See the Calluses on the Invisible Hand

Among the socialists over at the Lenin’s Tomb blog is science-fiction writer China Mieville, who’s got something to say about what happened in the Gulfcoast region last week. Much of the blog’s anti-capitalist critque is predictable even to sympathetic readers, but Mieville deserves recognition one of the first commentators to point out that as mayor of New Orleans, Ray “get off your asses and do something” Nagin should also be held accountable for the handling of the pre-Katrina evacuation (Lou Dobbs was raising that point on Friday, along with Josh Levin at Slate, but Mieville posted about it the day after the hurricane… and revisited the subject over the weekend).

He’s also the only source I’ve seen–and I admit I don’t get around that much of the political blogosphere–to discuss what may have been one of the key factors in FEMA’s failure: the feds subcontracted the “catastrophic hurricane disaster plan” to a consulting firm called IEM (Innovative Energy Management) which has worked with a dozen federal agencies and ten state emergency management agencies. The company, based in Baton Rouge, is a client of The Livingston Group, a D.C. lobbying firm run by Bob Livingston, who was a representative from Louisiana’s 1st district, which includes New Orleans suburbs–but you might remember him as the would-be Speaker of the House who was forced out of office by Larry Flynt.

But let’s widen the perspective a bit here: one of IEM’s announced partners on this project, as on several other projects, is James Lee Witt & Associates. Witt was the director of FEMA under Bill Clinton, and is largely credited with turning that once lackluster organization around (never mind what has or hasn’t happened to it since), and, as of last Saturday, was appointed by the governor of Louisiana to oversee recovery efforts in that state.

UPDATE: Announced being the key word, it turns out. “In May of 2004, IEM included James Lee Witt Associates, LLC in their proposal to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for developing a FEMA Catastrophic Plan for Southeast Louisiana and the New Madrid Seismic Zone,” a Witt Associates representative emailed me today after seeing the original version of this post. “After the proposal was submitted to FEMA, James Lee Witt Associates was not approached again by IEM, nor did JLWA have any involvement whatsoever in the project.”

So apparently, in addition to everything else one could say about IEM, they’re not above making use of somebody else’s good name to advance themselves.

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5 September 2005 | uncategorized |

Authors, Librarians-Unite

Ken Foster, another author living in New Orleans, has landed on his feet in Atlanta. He’s started a blog called Here Is New Orleans: “If you have any images or original art, or essays or poems to share, please email me.”

Karen Spears Zacharias passes word from Janis Owens about efforts to supplement the fundraising efforts of the Southeast Booksellers Association (SEBA). “We’re also looking into the idea of sending books to the relief sites and have contacted two publishers for children’s books specifically… As for the libraries, I’ve been in contact with several library directors, who are wildly enthusiastic and think it’ll mean the world to the libraries on the Gulf to know we’re behind them.”

Here, too, we have an update, from the American Library Association. The Texas Library Association’s Executive Director Patricia H. Smith writes:

TLA has a Disaster Relief Fund, which we are expanding to collect donations for libraries in the Gulf Coast area as well as for libraries providing support for the evacuees. In addition to checks by mail, we will be accepting online donations beginning early next week. One hundred percent of all donations will be sent to the state library
agency or library association in the state of the donor’s choice. TLA is also developing a plan to accept book donations for shipment to the affected states at an appropriate time, and more information will be available soon. Write to TLA, 3355 Bee Cave Road, Suite 401, Austin, TX 78746-6763; 512-328-1518 (voice); email pats@txla.org.”

That’s just one of the relief efforts America’s librarians have launched; click on that ALA link for news of similar projects, many dealing with more than books. Houston’s library system, for example, got Xerox to supply them with keys to the copy machines so refugees can get copies of FEMA applications quickly and freely, while Memphis is making computers available for online applications.

2 September 2005 | uncategorized |