Huey P. Newton Remembered… On Film
Today in history… August 22nd, 1989… Black Panthers’ co-founder Huey P. Newton was shot to death in Oakland, CA. He was just 47 years old.
In 1996, A Huey P. Newton Story, a one-man play, was performed on stage by Roger Guenveur Smith. In 2001, the play was later made into a made-for-tv film directed by Spike Lee. The entire film is on YouTube, if you haven’t already seen it (although it’s also on DVD). Here are the first 10 minutes of it:
Each issue of Literary Laundry is accompanied by a writing competition. All pieces submitted to us for review will be entered into consideration for our Awards of Distinction. We offer the following cash awards:
$500 for best poem
$500 for best short story
$250 for best one-act dramaIn addition to considering undergraduate works for the Award of Distinction, we will also consider them for the following undergraduate awards:
$250 for best poem
$250 for best short storySubmissions are due December 1, 2010. There is no fee to submit.
Submissions
We look forward to discovering great literature and encourage all writers to submit their work. Literary Laundry rejects the belief that authors must pay in order to have their work read. We therefore require no submission fee.
The following guidelines govern our submission policy:
- Authors may submit only one work per category during each review cycle. Authors can, however, submit work in multiple categories during one review cycle.
- Poets may submit up to three pages of poetry. It does not matter to us whether we receive one three page poem or many short poems on three pages. Poems, however, must be submitted in one document.
- Authors submitting prose fiction may submit one short story (or one chapter from a larger piece) per review cycle. We ask that submissions be single-spaced and kept to less than 10 pages single-spaced.
- Authors submitting one-act drama may submit one piece per review cycle. We ask that submissions be single-spaced and kept to less than 15 pages single-spaced.
- Authors must include with their work a one to two paragraph “abstract” explaining why their writing is intellectually evocative or of interest to a contemporary audience. The abstract should be included in the document submitted.
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About the Award
LEE & LOW BOOKS, award-winning publisher of children's books, is pleased to announce the eleventh annual NEW VOICES AWARD. The Award will be given for a children's picture book manuscript by a writer of color. The Award winner receives a cash grant of $1000 and our standard publication contract, including our basic advance and royalties for a first time author. An Honor Award winner will receive a cash grant of $500.
Established in 2000, the New Voices Award encourages writers of color to submit their work to a publisher that takes pride in nurturing new talent. Past New Voices Award submissions that we have published include The Blue Roses, winner of the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People; Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story, a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People and a Texas Bluebonnet Masterlist selection; and Bird, an ALA Notable Children's Book and a Cooperative Children's Book Center "Choices" selection.
Eligibility1. The contest is open to writers of color who are residents of the United States and who have not previously had a children's picture book published.
2. Writers who have published other work in venues such as children's magazines, young adult, or adult fiction or nonfiction, are eligible. Only unagented submissions will be accepted.
3. Work that has been published in any format is not eligible for this award. Manuscripts previously submitted for this award or to LEE & LOW BOOKS will not be considered.
Submissions1. Manuscripts should address the needs of children of color by providing stories with which they can identify and relate, and which promote a greater understanding of one another.
2. Submissions may be FICTION, NONFICTION, or POETRY for children ages 5 to 12. Folklore and animal stories will not be considered.
3. Manuscripts should be no more than 1500 words in length and accompanied by a cover letter that includes the author's name, address, phone number, email address, brief biographical note, relevant cultural and ethnic information, how the author heard about the award, and publication history, if any.
4. Manuscripts should be typed double-spaced on 8-1/2" x 11" paper. A self-addressed, stamped envelope with sufficient postage must be included if you wish to have the manuscript returned.
5. Up to two submissions per entrant. Each submission should be submitted separately.
6. Submissions should be clearly addressed to:
LEE & LOW BOOKS
95 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016
ATTN: NEW VOICES AWARD7. Manuscripts may not be submitted to other publishers or to LEE & LOW BOOKS general submissions while under consideration for this Award. LEE & LOW BOOKS is not responsible for late, lost, or incorrectly addressed or delivered submissions.
Dates for SubmissionManuscripts will be accepted from May 1, 2010, through September 30, 2010 and must be postmarked within that period.
Announcement of the AwardThe Award and Honor Award winners will be selected no later than December 31, 2010. All entrants who include an SASE will be notified in writing of our decision by January 31, 2011. The judges are the editors of LEE & LOW BOOKS. The decision of the judges is final. At least one Honor Award will be given each year, but LEE & LOW BOOKS reserves the right not to choose an Award winner.
Rozlyn Press: Call for Submissions
17 August 2010Rozlyn Press is currently seeking female fiction authors with unpublished manuscripts. Please read the following criteria:
Genre
- literary fiction (mystery and suspense)
- contemporary fiction
- magical realism
Electronic Submission Link: http://rozlynpress.submishmash.com/submit
Mailing Format
- Your submission should have a cover letter with the following information in the upper left corner: your name, address, phone number, email, the proposed title of your work, and number of words.
- Below the name block please type a brief synopsis (300 words or less) of your manuscript.
- All submissions should be printed on 8 1/2 by 11 white paper, double spaced, with 1 inch margins, in a legible typeface and font size. Pages should be numbered consecutively, with printing on one side only.
- Submissions should be clipped together, not loose pages.
- Please enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope with your submission for our correspondence.
- If your manuscript is not selected for publication and you wish to have it returned, please include a self-addressed prepaid media mail envelope with your submission and we will return your manuscript after the reading period. Unchosen manuscripts will be recycled at the end of the reading period if no prepaid media mail envelope is included.
The deadline is: September 30, 2010
Details
Please mail your submissions to:
Alayne Bushey-Fiore, 34 Main Street, Apt. 36, Malden, MA 02148
Our reading period is two months after the submission deadline. Please do not expect a response prior to December.
Please visit our Technicals page to learn more information about our editorial, design, and printing process. Authors will receive royalties on sales.
By Kumari Karandawala
NEW YORK, Aug 19, 2010 (IPS) - A growing number of activists is contradicting the claims of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) regarding the Gaza Freedom Flotilla debacle in May, including a large faction of both Israeli and U.S. Jews.
This faction was evidenced by the distinguished array of Jewish scholars, journalists and professionals who contributed to Moustafa Bayoumi's new book, "Midnight on the Mavi Marmara: The Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and How It Changed the Course of the Israel/Palestine Conflict." Amongst a host of 'who's who' of the literary world, the well-loved Jewish scholars and journalists who contributed included Noam Chomsky, Marsha B. Cohen, Norman Finkelstein, Glenn Greenwald and Gideon Levy, to name a few.
At a teleconference Thursday hosted by the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU), well-known author and journalist Max Blumenthal, who spoke from Israel, said he knew for a fact that the IDF had confiscated all recording equipment from the Mavi Marmara and contrived media footage to make it appear that Israeli forces were attacked by activists on board the Freedom flotilla.
A stray recording, however, proved otherwise to the world at large.
Moustafa Bayoumi, associate professor of English at Brooklyn College and the editor of "Midnight on the Marmara", also spoke at the press conference.
"People are aware of what happened on the freedom flotilla and to me what that illustrated, as the editor of the book, and someone who has been interested in the conflict for a very long time and to many people, is that in the region and in the world that there has been a real shift in how global civil society is responding to the Israel-Palestine conflict," he said.
Bayoumi described the blockade on Gaza, which has been ongoing for the last three years, as a "kind of a collective general punishment of the population of Gaza."
"During these last three years you have seen the evisceration of the population of Gaza and the inability of governments around the world, inability of nations, inability of these organisations that really should be responding to this catastrophe, their inability to change things," he said.
"But what we have seen in the interim is a growing global movement of concerned citizens really from around the world and that really reached its apogee of late with the Gaza freedom flotilla. That flotilla had six ships and people from 40 different countries all engaged in the idea and the action of bringing humanitarian aid to the besieged people of Gaza."
Bayoumi indicated that another reason for the growing global movement of conscience was the fact that more and more of these conflicts appear to involve innocent civilian fatalities, especially on humanitarian aid missions.
Some equally well-known academics like Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz and Chicago Law School Professor Eric Posner have reportedly stated that the naval blockade and the boarding of the Mavi Marmara in international waters were in accord with international law.
However, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Committee of the Red Cross has said that Israel's blockade of the Gaza strip is illegal.
The press conference highlighted the speed with which Bayoumi's book was published.
"Releasing the book at a quick pace is partly the idea of the company, which is a new publishing house," he explained. "The concept is that one should be able to harness new technologies in publishing to respond then in a way that publishing has traditionally not been able to respond with the kind of speed."
Bayoumi said that one of the major advantages of the book is that the almost a third is a collection of testimonies from the people who were actually on the freedom flotilla.
"Although I think you can find this kind of testimony scattered around the web, I don't know of any place right now where you can find all of them in a collected volume. Not only that but after the attack happened, the New York Times sought to publish at least two different publishings defending the actions of the Israeli government but not a single testimony from the more than 500 people who were on the Mavi Marmara."
On Thursday, CNN reported that another Gaza-bound flotilla had been launched, led by a majority of women activists including Lebanese superstar May Hariri.
A History of Black people in Europe
It is generally known that black people have been residing in European countries since the early colonial times. But even before the 15th century and during Roman times, a time when colour of skin still wasn’t a racist stigma but just another physical feature, black people lived in Europe. Remains of a man with black African features were found in England recently, dating his life back to the 13th century. Read this article for more info.
Besides that, facts have been found of black people living in different parts of Europe, although I don’t want to overstate their presence or influence. But it is generally known that during the Muslim era of the Iberian Peninsula (from the 8th century AD until the 15th century AD) people with dark skin were part of daily live. The Muslims who invaded Spain and Portugal around 700 AD were a mixture of black and dark people from North-Africa. They were often referred to as Maures, wrote about and painted, way before the dehumanization of black people started.
I added above Jan Mostaert's portrait of a nobleman, guest of the Queen of Austria. This painting dates back to the early 1500's in what we now call Belgium, then part of the Duchy of Brabant. There is no doubt this man has African roots while being a respected member of European culture. We can only guess that this man is of Maure origin, i.e. a Muslim having converted to Christianity or even the second or third generation of converts.
Below I will go deeper into the subject. I will give you some internet links, book references and a list of early Europeans of African descent, each time linked to their wiki page. If you know more about the subject I invite you to add information in a comment.
Al AndalusMany blacks who were Muslims converted to Christianity after the emirate of Al Andalus was abolished (end of 15th century). But the Reconquista took centuries (8th-15th century) and during those times black people gradually integrated the Christian and Northern European world. Among them were noble men and scholars. The negative image of blacks, as natural slaves, only gained prominence in the 18th century when the transatlantic slave trade became a central piece of European economical activity and later when European nation-states were being established.
Slavery and racism
Of course slavery existed before racism. In the 15th century blacks and whites were enslaved indiscriminately. Blacks in the America’s could become free men and own their own slaves and land (which was rather common in colonial Brazil for instance). It is only in later years that being black made you a slave forever and by birth, or at least a kind of human always inferior to white people. This racial perspective on identity and humanity only gained authority in later modern times. Read more on the subject here.
Coat of Arms
Black people were part of European imagination and reality from very early times. Read more here and here. We can say with certainty that there were black people in Europe before that white people reached the area south of the Sahara. North Africa, Iberia and the Middle East were the crossroad where black and white intermingled. In Europe references to blacks was a positive sign of strength and military power. Still today you can find many blacks in coat of arms for towns all over Europe, central, south and north, dating back to the middle ages.
Some Literature
After the 15th century, Portugal entered an intense relationship with African kingdoms in the Gulf of Guinea and the Congo coasts. Slave trade (although not based on race) and exchange between the kings led to the presence of Europeans on the West- and Central African shores, just as Africans in Portugal. Accounts from those days tell us that the sight of black people in the streets of Lisbon wasn’t a rarity during the Middle Ages, more on the contrary. I want to refer to following books for those who want to know more about this topic:
Black Africans in Renaissance Europe, Thomas Foster Earle,K. J. P. Lowe(eds.)
Africa's discovery of Europe, David NorthrupAs a consequence of the slave trade free blacks also arrived in Europe between the 16th and 19th century. Blacks lived in London, Liverpool, Lisbon, Seville, … during the 17th and 18th century. Other historical books with scientific authority give you in depth knowledge of this:
Hugh Thomas’s ‘The Slave Trade’
Ivan Van Sertima’s ‘African Presence in Early Europe’
All this publications teach us something about this hidden part of European history.Leo Africanus
Leo Africanus is often stated as one of these black and European noble men and scholars. But it is rather speculation to state if he was black or white. He was definitely a Maure but as racism, whiteness and blackness were unknown concepts as we know it today, we can’t know his ‘race’ for sure. This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Even very common socio-cultural concepts of today such as ‘French’, ‘German’ or ‘English’ didn’t exist in those days such that it would be silly to argue whether historical figures of those days were German or French. Same thing is valid for the white and black race as defined today.
Famous Europeans with African ancestry (1500-1900)
Below I will list some of the most famous figures of European modern history (after 1500) who happened to be black or have African ancestry, but were integral parts of European (high) society. Most of the time the African ancestry of these people is ignored by history books although acknowledged and accepted by most history scholars. I think it throws a new light on the concepts of race and the meaning of blackness in the 21st century.
Alessandro ‘il Moro’ de Medici 1510-1537
Duke of Florence
Abram Petrovich Ganibal 1696-1781Major-general, military engineer, governor of Reval and nobleman of the Russian Empire
Anton Wilhelm Amo 1700-1775German Philosopher
Ignatius Sancho 1729–1780Author and abolitionist, UK
Olaudah Equiano a.k.a. Gustavus Vassa 1745-1797
Author and abolitionist, UK
Chevalier de Saint Georges 1745-1799
A famous musican, composer and swardsman of his times
Listen to his music here.Thomas Alexandre Dumas 1762-1806
A general of the French Revolution
George Polgreen Bridgetower 1780-1860
Musician and composer
Listen and watch here
Alexandre Pushkin 1799-1837
Famous author, great-grandson of Abraham Petrovich GanibalAlexandre Dumas 1802-1870
French author of the world famous tale of ‘The Three Musketeers’, Thomas Alexandre Dumas’s son
John Archer 1863-1931
Presumably UK’s first black mayor, political activist
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor 1875-1912
Musician and composer
Listen to his music here
In Mott’s Strike, More Than Pay at Stake
James Rajotte for The New York TimesOutside the Mott’s apple juice plant in Williamson, N.Y., Mike LeBerth, president of the union local, is picketing against demands for wage and benefit givebacks.
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
WILLIAMSON, N.Y. — After nearly 90 days of picketing in the broiling sun outside the sprawling Mott’s apple juice plant here in upstate New York, Michelle Muoio recognizes that the lengthy strike is about far more than whether the 305 hourly workers at the plant get a fatter or slimmer paycheck.
James Rajotte for The New York Times
The stakes are high for unions. If Mott’s workers lose, it could lead other profitable companies to push for big labor concessions.
James Rajotte for The New York Times
Michelle Muoio of Clyde, N.Y., a $19-an-hour machine operator, has worked at the Mott’s plant in Williamson for 15 years.
The union movement and many outsiders view the strike as a high-stakes confrontation between a company that wants to cut its labor costs, even as it is earning record profits, and workers who are determined to resist demands for wage and benefit givebacks.
“It’s disgusting, honestly, that they want to take things away from the people who made them profitable,” said Ms. Muoio (pronounced MOY-oh), a $19-an-hour machine operator who has worked at the plant 15 years.
The company that owns Mott’s, the beverage conglomerate Dr Pepper Snapple Group, counters that the Mott’s workers are overpaid compared with other production workers in the Rochester area, where blue-collar unemployment is high after years of layoffs at employers like Xerox and Kodak.
Chris Barnes, a company spokesman, said Dr Pepper Snapple was seeking a $1.50-an-hour wage cut, a pension freeze and other concessions to bring the plant’s costs in line with “local and industry standards.”
The company, which has 50 brands including 7Up and Hawaiian Punch, reported net income of $555 million in 2009, compared with a loss of $312 million the previous year. Its 2009 sales were $5.5 billion, down 3 percent.
With each passing week, the two sides have dug in deeper, doing their utmost to outmaneuver and undercut each other. Rain or shine, dozens of workers picket outside the plant each day, standing alongside a 15-foot-tall inflatable rat and a mock coffin emblazoned with “R.I.P. Corporate Greed.”
Rebecca Givan, a professor of industrial relations at Cornell, said the strike has taken on broader symbolism. “The union wants to tap into the public backlash against perceived corporate greed,” she said. “The company wants to emphasize the depressed local labor market.”
The strike has become so important because of the prominence of the brands and because of its unusual nature: a highly profitable company is taking the rare and bold step of demanding large-scale concessions.
Unlike previous battles, where American manufacturers have often sought to cut labor costs by threatening to close plants or move operations to the South or overseas, Dr Pepper Snapple is not making such threats.
For unions across the country, the stakes are high because if the Mott’s workers lose this showdown, it could prompt other profitable companies to push for major labor concessions. Such a lengthy strike is unusual at a time when work stoppages have become much less common than they once were.
Strikes and other work stoppages nationwide have plunged in recent decades, to 126 last year from 831 in 1990, according to the Bureau of National Affairs, as unions represent fewer workplaces and workers increasingly recognize the considerable pain and risk involved in walkouts.
“Companies have asked for concessions throughout the history of the labor movement because they’ve faced hard times and needed help to survive,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which represents the Mott’s workers. “Dr Pepper Snapple is different. They don’t even show the respect to lie to us. They just came in and said, ‘We have no financial need for this, but we just want it anyway because we figure we can get away with it.’ ”
Negotiations have not been held since May, and Dr Pepper Snapple says it has no intention of resuming them. The company has continued to operate the plant using replacement workers and says that production of apple juice and apple sauce is growing each day. Union officials say production is one-third of what it was before the walkout.
The Mott’s workers voted 250 to 5 to strike, walking out on May 23. They were furious about the company’s demands to cut their wages by about $3,000 a year, freeze pensions, end pensions for new hires, reduce the company’s 401(k) retirement contributions and increase employees’ costs for health care benefits. Dr Pepper Snapple said it was merely seeking to bring its benefits more in line with those of its other plants.
Even before the strike vote, workers were stewing, saying that management had begun treating them far worse after Cadbury Schweppes, the former owner, spun off its American beverages division in 2007, creating Dr Pepper Snapple.
The new management eliminated their bonuses, the summer picnic and the year-end holiday party for employees’ children, several workers complained.
With the apple harvest getting under way, the region’s apple growers are eager for a settlement. They are concerned that the plant, which traditionally buys half the apples produced in the region, will cut back because the plant’s output has fallen.
“We’ve got the most to lose,” said John Teeple, whose orchards produce 100,000 bushels a year. “We’ve got million of apples about to be picked.”
Justifying the proposed cuts, management says the Mott’s workers average $21 an hour, compared with the $14 average hourly wage for production, transportation and material moving workers in the Rochester area. Union officials say that 70 percent of the plant’s workers earn $19 or less an hour and that many are highly experienced and deserve well more than $14 an hour.
Dr Pepper Snapple, based in Plano, Tex., has sought to win public support by running full-page ads in Rochester’s main newspaper. One recent ad said, “Mott’s pays more. Would you walk away from a manufacturing job that paid you as much as 50 percent more than you could make elsewhere? That’s what union workers did at Mott’s.” (The company said that it had offered not to cut wages if the workers ratified its offer by April 15.)
The workers, meanwhile, are incensed that the company is demanding givebacks when it posted record profits last year and increased its dividend by 67 percent in May.
“Corporate America is making tons of money — this company is a good example of that,” said Mike LeBerth, president of the union local representing the strikers. “So why do they want to drive down our wages and hurt our community? This whole economy is driven by consumer spending, so how are we supposed to keep the economy going when they take away money from the people who are doing the spending?”
Dr Pepper Snapple has vigorously defended its stance. “The union contends that a profitable company shouldn’t seek concessions from its workers,” the company said in a statement. “This argument ignores the fact that as a public company, Dr Pepper Snapple Group has a fiduciary responsibility to operate in the best interests of all its constituents, recognizing that a profitable business attracts investment, generates jobs and builds communities.”
The union is straining to maximize pressure on management. It has enlisted several prominent New York Democrats including Senator Charles E. Schumer and Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, who is running for governor, to urge the company to resume bargaining.
Tim Budd, a 24-year employee who belongs to the union’s bargaining team, said he was shocked by one thing the plant manager said during negotiations.
“He said we’re a commodity like soybeans and oil, and the price of commodities go up and down,” Mr. Budd recalled. “He said there are thousands of people in this area out of jobs, and they could hire any one of them for $14 an hour. It made me sick to have someone sit across the table and say I’m not worth the money I make.”
Mr. Barnes, the company spokesman, said the union took the plant manager’s words out of context.
“We’d prefer that our employees return to work, and the door is open for them to come back,” he said. “But we’re prepared to continue operating without them.”
How Has It Come to This?
Sunday 22 August 2010
by: Dahr Jamail and Erika Blumenfeld, t r u t h o u t | Report and Photo Essay
(Photo: Erika Blumenfeld)The scene is post-apocalyptic. Under a gray sky, two families play in the surf just off the beach in Grand Isle, Louisiana. To get to the beach, we walk past a red, plastic barrier fence that until very recently was there to keep people away from the oil-soaked area. Now, there are a few openings that beach goers can use. The fence is left largely intact, I presume, for when they will need to close the beach again when the next invasion of BP’s oil occurs.
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
A father jokingly throws sand at his little boy who laughs while dodging it. This, against a background of oil rigs and platforms looming in the Gulf. In the foreground, littering the beach, are tar balls. We stroll through the area, eyeing even more tar balls that bob lazily underwater, amidst sand ripples in the shallows … they are in the same location where the father sits, grabbing handfuls of sand to toss near his son.
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
We stroll back to our hotel. Beside us is a large beach house that has been rented to the National Guard. Two military Humvees, one olive green, the other tan, are parked near the road just yards from our car. It is a grim feeling here, like living in the bowels of some greed-driven, security-obsessed, lumbering giant so disconnected from its heart that reality has long since ceased to figure into its outer perception.
The next morning, we head out in a boat from Fourchon with Jonathan Henderson from the Gulf Restoration Network, his friend Randy, who is a cameraman, and Craig, our charter fishing captain and guide. It is August 16, the day that several of Louisiana’s fisheries have been reopened for shrimping.
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
Just after leaving the boat launch, we pass a shrimper coming back in.
"How did you do out there?" Craig asks him. "Nothing. Nothing at all," the despondent fisherman replies. "How much do you usually catch?" Craig asks. "Hundreds of pounds, sometimes a thousand pounds," comes the reply.
Craig looks at me and says, "That’s not good."
Minutes later another shrimper passes us, returning to port. "How’d you do?" Craig asks. "We caught 12 shrimp," he replies, "That’s one-two shrimp."
A brief reminder of the toxicity of the dispersants BP is using in the Gulf: "According to the EPA’s latest analysis of dispersant toxicity released in the document Comparative Toxicity of Eight Oil Dispersant Products on Two Gulf of Mexico Aquatic Test Species, Corexit 9500, at a concentration of 42 parts per million, killed 50% of mysid shrimp tested." Most of the remaining shrimp died shortly thereafter.
Craig worked as a deckhand on a shrimp boat when he was 12 years old, and has been on the water ever since. He knows these areas like the back of his hand, and he is torn up by what he sees. "We find fish feeding that cause fish-oil slicks atop the water," he explains as we make our way out of the bayou towards the Gulf. "But now, thanks to BP, most of the slicks we see are oil."
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
A little further, we pass dozens of large shrimp boats laden with boom and skimming gear. They’ve been converted into response vessels for BP's fading Vessels of Opportunity (VOO) program that has created a false economy for the now out of work fishermen. "BP is buying out a way of life," Craig says when he sees me eyeing the boats, all of which are tied to the dock. "Generations of shrimping … done."
After a short time we arrive in Devil's Bay, to find forests of white PVC pipe sticking out of the water. The pipe is used to hold absorbent boom in place. Much of the boom is washed ashore, or gone completely. "That PVC doesn't rot," Craig comments, "It'll be there a long time."
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
Boom contaminated with oil is abundant. Craig turns the boat out towards the bay, which is empty. "Right now, there should be 50 or 60 shrimp boats in here, but now it's like this … closed, and most folks are afraid to fish. We need good testing of the seafood, and it needs to be done right. We only have one shot at this."
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
Out in Devil's Bay we encounter a boat pulling a closed-off harbor skimmer: equipment used to skim up oil slicks. The boat is accompanied by an unmarked Carolina Skiff, driven by a man wearing desert camouflage pants and a tan shirt. Our captain will not let us get close enough to the boat pulling the skimmer to talk to its captain, nor will the boat's captain even look at us.
"These boats don't even have their Louisiana numbers," Craig says, annoyed. "Somebody brought these boats down here and threw them in the water, and they are not even from this state. It's another part of the scam."
I've written recently about how private contractors are being brought in from out of state to use these boats to spray dispersant on oil located by fisherman working in the VOO program in the four most heavily affected states.
We carry on to arrive at Casse-tete Ise. We find large amounts of absorbent boom washed ashore. Some of this had been there so long it is largely covered in sand.
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
"I guarantee you they'll come pick that up," Craig says angrily, mocking BP. Given that there is boom washed ashore and oiled PVC pipes around much of the island, it's clear that BP is aware of the island being hit by oil. It is also clear that nobody has been back to check on it for a very long time.
We offload from the boat and step ashore. Oil-soaked marsh abounds, and the island smells like a gas station. Noxious fumes infiltrate my nose, causing me to cough. Piles of oiled oysters rest on the tide line.
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
Everywhere I step near the water, sheen bubbles up out of the soil. Hermit crabs scuttle over dead, oiled marsh grass. Inland, we find tide pools filled with brown oil and sheen. The horrible smell makes me dizzy and nauseous. Each of us walks around on our own, trying to take in the devastating scene. Anger and a deep sadness comingle inside me. Rage at BP melds into a broader anger at all of us for having let it come to this.
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
I watch a bird looking for food among the blackened stubs of marsh grass. I think of how the oil brings death to everything it touches, sooner or later.
We get back in Craig's boat and move on toward another island, but skirt the coast of this one whilst en route. Around the south side we find the entire coast oiled. Contaminated sorbent boom litters the coast above tide line.
"So when are they gonna come pick this up?" Craig asks angrily to no one. "In 10 years? So did they just not care about this island?"
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
There is another forest of PVC pipe sticking out of the water.
I look down at Craig's GPS map on the boat. We float in the bay, but the map shows us on land. "This is a post-Katrina map," Craig points out. "That's how fast we're losing the marsh."
Early upon our arrival in Louisiana, I was made aware of how every 30 minutes, the state loses a football-field-sized chunk of land to the Gulf of Mexico. The first of two primary causes is the hemming in of the Mississippi River, which prevents it from dumping sediment to replenish the land. The second is the oil and gas industry, which has carved out channels and canals, causing between 30-60 percent of this erosion. One third of the island on Craig's map is now gone. There are other islands on his map that no longer exist.
As we continue on, Craig says that the water seems odd, and "not as crisp" as it usually is. He says, "It seems like it has cellophane over it." Several times throughout the day Craig makes this comment. To me, given that the water has a slight chop, it is hard to see his point - but that will soon change.
We arrive at Timbalier Isle, a barrier island of Timbalier Bay. After we offload, Jonathan calls me over. He'd filled his rubber boots with water while wading ashore. He pulls off one of his boots and dumps the contents on the sand. The water is full of silvery sheen as it splashes onto the sand. We both shake our heads.
We begin walking and find tar balls everywhere. In some places, there are literally huge mats of fresh tar.
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
The farther inland we travel, the worse things become. It's as though the entire island is a sponge filled with sheen and oil. There is a pile of yellow boom, and another of red boom, in the middle of the southern beach. BP knows of this island, too. It has had workers here. And again, no one has been here in a very long time.
We walk along the bank of an inland lagoon. Fiddler crabs skitter away from us as we walk across sheen-covered sand. The pool is covered in brown, stringy oil and sheen - the rainbow colors tracing lazily across the surface. My stomach feels sick when I think of these crabs, and all the others along the Gulf Coast, that are filtering in sheen, oil and dispersants. We watch them move toward the waters oily edge, and stop. Are they trying to enter the water, as is their nature, and can't because it is too toxic? What will become of these crabs? What will become of the marine life and wildlife that feed on these crabs?
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
There are several inland pools that are literally oil pits. We are appalled at what we find. In one of the pools, brown liquid oil floats atop areas where the sand underneath is literally black with crude oil.
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
The scene is apocalyptic. Sorbent booms blackened and browned with oil lay chaotically in the lagoon. It is one of the more disgusting, vile scenes I've ever seen. All of us fall silent. All we can do is take photos. The stench is overpowering. I gag. My eyes water from the burning chemicals in the air, but also from sadness. My throat is sore, my voice instantaneously hoarse, and I feel dizzy. I look over to see Erika taking photos, tears running down her cheeks.
All of us are devastated. "This is some of the worst I've seen," says Jonathan, who has been out investigating the results of the BP oil disaster every week since it started in April. He continues to take samples. I hear him gagging and look over as he coughs the stench from his lungs before bending down again to take another sample.
Shortly thereafter he finishes taking samples, and we are off, all of us hobbled and shaken by what we've just seen, along with the exposure to such a vast amount of chemicals.
During the ten-minute walk back to the boat, we hardly speak. I look out at the Gulf, the oil rigs and platforms in the distance, then down at the sheen oozing out of the sand at the water's edge as I walk alongside another tide pool.
Craig picks us up in the boat, and we begin the trip back to Fourchon. I climb up atop the "crow's nest," a small seat overlooking Craig's boat. I write in my notepad about what we've just seen, but mostly, I just look out at the Gulf. I've long since surrendered trying to get my head around the enormity and longevity of this disaster. The government cover-ups and its complicity with BP. The profiteering happening from this disaster, not dissimilar to the rampant war profiteering I've seen in Iraq.
The cost of this? The Gulf of Mexico, the ninth largest body of water on the planet, befouled with oil and toxic dispersants.
About halfway back to port we come upon a thick sheen layer that is covered in emulsified, white foam … the same kind I've seen in videos taken by VOO workers, in which dispersants have been used atop oil.
We stop so Jonathan can take more water samples. As we do so, the stench burns my eyes.
We carry on, only to pass more slicks like this. The entire day we've been in sheen, and we've traveled more than 40 nautical miles, much of it in open Gulf waters. All the water we've boated across and all the islands we've explored are entirely covered in sheen or oil.
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
From back atop my platform, I'm amazed at the myriad rigs and platforms we pass, sometimes thick enough in number to resemble floating cities.
Throughout the day, the question "what have we done" drifts into my consciousness. What have we done? How has it come to this?
Thousands of lives along the Gulf Coast are being devastated by this disaster. This is merely the beginning of yet another toxic epoch for the Gulf of Mexico, all the humans that live along the coast, and all the marine life and wildlife that make their homes here.
What have we done? How has it come to this? Where do we go from here?
GOD IS REAL ~ documentaryBratislava ~ SlovakiaUPRISING REGGAE FESTIVAL
August 27-28th 2010 / Bratislava (Zlaté Piesky) / Slovakia Central Europe Reggae Festival Reggae, dancehall, ska, dub, dubstep, jungle, hip-hop, latino music Capoeira, salsa, street art, graffiti, drum classes, jamaican and african cuisine, soccer & volleyball tournament, swimming and other water sports...and great summer spirit awaits at UPRISING REGGAE FESTIVAL One and only international reggae festival in Slovakia. uprising.sk
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