{"id":10628,"date":"2018-05-31T06:53:33","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T13:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=10628"},"modified":"2018-05-31T06:53:33","modified_gmt":"2018-05-31T13:53:33","slug":"orange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=10628","title":{"rendered":"Orange"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Carmen Yulia Cruz – Puerto Rico Politician<\/p>\n

We just learned that the official count of 64 hurricane Maria deaths in Puerto Rico was a bit low. \u00a0A study published 2 days ago<\/a> in the New England Journal of Medicine<\/i>, revises the human cost of this deadly storm. “According to the study, approximately 4,645 “excess deaths” occurred between September 20th, 2017 \u2013 the day Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico \u2013 and December 31st. That makes Maria the deadliest natural disaster to hit the U.S. in 100 years, with a mortality rate twice as high as Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005.”<\/p>\n

Why this discrepancy? What is the motivation for suppressing a true accounting of the death toll? Here is a speculative answer:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/politics\/news\/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-death-toll-w520914<\/a><\/p>\n

And they are still dying. The new hurricane season begins tomorrow. To be sat out under tarps.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I spent my 60th birthday in Puerto Rico with the ones I love most. It was all orange sunsets, orange drinks, orange lilies in the carefully tended hotel garden and orange glow of the sun reflected on the plazas and the beaches. I had no clue about the history of the place and was in too festive a mood to really inquire.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I am making up for that now. I just started reading\u00a0War against all Puerto Ricans\u00a0<\/em> by Nelson Denis, a Harvard educated attorney, film maker and former member of the New York State Assembly representing the district of Harlem. The book explains how America took colonial control of Puerto Rico, a “liberation”<\/em> that served corporate interests and fought any attempts at independence with state sponsored violence. It was recommended as a read that analyses how history repeats it self over and over again on the island, with shocking consequences that mainstream America continues to ignore.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/waragainstallpuertoricans.com<\/a><\/p>\n

The author has integrated multiple different sources to paint a picture of a brutal knock down of the national independence movement and imprisonment, torture and unresolved death of its leader, Pedro Albizu Campos. It is chilling to read. I have not yet gotten to the part where solutions are offered, just the announcement that obvious solutions are available but blocked by the U.S. I’ll keep you posted.<\/p>\n

Below is a\u00a0Democracy Now<\/em> segment that speaks to the issues in a short and lucid discussion, the author among the panelists.<\/p>\n