we are bracing for hurricane irene. yes, a hurricane. which is strange since hurricanes--not to mention earthquakes, tho we had one last week--don't ever happen in new york.

i imagine that it has something to do with global warming, and that a pestilence is not far behind, but right now i am focusing less on the impending apocalypse and more on batteries and extra water in the event of a power outage. i would also mention that we are approaching the sixth anniversary of hurricane katrina that claimed over 1800 lives--and cost $81 billion in damage--in the american gulf coast, exposing fatal deficiencies in the nation's disaster responsiveness.

i have often wondered what would have happened if hurricane katrina had struck the financial capital of the world as opposed to one of the poorest regions in the united states. would people have died in their homes, in the streets, in hospitals and shelters? would the police have turned their guns on civilians seeking shelter and staged a cover up to obscure the truth?

many are still waiting for justice--and now we wait and see what will happen in new york. it seems that governor cuomo has already dispatched 2000 national guard troops, evacuating several areas of the city to shelters on higher ground. we are safe here in the bronx, i think, though it hasn't stopped raining in hours.

i am not good at being indoors for long, but at least i am writing.

i might also mention that i recently ran into naima, one half of the group climbing poetree, who staged a traveling production of hurricane season: the hidden messages in water. she told me that they are regrouping and working on new material, tho suddenly it seems they needn't bother. we are all still drowning, trying to recover ourselves. and i am sure their call for a shift in universal consciousness to combat "unnatural" disasters is no less timely now than it was then.

to those who found their spiritual homes six years ago, and those still living trying to recover themselves: amen. --AL.

If you have been reading this blog for awhile, you might have heard me mention that the theater company where I work has been producing a documentary about UN Peacekeepers for some time, working with Director Fisher Stevens, who recently won a Best Documentary Oscar for The Cove.

We filmed some of the documentary at the UN mission in Haiti, MINUSTAH, that collapsed in the recent earthquake, and returned to Haiti to shoot some additional footage of the disaster recovery. This clip just went up on YouTube last week.



It still plays like a PSA for the United Nations. When I mentioned to Fisher that he might consider adding in the perspectives of the Haitians they seek to help in a more robust way, it was like the thought had never occurred to him. "That might be interesting," he said, his eyes glazing over in that Hollywood way. That was the end of the discussion.

I think that a lot of documentaries set in poorer nations tend to treat their local subjects as objects of observation--a shadowy backdrop, if you will--rather than real people with hopes and needs. The tendency for this is even more pronounced in Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas.

Although I can't deny the good that can come of this project, I hope that it will become a lot more balanced in terms of representing not only the point-of-view of the peacekeepers, but also the people they help on the ground. I think if it doesn't, it will likely fail in its aim to bring attention and understanding to one of the most complex peacekeeping/rebuilding efforts in history.