"Be good, do good, live long in peace." --DJ 

The Reasoning for Puerto Rican Solution
by Don Jíbaro Orlando
A referendum on the political status of Puerto Rico was held in Puerto Rico on June 11, 2017. The referendum had three options: becoming a state of the United States, independence/free association, or maintaining the current territorial status. Those who voted overwhelmingly chose statehood by 97%; turnout, however, was 23%, a historically low figure. This figure is attributed to a boycott led by the pro-status quo PPD party.

One reason is that the title of the ballot asserted that Puerto Rico is a colony. The Popular Democratic Party (PPD) has historically rejected that notion. Similarly, under the option for maintaining the status quo, the ballot also asserted that Puerto Rico is subject to the plenary powers of the United States Congress, a notion also historically rejected by the PPD.

Likewise, under the 'independence/free association' option, the ballot asserted that Puerto Rico must be a sovereign nation in order to enter into a compact of free association with the United States. Supporters of the free association movement reject this notion. Had these parties participated in the referendum, they claim it would mean they had accepted those assertions implicitly, regardless of whether the assertions were correct or not.

Puerto Rico has been an unincorporated territory of the United States since the conclusion of the Spanish–American War in 1898, and its residents were granted U.S. citizenship in 1917.

So... Americans think that granting statehood to Puerto Rico is the equivalent of throwing a lifesaver to a drowning swimmer. They believe Puerto Rico must be able to address its economic distress and pursue statehood by assuring the US Congress that it would be a strong and capable addition, not a chronically needy one.

Now this sounds fine and dandy in theory, but what these ignoramuses fail to see is that the Puerto Rican economy has never belonged to the island. Since the "lifesaver" that they threw at them in 1898 when they acquired the island as a booty of war from Spain and the inception of the citizenship in 1917; the Puerto Rican economy has belonged to the American merchants... plain and simple.

What is, then, the optimal solution? It is definitely to abolish the colonial status that Puerto Rico has endure for over 100 years. What is do that majority of Puerto Ricans want? It's got to be statehood or independence because the "commonwealth" is not either "common" nor "wealth". The political situation as is, only benefits the American economy, not the island of Puerto Rico.

First, it was the agricultural economy that ruled in the 1920s-1950s with sugarcane, tobacco and coffee, that they moved to the Philippines when the land couldn't give out anymore. Then came the Tourism industries and pharmaceutical industries in the 1960s onward with the likes of Ely Lily, who claimed "caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world."

Then, we get Puerto Rican women to be used as guinea pigs. The first large-scale human testing of the birth control pill was carried out in Puerto Rico in the 1950s. Before the drug was approved as safe in the U.S., many Puerto Rican women were tested on it. The tests were conducted by Gregory Pincus and John Rock in 1955.

This is a major component in the history of the development of female oral contraceptives, in between initial small sample testing on the East Coast and the release of the drug for public consumption. How many Puerto Rican women had to go under the microscope for this?

So now Puerto Rico is not ready leave the colonial status after being sucked dry for over 100 years? What more do they want? Our first-borns? Oh wait, they got them when Puerto Ricans were forced to serve in the US Military.

You see, this is like the gangsters in the 1930s selling "protection" to small businesses or they'd blow up their little stores, or a man making a child with a woman and not wanting to marry her. Please forgive my analogy but... why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? Well, America... it's time to put up !!!

 


donjibaro@gmail.com


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