"How to lose control of one fourth of the world population.”  

2/17/2013 Home Written stream of consciousness

This second chapter in Kinkaid’s novel applies to many people. Almost every part of the world has been either a colonizer or colonized. Mrs. Kincaid’s reaction is only natural. One would expect a person that lived through that era to feel mad or discontent with the colonizing country. I guess many people that live in Puerto Rico could identify with this situation, as the island has been a colony for hundreds of years. It would be curious to have a Puerto Rican person that is in favor of the islands independence read this and react to it, although many people share Kincaid’s thoughts. The only difference between Antigua and Puerto Rico, besides the obvious ones like size, population and native language, is that the country that once colonized it, gave it its independence.

This has its pros and cons: In the pros, well the country got its independence. In the cons, the country lost its source of sustenance. For example, Kincaid mentions the library that had been damaged in an earthquake. One has to ask the question: “would this library still be closed if they were still under the reign of the United Kingdom?” I think that a lot of the people in Puerto Rican society have gotten accustomed to being economically sustained by the United States, which is why many people don’t want to change the status quo. 

Personally, I favor statehood for the island, but this island is so full of deficit and of lazy people that, that might not even be a possibility. I do know though that if the island manages to get its independence, we are not going to be self- sustainable economically right away. The island would certainly go through some very hard years until it can finally reach the minimum amount of financial stability, partly because we are lacking in infrastructure, and we are lacking in industry and agriculture. It would take years before we could properly handle ourselves. I just get mad thinking about the status crisis that we have, Are we ever going to fix it?