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Martinique and Guadalupe are overseas departments of France - the direct equivalent of a state of the United States.
English the language of business, this is an indisputable fact. Speaking English is a necessity in the modern world.
I'm from the Caribbean, I know what Martinique and Guadeloupe are thank you very much.
Most Modern countries don't have very many English speakers, despite the seeming ubiquity of English in the media. Europe is the wealthiest continent on earth and only about 50% of the population of the EU speaks English, and that includes the UK and Ireland.
The truth is, unless you work in international business (which the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of people don't, let's be real), computer science or tourism, you most likely don't need to speak English to get by. English is absolutely not a necessity in the modern world otherwise. Hell, there are people in AMERICA who get by without speaking English, why would someone elsewhere need it?
Quote:
Originally Posted by BOS2IAD
Did you know that the 2012 Plebescite election on Puerto Rico's status, statehood garnered 61% of the vote? Did you also know that over the years, the vote for independence has continually shrunk?
What makes you think that there is a large number of Puerto Ricans that want independence? Or is it you that wants it for the Island?
I never said a large number of Puerto Ricans wanted independence, only that Puerto Rico was forced to become part of the US against it's will.
As for this alleged plebicite,
1) 61% of the voters who responded to the question chose statehood. That isn't the same as 61% of voters. A quarter chose not to answer the question, meaning that only 46% of the total voters actually supported statehood
2) An actual referrendum on statehood wasn't held, it was simply a question on a ballot.
Last edited by lexdiamondz1902; 04-09-2015 at 08:36 PM..
There was some truth to it. People should be happy that audits are uncovering these things and that rules are changing to eliminate flawed interpretations and loopholes.
The OIG report on this:
http://oig.ssa.gov/sites/default/fil...2-13-13062.pdf
SSA is preparing to issue an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the need to update the medical-vocational guidelines. This process should lead to changes in how the Agency considers factors that may affect a claimant’s ability to adjust to other work in the economy. SSA may also want to review other interpretations of the grid rules. For example, a U.S. District Court’s earlier judgment, upheld by a U.S. Court of Appeals, found that, for the most part, it is the ability to communicate in Spanish, not English, that is vocationally important in Puerto Rico.
Last edited by Ibginnie; 04-09-2015 at 10:06 PM..
Reason: deleted quoted post
Hell, there are people in AMERICA who get by without speaking English, why would someone elsewhere need it?
I worked with a guy whose last name was Hernandez. He would not claim to be Hispanic, Latino, Chicano or any other label folks want to assign.
He proudly spoke of his family. Six generations in Texas. His grandmother was from the Rio Grande Valley. She only spoke Spanish, having never needed to learn English.
1. Your example here makes zero sense. 99% of Puerto Ricans have never renounced their US citizenship because what would they be citizens of if they did? That's not a metric for whether or not Puerto Ricans have ever been interested in independence.
Furthermore, the first elected governing body in Puerto Rico, the House of Delegates, DID support independence in the early 20th century and were subsequently overridden by the US government and had US citizenship FORCED upon them.
2. I don't think you know what force is...as for Puerto Rico getting a bad deal, PR is worse off than every state in the US, and it's economy is in shambles. Compare that to places like the Bahamas, Barbados, Guadeloupe or Martinique and yes, Puerto Rico is getting a terrible deal.
3. Again, you sound pretty silly here. English is an important language to learn in a Global economy, but the overwhelming majority of people don't participate in a "global" economy. When was the last time you had to make a major deal with someone in Shanghai or Cape Town or Frankfurt? Probably never. Most people don't speak English and get by FINE.
As for blaming PR education on liberals...PR schools suck because PR is POOR. Has nothing to do with politics.
Also of note is the fact that the states with the worst educational outcomes are all Red states. Food for thought.
1) The first step of being independent from the U.S. is renouncing your U.S. CITIZENSHIP by the masses. Puerto Rico could do that in a democratic referendum or by mass protest. Puerto Ricans as a majority have NEVER DONE that. They have renounced independence by over 90% of the electorate in every democratic referendum done in the island.....maybe you missed those democratic referendums done in Puerto Rico or just plain ignored it.
2) The first elected governing body of Puerto Rico under U.S. Territory were the legislature and they were composed of the Republican party of Puerto Rico that favored statehood, The Federal Party which favored more autonomy under U.S. RULE (NOT the same as independence) which was founded and headed by Luis Munoz Rivera who went to the U.S. congress to fight for U.S. Citizenship for all Puerto Ricans,,,,that party changed its name to the UNION Party and that party was divided between statehood and independence within the party. You also had the Socialist Party of Puerto Rico under Santiago Iglesias who also favored statehood for Puerto Rico. The Socialist Party under Iglesias joined a coalition with the Republican Party of P.R. in the legislature and between both had the majority of the votes in the legislature in the 20's and 30's until the Popular Party got the majority in the 40's.....the Popular Party was not a independent party, they were PRO U.S. CITIZENSHIP and PRO U.S. Territory..............for you to say that when the U.S. granted U.S. CITIZENSHIP to all Puerto Ricans in 1917 the majority in the legislature rejected it, ITS A LIE!...The independence movement in P.R. were NEVER a MAJORITY in the local government under U.S. RULE.......look at the parties in the legislature in 1917. The majority favored U.S. CITIZENSHIP.....Luis Munoz Rivera fought for it as Resident Commissioner in the U.S. Congress.
3) If you don't dominate the ENGLISH language even in Puerto Rico you are limiting your opportunities in the global economy and jobs .....the good paying jobs in Puerto Rico demand it, nevermind if you decide to leave the island for the states which most Puerto Ricans go for better job opportunities, dominating the English language is a must not an option.....you sound silly telling Puerto Ricans they don't need to speak English, that is a disservice and bad advice but you didn't follow your own advise, you speak and write English well......do what I say not what I do, huh?....
4) You are totally clueless about the public education in Puerto Rico. They get lots of money in federal and local funds. It has nothing to do with lack of money. The Public Schools in P.R. gets more funds than private schools but its the private schools in the island that are better. The problem is the politics in the island and that the system is too centralized and political and the teacher's union reject any type of reform. You know how hard is to FIRE a bad teacher in the Public schools in P.R.? its nearly impossible, the teacher has to basically rape a student top get fire, the rest of the mediocre teachers in the system are there just to get a check and retired. That's why the government in Puerto Rico doesn't have funds to pay all of their government employees......Puerto Rico has more government employees than the state of California....that's the problem, the math doesn't add up.
I'm half Puerto Rican and I went for 2 years in the public system in Puerto Rico in Bayamon. I have friends who are teachers in the public school system in the island and I'm very familiar with the root of the problems in the public education and the majority are caused by the local government, teacher's union and culture.
By the way I lived in Utah, Texas and North Carolina....I will take those states to live and raise a family than any liberal inner city......a food for thought for you!
Last edited by Hellion1999; 04-09-2015 at 10:51 PM..
The truth is, unless you work in international business (which the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of people don't, let's be real), computer science or tourism, you most likely don't need to speak English to get by. English is absolutely not a necessity in the modern world otherwise. Hell, there are people in AMERICA who get by without speaking English, why would someone elsewhere need it?
I never said a large number of Puerto Ricans wanted independence, only that Puerto Rico was forced to become part of the US against it's will.
As for this alleged plebicite,
1) 61% of the voters who responded to the question chose statehood. That isn't the same as 61% of voters. A quarter chose not to answer the question, meaning that only 46% of the total voters actually supported statehood
2) An actual referrendum on statehood wasn't held, it was simply a question on a ballot.
Sure, you can get by in Puerto Rico and U.S. mainland without speaking English but at what cost? MIN. WAGE jobs, manual labor jobs?....even people in India, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong speak English because that's where the jobs are at in the tech and financial world.....when you call any tech support for computer or software you are speaking with people from India......go ask them the difference in their country of speaking English and not speaking English in their job market.....that's the difference in living in poverty or not in their country.
Where do you get your history that the majority of Puerto Ricans were against Puerto Rico becoming a U.S. territory in 1898? the same place where you got the false information that in 1917 the Puerto Rican legislature rejected U.S. CITIZENSHIP? When its a recorded fact that the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico at the time Luis Munoz Rivera fought for it in the U.S. Congress and the majority in the legislature favored it.
1) The first step of being independent from the U.S. is renouncing your U.S. CITIZENSHIP by the masses. Puerto Rico could do that in a democratic referendum or by mass protest. Puerto Ricans as a majority have NEVER DONE that. They have renounced independence by over 90% of the electorate in every democratic referendum done in the island.....maybe you missed those democratic referendums done in Puerto Rico or just plain ignored it.
2) The first elected governing body of Puerto Rico under U.S. Territory were the legislature and they were composed of the Republican party of Puerto Rico that favored statehood, The Federal Party which favored more autonomy under U.S. RULE (NOT the same as independence) which was founded and headed by Luis Munoz Rivera who went to the U.S. congress to fight for U.S. Citizenship for all Puerto Ricans,,,,that party changed its name to the UNION Party and that party was divided between statehood and independence within the party. You also had the Socialist Party of Puerto Rico under Santiago Iglesias who also favored statehood for Puerto Rico. The Socialist Party under Iglesias joined a coalition with the Republican Party of P.R. in the legislature and between both had the majority of the votes in the legislature in the 20's and 30's until the Popular Party got the majority in the 40's.....the Popular Party was not a independent party, they were PRO U.S. CITIZENSHIP and PRO U.S. Territory..............for you to say that when the U.S. granted U.S. CITIZENSHIP to all Puerto Ricans in 1917 the majority in the legislature rejected it, ITS A LIE!...The independence movement in P.R. were NEVER a MAJORITY in the local government under U.S. RULE.......look at the parties in the legislature in 1917. The majority favored U.S. CITIZENSHIP.....Luis Munoz Rivera fought for it as Resident Commissioner in the U.S. Congress.
3) If you don't dominate the ENGLISH language even in Puerto Rico you are limiting your opportunities in the global economy and jobs .....the good paying jobs in Puerto Rico demand it, nevermind if you decide to leave the island for the states which most Puerto Ricans go for better job opportunities, dominating the English language is a must not an option.....you sound silly telling Puerto Ricans they don't need to speak English, that is a disservice and bad advice but you didn't follow your own advise, you speak and write English well......do what I say not what I do, huh?....
4) You are totally clueless about the public education in Puerto Rico. They get lots of money in federal and local funds. It has nothing to do with lack of money. The Public Schools in P.R. gets more funds than private schools but its the private schools in the island that are better. The problem is the politics in the island and that the system is too centralized and political and the teacher's union reject any type of reform. You know how hard is to FIRE a bad teacher in the Public schools in P.R.? its nearly impossible, the teacher has to basically rape a student top get fire, the rest of the mediocre teachers in the system are there just to get a check and retired. That's why the government in Puerto Rico doesn't have funds to pay all of their government employees......Puerto Rico has more government employees than the state of California....that's the problem, the math doesn't add up.
I'm half Puerto Rican and I went for 2 years in the public system in Puerto Rico in Bayamon. I have friends who are teachers in the public school system in the island and I'm very familiar with the root of the problems in the public education and the majority are caused by the local government, teacher's union and culture.
By the way I lived in Utah, Texas and North Carolina....I will take those states to live and raise a family than any liberal inner city......a food for thought for you!
1) More than likely plain ignored it or had no clue about it. Most Americans don't have a clue about us, and lump us in together with the Mexicans and think we're all the same.
2) I also just don't understand these mainlanders that just because we don't want to be a state now, doesn't mean we're not Americans. We may not pay federal income tax, but we pay more than 25% local income tax to make up for the fact that we don't send our money to the IRS. So, it's not like we're having our cake and eating it too like so many mainlanders think we are. We also pay Medicare and FICA taxes too.
3) I hate when people tell me that as well. It's insulting, frankly. I don't want to be looked at and treated like a zoo animal. I also support bilingualism in PR just as Quebec does. I love my mother tongue, but let's face it, most of the well paying jobs in PR have some connection to the mainland. Not learning at least functional English only holds people back.
4) This is very true, my relatives that stayed in PR went to private school and turned out good. That's not to say that public school kids all turn out bad. The school district where I lived in though, Carolina, ghetto as hell.
I don't get what's the reason for mentioning you're "half Puerto Rican". I don't even know what that means, does that mean I'm not Puerto Rican since I'm only European, even though I was born in PR, so have my family for the past 6 generations?
1) More than likely plain ignored it or had no clue about it. Most Americans don't have a clue about us, and lump us in together with the Mexicans and think we're all the same.
2) I also just don't understand these mainlanders that just because we don't want to be a state now, doesn't mean we're not Americans. We may not pay federal income tax, but we pay more than 25% local income tax to make up for the fact that we don't send our money to the IRS. So, it's not like we're having our cake and eating it too like so many mainlanders think we are. We also pay Medicare and FICA taxes too.
3) I hate when people tell me that as well. It's insulting, frankly. I don't want to be looked at and treated like a zoo animal. I also support bilingualism in PR just as Quebec does. I love my mother tongue, but let's face it, most of the well paying jobs in PR have some connection to the mainland. Not learning at least functional English only holds people back.
4) This is very true, my relatives that stayed in PR went to private school and turned out good. That's not to say that public school kids all turn out bad. The school district where I lived in though, Carolina, ghetto as hell.
I don't get what's the reason for mentioning you're "half Puerto Rican". I don't even know what that means, does that mean I'm not Puerto Rican since I'm only European, even though I was born in PR, so have my family for the past 6 generations?
Wasn't your mom from Austria or Belgium? Tho I get what you're saying about being full Puerto Rican since you were born there and "PR" ain't a race, like "Mexican" ain't a race.
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