With parade names like Pegasus, Caesar, Mona Lisa and Sparta, a reviving New Orleans kicked off its Mardi Gras celebrations on Saturday -- the start of the city's official comeback from its devastation by Hurricane Katrina six months ago.
There were some hiccups: the Atlas and "Bards of Bohemia" parades, slated for Friday and Saturday respectively, were canceled "due to insurance problems", the Times Picayune newspaper reported online.
But the weekend's 16 remaining parades moved through the streets of the French Quarter and nearby Jefferson Parish with Bugs Bunny-and-Carrot figures, orange-clad bands swinging their instruments, and riders on large floats tossing beads into the thin crowds, according to broadcast video footage from the city.
PHOTO: AFP
The Mardi Gras celebrations will culminate on Feb. 28, or Fat Tuesday, the last day of a period of revelry, feasting and dancing before Ash Wednesday that marks the beginning of Christian Lent leading up to Easter.
New Orleans is struggling to stand on its feet after Hurricane Katrina swamped the region last August, killing more than 1,300 people and driving the city's 462,000 people out of town to safety.
Only one-third have returned because there's no place to live: the debris of their destroyed homes, where some bodies are still expected to be found, has still not been removed, and there is no electricity or drinking water in large sections of the city.
Some of the 300,000 evacuees still waiting to return, or making new lives for themselves, however, have been organizing their own celebrations from their dispersed lives across the country, according to Web blogs on the Times Picayune Web site.
"Like icing spreading out over a king cake the size of America, new and old Mardi Gras traditions have travelled with displaced New Orleanians," the Web blog said.
Among the cities celebrating new festivals are Louisville, Kentucky, and Chicago, Illinois -- where the Children's Museum was hosting a party for displaced kids.
Most of the celebrations in New Orleans center on the renowned French Quarter, whose higher ground helped it survive with less damage, and where clubs like the Cats Meow just barely got operations going again in time for Mardi Gras.
The club is symbolic of recovery because it sits at the geographical center of the French Quarter, at the corner of famous Bourbon Street and St. Peter.
"The relighting of the Cats Meow sign ... is a special sign of renewal," the Web blog said.
The city has trimmed down the celebration this year from 12 days to eight days, and for the first time in Mardi Gras' 150-year-history, was searching for a corporate sponsor to help cover the US$2.7 million in police overtime and fire protection for the festival.
A city law bans such private sponsorship under normal conditions. But a search by a private firm -- MediaBuys -- engaged to find one came up empty-handed because the effort didn't begin until late last year.
Getting approval for such sponsorships often takes six months, the Times Picayune reported.
Some of Katrina's victims are angry about the push to celebrate Mardi Gras when the losses are so fresh.
"We don't need Mardi Gras, we need to rebuild the city," said MacArthur Samuels, who recently visited Washington to petition the federal government to help his city.
"Don't put up lights for Mardi Gras if there is no lights in my neighborhood," he said.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
RSS