December 2006 • Anthropology News 9 IN FOCUS JIM IGOE U COLORADO HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER W hen Katrina struck New Orleans I was teaching at the College of African Wildlife Management in Tanzania. My colleagues were astounded by the media images that portrayed the people of New Orleans in the same ways that they were used to seeing Africans affected by fam- ine and war: helpless victims, far away and fundamentally different from the viewer, and responsible for their own condition. Their sentiments were echoed by me- dia commentators who referred to New Orleans as ”Third World,” no longer recognizable as part of the US. While seeing these images caused me a great deal of anxiety and despair, like most Americans I ultimately turned my attention to more immediate concerns. Distancing From a Distance Unlike most Americans, however, my more immediate concerns had to do with a research project that examined the impacts of neolib- eral reforms on conservation in Africa. My experience during this research, followed by a retreat of the environmental leadership pro- gram on rebuilding New Orleans, gave me a unique perspective on the conditions that I witnessed when I visited the city. The paral- lels I saw between the experiences of my Tanzanian informants and the people I met in Louisiana are instructive for understanding how the current neoliberal world order shapes people’s lives and percep- tions of their relationship to the environment. The people I worked with in Tanzania had been displaced by net- works of private enterprise, NGOs and government officials. The poor were shunted about to make room for these more profitable concerns. As one of my informants put it: “It’s like this isn’t my country. I’m not a citizen of anywhere. Wherever I go they say you can’t stay here.” The two New Orleanders I sat with on my flight to New Orleans described their experiences in very similar terms: “We were like refugees in our own country. Nobody cared and they still don’t care. As far as the government is concerned, we aren’t even citizens.” From Tanzania to Louisiana and Back Again Both the displacements I docu- mented in Tanzania and the dis- placements of people in New Or- leans were the latest in a series of such instances over a long span of history. In my research area of Tanzania, there are people who have long genealogies of descen- dents also displaced by commercial farms, urban sprawl and state-spon- sored protected areas. Often these people did not give up their land willingly or with full understand- ing to whom their lands were being transferred or for what purposes. During Katrina, the white, work- ing-class community of Chalmette was covered in a million gallon oil spill. This occurred as a direct result of Murphy Oil failing to fol- low its own emergency prepared- ness procedures. Many of these residents were persuaded without full informed consent into sign- ing “inconvenience settlements,” stating that they held Murphy Oil blameless for any health prob- lems that any household member might experience in the future in exchange for a one-time payment of $15–20 thousand. They were then relocated by FEMA to trailers across the street from Chalmette Refining LLC, a joint venture between Exxon Mobil and Venezuela’s national oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA. As those involved with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade project note, Chalmette Refining LLC had received over 1,000 citations for car- cinogenic emissions violations prior to the placement of FEMA trailers. Reflections on Distance and Katrina COMMENTARY Exxon Mobil is also sponsoring part of conservation interventions initiated by the African Wildlife Foundation. Like residents of St Bernard, local people targeted by this intervention are being encouraged by the African Wildlife Foundation and the Tanzanian government to enter into agree- ments and sign things that they do not fully understand. This process transforms these landscapes from peopled landscapes to those domi- nated by wildlife, which has made them attractive to private investors at the expense of locals. It also provides Exxon Mobil, and many other corporations that sponsor conservation interventions, with tax breaks and a valuable green public image enhancement. The Sublime, the Abject and the Other This connection between neolib- eralism, environmentalism and displacement of people is deep- er than it first appears. In “The Trouble with Wilderness,” in Un- common Ground, William Cronon Encountering Common Ground “Well, it’s really a case of petition- ing the Pengadilan Agama (Islamic Court). You have to be there in person to file your petition and all that … you know … ,” I reply. “And that’s a process that can get fairly complex. It may not be worthwhile going to all the trouble if you plan to stay here anyway.” Ita nods, and we contemplate the matter in silence. She does know all this, but it’s a matter of obtaining a degree of commitment from a potential ally, of finding a source of moral support in me, who, as ”the guy who is doing research” and who continually emphasizes infor- mant confidentiality, is probably not likely to use it against her. My response to Ita is consis- tent with Indonesian practice as I have come to understand it in the current transnational context: I indicated a responsiveness to her plight and a willingness to help, all in the absence, however, of a com- mitment to act, to accept the invi- tation to take on a more complex subject position in relation to her specifically, and generally with the loosely connected group of infor- mants to which she belongs. Although Ita and I are compelled to mindfully negotiate the gender and religious dimensions which divide us, we have found a certain common ground in our strategic self-positioning within the shifting transnational field of opportunities that we are both pursuing at this time in this place. Hence, this par- ticular encounter will carry the rela- tionship, however tenuous, through to the next, and it is indeed through this mode of interaction that I have with this group of transnational sojourners, that I find I am as much a member of the fissiparous, trans- national version of Indonesian soci- ality that characterizes it, as I am of the national community construct- ed by my host nation whose higher education system provides me with employment. Glenn Reeves has previously conducted ethnographic research in the Mentawai Islands, Western Indonesia. He is currently an assistant professor in the department of applied English, Ming Chuan University, Taipei, Taiwan. COMMENTARY See Katrina on page 10 This message stood in front of a house in New Orleans. From home- made street signs to expressions of disgust, this sort of self-expression abounds throughout the city, though it is given little media attention. Photo courtesy of Brad Guy, President, Building Reuse Materials Association and Senior Fellow, Environmental Leadership Program The displacements of people in New Orleans were a media spec- tacle, which made them appear dra- matic and abrupt. As Craig Colton demonstrates in his book Unnatural Metropolis, however, the displace- ments of poor New Orleanders have a long history. Like my infor- mants in Tanzania, poor, and espe- cially black, New Orleanders were gradually pushed into increasingly marginal areas, which ultimately proved uninhabitable. Well in advance of the storm, gentrifica- tion and big box retailers displaced many into the lower-lying areas that were flooded by Katrina. There are many other paral- lels between the displacements of peoples in these two places and their links to neoliberalism and the environment. Among those I observed is the role of corporations.