Recovery

One of the things that has hurt my own city is the apathy by the rest of the world toward what happened to New Orleans. We received little more than rhetoric from other nations. While America is the first to rush aid, money and expertise to any area that suffers a natural disaster, it seems as if the world ignores us when the same happens here. Did you read of the New Orleans mayor's plan to start jump the economy here?
It is a novel and perhaps good idea. Knowing that this city is built partly on tourism, Mayor Nagin announced a plan (which must be approved by the state to be enacted) to jump start gambling here. He wants the casino's up and running quickly. Further, he wants more casinos than we have ever had and no restrictions on their size or operating capacity. That would surely lure some tourists back.
This plan is good because my city is broke. Without a huge cash flow the city will default and all services (well, what is left of them) will be stopped. In fact, yesterday the U.S. Congress voted to pay the debts of New Orleans and surrounding hurricane ravaged cities for 3 months. It appropriated 700 million dollars to do so, all in an attempt to keep the area alive and to spur a return of some of the population.
Businesses are in dire straights, with no workers and a very small base of population from which to sell their services. Many are wondering why the federal government (the corrupt Bush administration) is giving billions of dollars in service contracts to firms that are not from the New Orleans area, while ignoring the New Orleans companies that can do that work. For instance, our restaurants want contracts to feed the many thousands of contractors, federal officials and other personnel that are here in the recovery process.
Restaurateurs say that without that business they will be forced to declare bankruptcy, given that there are no tourists and few locals eating out now. Despite there attempt to make the Bush administration see that giving the restaurants here the contracts is a means of keeping them alive, the Bush administration has instead given bloated contracts to "friends" of the administration. This is not only in the restaurant industry, but in many others.
For instance, many New Orleans companies want to be a part of the debris removal squads. We have more rubble, trash and debris than has ever accumulated at any other time in history. But Bush and his cronies are giving no-bid , expensive contracts to their supporters. The saga goes on and on here. We have been cursed with an horrific storm and an incompetent and dishonest president and administration.
Oh well, enough of this complaining. I have seen the terrible Bush operation for 6 years, this latest performance by them is no surprise