Posted on 11/16/2005 8:04:35 AM PST by CajunConservative
The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry has teamed with the Texas Workforce Commission to help Louisiana evacuees in Texas find jobs back home. The two agencies will hold a news conference announcing details of a new program today at 11:30 at LABI's offices at 3113 Valley Creek Drive.
LABI refused to release any details on the program, but the Texas Workforce Commission talked Tuesday about how the program came about.
Hurricane Katrina drove hundreds of thousands of Louisianans out of their water-logged homes and into other states, and Texas quickly emerged as a popular destination of evacuees.
Texas estimates it has absorbed up to 450,000 people, including 160,000 heads of household.
The state's work force commission acted quickly, directing evacuees to their online job banks, bringing in mobile career centers and staged a number of job fairs in cities throughout the state.
It's still unclear exactly how many people found work in Texas, but about six weeks ago it became apparent to Texas officials that many of the 33,000 Louisianans in their job search system wanted to return to Louisiana, said Diane Rath, chair of the Texas Workforce Commission.
To that end, the commission contacted LABI about setting up a system that allows Louisiana companies looking for workers to link with Louisianans who want to come home to work.
Rath said her time spent at shelters and job and career centers suggest there are many of them.
"We need to know where those jobs are in Louisiana," she said.
Rath said that evacuees, in the initial period after fleeing the state, were focused on finding work and getting their children in schools. Now that that has happened, many are looking for opportunities to come home and help the state rebuild itself.
"That rebuilding effort is touching everyone now," she said.
She said Texas always saw itself as a foster, rather than an adoptive, parent.
"We love them and we'd love to have them stay, but we really want to help them in their long-term transitions," she said.
Rath, Texas born and bred, said she's not surprised by people's desire to move home -- she'd feel the same way.
Texas is different, she said, citing a recent newspaper article in San Antonio noting how Louisiana schoolchildren there accustomed to a backdrop of French and Cajun culture were now immersed in a Texan and Hispanic one.
"There's a big cultural difference between Louisiana and Texas," she said.
"We love food and music, too," she said. "Ours is just mariachis and country-western."
Good article.
She doesn't need the Black Caucus anymore...and they know it, are pissed and are going to shout it out to the world. Race card, here we come.
I smell a red state in the making.
Haha, thanks for posting that. It serves me right for reading two sentences and RE-acting.
Much grace needed. I used to be a lib.
hahah. Thanks for posting the truth.
good for you - standing up for your town and it's people. I know a man that filed for a FEMA job online and has been earning a very good living doing building inspection work. I'm not sure why others from NO have not found the net to be of help solving jobs problem, but something is missing.
I think finding a place to live is the problem. Mostly their homes are piles of mold.
You are correct.
i could barely stand all the people in our wal-mart normally...now i feel as if i am gonna scream. plus, i don't do things during the day the day(i am a night person) so, it really stinks to have these hours. and NOTHING in my neighborhood is open, except for the Ugly Dog, and i am so sick of bar-b-que. /rant off
A Texan from southeast Texas told me once that drinking lots of beer keeps the mosquitoes away. Haha. Doesn't work for me. Mosquitoes LOVE my sweet California blood.
When I travel to mosquito country my perfume is eau d' OFF!
Nah, I don't drink beer, it's not my drink of choice. I'm a Baptist and usually don't drink, publicly that is. :D I don't sing the crawfish song either.
I thought the mosquitoes would be horrible when I returned but Mosquito Control requested military assistance and they did some heavy duty spraying using the C130's. Let's just say that is part of the FEMA bill I don't mind paying at all. I don't know what they used but the skeeters are not bad at all here. I gladly pay extra taxes for Mosquito Control. They do great work here.
Except for NOLA and a few districts we've been a red state for years now.
So much misinformation has been spread about the state that it's not hard for folks to misunderstand what is really happening here. I'm just doing my part in trying to get the facts out.
I find if we just keep level heads and stick to facts then we can bring a lot more people out of the stranglehold of liberalism. My sister is a DU type lib so I love just stating the truth and sticking to facts. It ticks her off but it also shuts her up. That's how we continue making progress.
Anybody have a good mariachi recipe? I can never get them to turn out right. :=)
I take it you are not from Louisiana. And, I would be willing to bet that an awful lot of the ones complaining about homesickness are not Cajuns. It is obvious that you do not know the heart and soul of the Cajuns.
The Cajuns, if you will ... coonasses, if you must ... are descendants of one of the most ill-treated groups in history. They were told by the British to come to the church for a "meeting" and then were herded onto ships and deported from their homes in Nova Scotia. They were not given an opportunity even to retrieve from their homes the things that meant most to them. By some miracle, some grabbed their church records and they have survived to this day in the archives of the Diocese of Baton Rouge.
The lives of the Acadians were almost unbearable, if you read their history. Many died in the terrible conditions on the ships ... some families had many of their children die at sea. Others died in various ports where they were dropped. Virginia would not take them at all. Many were dropped in port cities in England and France.
Two lines of my ancestors were put on a barren rock [Belle-Isle-en-Mer] in the Atlantic Ocean where they lived until an opportunity arose for some of them to emigrate to Louisiana.
No matter what was done to these folks, they endured and prospered. There has never been a more resilient group of people, nor any other group who have consistently made the very best of their circumstances even when those circumstances were abysmally poor.
Acadians’ cohesiveness and insularity preserved the core elements of their culture and helped them adjust to new physical and social demands. Their joie de vivre [joy in living] and their love of God provided them with an indomitable will.
Their descendants are endowed with the same remarkable qualities and will rebuild their lives. Instead of reparations, they are intent upon finding opportunity.
Never, never underestimate the resiliency of the Cajuns.
For anyone interested in the history of the Acadians/Cajuns, I highly recommend Carl A. Brasseaux’s book: The Founding of New Acadia: The Beginnings of Acadian Life in Louisiana, 1765-1803 [LSU Press 1997]. It is a fascinating history but is also a wonderfully entertaining read that you will not want to put down.
My grandfather's ancestors were sent there too. I am a direct decendent of Pierre Vincent and inherited property that was part of the original settlement of Pierre Vincent, Jr. We've been here a LONG time.
Level heads and Facts -- amazing weapons, aren't they? It is all we can do, but it is tremendously effective.
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