Puerto Rico Again Shafted by the United States

Big Surprise here, they did not make the self imposed deadline of December 15 to get 95% of the power back to the island.  In fact, they don't even have half of the population with power.  This was not a big surprise since the power company was acting against its own interest and then lost their leadership.

The real news was that the new tax act that was passed will cripple Puerto Rico for years by treating them as a foreign country, which is just strange.

"Provisions of the legislation aimed at bringing operations and jobs back to the United States from overseas would apply to Puerto Rico just as they would to India, Ireland or any other foreign jurisdiction. The result will be the loss of American jobs and investment on the U.S. commonwealth. If President Trump signs it into law, it will be a hard blow at the worst possible time," according the Washington Post.

NPR has kept on the story of Puerto Rico and they did a story today on the slow pace of recovery.  This includes the re-evaluation of the death toll as a result of the hurricane.  There is a growing consensus that the 65 who are officially classified as having died as a result of Hurricane Maria is a far under count.  It is becoming clear that the number is above 1,000 and the Governor has indicated that he is ordering an audit.

The radio program 1A from WAMU in Washington DC featured an hour about Puerto Rico including a discussion about the migration to the mainland and this new budget provision.  The guests agreed that the Congress really screwed the island.  It is worth the time hearing a very good discussion on Puerto Rico.  One guest made the solid claim that the United States colonized this island a century ago and we need to take care of our citizens in their time of need.  There was discussion of the bankrupt power company and its mis-steps.  There was mention of the fact that the President of the United States had not ever mentioned that the residents of Puerto Rico were American citizens.  One caller asked the most appropriate question, "When are heads going to roll for this on going tragedy."  People were fired after Katrina, but people are just ignoring the on-going crisis.

Refugees International issued a report criticizing the response by United States to Hurricane Maria.

Maria survivors are encountering enormous challenges navigating the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) bureaucratic and opaque assistance process and lack sufficient information on whether, when, and how they will be assisted.

They cited all things that we saw first hand with a lack of coordinating logistics and an ineffective distribution of aid. I am not sure how anyone in the administration is going to care about this.  If a report is delivered by a group called Refugee anything is it quickly deleted or thrown in the trash.  NPR did a story about this report here. 

NPR reported on the report, "Puerto Rico was especially vulnerable to a disaster like a hurricane, the group says, because of its aging population, poorly maintained infrastructure and lack of emergency management assets, like helicopters and backup generators. "In light of these known limitations," the report says, "it is troubling that it took five days before any senior federal official from the U.S. mainland visited the island."

Comparing it with past natural disasters, such as the 2010 Haitian earthquake, the group found the U.S. response lacking. In Haiti, the group says 8,000 U.S. troops were deployed to the island within two days of the disaster. In Puerto Rico, it took 10 days for 4,500 U.S. troops to arrive. Central to FEMA's problematic response, Refugees International says, is that the federal agency is designed to supplement local and state disaster response efforts. But in Puerto Rico, the group found, municipalities and the Commonwealth had "limited capacity and ability to respond."

Imagine, a largely Catholic community trying to make it through Christmas without electricity, and many of the rural communities without water. How do you justify lighting a tree with a generator or cooking a cooking a big dinner with limited power?  This is crazy that after three months there is still not basic necessities on the island for American citizens. It is no wonder that the island is clearing out, and I hope the Puerto Ricans get together on the mainland to vote as a block against all Republicans who sat by and watched this crisis slowly roll out.  

Brian Davis