Avoiding Post-Sandy Disaster Capitalism: On Rebuilding the Right Way

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/11/02-7




All around America, we've watched the devastation of Hurricane Sandy with a sense of shock and heartbreak. For millions of people who suffered from the storm, some of the hardest questions seem to be about the simplest things. When will the power be back? How do I get to work? When will I be able to send my kids to school?

Rebuilding for the future may still be far from their minds. But for America as a whole, it can't be.

While we help victims of Sandy get back on their feet every way we can, we also have an obligation to make sure that reconstruction efforts provide real solutions for the future -- rather than compounding the tragedy.

From Katrina and Isaac to Irene to Sandy, severe weather events are becoming a constant feature of our lives. And they're leaving in their wake too many lessons of the wrong way to rebuild. It even has a name: disaster capitalism. Naomi Klein in The Shock Doctrine and many other journalists have documented how developers and their political allies have used disasters like Katrina as a chance to funnel billions in public dollars into private pockets, to push conservative economic agendas, and to leave low-income people stranded -- literally locked out of reconstruction jobs in the communities they once called home.

[proverbialwisdom]

1. K&R

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[marmar]

2. k/r