By Deon Roberts, Online Editor
Today is Blog Action Day, when bloggers, podcasters and videocasters around the world try to raise awareness about a particular issue.
This year’s issue is poverty, a well-known problem in New Orleans. Last year, the issue was the environment.
Here’s an excerpt from hornets247.com on New Orleans and Blog Action Day:
Poverty and homelessness are issues in every US city, but New Orleans has it pretty bad. Hurricane Katrina didn’t do anything to help the situation, costing many people their homes and possessions, leaving them little option but to live on the streets. In 2007, 14.8% of people in the Greater New Orleans area were considered to be living below the poverty level, including 20.8% of all those under 18 years of age. Last March, USA Today reported that the homeless rate in New Orleans had “reached unprecedented levels for a U.S. city: one in 25 residents.”
The blog flooringtheconsumer.com published a post about Liz McCartney, who came to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to create the St. Bernard Project, whose mission is to help St. Bernard Parish recover.
The blog elizabethannedesigns.com offered this recommendation for Blog Action Day:
Go on a honeymoon to a locale that needs tourism dollars, near (New Orleans) or far (Ghana, Nicaragua) – you’ll get more bang for your buck, help the local economy, and also see a place in the world you may never have had the opportunity to visit.
Other bloggers are recommending people help New Orleans on Blog Action Day. Take this from a post on michaelorwick.blogspot.com:
If you have a musical instrument you no longer use, donate to the still-struggling musicians and students in New Orleans, who are still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. A few great organizations that will accepts musical instruments are Tipitina’s Foundation (www.tipitinasfoundation.org) and The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund (www.nomrf.org/donations.html).
This is just a sample of what’s online today. Just Google “Blog Action Day” and “New Orleans” for more.•
3 responses so far ↓
Jeff Mowatt // Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at 3:56 pm |
I’d like to tell the very long story of a homeless American who fasted in 2003 for economic rights. He is the author of the site I link here and made his first pitch about poverty to President Clinton in 1996. We both commented on New Orleans and Katrina at the time.
His work has helped thousands in Russia and possibly many more to come in Ukraine through activism and advocacy for reform.
Alex // Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at 4:09 pm |
Great post, I myself wrote one at: http://www.guruofsales.com/general/427/fight-poverty-its-blog-action-day-today and the action has not stopped. Would you share your thoughts by a comment there as well?
C.B. Whittemore // Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at 5:32 pm |
Thank you for highlighting Liz McCartney and the St. Bernard project in this post. What an amazing Blog Action Day this is!