Before Hurricane Maria hit last September, Puerto Rico was battered by the forces of another storm — a financial storm.
The island’s own government borrowed billions of dollars to pay its bills, a practice that Puerto Rico’s current governor, Ricardo Rosselló, now calls “a big Ponzi scheme.”
But it didn’t fall into financial ruin all on its own: Wall Street kept pushing the Puerto Rican government’s loans even as the island teetered on default, with a zeal that bank insiders are now describing with words like “unethical” and “immoral.”
NPR and the PBS series Frontline spent seven months looking into Puerto Rico’s difficult recovery from Hurricane Maria. And beneath the storm damage we found the damage from those economic forces, triggered by a government desperate for cash and banks and investment houses on Wall Street that made millions off that desperation. Some of those banks found ways to make even more money that risked the financial future of not only the island but thousands of residents as well.
Photo: Carol Guzy/ZUMA Press Caption: Jaime Degraff sits outside on Sept. 23, 2017, as he waits for the Puerto Rican electrical grid to be fixed after Hurricane Maria. The island is still struggling with power outages.
this is fantastic now children in Puerto Rico wont be able to receive the education they deserve thanks to their messed up government
Its even worse than that. I’m living through it. Not only are schools closing, hospitals are collapsing. Only around 9% of the island has electricity and it comes and goes at times.
People are dying in hospitals because of lack of diesel for the generators, a lot of the water is now infected, there are disease outbreaks and scareceness of food. I am safe, but many are not.
Some have water, others don’t. We need help. Sending money would be helpful but what would help even more would be sending water filters, filtering water bottles, food, medicine, if somehow possible diesel.
All of you reblogging this news helps, but what we need is physical help. If you can’t, then spread the word, but God if you can send supplies… Please… PLEASE do. We are dying. Help us, help us save ourselves. Help us save our people. Help us save out ISLAND.
If you’re not in a position to ship or transport useful items to the island (which is sure as heck the case for me in New Zealand) then the best thing you can do is give money to a reputable relief organisation operating in the area.
tora42's nonsensne 