If Puerto Rico were Independent…

[El_Jibaro]

If Puerto Rico were Independent…

I guess that we would have to print our own money; no problem with that, if there is a good economy to back it up. However, since I lived most of my life in the Island, and I know how corrupt our politicians and business leaders are, I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up devaluating our currency resulting in hyper-inflation like that in Mexico and Brazil.

Without having a prior Death Penalty we would either have to become a Police State or an Anarchic Paradise (a la “Escape from L. A.”), where only the strong get Justice from their own fist [and guns]. And if our Puerto Rican Police Force becomes corrupt [we do have a tendency to tie up their hands and treat them like dirt], who is going to keep an eye on them? – Right now the FBI keeps an eye on our PR Police.

Having more than 500,000 Dominicans in the Island, and knowing we do have a definite bent on Racism [otherwise there would be not so many Dominican Jokes], I have a feeling that genocide a la Kosovo is a definite possibility.

The Catholic Clergy swears that 98 percent of Puerto Ricans are Catholic, not facing the truth that nearly 50 percent of the Island is Evangelical of one kind or another (with a majority of them Pentecostals). Never mind that most of the rest of the people who say are Catholic don’t practice their religion at all. Seeing how Catholic Persecutions have happened in Mexico and Colombia, where the priests have led mobs in killing Protestants, what is there to stop that from happening in Puerto Rico? An Atheist Government (I’m sorry, I should have said a “Secular Government”)?

The Problem with the proponents of Independence is that they DELIBERATELY IGNORE Human Nature. If our culture were disciplined, frugal and responsible I would be there to fight for our Independence. But it is not. And if you read the history books (Fray Iñigo Abbad and other old books), you would notice that our inclination towards Indolence and Vice (back then it was rum, sex [particularly sodomy] and cockfights) dates from the days when we were a Spanish Crown Colony. That is the Independentistas, they stick their heads in the sand and DELIBERATELY IGNORE the facts. They make an Ideological Construct in their minds, filled with Utopian fervor, totally devoid of Reality, and then they claim that they are the sole representatives of the Wellbeing of Our People. And these are extremely loud in making those claims, drowning out with their loud rhetoric anyone who opposes them. A tiny political minority in our Island (not even 10%), but they don’t care if they have to push their ideology by force. They use Democracy to attain their Un-Democratic aims, and what will we do when they have their way? They, like most of their ideological progenitors (Communism, Anarchism, Fascism, National Socialism, Khmer Rouge, Sendero Luminoso, Frente Farabundo Marti, los Macheteros…) don’t have any qualms about taking power by force. They do not have any qualms about establishing a dictatorship. Remember, they know better than the rest of us how to run our own lives; or so they think.

Just a thought from someone who has to drive 100 miles daily to feed his family (and unfortunately spends half of what he earns paying taxes just so that a heroin addict in Puerto Rico can turn his Cupones into the fix of the day).

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Manuel Alonso

[EL_BORICUA]

TO EL JIBARO,
I AM TRULY SORRY YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF A
"RUM DRINKING SODOMITE" THAT SEEMS LIKE A PERSONAL ISSUE,YOU SIR PAINT WITH BROAD
STROKES THE ONLY CORRUPT POLITICIANS ARE THOSE OF NEW JERSEY WHERE YOU LIVE,YOU SEEM
ASHAMED OF WHO YOU ARE,THATS YOUR PROBLEM.
WE WILL NOT NEED TO PRINT OUR OWN MONEY THE
U.S.DOLLAR WORKS WELL,THE LITTLE COUNTRY OF PALAU USES THE DOLLAR,THEY HAVE FREE TRAVEL
BETWEEN THE U.S. AND PALAU SO WILL WE.
THE DOMINICANS IN PUERTO RICO ARE WELCOME TO STAY,BUT I BELIEVE THAT THEY AND THE CUBANS WILL LEAVE,EITHER WAY GOD BESS THEM.
ON THE OTHER HAND IF PUERTO RICO WERE TO BECOME A STATE,EVERY TOM,DICK,AND HARRY FROM
EVERY CORNER OF THE GLOBE WILL COME HERE.
I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF CATHOLICS HUNTING
PROTESTANTS DOWN,PLEASE TELL ME WHERE I CAN FIND THIS INFO.
PUERTO RICO WILL BE FINE AS AN INDEPENDENT COUNTRY,YOU ACT AS IF THE U.S. IS GOING TO FORGET WE EVER EXISTED WE WILL BE MAJOR TRADE PARTNERS WITH THE U.S. YOUR FEAR AND
THE WAY YOU CHARACTERIZE PUERTO RICANS IS
VERY STRANGE,I BELIEVE YOU WERE THE AEROSPACE
GUY,I BELIEVE YOUR WORKING TO CLOSE TO THE AIRPLANE GLUE,QUIT THIS NONSENSE.
BY THE WAY I HAVE FR.ABBAD'S BOOK AND I MUST HAVE MISSED WHAT YOU STATE ABOVE THE WORSE HE
SAID THAT WE DEDICATED TO CONTRABAND AND PIRACY THIS WAS IN THE 18 CENTARY.

[This message has been edited by EL BORICUA (edited 15 December 1999).]

[This message has been edited by EL BORICUA (edited 15 December 1999).]

[El_Jibaro]

Boricua:

It is sad that you attack me instead of proving through sound argument your point.

It is my experience that when one doesn't know how to defend one's point of view, or has a weak argument, that person usually resorts to slandering the opponent. This is not the action of a person of strength, but of weakness.

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Manuel Alonso

[EL_BORICUA]

EL JIBARO I DO NOT ATTACK YOU,YOU ATTACK US AS A PEOPLE,YOU CALL OUR PEOPLE CORRUPT RUM
DRINKING SODOMITES,AND YOU DON'T EXPECT ANY
NEGATIVE FEEDBACK?
I DON'T UNDERSTAND YOUR INFERIORITY COMPLEX
THAT WE ARE NOT CAPABLE OF RUNNING OUR AFFAIRS,I BELIEVE WE CAN AND WILL,SOVEREIGNTY
IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD,WE WILL NOT HAVE TO PRINT OUR OWN MONEY,THE DOMINICANS WILL NOT COME AFTER US,WHICH BY THE WAY LET ME SAY
THAT IN 500 YEARS ONLY SPAIN AND THE U.S.A.
WERE ABLE TO INVADE AND TAKE THE ISLAND,THE
BRITISH HELD IT FOR A LITTLE WHILE THEN WERE
FORCED TO LEAVE,ENGLAND,FRANCE,THE DUTCH,PIRATES YOU NAME IT ATTACKED THE ISLAND
AND WERE BEAT BACK,BY WHO YOU ASK? BY LAS
MILICIAS DISIPLINADAS A.K.A. PUERTO RICANS.
IF YOU WANT TO DEFEND STATEHOOD GOD BLESS YOU
BUT DO IT WITHOUT PUTTING PUERTO RICANS DOWN.
MERRY CHRISTMAS

[Jose_Luis]

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU TWO ARE DISPUTING ABOUT. I AM POSITIVE THAT PUERTORICANS CAN RULE THEMSELVES IF THEY BECOME INDEPENDANT. BUT ASK YOURSELVES A QUESTION, "WHY WOULD PUERTO RICO WANT TO BECOME INDEPENDANT?". IT HAS EVERYTHING IT NEEDS AND EVERYTHING IT WANTS. HOW CAN PUERTO RICO UNITE AS ONE IF ITS PEOPLE HAVE YET TO UNITE AS ONE. HERE YOU TWO ARE, I AM ASSUMING YOU'RE BOTH PUERTORICAN, ARGUING OVER WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN OVER YOUR OWN LAND. JIBARO, YOU WERE WRONG IN CALLING PUERTORICANS CERTAIN NAMES. YOU ARE NOT GOD, SO KEEP YOUR OPINION TO YOURSELF. THE BOTTOM LINE IS, PUERTO RICO IS BEAUTIFUL AND IF IT WERE TO BECOME INDEPENDANT, IT'S BEAUTY WOULD BE STRIPPED.

[joseuno]

You travel a 100 miles to work! Why? Thats the only job in New Jersey? Well, that says a lot for your "state"! And your taxes go to give "coupons" to drug addicts, well, there is something wrong about that. And you want statehood for Puerto Rico? We`ll have to give "coupons" to our drug addicts too besides the real needy poor people. Happy new Millenium to you! And whats wrong with true socialism? Expand!

[This message has been edited by joseuno (edited 19 December 1999).]

[El_Criollo]

Hey guys: you show by your very words that El_Jíbaro was right, you guys are fresh out of arguments defending your point of view and have to resort to slanders. It seems that you guys have run out of ideas, so instead of debating and refuting his ideas you attack him directly.

Jose Luis, where is El_Jíbaro calling Puerto Ricans any names in his entire posting? I read his posting, and nowhere is he calling them names.

El-Boricua, where do you get the idea that El_Jíbaro is putting down Puerto Ricans? He is a Puerto Rican just like you [his very pseudonym El_Jíbaro is the title of a Puerto Rican Literary Classic written by the cagüeño Manuel Alonso some 120 years ago]. So if El_Jíbaro says from personal observations that politicians and business leaders in Puerto Rico have acted corruptly in the past, why do you choke with that? <<La verdad duele, pero por mas que uno quiera cambiarla sigue siendo verdad.>> If El_Jíbaro points out that Puerto Rican Historians say that the people of Puerto Rico have a weakness towards breaking the law, alcoholism and anal sex, why do you get all defensive?

And joseuno, where in the world is having to commute daily to work a hundred miles a stigma? Lots of Puerto Ricans do that daily in Puerto Rico. In fact, commuting long distances is a sign of being “Emprendedor” (Upstart) and Responsible.

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desde_el_Jurutungo_de_Bairoa