Jimmy on the Goddard-NOLA Service-Learning Trip

It has been a month since twenty-five of us traveled to New Orleans during spring break to volunteer with Historic Green, a nonprofit sustainable development program whose aim is to rebuild the Lower Ninth Ward – an area damaged more from government neglect than Katrina itself – while implementing green building ideas. While the group organized projects in the Lower Ninth Ward, our Goddard NOLA group was assigned to lots throughout the Holy Cross area, a neighborhood south of the Lower Ninth.

Our group split up and worked on projects ranging from installing radiant barriers – stapling foil-like material onto attic rafters to prevent thermal heat absorption – to rebuilding playgrounds and lots. Though I was assigned to a few different tasks, most of the week was spent installing radiant barriers. With Kelly C. and Kiran B., I learned the process of weatherizing homes – inspecting and sealing parts of the home to keep out precipitation and heat – from the Louisiana Green Corps, an organization that provides Louisiana youths our age an opportunity to not only engage in sustainable projects in their communities but also learn useful job skills.

We managed to visit other parts of the city as well. We visited the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood and section of the levees that were meant to protect the Lower Ninth. Tuesday was St. Patrick’s Day, and if New Orleans is known for anything, it is the French Quarter and its party atmosphere. Unsurprisingly, the French Quarter was the liveliest and, with the exception of the bottle-littered curbs, one of the cleaner and busier parts of the city. If we had visited only the French Quarter, we would have hardly noticed any post-Katrina damage in the city. The Garden District, home to historic mansions and Tulane University’s scenic campus, looked like the polar opposite of the Lower Ninth. Compare St. Charles Ave. Baptist Church to the First Thessalonians Missionary Baptist Church, a seemingly abandoned church in the middle of the Holy Cross Neighborhood.

Like many others in the group, I had never visited the Deep South, let alone New Orleans. A “modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah” was the description our hosts at the India House, the hostel in which we stayed, gave us. With the exception of the Southern manners and old money neighborhoods, the description was not too far from the truth, unfortunately. One clerk at the India House told a story of his friend whose property thirty different individuals claimed after Katrina. It was not surprising, then, that a majority of the residents in the less-developed areas like Holy Cross did not return after the hurricane. Historic Green recognized the challenges in returning to these ruined neighborhoods. It is much easier to raise money for a specific cause than it is to implement a lasting change in people’s behavior, since most individuals are hesitant about changing their lifestyles. Historic Green tried to achieve just that: rather than mostly focusing on fundraising and monetary donations, the organization was driven by volunteers’ and sponsors’ dedication to helping the residents to live sustainably, while allowing residents to retain their own identity.
We were reminded of home when Majora Carter came to speak to the volunteers of Historic Green. Raised in the South Bronx, Carter witnessed the sort of government neglect NOLA residents experienced during Katrina. She came to New Orleans to speak of her neighborhood, whose proximity to factories and landfills impacted the health and development of the Lower Bronx. Because of exposure to chemical waste and polluted air, Carter claimed, Bronx children were more likely to develop asthma and other health complications. She founded Sustainable South Bronx, a nonprofit organization responsible for a number of green rebuilding projects in the community. Sustainable development, she claimed, was the only way to involve both residents and the government to responsibly maintain South Bronx.
Carter’s story reminded us of the similarities New Orleans and New York City share: both are port cities with a large minority population, are popular tourist destinations, and were targets of the worst disasters in the US for decades. Yet the differences are more apparent: New York is our nation’s largest city, while less than 500,00 live in New Orleans. New York’s economy is diversified, while New Orleans relies on mostly petroleum and port commerce. New York is known as a global city: Manhattan in particular has such a large stake in international finance, government and media that its security is of greatest concern to the New York City government. New Orleans, while gradually attracting more businesses since Katrina hit, remains relatively unimportant to national security. Because of these differences, the federal government’s response differed greatly. Likewise, national perception of the two tragedies differed. As Americans, it might have been easier to stomach the idea that foreigners with a radical agenda carried out the unpredicted 9/11 attacks rather than see our local, state and federal governments in chaos, struggling to deliver sufficient aid to its own people in the face of anticipated disaster.
Despite our more efficient administration, New York is anything but perfect; our city claims one of the largest income disparities in the nation. About 10 miles away from the Financial District is the Bronx, whose quality of life is visually different from that of a typical Wall Street financier. Like our participation in World AIDS Day at Riverside Church, Sustainable South Bronx showed how community outreach is sometimes the only effective means of addressing problems; governments, like individuals, tend to be reactive rather than proactive on issues not immediately important to their interests. If the residents were to revive the Lower Ninth, they needed to start taking an active role in rebuilding their own community, rather than completely rely on authority. Perhaps that was what I appreciated most about the entire experience: while residents openly shared their experiences with Katrina, our stay was not so much a focus on discussing who was at fault as it was an onward effort to rebuild. By stressing the ability of the Lower Ninth to sustainably redevelop itself, residents proved to the government their refusal of giving up their one and only home but also their willingness to improve their lifestyles not just for themselves, but for the environment. In the very least, we as NYU students need to consider our own presence in New York, and how our conduct and expansion might impact residential areas beyond Greenwich Village – areas like the South Bronx.

We invested ourselves – emotionally and physically – in a neighborhood over a thousand miles away, leaving with an appreciation for New Orleans and its resilience, but also a sobering look at how residents in any city are treated in a bureaucracy. We were grateful to the residents of the Lower Ninth for inviting us to help rebuild their one and only home, while reminding us of our own challenges back in New York.
Many thanks go to the hospitable folks at the India House, Historic Green/LA Green Corps, and New Orleans for making our stay memorable, and for everybody who donated for making this experience possible.
-Jimmy T.

Links:
http://www.historicgreen.org/

Vincent on GOMORRA

American cinema is the largest movie industry in the world in terms of revenue and arguably the most global in the world as well. I strain to think of a topic that some movie hasn’t covered, and for this reason, I thought it was important for Global NY to go out and watch Gomorrah, directed by Matteo Garrone. Gangsterism is particularly a popular topic for American movies. Through this medium, directors such as Scorsese and Coppola have ingeniously explored betrayal, corruption, importance of families vs. cronies, and loyalty. I can watch The Departed, The Godfather, and Goodfellas over and over again yet they never cease to amaze. So captivating are these films, though, that we can easily overlook the real problem. Gomorra is a fresh perspective and the real problem is the topic of this film. This movie isn’t as plot-driven as American crime thrillers. It’s almost as if a camera swooped in from the skies and landed in an unfortunate part of Naples and captured the Camorra in the midst of a war. This semi-documentary effectively portrays a crime organization’s firm grasp over local affairs. Everyone contributes to the Camorra, whether they want to or not, and those who have the tenacity or stupidity (remember the two knuckleheads who come across a secret stash of weapons?) to cross them are mercilessly killed. Then the movie ends. This, I feel, is important. Nothing is resolved they way we want it to be and the Camorra is still a problem. This is Italy’s perspective of gangsterism—a problem that is very much theirs and one that American filmmakers have inadvertently (or sometimes not so inadvertently) glorified.

Thank you, fellow Global NYers and anyone else who tagged along for the film. I hoped you guys enjoyed it as much as I did!

GNY! @ World AIDS Day

Photos taken by GNY! volunteers as they participated in a memorable World AIDS Day event at the Riverside Church on November 30th.

Molly & Beenita on "Planet of the Arabs"

We travelled to the Jewish Community Center to view a trailer of a film and participate in a discussion that was part of a larger project put on by the JCC entitled The Other Israel. The aim of the film, and the project as a whole, was to examine the role of the Arab Israelis in modern day Israel. This particular film combined many clips from popular movies and television shows to create a faux movie trailer for Planet of the Arabs. The main idea was to show how Arabs, Islam, and the associated culture are portrayed in the media and how the media perpetuates a stereotype of these people:

A line of men, with black bags over their faces and guns slung over their shoulders, walk through the aisle of an airplane. Heads poke out from behind the red seats to peer at the men. An Arab man, in a white suit and white tie with a red button-down shirt and a red handkerchief, stands up from his seat. He takes out two guns and spreads his arms out across the aisle. He screams, "This is a hijack!" Instantly the scene changes to a man dressed in all-black Arabian garb. The man rides through the sand dunes on a dark colored horse. The camera focuses on the man's head tilted to one side and narrows in on the evil look in his eyes. The shot changes again. Planet of the Arabs appears across the screen.

Planet of the Arabs is a montage of different scenes taken from American movies ranging from 1896 to 2000. The nine-minute feature displays an acute dramatization of how Arabs are depicted in American cinema. In addition, the feature demonstrates some of the stereotypes projected to the average American populous; to fear and despise Arabs in the real world. According to Dr. Jack Shaheen the author of the book Reel Bad Arabs, "Out of 1000 films that have Arab and Muslim characters (from the year 1896 to 2000) 12 were positive depictions, 52 were even handed and the rest of the 900 plus were negative."

While viewing this short film we were asked to consider, what are some of the stereotypes that we have heard? What do these clips show? What the clips did not show, was there any sense of culture or family amongst the Arab people? All audience members claimed to witness is a display of violence and religious fundamentalism. With this in mind one begins to wonder, where do these stereotypes come from? Are they true? If the media only ever portrays them this way, how is the general populace likely to act around Arabs?

YOU CAN VIEW "PLANET OF THE ARABS" HERE --> http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-600397827976179049

Jacob on "Tonnage and Toxicity"

Tonnage and Toxicity Lecture

Presented By Samantha MacBride

Two Mondays ago I, along with Michelle Dent and a few other students, went to a presentation of Samantha MacBride’s thesis work entitled, “Tonnage and Toxicity.” Her lecture focused on industry’s production of the vast majority of global wastes every day. She discussed the facts that producers enjoy unregulated management of the huge amounts of nontoxic waste, there is a minute presence of scientific research into this waste and its effects, and there is even less movement historically to institute legal regulation of industrial waste. She believes these facts are the effect of America politically and socially blaming the individual consumer in matters of waste and the environment instead of the collective producers.

What I found most interesting was MacBride’s take on the “Green movement.” She believes this movement, now being advocated by all sorts of companies producing “greener” products, is designed to keep society blaming the individual consumer. She even stated that consumers are left with no choice but to waste due to the product designs producers utilize to maximize profits. The designs referred to are ones such as, the concept of “to-go” products to be used once and discarded and planned product obsolescence. She suggests meaningful change should come in the form of consumers demanding an overhaul in product design and most importantly in lobbying for legislated policy concerning industrial waste.

I agree with MacBride that consumer society is in a state of denial if it believes we can significantly reduce overall wastes at the individual level, especially when producers give us the choice between wasteful product A, B, or C. It seems in the conflict between producer and consumer, we, the consumers, should look to our government for aid. I asked MacBride if any international legislation from institutions, such as the UN or WTO, has been passed to regulate industrial wastes. She answered that only the European Union has instituted environmental laws (with a rather high level of success). Overall, I definitely enjoyed this lecture because it enlightened the audience on the one hand about a rather unknown subject, industrial waste, and on the other hand gave an alternative view on a very well know topic, the green movement. The lecture raised many important questions such as: how much power does the consumer really have? And in looking towards government for aid, how much more government security are we willing to establish for the sake of the environment’s security?

Ben on "If You See Something, Say Something"

Most actors want their performance to seem real, but, for many, artistic truth is extremely difficult to convey. Actors train in studios like Lee Strasberg for years just to get close to it. Some even dedicate their lives to the effort and never quite get there. Yet sometimes an anomaly of an actor can come along. Every so often, a guy can be so unabashedly strange, so powerfully intense and so uniquely talented that he doesn’t have to try to be real onstage, he just is real. Realism flows out of them like water out of fountains. Mike Daisey is that anomaly.

At Joe’s Pub—a restaurant/theater where the Global New York stream enjoyed the guilty pleasures of melodrama and cheesecake at the same time, Mike Daisey’s newest show was in full swing: If You See Something, Say Something. It is a fantastic, darkly comical critique of American homeland security and the epic stories that surround the Trinity test site: the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. Mike Daisey, with his eloquence and acute sense of timing, takes you from hearty laughter to reflective silence in a heartbeat. Once engaged in the performance, you wonder how one person can remember and perform ninety minutes worth of lines. The answer: he doesn’t have lines. He just has the story in his mind and a few notes which he never looks at. He sets the stakes high but does not disappoint us. As we walked out, a thought came to someon

If your interested in having an incredible one man show experience, If You See Something, Say Something is playing at Joe’s Pub.

- Ben Russell

Aditi's Reflection on the "Queens Panorama"

Tinges of Realization

We are lost in a maze
a concrete jungle

We jump block to block
street to avenue

we wait in lines hours long
we commute for even longer

so much to do so much to see

too much to do too much to see

center of the world
the biggest apple of everyone's eye

you can complain
complain about the strange smells and sights
complain about the looming buildings and the vast emptiness of the boroughs
complain about the individual boroughs, label them, stereotype them
complain about the crowds and the criminals
complain about the typical, unfriendly New Yorker

But
don't ever say it's not special.

_________

it is understandable

that a miniature of something so colossal, so overwhelming
would be colossal and overwhelming in itself

a college day trip, a train ride to Queens
and a breathtaking view of the monument to one of the world's greatest living wonders.

_________

we have skewed images in our minds.

sometimes,
we just need that extra nudge
that vertical tilt, that staggering impossibility
to push our minds over the edge

and freefall into the
fathomless canyon
of deeper understanding.