Posted by: McQ on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 Two years after hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans the city recovery remains "illusive". The primary complaint? Well, no one is doing it for New Orleans. They, it seems, expect that. As their "recovery czar" says, the have a "mendicant's mentality". Not all of them, of course. Some understood immediately whose responsibility it was to take action and rebuild if they wanted to resume their lives. But unfortunately they are in the minority. Meanwhile, most New Orleanians continue to suffer the hard lessons of what the city's recovery czar has dubbed a "mendicant's mentality" that played the victim long before Katrina hit. While a small number immediately went to work to rebuild—notably those in New Orleans East's all but submerged "Little Saigon" neighborhood, where 90 percent of its predominantly Vietnamese immigrants have returned and rebuilt—many more waited for help and money that is only now beginning to flow.Why is it that "Little Saigon" is rebuilt but the rest of NO remains mostly devastated? A difference in culture. The Vietnamese immigrants are not long removed from a culture in which you didn't play victim nor wait on others to pick up the ball and the tab for what happened to you. Instead you picked yourself up, brushed yourself off, banded together with your neighbors and rebuilt and got on with your life. That's how American's used to do it too, before this culture of "the victimTM" began to take root. That culture demands others recognize their victimhood and, dropping everything, return the victim's lives to normalcy. The role of the victim? To complain when it isn't done quickly enough or to their satisfaction. The role of the rest of us? To feel guilty and pour more money and resources into satisfying their complaints. It is everyone else's fault that NO isn't rebuilt. Except in "Little Saigon" where life, it seems, is almost back to normal. After two years of waiting, perhaps Nagin and other residents of the Big Easy will realize that to recover and rebuild their beloved New Orleans, they will ultimately need to pull themselves together and do the job themselves.Why do the lessons of self-sufficiency and fortitude which helped build this nation seem to be increasingly lost while the cult of victimhood is both cultivated and encouraged? New Orleans has managed to teach us a number of lessons if we'll heed them. First, government can't and won't save you from disaster. Secondly, it isn't anyone else's job to rebuild your life but you. Lastly, playing the victim gets you the majority of NO today. Being self-sufficient gets you "Little Saigon" today. Where would you rather be today if you were in New Orleans? |
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