What good can come from a hurricane?
The hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans, like the killer earthquake that devastated Mexico City in 1985, left the real work of rescue and relief, of civilian survival and reconstruction, to grassroots efforts, in the face of totally impotent governments unable and unwilling to act effectively when confronted with such catastrophes. In Mexico, that earthquake marked the beginning of civilian organizing outside of (and largely in opposition to) the dominant political structures, an ongoing process of formation of sociedad civil. The inspiring new mobilization of the Zapatistas in the last few weeks, aiming to build in Mexico a society truly based on the ordinary humble people, a new kind of mass politics from below, as they term it, is a result, after 20 years, of the changes triggereed by the great Mexico City earthquake. I know of no reports of these Zapatista-organized meetings in Chiapas more inspiring than those of Al Giordano in Narco News, the last of which is at http://
