 Stink Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Okay, we're back live, I'm J.F.I. Delens, Monday morning. It's the start of our broadcast day-to-day and week, and we're doing Community Matters, but today the community is not necessarily Hawaii Day, although it may be involved later. Today the community is the community of Puerto Rico. Okay, and my co-host for this show is, of course, Marsha Joyner, who follows things around the world and especially all over this country. Yes, thank you for inviting me. And I do, I do follow things all over the world because we are part of the world, and it's nice for people of Hawaii to know that different parts of the world, and especially other islands. Yeah, and our special host to look into what's going on in Puerto Rico on the ground is Nancy Wizard, and she is with the Puerto Rican Heritage Society here in Hawaii. Welcome to the show, Nancy. Thank you so much for having me. Great to have you. So, what is the Puerto Rican Heritage Society? What is that? The Puerto Rican Heritage Society started many years ago. Sure, because it was a whole wave of immigrants from Puerto Rico in about 1910 or so. Exactly, and it's very ironic because it was the same reason that brought the Puerto Ricans here back in the 1900s in, I believe it was, 1898. There was a hurricane that devastated the island. It was only a category three, but... In those days, they didn't have climate change. It's all different now. And it was also, they didn't have the structures that now we have. So it was a lot of devastation, and lucky for them, there were recruiters that basically went to Puerto Rico and offered jobs, and so they moved here, that generation to work at the plantation fields. And so this is a society that helps perpetuate the memory of the Puerto Ricans, the culture that came here to Hawaii many years ago. Interesting, and they follow the Portuguese lunas, didn't they? Yes. They were lunas, I think, a lot of them, yeah? Yes, and there were many other ethnic groups that came to work, but yes, there were one of the latter ones, and they were brought, it was entire families. It wasn't just single. So they really got along with, they had a lot of things in common with the Filipino ethnic group. And so there's a lot of people here in Hawaii that have Puerto Rican ancestry, and they might not really realize. Yeah, yeah, well that's interesting. I think one of the interesting things for our local audience is that in 1898, America decided they wanted the Philippines just like they wanted Hawaii at exactly the same time. So that was all a part of that. That was manifest destiny. And part of the Spanish-American war? Big war. Big war. I mean, for the purpose of manifest destiny, yeah. Yeah, so that's when they took Guam and Puerto Rico and Hawaii and so on other... Yeah, should have taken Cuba too. I'm only kidding. Anyway, so let's talk about, now when's the last time you were in Puerto Rico? Actually, it's been four years. I moved here 28 years ago. And so my parents were military and I decided to stay. And so the reason why I decided to stay is because I love Hawaii. And it was easier for me to stay here with the mode of transportation. I could just be a 19-year-old and make it on my own. I stayed on a six-month trial and 28 years later, I'm still here. But it took a while before I started going back. And then a few years ago, I decided that I wasn't gonna let five years go back without going. So the past two times that I've gone, I've taken my children and I have three grown children. They're 18 and 21, three of them, twins. And so last time we went, the next time we go, it's gonna be a complete difference because of this devastation of the hurricane. Just all the places that we went are going to be extremely... So even following the news, of course, and what's going on in Puerto Rico and you have friends and family there. So let's take a quick look at some of the news you've been following, some of the photos that you've seen, just to get a general idea about the level of devastation. Yes, oh my. Yes, and as you can see, people of all ages are helping, they're making... Is that why they're drinking stream water? So in Puerto Rico, we didn't have leptospirosis like we have in Hawaii. And so now they're having that problem and so people are being warned about this bacteria that can be deadly and with the problem of the antibiotics and the hospitals not having the supplies, the appropriate supplies, it's becoming a health threat. And here is the dam in Oaxaca, it looks like. It's pretty old, I guess. And so this looks like, oh, what's happening on the west side right now Yeah, that was a road once. Yes. So transportation, talking about the road, transportation of provisions will be very difficult if there is no roads. It's not that they're just holding it, right? And here you see it looks like a warehouse and just a complete mess. And everybody, like I said, of all ages helping, I have a dirty house right now sometimes I think, I don't know where to start. So can you imagine if you have an entire tree blocking your driveway or? So as you can see, you start working little by little. In my hometown, in an area, in La Sierra, in Ibonitos, 60 people were homeless. And here's a good example of how you could lose, even if you have a cement home, the streets again, the transportation. Look at that road, yeah, that road is not really passable. So the provisions might be stuck at the warehouse and so there's gotta be a little creativity in bringing the provisions to the inner towns. Yes. Again, what a mess. But as you notice, the roof in these houses, they could have been just completely blown off. A lot of people have water tanks there so that could have been also gone. Yeah. And yes, and right now they have very bad weather. Still? Yes, there is. Yeah, when we asked for a weather report this morning, there are flood warnings in Puerto Rico right now. San Juan specifically, yeah. Yes. We have right now the need is for generators and especially to help people with diabetes keep their medications refrigerated. A little things that we don't think about. What about oxygen? Because you need a generator to power oxygen. Yes, a lot of people that are on oxygen tanks and the people with diabetes were the first ones to notice. Do you know where that might be? I'm not sure, I'm so sorry. It looks like it's a coastline. It's a coastline, yeah. And every town, my friend Dr. Lisette Gutierrez went to Ponce and she's helping some of these towns that are really picturesque and we see them all the time. Actually a lot of people from Ponce came to Hawaii back in the early 1900s. And so those are some of the towns in the south. Ponce is known for the coffee plantations and then also on the west side, Aguadilla, Rincón, Rincón is famous for surfing. And so people from Rincón have to drive about an hour to the closest town to get maybe cash because the ATMs are down. We get our cash through ATM or we charge. How do you get cash without an ATM? You have to go to the actual bank and the banks are open to give you cash. It's like the good old days, I suppose. I suppose so. They're good. But it will be kind of hard if you are, used to living in the 21st century and you gotta go back to 1900. It's a shock, major shock everywhere. My little niece, they live in Rincón, which is on the west, and my little niece has asthma and they had to go to three hospitals in Aguadilla, which is a 45 minute drive and to find a hospital that could help her. And in the meantime my brother is waiting to get gas for like an eight hour wait. And that's improving the wait for gas lines but there's still lines for the bank and the supermarkets are not shelfed like here. We have food, you know, you just go and get what you need. It's a little bit more struggling there. I think that we locally need to think about that because I understand we only have two weeks of food stored here. And what would we do in a case like this? Exactly. And we have more people. No, we don't. Well, the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center came on Friday and they suggested that where the recommendation had been for seven days before, that is for your household, now it's 14 days. But I mean, some people would take that to maybe four weeks just to be sure. Anyway, let's go back to Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has been in the news for the past few years about its finances. And that means, ultimately that means infrastructure. So Puerto Rico has economic problems. I do. And it has bills it can't pay. And the last time I looked it was something like $80 billion unpaid liabilities. And, you know, territories and states can't file bankruptcy. But if they could, Puerto Rico would be filing bankruptcy already. So this has had, I'm sure, a profound effect on the way Puerto Rico worked and operated the way people saw their homeland and lived in their homeland before this storm ever happened. Can you describe that? Well, about the financial crisis that was before Maria, yes, it exists. And I think that the problem is that they don't have too many options. They are not a state. So they can't get the regular help that a state could get. And they still have to pay taxes. In fact, they pay higher taxes than we do here in Oahu. And some of their prices are very similar. I guess that the difference is they grow more their food. That's different from us. We bring everything almost, right? Ship to us. But there you'll find fresher food that's grown, produced there. It's an agricultural area, Puerto Rico. Yes, it's such a larger island than Oahu, but smaller than Hawaii Island. But they did have a problem. And I think that I'm not super knowledgeable about this, but I know that the Jones Act had something to do with that where the Jones Act you cannot receive unless it's from a U.S. port. That's the American ship. There's a lot of detail to an American ship. And if it's not an American ship, then they can't land in Puerto Rico. So that was one of the things. So there was a waiver recently with a storm. Yes. But it's a temporary waiver. It's very temporary. But that did affect the economy. And then there is the maintenance of the infrastructure. The Jones Act affected the economy before. As a matter of fact, we had a show a couple of years ago with members of the legislature in Puerto Rico and San Juan about the effect of the Jones Act. And they were effectively making resolutions to petition Congress to give them relief from the Jones Act. I don't think that happened. And it didn't. The Republicans did. It's really, really tragic. And of course, it will be tragic for Hawaii, too, when we get into the same situation. And we may do that just very thing. Just to let you know, these other islands, the independent islands, Dominica, for instance, not the Republic, not Dominican Republic, Dominica, which is independent. They had ships come from China and France and all kinds of places that couldn't go to Puerto Rico to bring them relief. But there's been a waiver of it. I'm not sure that. No, but immediately. Yeah. Because, yeah, it took a while to get the waiver going, which is really one of those tragedies. Well, we can take a break now, Nancy. But when we come back, I'd like to talk to you about how the people in Puerto Rico, too, observation and friends and family you've talked to, the doctor who was your classmate there, and that's Lisette Guterres, how they feel about what happened here, what's their state of mind, and also how they feel about the United States government and the relief efforts that have reached or not reached them after this storm will be right back after this. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. I just walked by and I said, what's happening, guys? They told me they were making music. I'm Ethan Allen, host of a likable science on Think Tech Hawaii. Every Friday afternoon at 2 PM, I hope you'll join me for a likable science. We'll dig into science, dig into the meat of science, dig into the joy and delight of science. We'll discover why science is indeed fun, why science is interesting, why people should care about science. They care about the research that's being done out there. It's all great, it's all entertaining, it's all educational, so I hope you'll join me for a likable science. Okay, we're live. We're back. I'm Jay Friedel. This is Community Matters here on Think Tech. And with my co-host, Marsha Joyner, we're talking to our special guest, Nancy Wazzard, who is with the Puerto Rican Heritage Society here in Hawaii. She is Puerto Rican and she has friends and family she talks to and she follows what's going on in Puerto Rico since the storm. So one of the things, we've seen the devastation. We know the place is really wrecked. And we know it must be even more wrecked because it was economically because it was in trouble before, big trouble. So now here we are, it's like devastation at every level, including medical. So how do people feel about the support? How do people feel then generally? Are they up? Are they down? Are they sideways? What are they telling you? Well, okay, so there's us that are watching from afar and so it can be a little hurtful. Hurtful. Yes, you know, there's a little bit of resentment that it took a long time for our president to even acknowledge that there was devastation at crisis, humanitarian crisis. And so, but you know, trying to keep things positive just focusing on helping the people of Puerto Rico which are a reminder that they are U.S. citizens. My grandpa did serve in the second World War and I always will ask him as a little girl why did you do that? Why didn't you go to the first one? You know, all in order. And he will say I wasn't alive but I did it so we have freedom. And so we are, well, we are very patriotic about being Puerto Rican. We also have, we are U.S. citizens and we are also proud to be Americans. And so that hurts. But how do the people in Puerto Rico feel? Well, they don't have time to be complaining about the treatment. They are just trying to pick up where they left and just trying to rebuild from there. They have been a couple of things that have been, you know, done incorrectly and I'm a teacher and well, as a child I was told not to throw things so, you know. You're talking about the paper towels. Yes, yes, that it's a, so what did I do when I first saw that? I did get a little bit irritated but what can you do? You have to laugh sometimes just at crazy, absurd things. You're very tolerant. I'm a teacher. But no, you have to, you shake your head, right? And you go, oh, gosh, you know, that's terrible. The delay on the response was, to me personally, I thought it was, it just took a long time. I'm glad that he did respond and that so many people didn't know that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens so something good came out of this. He did make the attempt to go visit Puerto Rico and I was glad that Puerto Ricans didn't, they were not filmed disrespecting the head of state or the president, right? Because then that will look negative. You don't have to get at that same level. So I'm glad, even if the audience, I feel that was maybe chosen to be there in that group. Maybe so, yeah, I would expect that. And now she won't say it, but I will. Say it, Marcia. The racism, pure, unadulterated racism, it took what, five minutes to lift the Jones Act to get ships into Houston, 10 minutes to get them into Florida and what, a week or so? I mean, what else can you say? When those people look like this. It's a presidential decision. It's a stroke of a pen, like that. Yes, just like that. And when they look like this and they speak a different language, let them, they're out there in a, what do you say, on an island in the ocean? A big ocean. Yeah. And then he didn't even know, he said he met with the president of the Virgin Islands. He didn't know that he's the president of the Virgin Islands. Oh, what can I say? What can I say? Well, I mean, it's just, I mean, if you looked at the future of Puerto Rico before the storm hit, you would say, well, they got a lot of economic troubles. And there was a time when statehood was a big discussion. Maybe it's not so much a discussion anymore. Well, they did, they have voted about two or three times. Again, I gotta check my. To say they want statehood? Yes, they have voted for statehood. But it's Congress's turn. But it's like, we want to come to your house, but are you going to accept us into your home? So it's more, now it's not on the hands of the Puerto Ricans, it's more like you said, Congress. The Puerto Ricans have already made official statements, governmental expressions, that they want to be included in the United States as a state. That would be the 51st state, yeah. So it's kind of like adopting this child that has many problems already. Do you want to accept the child with the, you know, financial crisis or, you know? So it feels like they're being used as well. Because when the focus was on the communism and the threat of Cuba being so close, then yes, Puerto Rico is important. And, you know, there's just so many political things that we can get into. Yeah, now, you know, seriously, there's, I do not understand when the pharmaceuticals are making so much money and you've got pharmaceutical factories in Puerto Rico. Yes. They used to have. Oh, yeah. So why is it that they're making so much money but it doesn't trickle down to the economy in Puerto Rico? I know you can't answer that, but that's one of those big elephants in the room. Well, I think, you know, the biggest elephant right now is how those factories are gonna come back online and whether they're gonna come back online. If you were selecting a place for your pharmaceutical factory, you'd want a place which had roads, water, food, electricity. Infrastructure, you wouldn't want a place with an $80 billion. Actually, it'll be a lot more later than it is 80 billion now because the cost of rebuilding is gonna be huge and I wanna talk to you about how that's gonna be done. But if you were a pharmaceutical or any factory coming to Puerto Rico, participating in the economy, offering jobs and all that, you'd have certain basic baseline requirements and they don't have them. So, I mean, what you have is an economy that's really blown up and you have an infrastructure that's blown up. So, where do you start? Do people talk about this? Where do you start rebuilding? In a way, it's good to have to rebuild because you rebuild better and you rebuild newer and you have more modern thoughts and ideas and approaches to solving problems, but it costs a lot of money. Somebody's gotta have the political will and the capital to do it. So, what's the discussion, Nancy? Well, it's gonna, right now, I think that they're just focusing on the present and just taking it one day at a time. It's gonna be a long road to recovery and I'm not even talking about the financial. I don't know how it's gonna happen. I think that we need everybody's help and the pharmaceuticals, I'm not sure if they're even going to be going there, but the history is that they will go and they don't have the same environmental laws that they have to follow in a state. So, they do take advantage, right? So, they do take advantage of the island and harm the island, but I think that we just have to focus on the recovery, providing oxygen, the generators, reestablishing the energy. One day at a time. At least hospitals, yes. Now, you had a fundraiser yesterday, gigantic. Tell me, do you know how much you raised yesterday? Do you have any idea? I quickly added everything, because you asked me that and actually we did pretty well. We raised $50 in cash, but that added to 1,083, no, 1,033 in cash, checks, 1,083, and then we also had about 400 in charges. We had wireless to make it easy for people to make donations. So, we did about almost 1,500, little short, which doesn't look like a lot, but like I said, a little grain of sand at a time. And we're going to... It was at McCoy Pavilion and it was gigantic. I thought everybody on the island was there. It was more than just the Puerto Rican community. Oh, yes. So, we not only raised for Puerto Rico, but we also are going to... People could also donate and make it for Mexico, for the earthquake that affected some areas in Mexico, Chiapas, Oaxaca. And so, if you're Mexican, you're going to want to support Mexico. And some people just said, split it. So, we took all of that down. And so, at the time of dividing the funds, we're going to take that in consideration and make sure that we allocate the funds where the people want it. So, who are you sending the money to? So, we chose, for Mexico, we chose two organizations, Global Giving and International Community Foundation. And so, I am not Mexican. And so, but I did my research and I wanted to make sure that people are actually getting help. And so, they got a four out of four rating on the charity organization, I guess, Grades. And then, for Puerto Rico, we were selling t-shirts and 100% of the profit of those t-shirts that sales is going to help Dr. Lisa Gutierrez, who is my classmate, and she's helping, she's going to the hospitals. She even helped the nuns in a convent. Shelters didn't have medication or supplies, so she's helping them. And then, also, for people who didn't want to give to, because she has a PayPal, Dr. Gutierrez, the other option was Hurricane Maria Recovery Fund, and that one, you can find it online. And so, that one also helps on different. Now, can people still donate? Yes, yes. I'll be happy to. And can you give us the contact? Sure. So, we have... Is there a website? There is some websites I can give them to you, but if you Google Hurricane Maria Community Recovery Fund, you'll see it. It has a flag, Puerto Rico flag. I can show you, I don't know if this will be too glossy for the TV, but it looks like this. Not sure if you can see. But that's what the website looks like. The website looks like this, yes. And we had this printed in case people wanted to see and learn more about it. And then, Dr. Lisa Gutierrez, if you want, she started with Doctoras Boricuas, which means woman doctors. Boricuas is the name of Borinquen. Puerto Rico is the native name. So, the native name of Puerto Rico. So, Doctoras Boricuas is another way that you can Google and help that group. And there are doctors that are going further than San Juan or where the president visited, yeah. One last question, Nancy. And that is, I worry about the future of Puerto Rico. I worry about getting its economic act together. It hasn't received a lot of money from the United States. Capital concentrations, those who might contribute or make big loans for the reconstruction, they haven't really appeared yet. So, yeah, they're trying to get oxygen and food and water, but the big effort has not really yet begun. At the same time, at the same time, I read that 10,000 people, like, a day are leaving. There are 3.4 million, but 10,000 a day are leaving because they don't have jobs, they don't have anything. They're American citizens, they can fly to Miami in no time, and they can get a job there. So, why stay in Puerto Rico? What do you think is gonna happen with that? Well, that makes the recovery harder in a way because the young and able are leaving, but I think that we have to make sure that we keep the hope and a lot of people don't want to leave. They want to really try. They love Puerto Rico. Family is really important. I think that for people like me who have been living abroad in the United States for a while, we just wanna make sure that people don't forget, and so we're just gonna be that pesky fly reminding you we're Puerto Rico. And so, I think that's important and that we do our little bits. It didn't sound like we did so much, but it doesn't matter. It was something more than we had before. And so, instead of worrying because that's not going to be positive and it's not gonna help, I think that we just gotta make sure that we all help whether you are Puerto Rican or not, and that we have the hope. Just keep that hope going. Marcia, it's time to close. So, why don't you make a closing? Look at the cloud yesterday. You did base awareness, and I think all of Hawaii was aware. And so, we look forward to having you back and seeing how the progress goes in Puerto Rico. And thank you so much for being here. Thank you, Marcia. As always, thank you so much. We love you. Thank you, Nancy. Thank you. Aloha.