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Thursday. December 15, 2005
Katrina evacuees say it’s no time for Mardi Gras
77/f .ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW ORLEANS-A num
ber of Hurricane Katrina
refugees stuck in hotel rooms
and unfamiliar surroundings
across the United States are
in no mood to party and
they’re decrying this city’s
plans to hold Mardi Gras cel
ebrations in two months.
“This is not the time for fim,
this is the time to put people’s
lives back on track,” said
Lillie Antoine, a 51-year-old
refugee stuck in Tulsa, Okla.
Hurricane Katrina’s cultur
al and economic wrecking
ball came on the eve of what
promised to be one of the
most exuberant parties in
this party city’s history— the
150th anniversary of
Carnival parades in New
Orleans.
Carnival is shaping up to be
an oddity The cash-strapped
dty is seeking corporate spon
sors for the first tim^ to pay
for police overtime and the
time-consuming cleeinup
along parade routes and the
French Quarter. Also, the
two-week Carnival season—
which climaxes on Fat
Ihesday, the day before the
Lenten season —was scaled
back to eig^t days.
And now the city’s Carnival
cheerleaders are coming
under fire fiom refugees and
black organizations for bdng
insensitive to the plight of so
many displaced New
Orieanians.
“I just think it sends the
wrong message to have a cel
ebration when people are not
back in their houses,” said
Ernest Johnson, the
Louisiana president of the
National Association for the
Overeaters support
groups at all-time high
f
%
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ALBANY, N.Y.-Grabbing
a handful of cookies off the
plate, stealing a roommate’s
food, overeating while home
alone. These could be signs of
compulsive overeating.
In the United States, the
nation’s fixation on weight is
only making the disorder
more prevalent, experts say
The number of support
groups for people whose lives
are controlled by food has
grown sharply in recent
years.
Jim M., a member of Food
Addicts in Recovery
Anonymous in Saginaw,
Mich., tells a typical story
“I didn’t have that switch
that says, You’ve had
enou^.’ I just always wanted
more and more and more,”
said the former college foot
ball player, who like other 12-
step program members
wouldn’t allow the use of his
full name.
Jim’s obsession was so
great he constantly broke off
social engagements to eat
giant piles of food in the pri
vacy of his home.
“I just always made food my
priority,” he said
Since 1998, the number of
support groups hosted by
Food Addicts has grown firom
about 20 to 300 nationwide.
Overeaters Anonymous,
founded in 1960, now has
more than 4,300 meetings in
the coimtry
David Levitsl^^, a professor
of psychology and nutrition at
Cornell University said com
pulsive overeating is becom
ing more widespread in part
because the country has a
growing obsession with
weight loss. Dieters make a
religion of calorie-counting,
starving themselves until
their bodies rebel with a
binge.
That sets off an ensnaring
cycle of guilt, dieting and
binge-eating, he said.
‘More people nationally are
going on diets. And there’s
always going to be a certain
fallout of people who can’t
define when enough is
enough” he said.
Binge-eating disorder is
more prevalent than anorex
ia or bulimia, according to the
National Association of
Anorexia and Associated
Disorders. A study by the
American Psychiatric
Association in 2000 suggest
ed between 0.7 percent and 4
p^icent of the population suf
fered fium the disorder, but
researchers believe the actual
figure is much higher, said
Annie Hayashi, spokes
woman for NAAAD.
Even thin people and those
of average weight can be pos
sessed by binge eating, said
Susan L., who chairs the
group Food Addicts.
“Not all overeaters are
obese, and not all obese peo
ple are overeaters,” she said.
The only uniting character
istic is an overwhelming pre
occupation with food, she
said
The behavior of compulsive
overeaters is distinct fix)m
the average person who
might indulge in normal
“emotional eating”—like curl
ing up with a carton of ice
cream after a breakup or tak
ing comfort in macaroni-and-
dieese on a blue day
Those in the throes of a
binge feel they cannot stop
and they eat imtil they are
physically uncomfortable,
according to Overeaters
Anonymous.
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Advancement of Colored
People.
The turmoil over Carnival
was sparked last Saturday at
a town hall meeting in
Atlanta when Mayor Ray
Nagin came imder fire by an
angry and raucous crowd of
refugees for approving to hold
Mardi Gras.
Nagin then told the crowd
that he had actually opposed
celebrating Mardi Gras but
that tourism leaders forced
his hand and got their way
His comments stunned
Carnival supporters back in
New Orleans, who said they
had been assured by Nagin
that he was unequivocally in
favor of going forward with
the festivities.
“He’s like John Kerry—he
was for it and then he was
against it,” bemoaned Ed
Muniz, the captain of
Endymion, one of the city’s
biggest and most glamorous
parades.
Ernest Collins, the city’s
arts and entertainment direc
tor, said the mayor made his
Atlanta comments “in the
heat of the moment” and that
Nagin knows how important
8ATCHMO.COM
A float honoring Louis Armstrong is only one among many
during the wild and flashy Mardi Gras celebration.
the celebration is.
But three days after the
Atlanta town hall meeting,
Nagin jabbed at the Carnival
supporters again by suggest
ing that the hotels put aside
about a quarter of their prof
its to help build housing for
lefiigees.
Hotel and tourism industiy
leaders were flabbergasted
by that suggestion, and
spoke out at Nagin for his
“politicizing” of Maidi Gras.
“The reality is that the
riglit message is not getting
out to America,” said J,
Stephen Perry pi-esident of
tlie New Orleans
Metropolitan Convention
and Visitors Biueau. “Mardi
Gras is fai* moie than a pmly
it’s a celebration of who we
are.”
Perry charged that Nagin
had not done enough to luai*-
ket Mardi Gras as pivotal to
the revitalization of tlie city
and its economy
Johnson, the state NAACP
president, dismissed that
argument.
Hotel and tomism busi
nesses, he said, are “only
interested in luiing their own
pockets.” He added that lie
would support Maidi Gras
only if the hotels “go out and
dedicate 100 peix'ent of tlieii*
proceeds to rebuilding their
community”
Danius Gray the head of
the Greater New Oileans &
Lodging Association, said
tliat “prefits are hard to come
by these days” for hotels and
that many hotels have spent
large sums on repairing dam-
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