Politico posted an article yesterday that compared the Trump administration’s reaction to the disasters caused by Hurricanes Maria in Puerto Rico and Harvey in Texas, respectively. Even for hardened souls like me the numbers were astounding; I had known of a systematic neglect of one population compared to the other, but not realized the extent. 

Here is the full article https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/27/donald-trump-fema-hurricane-maria-response-480557

Here is another summary:

At the end of the Spanish-American war in 1898, Puerto Rico was ceded by Spain to the US. In March 1917, over 100 years ago, Puerto Ricans were granted statutory US citizenship. Of the roughy 3.3 million people living on the island, more than 45% exist below the official poverty level – and that was before the Hurricane hit, and the tourist $$, one of the main employment/income options, dried up as a consequence.

Puerto Rico is a self-governing commonwealth in association with the United States. The chief of state is the President of the United States of America. The head of government is an elected Governor. There are two legislative chambers: the House of Representatives, 51 seats, and the Senate, 27 seats. Note then, Trump is the head of state here, you know, the guy whose personal travel cost could have covered over 90% of the $36 million it costs the Federal Emergency Management Agency operations to deliver food and water to the island for three months. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-travel-costs-pay-food-water-puerto-rico-three-months-hurricane-a8242736.html

 

 

Of course this administration is not the only force of darkness – quite literally so on the island that still lacks electricity in large swaths after six months since the storm’s landfall. Competing visions of how to rebuild after the storm, and how to restructure large parts of the political as much as the physical landscape, are clashing at this very moment. https://theintercept.com/2018/03/20/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-recovery/

Here are the relevant excerpts from the instructive article above:

Six months into the rolling disaster set off by Maria, dozens of grassroots organizations are coming together to advance precisely this vision: a reimagined Puerto Rico run by its people in their interests. Like Casa Pueblo, in the myriad dysfunctions and injustices the storm so vividly exposed, they see an opportunity to tackle the root causes that turned a weather disaster into a human catastrophe. Among them: the island’s extreme dependence on imported fuel and food; the unpayable and possibly illegal debt that has been used to impose wave after wave of austerity that gravely weakened the island’s defenses; and the 130-year-old colonial relationship with a U.S. government that has always discounted the lives of Puerto Rico’s black and brown people.

There is also another, very different version of how Puerto Rico should be radically remade after the storm, and it is being aggressively advanced by Gov. Ricardo Rosselló in meetings with bankers, real estate developers, cryptocurrency traders, and, of course, the Financial Oversight and Management Board, an unelected seven-member body that exerts ultimate control over Puerto Rico’s economy. For this powerful group, the lesson that Maria carried was not about the perils of economic dependency or austerity in times of climate disruption. The real problem, they argue, was the public ownership of Puerto Rico’s infrastructure, which lacked the proper free-market incentives. Rather than transforming that infrastructure so that it truly serves the public interest, they argue for selling it off at fire-sale prices to private players.

I visited Puerto Rico 6 years ago for a memorable week. My photographs were lost, as were all of the trip to Istanbul that same month, don’t ask or I cry and I have reached my quota of tears already for the week. Luckily I have children who share some of my interests and so am able to post recent documentation of Puerto Rico’s graffiti  – my son was there some weeks ago for work and granted me use of his images. I hope to return one day soon together with many other tourists, spending our dollars in support of the local economy in large numbers.