Category: Caribbean,

Meet the Puerto Rican sisterhood reinventing the island’s future after Maria

On By peanutgallerynhIn Caribbean,, Domestic Affairs,, Infrastructure and Transportation,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

For generations, more than half of Puerto Ricans relied on informal construction to build affordable homes and bypass a costly, bureaucratic process. It was these homes that bore the brunt of María. About 300,000 dwellings suffered significant damage and some 70,000 of those were completely destroyed, according to the island’s Housing Department. Without formal property deeds, home owners struggled to get federal aid.

…The answer: shipping containers.

“They are fabricated to withstand the worst atmospheric conditions, in the middle of the ocean, getting hit by waves and typhoons.”

…HiveCube’s basic model is priced at $39,000. It includes two bedrooms, one bathroom and a kitchen-living area. They are compliant with US building codes and are ADA accessible. The entire structure, including the windows, can withstand a Category 5 hurricane with winds up to 175 miles per hour, assuming it is properly anchored to a foundation.

For an additional cost, the homes can be fitted with a solar power microgrid, rainwater collection and a sewage treatment system that doubles as a garden.

~~~~~

…Vilar put out a call for seeds through her nonprofit, Americas for Conservation and the Arts, …[and] working with Rodriguez Besosa, launched the Resilience Fund, a two-year campaign to restore 200 farms destroyed by María.

…Vilar and Rodriguez Besosa are on the front lines of a fast-growing movement to use locally-grown food as a way to decolonize the island. Their mission has evolved from emergency response to creating a lasting food legacy for future generations.

…Rodriguez Besosa, an architect by training, envisions a fundamental shift in the way farms are run — from large, one-crop, corporate strongholds to small-scale, sustainable, locally owned farms.

~~~~~

…With over 80 manufacturing plants and 10,000 skilled workers, Puerto Rico is a garment powerhouse.

…Puerto Rico is a major source of military apparel in the United States, according to a Congressional Report.

…It brought much needed cash flow, but also created a dependency on military contracts.

…In the first three months of operation, Retazo Moda Lab has received ten orders for high-end ready-to-wear fashion, which they’re in the process of delivering. They have an additional 30 clients on a waiting list.

“We want to plant the seeds for a fashion ecosystem to exist on the island,” said Herrero Lugo. “This is about coming together and seeing the potential of being good at multiple things.”

~~~~~

“After a month, it became clear that there were already these amazing service organizations on the island that had the systems, infrastructure and personnel to help people. But they didn’t have power.”

…”We got materials, solar panels, then flew them down there, got crews on the ground,” said Roig-Morris. Resilient Power’s mission quickly evolved from crisis response to building partnerships with community organizations providing critical services to vulnerable groups like the elderly, children and the impoverished.

…”You are choosing a community asset who is providing other services like education, clean water, health clinics.”

Resilient Power has identified about 100 community centers across the island that meet those criteria.

…Long-term, she explained, Resilient Power plans to emphasize training of young people in collaboration with universities on the island, and to promote an alternative-energy industry that creates jobs.

Meet the Puerto Rican sisterhood reinventing the island’s future after Maria – CNN

Very cool!

Castro proposes changes to Constitution, including term limits for president, gay marriage

On By peanutgallerynhIn Caribbean,, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Raúl Castro is proposing a new constitution that would limit the age of future presidents to 60 at the start of their first terms.

The constitutional reforms, discussed Saturday by the Cuban parliament, also would erase the word “Communism” from the document and open the way for same-sex marriage, according to official TV broadcasts of the gathering.

…The official web page Cubadebate also reported Saturday that the new constitution would define marriage as “the consensual union between two people, regardless of gender.” That’s been one of the demands by LGBTI groups on the island and Raúl Castro’s daughter, Mariela, who heads a sex education center in Havana.

…The president will continue to be elected by parliament and not directly by voters — a change that many Cubans wanted.

And the new constitution will recognize private property but “retains the essential principles of socialist ownership by the people over the basic means of production and central planning as a principal component,” according to the official Granma newspaper.

Castro proposes changes to Constitution, including term limits for president, gay marriage | Miami Herald

hmmmm

Genes of ‘extinct’ Caribbean islanders found in living people

On By peanutgallerynhIn Caribbean,, Media and Culture,, Race,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Jorge Estevez grew up in the Dominican Republic and New York City hearing stories about his native Caribbean ancestors from his mother and grandmother. But when he told his teachers that he is Taino, an indigenous Caribbean, they said that was impossible. “According to Spanish accounts, we went extinct 30 years after [European] contact.”

…“These indigenous communities were written out of history,” says Jada Benn Torres, a genetic anthropologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville who studies the Caribbean’s population history and has worked with native groups on several islands. “They are adamant about their continuous existence, that they’ve always been [on these islands],” she says. “So to see it reflected in the ancient DNA, it’s great.”

Genes of ‘extinct’ Caribbean islanders found in living people | Science | AAAS

cool.

Venezuelan Pirates Rule the Most Lawless Market on Earth

On By peanutgallerynhIn Caribbean,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, The Americas,Leave a comment

Twenty years ago, the villages of eastern Venezuela were home to a robust fishing industry, including the world’s fourth-largest tuna fleet. Industrial trawlers and hundreds of smaller boats worked the waters. In a good month, 10,000 tons of tuna were brought in to local ports, as well as boatloads of sardine, shark, crab, and octopus. Ships from Asia sold their catches to local plants, which froze and stored them by the hundreds of tons. When boats needed repairs, captains took them to the shipyard in the town of Güiria, where vessels from South America, Asia, and the U.S. could all be found in dry dock. 

…But the fishing industry withered under Chávez, and then under Nicolás Maduro, who succeeded him as president in 2013. The warehouse in Güiria burned down and was never rebuilt; the ship repair facilities were shuttered after a few years in government hands. Venezuelan ships not seized by the government were quickly reflagged in Nicaragua, Panama, and Ecuador, and much of the government fleet now lies in port, awaiting repairs and scarce spare parts. From 554,000 tons of fish caught in 1997, the year before Chávez started his revolution, the catch in 2015 had fallen almost 60 percent, to 226,600 tons, according to the Caracas-based Foundation for Sustainable and Responsible Tuna Fisheries.

…In 2015 seven major tuna processing plants declared a state of emergency, citing a chronic shortage of the fish. Three thousand workers lost their jobs, according to Jorge Bastardo, union leader at the La Gaviota canning plant in Cumaná. Even when tuna was brought to shore, aluminum was in such short supply that a central cannery was converted into what the government dubbed “the pouchery.” It failed. The public never warmed to the idea of buying plastic pouches filled with watery tuna.

…I stood for a time with a uniformed officer at a tiny military base in town. He looked relaxed as he cradled his automatic rifle and watched a boatload of Venezuelans streaming up from the beach below his lookout point. “They come to shore and trade marijuana and cocaine for food,” he said. “Before it was for U.S. dollars, but now they trade for sacks of flour.” At night, Venezuelan bandits sneak ashore to steal nets, outboard motors, and fishing gear. “If they get caught here in Trinidad? They will get their heads chopped off,” he said matter-of-factly. “We don’t get involved. That’s just what happens.”

Venezuelan Pirates Rule the Most Lawless Market on Earth – Bloomberg

hmmm

After Maria, José Andrés and his team have served more hot meals in Puerto Rico than the Red Cross

On By peanutgallerynhIn Caribbean,, Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

“When we establish contact with a community, we maintain that contact,” Andrés said during a phone interview from San Juan. “When we go to a place, we take care of that place until we feel it has the right conditions to sustain itself. That’s what a relief organization should be.”

…Andrés hopes that World Central Kitchen is demonstrating what kind of results a nonprofit with a “private sector mentality” can achieve. He suspects that, in years to come, others will be examining “our successes and failures and how we did it.”

“How we were able to go from 100 meals to a million meals,” he added. The secret, Andrés noted, was the chef community, the many volunteers who picked up a knife and got to it. A chef’s disposition, Andrés said, is to know how to adapt to crisis.

After Maria, José Andrés and his team have served more hot meals in Puerto Rico than the Red Cross – The Washington Post

hmmmm

FEMA buried updates on Puerto Rico. Here they are. 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Caribbean,, Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

Experts predict that it will take months to repair the electrical grid enough that most residents of the island have power. For months, then, the numbers above will be below 100 percent, a constant reminder of how much work the administration still has to do before Puerto Rican society has been restored to where it was before Hurricane Maria hit.

FEMA would rather not broadcast that slow progress. So we will.

FEMA buried updates on Puerto Rico. Here they are. – The Washington Post

sigh….

Trump’s Puerto Rico drop-in was a monumental insult

On By peanutgallerynhIn Caribbean,, Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,Leave a comment

President Donald Trump visited an island completely devastated by the fury of Hurricane Maria and in full Trump fashion, used the opportunity as a self-aggrandizing political photo op to pat himself on the back for the “great work” he and administration have done in Puerto Rico.

…Before departing for the island “tour,” he slammed Puerto Rico’s debt problems, yet again, by saying that Puerto Rico had thrown the federal budget “out of whack” with what the recovery would cost. I don’t remember him throwing Texas or Florida’s debt in their face when he generously approved their recovery packages.

…He also gave out flashlights but then yelled out, “But you all don’t need flashlights anymore do you!” in a clear attempt to highlight the “great work” he has done to bring the island back from disaster.

People DO need flashlights, however: Just 8.6 percent of the population has electricity. In addition, just 48 percent have access to drinking water. 

…the upscale neighborhood Trump visited sustained minimal damage. 

… even the residents who were chosen to speak with Trump were baffled at why he would be there instead of in the most ravaged areas where people lived on coconut water for a week because they were cut off from the rest of the island.

Trump’s Puerto Rico drop-in was a monumental insult | TheHill

sigh…

Cuba: lots of questions, few answers

On By peanutgallerynhIn Caribbean,, Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

“Remember that old board game Clue?” mused a former U.S. diplomat earlier this week. “You had to solve a murder by identifying the killer, the weapon and the venue: It was Colonel Mustard, with a knife, in the ballroom.

“Well, we’ve got a victim — U.S.-Cuban relations — and a venue, various houses and hotel rooms in Havana. But we haven’t got a suspect or a weapon yet. Not to make a pun, but we don’t have a clue.”

The expulsion of 15 Cuban diplomats from Washington announced on Tuesday, following a State Department decision to pull most personnel out of the American embassy in Havana, leaves diplomatic relations between the countries at half-staff.

…Nobody seems to be able to explain what happened. The United States says that over the past 11 months, 22 of its diplomats have been the victims of invisible attacks that left them nauseous, dizzy and with splitting headaches. (At least five Canadian diplomats in Havana have reported several similar symptoms.) Some of the attacks were accompanied by buzzing or thumping sounds; some were silent.

Cuba says it neither committed the attacks nor knows anything about them. And, to the surprise of many, Raúl Castro’s government permitted FBI agents to enter the country to help investigate.

…Speculation abounds, from the use of ultrasonic waves to the possibility that nothing happened at all and the diplomats fell victim to mass hysteria.

…Radio waves bounce around a lot and are relatively easy to steal. But microwave transmissions can only be intercepted by receivers directly in their line of sight. The U.S. National Security Agency promptly put a listening station on the 10th floor of the American Embassy in Moscow, where it could even listen in on phone calls made by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev from his limousine.

The listening center was so important to U.S. intelligence that, when a fire broke out in the embassy and the Moscow fire department said it needed access to the 10th floor to put it out, NSA chief Bobby Ray Inman told State Department officials, “Let it burn.”

The Russians, eventually, caught on and retaliated by aiming microwave barrages directly at the listening post. Whether they were trying to listen in on conversations inside the room (microwaves can be used to pick up sounds bouncing off glass) or simply hoping to screw up the American spying operation was never established.

But there was a side effect: Some U.S. diplomats exposed to the Soviet microwaves became ill. And though it never leaked into mainstream media, a low-key debate in medical journals continued for years about whether microwaves caused the illness.

…Historian Kaplan doesn’t believe the Soviets were intentionally trying to injure American diplomats. “The microwave beams may have had the effect of weapons,” he told the Herald. “But they were beamed for intel purposes.”

And, he added, it’s entirely possible that the entire Moscow scenario is being repeated in Havana: Cuba using leftover Russian technology of the 1970s to transmit secrets. The United States using 1970s techniques to steal them. And Cuba retaliating just as the Russians did.

Sonic attacks on diplomats in Cuba: lots of questions, few answers

wild

Puerto Ricans still waiting for aid a week after Maria’s devastation 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Caribbean,, Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

A week after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, the US commonwealth’s residents are struggling to survive without basic necessities as federal officials say aid is still on the way.

Puerto Ricans still waiting for aid a week after Maria’s devastation – CNN

Where’s Kanye when we need his mouthy ass? Guess Trump hates Hispanics. Seems like he’s content to just let people die.