Louisiana

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Louisiana is a southern US state with all the problems associated with the legacy of slavery as practiced by southern states*, i.e. Jim Crow, segregation, lynchings, etc.

Louisiana is unique, I believe, in having (or until recently having had) a state legal framework based on the French Napoleonic Code (read or see Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire for more on this :wink: ) and a system of parishes rather than counties as political subdivisions.

Louisiana is home to a group known as the Cajuns who are French Canadian descended. They are known for their delicious cuisine, particular language, and as the creators of Zydeco music. For a stereotyped portrayal see the Walter Hill film Southern Comfort.

Louisiana, outside of Louisiana, is probably best known for the Mardi Gras festival held each year in New Orleans, its most famous city.

Politically, Louisiana’s most famous people are the populist "Despot of the Delta, Huey Long and, more recently former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, David Duke, who the republican party of Louisiana refused to support in his runs for seats in the senate and house, and for governor.

In 1927 Louisiana suffered terrible flooding, the subject of Randy Newman’s best song, Lousiana 1927.

I have only ever been in the New Orleans airport on a layover, so have no direct personal experience with the state. Whether moving there is a good or bad thing, I can not say. Louisiana does not have a very good reputation, aside from being a fun place, in the northern US; but then again, New York City, doesn’t have a very good reputation anywhere so who’s to say. If you are at all familiar with the still at times antagonistic relations between the southern and northern US states, then you’ll be able to figure out, generally, how certain individuals might answer your question. :wink:

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ

*Northern states have their own particular legacy of slavery to deal with.

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Re: Louisiana

ya know?! ya ask a stoopid question around here and some wise guy gives u a sensible answer
what’s wrong with you people?

:stuck_out_tongue:

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Re: Re: Louisiana

I’ve been working on a project for the past 3 - 4 weeks. Our deadline was July 1st and we had our part done on June 30th. We’re still waiting for the group we did it for and who gave us the deadline, to implement it. :frowning: I’ve been making little enhancements, getting ready for Phase 2, and taking care of assorted other things. Get the idea. :slight_smile:

I hope it wasn’t too sensible.

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ

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Like much of the South -and, sadly, many parts of the US- Louisiana has a horrible reputation for police corruption. The lagacies of slavery, however, are more subtle: few years back, on Halloween, a young boy with Asian features looking for a party rang the wrong door bell and was turned away. He took a few step before the door opened again, and he was shot dead. In Louisiana, you’ve a right to shoot children who are of Asian desent as long as you do it from your door, so the killer got off without charge.

New Orleans is a nice place to visit.

-Christopher

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Christopher is referring to Yoshi Hattori (above), a 16-year old exchange student from Nagoya, Japan, who was shot and killed in 1992 in Baton Rouge, the state capital of Louisiana. Yoshi was on his way to a Halloween party with his “brother” from his host family, when they knocked on the front door of the wrong house. The woman who answered the door apparently screamed for her husband to get his gun. Thinking that this was all part of the “fun” of the Halloween party, Yoshi and his host-brother went down the side of the house to the back door, where they were met by homeowner Rodney Peairs with his 44-magnum, “Dirty Harry” pistol. Yoshi was dressed in a white leisure suit as John Travolta’s character from Saturday Night Fever, and he had a large camera hanging by the neck strap in front of him. As the story goes, Rodney Peairs shouted “FREEZE!” at the two high school kids, but, Yoshi, still under the misconception that this was Halloween “fun”, continued to advance, smiling.

Mr. Peairs then shot Yoshi, point-blank.

The Japanese media (and I suspect, not a few English conversation schools) at the time had everyone here convinced that Yoshi died because his English wasn’t good enough to understand what the command “FREEZE!” meant. I tried to explain to my students that it was more a case of a guy who was just too itchy to use his gun. Rodney Peairs was acquitted of manslaughter charges because the jury was convinced by the defense attorney’s argument that he had a right to defend his home from what he “perceived” was a threat (a 16-year old Japanese John Travolta with a camera).

The Japan-Louisiana Friendship Foundation set up a Hattori Fellowship to send high school exchange students between Baton Rouge and Japan each year. One of my former students went to Baton Rouge 4 years ago, and she had a great time. She really liked the chicken gumbo, and even enjoyed eating steamed crawdads off of a newspaper-covered picnic table.

My sister and her family lived in the town of Thibodaux for a few years. They liked it well enough, except for the mosquitos, and snakes, and when the alligator ate their Labrador Retriever. The Cajun cookin’ was great, they said. (No, that doesn’t mean Paul Prudhomme, the Cajun poseur… my friend, Henry, a New Orleans native, tells me that no self-respecting Cajun would do that to a fine piece of redfish.)

Sorry, Dave, if this was more than you wanted to know…

For more “sensible” info about Louisiana, go here

Zydeco wavs

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not at all, i’m beginning to get a feel for the place

the shooting of that kid is pretty shocking tho
i wouldn’t say it’s a comparable case but i thought i’d share it here anyway
it happened a couple of years ago on a farm in south africa
for backround u need to know that the spate of farm-attacks on (white) farmers have now resulted in so many fatalities that being a south african farmer is currently the most dangerous occupation in the world
mortality figures now also qualifies these attacks as a genocide
(murders/population)
anyway, a farmer saw some people walk accross his property and being rather paranoid, fired a warning shot well above their heads
by an unspeakable freak accident, the bullet richoched and hit a 10 month old baby being carried on her sister’s back as they took a short-cut to get home
he revceived something like a five year sentence and that upset a whole lot of people over here

i think the sentence stood and he’s busy serving it at the moment

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I thought it was worse in Zimbabwe. Is that not the case?

Is the upset (primarily) over the lightness of the sentence or its severity? Or both, depending on who one asks.

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ

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By the way, Dave, did you enjoy our President’s visit? Here’s what the Kenyan paper The Nation had to say:

“If there were any opportunities for Mr Bush to make a difference in Africa, no one can accuse him of taking them.”

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ

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the zim situation is more misleading as farmers are being evicted from their farms, quite violently and in some cases killed
the south african situation is far worse in a way
very many more farmers are being killed and the problem is not nearly as well publizised

the most vocal complaint was that the sentence was waaay too lenient for a white farmer killing a black child and had the situation been reversed…
for a country striving to establish a non-racial democracy, we play the race card very easily

so sorry, i did blink
:wink:

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and ‘THE ONION’s’ contribution

Bush’s African Tour
“This trip demonstrates strong support for Africa in a way that adequate humanitarian aid never could.”
—Roland Sutton, Purchasing Manager