man flooded the 9th Ward on purpose. Even so, some of what he says is, I think, both true and sad:

"You are going to see a lot of suicides this winter. A lot of poor people depend entirely on their extended family and their friends who share their condition to be a buffer against the pain of that condition. By winter, a lot of the generosity and aid that's been so palpable lately will begin to slow down and the reality of not going home again will hit people hard. They will be very alone.

"People forget how important all those Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs are for people. It's a community for a lot of people who have nothing. Some people have never left New Orleans. Some have never seen snow. So you wake up and you find yourself beyond the reach of friends, beyond the reach of members of your family, and you are working in a fast food restaurant in Utah somewhere and there is no conceivable way for you to get back to the city you love. How are you going to feel?"