POST-CRISIS IS WHEN BEING TREATED AS SECOND CLASS CITIZEN TURNS DEADLY

feeling rebloggy

FROM SLATE
 

      HURRICANE MARIA

It made landfall on Wednesday, Sept. 20. It destroyed houses, blocked roads, and downed cell towers, making communication to family, friends, and relief workers spotty at best. For days now, residents have also grappled with dwindling supplies of food, water, and gasoline. Everyone on the island is without power as the entire grid was disabled by the storm. Power may not be restored for another six months. Hospitals with functioning generators are filling up.

But President Trump has not issued a statement—or a tweet—since the storm passed, something that did not go unnoticed in a weekend of otherwise bombastic tweets from the president. 

The perception of [white run] television news’ indifference to the crisis was also on people’s minds, as debates about the NFL protests and celebrity gossip drowned out the details of Hurricane Maria and its aftermath.

While it is possible for people to focus on two problems at once, the relative silence about the storm led many to conclude that this indifference is perhaps not just a product of Trump but a larger problem with how America has always seen the island [as a colony of brown folks that should be seen, drained of resources, and not heard]

read more: 

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/09/puerto_rico_needs_long_term_support_not_just_short_term_aid.html

FROM NEW REPUBLIC

...the glacial pace of Congress’s response is part of an older pattern. 

By denying the island statehood, Congress deprives residents of the vote and of certain funds. Puerto Rico’s economic options are further limited by the Jones Act, as the PBS Newshourreported in 2015; the act “requires everybody in Puerto Rico to buy goods from an American-made ship with an American crew.”

In 2016, Congress finally moved to resolve Puerto Rico’s years-old debt crisis

In 2016, Congress finally moved to resolve Puerto Rico’s years-old debt crisis—the island was $73 billion in debt—by passing PROMESA, which ostensibly allows the island to restructure its debt.

But PROMESA is essentially an austerity measure...

https://newrepublic.com/minutes/144985/us-government-fails-puerto-rico-again 

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