Elizabeth
Teampierre, Naomi Klein
20 October 2017
It's tough to shock
Puerto Ricans. Not after the presidential paper-towel toss. Not after Donald
Trump repeatedly attacked San Juan’s mayor for daring to fight for her people’s
lives. Not after he threatened to skip out on the island in its hour of need at
the earliest excuse.
Still, the fact that the House-approved relief package
contains $5
billion in loansfor the island, rather than grants, is a special
kind of cruelty. Because on an island already suffering under an un-payable $74
billion debt (and another $49 billion in unfunded pension obligations), Puerto
Ricans understand all too well that debt is not relief. On the contrary, it is
a potent tool of perpetual impoverishment and control from which relief is
urgently needed.
The very fact that the House of Representatives bundled
that loan into its sweeping multi-disaster bill (up for a vote in the Senate
any day now) is symbolic of a deep fear that has lurked in the background for
many Puerto Ricans ever since hurricanes Irma and Maria struck. The fear is
that however much islanders are suffering in the midst of their ongoing
humanitarian emergency, it’s the phase after the emergency passes that could be
even more perilous. That’s when policies marketed as reconstruction could well
morph into their own kind of punishment, leaving the island more unequal,
indebted, dependent, and polluted than it was before the hurricanes hit.
This is a phenomenon we call “the shock doctrine,” and we
have seen it play out many times before. A disaster strikes, public sympathy is
awakened, and there are grand pledges to “build back better,” bringing justice
to those who have just lost everything. And yet almost immediately the
emergency atmosphere becomes the pretext to push through a wish list for big
polluters, real estate developers, and financiers at the expense of those who
have already lost so much. Think of the public schools and public housing
closed and torn down in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Think, too, of the
way the 2010 earthquake in Haiti became a pretext to push for sweatshops and
luxury resorts, while basic housing was neglected and the minimum wage was
suppressed.
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