[Puerto Rico - Hurricane Maria] san juan mayor: this is a people are dying story

HowToBe

The Living Force
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/09/29/554646680/san-juan-mayor-this-is-a-people-are-dying-story
I think the title of this thread (taken from the URL) is better than the title used on the actual page: 'They Want Everything To Be Done For Them': Trump Hits Back At Puerto Rico Criticism

I heard someone say recently that it was incredible how little coverage there has been regarding Puerto Rico being practically wiped off the map by Hurricane Maria. This article contains some back-and-forth between Trump and the Santa Cruz mayor, and it might be timely to raise some awareness on the situation over there. I wonder if some of the other political distractions involving N. Korea etc. have tried to draw attention away from this issue. Is it being ignored so that people won't call as strongly for aid to be sent? (After all, such funds could be much "better" spent on certain other endeavors overseas.) There's plenty of talk about the effects on Florida, but Puerto Rico is part of the United States

Cruz's comments came after Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke told reporters at the White House on Thursday that the administration's response so far "is a good-news story in terms of our ability to reach people." She also said the death toll had been low for a storm the size of Hurricane Maria.

"She said that?" asked an incredulous Cruz during an interview with CNN.

"Maybe from where she's standing it's a good news story. When you're drinking from a creek, it's not a good news story. When you don't have food for a baby, it's not a good news story. ... I'm sorry but that really upsets me and frustrates me," Cruz said.

"Damn it, this is not a good-news story. This is a 'people are dying' story. This is a life or death story," she added.

At the news conference on Friday, Cruz said, "I am done being polite. I am done being politically correct. I am mad as hell."

"If we don't get the food and the water into people's hands what we are going to see is something close to a genocide," she said.
 
Here is an article from Wunderground.com with the latest on Puerto Rico. I've snipped out the first couple of paragraphs explaining the latest on Hurricanes Lee and Maria which are winding down. I left in the captions underneath the photos in the article, but do not know how to include the photos.

You can go to the link below for the full article, photos and comments.
_https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/septembers-hurricanes-are-over-suffering-isnt

September’s Hurricanes Are Over, but the Suffering Isn’t
Bob Henson · September 30, 2017, 3:49 PM EDT

Above: In this photo from Thursday, September 28, 2017, Sandy Nieves stands in the doorway of her heavily damaged home in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. Nieves said her greatest need is her home and especially her baby's bed. "We don't have anywhere to sleep, we don't have our stuff. We are all sleeping in one bed at my mom's house." Image credit: AP Photo/Gerald Herbert.

Torrential rains moving into Puerto Rico

Another disturbance, this one extending across the northeast Caribbean, also remained disorganized on Saturday. NHC gave this disturbance near-zero odds of development in the 2- and 5-day periods. However, as this system drifts west, it is producing pockets of heavy rain across the hurricane-weary northeast Caribbean. A flash flood watch remains in place for Puerto Rico through this weekend, and a flood advisory was in effect for eastern Puerto Rico through 4 pm EDT Saturday. Heavy rains were moving onshore from the east at midday Saturday.

Our next area of concern in the Atlantic will most likely be a broad area of low pressure expected to gradually strengthen next week across the northwest Caribbean, where very high levels of oceanic heat content are in place. Global models, including the 06Z Saturday run of the GFS model and the 12Z Saturday run of the European model, continue to lend support to the idea of a tropical cyclone forming somewhere near western Cuba and moving into the eastern Gulf of Mexico about a week from now.

A farm in Barranquitas, Puerto Rico, destroyed by Hurricane Maria

Figure 2. This undated photo provided by Hector Alejandro Santiago shows his farm in Barranquitas, Puerto Rico, destroyed by Hurricane Maria. Farmers fear Puerto Rico's small but diverse agricultural sector may never recover from the destruction to one of the island's economic bright spots. Image credit: Héctor Alejandro Santiago via AP.

How you can help

Over the last six weeks, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria have left a mind-numbing trail of destruction across a number of Caribbean islands and several parts of the United States, including Texas, Florida, neighboring states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Insured losses across these affected areas could easily run past $100 billion, and if past storms are any guide, uninsured losses could equal or exceed the insured amounts. For just one point of comparison on the scale of this loss, consider that the entire yearly budget of the U.S. military is around $600 billion.

A vast reconstruction and recovery effort lies ahead for communities and citizens from Dominica to the Florida Keys to Houston. The most urgent crisis now, though, is in Puerto Rico, where the power grid remains out, transportation is severely hobbled, communications are sketchy at best, and many thousands of residents are running low on water and food. It has taken more than a week for federal relief efforts to begin ramping up to a scale commensurate with the unique hurdles posed by Maria’s devastation. A report in the Washington Post lays out some of the factors in this troubling delay, which have uncomfortable echoes of the delayed response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The official death toll in Puerto Rico of 16 is almost certain to rise; we can only hope it will remain far below the horrifying numbers that resulted from Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi. Even if it does, the people of Puerto Rico are dealing with severe hardship on multiple levels—including this weekend’s heavy rains, which will be falling atop countless homes that lack roofs.

Figure 3. Angelina Rodriguez Lopez (left) waits for medical attention at Dorado Medical Center, in Dorado, Puerto Rico, on Saturday, September 30, 2017. The center was closed due to damage from Hurricane Maria together with a lack of fuel, forcing healthcare workers to provide aid from a tent hospital. Image credit: Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images.

Along with the work being done now by the U.S. military and civilian agencies and the Puerto Rican government, private citizens can make a difference by assisting nonprofits that are helping Puerto Rico as well as other devastated areas recover from the Atlantic hurricanes of recent weeks. At weather.com, you’ll find agencies dedicated to relief efforts in the wake of Harvey, Irma, and Maria.

The Portlight.org disaster relief charity, founded and staffed by members of the wunderground community, has been tremendously busy the last few weeks. “Portlight Strategies and the Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies have assisted many thousands of hurricane survivors with disabilities, older adults, their families and their communities over the past month,” Portlight notes in an update on its website. “We have been attempting to deploy several disability leaders to Puerto Rico and [the U.S. Virgin Islands] since Monday, and will have them on the ground identifying needs and providing solutions as soon as we can get their travel cleared. Among our leadership team are several Puerto Rican natives.”

The Hispanic Federation, which receives top ratings from Charity Navigator, has launched a dedicated fund for assistance in Puerto Rico. To donate to this fund, choose the designation “Puerto Rico Hurricane Relief” on the federation website.

A gofundme campaign from a group called ViequesLove is aiming to bring relief to the island of Vieques (population 9,000), located off the southeast coast of the main island of Puerto Rico. Vieques received a battering from the strong northern eyewall of Maria.

USVI Recover is the official site for recovery efforts in the U.S. Virgin Islands from Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria. The nonprofit Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands (CFVI) has established the Fund for the Virgin Islands, with 100% of donations benefiting those in crisis.

We’ll be back on Sunday with our next post.
 
Here is one of the comments from the article:

Puerto Rico Cop Calls U.S. Radio Station Reporting Corrupt Mayor of San Juan and Request For Help…
Posted on September 30, 2017

A very emotional female police officer from Puerto Rico’s police department in Guaynabo calls in to a U.S. Spanish speaking radio station to tell listeners what is going on in Puerto Rico. The police woman is very upset, crying and sobbing often, and shares how the Mayor of San Juan is politicizing the situation and not offering help.

The call and video was recorded September 28th, and highlights the corruption within government within Puerto Rico and the Municipal authority of San Juan. The video is English closed captioned (hit “CC” option) and a transcript is below:

Transcript:

Radio Announcer: What is your name?

Police Caller: I cannot give my name because I work for Puerto Rico’s Police Department. I need to pass this information out because the stuff that is being brought from the U.S. is not being distributed. They are not allowing the Puerto Rican people to receive the donations.

Radio Announcer: What part of Puerto Rico are you calling us from right now?

Police Caller: I am right now in Guaynabo.

Radio Announcer 2: Wow.

Radio Announcer 3: But what information do you have? What have you seen?

Police Caller: The Mayor, Carmen Yulin, is not allowing anyone to distribute… We need… what Puerto Ricans need is that the U.S. armed forces come in and distribute the aid. And that they stop the governor, Rosello, and the mayor, Yulin, on doing what they are doing… It’s an abuse, it looks like communism, in our own island (sobbing)… (sobbing continues, inaudible translation due to cries)…

Police Caller (cont.): People are helping us, but they are not accepting it, they are not accepting anymore help supposedly: “they have to wait for the license, that there are no buses.” …Let me tell you something Boricuas (Puerto Ricans) are dying of hunger (crying continues) … This is a bureaucracy, everything has to be protocol, the lines are stretched. …We can only give one box of water per person (sobbing continues). …The medics here, people are dying, the hospitals are in crisis.

Police Caller (cont.): I am embarrassed, as a Boricua to work for Puerto Rico’s police and see that we cannot do anything. There are dozens and thousands and thousands of food and when people ask we cannot give anything away because [Mayor] Carmen Yulin says that we cannot take anything out; because everything is a soap opera, everything is a show and there have to be cameras here and there. ….Because you know they are just looking for votes for the upcoming years.

Radio Announcer 2: Wow

Police Caller: And the governor won’t move unless there is a camera behind him; [Mayor] Carmen Yulin won’t move unless there is a camera behind her. This is how we are living in Puerto Rico, meanwhile artists are giving money and the people of Florida are sending stuff, and I don’t know how many more people are helping because we have very limited communication, very limited, and we have no idea what’s going on outside; and the people who are sending stuff, they have to come in; they have to come to help Puerto Rico and distribute what is being wasted …because what else are we going to do? You tell me, what are we going to do?

Radio Announcer #2: Of course the desperation..

Radio Announcer #3: We are with our hearts broken listening to you describing this situation which is heartbreaking when we know that so many people are helping …this is a police officer speaking.

Police Caller: I’ve been for one hour and a half just trying to download an application because the phones that they give to us I cannot use them as a police officer due to security measures. But I need to speak for the people because the people are suffering. Because I, as a cop, and other partners are seeing it. A lot of people have been posting videos (sobbing – inaudible) …and no-one is paying attention.

Radio Announcer #3: We are truly sorry for this situation, we did not know that..

Police Caller: If Cuba and Venezuela want to help and we are grateful for that; and that the government denies their help, the government denies Cuba’s help. …That they reject Venezuela’s help, …Look for God’s sake! Tell me how is that possible, we need help.

Radio Announcer #3: We are going to send this message out so that it gets to where it needs to get to…

Police Caller: We want the U.S. to come in, that the strongest forces come in and take the governor out, he is not doing anything, he is just going around and around, …and everyone is like: “oh, look how nice, the governor, he is going in the mud, he is going in the water”, And where is it? Pardon the expression: WHERE IS THE FOOD?

Police Caller (cont.): Look, grab the food, grab the sausage can and take it to the families! Stop the show! The governor is just doing a show, is all a show. There are many mayors that are suffering because they cannot do anything for their people.

Radio Announcer #2: What are they doing with the food? Is it being kept in storage because they are not allowing to give it out?

Police Caller: They are not doing anything, and they tell the harbors (ports) that they cannot bring stuff anymore. If the U.S. government doesn’t get involved they will finish us. We are going to end up worse. …Worse than Cuba, Africa, or worse than Haiti. We are living in an era that you don’t want to see, people are desperate. The gasoline, people are already killing each other. Not to rob you, they are doing it so they can be the firsts to get food and take it to their families.

Police Caller (cont.): Do you know what it is when a woman approaches me and tells me “I don’t have any more.” “I don’t know what else to give my kids because I don’t have anymore.” “Water and crackers”!

Radio Announcer #1: Sweetie, thank you for calling us and using this medium to denounce this situation; and good thing that it was you who explained this so that people don’t think that we are making up stuff; because this has nothing to do with politics. This is a very serious situation.

Police Caller: Very Serious (sobbing continues)
 
Moonbird said:
Here is one of the comments from the article:

Puerto Rico Cop Calls U.S. Radio Station Reporting Corrupt Mayor of San Juan and Request For Help…
Posted on September 30, 2017

A very emotional female police officer from Puerto Rico’s police department in Guaynabo calls in to a U.S. Spanish speaking radio station to tell listeners what is going on in Puerto Rico. The police woman is very upset, crying and sobbing often, and shares how the Mayor of San Juan is politicizing the situation and not offering help.

The call and video was recorded September 28th, and highlights the corruption within government within Puerto Rico and the Municipal authority of San Juan. The video is English closed captioned (hit “CC” option) and a transcript is below:

Here's the video:

Puerto Rico's cop telling the truth about Hurricane Maria's aid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Uc1pPsKt_s (6:16 min.)


Thousands of shipping containers full of relief supplies for Hurricane Maria victims are sitting idle on a dock in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Thousands of containers with supplies sitting on Puerto Rico dock Published on Sep 28, 2017 (CNN news report - 95,000 shipping containers)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtjUotvIbz0 (3:46 min.)


UNION truckers striking and refusing to deliver supplies over contract dispute with Puerto Rico local government and using Hurricane Maria as leverage. (Videos - tweets)
http://investmentwatchblog.com/union-truckers-striking-and-refusing-to-deliver-supplies-over-contract-dispute-with-puerto-rico-local-government-and-using-hurricane-maria-as-leverage/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4Z01o4tBlI (5:07 min. - CNBC news)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdnvu9FHscA (3:11 min.)

Puerto Rican born and raised, Colonel Michael A. Valle (”Torch”), Commander, 101st Air and Space Operations Group, and Director of the Joint Air Component Coordination Element, 1st Air Force, responsible for Hurricane Maria relief efforts, has the following comment:

…They have the generators, water, food, medicine, and fuel on the ground, yet the supplies are not moving across the island as quickly as they’re needed.

“It’s a lack of drivers for the transport trucks, the 18 wheelers. Supplies we have. Trucks we have. There are ships full of supplies, backed up in the ports, waiting to have a vehicle to unload into. However, only 20% of the truck drivers show up to work. These are private citizens in Puerto Rico, paid by companies that are contracted by the government”.. (link)

The ports are so full of relief supplies they can’t fit any more on the available space. CNBC ground report confirms Colonel Valle’s ground report. WATCH:

The reason for truck drivers not showing up? The Puerto Rican Teamsters Union, Frente Amplio, is refusing to move the product.

The toothless guy is complaining about a law that the governor passed three weeks ago.

The reporter CONFIRMS that the truck drivers are refusing to work in order to get revenge on the governor.

The toothless guy says that the governor’s policies have impacted truckers, so now truckers will show the country THEIR OWN suffering.

The reporters says, “But all this stuff is in the past. In the present, it’s an emergency.”

The toothless guy says that the country can now experience what the truckers experienced due to the governor’s policies.

The toothless guy says the truckers are not responsible for helping the country. That’s the governor’s job.

Three weeks earlier, nobody cared about the plight of the truckers, so now the truckers don’t care about the country.

This is all the governor’s fault, the toothless guy says. He passed a law, and now he has to live with it.

The governor didn’t understand the suffering of the working man, so now the truckers will show the country what suffering is.

Since the country doesn’t care about truckers, the truckers won’t help.

Meanwhile, amid floods and lack of power the Mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz, finds a way to get propaganda T-Shirts to politicize the tragedy on very fake news CNN. Go figure.


The San Juan Daily Star, the only paper with News Service in English in Puerto Rico, publishes 7 days a week,
with a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday edition, along with a Weekend Edition to cover Friday, Saturday and Sunday

]The San Juan Daily Star
http://www.sanjuanweeklypr.com/pdf/Sep-29-17/local.pdf

Featured stories and headlines for Sept. 29th:

Trump, Ryan Clear the Way for Gov’t Cash to Puerto Rico

On the defensive over the pace of federal help for Puerto Rico, President Donald Trump and congres- sional Republicans cleared the way Thursday for
more supplies and government cash for the hurricane-ravaged U.S. island. Trump waived federal restrictions on foreign ships delivering cargo. And House Speaker Paul Ryan said the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief account will get a $6.7 billion boost by the end of the week.

Trump and his advisers, meanwhile, defended the administration’s response to the devastation on the island, which was hit by Hurricane Maria on Sept. 20 with many people left desperate for power, food and other supplies. “The electric power grid in Puerto Rico is totally shot. Large numbers of generators are now on Island. Food and water on site,” Trump tweeted early in the day.

The developments Thursday came after Trump came under sharp criticism for what critics said was a too-slow response to a humanitarian crisis among Puerto Rico’s 3.4 million residents. (Article continues.)


Puerto Rico is likely to need far more than $30 billion in long-term aid from the U.S. government for disaster relief and rebuilding efforts following Hurricane Maria, a senior Republican congressional aide said on Thursday

US Aid to Puerto Rico Seen Topping $30 Billion: Congressional Aide

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday that $6.7 billion in approved hurricane relief funding would be given to federal
emergency officials in two days to help victims of three recent storms, including the most recent one that hit Puerto Rico. “A huge capital injection will happen in two days, so the resources are there,” Ryan told reporters, adding that lawmakers will quickly act on the Trump administration’s requests for hurricane relief for the U.S. territorial island.


he United States military will push forward a “Joint Force Land Command Component” and send to Puerto Rico the leader of the U.S. Northern Command, Lt. Gen. Jeffery Buchanan, to coordinate the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine response to Hurricane Maria

US Military Upgrades Its Maria Response

Gov. Ricardo Rosselló Nevares appeared at a press conference Thursday with high-ranking members of the U.S. military’s Northern Command who have arrived on the island to oversee the military emergency response to the Hurricane Maria catastrophe, including Brigadier General Richard C. Kim, who briefly took charge of coordinating operations between the military, FEMA and other government agencies, and the private sector.

“It is very positive to have people of this rank working with us,” the governor said. Kim’s tenure will be brief, however, as the Pentagon decided to upgrade the response by appointing three-star Gen. Buchanan to coordinate the military’s response in support of the Puerto Rico Northern Command, spokesman Luis Deya said.
 
Thu Aug 09, 2018 - Puerto Rico Admits Hurricane Maria Deaths +1,420
Farsnews

The government of Puerto Rico has quietly acknowledged in a report posted online that in all likelihood more than 1,420 people died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria — a figure that is more than 20 times the official death toll.

Hurricane Maria cut through the island on September 20, knocking out power and initially killing about a dozen people, according to The New York Times.

The government’s official count eventually swelled to 64, as more people died from suicide, lack of access to health care and other factors. The number has not changed despite several academic assessments that official death certificates did not come close to tallying the storm’s fatal toll.

But in a draft of a report to Congress requesting $139 billion in recovery funds, scheduled for official release on Thursday, the Puerto Rican government admits that 1,427 more people died in the last four months of 2017 compared with the same time frame in the previous year. The figures came from death registry statistics that were released in June, but which were never publicly acknowledged by officials on the island.

Although the official death count from the Puerto Rico Department of Public Safety was initially 64, the toll appears to be much higher,” the report, titled “Transformation and Innovation in the Wake of Devastation”, noted.
In another section, it said “according to initial reports, 64 lives were lost. That estimate was later revised to 1,427”.

The government was widely criticized for undercounting the number of people who died on the island as the power outage stretched for months, causing deaths from diabetes and sepsis to soar. Many people died from lack of access to hospitals, or because there was no power to run the machines they used to breathe.

After a New York Times analysis in December showed that even the preliminary data from the Demographic Registry of Puerto Rico indicated that hurricane-related deaths may have risen to 1,052, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló commissioned a study from George Washington University’s school of public health. The report is expected to be released this month.

“We definitely acknowledge this is a realistic estimate,” Pedro Cerame, a spokesman for the Puerto Rican government’s Federal Affairs Administration, said of the numbers in the upcoming report to Congress, adding that “we don’t want to say it out loud or publicize it as an official number. The official number will come, and it could be close. But until we see the study, and have the accuracy, we won’t be able to recognize the number as official”.

Cerame acknowledged that the final version of the report hedges the language to say that the additional deaths “may or may not be attributable” to the storm; the 1,427 figure was also deleted from a chart.

“I want to emphasize, though, that we have always expected the number to be higher,” he said in an email, adding that “the estimate provided was done using data from the Demographic Registry which was made available to the members of the media”.

The official death toll has not been updated, he stated, because officials are awaiting the outcome of the George Washington University study to provide certainty, adding that “once GW’s study is out, the number will be updated”.

Researchers at Penn State University had reached an estimate very similar to The Times’ assessment. A much-publicized study from Harvard University showed the deaths could have ranged from 800 to 8,500.

The final version of the recovery plan being submitted to Congress outlines ambitious projects for Puerto Rico that include major highway renovations, $15 billion for the Department of Education and $26 billion for the energy grid. The government has asked for $6 billion for repair and replacement of public buildings and $3.9 billion for environmental use, according to an announcement from the governor’s office.

“Puerto Rico has a unique opportunity to innovate and rebuild the Puerto Rico that we all want,” Governor Rosselló said in a statement.
 
Greetings from our Island Prisons........... Many more have died and are still missing and unaccounted for. My home the Virgin Islands is going through much of the same as our Brothers & Sisters in Puerto Rico, but you will never ever hear this because the minds of our leaders have been colonized effectively. Political incest has retarded the leadership of the Virgin Islands.

Fortunately for Puerto Rico they have the numbers outside Puerto Rico that support the human rights of Puerto Rico, (see 5th plenary meeting, Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, 5th plenary meeting, Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples) and WAR AGAINST ALL PUERTO RICANS.

The leadership of the Virgin Islands is and has been compromised since the majority of Virgin Islanders live outside the Virgin Islands & it has become more so, with the selected exodus of Virgin Islanders. Those storms were sent to kill us, provide a platform for gentrification using the weather. Was Puerto Rico the target of weather warfare from Hurricane Maria manipulation? Was the case the same with Texas and Hurricane Harvey? Cuba and Hurricane Irma? The video is very telling,

I could go on & on, but it is more than depressing to see that you are only considered slave labor for the elite. The plantation system is Alive and Well. Those of us who dare speak out are marginalized & penalized economically. Our petition to the United Nations, http://webtv.un.org/search/7th-plen...9373569001/?term=&lan=english&page=5#t=50m50s.

We have lost so many people, especially the elders. Some folks we have lost track of all together. we do not know if they were sucked out of their houses, moved away, lost by the military evacuations, etc.......Ughhhh. Many of us are still in mourning for multitudes of reasons. Our oceans & sea look like they are dying.
 
Hello 1peacelover,
Thank you for sharing that information. I am very sorry for the conditions on your home island. My grandmother and grandfather lived in Saint Croix for a few years and I have many memories about visits , some wonderful and other troubling ones mostly concerning the horrible living conditions of the non white peoples. Even as a young child I could see that the Caucasian immigrants had turned a paradise into a hell hole for the majority of the inhabitants. My thoughts and prayers are with you today.
 
Thanks for Posting the information, 1peacelover. :-)

There seems to be "two separate but related" themes running through your Post. I would like to address the Plenary meeting in this link below:

I could go on & on, but it is more than depressing to see that you are only considered slave labor for the elite. The plantation system is Alive and Well. Those of us who dare speak out are marginalized & penalized economically. Our petition to the United Nations, http://webtv.un.org/search/7th-plen...9373569001/?term=&lan=english&page=5#t=50m50s.

Quoted minutes of the meeting:

"7th plenary meeting, Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples."

The Countries (Islands) that this Petition specifically represents in this Draft:

19 Jun 2018 - American Samoa, Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guam, Montserrat, Pitcairn, Saint Helena, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the United States Virgin Islands.

Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples by the specialized agencies and the international institutions associated with the United Nations, Economic and other activities which affect the interests of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories.

The Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (also known as the Special Committee on decolonization or C-24), the United Nations entity exclusively devoted to the issue of decolonization, was established in 1961 by the General Assembly with the purpose of monitoring the implementation of the Declaration (General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960).

The Special Committee annually reviews the list of Territories to which the Declaration is applicable and makes recommendations as to its implementation.

It also hears statements from NSGTs representatives, dispatches visiting missions, and organizes seminars on the political, social and economic situation in the Territories. Further, the Special Committee annually makes recommendations concerning the dissemination of information to mobilize public opinion in support of the decolonization process, and observes the Week of Solidarity with the Peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories.
~~~

Two representatives gave separate testimony and a third - represented the Russian Federation. In his testimony, he basically stated that the specific UN Mandates were "in order" to proceed with the Draft - in the implementation of the Declaration - which is being requested.

First, I think it needs to be understood "that the legal process in granting Independent Statehood" is a gradual process of check and balances, through Mandates - that work towards setting up governmental and the management infrastructures to support the governing body. It's a complex slow process that involves but is not limited to - social and domestic programs, banking, financing and employment. These things do not happen over night but from the tone of the Plenary Session - everything "legal" (UN Mandates) are in order and proceeding in the direction of eventual - Independent Statehood.
~~~

In regards to the video, looking at weather in a boarder sense, the whole planet is experiencing fluctuations from "what is considered normal"? The Earth is a living entity and goes through periods of growth and changes - just like our human body. As for weather modification by the elites in Power, it certainly can't be ruled out but may only play a small part, in what is manifesting on a higher level, in planetary and solar changes (which "they" have no control over)?
 
Thank You angelburst29, for your comments and observation. Yes decolonization is a process, however the process is much more difficult when there is continuous interferance from various "outside" players who benefit from our colonial status. In the case of the Virgin Islands, for at least 30 years, the person who was representing us told the UN continuously that the people of the Virgin Islands are not interested in pursuing our Status. This knowledge was never shared with the inhabitants. For the most part most people like myself of indigenous origin have been trying to force the issue.

The United States as an administrating power has violated most if not all the elements of Resolutions 1514 as it relates to freely choosing our status. There are more Virgin Islanders outside the Virgin Islands than within. This is an intentional ploy. Today the majority of people who hold important decision making positions of are naturalized citizens with who came from somewhere else where they freely chose their Status. Only to come into my home and say as well as act being a colony/territory is fine with them. What they do not realize is that their children who were born in the VI are Native Virgin Islands. Indigenous Virgin Islanders make up less than 10% of a population of 100,000 people. Can we pursue Status in this position when our basic rights are ignored? The technique of divide and conquer is in full play. Most folks when they visit the Virgin Islands, it is assumed that most of the brown/copper colored people are Virgin Islanders. Not so.

Unfortunately, we have still not dealt with our own freedom as we were a Danish Colony with 95% free Negroes when the US purchased this geographic space for $25 million in gold bullions. This sum is more than what was paid for Alaska & the Louisana Purchase combimed. We fought & demanded or freedoms before 1848. We have been fighting to be free since at least 1493, since Columbus lay in wait for our ancestors on AyAy, now called St. Croix, Caribs: The Original Caribbean Pirates & Founding Fathers of American Democracy. These freedoms & issues continue to plague us. As a geographic space that has had 8 colonizers, this space is very valuable for some reason.

If you have read the reports on the conduct of the U.N. & our administrating power, the US.......Lolitta Island is Little St. James a cay in the Virgin Islands of the United States. The system is broken & continues to infringe on the human rights of the people they supposed to be serving. For example:

"Q. So PedoGate is real and “they” have to get Americans to disbelieve it?

A. Let me explain how threatening PedoGate is… Who wins? Trump. Putin. Americans. Russians. The world…. Who loses? Israel, since they no longer can blackmail our politicians, the same goes for the CIA. The Shadow Government loses. But, the people win.

Q. Can you give me specific instances of politicians being compromised by Israel?

A. Sure. Lolita Island. Jeffery Epstein, a billionaire convicted of pedophilia received a soft sentence. His island was rigged with video recorders. Many politicians have been compromised. It was a Mossad/CIA operation. Contact ex-senior CIA CCS, Robert David Steele. Bob knows and has even spoken about this with numerous reporters.

Q. So an ex-CIA senior agent named Robert Steele is on record saying Epstein’s island was a honey trap to lure our most powerful politicians into a extortion scheme?

A. Yes. There are videos of some of the most powerful players in the most humiliating positions. If this gets out, not only are the politicians ruined, but the extortion game is over and suddenly, the influence CIA and Mossad wield over Washington, is gone.

Q. Wow ! Now its all making sense.
https://stillnessinthestorm.com/201...ring-department-of-homeland-security-insider/

“The system is at fault, and should have stopped this years ago.”
"According to Macleod, anyone who’s attempted to blow the whistle on the horrifyingly rampant abuse is silence and fired.
Sharing his dossier with The Sun, Prof MacLeod last night warned that the spiralling abuse scandal was on the same scale as the Catholic Church’s.​
While the report reveals that there are 3,300 current employees who are active pedophiles on the UN’s payroll, Macleod estimates the real number to be far higher.

“There are tens of thousands of aid workers around the world with paedophile tendencies, but if you wear a UNICEF T-shirt nobody will ask what you’re up to.
“You have the impunity to do whatever you want.
“It is endemic across the aid industry across the world”.
“The system is at fault, and should have stopped this years ago.”

https://stillnessinthestorm.com/2018/08/horrifying-un-report-details-widespread-child-rape-by-high-level-un-employees/

There is NO Political solution to our situation in the Virgin Islands of the United States until there are people in leadership positions with Sacred Intent, Integrity, Responsibility and Accountability. I do not see that happening as we were the test subjects for electronic voting in 1988 & the legislation took out the protection of the vote. We have filed numerous complaint to the FEC. "Crickets." In 2010, 3,000 ballots went missing. Investigation by the Federal Attorney General, "What do you want me to do?" Hundreds of written complaints since at least 2000. We are still using these rigged machines in the election process. We have seen the flipping of votes. Yet the machinery continues on putting people in positions because they are compromised, but useful to the powers that be.

"ES&S refused to elaborate on how many of the systems had the software. However, they claimed that they stopped using it after it was explicitly prohibited in 2007 by the Election Assistance Commission. Whether or not this is true remains a mystery as the company has already proven that it will lie.

According to Newsweek, ES&S has had several blunders in the past, including exposing the personal information of more than 1.8 million Illinois residents in 2017 and in 2011, when machines were “flipping” votes, meaning a voter would select one candidate but a different one would be selected by the machine, which ES&S blamed on a “calibration error.”

Voting in the US, as TFTP has consistently reported, is rife with corruption and fraud. As the 2016 election illustrated, democracy is a sham and those who count the votes, or at least claim to count the votes, decide the outcome.

ES&S is not alone in their controversy either. In 2006, the documentary Hacking Democracy exposed Diebold and their role in rigging elections with their electronic voting machines.
https://stillnessinthestorm.com/201...systems-had-remote-access-software-installed/

Those who speak out are punished in various ways. If you are a government employee you can be fired. If you work for yourself in the private sector or hope to be, you are blackballed and you can't pay your bills, etc. most are forced to leave. However, if you are the right complexion the doors are opened wide. It is messed up when you have been indoctrinated to work against yourself. Willie Lynch is live and well in my home. Very depressing. Imagine, the peadaphile Jeffery Epstein only pay $1 for an island, yet our property taxes are rising with no reasoning other than to transfer ancestrial property into new hands. St. John being 2/3 National Park, much of that is stolen land and we are being priced out of our own existence.

Yes, Mother Earth is a Living Being, however, I see humans & their allies as parasites. Whatever is happening to our Mother is also being guided by other forces that as we know here on the forum, we are food. It is the conclusion of many of us that these storms we geoengineered. I have never seen a Cat 1 in the Atlantic go to at Cat 5 within days. During the storm we heard all kinds of sounds like in the Transformers movie. Steel was twisted around. A friend of mines house was shifted off its foundation.

When communicating with the storm, we were shut out. There was no communication, only rage energy. We have steered hurricanes away from us before. IrmaMaria was manmade or man influenced. If you are interested, this article may help give a better ovastanding of some of our issues.

"A few months before our visitation by IrmaMaria, we heard there would be less cruise ships due to our old and outdated product. As a result of the Virgin Islands no longer being in demand the cruise ship industry would be seeking greener pastures. However, not even one month after our disasters, the same cruise ship industry needed a port for their passengers. Who did they overwhelming pick? The Virgin Islands of the United States.

We must be the ones to determine our value, our worth and the potential wealth we can generate for the benefit of our youth, elders and the working man and woman. These critical virtues should not be based on the whim of our exploiters, but on our long term use of our product. The same exploiters conveniently forgot their part in helping to destroy our now/then outdated product and environment with nary a care."
Open Forum: Ay Yah Yaye

FEMA was prepared with thousands of body bags and one MRE per person with a liter of water. Banks were shut down. We became a cash economy. People who had money in the bank had no access to their money. Can you imagine that people were in line for up to 8 hours waiting for ice or water and food. Our National Guard was one of the best water making units, yet they were nowhere to be seen. Even if you were prepared for when the SHTF, what do you do when your whole family had to stand for 14 plus hours in a bathtub because everything was sucked out. It is still messed up & these people who have come to "help" are con artists that are assisting with the current raping and pillaging as well as displacing the local population. I will reserve any other comment on that matter.

Thank You again.
 
I appreciate the additional information and "the very well versed commentary" on the situation, now present on your ancestral homeland in the Virgin Islands, 1peacelover. Thank you - for taking the time - to explain your point of view and the conditions you are living under.

You have presented some very valid points on the political and environmental aspects affecting the Indigenous Virgin Islanders.

I would like to address some of the issues and concerns you have presented but there is some information, I need to check out and explore - before giving a proper reply, so that I have some facts and figures in front of me for reference. It may take me a day or two but I will reply to your Post.
 
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