As the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches this Sunday, people are beginning to reminisce and reflect upon the bad times; people losing their homes and the good times, people reuniting with loved ones of the horrifying and the monumental event. Spike Lee has recently completed his new documentary entitled, If God Is Willing and The Creek Don’t Rise and Southern University’s very own Gavin Richard, native of New Orleans and Political Science graduate, has published his own book surrounding lack of support from the government during the crisis.

Richards’s book is entitled, Katrina: Eyes Have Not Seen, Ears Have Not Heard The Story Of How An American City Was Taken Under Siege By Powerful Forces In Government. There are a plethora of theories that have surfaced in main stream media but Richard’s book focuses on the testimonies from survivors, FEMA, if the levees broke or were blown up and the white business elite of New Orleans, La.

“The stories that I reveal have not been recorded by the media or the press accurately. While every one was focused on the looting and the rapes, they should have been focused on the people who had the courage to survive. And on August 29th 2005 what broke, besides the levees, was the clock of humanity,” valiantly said Richard.

The purpose of the book is to raise questions and to shed light on the social injustices that still occur within America.
“I started this in January 2006 (at the age of 19) in the dorm room of Moore Hall and my friend Irvin Hall motivated me to develop this book,” said Richard. I interviewed over 15 people and by 2008 it was finished, continued Richard.
Those interviewed were Clothide Mack, an elderly woman who was trapped in the attic for 11 days; Mama Dee, a New Orleans native and community leader; Mrs. Viola Washington, Malik Rahim and social activist Dick Gregory.

“What people don’t see on everyday T.V. is that after the devastation there was a group of minority contractors that tried to get the bid for cleaning up the city, yet the bigger corporations such as the Kellogg Grounding crew and the Shaw Group received the contracts and those are the people with ties to the White House,” speculated Richard. There are also popular theories surrounding the Kellogg Grounding crew having ties with Halliburton, which is an oilfield corporation that is established in 70 countries worldwide. Halliburton is also acclaimed to have ties with Dick Cheney and the Bush family.

Richard concluded his review with a few questions to ponder on: “It has been five years since Katrina and the Methodist and Charity hospitals have yet to be re opened. They only sustained damage on the first floor. Why aren’t they opened? Why did the president say he didn’t know about the nature of New Orleans, yet Mike Brown, the head of FEMA, warned him the day before? Why was FEMA preventing food and water from being provided at the Superdome? What Does the Urban elite have to gain from the lower ninth ward and New Orleans East?,” questioned Richard.

All of these questions are supposed to be answered within Richards’s book. Richards’s upcoming reviews will be on August 28 at the Community Book Center on Bayou Road in New Orleans, La.