The Real Tragedy of Trump’s Puerto Rico Visit
It’s not just that he is a class-A idiot
Important article in the Washington Post this AM not just because it confirms that Trump remains a deluded, out-of-touch, possibly dementia-addled horror show of a human (who still needs confirmation of that?). It’s also important because it illustrates that in extreme events due in part to climate change, the poor and marginalized will continue to suffer the most, while the well-off communities in their walled-off compounds will be able to pay their way out.
Obviously, the “recovery” discussed in this article, and which is being touted by Trump, is purely Potemkin, available only to those who can afford it. There’s a reason all of those people in the church are laughing while Il Dorke tosses them paper towels: they don’t need them.
In Guaynabo, the conversations, usually in English, are growing more positive with local officials listing what they see as measures of success: All airports and nearly all ports have reopened, thousands of federal workers are on the ground, more than 65 percent of grocery and big-box stores have reopened, 64 of 68 hospitals are open, and roughly 70 percent of gas stations are operational.
Meanwhile, the people who are actually in need because the cameras aren’t on them are killing themselves:
But here in Caguas there remains a sense of desperation with Miranda Torres rattling off a much more dire list of statistics in Spanish: Nearly 1 in 10 residents were severely impacted by the storm’s destruction. More than 1,200 homes were flattened or suffered major damage. At least one person died at a shelter from complications of diabetes after not having access to medical care, and two people committed suicide.
It’s so bad that the charitable organization Oxfam will be directing resources to Puerto Rico — resources that the U.S. SHOULD be able to provide its own citizens. And the communities that are usually served by Oxfam? Less for them.
This will still, sadly, be the case when Trump’s corpse is hanging from a lamppost somewhere. We can’t fix the problems of the world without fixing our very worldview. Until then, if you’re not wealthy, white, or pretty damned lucky….
