Dateline show about Vietnamese in post-Katrina New Orleans

by changeling 6 Replies latest jw experiences

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  changeling

  The other night, Stone Phillips did a piece on how the Vietnamese community has returned, re-built, and prospered in New Orleans. In an area called New Orleans East there is a large Vietnamese community. Most are Catholic and attend the "Our Lady of Vietnam Church". The report stated that most of the residents evacuated the city succesfully and that their priest kept track of every one of them. When the mayor of New Orleans gave the all clear to return, the priest led the way and they all went back. They immediatly mobilized help in the way of food, building supplies and other necesities from the church. Today, when most of the more seriously afected areas of NO are still uninhabited the Vietnamese sector is flourishing (this area took on about 9 feet of water).

  In contrast, I know for a fact that there were many witnesses who ended up in the infamous Superdome shelter and latter carted off to Houston. Many were found by brothers in Houston who went to look for witnesses in the Astrodome. Months after Katrina, letters were still being sent to the congregations in various parts of the country looking for Katrina survivors.

  As for the relief efforts: the brothers commandered several kingdom halls in the greater NO area as "hubs" for food and supplies. These were run by CO's and others who volunteered their time. I know for a fact that they were terribly mismanaged and those running the operation were exausted and frustrated. And it's no secret that those who received help with re-building their homes had to wait a long time to get help and then had the "suggestion" made to them that they contibute their insurance money to the WWW.

  However, one has to give credit where credit is due, and I do not mean to make light of anyone's efforts to help others.

  But the WT would have everyone believe that they were among the first and only to respond. They would also have you believe that they were better organized than everyone else and functioned more efficiently. This is just not so.
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  sass_my_frass

  Maybe it's because I don't read US newspapers, or because I don't read WT or Awake, but I've never heard of WBTS efforts in the Katrina cleanup. Here's what I bet happened: every church, club etc in the area made an effort at helping each other out. Some were great at it, some were useless. Many got mentioned in papers and on the web. The JWs find one little editorial about WBTS Katrina rebuilding efforts in Alberquerquetoday.com and think that they're the greatest thing the world community has ever seen.
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  bigdreaux

  actually, i am from new orleans. i was still kind of going to meetings when katrina hit. i actually met my wife while helping with the effort. the witnesses did do alot down here. of course, they only helped fellow witnesses, as other churches helped everyone. i never heard of anyone asked to give their insurance money to the www. this doesn't mean it didn't happen, i'm just saying, i never heard anything like that. i actually helped with the hubs, and, they were well run.

  as for the vietnamese population, they were and still are a great inspiration to all of us here. they did not wait on their butts and wait for the government. they took the lead in cleaning up their neighborhoods. alot of people followed.
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  changeling

  I can assure you that they were there. But they were among many, many other groups and religions doing the same thing. And as far as I know, they were the only ones who expected the insurance money to revert back to them.
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  ozziepost

  as for the vietnamese population, they were and still are a great inspiration to all of us here. they did not wait on their butts and wait for the government. they took the lead in cleaning up their neighborhoods. alot of people followed.

  Last year there was a cyclone that hit the coast of central Viet Nam that was of greater intensity than Katrina. Mrs Ozzie and I were there the week after and the results were truly amazing! Not that the American media would acknowledge it of course.

  The government evacuated the city of Da Nang (the country's third largest city) ahead of when the storm hit to minimise loss of life. (George W - where were you in Katrina?) The week after we saw the devastation and walked amongst the rubble. Our 'adopted son' who was in the middle of building his dream house at the time of the cyclone saw it collapsed but he'd already re-built half a wall!!! We walked through what was to become our bedroom for whenever we visit.

  Schools were destroyed but infrastructure continued to operate unabated. The loss of life, around 60 persons, was so much less than in Karina I believe.

  We stayed as guests in a resort in the historic town of Hoi An where we have been known for many years. When we first arrived, there were large boats washed ashore into the grounds of the resort, the river wall was destroyed, etc etc. Within one week everything had been restored and the central government hosted their very first heads of government meeting for the ASEAN Economic Forum and with much fanfare as if nothing had happened !!! Truly amazing!

  It doesn't surprise me that they cleaned up after Katrina - what an example to everyone, including the dubs!

  Makes you wonder how on earth the dubs could clean up the whole earth after Armageddon, eh?
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  changeling

  That's why they want people to work the foreign language field. Bring in lots of Vietnamese to clean up the earth. :)
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  bigdreaux

  1033 killed during katrina. 2 things contributed to this. complacancey, and reliance on the government.

  the majority of people here are very self reliant. espically us cajun boys. lol too many inner city people have relied on the government their entire lives, and expected the same thing when katrina hit. the problem was, the government aid was stretched beyond it's limit. most people don't hear the inspirational stories that came out of that storm. that doesn't make for good news.

  the complacancey issue affected everyone. even me. i almost didn't leave. we had left so many times before with nothing happening, we felt this would happen again. i almost stayed. thankfully, my mother talked some sense into me. my condo on the lake was completly wrecked by a tornado. i would have died.