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Post by Admin on Sept 27, 2017 16:35:26 GMT
Is Puerto Rico still a victim of colonial neglect? Read the following article in the attached hyperlink. Please note that this is an op-ed, there is an intentional opinion embedded in the article. The following explains how you will be assessed: 1. Make at least one original post that addresses the guiding question. • Compose a response (around 200-300 words) • Use specific evidence from the reading in your response 2. Pose at least one question for discussion that would invite a peer to respond at the end of your original post 3. Respond to at least two (2) of your peers directly Scroll down to the bottom and click "Reply to Topic"
Enter your name where it says guest name (USE LAST NAME)
Type your "original post" and click create post
Next,
Instead of hitting the "Quote" button, simply use @thestudents name to signify your reply, this way we will not take up so much space (Thank you Emily Sarver for this idea)
All ground rules from in class discussion apply to the discussion board. You need not all agree with one another; however, academically present your stance.
Link to Article: Read Both
www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/9/26/16365994/hurricane-maria-2017-puerto-rico-san-juan-humanitarian-disaster-electricty-fuel-flights-facts
www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/09/27/puerto-rico-is-still-a-victim-of-colonial-neglect/?utm_term=.9fff38df9960
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Post by Olivia Girdwood on Sept 27, 2017 22:59:23 GMT
Puerto Rico is one of many colonies that have been neglected around the world, but in this case it is by Americans. People born in Puerto Rico are actually American citizens, which many Americans did not know including myself. This is one example of neglect because people in the country, who share citizenship with the Puerto Rican, did not even know who their fellow citizens are because it is not mentioned in everyday talk. Also, in light of recent events, the amount of time it took or anyone to even think about sending aid to our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico was longer than that of sending supplies to Texas, by a good amount. It is seen all over social media raise money for Texas, donate supplies to go to Texas to help out, but nowhere have I seen anything like that for Puerto Rico. This is another form of neglect, they are not getting near as much attention as Texas, and they seem to be more devastated than Texas. I mean look at the part of the country that did not get any aid, or even have any outside contact, in one corner of Puerto Rico. Some of these people do not have lean drinking water and many do not have electricity. Puerto Rico is in a desperate state, and their President is not working at any rate of quickness, it appears, to help them.
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Post by Makayla Rieder on Sept 27, 2017 23:49:44 GMT
Puerto Rico is most definitely still dealing with colonial neglect. Just because they are receiving relief supplies from the US does not mean that they are not still being neglected. It is just common sense that everyone should be able to receive relief from something as catastrophic as not 1, but 2 massive hurricanes. Saying that they are not still being neglected because they are getting help is like saying that a child is not being neglected because the parents still helped them up when they fell. Just the simple fact that Puerto Rico has no political power whatsoever, even just voting for the president, says that they are in the same position as any colony or group of people that have not had any say and wanted Independence. As the article states, only about half of the adult population of the U.S. knew that Puerto Ricans were considered U.S. citizens and the ones who didn't know thought that Puerto Rico should be left alone to fend for themselves after a tragedy such as this. People "should" be more educated on things such as this. Puerto Rico is a part of the U.S., so they "should" get the same treatment as the states on the mainland. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, so why do only half of us know about it? Puerto Ricans must be covered under the U.S. Constitution if they are citizens, so why don't they get to participate in things such as "fair and free elections", and what other constitutional rights do they not receive because they live on an island and not the mainland?
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Post by Laura Gutauskas on Sept 28, 2017 0:28:43 GMT
Colonial neglect was partly meant to be a positive reinforcement for lesser strict policies to allow said colony to basically “do what they want.” Although, for present day regulations, it’s not going down the right route for Puerto Rico since they cannot participate in any sort of fair elections as citizens and are given no aid for their misfortunes in their economy despite being one of us. One of our own commonwealth’s is being neglected similarly to the extent that Venezuela is by their authoritarian leader, which is insanely unacceptable. “Blame” for the destruction was pushed toward debt and dysfunction of the island, although the same issues lie in the United States and are not taken care of. The difference is, something has actually been done for those further affected by the previous hurricanes that hit the continental U.S. and no fingers were pointed at our underlying problems. Not only is the Trump administration deserting them, but even the Puerto Rican officials are not allowing or providing contact for help. They shouldn’t be under us if we aren’t going to assist them in times of need. Puerto Rico is apart of our nation and needs to be respected as such. They’ve been left at such disadvantages that most residents have moved to the U.S. to reap the true benefits of being citizens rather than just as outcasts. Maria kicked them while they were already down and and we’re leaving them in the rubble, literally; it’s almost entirely uninhabitable at this point due to such mass destruction. Also, upon searching only “is puerto rico…” in Google, the first result is “is puerto rico part of the us,” further proving our current lack of knowledge.
My question:
(There was apparently an election held in June in Puerto Rico regarding this) After the event of the hurricane, do you think Puerto Rico will still be considered for statehood?
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Post by Olivia Girdwood on Sept 28, 2017 12:15:48 GMT
Puerto Rico is most definitely still dealing with colonial neglect. Just because they are receiving relief supplies from the US does not mean that they are not still being neglected. It is just common sense that everyone should be able to receive relief from something as catastrophic as not 1, but 2 massive hurricanes. Saying that they are not still being neglected because they are getting help is like saying that a child is not being neglected because the parents still helped them up when they fell. Just the simple fact that Puerto Rico has no political power whatsoever, even just voting for the president, says that they are in the same position as any colony or group of people that have not had any say and wanted Independence. As the article states, only about half of the adult population of the U.S. knew that Puerto Ricans were considered U.S. citizens and the ones who didn't know thought that Puerto Rico should be left alone to fend for themselves after a tragedy such as this. People "should" be more educated on things such as this. Puerto Rico is a part of the U.S., so they "should" get the same treatment as the states on the mainland. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, so why do only half of us know about it? Puerto Ricans must be covered under the U.S. Constitution if they are citizens, so why don't they get to participate in things such as "fair and free elections", and what other constitutional rights do they not receive because they live on an island and not the mainland? I agree with you, but how do you think the country should go about educating the other U.S. citizens on things such as this? And what exactly do you consider things "such as this"? I love the fact that you included the statement comparing it to the child falling down, but Puerto Rico is still its own landform, shouldn't they have started to make their own government and think about fending for themselves by now? |
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Post by Olivia Girdwood on Sept 28, 2017 12:17:00 GMT
My question was:
Why has Puerto Rico not done anything about their situation? Why did they not come to our government and try to receive voting rights or any of the other rights of the people residing in the united states?
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Post by Olivia Girdwood on Sept 28, 2017 12:20:39 GMT
Puerto Rico is most definitely still dealing with colonial neglect. Just because they are receiving relief supplies from the US does not mean that they are not still being neglected. It is just common sense that everyone should be able to receive relief from something as catastrophic as not 1, but 2 massive hurricanes. Saying that they are not still being neglected because they are getting help is like saying that a child is not being neglected because the parents still helped them up when they fell. Just the simple fact that Puerto Rico has no political power whatsoever, even just voting for the president, says that they are in the same position as any colony or group of people that have not had any say and wanted Independence. As the article states, only about half of the adult population of the U.S. knew that Puerto Ricans were considered U.S. citizens and the ones who didn't know thought that Puerto Rico should be left alone to fend for themselves after a tragedy such as this. People "should" be more educated on things such as this. Puerto Rico is a part of the U.S., so they "should" get the same treatment as the states on the mainland. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, so why do only half of us know about it? Puerto Ricans must be covered under the U.S. Constitution if they are citizens, so why don't they get to participate in things such as "fair and free elections", and what other constitutional rights do they not receive because they live on an island and not the mainland? I agree with you, but how do you think the country should go about educating the other U.S. citizens on things such as this? And what exactly do you consider things "such as this"? I love the fact that you included the statement comparing it to the child falling down, but Puerto Rico is still its own landform, shouldn't they have started to make their own government and think about fending for themselves by now? One may think that if they are living in such poverty, the population which is bigger than 21 individual states in the U.S., someone would start a revolt to get their rights. |
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Post by Olivia Girdwood on Sept 28, 2017 12:24:02 GMT
Colonial neglect was partly meant to be a positive reinforcement for lesser strict policies to allow said colony to basically “do what they want.” Although, for present day regulations, it’s not going down the right route for Puerto Rico since they cannot participate in any sort of fair elections as citizens and are given no aid for their misfortunes in their economy despite being one of us. One of our own commonwealth’s is being neglected similarly to the extent that Venezuela is by their authoritarian leader, which is insanely unacceptable. “Blame” for the destruction was pushed toward debt and dysfunction of the island, although the same issues lie in the United States and are not taken care of. The difference is, something has actually been done for those further affected by the previous hurricanes that hit the continental U.S. and no fingers were pointed at our underlying problems. Not only is the Trump administration deserting them, but even the Puerto Rican officials are not allowing or providing contact for help. They shouldn’t be under us if we aren’t going to assist them in times of need. Puerto Rico is apart of our nation and needs to be respected as such. They’ve been left at such disadvantages that most residents have moved to the U.S. to reap the true benefits of being citizens rather than just as outcasts. Maria kicked them while they were already down and and we’re leaving them in the rubble, literally; it’s almost entirely uninhabitable at this point due to such mass destruction. Also, upon searching only “is puerto rico…” in Google, the first result is “is puerto rico part of the us,” further proving our current lack of knowledge. My question: (There was apparently an election held in June in Puerto Rico regarding this) After the event of the hurricane, do you think Puerto Rico will still be considered for statehood? When was Puerto Rico even considered for statehood? I honestly do not know, but in light of our country it is doubtful. America is a fairly lazy country, if Puerto Rico were to become a state we would have to change the flag, a change would have to be made to the states song, and a few other entities would have to be changed to 51 states. also, it would cause more financial issues than the country already has. They would have to take even more money out of taxpayers pockets to pay for the restoration of the entire land mass after these hurricanes. So no, Puerto Rico will not be considered for statehood. |
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Post by Makayla Rieder on Sept 28, 2017 21:19:27 GMT
Colonial neglect was partly meant to be a positive reinforcement for lesser strict policies to allow said colony to basically “do what they want.” Although, for present day regulations, it’s not going down the right route for Puerto Rico since they cannot participate in any sort of fair elections as citizens and are given no aid for their misfortunes in their economy despite being one of us. One of our own commonwealth’s is being neglected similarly to the extent that Venezuela is by their authoritarian leader, which is insanely unacceptable. “Blame” for the destruction was pushed toward debt and dysfunction of the island, although the same issues lie in the United States and are not taken care of. The difference is, something has actually been done for those further affected by the previous hurricanes that hit the continental U.S. and no fingers were pointed at our underlying problems. Not only is the Trump administration deserting them, but even the Puerto Rican officials are not allowing or providing contact for help. They shouldn’t be under us if we aren’t going to assist them in times of need. Puerto Rico is apart of our nation and needs to be respected as such. They’ve been left at such disadvantages that most residents have moved to the U.S. to reap the true benefits of being citizens rather than just as outcasts. Maria kicked them while they were already down and and we’re leaving them in the rubble, literally; it’s almost entirely uninhabitable at this point due to such mass destruction. Also, upon searching only “is puerto rico…” in Google, the first result is “is puerto rico part of the us,” further proving our current lack of knowledge. My question: (There was apparently an election held in June in Puerto Rico regarding this) After the event of the hurricane, do you think Puerto Rico will still be considered for statehood? If they were being previously being considered for statehood, then a cry for help in a time of need should not change that. While it will take lots of time, effort, and support to build them back up, they should not be blamed or taken out of consideration for something that they cannot control. I like how you added about the "blame" being pushed on them from their debt. Right now the Puerto Ricans need help and pushing blame onto a group of people in their time of need is stooping kind of low. |
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Post by Makayla Rieder on Sept 28, 2017 21:37:46 GMT
Puerto Rico is one of many colonies that have been neglected around the world, but in this case it is by Americans. People born in Puerto Rico are actually American citizens, which many Americans did not know including myself. This is one example of neglect because people in the country, who share citizenship with the Puerto Rican, did not even know who their fellow citizens are because it is not mentioned in everyday talk. Also, in light of recent events, the amount of time it took or anyone to even think about sending aid to our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico was longer than that of sending supplies to Texas, by a good amount. It is seen all over social media raise money for Texas, donate supplies to go to Texas to help out, but nowhere have I seen anything like that for Puerto Rico. This is another form of neglect, they are not getting near as much attention as Texas, and they seem to be more devastated than Texas. I mean look at the part of the country that did not get any aid, or even have any outside contact, in one corner of Puerto Rico. Some of these people do not have lean drinking water and many do not have electricity. Puerto Rico is in a desperate state, and their President is not working at any rate of quickness, it appears, to help them. I'm adding her question so that everyone can see it on the same post "Why has Puerto Rico not done anything about their situation? Why did they not come to our government and try to receive voting rights or any of the other rights of the people residing in the united states?" Puerto Rico may have just been happy with just being left to do their own thing. The American colonies seemed just fine with being left alone until they weren't anymore and were forced to pay higher taxes. The Puerto Ricans might have been good with being it until something tragic like these hurricanes happens and nobody reaches out to help. The people of Puerto Rico had the basic necessities that it needed, so maybe they thought "why try to fix something that isn't broken?" Also, based on our voting system, they wouldn't have made much of a dent in any elections anyway because they have a fairly small population of only about 3.4 million people, so they would only receive about 6 electoral votes, which is very small compared to California's 55 or Texas' 38, so maybe they figured that it wasn't worth the effort. |
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Post by Makayla Rieder on Sept 28, 2017 21:50:20 GMT
Puerto Rico is most definitely still dealing with colonial neglect. Just because they are receiving relief supplies from the US does not mean that they are not still being neglected. It is just common sense that everyone should be able to receive relief from something as catastrophic as not 1, but 2 massive hurricanes. Saying that they are not still being neglected because they are getting help is like saying that a child is not being neglected because the parents still helped them up when they fell. Just the simple fact that Puerto Rico has no political power whatsoever, even just voting for the president, says that they are in the same position as any colony or group of people that have not had any say and wanted Independence. As the article states, only about half of the adult population of the U.S. knew that Puerto Ricans were considered U.S. citizens and the ones who didn't know thought that Puerto Rico should be left alone to fend for themselves after a tragedy such as this. People "should" be more educated on things such as this. Puerto Rico is a part of the U.S., so they "should" get the same treatment as the states on the mainland. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, so why do only half of us know about it? Puerto Ricans must be covered under the U.S. Constitution if they are citizens, so why don't they get to participate in things such as "fair and free elections", and what other constitutional rights do they not receive because they live on an island and not the mainland? I agree with you, but how do you think the country should go about educating the other U.S. citizens on things such as this? And what exactly do you consider things "such as this"? I love the fact that you included the statement comparing it to the child falling down, but Puerto Rico is still its own landform, shouldn't they have started to make their own government and think about fending for themselves by now? While i agree that Puerto Rico is its own land and should know how to protect itself, they are an island and maybe they did have resources to defend themselves before and maybe they did have their own kind of government going on, but that was all (literally) swept away with the storms. They have no way to support themselves when everything is destroyed. Anyone would need outside help when they can't help themselves. Addressing the first part of your question, Puerto Rico should be displayed more as a US territory so that people realize that it is one. People don't know these things because it's simply not talked about enough. |
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Post by Admin on Sept 28, 2017 22:34:37 GMT
Nice job posting early! Way to set a good example for the rest of the class!  |
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Post by Ricky Mineo on Sept 29, 2017 0:10:11 GMT
Puerto Rico is obviously experiencing colonial neglect. When about half of the United States citizens do not even realize that Puerto Ricans are fellow Americans, that goes to show the severity of neglect. Puerto Rico is in dire need of support from the United States and other countries as well at the moment and will probably take a few years to rebuild. After Puerto Rico rebuilds, they've been neglected for so long that it is essentially pointless to annex them because of all the changes that will need to be made and all the conflict that will arise because of it. Since it has less than half the income of Mississippi, which is the poorest state, we should help them rebuild and to become stronger. After they rebuild and are stable, we should just let them become their own country. The question I ask is will Puerto Rico ever recover strong enough and become stable enough to become its own country?
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Post by Laura Gutauskas on Sept 29, 2017 2:51:46 GMT
The question I ask is will Puerto Rico ever recover strong enough and become stable enough to become its own country? If the U.S. manages to get their head out of their rear end and actually give Puerto Rico some proper assistance, not just in a short time frame but over a gradual long-term period, this may not be TOO far fetched of an idea. The main concern is that America would reap no benefit in providing for them for such a length of time, and that there would be no point in just "letting them go." Hypothesizing that they get back on their feet from our help and we suddenly leave them to their own thing, we would be putting a dent in our economy since no resources would be directly coming in from them compared to when they were under us. They would also have to rewrite their own form of a constitution and there's a risk of Puerto Rico turning into something other than democracy, which the U.S. doesn't like. I guess I contradicted myself but Puerto Ricky would basically have to have its own revolution for it to be successfully independent. |
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Post by Admin on Sept 29, 2017 11:03:41 GMT
Please Remember:
1.)make sure Original Posts are closer to 250-300 words to meet the minimum requirements for credit.
2.)To ensure this, first type your response in a Google Doc, click the drop down of "tools" and click on word count. Then paste it in the text box here on the discussion board.
3.) Make sure you are referencing the article or another article to give the response evidence.
I am including a post made by Derek VanDyke from 2nd period. He did a little extra work and brings a fantastic added element to the conversation-
It is quite obvious that Puerto Rico is experiencing colonial neglect.I feel like the severity of the neglect is being a little over hyped. Love him or hate him but a lot has been put on Trump that it is his fault for apparently taking to long to aid in this natural disaster. This topic has taken time for the news to report on because of more popular issues like the NFL protests. BUT it has not taken time to respond. There was pleanty of immediate relief by the national guard. The head of the National Guard on Tuesday said "there has been no delay in federal help to Peurto Rico despite claims from lawmakers that the territory was not receiving adequate help." General Joseph Lengyel "said he has not seen any political posturing that would deny or slow aid to the U.S. territory". However this is the National Guard it is moments like this that they are there for so it is expected that they respond quickly. It does seem though that the quantity of supplies being sent over is not enough and more could be sent. The help is there just not enough supplies yet. With only 10 hospitals running resources are getting used rapidly. "Two people died yesterday because there was no diesel fuel where they were". It is hard to believe with the way we have all grown up in the states that two people lost their lives because of lack of diesel fuel. It is crazy to think that I have that simple resource that could of saved two lives sitting in my garage right now! The islands debt was bad enough but after this disaster it hasn't pretty much put put Puerto Rico in the dirt. After doing further research and fact checking, it is said that vox is left wing. This could have altered the beneficial facts like our National Guards immediate response. Also after doing more research this is not the first time the United States has been criticized for taking to much time to respond after a hurricane. It was complained that in 2005 relief efforts took to long after hurricane Katrina which hit in the states let alone an island that's much harder to get to. Forming an opinion is hard in today's political topics because there is hardly anywhere you can find news that is not one sided.
What is the point of rebuilding? What if this happens all over again next hurricane season?
Link to hurricane Katrina article: mg.co.za/article/2005-09-03-katrina-why-did-help-take-so-long-to-arrive
Link to fact check for vox: mediabiasfactcheck.com/vox/
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