Re: can you get this into circualtion there? / Puerto Rico Tribunal / Post-Maria Update
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Dec 23, 2018, 10:21 AM (19 hours ago)
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Aloha John,
Belated mahalo for sending this. I kind of ended up going off below, jajaja, but will definitely be sharing this important information with my students a la Universidad de Puerto Rico next semester and with others here. It's a shame most people don't know these details. My students crave this kind of information because it is obviously not taught in the schools and only made available to some at the university level. In fact, much of Puerto Rican history is either distorted, not covered or glossed over at the primary and secondary levels, which is not surprising given the current colonial and neocolonial arrangements. For example since the mainstream line of indigenous "extinction" has been so well reinforced and internalized over the centuries, I always share my work and knowledge on Jibaro/Boricua Indian history and presence here. Of lately I've been sharing the results of the matrilineal DNA studies done showing a whopping 61% of Amerindian survival. And that's from the female line only. Combined with the plentiful everyday experiences and evidence of cultural survival on the island (e.g., Indian names and words used, native foods eaten, plants used for healing, musica Jibaro everywhere, native cultural gatherings) some students soon come to see that they've been really ROBBED of their cultural heritage and identity and are AMAZED but not so happy at the same time to have been deprived knowledge of their deep roots. They come to an understanding of a continuum with their ancestral past.
Regarding the fiscal control board mentioned (basically "austerity" program dealing with the billions and billions of dollars of debt incured), "both" the U.S. regime and local state govenment are to blame for this mess. There would be "no" fiscal board today if local political leaders over the past few decades had not been so greedy, incompetent and negligent in their duties. Despite being puppets of the U.S., there was agency to be had in making sound decisions to benefit the country in important areas. Instead, these fake leaders (involving for instance a succession of governors including the father of our current crony governor) SOLD OUT the future of this place and their own people! One of the best examples of this is the total breakdown of the electrical grid in the aftermath of hurricane Maria. "Leaders" here knew that this decrepit 1940s built grid with some 1970s updates was in desperate need of modernization, and yet they ignored the problem for continued industrialization $$$$ in making the San Juan metropolitan area the box-store concrete jungle that it is today. When Maria hit, that was the end of it. The loss of power was the single biggest reason why so many people died in the months after. The elderly, children, newborns, and the sick were cut off from their much needed life support (in homes and the many hospitals throughout the island having to sometimes survive in temperatures in the 90s). Many died slow, agonizing deaths, which is CRIMINAL when you think that much of this could have been avoided. About 3,000 people died here. I get really emotional about this... and go off in my classes. I want the students to know gravity of the situation and the fact that no one has taken responsibility for this tragedy. The phony governor says "everyone" is responsible thus wiping his hands clean of his administration's own ill-preparedness and total negligent response (this was at both state and federal levels). PREPA (the government-run electrical power company here) is a joke. Right now, there are many places throughout Puerto Rico that have no power, most of these seemingly intermittent but in some places permanent. Where I live there are black outs about every week. I can be typing away right now in perfectly calm weather and, POOF, the lights go out. PREPA has proven that they cannot do the job. They have failed the people of Puerto Rico and the sooner they are taken apart, disbanded or fall into the sea the better.
So I will definitely be sharing these findings. As suspected, I'm sure 99% of the pop. here has no idea that this event took place. I try to keep up with the news and, while I knew this action was in progress, I did not hear anything about it in the local news. It's a funny thing that Puertorriquenos know very well that the politicicans here are corrupt careless liers (really a take off of the old Spanish regime), yet they do virtually nothing about it because they are kept comfortable enough. This just goes to show the psychological extent of dependency and colonization of the mind that has been going on for not just the past century but for 500 years. Everything is normalized. That's the way it is. Muchas fiestas en todos partes! It's a vicious cycle that is obviously hard to break.
E malama pono,
Antonio
On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 5:08 PM John Witeck <witeck@hawaii.edu> wrote:
Tony, my friend Jon Olsen shared this verdict re the US treatment of Puerto Rico. Feel free to share it around. Aloha, John---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Jon Olsen <joliyoka@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 5:19 AM
Subject: can you get this into circualtion there?
To: <ja@malu-aina.org>
Cc: John J. Witeck <witeck@hawaii.edu>
Quite a parallel: Jon
https://puertoricotribunal.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/ 10/PR-TribunalFinalVeredict.
The International Tribunal on US Colonial Crimes Against Puerto Rico, having met in open session as guests on unseated Lenape Indigenous Land, on Oct 27, 2018;
Having heard testimony regarding the history of US colonial rule over Puerto Rico since 1898; and
Having heard testimony from experts, eyewitnesses, colonial resistors, and survivors – the majority of whom were born in Puerto Rico and continue to endure colonial depravity there – on the catastrophe endured by the Puerto Rican people both during and in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria;
Having viewed videotape interviews and examined other documentary material on these topics;
Hereby finds the US government guilty of the following crimes against humanity, warranting all measures of relief and redress, including, but not limited to, reparations:
1. That it has deprived the people of Puerto Rico of their right to self-determination, a violation of international law; 2. That after buying Puerto Rico from Spain in 1898 without the consent of the people of Puerto Rico, it subdued popular resistance through military conquest, set up and maintains a settler-colonial regime; 3. That this colonization of the Puerto Rican people took place over a century, during which independence movements were repressed with great bloodshed 4. That the passage of Law 600 by the US Congress in 1950 ostensibly allowing Puerto Rico to draft its own constitution (and its official status renamed “commonwealth,” known in Spanish as “Estado Libre Asociado” or “associated free state”) effectively legalized US colonialism and created a veneer of legitimacy to what was and remains the subjugation of the Puerto Rican people. 5. That this colonial imposition has profoundly and detrimentally impacted every area of life in Puerto Rico, from its domestic policies to its external relations, resulting in intergenerational psycho-social trauma. 6. That this colonial imposition has included theft of land for US military bases and exercises that have contaminated the soil, air and water, resulting in widespread diseases, health deterioration, and death, as well destruction of wild life and domestic farm animals; that it has further resulted in forced displacement, dispossession, loss of home and exile 7. That this colonial imposition, through the so-called Fiscal Control Board, is directly responsible for the disastrous conditions still existing in Puerto Rico more than a year after Hurricane Maria, in which the US corporations and banks, under the guise of helping with reconstruction, have expropriated billions of public dollars, creating a humanitarian crisis. 8. That this colonial imposition has used the hurricane as a pretext to further the longstanding neoliberal and right-wing policies of the US government to privatize
fundamental social services and destroy labor movements, especially in the fields of education and electricity. 9. That the US government imposed protocols that allowed and encouraged corporate looting of Puerto Rico’s natural resources and wealth and the exploitation of Puerto Rican labor, dispelling the myth and legend that Puerto Rico owes the US government anything; In fact, an extraordinary debt is owed to the Puerto Rican people by the US government and by US corporations. 10. That the US has committed genocide against the Puerto Rican people, including decades of sterilization of Puerto Rican women, medical experimentation, suppression of Boricua culture, exploitation of Puerto Rican youth to fight imperialist wars, denial of basic human needs, including water, healthful food, a refusal of international humanitarian and solidarity aid from various nations, such as Cuba, Mexico and Venezuela, following Hurricane Maria.
Therefore we hereby demand the following: 1. The US government acknowledge and apologize aforementioned crimes against the Puerto Rican people 2. The US surrender all property and power forcibly taken from the Puerto Rican People 3. The US pay reparations to victims of the crime of colonialism
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