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Dick Cheney takes Puerto Rico by storm!

post #1 of 9
2/21/04 at 8:34am
Thread Starter 
Dick Cheney visited Puerto Rico for a $1,000 per plate fund raising dinner of the local Republican Party here (composed entirely of anexionists)! Of course he was received "Puerto Rican style"

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The independentists mounted a massive protest in repudiation to Cheney and the war (the photos of which are included here) not far away from the hotel where the dinner was held at the Condado area of San Juan. As always the anexionists were nearby with a counter protest.... some of them with baseball bats. Note: Once the anexionist counterprotesters and the independetists found each other the police almost had to call the anti riot division.

To make it even worse, the police had, for so called "security reasons" closed off entire blocks and streets in the whole area (in some of the the busiest streets of the country) to traffic and put the protest area almost a kilometer away from the hotel.... turning all of greater San Juan into a spectacular traffic jam.

As if all that was not enough, the hotel didn't allow anyone unrelated to the dinner to enter the hotel.... there were foreign tourists who had made reservations and were not allowed to enter the hotel! Not even the employees that were not "essential" to the dinner were allowed to enter the hotel or its premesis.

To make matters more interesting, in his speech, he never mentioned Puerto Rico until the last sentence where the "thanked" the people of Puerto Rico. (No, thanks, I ain't interested in being thanked by that idiot)

An American thief just came to Puerto Rico with a piggy bank.

Definitely.... Puerto Rico is the land where the strangest things on earth happen!

So... what do you think on it?
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post #2 of 9
2/21/04 at 8:46am
Victor,

This kind of "safety precaution" happens almost everywhere the big wigs travel, though it was probably a bit more extreme there.

It is pretty sad that he didn't say anything about Peurto Rico during his talk. That makes me think he used the same speech he gives at all fund-raisers no matter where they are held. Too bad.

By the way...I love Puerto Rico. One of my favorite graduate students was from PR. Because she was so wonderful, my husband and I went to visit her last year. We drove all over the main island (and Vieques...did I spell that right?) and loved every minute of it. You talk about the poverty and welfare system of PR, but if you spent any time in most of the other carribean islands, you would find what heart-wrenching poverty really is. My husband worked in Jamaica for five years....people lived in shacks, bathed and washed clothes in streams, and had only the food they could gather from the forest. So, when we went to PR, we were overjoyed by how healthy and clean the island and its people seemed to be. I know we were just tourists, and therefore did not see the real PR, but we sure fell in love with what we saw, and can't wait to go back.
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post #3 of 9
2/21/04 at 9:36am
Thread Starter 
Thanks! And yes you did spell Vieques right! hope you visited the lighthouse there. You can't go to that island without seeing the lighthouse.

Did you see Caguas? Its my town... its a city of around 142,000 inhabitants about 30 minutes south of San Juan via the 52# expressway. Its about the fourth largest city in the island.

As for experience in other caribbean islands... I have only been to the Dominican Republic (my favorite place to relax) and the U.S. Virgin Islands. You must take into account that despite the fact that our economy isn't exacly in perfect condition the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico are the richest of the Greater Antilles. If you go to the Dominican Republic you will find similar conditions to what you found here.

It is unfortunate at the same time that some foreigners hear about places like Haiti and then think all the countries here are the same.


Hey.... if you plan to go back here this summer... tell me! I will be very happy to meet you and guide you here a lot. I can perhaps even wait for you at the airport. Are you making plans to come here again?
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post #4 of 9
2/22/04 at 2:09pm
Victor, that would be fun! But, I am planning a trip to China (that was cancelled last year due to SARS) in May, and will be tagging along with my husband who is going to a conference in Norway in June. So, we'll have to wait to visit Puerto Rico for another year or so.

Yes, we did visit your city. I liked it better than San Juan. In fact, I liked San Juan less well than all of the other places we visited, though Old San Juan was wonderful.
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post #5 of 9
2/22/04 at 3:52pm
Thread Starter 
Looking foward to seeing you here!

As for San Juan, I don't like the modern sector much either. I guess its because of the fact that being a metropolis it has all the bad things all large cities have... added to the rush hour traffic. The thing I do like about it is the shopping selection. Here in Caguas you can buy every single thing... except books in San Juan there is a Borders, which I love to go to buy new books.

As for Old San Juan... you ain't the only one that loves it! It is the second oldest European city of the American Hemisphere (Second to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic). The thing I always enjoy while in town is the neo classical architecture, and the fortifications, it was the most heavily fortified city of the Americas in the Rennaisance. They had forts on both sides of the entrance of San Juan bay, had several defense lines for attacks by land and the entire isle of San Juan was surrounded by walls - all of them made of several foot thick sandstone. Any military historian's paradise
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post #6 of 9
2/22/04 at 4:32pm
Victor, my dad, an "Anglo", grew up in San Juan, because his father was a civil engineer and worked on a number of construction projects there. At one time (like 25 years ago), my Spanish was fairly fluent, but I've concentrated on German for so long that my Spanish-speaking colleagues say I'm dangerous. I understand 80 to 90% of what they're saying, but can't put together a reply! They tell me that I'm an "eavesdropper". I really wonder how many people were willing to pay $1,000 to listen to Cheney. I find your English very good, but would like to make one correction. Bush isn't making "trunked up" charges against Iraq, but "trumped up" charges. Hasta la bye bye! (Isn't "Spanglish" horrendous?)
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post #7 of 9
2/22/04 at 5:16pm
Thread Starter 
Jcat, I know its none of my business, but was your grandfather working in American construction projects or projects of the Puerto Rican government?

Back in the fifties and sixties there were a lot of modernization and public aid projects organized by the governor Luis Muñoz MarÃ:censor:n, which added to the post war prosperity in the US took Puerto Rico out of the extreme poverty of the 1930s and 40s in which it was poorer than Haiti. Due to the large amount of construction projects there were many engineers and contractors around here, trying to get those contracts, some of them Americans.

The other one is because there were so many military bases (14% of the island was belonging to the US military) in that same time, that probably it was for the U.S. military.

Jcat, if you are interested you can easily relearn that Spanish. If you are interested, you could try taking a small college course, on summer or in your spare time. Since you already have all the base for understanding Spanish, you can easily relearn it. The detail in your case maybe, that in colleges in your area, they will be taugh for German speakers, which may be a little more difficult for you than if it was for English speakers.

And thanks for the trunped thing... I've always heard that saying, but I hadn't had an idea of how it was written. Thanks

And yes, Spanglish is horrendous... when I hear Puerto Ricans who come from New York, I want to climb up walls...

Anyway, I want to learn French, but it sometimes feel so difficult... I want to try and read some literature and some daily readings of "Le Monde" newspaper.
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post #8 of 9
2/22/04 at 5:37pm
Quote:
Originally posted by yoviher
The independentists mounted a massive protest in repudiation to Cheney and the war (the photos of which are included here) not far away from the hotel where the dinner was held at the Condado area of San Juan. As always the anexionists were nearby with a counter protest.... some of them with baseball bats. Note: Once the anexionist counterprotesters and the independetists found each other the police almost had to call the anti riot division.

To make it even worse, the police had, for so called "security reasons" closed off entire blocks and streets in the whole area (in some of the the busiest streets of the country) to traffic and put the protest area almost a kilometer away from the hotel.... turning all of greater San Juan into a spectacular traffic jam.
You think this is bad, try having the G8 Summit in your home town! They did this a few years ago in Denver when Clinton was still President. So not only did they have one American Big Wig, they had Big Wigs from 7 other countries as well. And of course, for security purposes, they couldn't all stay at the same hotel, and the conference lasted for over a week. And the protestors....This was coordinated worldwide! Downtown Denver was pretty much shut down for a week. No one could get anywhere, a lot of offices just closed for that time because it was nearly impossible to get all your employees in to work between the security and the protestors. Everyone was happy to see them go, no matter what their political view!
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post #9 of 9
2/23/04 at 10:55am
Quote:
Originally posted by yoviher
Jcat, I know its none of my business, but was your grandfather working in American construction projects or projects of the Puerto Rican government?

Back in the fifties and sixties there were a lot of modernization and public aid projects organized by the governor Luis Muñoz MarÃ:censor:n, which added to the post war prosperity in the US took Puerto Rico out of the extreme poverty of the 1930s and 40s in which it was poorer than Haiti. Due to the large amount of construction projects there were many engineers and contractors around here, trying to get those contracts, some of them Americans.

The other one is because there were so many military bases (14% of the island was belonging to the US military) in that same time, that probably it was for the U.S. military.
Victor, I really have no idea, and my dad is no longer around to ask. I do know my grandfather was there in the 1930s and 40s (he died in 1946).
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