26185: Bassiouni: (reply) == more on Haiti and New orleans --Re: 26183: Wilcken (reply) 26182: Bassiouni: (reply on Haitians in New Orleans) Re: 261762: Wilcken (reply) 26164: RE: Davis on Katrina and Haitians (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Nathan Bassiouni <sove_ayiti@mac.com>

I apologize also.  I am familiar with La Troupe Makandal and I attended one 
workshop below my home at Ashe African Culture community center and I believe I 
saw some your members in Prospect Park in Brooklyn.  I did not mean that La 
Troupe Makandal catered to tourist, but rather Vidho & Maryse did.  Vidho sold 
paintings to tourists, Maryse played music from the Diaspora, like a world 
music show, which did not really appeal to the local Haitian community, but 
rather to professors, students of culture and medicine, and world travelers.

I regret to tell you that Arabi was another area hit very badly and that will 
probably remain underwater due to it's location by the river, the industrial 
canal and surrounded by coastal bayous.  Arabi is in Saint Bernard Parish and 
Katrina's eye traveled directly over Arabi, Michoux, Meraux & Chalmette.  The 
mississippi and canal levees broke in this area and they immediately received 
over 20 feet of water making the rooftops not places of refuge, which caused 
widespread drownings.  This the area of town is where the gov't and media are 
censoring because everything is underwater since sunday night last because the 
people that went to their roofs from rising waters drowned and most of the dead 
are floating in the debris, unlike where I was rescuing in 10-15 feet of water 
where roofs are exposed and attics are dry, but most of the dead in my search 
and rescue area will be found dead later in their homes or dead from the heat 
in their attics.  I hope you did not have people that tried to ride out the 
storm there because that is the worst hit area of town, as well as Plaquemines 
Parish.  look at the map of Arabi on msn.com  Just goto the menu on the right 
of the screen and click maps.  type Arabi, LA and you will see that Arabi was 
completely surrounded by water before the hurricane.

May I ask you for help?  I'm homeless and I've lost most of things, including 
my diplomas.  Transcripts are not available. My best friend is in Brooklyn 
recording music, but he is from Esplanade area of New Orleans.  He has lost all 
his musical equipment, computer, and clothes he did not pack for his short stay 
in NY.  He is trying to find a place for my daughter, my girlfriend and I to 
stay while I approach CIA school in Hyde Park for a culinary degree to 
eventually move to Martinique, Guadeloupe, or Saint Martin.  My studies have 
been focused on helping Haiti, but I was angry at what the U.S. government was 
doing there, as well as the war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Columbia.  I don't 
want to study this anymore because I am to the point that all I can do now is 
fight like the heroic Cacos did during the Haitian Invasion in the 1917.  But 
that is not doable.....yet.  So I want to denounce my U.S. citizenship and 
leave this country forever and live a peaceful life in the Antilles somewhere ( 
I also have French citizenship).  Because everything I love culturally about 
New Orleans is present in the Caribbean, and everything I hate about New 
orleans is American, i.e. crack, murder of black men by black men, 
prostitution, heroin, crooked cops, very poor funded schools, teenage 
pregnancy....etc.  Is Hyde Park, NY commutable from Brooklyn or other boroughs 
in NYC?

Thank you.

Nathan Bassiouni
225-279-7951
or
Four points Sheraton - Denver
303-758-7000 rm# 134