While FEMA closes its offices, the NYPD protects petrol stations, the Mayor organises a marathon and the Red Cross is nowhere to be seen; Occupy is on the ground delivering hot meals, blankets, generators and pumps from an ever rising number of hubs, depots and shelters across New York.
Its been two weeks since the 14 foot surge of the Sandy superstorm struck Manhattan, Staten Island and a hundred miles of the New Jersey coastline. The eye of the storm passed right through Santiago in Cuba leaving thousands homeless, damaging 300,000 residences and killing 11. Jamaica suffered an estimated 16 million dollars worth of damage. Also badly hit was Haiti, the world’s first black republic still suffering from the 2010 earthquake. 70% of the crops have been wiped out and whole villages were swept away.
In the majority world existing problems caused by systematic exploitation exacerbate disasters such as superstorm Sandy, clean-up operations are slower or non-existent and problems of homelessness, starvation and disease are never truly addressed. Most of the aid to the Caribbean has come from other majority countries such as Venuzuela, which has sent 100,000 pounds of food to Cuba.
In New York as well there is a clear divide between the rich and the poor. Those with money have hired people to clear their drives and gardens, to fix their homes and pump their basements. While the NYU Hospital is evacuated and without power the Goldman Sachs HQ is lit up like a Christmas tree in an area that is nightly plunged into total darkness.
Occupy Sandy: The Defining Moment | Occupy News Network
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