summary. Yes, the collective grassroots efforts you name are great, and apparently also harassed by the local constabulary. The feds are neglecting New Orleans, waiting until their crony vultures are ready to snag up the best parcels and then claim government handouts to build pleasure domes. Katrina is the epitome of disaster capitalism.

gmoke posted a link to this prescient cartoon: 'survival tools'

People respond in different ways to crisis. They pitch in and help out, or panic and freeze up, or connive and steal. I perceive our culture having been shaped ever since 1981 into the latter as the normative. I don't expect other than small prefigurative groups to work out survival strategies in isolated locales, making do with what's left of our environment.

Capitalism will probably insist on committing suicide, taking the current ecosystem with it, rather than gracefully depositing itself in the dustbin of failed experiments in human organization.

I do appreciate your diaries, and the people and their ideas you present. The energy and optimism are amazing.