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Since could be a tropical paradise for even natives to enjoy more. If it did not have so much crime everyone needs to feel like in a cage with bars on their windows.
Part of that to a point is cultural. Look at Spain, bars on windows is the norm in Spanish homes and has no relation with whether an area is crime ridden or not. Even in the Canary Islands and in Spanish enclaves in Northern Africa such as Ceuta and Melilla are like this.
If you read several descriptions by foreigners that in the 1800's visited say San Juan or other Spanish American cities like Santo Domingo or La Habana, they will mention the lack of crime in those cities and the universal usage of bars on windows.
The with fancy fences in the front of houses and cement walls for fences surrounding the property. Though now is less common in PR than in other parts of Spanish America (in places like Santo Domingo the question isn't what houses have "verjas," but rather which one's don't.) The same is seen throughout Spain and even in other Latin American countries. While less of a usage in PR, the use of "verjas" is still mire prevailant on the island than on mainland USA.
I personally don't think there is anything wrong with that. If anyone goes to the New England region, many houses have white picket fences. In Florida not so much. Why? In New England is a tradition spanning from its history, in Florida not a all. Same with Puerto Rico. In Spain "verjas" are a feature of most houses, that and the property surrounded with cement walls regardless if the area is perfectly safe or has a crime problem.
Bars on windows makes sense in a hurricane place. When objects are flying around over 100 mph during hurricanes or less during tropical storms, bars makes sense and there are cheap and easy to maintain. 1 or 2 coats of paint every other year depending the quality of the paint which they use oil paint (mine lasted 3 years, I used 2 coats of the good oil paint on the bars) Hard to take off the paint from your hands (gasoline works great) but lasts. My mom was the opposite, she would go with the cheap paint and expect me to paint everything every year during X-Mas season. That lasted for about 2 seasons and I made sure We bought the more quality paint (She made me pay the difference). More expensive but worth it. I had a neighbor that always bought the cheap paint and painted during X-mas season and after the hot summers and then the rain and wind season later it peeled off , looked washed out and looked old and he did it again every year. Back in the 80's he painted his whole house with the most wild colors you can imagine. One year he painted the whole house flamingo pink, then slime green and then purple. He made the neighbors upset to look at that every day. I did the house every other year and the bars every 3 years. It saved me time and work and more time at the beach. My colors were neutral and pleasant to look at.
Crime is kinda funny, if a criminal wants to break in your house they will. With today's technology of alarms and cameras, it's difficult for a criminal to steal from you while you are away. They have to be quick and out. What worries me is these criminals that will break in your house while you are there and take you out because they don't want to leave any witnesses. Those are the dangerous ones and people should protect their homes from. Whatever it takes. That's why they have to relax owning guns for regular folks in the island. They make it so hard while the criminals will get it easy.
But bars makes sense in Puerto Rico, unless you have money and can buy the modern ones that look really nice and less maintenance. Bars look nice if you keep it up with paint. If you let it go with rust and peeled paint it looks like those jailhouses from the wild wild West and it makes the house look old and cheap.
Crime is kinda funny, if a criminal wants to break in your house they will.
Not only that, but criminals are people too. They "break in" walking through the door like everybody else.
Bars on windows also comes in handy if you live in a high-rise and are afraid of heights and/or have small kids. You can keep your windows open (a habit you will do once you see how expensive the bill for electricity is every month when you leave the a/c on 24/7, that's one mistake you only do once) and not have to worry that the little rascal would reach an open window or the balcony and think they are superman, if you know what I mean. It doesn't matter how great of a parent you are, little kids will find ways to "get out of your sight" even for a few moments every few weeks. Stuff can happen during those moments. Bars on windows in high-rises is an extra parenting help, especially if they like to "invent too much" or are a handful or both!
Sometimes I wish to have been born Cuban and fight for my country against the U.S. blockade rather than Puerto Rican. For me, it’s better to eat dirt than have all the comfort that the U.S. offer while taking our souls.
Sorry you feel that way but your history, politics and economics are very misguided and now you lecture millions of Puerto Ricans about non-sense. You rather be born in Cuba and fight a blockade that Cuba brought on themselves? Like their 1 party communist government which free elections and a free press has been prohibited for decades is corrupt free and they are going to lecture us? Like We say in Puerto Rico "Mano, Lo tienes grande"
Why do you assume that the United States is bad and We need to become a communist republic to be happy, to have pride and to have patriotism?
Most Puerto Rican reject independence because they choose to live under the best economy created in world history and be protected by real liberties and property rights which your Cuba and many other countries light a match. People will always vote with their pockets and opportunities. You have 2 kinds in P.R., the people that do well and stay or the people that move to other 50 states and make it. That's the difference between a poor Puerto Rican to a poor Latino, opportunities to move freely and make your mark but you rather swap with a Cuban? LOL. Like the Chinese say, "Beware of what you wish for"
Why do you want to fight to end up eating dirt? You are upset because you want Puerto Ricans to fight in blood to end up with what? poems, fake patriotism and real poverty?
I want to get paid in U.S. dollars and have credit. I don't know about you but I doubt you want to get paid in worthless pesos and know little about the economy and what does it take to create an economy.
Love it or hate it, Puerto Ricans really do have the best of both worlds. That's why so many other Latinos---including many Cubans---are so jealous of Puerto Ricans.
Love it or hate it, Puerto Ricans really do have the best of both worlds. That's why so many other Latinos---including many Cubans---are so jealous of Puerto Ricans.
Unless he is a politician and wants full power in P.R. and get rid off the federal government, I don't understand why he is upset. He brings liberties and being a nation and I don't think he knows the definitions. You can make a strong case that Puerto Ricans have too much liberties in their daily lives.
When you can get on a plane at anytime and move around this nation without papers or permission and your private property and free speech are protected and you can live your life as you wish (without hurting others) then that's liberty to me. Cuba wouldn't be a place that I would use as an example of liberty unless you like a totalitarian system and that's what you like and pretend that is liberty.
Puerto Rico is a nation under the definition. A large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory. There is only 1 Puerto Rico nation in this world. Some other nations are familiar in a few things but only 1 Puerto Rican nation that can't be confused for another.
Love it or hate it, Puerto Ricans really do have the best of both worlds. That's why so many other Latinos---including many Cubans---are so jealous of Puerto Ricans.
anybody who has their own country and a job is not jealous of PR. you cant even vote for the ruler of the nation when you live in PR. nobody is jealous of a colony, ahem, i mean freely associated state lol
anybody who has their own country and a job is not jealous of PR. you cant even vote for the ruler of the nation when you live in PR. nobody is jealous of a colony, ahem, i mean freely associated state lol
funny you saying that from the comfort in your house in the U.S.A. You are not saying that waiting in line for toilet paper in Cuba or Venezuela or some town in Haiti.
I rather be the tail of a lion than the head of a mouse. I'm sure many Latinos can "vote"for their ruler of their country and still they are messed up. At least with Puerto Rico, the federal checks are not going to bounce and you get paid in U.S. dollars for your work and you can travel freely and work in the American nation without papers or permissions to jobs most Latinos dream of or wish. I wonder how many Latinos who have their own country would have the opportunity to make 100k American dollars a year by themselves or combine with their spouse and a 401k for their retirement worth over 200k U.S. dollars and a house worth half a million in the market in U.S. dollars? how many lifetimes you need as a Latino to get half of that?
there is a difference is having that opportunity and not having the opportunity. When you can fly freely to anywhere in the U.S. without papers or permission and have multiples cracks at the best market in world history then you are the envy of millions of people that are denied those opportunities. Go ask the Haitians breaking in the U.S. if they wish they were Puerto Ricans.
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