Saturday, March 3, 2012
Do you think Puerto Rico should become a state, stay as it is, or become independent? I have mixed feelings on this, I just want to hear other people's thoughts.|||Of course, even if Puerto Rico were to request statehood, the matter is one for the Congress to decide, and we need to decide that in accordance with the interests of the United States, and not merely from the viewpoint of Puerto Rico.
According to polls I have read, 48% of the population favors statehood, 47% of the population favors the current commonwealth arrangement, and 5% wants the island to become independent. That is not a sufficient display of public sentiment for statehood. As the civil war made clear, statehood, once granted, is permanent, and if less than half of the people want it, it should not be granted. When Alaska and Hawaii became states, upwards of 80% of the population wanted it.
Puerto Rico currently enjoys many of the benefits of statehood with few of the burdens. For example, persons who live in Puerto Rico, and derive their income solely from Puerto Rican sources, are not subject to U.S. income tax, yet U.S. welfare is paid on the island. Also, persons born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens by birth.
NOTE: The Yahoo! spell checker thinks that "Puerto Rico" should be spelled "Porto Rico," but I prefer the spelling "Puerto Rico."|||No.
Puerto Rico is just a territory allied to the United States. It is not recognized as a state because it does not wish to. No requests have been filed to join the Union. Puerto Rico is good as it is, we don;t need it to join the Union if it is good already.
Besides, 51 states doesn't look good as 50 states, just doesnt sound right.|||I wish they were independent. I can't imagine how in the world the U.S. benefits from having this relic from the Spanish-American War attached to us -- I think there is a huge outflow of welfare to Puerto Rico and very little good that comes in from it.
No way should it be left up solely to Puerto Ricans -- I think the rest of us should be able to decide first if we want to invite them to be a state -- THEN, when all 50 state agree, the Puerto Ricans can put in their 2 cents' worth (oops, centavos' worth).|||No, the American taxpayers cannot afford a 95% increase of welfare recipients, no I am no being bias or racist, Puerto Rico is mostly unemployed and right now America is heading for if not already there a depression with unemployment rate about to go double digits.|||The people will decide the right coarse. It should be entirely in the hands of the indigenous population. At the moment to stay as it is. In the future who knows.|||Should? I don't know. What do the people there want? I guess it's really up to them. It's no skin off my back if they want to be part of the U.S.|||That should be up to the Puerto Rican people and thus far, they have not requested to be a state.|||no because its an island
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Why does Puerto Rico have a higher voter turnout than USA?
ReplyDeleteI believe that international law is correct in requiring that Puerto Rico becomes a nation first, before she decides to do anything else.
Puerto Ricans have a voter turnout of about 80%. The United States (US) citizens have a voter turnout of about 50%. What accounts for this 30 % disparity? Could it be that Puerto Rican believe in democracy more than US mainland citizens?
Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States since 1898. Since that time, Puerto Ricans who have wanted to decolonize their country have been either assassinated or imprisoned. Many Puerto Ricans are terrified of independence for Puerto Rico as a result of 116 years of repression.
Since colonialism is always for exploitation, there are no opportunities in Puerto Rico for Puerto Ricans. That is why there are now more Puerto Ricans out, than in Puerto Rico. Therefore, Puerto Ricans are desperate to find a political solution to our eternal colonialism!
Most Puerto Ricans believe that decolonization can be achieved through the electoral process. But the electoral process is ultimately under the control of the government of the United States. Since the US government has ignored 33 United Nations resolutions asking it to immediately decolonize Puerto Rico, and it has maintained incarcerated Puerto Rico political prisoner Oscar López Rivera for 33 years despite worldwide support to free him, there should be no doubt that the US government will never allow decolonization via the electoral process. If it were possible to do it that way, we would not have it!
The better way to decolonize is for that 80% of the Puerto Rico voter turnout to instead protest in the streets to demand our inalienable right to self-determination and independence, and insist that the UN do the decolonization in conformity to international law. After all, colonialism is within the jurisdiction of international law and never under national law. That is why it is a crime against humanity to have a colony under international law, but not so under US law.
José M López Sierra
www.TodosUnidosDescolonizarPR.blogspot.com
Should criminals be in charge of correcting the wrong they inflicted?
ReplyDeletePuerto Ricans vote in elections every 4 years at an 80% level of participation. Puerto Rico has been a colony of the United States (US) government for the past 116 years. If the US government has the final say in what happens in Puerto Rico, what is the purpose of these elections? The purpose is to fool the world that Puerto Rico is a democracy.
The United Nations (UN) declared colonialism a crime against humanity in 1960. The UN has asked the US government 33 times to decolonize Puerto Rico immediately. The US government has refused. It says that Puerto Rico’s political relationship with the United States is none of the UN’s business. The US says that it is a domestic affair.
To appear that the US government wants to decolonize Puerto Rico, it promotes the use of plebiscites to determine what Puerto Ricans want. Doesn’t that sounds innocent and democratic? So what’s the problem?
To begin with, the international community already rendered its verdict and determined that colonialism is illegal. So to have a political status option in a plebiscite that favors maintaining Puerto Rico a colony of the United States is not permitted. To have a political status option of Puerto Rico becoming a state of the United States is also not permitted under international law. The problem goes back to the beginning of this article. In order to have free elections, the country must be free. So before these elections and plebiscite could be valid, Puerto Rico would have to first be an independent nation.
What people must realize is that Puerto Rico is a colony of the US because the US government wants it that way. That is why it has used terrorism to keep it that way. That is why it refuses to release the Puerto Rican political prisoner of 33 years Oscar López Rivera. That is also why it is ridiculous to believe that decolonization is a US internal matter in which the UN has no jurisdiction over. If we allow the US government to decolonize Puerto Rico, she will remain a colony of the United States forever!
José M López Sierra
www.TodosUnidosDescolonizarPR.blogspot.com
Puerto Rico should not become a state of the United States, just as I would not advocate for someone to marry the one who raped that person.
ReplyDeleteLa Segunda Marcha Oscar – Mandela en Nueva York 2015
Tendremos nuestra 2da Marcha Oscar – Mandela en Nueva York el lunes, 22 de junio de 2015. Empezaremos a marchar pacíficamente a las 9 AM desde Hunter College, en la calle 68 y Avenida Lexington, hasta la Calle 43. Haremos una izquierda para continuar marchando en dirección Este para llegar al parque Ralph Bunche (al otro lado de la Organización de Naciones Unidas).
Allí, repartiremos hojas sueltas para orientar al público sobre nuestro prisionero político Oscar Lopez Rivera y la relación colonial ente el gobierno de Estados Unidos y Puerto Rico. Estaremos en el parque hasta las 5 PM.
La mayoría de la gente no sabe que, todos los años, usualmente el lunes después del Día de los Padres, la Organización de Naciones Unidas (ONU) celebra una vista para discutir la descolonización de Puerto Rico. Los peticionarios usualmente se unen a nuestra protesta después que terminan sus ponencias.
La ONU determinó en el 1960, que el colonialismo es un crimen en contra de la humanidad. Desde entonces, la ONU ha emitido 33 resoluciones pidiéndole al gobierno de Estados Unidos (EEUU) que descolonice inmediatamente a Puerto Rico. EEUU ha ignorado esta voluntad de la comunidad internacional. ¿Qué tipo de democracia es eso?
El gobierno de Estados Unidos trata de mantener nuestra relación colonial la más secreta posible. Lo que nosotros estamos tratando de hacer es sacarla del closet. La ONU está en su tercera década tratando de erradicar el colonialismo del mundo. ¡Por favor, ayudemos!
La mayoría de gente tampoco no sabe que el Gobierno de Estados Unidos le saca 14 veces más dinero de lo que invierte en Puerto Rico. ¡Pero, para eso son las colonias!
Esta explotación salvaje le impide a Puerto Rico ofrecerle oportunidades a los puertorriqueños en Puerto Rico. Por eso es que tenemos más puertorriqueños afuera de su isla que adentro.
Oscar López Rivera ha estado encarcelado por 34 años por su lucha para descolonizar a su país. Por ser un crimen (el colonialismo), la ley internacional le da a Oscar el derecho de usar todo los medios necesarios para descolonizar a su nación. Nelson Mandela estuvo 27 años encarcelado por hacer exactamente lo mismo que Oscar. Por eso decimos, ¡Oscar López Rivera es nuestro Nelson Mandela!
Compañeros Unidos para la Descolonización de Puerto Rico invita al público a ser parte del tsunami de gente que será necesario para obligar al gobierno de Estados Unidos a excarcelar a Oscar y a descolonizar a Puerto Rico. ¡Nuestras protestas anuales son absolutamente necesarias porque, los que mantienen colonias no creen en la justicia para todos!
José M López Sierra, www.TodosUnidosDescolonizarPR.blogspot.com
787-429-1981