12:48 PM CDT on Sunday, October 25, 2009
Becky Bohrer / Associated Press
When Mayor Ray Nagin jetted off to Cuba recently, the buzz around town
and on the Web had little to do with trade opportunities or disaster
preparedness, the jaunt's stated mission.
Instead, chatter focused on motivation and cost. Many top administration
officials -- and Nagin himself -- will be out of office in months and
seemingly unable to do much with any useful information they picked up
from the Cuban government.
And with little discernible results for the city from Nagin's other
overseas travels, a potential $68 million city budget deficit next year
and allegations a businessman who had ties to the city's technology
office paid for at least part of some Nagin trips -- including a 2005
family vacation to Jamaica -- there was a lot of public skepticism.
Nagin has only himself to blame.
The mayor's press office gave no advance notice of the Cuba trip. It had
done so for earlier trips, to South Africa, Panama, China and Australia.
Word Nagin had left with a group, including the police and fire chiefs
and other city department heads, went out the morning of his departure,
Oct. 16.
Communication problems will likely be part of Nagin's legacy after he
leaves office in May, said Peter Burns, associate professor of political
science at Loyola University. Nagin has been criticized as keeping
too-low a profile, particularly as the city has struggled to recover
from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and his approval ratings have slipped to
abysmal levels. The mayor has shrugged this off, saying he's focused on
laying the foundation for a robust recovery.
The handling of the Cuba trip, Burns said, "again fits very conveniently
into the trend of why people have negative feelings about Nagin."
University of New Orleans political scientist Ed Chervenak offered a
different take: "I just really believe that they're politically and
psychologically exhausted at City Hall, and they don't care what the
media or the City Council think."
Nagin, whose colorful, off-the-cuff remarks have garnered negative press
(remember "chocolate" city?), was in vintage form while in Cuba. In an
interview with The Associated Press, he seemed to praise the communist
nation's approach to major hurricanes. This drew a rebuke from a New
Orleans-based leader of a Cuban exile group.
During Katrina, Nagin said, "The president and the governor were going
back and forth. ... in Cuba you don't have that problem. The government
says, 'This is what we're doing, these are the resources we are going to
deploy,' and it pretty much happens."
He also said Cuba does a better job of "knowing their citizens at a
very, very detailed level." Its neighborhood watch system aids in
evacuation and social services but also is supposed to report behavior
deemed subversive.
"I honestly find what he's saying, I think the only word I can use (for
it) is peculiar, because we certainly don't want that in the United
States," said George Fowler, a New Orleans lawyer and vice president of
the anti-Castro Cuban-American National Foundation.
"He says that, in Cuba, the people do what the guy at the top says. The
guy at the top is a dictator," Fowler said. "So, yes, when he speaks,
people listen or they get on the bus or whatever. In a communist
dictatorship, sure you can round people up quicker because they have no
constitutional or political rights."
A spokeswoman for Louisiana's emergency preparedness agency declined
comment on whether Cuba had lessons to share. The state managed the
evacuation of nearly 2 million people from south Louisiana ahead of
Hurricane Gustav last year. The state-directed, city-assisted evacuation
of New Orleans was considered almost total. She called the trip a "local
effort" about which the state had no details.
President Barack Obama's visit to New Orleans on Oct. 15 interfered with
the original plan, to take part in an international conference on
disasters and health, and pushed the trip back two days, City
Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell said. In a statement, she said she
questioned still going, given the city's financial situation and the
fact the group was missing most of the conference, but was told the
travel costs had "already been incurred." She said she was reimbursing
her costs.
A Nagin spokesman said the trip is part of 2009 budgeted expenses and
that there's "much to be learned from Cuba, an internationally
recognized leader on hurricane protection and disaster response." He
also noted administration efforts to resolve the projected shortfall.
While Chervenak labeled the trip a "full-fledged junket," Burns saw
value, particularly if the visit builds relationships that would benefit
the city if the U.S. government further eases its long-standing trade
restrictions with Cuba.
Nagin's itinerary included meetings with the Cuban Chamber of Commerce,
tourism and port authorities.
"I think politicians on the way out want to show people they're not just
lame ducks," Burns said. "What we might be seeing is, Nagin is still
trying to show he's still working, he's still in charge. I think Nagin
would use this to show New Orleans is back, New Orleans is a viable
place to do business."
Analysis: Nagin's Cuba trip raises questions | News for New Orleans,
Louisiana | Local News | News and Weather for New Orleans | wwltv.com
(25 October 2009)
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl102509tpnagincubA.25000b5cb.html
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