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my FIL called me..said there was a fire at the plant in Aguirre..1.5 million people without power
they are trying to restore power first to hospitals, etc.
It is all just part of the Islands legacy and charm..It is just 'different' than anywhere else.
Puerto Rico me Encanta
More so than PR's current woes and state of affairs, what really stuns me is the mindset of many of today's isleños. It's a defeatist mindset wherein we've given up before we've even tried. It's a foreign mindset which I do not understand. This is not the place I was born in, nor the place I grew up in.
When I lived in PR, it felt like people and society in general just charged at problems, be it in a reckless face first form (a lo matacabro, as we use to say) or in measured/calculated form. Regardless of whether problems were charged at recklessly or in measured form, at least a first step was always taken whenever problems arose. Problems were faced and dealt with. It was going to get solved one way or another, a la buena o a la mala, period!
Now a days it seems like PR's current leaders and Citizens are unwilling to face the challenges and difficulties which come with problems. We seem to want the benefits of modernity [via "Free Association" with the USA] without paying the price of modernity. For example, people wanted potable water, but protested against El Super Tubo. People want cellphones, but protested against repeater towers in Moca. People want to exercise the right to buy goods, but do not want to deal with the tons of trash which naturally come with the purchasing power of the mighty US Dollar. Get the picture?
This is not the place I was born in, nor the place I grew up in, and is the reason why I have lost faith in us!
My parents are ever so slowly getting mentally ready for the eventual Florida relocation. It's gonna happen eventually, period dot. They are unfortunately tied to multiple real estate holdings and a rental side-gig my father has dabbled in for decades, in significant decline in the last couple of years due to the mass exodus. I've finally got him to openly admit to himself prices will never recover to the early 2000s highs and as depressing as that may be for them, they recognize it's not worth sinking with the island in the twilight of their lives, when they have a little grandson they want to make a more central part of this new chapter of their lives.
As such, I'm also aligning my family affairs up here to make an inconvenient and somewhat begrudged vocational change in my late 30s (which involves a paycut and a less steady industry, a scary proposition as a head of a young household) that would allow me to relocate to Florida and be closer to them when their eventual relocation happens. Florida as a staging point also greatly lessens the ever increasing cost of traveling to and from the island from the Texas market (my current location), a proposition that has become increasingly painful and costly with three travelers (on my end) and/or a distance they're no longer willing to traverse (on their end) with any frequency.
Stuff like the power outage just adds fuel to the fire of this eventuality. But there's more to life than money. Platitude that both my parents and myself will indeed put into action in the next couple of years, as we both exercise exiting our comfort zones and risk some financial security for the sake of having the one luxury we don't have enough of: time with each other. Nobody's getting any younger, I certainly don't want to wait anymore and nobody is going to wait for the fable of that island ever returning to a stable prosperous economy. They'll be long dead before that happens. So in a way, the faster things deteriorate in the island the quicker I get my parents to be close. I certainly wish everyone down there luck and health, but that place is beyond rescue.
More so than PR's current woes and state of affairs, what really stuns me is the mindset of many of today's isleños. It's a defeatist mindset wherein we've given up before we've even tried. It's a foreign mindset which I do not understand. This is not the place I was born in, nor the place I grew up in.
When I lived in PR, it felt like people and society in general just charged at problems, be it in a reckless face first form (a lo matacabro, as we use to say) or in measured/calculated form. Regardless of whether problems were charged at recklessly or in measured form, at least a first step was always taken whenever problems arose. Problems were faced and dealt with. It was going to get solved one way or another, a la buena o a la mala, period!
Now a days it seems like PR's current leaders and Citizens are unwilling to face the challenges and difficulties which come with problems. We seem to want the benefits of modernity [via "Free Association" with the USA] without paying the price of modernity. For example, people wanted potable water, but protested against El Super Tubo. People want cellphones, but protested against repeater towers in Moca. People want to exercise the right to buy goods, but do not want to deal with the tons of trash which naturally come with the purchasing power of the mighty US Dollar. Get the picture?
This is not the place I was born in, nor the place I grew up in, and is the reason why I have lost faith in us!
wow, this is a great insight as to the existing situation..
thanks for sharing.
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