It is sad to think that after a century we continue to be stuck in a pond, as Manuel Zeno Gandía points out when publishing his book «The Pond» in 1894; but even sadder is to think that this pond that Manuel describes in his book has turned into an ocean of ponds. Puerto Rico is drowning in an ocean of ponds. «What is a pond? It is a stagnation of dirty water, water that does not run, where a crowd of empty static beings live, beings that do not know moral nor faith, beings that live dying». The agriculture sector is practically inexistent in Puerto Rico, just as products like sugar canes and coffee are no longer a worthy representation of our island. We have let rot mostly everything that identified us and now we have identity issues, which we blame on the North Americans. Well, let me tell you that the ones to blame are ourselves for having prefer the «American Dream» instead of fighting to keep the things that define our identity.
Our identity is defined by events such as «The Night of San Juan» or «The Feasts of the Street», which we celebrate with a lot of enthusiasm, but whereas a great majority of people do not have the slightest idea of these events’ origin. The saddest part is not that they do not know the origin, but that in order to show with pride our identity we leave the beaches and streets filled with trash…to prove how fierce we are….as spoiled children…for what? Call attention? Perhaps we suffer so much of identity problems that we have to behave like adolescents in puberty? I am not referring about all Puerto Ricans, but a great majority has decided to adopt this «whatever= don’t care» attitude. So you are meaning to tell me that you don’t care that…
- annually 1 million Puerto Ricans abandon their island for a better future
- drug related crime and unnecessary violence continues to increase (around 26.2 murders per 100,000 residents, as well as only a 40% of the working age population in on the formal labor force)
- to live off of the government (around 670,000 families in Puerto Rico use coupons)
- the most you aspire is a retail job for a minimum of 7 dollars per hour
- you spend so much money on education to not be able to find a job related with your field of studies
- you have to abandon your island and leave behind your family because economically you need a salary that can pay for your debts or want a better future for your children
- millionaires come to our island to invest in multimillionaire/billionaire projects claiming that they want to «save our island»
- we live in a hypocrite democracy
- political parties and their interests run our island
- from the 78 municipalities, 40 are facing bankruptcy issues
- the government mismanages their funds and the people have to pay more in taxes to «pitch» in with this crisis…
Shamefully there are a lot of problems that we are currently facing….but the «whatever» attitude from the citizens of this «Pond» is the primary cause as to why we currently find ourselves drowning in it. How do we get out of this «Pond»? Well, look….how about we start by the people saying «Enough!»?
We go to the US Congress and plead for them to take action, we go to the United Nations and plead for them to help us….but we forget to plead and ask for help from the most important individual to this equation….the Puerto Rican. We are the most important piece to this puzzle. Without us, the rest of the organizations, cultures and etc. are nothing. Many say that there is no money to act, but I am a firm believer that more than money what we currently need is the unity and willpower of the people, in summary: social capital. I know my island can get out of this «Pond», but in order to do so we need to unite for a common well being. Forget about the government, let’s take responsibility for our actions and act for a better Puerto Rico. Who says I?
References:
http://www.primerahora.com/noticias/puerto-rico/nota/seagravalacondiciondeloscuerposdeagua-1090988/
http://www.startribune.com/director-of-troubled-puerto-rico-public-power-company-quits/309400191/
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