From Operation Iraqi Freedom to Katrina: The Post-Bush reconstruction

Raed in the Middle

After six months of Katrina, the city looks like it came out of the disaster just yesterday. Thousands of houses are still destroyed, hundreds of cars around the streets, and tons of junk everywhere.

I took a part in the post-war reconstruction of Iraq some three years ago. My work there was both a part of my post-graduate thesis and a part of my political and social vision of how to rebuild Iraq.I established a big grassroots organization in Iraq implementing community based micro-projects in Baghdad and the nine cities of the south. The work was based on reconstructing both the built environment and the civil society, or more precisely, reconstructing the built-environment through rebuilding the Iraqi civil society.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to go all the way down to NOLA and take a part in one of the emerging reconstruction campaigns there. Well, as a brand new US tax payer, a part of me went to check where my greens are being spent.I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, and maybe add some comments here and there.Ladies and Gentlemen: Welcome to St. Bernard Parish.>>>cont

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