Someone Shut The PoopyHead Up

Detroit declared bankruptcy. The largest municipal default in U.S. of part of A. history. Want to guess who might be next?

Uh-huh. Although in Our case, We can't "go bankrupt": We "default." Which still leaves Us holding a smelly diaper of diarrhea-drenched debt.

Speaking of which, Head Beggar Pedro "PoopyHead" Pierluisi had this to fart about the situation: “Some people might say, ‘This is their problem.’ But Puerto Rico is part of the United States, you own this problem."

Well, yeah, they own pretty much everything We have, what with Us being a colony and all that jazz. But here's the trouble with your statement, PoopyHead Beggar: you sound childish and stupid.

Pedro "PoopyHead Beggar" Pierluisi

I know, I know: you can't get sweet wine from a lump of filthy clay. But your job, PoopyHead Beggar, such as it laughingly is, consists of one single, undeniable, unimpeachable and uniquely central goal: Don't make Us look bad. 

Mission unaccomplished. Pat yourself on the ass, you ass.

Capable, responsible and mature human beings, also known as "adults," don't go whining and blaming others for situations they are involved in. 

Intelligent people who think clearly about their situation, don't spout shit that makes the people that most likely to help think twice about doing so or disgusts them enough to make them walk away.

Is the $70 billion clusterfuck We are in Our fault? Damn right it is, based on your fellow shitbags in blue and turdsacks in red, going back to 1968. We elected the vermin and let them run the country into the ground, so yeah, it's Our fault.

Is the U.S. of part of A. involved in Our problem? Hell yeah: they hold most of Our debt. But does that mean that they have to help Us, to bail Our sorry asses out? Not really. As I pointed out before, the Puerto Rico Constitution forbids the government from declaring bankruptcy and is obligated to repay external creditors (i.e., investors in Our bonds) first, even at the expense of the people it is supposed to serve.

You know PoopyHead Beggar, you should read Our Constitution sometime. It's in Spanish, too, so you won't strain what feeble linguistic skills you have. Then again, you might.

Here We are: up Shit Creek and some PoopyHead Beggar takes a dump in the paddle-makers' faces. Who would you rather help: the whiner or the guy who rolls up his sleeves, exhibits a can-do attitude and gets to work?

Yeah, the U.S. of part of A. too. Too bad We specialize in whiners.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

33.1% Statehood = Nothing

Yeah, some people won, some people lost in yesterday's elections. Big boo-hoo either way because the system--like Our economy--is broke, so We end up picking dregs no matter who We choose.

The news aside from parasites was that in the two-tiered Yes/No """status""" plebiscite, the current status was "ejected" by 54% of the voters, leading to a second result where statehood was "selected" by 61.3% of those same voters. (Numbers still not official.)

Seeing as The Larva was fired and the statehood party was dumped from several major positions, their lame-brained focus will be on how statehood "won" the plebiscite. Two objections make this a """win""" rather than a "win", and in the Jenius' Thesaurus, based on hard-nosed objectivity, a """win""" is exactly a loss.

First objection: The numbers say statehood is a minority position. Do the math. No, really, do it. At the first level, Yes or No, the rejection of the current status gained 54% of the vote. A majority, indeed, but not a super-majority. From that 54%, some 61.3% chose statehood as their preferred new status. Woo. And hoo. What it really means is that 33.1% of Our voters support statehood: 54 x 61.3 = 33.1%.

There's no other way to look at it. Screw around all you like with that 61.3%, but that number won't fly: the number that will is 33%. Guaranteed.

Second objection: This plebiscite--like the others--was non-binding. Hey! Let's hold a beauty pageant and count the votes and then give no prizes! Yay! Only instead of a beauty pageant, We get a freak show that even P.T. Barnum would have blanched at selling more than once. In a desperate move to bolster his precarious position, The Larva came up with this scheme, hoping the statehood vote in the plebiscite would spill over to the general vote and give him four more years to (non)govern.

Didn't work. He was fired anyway and may have done more harm to the silly statehood whining than any of his predecessors. All in all, a very typical Larva sequence.

There are two more takeaways from this pathetic plebiscite that, in fact, carry more weight, but are bound to get short shrift:

1) The "commonwealth myth" is dead. The idea, the very very stupid idea, that Our current status is "dignified" and "worthy" is dead. It was fatally wounded in the 1980s and lingered like a brainless cockroach until yesterday, when the open rejection of it was made manifest. We are a colony, plain and simple, and the commonwealth status We have makes Us so. To state otherwise is to be dumber than flat-earthers who believe in creationism... and there's already way too many of those idiots around.

2) When it comes to independence, We are tit-sucking toddlers. I used to say We were teenagers, but the fact is that Our reaction to standing on Our own two feet and tackling the world on Our terms is exactly that of terrified toddlers who haven't learned to walk and are still sucking tit. Only Uncle Sam's tits don't give milk, so I can tell you exactly what body part of Uncle Sam's body We suck to make him and Us happy.

That's why the 33.1% """statehood support""" number equals nothing. We still suck Uncle Sam's co--congressional funding, incapable of believing in Ourselves, unable to muster the integrity to stand up to him and say "Screw you, I'm doing this My way," oblivious to the 114-year-and-counting message of "We don't want you" and playing little plebiscite games to amuse the masses while the parasites suck Us dry.

It may be "Our national sport," but We suck at politics because We suck at being adults in politics. At its most base, at its worst, politics is about greed and power-mongering. That's where We live, like pigs in shit. The highest level in politics is nation-building, the forging of a stronger future for almost everyone. We simply never get there. Never have, and based on the miserable moronic plebiscite vote, We never will.

Bring on Larva Lite and his parasites. The loathsome cycle of Our national Special Olympics for scared babies is about to begin again.



The Jenius Has Spoken.


[Update: 8 Nov 2012: From ABC News, a clear-eyed look at the blatant lie that is "statehood won", as propagated by Liars Central, a.k.a., the statehood party. And for a revealing discussion that (a) predicted this report and (b) reveals how My post and its reactions gave context to My writing and the plebiscite's results, check out the Comments section. Yeah, We're on it.]

[Update: 16 Nov 2012: Three more analyses, one of which, surprisingly, barely even bothers to look at the issue. The superficial one is from the otherwise reliable Economist. A deep dissection smack-down of the numbers comes from the Movimiento Independentista Nacional Hostosiano (better English users than the statehood party...by far) and the third from ProEnglish, calling the vote "rigged." Discuss amongst yourselves.]

Violence = Cancer

Over 1,000 murders last year, the highest number in Our history.

Of these, some 27 women were killed by spouses, ex-spouses or "partners" in 2011, an average of one every 12 days. Despite efforts, the toll so far this year stands at 8.

We are killing each other in record numbers. Whether for control of drug distribution and profits, misguided sense of honor, jealousy, rage, envy, "trial by fire" or hatred, We are killing each other in record numbers.

Like parts of a body attacking other parts of its self, We are killing each other. What's killing Us isn't an invasion from an outside source, an infection of noxious entitiesthat don't belong here. No. What's killing Us is Us, Our own self attacking itself.

When a body does that in an uncontrolled way, with masses of high-damaging clusters and the occasional "spreads" in the system, it's called cancer.

Left untreated, cancer kills. We know that. We keep track of the killing, like some neutral monitor pinging in the background as the patient slips away.

Cancer and violence have a huge range of causes, making both difficult to treat. In some cases, radical excision might work. In others, treatments that amount to carpet-bombing are attempted, but they only amount to killing the patient slightly slower than the disease. For reference to violence, see "the drug war."

The more We study cancer, and violence, the more We realize that a holistic approach--based on prevention--is better than any "cure." So look around you, Brethren, and ask yourselves: Are We approaching Our cancerous violence in a holistic, preventive fashion? Or are We throwing "non-magic bubbles-instead-of-bullets" at the whole mess?

You know the answer. So you know We're dying. Literally.

The numbers don't lie.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

TEDx San Juan: Mayra Santos-Febres

Mayra Santos-Febres was the brilliant closing speaker of TEDx San Juan, with her topic about Our fear of literature and reading. As she said then, We refuse to read because it makes Us more insecure, and We refuse to write because it reveals too much about Us.

I interviewed her to explore these thoughts. Like many of Us here in Puerto Rico who love to read, as a child she noticed that reading was cast in a negative light. Comments like "You'll go crazy" or "It will hurt your eyesight" were common, along with "It will make you think" and "Men don't like women who are smarter than they are."

For Mayra, this anti-reading bias was not really gender-based, or race-based, but based on class. Her middle-class upbringing placed a premium on "being private," of keeping matters under wraps, which extended to "keeping one's place" as well. Class mobility was not a virtue or a realistic possibility, so reading--which could encourage dissatisfaction, give one new ideas or reveal intimacies--was seen as dangerous. In Mayra's keen-eyed phrase, there was an imposition of "necessary silence."

This "necessary silence" could only be maintained through auto-censorship, so communication was per force oblique, hinted, veiled and incomplete. Mayra said she felt as if her family was constantly hiding a secret, and yet never knowing what that secret could be. Reading and writing were thus cast as tools of investigation--and discovery--the two enemies of secrets.

This secretiveness and view of reading/writing as dangerous stems, Mayra feels, from how closely interconnected Our families are, thus creating a tightly-woven society. Our social links within Our classes are strong, cementing identity with it, even if We also engage in linking "above" or "below". With numerous and close links, anonymity is harder to achieve. So is solitude, that fundamental nest of creativity.

In other societies, where anonymity is easier or stronger, literature flourishes. I mentioned to Mayra that while living in Oxford, Mississippi, I regularly spoke to a woman who knew William Faulkner and said she despised him. Her only other comment about him was: "All he did was write down what he heard around here." For insular societies--whether they are islands or backwaters--exposure of the dark sides is betrayal most heinous. But the South affords anonymity that Puerto Rico simply doesn't, where writers have to literally isolate themselves within the isolation or leave the Island to pursue their desire. The few voices that rise above Our "necessary silence" tend to pay a heavy price for their perceived defiance in threatening that silence.

The fear and rejection of reading and writing in Puerto Rico has another class component, according to Mayra. In her view, Our upper class, the wealthy movers and shakers, have less power than in other societies, so they are more fearful. I confess that hadn't occurred to Me and at first glance, I'm inclined to disagree, but Mayra's observation has an undeniable fact: We don't control Our economy, so how  "powerful" can mere managers be, even if they are "executive managers"? Those with some greater degree of local power are thus aware that it can be as easily taken from them from "above" as from "below," simply because they cannot isolate themselves enough from either.

This sense of isolation, energized by secretiveness and insecurity, permeates Our culture to the point of leaving Us ignorant (My word) of the outside world. As Mayra says, "the world" to Us is the "the United States and maybe Cuba and the Dominican Republic." The rest? Doesn't exist. And about the Dominican Republic, We have a prejudice, as many of Our families have relatives there and tend to deny that fact.

Another fact Mayra is aware of, as a university professor, is the growing number of women who are outpacing Our men in achieving higher education goals. She sees that trend as emerging from a societal viewpoint that believes that "For men to be men, they must be brutes" (strong, forceful, not bookish), with their primary school being "the street." For women, their primary school IS school and the home, thus pre-disposing them to achieve more. As to what that will mean 20-25 years from now, she doesn't know (no one really does), but she did note that, for now, men still have the dominant share of power in business and politics, and that maybe a more equitable power structure will emerge in those 20-25 years, possibly leading to great changes.

One change We agreed upon is that of overcoming "Our national dream." As I described My post about this topic to her, she almost said the same thing I did: whereas I said "Rescue Us," she said "Solve this for Us." Mayra and I agree that a society that waits for others to do what's needed isn't a society that will produce a large number of writers, that We are in fact Cinderellas without a prince to escort Us to the palace. If We could only understand that no one has to give Us permission to be what We choose… As Mayra pointed out in her TEDx San Juan presentation maybe We don't read so We don't feel worse about Ourselves. 

To overcome this aversion, Mayra targets education and "the Island," i.e., Our pursuit of fragmented efforts. Schools need to upgrade and expand their curriculums and include more modern works, as well as a greater variety. As for society, too many well-intentioned projects, from book fairs to literary contests to curation, are running helter-skelter, each too small to have a great impact, fighting against each other for money and resources, eschewing collaboration and cooperation because of ego and/or the fear of being considered a "politicized" organization. As Mayra emphasizes, more could be done if a centralized policy were pursued, one aimed at creating a central repository of information about Our literature, past and present, and Our myriad literary-related events.

That's Mayra's dream: a digital collection of Puerto Rican literature. Not a single-spot archive, but a directory, a digital doorway into Our novels, poems, essays, plays, music and more. Maybe the burgeoning world of digital publishing could also serve as a platform for a "Neo-Boricua" literary movement, much in the way that blogging has become a platform for Our random and not-so-random thoughts.

Some interviews are drags, others are dances and a very few are days unto themselves. To speak with Mayra is like sitting on a beach veranda, a sunny sky and warm breeze as the setting of an easy flow of words. Not one is wasted. Her thoughts move along with the grace of a generous spirit, one that accepts what it sees because it is; no sense in rejecting it for what it should be. I could spend several days enjoying that scenario, engaging Mayra's mind and spirit, exploring that which is so different and yet so much like Me.

Not surprising at all, because when you think about it, that's what reading is, too.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Shots Fired...At The Wrong Targets

New Year's Eve. Largely a happy time, if you're actually happy or in denial. A sad time for many folks. And a rousing invitation to crass idiocy for too many others.

About five minutes before 2012 arrived, a young pair, brother and sister, capture on video a fusillade of bullets fired in the air and in who-know-what-direction. The young man, an Iraq veteran, immediately recognized the sounds for what they were: AK-47s, illegal under the law, required on the drug-infested streets We harbor.

Watch the video and listen to the sheer number of shots being fired. The constant ratchet of sound is, with every passing second, a slap in the face of ordered society, of community, of the rule of law. What is worse: the people in the video, by all accounts law-abiding, "average" citizens, sit in the living room, calmly discussing the barbaric display.

Why don't I embed the YouTube video? Because We come to the worst part of the story, to the absolute shit-hole depths of Our stupidity: too many people complained about the video.

Let Me repeat that: too many shit-heads complained about this video of criminal activity.

Not that it was the only one...

Arnaldo and Sariely didn't take the video to make money: they uploaded it for free. It was quickly picked up by CNN as part of their citizen-journalist effort. Despite the siblings' efforts, hundreds if not thousands of people expressed the opinion that their video was "intrusive," " a violation of privacy," accusing them of being "rats," of "demeaning Puerto Rico," of "ruining the island's image," of being "nosy busybodies" and implying they were of--how to put this in politer terms?--"deviant" sexuality.

Here's My reply to the people who criticized Sariely and Arnaldo about this: kiss My ass. You're all fucking cowards and to put it bluntly, worthless.

One aspect of the criticism is true: Arnaldo and Sariely risked their lives by posting this video. The vermin that preys on Our streets--on so many more of Our streets now--will react in their sewer-lizard way and try to harm them, most likely kill them. But look and listen to that video again: are those the actions of people you want in your community? I have no fear that any of you will say "yes" because those inclined to do so can't read English. Or Spanish, for that matter.

Armed gangs are taking over Our streets, just as they took over Our housing projects, isolated wards and urban cul-de-sacs. Drug and gang-related deaths are happening in Our malls, Our highways, bars and even softball games. The reason these fucking vermin spread is not because they are many--they aren't--it's because We allow them to. We choose cowardice over confrontation, fear over facedown and hiding over honor, dignity and quality of life.

In that sense, Our stupid excuse for a (non)governor represents Us perfectly, for he too is a piss-himself-first coward who avoids confrontation, hiding behind walls and words, getting comfort from the increasingly-pathetic notion that "It's all happening over there."

It's happening right here, right now. As the thousands of bullets flying through Our air every day prove, We are living in a war zone, and instead of fighting back, instead of firing back at the true targets on the other side, We are taking stupid potshots at the brave, peashots at the craven and shots of rum to drown out the rattling sounds of Our cowardice.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

Note: " target="_blank">Here's an embed code for the CNN video.

"Animal Farm": The Musical

After dealing with a naked asshole--and his pictures of it--yes, I took a break. And discovered a new ad campaign that has the makings of either sheer chutzpah, satanic cynicism or loopy insanity.

The campaign features the legendary salsa group El Gran Combo (50+ years of international stardom), singing one of their many hits, but with the lyrics rewritten. The original version sings about living "the great life", doing nothing and having fun. The title of the song is "No hago más ná'"--I don't do anything else. The new lyrics now sing about working hard and "moving forward, never backward."

The campaign, backed by notorious economic sumphole Banco Popular, asks viewers to call in and request the song so as to make it...popular. They actually imply in the ad that a song--and by extension, that their reworked song--can change a society

I sh--kid you not.

Take a stroll through The Jenius' posts, or a daily local puppy-trainer rag We call newspaper and you'll quickly come to the conclusion that We are neck-deep in problems. Serious problems. Problems that go way back to before "No hago más ná'" captured Our fondest wish and made it danceable. We are so deep into these problems that a whole host of vermin have come up to feed on them, to literally stake their lives on them, to entrench themselves in the sewage and thrive on it, while deep in their miniscule brains they fear being exposed to light, to having their feces-filled wallow drained so that others--more worthy and virtuous--can thrive better.

And Banco Popular is a massive slug in that vermin horde. (Paid back the TARP money, BP? Made the minimum percentage of loans to local clients, BP? Stopped using The Larva's wife's law firm as your principal mortgage legal advisors, BP? Got your stock back up over a dollar a share, penny-stupid and dollar-useless BP?)

Now here's the thing: this campaign is nothing new. And all it does is lend credence to a conclusion I stated in 2001 in My columns at PuertoRican.com com, and revisited in 2005 here in The Jenius. And because it applies so well, here it is again, the "Glee-ified" version of Our "Animal Farm":


Puerto Rican.com 008 – Week of 10 December 2001

Animal Farm
By Gil C. Schmidt

When I was a youngster, I overheard a man’s brief rant about “those in power” and how they had a “conspiracy” to keep Puerto Ricans ignorant, and thus, controllable. He pointed out how the educational system (this was in the late 1970s) was a mess, how the newspapers were written “for morons” and how politicians and others, “those in power”, kept manipulating “everything” to retain their grasp on the populace.

At the time, I thought he was crazy. A conspiracy? To keep people, as he said, “stupid”? A deliberate effort to not educate people? What was wrong with this guy? Hell, nobody seemed to be paying attention to him… Seemed to. For a little, insistent voice in my head was saying he might be right…and no one there was even trying to contradict him.

This was a small incident, but over the years, I’ve recalled it several times and mentioned it once before. The whole incident came roaring back when I saw the latest TV ad campaign and the title “Animal Farm” flashed into my head as the commercial ended.

The government (under Sila "Quitter" Calderón) has created a series of ads featuring business leaders encouraging effort, and now another series with “commoners”. (I only saw one, but I imagine there are at least one or two more) Their catch-line now is: “Adelante con Fuerza, Puerto Rico”. (Roughly: “Onward with Force/Strength/Energy, Puerto Rico.”) Supposedly common citizens urging their fellow citizens to make a greater effort. And all I could think of was the Horse, in “Animal Farm”.

George Orwell’s often heavy-handed fable of animals taking over a farm and creating a progressively-debased “utopia” is great reading. In it, the Horse is by far the strongest animal, capable of doing almost all of the necessary heavy work. But, his muscle is not matched by his brain. As things are going to pot on the Farm, his only comment and response is “I must work harder. I must work harder!” And so he does, with simple-minded, but poignantly noble strength. And while his muscles struggle, the Farm leaders--the Pigs--wallow in excess and create more chaos.

Oh, the parallels.

The reason I could never forget that man’s rant so long ago was the niggling feeling that maybe, maybe he was right. The points he made are still valid: The educational system is a mess, the media often does treat its audience as morons and what we see every week from our “leaders” has the acidly-sour taste of rampant manipulation in it.

• “Give them to me as children and I shall own them forever,” are words ascribed to Adolph Hitler.
• “The strongest protection of liberty is an educated people,” is ascribed to Thomas Jefferson.
• “Let him work harder!” is the Pigs’ implied response to the news that the Horse is struggling and dying.

And now, “Adelante con Fuerza, Puerto Rico”: Am I the only one who hears the subtext: “Work harder! It’s your fault! We have other—better!—things to do!” and the drunkenly-delighted cackle-grunts of the Pigs?

-------

I can't wait for the remix version of this musical, the Banco Popular production of "Ignore the screwing, just keep dancing! ¡Salsa de la buena!"

On second thought: Yes. I can.


The Jenius Has Spoken.

Who's Saving Us From Us?

[Once again, Global Voices Online gives wings to My words, this time about My blogger ethics. It's like Janine Mendes-Franco is a wizard or something. Or is she a witch? Okay, I should stop right there...]

I had an uncle who once told Me: "If you get slapped, turn the other cheek. But if you get slapped again, beat the shit out of the bastard because Jesus didn't say anything about what to do after turning the cheek."

I did put his words into practice a few times, with mixed results. Often, I was unable to turn the other cheek. When I did, and got hit again, I'd always go off and though I tried to win every fight, I lost a few. My bottom line was: I'd fight even if the reason was wrong.

Now I look at My Island and I see a people that turn the other cheek 3-4 times, pretend their neck is a cheek, offer up butt cheeks, use their kids' cheeks, write "cheek" on their hands and offer those up for beatings, anything to avoid the "Fuck it, it's time to fight" moment.  As Jenius commenter (and outright Genius) Prometeo stated in his blog, We're "soft." (He used a different word; I'm letting you discover which one.) I called Us "cowards." Time to revisit that insult.

Within days of arriving in Puerto Rico, a person will be confronted by an island awash in problems. Here's a partial list: sub-standard (and sometimes sub-human) education; rampant political corruption; enormous unemployment; welfare recipients by the hundreds of thousands; overwhelming crime and underachieving law enforcement; consumerist mentality linked to a stagnant economy; religious leaders that act like criminals; media that acts like traitors and a self-image that seems to be based more on delusion and id than on pride and self-confidence. In short, We are fucked up.

But are We really doing anything about it? About anything on that list?

We are. We have to be. Somebody, somewhere, in some way, is doing something, however small, to plug the crumbling dam of Our society. It's impossible, even for Us, to have everyone being corrupt, for everyone to be a slacker, for all of Us to be parasites, for each of Our people to be a walking waste of human flesh, like Our politicians. Some of Us are saving Us...from Us.

But in the math of social disintegration, it isn't necessary for everyone to be a crook, thief, rapist, murderer, abuser, pederast or politician: it's enough that the good let the bad flourish. In short, the bad grows when the good allow it.

I don't have to be a bad person or engage in bad acts to aid and abet in the disintegration of My society: I simply have to be indifferent. To the bad. And even to the good, for if I don't acknowledge the good, and thus offer it support, I am "dis-encouraging" it as an acceptable path.

Now I can claim I'm too busy or too important or too caring about My family or too tired or whatever to try to excuse My indifference. Any way you choose to try to excuse it, all you're really doing is choosing to turn the other cheek.

Again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.

At what point does one look at this behavior, where in the face of active attempts against a person that person does nothing, and say "S/He is soft"? At what point, as this non-reaction continues, does someone say "S/He is a coward"? At what point does someone say "S/He deserves every bit of pain they get, for they have done nothing to reject it"?

I passed the point of calling Us "cowards" long ago. I'm pretty damn sure I'm very close to looking at My Brethren and saying We deserve everything We've had and have coming to Us.

Or maybe I passed that point already and I'm too soft to acknowledge it.

We'll see.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

Weak Bark, Why Bite?

[Jenial Gracias to Ms. Mendes-Franco over at Global Voices Online for picking up My post about the lack of libraries on My Island. While We're here, I do have a book compiling My pre-hiatus GVO appearances, and it is free. Right sidebar, click to download, thank you.]

Bruce Levin posted this on his blog: 8 Ways Young Americans’ Resistance to Domination Has Been Subdued.

I've removed most of his commentary (well worth reading) to apply his observations to My Brethren, older and younger than Me:


1. Student-Loan Debt: For Us, it's all debt. As Levine says: "Large debt—and the fear it creates—is a pacifying force." Our people are owned by the bank and the finance companies, so they are owned by their jobs and own nothing. Our freedom of choice is used--as We shall see below--to give it all away. We are idiots.

2. Psychopathologizing and Medicating Noncompliance. I coach a youth basketball team of 12 kids coming from 11 families (two are brothers). In seven of those families, I have heard one parent or grandparent mention Ritalin or some similar medication to "help" the boy. And several of the fathers and stepfathers cannot imagine spending an outing--with or without the boys--unless there's a few cases of beer to pass the time. We see drugs as a way to control and deal with "reality," easy fixes for what We can't face up to.

3. Schools That Educate for Compliance and Not for Democracy: Levine quotes New York Teacher of the Year, John Taylor Gatto, who said: “The truth is that schools don’t really teach anything except how to obey orders." I've danced around this thought for too long, so here it is: Schools ruin Our children for anything but being victims. Schools are not Our allies, but that of the system that wants to control them. And as for strengthening a democracy, latrines have a higher moral value than Our current schools.

4. “No Child Left Behind” and “Race to the Top”: And here's why: standardization and more standardization. Fit every peg into the same kind of hole. A latrine is morally neutral: these schools We have now are morally evil. 

5. Shaming Young People Who Take Education—But Not Their Schooling—Seriously. Mark Twain said it best: "I never let my schooling interfere with my education." For those who want to learn outside the system, on their own, freely, responsibly, away from the heavy-handed hammer of complacency and obedience, the message is clear: that is bad. Why? Why is anyone's love of learning wrong unless it conforms to that of the State? I'll repeat Myself: education controlled by the government is the same as propaganda. Period. 

6. The Normalization of Surveillance: Here on My Island, the police want to record protests and protesters. Openly. Without legal reason except "We fucking want to." In the States, a person got 15 years--15 fucking years--for recording a police officer making a public arrest. What thrives when the "powers that be" are left to act like hyenas in the dark is not democracy...but do We care, since We weren't taught what it was, have been trained to obey and fear losing Our jobs that turn Us into 1-day rerouters of money? Some of Us do. And We're your only hope, idiots.

7. Television: It has turned too many on My Island into dazed, fearful, useless batches of drooling baboons thisclose to mating with the diseased rhesus monkeys ruining Our crops. And here's another Levine quote about the convergence of TV with other digital image platforms that applies to a few of My basketball boys, especially My nephews: "While playing a video games is not as zombifying as passively viewing TV, such games have become for many boys and young men their only experience of potency, and this 'virtual potency' is certainly no threat to the ruling elite." Yeah, be a killer in "Call of Duty" or "NBA 2k11": real talent lies wasted and the hyenas are definitely not afraid of wasted talent, for that is what they feed on.

8. Fundamentalist Religion and Fundamentalist Consumerism: From Levine: "Fundamentalist consumerism destroys self-reliance, creating people who feel completely dependent on others and who are thus more likely to turn over decision-making power to authorities, the precise mind-set that the ruling elite loves to see." The get-yourself-into-debt movement, the practical application of the "Keep up with the Joneses" mindset has led Us down a path where We are convinced We can't do anything. And when it comes time to do something--and that point was reached over a decade ago--Levine has the reason why We haven't done jackshit: "Fundamentalist consumerism also promotes self-absorption, which makes it difficult for the solidarity necessary for democratic movements." In other words, We want Ours, but We don't want to help you get Yours. Too many of Us are too stupid to see that "I am You," or understand it when We read it.

Remember, O Tweeting Brethren, how last year's protests against the government firings, Law 7 and the university strikes was breathlessly hyped as the "Armapocalypse Goddamit Here IT IS Change Is A-Coming!"? But who said in essence: "No, nothing will change. Nothing."?

Damn right I did. And pinpointed that We wouldn't because of fear. Even a Jenius could make that call.

We've eschewed making the changes needed with ballots. Several times. Are We going to wait until We're cornered like sickly rats to actually do something, or will We merely bare Our teeth as the darkness swallows Us in the long night of the hyenas?

The Jenius Has Spoken.

The Forked Estate

A sandwich shop that every 11 minutes smelled of farts. A copy of the day's El Nuevo Día (13 July 2011) adding to the moldy air. Here's a rundown of what the first 52 pages of the rag had as their version of news:

** Canceled contracts in the public health insurance program threaten to leave some 850,000 insured with reduced or no medical services. The current government debt with the insurance providers is deemed to be $60 million.
** Local police brutality, fingered by domestic and international human rights groups, is being discussed in Congress.
** A plan is floated about to clear out the residents of Puerto Rico's oldest ghetto, La Perla, but opposed by 41 community groups. (I used the word "ghetto." It's the right word.)
** An open letter to The Larva, (non)governor Luis Fortuño, concerning beef purchases totaling more than $38 million made in 2010 and 2011 by the School Cafeteria Program, purchases that were made under open violation of state and federal procedures.
** Speculation that senate president Thomas "Mad Dog" Rivera will have to testify concerning his reading in the senate (none don't deserve a capital letter) of a confidential FBI document about the Jorge "Il Castrao" De Castro case. (Me here: Mad Dog's target was not the FBI: it's secretary of state(of chaos) Kenneth "What? Me Guilty?" McClintock.)
** The forced transfer of 100 acres of prime land owned by the University of Puerto Rico in Gurabo is now conditioned to an exchange of about 100 acres of equal-value land. Gurabo mayor what's-his-name wants to build--hahahaha--a school, a hospital, a public housing project, a nursing school and low-cost housing on the UPR land, currently used for agricultural research. HAHAHAHAHAhahahahabullshit.
** An open letter by medical service providers (through their association) that medical services would be provided by their membership while the health insurance lamefest was sorted out. (They didn't say "lamefest.")
** A bill to limit malpractice damages loses one of its authors, senator Lornna "Innsannity Is Hereditary" Soto, as Insurance Commissioner representative Alex Addams (Family) was more idiot than idealogue at the hearing. The cap, suggested by the (non)administration, would be $250,000.
** Housing incentives will be extended to help raise the number of house sales from the current rate of about 340 to 500 a month. But note: there are over 10,700 new houses on the market right now.
** Scotiabank wants to participate in the Private-Public Partnerships (PPP) fund sale, scheduled to reach $1.436 billion. Which is debt. Let Me be blunt: the current hyenas take the cash and We pay the debt. Woo hoo.

Pretty massive mess, I'd say. But Let's look closer at the mess, shall We?

1) Of the 52 pages in the daily, 23 are full-page ads. And the open letters were also full pages, most likely sold as ad space.

2) Of the remaining 27 pages roughly 7.5 were truncated by ads. The total amount of news coverage was 19.5 pages at most, about 38%.

Now I know that a newspaper needs to make money to survive.  But El Nuevo Día also owns Primera Hora, the second-largest daily on My Island. They also print El Vocero, the third-largest daily. So apparently money is either flowing like a river (or a sewer) or stuck in a hole. (I'm sure that given the management talent, it's the latter.) Either way, money is not the sole consideration.

No, the consideration We have to look at is "perspective." Does Puerto Rico have a true Fourth Estate? Or is what We have a "forked estate," as in "Stick a fork in it, it's done," or "One that speaks with a forked tongue"?

I know, for editors at END and PH have told Me, that management of the papers have repeatedly spiked stories that could "discomfit" either the paper owners or their cronies. The papers have a clear business slant, covering certain industries like a jealous lover (of their own wealth) while consistently ignoring economic sectors such as start-ups, agriculture and "new-tech economy." (That END is a powerful member of the so-called """Center for the New Economy""" is like having Glenn Beck be a spokesperson for the Gay Parade.)

Bluntly, Our dailies are the mouthpieces of an old guard dying a slow death. Over the past three decades, they have inexorably choked what little power the Fourth Estate may have had and turned what should be a crusading guardian of the public trust into a sycophantic, spiteful gossipmonger. The papers have long surpassed their utility as a trusted source and force for democracy, with their only usefulness now as ad litter and puppy trainers. 

Look at the list of news again. The average story length was under 450 words. In several articles, most of the "information" presented was disorganized, with clear gaps in the presentation. Most of the stories lacked a sense of context, placement in the overall "map" of meaning. On that basis, the best contextual pieces were the open letters. By far. Makes sense, since they hired people who could actually think and write to do them.

Our media is more than Our newspapers. That should be Our consolation, only Our radio and TV news coverage is barely a little better. The dominant attitude on radio is confrontational and on TV it's sycophancy, both coming from the same basic emotion: fear. A fearful guardian is an oxymoron, like honest politician or Larva leadership. Our news sources are nothing more than comedy acts: the newspapers are ventriloquist dummies with cracked voices that move their lips and Our other news coverage is a herd of Chicken Littles disguised as Daffy Ducks...but dumber.


A forked estate serves only its pathetic handlers: a Fourth Estate can build a nation. Our only option is to make Our own Fourth Estate, to forge links with the disparate resources on Our Island that can brick by brick build a true news platform. It won't happen overnight, but for Our sake, it has to happen. 


The Jenius Has Spoken.


P.S. -- Global Voices Online now has a podcast. The first one has an interview with Firuzeh Shokooh Valle, Puerto Rican with Iranian ancestry, who grew up in Old San Juan, worked in local news coverage and now edits the GVO webpages for the Caribbean, with strong emphasis on Puerto Rico. Check the podcast out and learn more about a true news professional that is one of Our own.

P.P.S. -- The Guardian takes on its own industry to reveal the depths of unethical behavior that ended with the closing of the 168-year old News of the World.

2 Hours 9 Minutes

[A Jenial Muchas Gracias to Janine-Mendes Franco for highlighting My "C-Section Gets An F" post in Global Voices Online.]


Opened a slew of bookmarks, not noticing one of them was for local puppy trainer rag Primer Hora. Paused a second before closing it...and saw the following headlines:

--Grandfather and granddaughter killed in Río Piedras.
--Man coming home shot several times in Carolina.
--Elderly man commits suicide in Naguabo.
--Man beaten severely in Ponce.
--Young man shot and killed while driving in Las Piedras.
--Man wounded by bullet in Cidra.
--Man shot and killed in San Juan.
--Man killed in Santurce.

The last headline went up at 6:40 AM. The top one, about the grandfather and granddaughter, went up at 8:49 AM.

At least 6 violent deaths and three horrible woundings reported in 2 hours and 9 minutes.

Two hours. And nine minutes. An average of almost 3 deaths an hour and one seriously wounded in the same timespan.  A geographic span from southern city and central-eastern towns to northeastern city and capital midtown.

Yes, the media believes in "If it bleeds, it leads." The Universe knows We have a crime problem like a bowling ball-sized tumor in Our chest, fueled by a myriad of problems that The Larva We have for (non)governor and similarly-positioned feebs can't even begin to give a damn about.

It bears repeating: We had over 1,000 murders last year and We're plunging towards more than 1,100 this year. Instead of stopping the bleeding, Our witless excuse for a government would rather shove a 93-mile pipe up Our...mountains, and across the north coast. Because, really, they can't make much more money off of these killings, so the bottom line needs to be focused on someplace else.

Six deaths, one a child, and three people wounded. Two hours and nine minutes of another Monday that shouldn't be on My Island.


The Jenius Has Spoken.

Really? "Puerto Rico Has A Human Rights Crisis"

That quote comes from Amnesty International, who weighed in on the subject vía its local representative, Osvaldo Burgos, as part of a recent forum. According to Burgos, police brutality and eviction/expropriation of poor communities were included as examples of these human rights abuses in Amnesty International's most recent report.

Now as with most things, there are degrees here. Police brutality and forced evictions pale beside the imperialistic throttling of living wages, as the U.S. of part of A. has shown wont to do in Haiti. That's obviously a human rights abuse of a higher--or lower--category. But since the abuse against Me will always hurt more than the abuse against someone else, Let's take a look at Puerto Rico in this context.

As defined in the U.S. Constitution, the so-called "basic" rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These are bogus, for "rights" are social constructs, a tit-for-tat agreement based on fairness, and thus don't apply to "Life" (who do you appeal to for fair exchange?), "liberty" (you have to defend liberty: it isn't a given) and as for pursuing happiness, as long as you can think, who can stop you?

Moving on. The basic rights, borrowing from Ayn Rand (a cerebral kook far too influential for anyone's good, but on the "right" track here) are the right to property (you can keep what you earn or acquire legally) and the right to individuality (no "group" rights; only individuals have rights.) An example of the second could be "gay rights" or "handicapped rights": just because there is a group doesn't mean it can get--or be denied--rights that any individual has. Therefore, the "gay marriage" debate is "THEY can't marry," but "S/HE can, provided it's with the opposite sex, even though that prospective bride/groom of the same sex CAN marry" which is ludicrous. Make the example "Blacks can't marry, but a black man or a black woman can get married, provided the other person, who can also get married even if s/he is black, is black" and you see the basic idiocy of thinking groups can be denied rights that individuals already have. Based on rights, laws forbidding two human beings from getting married are wrong. (And no, animals don't have rights because they can't extend any right by fair exchange. See above. Period. End of discussion. However, they deserve to be protected from Our abuses.)

It also means "corporations" cannot have rights that belong to an individual: by definition, a corporation is a collective, a group, so treating it like an individual human being--a person--is idiocy of the highest order, or should I say, Supreme (Court) idiocy? (And if you support "corporate rights" because you say a group can be an individual, then you have to support gay marriage rights because a community, the gay community--a group--can be an individual... See? Rand was right about some things.)

Another point: rights are all-inclusive. If Person A has a right in a society, then every person is a Person A. Men can't have rights that women don't. Blacks can't have rights that Hispanics don't. Period. A right cannot exclude anyone except if that person chooses/acts to be excluded. (Convicted criminals lose rights, but gain health care, gyms, paid-for education and in Puerto Rico get to swing elections because they are allowed to vote. What bullshit.)

Summarizing:

1) Right to property is the basic right of all. If you don't own what you produce or acquire legally, you have no other useful rights.
2) Rights belong to individuals, not groups.
3) Rights belong to everyone or they are not rights.

Okay, within this context, is Puerto Rico involved in "a human rights crisis"?

Under Point 1 above: No. We have the right to property (that We keep trying to get even more of it by going into deeper debt is the problem), We have free speech (in spite of Marcos "MouthFart" Rodríguez and his pestilent opinions), We have fairly good wage protection (especially for the too-many thousands working in Our government) and the legal system--creaky at best--works fairly well.

But what about police brutality, or mass evictions, Jenius? No one would say that the spate of police killings and beatings is a systematic problem aimed at everyone, or even at a particular group (UPR's money-grubbing attention hogs notwithstanding.) What We have seen is the lowest of "the finest" breaking out against the law and instead of enforcing it for Our protection, becoming the reason We need police in the first place. As for the evictions, squatters don't have rights. (See Point 2, above.) If I come over to your piece of land, your backyard, and decide to build a shack on it to house Mrs. Jenius and My 16 little kiddies, do I have a RIGHT to keep that land/shack? Of course not. So how is it a "right" because 50 families do it, or 75 or 175?

But are you saying things are peachy-keen, AOK, copacetic, Jenius? No.  There are abuses, but they aren't caused by somebody taking a dump on human rights:

* Welfare recipients may top 75% of Our population by November 2012.  Reasons: a bad global economy, Our elected morons threw away any viable economic planning since 1968 and We let them, local unemployment is effectively above 30%, emigration withers the middle class to nothing, Our government is in a feeding frenzy, like piranhas feeding on Our flesh and as long as We have Our bi-weekly or monthly check and a plasma TV to watch syphilitic retards mouth off, most of Us act is if We're okay. Our infrastructure is crumbling, Our society is falling apart, but why work when We can get paid to sit, spit, shit and ignore the rest?

* Government incompetence and corruption are widespread and ingrained. Now this could be considered a human rights abuse case, considering how it hinders the right to property...but it isn't, neither considered nor an abuse. Why? Because it simply exists across all levels and niches, targeting no one and everyone. It doesn't discriminate, thus making it the most democratic of Our largely-failed democratic processes. And so it remains largely unpunished, as the beneficiaries to the system fight tooth and nail to stay within it. This isn't a case of abuse of human rights: it is a case of abdication of the responsibility to protect them.

However, there is one clear human rights abuse going on in Puerto Rico, heinous and worthy of Amnesty International's flighty attention:

* Our murder rate is once again slated to exceed 1,00 deaths this year. Lives taken by force, not by a government, but by a society a government has failed miserably. Lives lost not because of self-defense, but because of greed and hatred...or have you forgotten the 18 gay or transexual persons murdered here in the last year and a half? What this means is that--according to Burgos and his Amnesty International lightweights--We have a society that tolerates, with casual indifference, the murders of hundreds, but gets all pissy when a policeman beats up a student.

Really?

The thing about rights is that when someone loses them, eventually We all do, because you don't have rights I don't have and I don't have rights you don't have. Any other stance is wrong. Our fundamental right to property is the precursor and reason for government, thus government is beholden to it and to Us...but not when We're indifferent. Our indifference fuels evils We choose to ignore, social and economic ills that are not easily labeled with neon-glare tags like "human rights abuses." Instead of focusing on vapid sparks, We should be staring deep into Our society and acting--pun intended--righteously against what We see.


The Jenius Has Spoken.

Obama Should Have Worn a Condom

I'm just a gigolo and everywhere I go, 
People know the part I'm playin'. 
Pay for every dance, sellin' each romance, 
Ooohh what they're sayin'? 
There will come a day, when youth will pass away, 
What will they say about me? 
When the end comes I know, there was just a gigolo...
Life goes on without me.

gig·o·lo n. 1. A man who has a continuing sexual relationship with and receives financial support from a woman. 2. A man who is hired as an escort or a dancing partner for a woman.

First visit by an incumbent U.S. of part of A. President since Jack Kennedy parked his ass in La Fortaleza. President Barack Obama, five decades later, spends 4 hours on My Island, has some sort of WeinerPalin--um, cockass...er, cocktail--fundraiser and departs with over $800,000 for his future campaign. From people who can't give him anything but cash.

If the "romantic date" begins at 9:00 PM, Obama was in and out by 1:30 in the morning, cash in hand, the tryst completed. We acted like craven clingers, too dowdy to have Our own loves, so desperate to get a soupçon of thrill in Our lives that We toss cash at a guy who simply takes Our money, whispers a few semi-sweet nothings into Our ears and departs quickly in the night, before the emptiness of the moment and its subsequent shame gets to be too loathsome.

Only We don't care. We had him for four hours!! Check that: Obama had Us for four hours. For $800,000 plus.

We got taken. We were used.

He should have worn a condom.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

Tourism? Nah. Tourrette's

The Jenius returned with a different outlook, a return to the more positive mindset of several years ago. Consciously. Deliberately. A kinder, nicer Jenius. So I read the following interview with Mario González, the current Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company (pardon Me while I suppress a sardonic snort...there; nicer Jenius upheld) and aimed My Jenial mindset at the good points.

And aimed. And came up with: Our "Tourism" is a spew of idiocy.

Fuck nice. This "Tourrette's-disguised-as-Tourism" company shit has GOT to end. Now.

(Fell off the bandwagon kinda fast, huh? Idiocy can do that to a Jenius.)

Here's the complete interview, from which I will extract some of the more idiotic outbursts of "Motormouth" Mario.

First, note the title: "Ladies and gents, Puerto Rico speaks up, finally." I feel the interviewers' pain, because I'm sure Motormouth Mario was in "Severe Bureaucratic Avoidance" mode and delayed being available for the interview until he screwed up and couldn't get out of it. Given the end result, he was an idiot for not hiding until 2012. [Disclaimer: I have exchanged a few e-mails and tweets with Raúl Colón, but never about this interview and I've never met Nelson Alcántara in any way.] 

The interview was under the banner of ETurboNews, covering the global travel industry:

ETN: Every extension is a brand, an identity, if you may. Can you identify what's Puerto Rico's unique value proposition? 
LAFUENTE: Unique value proposition is that we are more than sun and sand, which is actually one of our competitive advantages, our mountains, our natural resources. We have a beautiful tropical rainforest. We have the Camoway (sic) caves. We have a rich history, culture. So we have a diverse offer to our visitors that is, I guess, our competitive advantage to the other islands. 

If Motormouth Mario had stood up and said shitpissturdsandwich at 94 decibels, he would have been more cogent. His answer about Our unique value proposition is sophomoric at the ultimate best and the babbling of an incompetent primate at worst. Maybe the monkeys have invaded San Juan...

Motormouth, Puerto Rico's UNIQUE value proposition is your "elevator pitch," your 20-second "hook". You've been in office since August 2, 2010 and the interview was held on April 14, 2011. Isn't 8 months enough for you to learn what Our UVP is, or should be? And "you guess" about what Our UVP is? Verbal tic, Motormouth?

Here's an elevator pitch version for the U.S. of part of A. market that you can steal from Me: In the Caribbean, Puerto Rico offers a greater variety of tropical and one-of-a-kind attractions, along with ecological and adventure travel, all within easy driving distance on the Island and without needing a passport or visa to come here.  There. Maybe you can memorize that by the time you get kicked out in 2012.  "What about Europe?" you exclaim? I got one, but I'm not going to do all your work for you.

And a shout-out to Nelson and Raúl for the follow-up question:
ETN: So exactly that was the next question. What sets Puerto Rico apart from other nations in the Caribbean? Journalism 101: make sure the question is answered.

Moving on, in a downward spiral:

ETN: On Puerto Rican crime and tourism, is there a connection? 
LAFUENTE: There is no connection... 

ETN: In the history of Puerto Rico, has there ever been an instance when a tourist or tourists have been involved in such a situation? 
LAFUENTE: Yes, yes, there has. 

Motormouth answered the first question by spewing the party line, like a baboon chewing a banana. But take a look at this: A Google search for puerto rico crime tourism that shows Me 7 of the top 10 results are clearly negative:

#1: "If you look at the statistics, it's clear that Puerto Rico has a crime problem." WikiTravel.org.

#2: "...rising crime, drugs, AIDS, and other social problems plague Puerto Rico." Frommer's.

#4: "...to have the murder rate of puerto rico (sic) it would be about 8000 by now." VirtualTourist.com

#6: "I recognize that Puerto Rico has a high crime rate but it's..." GoCaribbean.com

#7: "Meet Sara Kuszak: Pregnant American Tourist Killed In San Juan". PuertoRico Country Toolbox.com (blog) [I have exchanged many e-mail with this blogger.]

#8: "...times accused government authorities of misrepresenting crime statistics for political (and tourist) purposes."

DollarMan.com #9: "Puerto Rico's crime wave reaches Condado hotels". USATODAY.com From April 26th, 2011, not even 2 weeks after the Motormouth interview. Did a crime wave tsunami erupt April 15th or am I missing something here?

Only one result is positive, #3 on My search results: "Little crime in the tourist areas of Puerto Rico equals a worry-free visit..." It's from the PuertoRico-Guide.info. Click on the link and here's the opening paragraph: In Puerto Rico auto theft, muggings, and drug trafficking are the most commonly reported forms of crime, so stay alert, lock your car, and use any security features available in both your vehicle and your hotel. Muggings are commonly reported on the Condado and Isla Verde beaches in San Juan, so it might be wise to confine your moonlit walks on the beach to the fenced-in and guarded areas around some of the major hotels. Is this in any way a ringing endorsement?

I know Google displays geolocated results, so what I see is going to differ somewhat from what a Michigander or Iowan or Kentuckian will see, but does anyone in this Web-savvy world really think that their results will be more positive than Mine? And based on that, can anyone with any brains really think that crime and tourism are not connected when people think/search about Puerto Rico? And who is the average would-be traveler--over 83% now relying on the Web for vacation planning--going to believe: Frommer's, a neutral website, a Puerto Rico-based blog or some pseudo-official "Puerto Rico Guide"?

Motormouth, stop obsessing about the party line and party lies and party bullshit and get to work on engaging the Web as the key tool for marketing My Island. What you "think" or "believe" is buried under tons of reality checks, made every minute of every day, around the world. Puerto Rico is not the worst place in the world for crime; it's not even the worst in the U.S. of part of A. But unless We tell that to the world and help others promote Our positives, you, Motormouth Mario, will be nothing more than a feckless shill of political hyenas.

More from the mealy-mouthed interview:

ETN: What efforts are being done to entice this (the lucrative gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered) market? 
LAFUENTE: Well, we - although we do not have a specific promotion or marketing to any specific group, the way that our marketing and promotions are made, our marketing and promotions program are enticing to all groups. So I am pretty sure that there are hostelries here that market to that specific group. So like I said, you know, we are very open and very inclusive for all groups to come to Puerto Rico. 

Remember what he said here: "...we do not have a specific promotion or marketing to any specific group..."

Later in the interview, he says:

ETN: Customer service is sometimes overlooked as a result of mass tourism, like it's not given a priority. Is this the case for Puerto Rico? 
LAFUENTE: ...Puerto Rico isn't necessarily a mass-driven destination and should not be a mass-driven destination, but putting that aside, it's just, you know, marketing for the type of product that we have here. In terms of quality, we are very, very aware of the importance of quality and service, and we are very focused on developing that important factor. 

Did you lose your focus here, Motormouth? If We are not "a mass-driven destination and should not be a mass-driven destination," then why is that "...we do not have a specific promotion or marketing to any specific group..."? Are We "not niche-marketing to the masses to bring in no specific groups but not the masses"? Are We "mass-marketing to avoid the masses and the niches as well"? Just what the hell are We doing, Motormouth?

Here's another example of Tourrette's-masquerading-as-Tourism:

ETN: Puerto Rico Tourism Company has boldly claimed that Puerto Rico does it better. Let's make this case in terms of tourism. What exactly in your view does Puerto Rico Tourism do better?
LAFUENTE: Well, we do many things better. Puerto Rico does it better. 

Echolalia or incompetence, as shown by the rest of the rambling answer?

Marketing a destination is not an easy task. Trying to market a destination by not knowing what's unique and special about it is almost impossible. But trying to do so by not even knowing what the hell you're saying is totally impossible. You need help, Motormouth. For Our sake, you should get it. 

For when it comes to Our Tourism, Tourrette's is not an option We should have to put up with. Ever.


The Jenius Has Spoken.

[Note: 15 May 2010: Hey! Back on 19 September 2008, I wrote a post titled "Tourism Tour(rette)". The more things change... ]

Puerto Rico: Teaching/Learning

On the heels of My last post (just below this one, for you blog noobs or Fools) (Parenthetical interjection here: In Jenius-speak, "Fools" are so-called government, business, corporate """leaders""" that almost invariably couldn't find their rectums with a mobile app/GPS combo shoved into it. Yes, that's graphic. They are that revolting. And the excessive quotation marks are My version of rampant sarcasm. Maybe I should write a glossary...) I'm continuing My line of "exploring Puerto Rico."

Here's an example, right from My Life: I have a dear friend, Jenius Supporter Extraordinaire, who just won a 2-year Education Master's Degree scholarship at the University of Helsinki. He's one of 20 students from around the world who made the cut. And why is he doing this? Because Finland has one of the great success stories in public education over the past 25 years.

And My friend, Alfredo, lives to change Our education system.

Worth exploring? Damn straight.

Now I happen to know Alfredo since 1998. He's the first person I made friends with when I moved to Cabo Rojo. He even introduced Me to My Wife, Mrs. Jenius, so if Alfredo ever needs two kidneys, he can have both of Mine. Alfredo and I have discussed education and 1,492 other topics at great length, which means I'm as proud as hell he's going to Finland to learn new ideas and teach them about Us.

Because that's the other part of this deal: Alfredo will teach the Finns about Puerto Rico. Now the general reaction of My Brethren to this statement is 23.6% "But they already know about Us!" and 74.8% "Why would they want to learn about Us?" Brethren, you know in your hearts that I'm right about this, down to the ratio. 

(You math whizzes can now get the missing portion: 1.6% will think "They won't care at all." You know I'm right about that as well.)

First of all, just because We're practically blind to the larger world outside of Disney/Orlando, Miami and the Bronx doesn't mean the rest of the world is like that. Second, Alfredo was selected--I believe--because he was as well-qualified as the other candidates, but also because he's from Puerto Rico. How many other Puerto Ricans do you think have ever applied to the University of Helsinki? Third, the Finns travel the world sharing their education success story; I even blogged about it. Twice. As smart educators, they know that learning is enhanced by diversity, and adding Puerto Rico to their mix, for what has to be the first time, increases learning for everybody. And fourth, it is an education axiom that "One learns best when teaching." For Alfredo to reach his maximum potential as an educator, he has to be an active teacher/learner...and the best teachers are invariably active learners.

It's human nature to project one's own feelings and perceptions on others. To think that Finland, or any other country, would not be interested in Puerto Rico is to project Our insecurity and lack of strong national identity. (Alfredo has lots to say about that. We need to hear it.) We swing wildly from "¡Yo Soy Boricua!" jingoism to "What We have is peanuts compared to the U.S. of part of A.," often substituting "crap" where peanuts should be. And again, you know I'm right about this. The proof: Any visit to a local zoo, park or entertainment center invariably gets compared to some mega-facility up north. The clear sub-text: What We have ain't good enough. The sub-text should be: What We have is as unique as what they have.

And that's the key: What We have is as unique as what they have. It doesn't demean what We have or disparage what they have. It simply accepts that each is valuable for each is unique. That way lies learning. And that's why Alfredo will be a great teacher in Finland.

We can all be great teachers, as well.


The Jenius Has Spoken.

Charity Really Begins At Home

There is an e-mail doing semi-contagious rounds around Our cyberspace listing facts We don't know about Our Island. One of them is that--on a per capita basis--Puerto Ricans are the largest supporters of World Vision.

My Brethren are most likely nodding right now, with thoughts along the lines of "Yeah, that sounds like Us." It does. Time and again, when a tragedy strikes somewhere or a need is brought to light, We come forward with generous hearts and hands. True, maybe the money We can provide is in the low hundreds of thousands, a fraction of the millions the people of the U.S. of part of A. can provide, but We share more per person, more consistently, than Our northern fellow citizens.

Why? I have two theories. The first is based on the traditional view of Our history as a forgotten corner of the Spanish Empire, subsisting on scraps and scrounging, where sharing became more than a necessity, evolving into a fuller expression of connecting with one's misery and sense of empathy. Mi dolor es su dolor. 

My second theory is that We share so much because We have a distorted sense of who We are. In other words, We share because We're confused about who We are exactly.

Now there are two ways to look at this theory, two personifications. One is that of the kid from the wrong side of the tracks who finds himself amongst the country club set and tries to fit in by living their lifestyle plus 15%, overspending in a transparent effort to impress. But that really doesn't apply to charity, which is quite often a personal action undertaken in private. Only a boor would go around boasting about how much s/he spends to help others and We don't do that.

The second personification is that of the insecure person seeking approval, one who acts not from a sense of personal perspective but from "social pressures," doing what s/he perceives is right not from conviction, but from a sense of guilt.

So are We "Keeping up with the Jones'" or "guilt-tripped"? Which?

Neither. Or both. But I vote for "neither." Does this mean My two theories are wrong? Maybe. I'm inclined to prefer being wrong about this simply because I'd rather believe that We are charitable and generous because that's how We are rather than think that We are envious/insecure/lunk-headed.

The fact is that Puerto Ricans have a long history of generosity, both between Ourselves and with others We most likely don't even where they live. Through good times and bad, We have stepped up to share Our good fortune with others' misfortunes. And in the long run, does it really matter why We do it?

I believe it does, but not enough to want to look too closely into the matter. Let's just enjoy the fact that when the world needs, We deliver.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Corruption Leaders/Followers

Happy Birthday, Sis! 

[More Jenial Thanks to Janine-Mendes Franco and Global Voices Online for posting My take on the FBI-led police corruption case.]

What does Us more damage: widespread corruption or stupid leaders? One could argue that stupid leaders "lead" to widespread corruption, or even that widespread corruption "leads" to stupid leaders. Hold those thoughts. For now, Let's just pick one or the other, as if the choice We made were totally separate. Widespread corruption or stupid leaders?

My vote is that widespread corruption does more damage than stupid leaders. Cynically, We've always had stupid leaders, but We've only had widespread political corruption since the Stupid (corrupt)Administration of the 1990s (which adds credence to the "they're both connected" theory noted above. Hold that thought.) We probably had widespread political corruption before then (depends on your definition of "widespread"), but We had notable cases of rampant corruption in the police force since the 1970s, so maybe We should take that into account.

It seems non-coincidental that Puerto Rico's socioeconomic decline is almost precisely matched to the 1968-1972 period, where a lamebrain (faux)governor packed the government with thousands more employees for three reasons: (1) to buy votes; (2) to make up for not having a damn clue about actually helping the Island prosper and (3) to buy votes. The expansion of government may have started a trend towards less accountability, which means greater chances for corruption, as evidenced by the police corruption cases of the early 1970s where the elite watchmen were nailed. When no one watches the watchmen, they plunge into corruption. In this case, stupid leaders launch the chance for widespread corruption.

But who was watching the leaders watching the watchmen? We were...not. The 1970s marked a fundamental change in local politics and the way Our democracy staggered forward. What was once a minority subject to a clear majority became the perceived--and thus actual--majority. In basic terms, the small government became the big government, and where once it was the government of the few for the many, it became the government run by many, led by few...ultimately for the few.

After 1968, the government quickly became the single largest employer on the Island. Day after day, the increase in jobs and pseudo-services fed the increasing tendency we have as boricuas to "wait for the government to do something," because the government was not only larger, it was closer, in the sense that more of Us were either in it or directly related to it by blood or friendship or patronage.

And where blood and friendship couldn't swing a service or fill a need, there was always patronage.

I said this before and it bears repeating: corruption is a matter of choice and if the perceived consequences are reduced, the chance for corruption increases. If you work at the Permits Office and you see one of your co-workers accept a bribe and get away with it, you might turn away in disgust. But if you see multiple instances of corruption with no penalties, you will reach a point where you think "Maybe I can do this, too" and then you make your ultimate choice. Human nature being what it is, risk-averse, when the risks are perceived to be acceptable, either because "no one is watching" or "everyone is doing it," then taking the plunge becomes much easier.

Now imagine what happens in a society where by vice of a huge government linking practically everyone on the Island, providing thousands of potential exchanges a day in a historically-stagnant economy, blindly electing the same double-handful of idiots to leverage their influence and hopefully benefit directly from it, saddled by an inferiority complex that greatly prefers a handout (or profitable shortcut, legal or not) to honest earning and increasingly bombarded by dozens of examples of widespread corruption a month?

You get Us.

We're a society that doesn't grow because We expect others to make Us grow. We're a society that doesn't make Our own changes because We expect others to make Us change against Our non-existent will. And thus We're a society where widespread corruption forces Us to live with stupid leaders. For no matter how stupid--or smart--a leader can be, widespread corruption cannot happen unless We as a society allow it. We can and have and will survive stupid leaders; We can and have but will not survive as a society with widespread corruption.


The Jenius Has Spoken.

Corruption Is The Norm

[Jenial Thanks to Janine Mendes-Franco, of Global Voices Online, for picking up My post on "fast food stamps."]


Just days after the current mayor of Vega Baja, on the northwest coast of My Island, was slapped with charges of corruption comes the news that the largest FBI corrupt policemen investigation is going down in Puerto Rico. At present, nearly 90 police officers have been arrested along with some 45 others for, amongst other crimes, drug dealing, providing protection to drug deals and falsifying cases.

Now I'm pretty sure that this "biggest cop corruption case in FBI history" is more a technicality than a reality, given the many cop corruption cases in places like New York, Detroit, Los Angeles and particularly New Orleans. The technicality comes from the fact that the FBI was not the lead agency in those investigations, which begs the question: Why was the FBI the lead agency in this one? Why did some 700 FBI agents take part in this case? 

There's only one answer: We couldn't tackle the case Ourselves.

Yeah, go ahead you jingoistic knuckleheads, bitch about it. And you gringos can nod your fatuous heads. You're both wrong. The reason We couldn't handle the case is not because the FBI is a federal agency intent on crushing Us nor was it because We are dumb and the FBI/Americans are smart: It's because corruption has become the norm in Puerto Rico and no local agency could ever hope to make headway against it.

You'll get proof of this when the FBI starts releasing its case information and makes it clear that they had to be dragged into it. Why? Two very powerful reasons: (1) The FBI prefers to focus on "big picture" investigations involving domestic crimes, not local "dipsticks dipping their sticks" imbroglios; and (2) this type of investigation makes it harder for the FBI--often seen as an intruder/invader/abuser of local police forces--to work with local law enforcement. Let's face it: to the FBI, Puerto Rico isn't worth aggravating their potential stances vis á vis the 50 States...unless there was no one else available to do the job.

And Let's be clear on this: this is in no way the FBI's fault. It is clearly, unequivocally and totally Ours. For years We have been tolerating a level of corruption that guts Our society like stomach cancer rots the gut. We ay bendito the whole damn mess away from Our minds in order to continue glued to Our big-screen TVs, distracted by Our equally-corrupt politicians and acting the whole time like the problem is someone else's to fix.

Well this time, someone else had to fix it. We've lost the ability to police Ourselves, pun fucking intended. We're no longer a healthy society, capable of fighting off infection: We're sick, diseased and without outside help, We'd simply get worse. How's that for "Yo soy boricua" pride?

The problem with corruption in Our police force was plainly evident years ago as the "elite squad" cases and the Cerro Maravilla incident of the 1970s proved. The problem with corrupt government officials--of both parties, you blithering idiots who see only "one party" corruption--has been equally evident since decades ago, and has also been "graced" by the presence of the FBI in the past few years.

To be clear, this is not a case of "federal" vs. "local," or "American" vs. "boricua" or much less "oppressor" vs. "oppressed": it is a case of an "outside enforcer" doing what the "on-site enfeebled" can no longer do. It is a case of the proactive actor doing what the pathetic patient can't do... or won't.

While We rearrange things to keep kids from learning and super-size the happiness levels of Our triple-handful of freeloaders, Let's notice--if only in passing--that We are losing Our society's ability to act in an adult, mature and self-responsible way, to the point where We don't give a cop's corrupt ass that it takes outsiders to do it.


The Jenius Has Spoken.

[Update: 8 Oct 2010: Quoted here from NPR News, but reported in other sources: "The civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department is pursuing its own investigation into an alleged pattern of abuses including use of excessive force, unconstitutional searches and discriminatory policing. That investigation could lead to the federal government taking a role in reforming Puerto Rico's police."]

[Update: 2 Nov 2010: From The Criminal Rap Sheet.net, a listing of Eight Terrible Police Scandals. Check out one Col. Alejo Maldonado, a bottom-feeding, verminous scumbag "cop" who ran rampant through Us in the 1970s. And note how 60 of "Our finest" got bagged for drug charges in 2001-2002.]

Fear Trumps Growth

Allow Me to remind you of a hee-yuge topic that you don't hear squat about anymore: cutting government jobs.

If you've read My previous remarks about this, you'll know I'm far from surprised. I even quantified My lack of surprise by stating that (non)governor Luis "The Larva" Fortuño would not exceed 7,000 firings in his 4 years (not) at the helm. According to the government's own figures, the number of jobs actually reduced as of June 2010 was barely 2,600...and this from the (non)administration that wants to trumpet high numbers. (So what I'm saying here is that they're lying.)

The two primary reasons for the (non)firings--sorry, force of habit: non-firings--is that We have used the government employee system to prop up Our political economy (emphasis on "politics," denial of "economy") and because We, as a nation, are a bunch of cowards. We refuse to face up to the very simple facts that (a) We are responsible for this mess, (b) We prolong this mess and (c) It is up to Us--and only Us--to fix this freaking mess.

We won't. At least not in the sense of proactively grabbing the leprous bull by the horns and making the changes We need; it'll be change coming from "everything's screwed up to total uselessness," and change is thus forced. And you know how popular and painless forced changes are...

The hullaballoo, the angst, the ridiculous excesses from Fools, protesters and pundits with the brains Nature gave a flea's ass all come down to this: silence. Inertia. A return to "failed business as usual" because, what the hey, Obama sent checks! We remain where We are--and shouldn't be--because We lack the courage to stand up to the challenges We have created for Ourselves and thrash out solutions for growth.

The saying goes that a cowards dies a thousand deaths, a brave person only one. Tell Me, Brethren, how many thousands of Us are dying a thousand deaths...day after day after day?


The Jenius Has Spoken.

Words, Past And Present

Let Me run this by you: I have found it necessary, when discussing past and present affairs, to point out in the strongest possible terms the general inability of the majority of this nation for self-government, and unfortunately, that the number of folks that are intelligent, educated and responsible enough (to carry out self-government) is too small when compared to the dumb and irresponsible.

Harsh, yes. Maybe a little over the top. But tell Me, My Brethren, if those words don't have more than a modicum of truth in them? Can you really say that We are capable of self-government, given that, since the Autonomy Charter of 1898, every time We have been faced with the challenge of requesting, demanding or negotiating for true self-government We have either punked out, screwed up or thrown away the chances through inaction, idiocy, incompetence or irresponsibility?

Even if you agree with the words above to a 100% degree, you'd still feel a little corner of regret for acknowledging that We, as a people, have failed to step up in Our favor in so fundamental a role as this. I know do...and I wonder what Brigadier General George Davis would say if he saw Puerto Rico now, some 111 years after he wrote the words above.

General Davis was the last military governor of the Island and wrote his opinion (slightly paraphrased) of the possibility of Puerto Rican self-government in a letter to his Washington superiors in 1899. That a lot of his off-the-cuff, paternalistic and even racist observations ring true over a century later is not his problem: it's definitely Ours.

Now some more words, about people We don't know: "Many of the neediest cases did not accept direct help because they considered it charity...that affected their dignity. This stance was so prevalent that even when they were classified as cases of extreme need, they preferred to go hungry and do without before accepting purchase permits for food. The ideal solution for the problem was the idea of an exchange--a food purchase permit in exchange for a day of work--for this preserved the admirable instinct of self-esteem..."

Of course, if now I ask you "What people are We talking about?" you'll say "Us" (as in "Puerto Ricans"), but let Me ask this instead: When was this written? There, think about that for a minute...

That quote came from the Puerto Rican Emergency Relief Administration (PRERA) Annual Report of 1935.

That's why I say We don't know these people anymore: those of the iron-willed dignity to make their own way in the world, to eschew charity in favor of fair exchange, to deny themselves the easy handout despite incredible hardships, those that We can look up to as a stronger breed of Us, they are either dead or dying out daily. They are certainly not Us, not Us of the fawning sycophancy to Uncle Sam's checkbook, not Us for whom a day's pay for a dishonest half-day's work is dumber than a day's pay for no work, not Us for whom pride, dignity and integrity are words that best apply to somebody else that We scoff at for not having as much ill-gotten gains as We.

Yes, harsh. Painful, too. The same folks that Gen. Davis thought incapable of self-government had a core of self-esteem We seemed to have lost. Instead of growing, We have become smaller, instead of gaining moral values along with material goods We apparently have tossed the former out to better grab at the latter. And then We wonder why We have the government We have, the corruption We fester with and the backsliding capacity for progress that keeps Us running, not in the same place, but backwards.

Words from the past, that haunt Our present and point towards a dark, sad future.


The Jenius Has Spoken.

To Build A Bigger Pie

Here, let Me bring together My Idol, Roberto Clemente (today would have been his 76th birthday), along with Albert Einstein and Adolph Hitler to make My next point:

Albert Einstein: "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it."

Adolph Hitler: "It is lebensraum that will determine whether We survive and grow or diminish and die as a people."

Roberto Clemente: "Any time you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don't, then you are wasting your time on Earth.''

Of course I tossed in Hitler for the shock value, but his point about lebensraum--living space--is at the crux of My upcoming point. Whereas Hitler, the descendant of Jewish grandparents, was thinking in terms of military conquest of lands and resources, I am thinking of "living space" in terms of the socioeconomic resources and opportunities We need for Puerto Rico to grow as a nation. We need to create more lebensraum for Ourselves. It's a process long overdue.

(Some of you will now equate Me with Hitler. Join the club.)

Advocating more lebensraum for Us brings Us to the Einstein quote, a very familiar one for many folks. It places the responsibility--and ability--to overcome any created situation upon the people who wittingly or unwittingly created it. In short: We can overcome Our problems...if We choose to.

Quoting Albert again: "Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them." (He didn't capitalize "we" and neither shall I. This time.) But what Albert left out was what Clemente added: We have to make the difference because the alternative is a waste of time.

Take a glance or three over at Dondequiera, where Don Dees returns after a short break to encourage Us to "make more pie," i.e., overcome the sheer idiocy of seeing Our entire society as a "zero-sum game." Mr. Dees and I have spoken at length about this topic, he from the point of view of an American who cares about the present and future he and his family have here and Me from the POV of a boricua who's tired of seeing his Island consistently come up short when it comes to achieving real progress (and concerned about his family's present and future as well.)

Now for those of you who may not know what the term means, a "zero-sum game" is one where My victory is your loss. Think "chess" or "football." One winner, one or some losers and victory cannot happen without an equal (or greater) loss. Political campaigns are another example of a zero-sum game, with one winner and one or more losers. To see everything as a zero-sum game--as We so frequently do in Puerto Rico--leads to zero-sum mentality, where every gain is viewed as punishing the losers, every loss is viewed as an unfair gain by others and the idea of cooperating to build something bigger is thwarted over and over again by the "What's in for Me?" mentality that places "gains" well before "results."

Therein lies the problem. A zero-sum mentality in a corporation leads to political in-fighting that leaves the company weak and incapable of competing. A zero-sum mentality in a marriage leads to a stubborn refusal to even try to seek common ground, forge a compromise or better yet, grow with and beyond the conflict itself. When a society is dominated by zero-sum mentality--like Germany in the 1920s and 30s or Us since the 1970s--the results are either catastrophic self-destruction or soul-sucking stagnation that can lead to self-destruction. Guess which one We are in.

A society has zero-sum elements, such as the political campaign and sports examples noted above. But what a society can create and achieve is never--repeat: never--a zero-sum game because every individual has the capacity to create more than he or she can ever consume or control. What that means is that each and every one of Us can, if We choose, drastically change Our world by simply creating opportunities and results that forge new lebensraum for Ourselves and others. My victory doesn't necessarily come with your loss and in fact, My victory can often become yours as well. Just ask the dozens of millionaires created by Bill Gates. 

But this capacity for creation applies to both the good--profits, jobs, art, lessons--as well as the bad, as exemplified by Hitler and countless other harbingers of death and destruction. What makes the difference is built upon two basic elements: wanting to make a positive difference and conscience.

Wanting to make a positive difference means going beyond current limits and breaking new ground, using a higher level of intelligence to find and forge a new path that leads to a greater good. The easiest way to do this--as has been demonstrated throughout history--is to cooperate with like-minded individuals. Gates didn't build his company alone, nor did Michelangelo produce his art in strict isolation. Even Einstein's "solitary theorizing" relied on the work of dozens of other scientists to prove their worth.

The people that come together to create more lebensraum for Us have to believe that the world is not a zero-sum game: if only one of them believes the idiocy, the rate and potential for progress are hampered until that person goes away. Or if the group is dominated by that zero-sum mentality, then whatever they gain is at the expense of force, fraud, fear and/or folly, which like castles on sand, must be constantly watched and shored to last. That isn't progress: that is conflict, ranging from deadly to petty. For an example, see the embattled excuse We have for a legislature, a latrine of zero-sum crap flung by syphillis-crazed monkeys.

Where does that leave Us, mired as We are in Our society-wide zero-sum asylum? It leaves Us exactly where We are and have been for decades: forced to choose. Our choice has always been the same: continue to act like fearful whiners or step up and face Our future with the confidence that tomorrow can be a better day because We choose to make it so. To make a bigger pie, not because We'll get a bigger piece but because making a bigger pie is infinitely more rewarding that being a perennial crybaby.

And because, to quote Albert one more time: "All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual." It starts with the individual, with his or her choice as to what kind of society he or she wants to have. We deserve the best We can be...only too few Us actually believe and act upon that simple Truth.

Let's build a bigger pie.


The Jenius Has Spoken.