Puerto Rico's woes eyewitness account of Hurricane Maria and Aftermath, colonalism and history

Heru Shango has lived in Puerto Rico for several years. Shango gives an eyewitness account and analysis of the hurricane, the slow response from the government and the questionable methods of FEMA in food delivery and ordinary people's lack of access to main roads and water. A must listen.

Home to nearly 3 million people, Puerto Rico or Boriken, is often seen as a happy, fun Caribbean island and tropical paradise. The hurricane disrupted millions of lives and has stalled tourism while ordinary Boricuas focus on aiding family, neighbours and collecting needed items for the next six months. The electric infrastructure is only 10% on line.

Puerto Rico's Wake Up Call

 A U.S. territory treated as a colony

Brief history of Puerto Rico: The Last Colony

The United States including the government still looks at and treats Latin America and the Caribbean under the Monroe Doctrine. Not only did the doctrine out loud declared Europeans would not colonize, intervene militarily or politically in the affairs of the Americas (except for the Antilles ie Martinuqe, Guadolope and British Virgin Islands and UK territories colonies), but the United States would have the first and final say in the affairs most Caribbean countries. For all the accolades about how well Democracy works in the U.S., the country itself has colonized Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, invaded Panama and Grenada countries that have never attacked the U.S. either directly or indirectly and intervened via military force, CIA ops and assassinations in the name of fighting communism and any other ism, spreading Democracy and corporate friendly financial system and economy, preventing any truly popular governments for being a model of alternative political systems that aren't American made. U.S. colonization is often sugar coated as "Humanitarian intervention," "American exceptionalism as a global force for good", "Protecting Democracy from evil regimes", "structural readjustment programs" via the IMF and World Bank both based in Washington, D.C., the empty term "Good guys vs Bad guys" or "free market ie capitalism in new markets." The origins of modern day Neo Liberalism the Shock Doctrine began in the Caribbean going back to Haiti paying for its own independence to its former colonialist power France.  Puerto Rico officially became a U.S. territory in 1900 under the Foraker Law allowing U.S. military invade, occupy and establish a civilian government that was beholden to the mainland U.S. government. Not different from its European cousins, the U.S. saw Puerto Rican society, an African and Taino people in need of "saving and civilization" that needed Americanization to become a fully developed society. Local Puerto Rican identity was denied by mainland government and overlooked by ordinary Americans for American identity and Puerto Ricans have received American citizenship. In 1934, the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party led by immortalized nationalist leader Pedro Albizu to existence some three years prior to the 1937 Ponce Massacre. Many have also served in the U.S. army, contributed to mainland society and culture. Albizu spent his entire life fighting for Puerto Rican independence until his death in 1965. Some Puerto Ricans have long wondered why Puerto Rico had never become the 51st state of the U.S. Nevertheless, close to half of Puerto Ricans would like to see the island become its own independent country. The response to Hurricane Maria will have an effect on Puerto Rican independence movement and ongoing debt that threatens to turn PR into a Carribean Greece or Argentina in terms of economic implosion and social squandering by the banks. Environment and politics have been linked in more ways than one.



It's been nearly a month since Hurricane Maria smashed through the North east of Puerto Rico.The hurricane ripped up trees, stripped the trees and shrubs off mountains caught in the storms, downed power lines, flattened houses and left many people under stress and frustrated. Puerto Rico was already facing a crushing $87 billion debt and a slow moving exodus of ordinary Puerto Ricans with family ties to mainland US from the island. Strangely, nearly 50% of Americans don't realize that Puerto Rico is even a U.S. territory! Like the earthquake and its aftermath in Haiti, Puerto Rico is also receiving slow response and indifference (including racist scolding that blames Puerto Ricans for the horrors) from the U.S. government. It is also shows the island isn't treated equally as Texas, Florida or any trouble state within mainland US. It is not just Trump who has both insulted and now has his back turned to the island. FEMA appears to be handling the hurricane aftermath sluggishly similar to how the survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans were handled (many Houstonians were helped by neighbors and ordinary people more than FEMA) and more recently in Houston and Beaumont, TX. Puerto Rico is treated as a foreign country and not as a US territory as its officially known. The Puerto Rican independence movement has been scrambling to help fellow countrymen. The independentistas have been vocal over the last years against U.S. control of the island's economy, politics and keeping the status of possible independence in limbo. Still Puerto Ricans are surviving with all the climatic events thrown in their way.