A Caribbean-born economist has revealed that most of the money donated by individuals, organisations and governments from all over the world (including Trinidad and Tobago) for the restoration of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina may end up in the hands of the city’s business community.

Secretary of the US-based National Coalition on Caribbean Affairs (NCOCA) Leopold Edwards visited Trinidad and Tobago recently as a guest of the Caribbean Historical Society (CHS) to mark African History Month.

Edwards is well-known among Caribbean immigrants in the US.

As secretary of NCOCA, a lobby group formed by Caribbean immigrants, he is deeply involved in issues that affect Caribbean people both in and outside the region.

At a lecture hosted by the CHS recently at the La Joya Auditorium in St. Joseph, Edwards revealed that the poor response to the need for emergency relief by residents of New Orleans was part of a well-orchestrated plan by the US President George W. Bush’s Republican Party to change the demographics of the city.

Jamaican-born Economist LEOPOLD
EDWARDS (right) chats with NJAC’s
LISELI DAAGA after his address
at La Joya.

Hurricane Katrina’s devastation.

Edwards accused the Bush Administration of using the hurricane as an opportunity to reduce the number African-Americans living in New Orleans. Restoration efforts are concentrating on restoring the city’s commercial sector.

“No one is going to be allowed to return to the city’s 9th ward, one of the hardest hit parts of the city and an area populated largely by African-Americans,” said Edwards.

He told his Trinidadian audience that the New Orleans City Council gave no guarantees that the 9th ward would be rebuilt, or that if it is rebuilt, those who lived there would be re-housed in the district.

Edwards believes that this is the first step in turning New Orleans and the state of Louisiana into a Republican stronghold.

The City Council election is also due in February.

He noted that it was easy for the Republicans to transform the state into one of theirs politically “if Blacks do not return to New Orleans”.

African-Americans have traditionally voted for the Democratic Party, and Democrat strongholds exist wherever they reside in large numbers.

Edwards also accused the federal government of diverting funds that should have been used for improving sea walls and embankments to the so-called ‘War on Terror’: “The US Government knew that sea defences in New Orleans couldn’t withstand a category four hurricane,” he said.

He also reminded that the US National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) was put under the Department of Homeland Security, making it impossible for the agency to act unless given orders to do so.

After Katrina passed, those orders were long in coming, and New Orleans, without power, potable water, telephone communications and under metres of murky water, reached a state of anarchy before help came from NEMA.

Edwards went further to explain why a party would go to such lengths simply to secure votes in a country that many see as a bastion of democracy: “When an animal is scared, it becomes dangerous,” he said.

He described the tragedy of New Orleans as a “manifestation of policies that have existed for some time”.

He explained that certain elements in the US political landscape have “embraced a certain world view”: “Survival of the fittest, and dominion over others (maintained by) a constant state of war.”

Edwards said that these elements within the US political system are strongly influenced by early economic theorists like Adam Smith and Malthus: Ideologies that teach men to worry only about himself, his family and close kin.

According to Edwards, they also observe Malthus’ rule: Provide only enough for the barest survival, so that a certain amount of hunger and pestilence would ensure the elimination of the weakest and the maintenance of order.

Edwards noted that the theories of Adam Smith, Malthus and others provide the underlying basis of capitalism: “These principles underpin the American political and economic system,” he warned.

He then pointed to a particular population trend in the US and elsewhere: The declining numbers of Europeans (Whites), which he said, in the last few decades have been reduced from 30 per cent to 20 per cent (worldwide), and in the US, current trends dictate that by 2050, the White population would be reduced to just over 50 per cent.

Edwards warned that certain elements within American politics and economy find the scenario of a non-White dominated world a scary one, and would resort to desperate measures (unfair trading regimes, financing regime changes, pre-emptive strikes, embargoes to name a few) to tip the scale in their favour.

Edwards also warned Caribbean nations of the dangers of “buying into the lie of trickle down economics.

“Katrina has sheared away the veil and caused people all over the world to see, on television, the reality of life for a large percentage of the US population.”

Edwards reminded that most Caribbean countries have already tied themselves into arrangements that may eventually prove detrimental to them, but, he noted happily that many have become wise since Katrina, and are asserting their independence: “They are learning the lessons and acting accordingly,” he concluded.