The Politics of Disaster
This is a follow-up on my Hurricane Maria post.
In recent days, a study conducted by a research team from Harvard University made plain what most people already knew: the death toll in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria was higher than the official tally of 64.
The study found the death toll could be 4.645 dead in the aftermath of the hurricane, as light, water and cellular services were interrupted in the wake of the storm. Thankfully, my partner and I were able to get most of my family off the island, and they–as many other Puerto Ricans–have decided to stay, leaving their lives there behind. In that respect, we have been very fortunate. My family was able to avoid the uncertainties of, say, Puerto Ricans granted vouchers to stay in hotels and motels in Florida and Connecticut.
Overall, my family has been very fortunate, compared to many other Puerto Ricans.
Why would the local government publicly agree with President Trump’s ridiculous tally of 16 dead when he finally visited?
This requires some context, since Puerto Rico’s political parties don’t map precisely to U.S. ones. One of the most distinct aspects of Puerto Rican politics is that the major parties distinguish themselves by the status they aspire to for the island. The current governor, Ricardo Rosello (son of previous governor Pedro Rosello) is part of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (or PNP by its initials in Spanish). The New Progressive Party is perennially opposed by the Popular Democratic Party, which is in favor of maintaining the island’s current status as an territory of the U.S. The Puerto Rican Independence Party, well, it’s right there on the tin.
For purposes of this post (and in a desire to keep this post a reasonable length), I’ll only deal with the PNP.
The New Progressive Party (PNP) is–as is the stereotype regarding politics–neither new (not any more), nor progressive. In the last ten years or so, they have formed coalitions with very fervent evangelical and other culturally conservative religious groups, which bring along with them all the baggage stateside groups do: homo- and transphobia, blatant misogyny, being against reproductive rights, as well as fervent electoral participation. Partisans of the party believe that statehood is the only thing that would resolve many of the systemic injustices Puerto Rico endures. Full disclosure: I used to believe this as well, but time and education on the nature of the relationship between the island and the U.S. has long since changed my views, and I see Puerto Rico not as an “unincorporated territory,” but simply put, a colony of the U.S.
While I don’t presume to know what was in Gov. Rosello’s mind when he nodded along with President Trump, but I am pretty sure he saw an opportunity to ingratiate himself to the President of the United States as a way to further the goals of statehood status. Go along to get along, as some people might say, but more likely internalized colonization as other folks would see it.
How can I be so sure? The official death toll did increase as time passed. . . To a grand total of 64 dead, which flies in the face of grim reports on the ground of families being forced to bury their dead hoping for officials who never showed up. This isn’t counting the government’s choice to authorize cremations without any record-keeping, as a way to engage in damage control.
I find this situation to be both a tragedy and an outrage.
These are the actions of a government that values a status I fear Puerto Rico will never achieve over the needs of its own people, in the hopes it will curry enough favor from its colonizers, who favor money over the needs of Puerto Ricans.
This is what happens when, as part of your internalized colonization, you see your own people as killable bodies.
By the time I’d read about the Puerto Rican death toll, I had followed a few people live tweeting from the Killable Bodies in Science Fiction and Fantasy panel at WisCon 42. It was a great example of how the idea of “people who must be sacrificed” for some abstract good is represented in our science fiction and fantasy.
#KillableBodiesinSFF great point from the audience that in games orcs and etc are seen as others, as metaphors for disposable bodies – people of color and queers and etc. Generates paranoia of these others. Whereas nazis aren’t paranoia. They’re historically accurate.
— amy (@amckiereads) May 27, 2018
Not to diminish the previous instances of this type of situation, but this is something happening right now, and for what? So that many U.S. citizens’ 401ks and retirement funds could have a greater yield? People I know and care for have been rendered as real as orcs or enemy robots so that no one will lose sleep about where their money’s coming from.
The science fictional is always about what is happening right now, and at this moment something can be done to help.
Call your representatives on Puerto Rico’s behalf. Their own government, drunk on dreams of achieving statehood, will not do what needs to be done to improve material conditions on the island. Don’t believe that no news is good news, there’s moneyed interests in keeping cameras away from the situation in Puerto Rico. Hell, the week the death toll story came out, media was in a lather covering the cancellation of “Roseanne.”
Puerto Ricans don’t have any voting representation in Congress, they cannot vote for President without moving to the U.S. There may have been many Puerto Ricans who have moved to Florida in the wake of Hurricane Maria, but don’t help Puerto Rico because expect them to flip a red state to blue or some other electoral fantasy. Improving lives on the island, restoring power and water should not be a fantasy.
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