Features, OCT 05

AMERICA - Exploring A Third World
New Orleans, Louisiana
by RYAN JOE, columnist


The local Six Flags amusement park, family fun, roller coasters, and cotton candy, is also host to constant gang warfare. People just get murdered left and right there. The whole city is basically a carnival gone horribly wrong.

And even from above, looking down from a plane, the place is weird. I remember seeing this huge body of water, like a great brown sea, surrounded by this steaming green mass of foliage. A thin strip of pavement traversed the lake. The sun was setting. You get the picture.

As an example of how odd this place is, until recently, if there were three people driving in a car, up to two open containers of alcohol were allowed. The overriding logic being that at least one person might still be sober.

Another one: New Orleans gave the world the daiquiri. New Orleans also has daiquiri drive-thrus. The law stipulates that if you get pulled-over and have a daiquiri in the car, you just better not have a straw in it. I cannot make this up.