LRTs: My family and I lost everything in Hurricane Hortense in Puerto Rico. I was 8. I got out on a kayak out of our house, while my father held our dog by her front paws to get her out too, and my mother held my school uniform and what few important documents she could get above her head.
After a few days, we went back home to check the aftermath. All of my toys, my anime collection, everything that had been my life up until that year was covered in mud and muck, wet beyond compare. Obviously I had priorities as a little girl lol. A good chunk of precious old photos got ruined, including those of my parents' childhoods. And much more. I don't even remember how long it took to clean everything up or to save what we could.
One of the strongest memories I have is sitting out front with my third sister (long story) and her husband, cleaning my My Little Pony toys caked with mud, while our neighbors got new furniture and everything else new brought to them by the government. They were poor, so they were able to have that. Our family was middle class, so it meant we were not eligible for any help at all. "You can afford it", after all.
I don't mean that to say "ew poor people always get everything for free", especially when both my parents grew up poor and they also barely got gov help. I only point out a fact that happened. I understand as an adult better why that happened, because we *should* help the poor. But I still wish we had that help too, right? I feel that's normal. (My mother has a more averse reaction when she remembers. Depending on when, she ends up crying.)
BTW my mother saved my school uniform because she understood a thing that I did as an adult: nobody cares if you lost stuff, you still have to go to school. And I did. At the time and now I'm easily adaptable, so I didn't think it weird that I went to school while also having to help clean my house. (Both private and public schools have uniforms in Puerto Rico, for the record.)
What really stuck in my mind after everything went back to normal, is that Hortense became a footnote. Hurricane George did more severe damage, so that's the one folks would remember and mention more (until Maria, of course.) From 8 until 17, I've only met ONE person who remembered how bad Hortense was.
I had a deeper point but I lost it. Basically: all the above I dumped because while I don't think you need to go through a hurricane to understand why it's pretty inhumane to shit on people in poorer areas or conservative areas or whatever else you deem evil/wrong/bad/what have you, I actually do hope you never have to go through the suffering and toll it takes on you and your family in ways that it will never live you. Natural disasters DO change people. Whether you like it or not.
And honestly, maybe some people do need to go through a natural disaster to understand. Maybe you'll see then.
Or maybe you still wouldn't care because you're just a demon who revels in suffering. Who knows.
I only had two letters left from going over the word count. I shoulda written a blog instead...
@naan What an awful thing to go through as an 8 year old:( Sorry you had to deal with all that. Couldn’t have been easy.
As far as the government help goes, we should help those that most need it. But those hard cut offs are just cruel. It means someone who happens to have marginally more get screwed over, which isn’t right either. They can end up with even less than the poor that way.
Imho a “sliding scale” if you will, would be more fair. To lift up everyone to the same level if that makes sense. Disasters like this hits damn hard for anyone who isn’t crazy rich. (Hope the explaination makes sense!)
Didn’t grow up with natural disasters so they truly terrify me. Feel bad for anyone affected.
Take care!
@yon It wasn't easy but I was a weird kid. I was more worried for my dog and my stuff, and like I said, I can adapt easily, so at the time I was just seeing it more as some sort of mixed exciting time. I heard it stopped being a thing once Maria hit (which, you know, makes sense why), but it used to be pretty common in Puerto Rico that when we'd get a hurricane warning, to prepare, right but also to basically dance and make fun of the fact that a hurricane is coming LOL. Dark humor~
I do get angry when I see things that Shouldn't Be A Thing. I don't know if it's still there, I haven't been there since Covid started but my local mall the past few years had a machine that basically simulated how a hurricane was and felt. For the purposes of entertainment. For a state that suffers from tornadoes (and has had its share of flooding), I really couldn't understand why anyone would have had this machine in their place of commerce. Few people used it, but I always made sure to stare at them with the evil eye :p The few times I am rude on purpose...
And don't worry, that explanation makes perfect sense. I agree! It took us longer to recuperate due to no help from the government, even though we were also theoretically "safe" from no sudden additional losses taken from having to rebuild. It's funny because then when I went to university, I wasn't qualified for scholarships because my father made too much. Except he was retired, wasn't working anymore and we had spent way too much money moving to the US alone, before getting ourselves settled in. And that's before getting materials and books for university. While we could handle it and I did have some grants at least thanks to my high school record, it still was an effort, you know? (I ended up getting scholarships around my 3rd or 4th year lol)
A sliding scale would absolutely be much more fair. For example, sure, my family with the sliding scale maybe gets idk only 100 bucks. But at least it's a 100 bucks! (I'm using money here as an example of the sliding scale, could be anything.) We need to help everyone affected, because everyone *was* affected.
@naan Sometimes I swear some politicians design these programs with no other intention other than to enrage the middle class. Or rather that is quite plausible.
Reminds me of back home. Instead of a tax deduction (<censored angry words here>) if you have children under 18 the parents simply get a monthly amount of money. Meant to help with all the things a child need. Simples.
Now people get angry that those that have more money also get this money. Those with an IQ above their shoe size points out that it would cost more to have a check.
People are irrational against their own interest sadly. :(
And it seems you picked up on the idea, good. Kind of comes back to why I fully believe that UBI would solve so many issues in society for 99% of people. Plus it would consolidate a lot of social programs so they would be a lot easier to run. Everyone gets money every 14 days. Done:) Same reason why Apple iTunes songs cost 99cents when they launched. It costs a fortune to have individual pricing. :)
And for the record when I say UBI I don’t talk about those anemic $1600/year things.
@yon Ahhh .99 song downloads...those were the days :p
I thiiiink the Child Care Tax bill or whatsit in the US that popped up during first years of Covid (?) was meant to do that same function you mention from Sweden. Help folks with kids under 18. I unfortunately have heard so many things about the US one though, that I have no idea if it's still ongoing--but it's so useful, that I must assume it's been taken into the back alley and shot like Old Yeller :D (mind my tired yet sarcastic tone lol) Either way, it's a good idea!! And yes, it should include everyone.
UBI would be nice for real Certainly would solve my issues lmao.
@naan Tax credits are more complicated and only happens once a year. It highly favors the rich as they can afford people to make the tax code work for them, and they just pile that money on the pile.
Think of it as monthly child support, but the deadbeat parent is played by the government. Or every 2 weeks might be more of a U.S. cadence.
Now it helps lower income families as it’s 12 or 26 times a year, and is easier to budget and isn’t connected to a bunch of problematic taxes. Plus it should be tax free, so whatever you get you get, nothing else can take it away.
If that makes sense:)
(Not implying that Sweden is a perfect place, I just subscribe to stealing any and all good ideas and ditching the bad. No matter the source :))
@naan Misery entertainment isn’t great:( I know a lot of entertainment is related to such things (movies and whatnots), but that just sounds extra awful.
It would be one thing if it’s for educational purposes, to give people a glimpse of how scary it is and with the intent to make people more prepared and take the more seriously.
In fact, I would be in favor of an emergency bag being handed out to everyone when a hurricane is approaching. With some basic things in it. Constantly being reactionary is a disgrace. Some with crime/“crime”. Prevention is so much better than punishment (which seems to be some kind of entertainment for far too many).
@yon Yeah!! Like if that machine was in a school, I wouldn't bat two eyelashes at it, because I'd assume it's for education purposes. Hurricane drills are useful too. Having to learn tornado drills as an adult once I moved here, was very interesting in that obvious shared similarities existed more than differences. Although I remember the first siren for tornadoes I ever heard in my life happened when I was on campus, and I panic-called my mother, who also was panicking. I remember telling her "ma, I think we might be toast, NOBODY'S RUNNING???? Do I??? Still go to my class???"
Turns out it was a test siren the town does often, and we didn't know because there's no such thing as a test siren for hurricanes back home! (I don't know about nowadays, but I doubt there's still one.)
An emergency bag sounds good I hadn't thought about those sorts of resources since we tend to have a "go bag" ready lol.
Also, sorry for replying so late! It's been a ride lately x.x
@naan I grew up with the sirens going off the first Monday every month (or something like that). No natural disasters but rather The Cold War. I’ve realized it’s virtually impossible to describe the Cold War to someone.
The movies are either spy thrillers or chipper bubblegum stupidity. But reality was genuinely scary. We knew almost nothing about what was on the other side. And the other side was close. I’ve been to West Germany, I remember the fall of the wall, and I remember when we were painfully close to WW3 (look up the “whiskey on the rocks” incident, called to because a Russian whiskey class sub got stuck on big rocks on the coast of Sweden. It was obviously there spying and yeah, things got scary).
They do the siren test here too. Every first Wednesday. First time I heard it for real it scared the shit out of me. Went downstairs with my wife and the dogs and was just generally afraid.
Life happens! Hope a little less life is happening and things are better. Take care!