NEWS: French Quarter Holdouts Create 'Tribes'

Left on their own, many inhabitants in the French Quarter banded together into "Tribes". The tribes made of the rich and poor, divided up the labor and set about surviving. While ones would haul water from the river, others would cook or provide protection. Even medical care was improvised as well.




When a few turned to anarchy, these people turned to each other and did what they needed to do to survive. As the article pointed out they found their humanity. These are the people of NOLA. Not the armed thugs and holigans who have dominated the press coverage. According to the article some have refused to leave even after the National Guard relief had arrived. I cannot say that I blame them.

we are animals and we all have instincts and to ban together for mutual assistance and strength is one of them...and one of our best. the lone wolf (I can handle it all by myself thank you) is in the long run a dead end and the nilihists have the eqilivent of a spiritual rabies...it is not the compassion from outside the region, from those unaffected that give me hope and cheer, after all it is easy to be good and decent when life is even moderately good, it is the compassion and charaity from those to those whose situition is qually dire, that I find encouraging.

Originally posted by grover
it is not the compassion from outside the region, from those unaffected that give me hope and cheer, after all it is easy to be good and decent when life is even moderately good, it is the compassion and charaity from those to those whose situition is qually dire, that I find encouraging.

I felt the same way. If you read the article, the tribes had elderly etc in them clearly looking out for each other and assisting thier fellow man in a time of crisis.

NEW ORLEANS - When night falls, Charlie Hackett climbs the steps to his boarded-up window, takes down the plywood, grabs his 12-gauge shotgun and waits. He is waiting for looters and troublemakers, for anyone thinking his neighborhood has been abandoned like so many others across the city. Two doors down, John Carolan is doing the same on his screened-in porch, pistol by his side. They are not about to give up their homes to the lawlessness that has engulfed New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

"We kind of together decided we would defend what we have here and we would stay up and defend the neighborhood," says Hackett, an Army veteran with a snow-white beard and a business installing custom kitchens.
news.yahoo.com...

Wonder if the food they were cooking was the white people. I cant picture a white person in a "tribe". I think the closest is the Scottish with the clans.



[edit on 5-9-2005 by YaYo]

Here HEre!!! three cheers for those who don't give in to desperation!

The last week has left many of us wondering if there is any human decency left in the human race. This article proves that some will fight to the bitter end for the values we all claim to espouse. Let no man woman or child say that there aren't still true patriots left in the world. What these people did took real courage, and I applaud them. If any real heroes come out of this mess I sincerelly hope these people are among them for they deserve recognition as true heroes.

Well, I'm glad to see that even among the worst of situations, some people can come together in a civilized manner to try and help not only themselves, but others, and especialy given the situation the people there are in, it warms my heart to see that peoplew are'nt all bad.

Originally posted by YaYo
Wonder if the food they were cooking was the white people. I cant picture a white person in a "tribe". I think the closest is the Scottish with the clans.

It wouldnt suprise me, there seems to be alot of racism from just about everybody lately.

Indeed. Not sure why you felt the need to distinguish between white and blacks there, or spew that cannibalism jibe.

The "crue" mentality in New Orleans is a deeply embedded tradition and the annual coming together of families and friends to commune over efforts like Mardi Gras floats is a representation of how closely knit groups survive the harsh realities of New Orleans EVERY DAY. This is not really anything new to them. It's how it is.

Originally posted by YaYo
Wonder if the food they were cooking was the white people. I cant picture a white person in a "tribe". I think the closest is the Scottish with the clans.

[edit on 5-9-2005 by YaYo]

So only a black person can be in a tribe? They say "tribe" you automatically think grass skirts and bones through their noses? Next time keep your racism to yourself.

Originally posted by FredT
When a few turned to anarchy, these people turned to each other and did what they needed to do to survive.

On the contrary sir, this is exactly what Anarchy is about, living civilly despite the fact that no one is forcing you to at gunpoint. Anarchy is not chaos, murder, theft, etc. as so many would believe. It is the utmost level of human responsibility.

Anarchist's such as myself have always pointed to examples like these to illustrate the possibility of humans living without government.

If we have the pleasure of seeing our government collapse on a full scale similar to what it did in N.O, it is people like these that will survive. The rest will kill each other and steal from each other while they wait for the government to save them.....Good riddance I say.

Anarchy+Peace=Freedom

YAYO,

Consider yourself fortunate that some of us can't get our hands on you right now.

I don't mean to lessen the warmth that stories like this bring with them, but in reality, banding together in groups is merely a base survival instinct. It is a hind brain function connected to meeting the lower end of the hierarchy of needs and is not really attached to the complex-emotional or higher brain functions at all. It would be interesting how heart-warming the stories would be if one "tribe" had resources for survival like fresh water and food, and the other didn't. Then you'd see the ugly side of human nature and survival.

For me personally, the most heart-warming, tragic, and emotionally stirring stories are not ones of survival. Quite the contrary, they are ones of personal sacrifice. Laying down ones life so that others may live is the ultimate altruism.

[edit on 2005-9-5 by wecomeinpeace]

I think the emoticons in yayo's post means it was a joke. In bad taste mind you (as pointed out by RANT) so let's just ignore it and get back on topic.

These are the stories depicting what I hopped to see from people facing a crisis.
.

This is the sort of 'self sufficient' behavior that we all might do well to keep in mind....

The closest thing to this we've ever had where I live, is a couple of freak snow storms that paralyzed everything. Being in the deep south, there is no snow plows, so transportation out was nearly impossible.

We had lost all electricity, as had the city water dept., so there was almost no heat ( a few did have gas heat), no water, no way to cook. My Dad, being a sentimental old fogey, had never gotten rid of the small coal stove in the back bedroom. Dad and I went door to door, letting people know that we had that little relic of a stove....so our house became the kitchen for nearly the entire neighborhood, as everyone took turns cooking on that one small stove!

We could at least melt snow for water, and my mother had canned dozens of jars of her garden tomatoes that summer, so we ate tomato soup for days, as did many of our neighbors, after the local grocery store ( with in walking distance) ran out of supplies.

Not quite a "tribe", but we 'stuck together' till it was over, and were always closer after.....behavior that all humans should have in a 'subconcious memory', one we may need to fall back on!

"Some people became animals," Vasilioas Tryphonas said Sunday morning as he sipped a hot beer in Johnny White's Sports Bar on Bourbon Street. "We became more civilized."

Whilst the story is good and shows humanity still prevails in the worst of conditions....I fear for the beer-drinkers in the US...

A HOT beer? urrrrggh.... Why do that to a perfectly innocent beer? That is so cruel and inhumane, I cannot begin to describe it.... I am at a loss for words!

[edit on 5/9/05 by stumason]

Well said Grover, your post also reflects my thinking. It is good to see that people came together to substitute their own small, but vital, form of government for the one they got cut off from when the city flooded.

It would be intresting to see how their "tribe" would have evolved had the isolation gone on for an extended period of time.

[edit on 5-9-2005 by Astronomer68]

Good find FredT.

And I agree:

"...this is exactly what Anarchy is about, living civilly despite the fact that no one is forcing you to at gunpoint. Anarchy is not chaos, murder, theft, etc. as so many would believe. It is the utmost level of human responsibility.'

...the sense to cooperation is hard wired, and essential for survival. It is only industrial chaos that deadens these positive instincts, but has not bred them out. Thank God and all that's holy.

I don't see why these groups of people are considered tribes. How is this any different from what people do in everyday, disaster-free life? They band together and form organizations, cliques, etc. out of mutual self-interest or friendship.

``

indeed that little 'pocket-of-humanity'
could be considered the " 1 %"

here's my cynical spin, so don't hate me for wizzin on your shrine...

hey, i read they were residing in the French Quarter...
i submit they all were familiar with each other before the flooding,
probably all barkeeps & such, who dealt with the tourists as a way of life,
so they already had a type of cammadre or clique going on, pre-flood times.

much like the shopkeepers here in this tourist town on the Grandstrand, SC....most merchants/shopkeepers/bars/restaurants have 'networks'
between & amongst themselves...where the altruistic natures of bosses
provide a safety-net of sorts for the valuable employees, regardless of their transgressions or firings,
the watched-over persons are given chances to pull themselves back up...
perhaps at anothers' shop/bar/restaurant/
I think this 'tribe', in the FrenchQuarter, are familiar with one another, they're not total strangers
who found themselves imprisoned and having unseen shackles binding each to the other.

its nice that they have shown their higher-principaled living way,
they have indeed shown they are a distinguished 1% of humanity.
however, sub-groups of accountants or doctors or diesel mechanics
could result in the same type of caring & compassionate group/tribe

in my mind, its not that the group displayes higher-minded attributes...
its that the masses, very easily descend into (whatever you call the cessation of civil nature)

Originally posted by St Udio
``

indeed that little 'pocket-of-humanity'
could be considered the " 1 %"

here's my cynical spin, so don't hate me for wizzin on your shrine...

hey, i read they were residing in the French Quarter...

Hey I saw repeated reports on such clusters all across the city of neighbor helping neighbor...I would consider changing your post name St. Udio, such cynicism speaks volumes about the condition of your own soul. 1% indeed....I personally would inverse that to read that at any given time only 1% of a population is self-loathing, violent and anti social to the point of joining gangs and shooting at rescuers and the like and the remaining 99% at least want to do the right thing, even if they often fall short. After all we are merely human.