New Orleans Hit By Another "Hurricane of Racism, Greed and Corruption" - Community Activist Malik Rahim

At 9:38 a.m. local time on Wednesday a moment of silence was held across New Orleans to mark the moment the levees were breached two years ago.

Hurricane Katrina flooded about 80 percent of New Orleans, killed over 1,600 people and displaced another 1.5 million people from the Gulf Coast.

Only two thirds of the region's population has returned home. Few areas in New Orleans were as hard hit by Hurricane Katrina as the Lower Ninth Ward where we are broadcasting from today.

This predominantly African American, working-class neighborhood remains largely in ruins two years later.

In a moment we will be joined with Malik Rahem, cofounder of the Common Ground Collective and Alice Craft-Kerney of the Lower Ninth Ward Health Clinic. But first I want to turn back two years ago to rebroadcast part of Malik's first interview on Democracy Now just days after Katrina hit New Orleans.

• Malik Rahim interviewed on Democracy Now, 9/5/07

A week later Malik appeared again on Democracy Now and gave us a tour of the Algiers neighborhood. As our video cameras followed him, Malik showed us how corpses still remained in the street.

• Malik Rahim interviewed on Democracy Now, 9/12/07

Malik Rahim joins us again today as we broadcast from the lower ninth ward in New Orleans. He is a longtime community activist in New Orleans and cofounder of the Common Ground Collective. We are also joined by Alice Craft-Kerney of the Lower Ninth Ward Health Clinic.

• Malik Rahim, New Orleans community activist and cofounder of the Common Ground Collective.
• Alice Craft-Kerney, executive director of the Lower Ninth Ward Health Clinic. Her home was devastated by the flooding of the Lower Ninth Ward. She is a former nurse with Charity Hospital in New Orleans but lost her job when Charity Hospital closed as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

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