Puerto rico to decide status............... (high school, college, move)
U.S. TerritoriesPuerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, etc.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Ah but you see, you can't empower the "plebe" by educating them about these pragmatic realities. You have to insist on their addiction to folklore and a false sense of national identity. One which doesn't put food on the table or empower their children to aspire to the pursuit of happiness; you know.. that pesky "yankee" social value. No, instead you should eat more "arroz con habichuelas", ridicule your English learning neighbors and classmates, vote in local TV personalities for political office, all the while decrying the lack of economic opportunities and high cost of living/crime and low quality of life. In essence, getting paid in sunshine for your ignorance.
Central Florida isn't a floodplain for dispossessed unskilled, unjustifiably angry, assimilation-averse Puerto Ricans for no reason, you know. You want to talk about independence? The difference between PR and every other Caribbean country is that PR has a legal avenue to shed population. That's it. You close the airport and watch PR turn to Haiti. Depopulation is an ugly little truth the pro-independence folk will never tackle intelligently nor would they want to. You can't eat the Olympics Im afraid.
PR is, until further notice, a floating colony by choice. Militarily irrelevant (since the Vieques debacle) and without an economic driver to viably sustain the swelling population that yielded strictly and solely from an almost century of federal transfers (ergo artificial economy). A sweat-under-the-pectorals version of Disney World. A cardboard façade intent on making the preservation of Cinderellas historical wardrobe a more pressing matter than the recognition that they live in a freggin' artificial construct in the first place and people need to eat up in here!
Excellent post.
The Puerto Rican independence movement is very much like Alex Salmond and the Scottish National Party. All emotion and no logic. They cling to past history instead of looking at the world as it is in 2012. The difference is that less than 10% of Puerto Ricans support independence, while in Scotland about 35% support independence. Hell Alex Salmond's new idea is to bus 16 year olds right from screenings of "Braveheart" to the polling stations for the 2014 independence referendum ...
What a stupid statement. Where shall we begin, oh ya, Puerto Ricans (not one word by the way) ARE Americans for starters. That's like me saying since I'm a MA native, "I'm a Bay Stater first and an American second" Ridiculous!
Wrong again. YOU are a second class citizen, which is sad since being Puerto Rican make you a REAL American and not a convert. People who come to this country become citizens, refuse to talk English, refuse to assimilate ARE second class and always will be. Haven't you ever noticed the stereotype immigrant jobs are always filled with the new arrivals that can't speak or refuse to speak English or refuse to become an American? I'm 100% for people coming to this country and becoming Americans for a better life, but DO IT! If Puerto Rico is so great, why do so many move? Maybe when PR starts acting like a United State, it will be treated as such and officially get that title.
IMO the Puerto Rican pride is really no different from the absurd "Texasness" that many Texans emulate. Every state and territory has it's own unique culture and identity. There is no singular monolithic "American culture". For what it's worth several states have foreign languages as one of their official languages alongside English (New Mexico and Hawaii are two examples).
Puerto Rico's problems are a mix of culture/way of life (Hindsight touched on this as well) and the fact that it remains a territory instead of a full fledged state. Statehood wouldent solve the problems overnight but it would go a long way towards improving things.
What a stupid statement. Where shall we begin, oh ya, Puerto Ricans (not one word by the way) ARE Americans for starters. That's like me saying since I'm a MA native, "I'm a Bay Stater first and an American second" Ridiculous!
Wrong again. YOU are a second class citizen, which is sad since being Puerto Rican make you a REAL American and not a convert. People who come to this country become citizens, refuse to talk English, refuse to assimilate ARE second class and always will be. Haven't you ever noticed the stereotype immigrant jobs are always filled with the new arrivals that can't speak or refuse to speak English or refuse to become an American? I'm 100% for people coming to this country and becoming Americans for a better life, but DO IT! If Puerto Rico is so great, why do so many move? Maybe when PR starts acting like a United State, it will be treated as such and officially get that title.
Hope you never get elected or appointed to any seat of government.
Oh indeed. Maslow Hierarchy of Needs. Poor people need to eat and hussle before they can pay attention to aesthetics. This is proof positive Puerto Rico, arroz con gandules and all, is a culture of poverty and anti-intellectualism. The young, upward mobile and educated leave the island, period dot. The riff raff remains. I don't take this accusation lightly, I have plenty of high school classmates hussling to survive down there, many with children by now, many with a college education no less, so it pains me to see them so stuck. They would offer up some level of defense for living in PR, mostly circumscribed around elements of folklore and weather (painfully predictable and vacuous), but privately they would love to get the heck out to a more americanized construct of civil order. It's actually funny to watch attempts to model suburbanization in Puerto Rico. They end up looking like American oil company employee Fortified Compounds in Saudi Arabia, a la the movie "The Kingdom". This is in a US territory no less. It's pitiful and beyond extraneous for somebody with options (i.e. a US Passport). Meh.
It sucks how much you tell it how it is, but it's the truth. I love going to graduate school here, and I was drunk off the "unique culture", beautiful surroundings, etc. my first year as someone who studied, partied and explored the place...until this semester when I started working and looking at career prospects. Even if I came here as an outsider, I will be among the legions of heartbroken university graduates who "choose" to leave the island in order to cut it and live a sustainable life with real options and living wages. I don't think a change in the status (in either direction) will resolve the real issues, it's a matter of living on an extremely crowded island and all of the negative aspects of the "paradise" we call the Caribbean. The very rich here will keep on enjoying their wealth, and the poor will remain poor, but the middle class, "bread and butter" of a tax base will continue to board planes with tears in their eyes knowing that they indefinitely have to part with their homeland.
What a stupid statement. Where shall we begin, oh ya, Puerto Ricans (not one word by the way) ARE Americans for starters. That's like me saying since I'm a MA native, "I'm a Bay Stater first and an American second" Ridiculous!
Wrong again. YOU are a second class citizen, which is sad since being Puerto Rican make you a REAL American and not a convert. People who come to this country become citizens, refuse to talk English, refuse to assimilate ARE second class and always will be. Haven't you ever noticed the stereotype immigrant jobs are always filled with the new arrivals that can't speak or refuse to speak English or refuse to become an American? I'm 100% for people coming to this country and becoming Americans for a better life, but DO IT! If Puerto Rico is so great, why do so many move? Maybe when PR starts acting like a United State, it will be treated as such and officially get that title.
WoW your a M@SShole huh? Its people like you that made me move to PR. I lived in Mass for 3 yrs and could not deal with the racism anymore.
I for one hope that PR does not become a state. It will not help these people out in any way. They are who they are and will never change. The island gets a lot of money for the US and has alot of the same goverment programs, but they have not changed. Do they take advantage of them? Yes, but it does not change anything about who they are.
just my .02
Last edited by ExBmWeX; 01-30-2012 at 12:46 AM..
Reason: because i want to
IMO the Puerto Rican pride is really no different from the absurd "Texasness" that many Texans emulate. Every state and territory has it's own unique culture and identity. There is no singular monolithic "American culture". For what it's worth several states have foreign languages as one of their official languages alongside English (New Mexico and Hawaii are two examples).
Puerto Rico's problems are a mix of culture/way of life (Hindsight touched on this as well) and the fact that it remains a territory instead of a full fledged state. Statehood wouldent solve the problems overnight but it would go a long way towards improving things.
No Texans say they are Texans first. You have used them as an example several times in this thread. They are probably one of the most patriotic of states.
Every state does not have their own culture and identity. Some things are more popular in some states than others but that does not make it an unique culture.
There is no official language in the U.S. A few state officials passing some mean nothing law does not change this. All 4 Republican candidates ARE in favor of an official language. ENGLISH.
Multiculturalism does not work. Look at Europe and it's problems. Look at our southwest. To be American means to jump into the melting pot and forget your ethnicity. Its fine to go to a festival 2 or 3 times a year. You can sing a song, do a dance, and eat the food. After that it is over.
The only thing holding back PR from any relevant change is the status option. Until that is changed it will be held hostage and stagnant forever...with each party spending all their time villainizing the other, undoing everything the prior administration put in place, and ignoring all the things that matter: economy, jobs, reforms, technology, infrastructure and investment.
I really don't care at this point whether PR pursues independence (which will not doubt be with strings attached to the US), or statehood. I just want them to decide on one and move forward and start rebuilding the country and economy.
If we continue to choose the status-quo, PR will remain stagnant and an island for the destitute, the small politically connected/elite, and tourists....the failed state that it is today. At this rate..all PRs of any means will be living in Florida within the next decade, and the island will become nothing more than a holding cell for destitute PRs and Dominicans with, of course, a marginal tourist strip which will become increasingly inconsequential and unattractive as compared to better caribbean resorts and islands.
Deciding the political status of PR is the only way to move forward. Over the past 50 years, PR has been held hostage by 3 rival parties each wanting a different future for the island..and every new party in office reverses everything in the past 4 year and starts from scratch. There is a reason why the 3 parties in PR are statehood, independence, and commonwealth...it is the only thing that matters, petty bickering is the norm, and everything else (like the economy!) takes a back seat.
Until this is resolved, PR will be in limbo forever, stagnant and irrelevant. I personally am for independence, as I will always choose freedom instead of a master. Unfortunately, PR has never been free and has been trained (brainwashed) for 500 years to cling to their master for fear of the world ending. Keeping Commonwealth status means nothing will ever change, and PR will sink further and further....so it's really a choice of Independence and Statehood.
And because of PRs complete dependence on the US for anything and everything, statehood will be the choice. Whether the US wants PR as a state is another story altogether, but hopefully independence or statehood will be chosen and we can all move forward. I don't care which at this point..but we have to work towards one or the other...and move forward and word towards a unified goal.
I can only hope and pray that they go for independence and the US Congress I'm sure would go along. I for one want no ties to PR after that. They are a spanish culture and should remain so. It's funny, we had a civil engineer move here and start working in our office. He is very lucky cause thru some mistake of history he has a US passport (you know congress granting PR citizenship). Anyway, the guy can hardly speak english. Does PR even give a crap about learning the language of the country for which they carry a passport? I find this despicable. Why isn't english taught there in every grade so that people who finish high school and college there can at least speak a bit of english. No, they'd rather have all that "spanish is our heritage" crap. That is why I consider PR foreign.
I can only hope and pray that they go for independence and the US Congress I'm sure would go along. I for one want no ties to PR after that. They are a spanish culture and should remain so. It's funny, we had a civil engineer move here and start working in our office. He is very lucky cause thru some mistake of history he has a US passport (you know congress granting PR citizenship). Anyway, the guy can hardly speak english. Does PR even give a crap about learning the language of the country for which they carry a passport? I find this despicable. Why isn't english taught there in every grade so that people who finish high school and college there can at least speak a bit of english. No, they'd rather have all that "spanish is our heritage" crap. That is why I consider PR foreign.
Have you ever even been to the island?
Thousands of Puerto Ricans have died fighting our wars. 400,000 served this nation. Isent that good enough for you? Just because someone isent White and of Western European descent does not mean that they cannot be a good American. Puerto Ricans have their own culture ... but so does every state and territory. Puerto Ricans are unique ... so are Hawaiians ... should we dump them too?
I can only hope and pray that they go for independence and the US Congress I'm sure would go along. I for one want no ties to PR after that. They are a spanish culture and should remain so. It's funny, we had a civil engineer move here and start working in our office. He is very lucky cause thru some mistake of history he has a US passport (you know congress granting PR citizenship). Anyway, the guy can hardly speak english. Does PR even give a crap about learning the language of the country for which they carry a passport? I find this despicable.Why isn't english taught there in every grade so that people who finish high school and college there can at least speak a bit of english.No, they'd rather have all that "spanish is our heritage" crap. That is why I consider PR foreign.
(the guy can hardly speak english) +(I find this despicable.)
That "the guy" can hardly speak English is indeed deplorable and despicable. But surely, that does not apply to every single person who graduated from HS and college while living in Puerto Rico.
(Why isn't english taught there in every grade so that people who finish high school and college there can at least speak a bit of english.)
I graduated from HS and went to college in Puerto Rico in the 70's. Back then, English was taught all the way thru 12th grade. One was expected to solidly comprehend English prior to entering college. Why? Because most college level text books were written in English. Not sure if such is still the case, but so it was back in my generation.
(No, they'd rather have all that "spanish is our heritage")
Hey buddy. . .it is what it is! Spanish does happen to be our heritage and - in most cases - a third of our cultural DNA. It's an undeniable fact, no less deniable than Canada's French speaking Quebecois. That our heritage is of Spanish origin does in no way, shape, or form dilute our United States Citizenship!
Were I to have it my way, I'd favor, expect and demand that every single Puerto Rican be Spanish/English bilingual. . .and most of us are! That your company hired a less-than English proficient person speaks volumes about their hiring practices.
Come on papito lindo. . .smile for us!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Its people like you that made me move to PR. I lived in Mass for 3 yrs and could not deal with the racism anymore.
