{"id":312,"date":"2010-04-28T22:23:03","date_gmt":"2010-04-29T02:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Sarcastic-Travels.com\/?p=312"},"modified":"2010-04-28T22:23:03","modified_gmt":"2010-04-29T02:23:03","slug":"puerto-rico-and-the-us-virgin-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sarcastic-travels.com\/puerto-rico-and-the-us-virgin-islands\/","title":{"rendered":"Blowing Through Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
When a mildly obsessive-compulsive person, like maybe me, decides to travel through all 50 states of the United States, and once he has achieved this goal (Tim still lacks Hawaii, but I have been there twice and we are working on getting Tim there), then it would make sense, in a totally OCD sort of way, for them to consider the extra-territorial possessions, commonwealths, incorporated and unincorporated territories of the United States as well. Perhaps to the surprise of some, if not many of you, there are actually quite a lot of those floating about, mostly in the Pacific. However, two of them are located closer to home base in Georgia, just 4 hours by Boeing 757 south of Atlanta in the Caribbean Sea, being of course Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
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In case you were wondering, yes, it is necessary to be clear about the US Virgin Islands because once upon a time, Puerto Rico and its attendant islands (Vieques, Culebra, Mona, and Desecheo) were known as the Spanish Virgin Islands, and to this day, there are the British Virgin Islands just to the immediate east and north of the US version.<\/p>\n
Once upon a time we took Puerto Rico from the Spanish in that tiff we call the Spanish-American War. Remember the Maine? If you don’t then you don’t know even the first thing about the war which started in Havana harbor with the mysterious explosion of the warship Maine. Most mysterious about it is whether or not US agents exploded it as a pretense to go to war with Spain, which was very weak at this point and most decidedly did not want to go to war with the US. What we wanted from Spain was territory, and territory we gained, in the form of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The latter for many years, up until after World War II in fact, was governed by the United States directly as a territory, then later as a Commonwealth, and even after independence it was arguably run as a US territory with heavy involvement and interference, not to mention large military bases. We briefly administered Cuba, but for long term control turned it over to a series of brutal dictators under the control of the US sugar companies. The revolt led by Fidel Castro struck a blow to American dominance in the Western Hemisphere; a policy laid out long ago as the Monroe Doctrine and stubbornly clung to even to this day. One relatively small island’s ability to thwart our imperial control planted deep seeds of frustration and hatred that bloom to this day. Well, that and a lot of the former ruling class of Cuba moved to Florida where they continue to hate Castro, and continue to vote as a block in this crucial swing state.<\/p>\n
The US Virgin Islands we gained by purchasing them from Denmark and we used them primarily as a coaling station until such time as coal powered ships were no longer used, at which point they languished until the advent of mass tourism.<\/p>\n
For the skinny on all the other dependencies, territories, etc of the United States, take a look at this list:<\/p>\n
Incorporated unorganized territories:<\/p>\n
Palmyra Atoll (privately owned by the Nature Conservancy and administered by the Department of the Interior)<\/p>\n
Unincorporated organized territories:<\/p>\n
Guam<\/p>\n
Northern Mariana Islands (commonwealth)<\/p>\n
Puerto Rico (commonwealth)<\/p>\n
United States Virgin Islands<\/p>\n
Unincorporated unorganized territories:<\/p>\n
American Samoa<\/p>\n
Wake Island, inhabited by civilian contractors only<\/p>\n
Midway Islands, inhabited by caretakers<\/p>\n
Johnston Atoll, uninhabited<\/p>\n
Baker Island, uninhabited<\/p>\n
Howland Island, uninhabited<\/p>\n
Jarvis Island, uninhabited<\/p>\n
Kingman Reef, uninhabited<\/p>\n
Bajo Nuevo Bank, uninhabited (claimed by Colombia and Jamaica)<\/p>\n
Serranilla Bank, uninhabited (claimed by Colombia)<\/p>\n
Navassa Island, uninhabited (claimed by Haiti)<\/p>\n
Many of these islands have had military uses in the past or were refueling stations prior to the advent of the long haul aircraft of today. The majority are uninhabited and are probably uninhabitable because of a lack of fresh water. While some were gained in war, many others were gained through the provisions of the 19th<\/sup> century Guano Act which said in essence that any American ship, usually whalers, could lay claim to any island that wasn’t otherwise claimed by another power if it contained sufficient guano, or bird shit, for phosphate mining purposes. Most of the islands thus claimed didn’t have much of any guano on them and apparently ship’s captains didn’t know shit about bird shit. Today, many of the uninhabited Pacific Ocean islands are desired by the far-flung island nation of Kiribati (Ki-ri-bass) because having these islands would increase the Exclusive Economic Zone, or those areas of the ocean that foreign fishing vessels, primarily those of Japan, could only fish after paying a fee to the owner. Fees from the EEZ are about the only source of income Kiribati has since most of its hundreds of islands are also uninhabited and not habitable due to a lack of fresh water, and most all are only a few feet above sea level meaning that with the continuation of global warming they will disappear under the sea. But the i-Kiribati, the citizens of Kiribati (which you can become easily for a one-time payment of roughly $10,000), have a plan. They have already negotiated to occupy an otherwise uninhabited island owned by Fiji.<\/p>\n But I digress as I so often do. There are some populated US possessions, and that means that there are people living under control of the US government who are not citizens (American Samoa) and who despite our championing of democracy do not have full participation in the selection of the government that rules them (none of the above listed areas can vote in presidential elections and none have voting representation in Congress). They do have locally elected governors who make most of the decisions affecting their residents and not all US labor and environmental laws apply, but most of these people do have to pay the Federal government for things like Social Security and Medicare, but in return are not eligible for the full benefits that we residents of actual states receive and they are subject to most overarching Federal laws including customs and immigration restrictions. This makes it difficult in American Samoa if family lives in the independent section of Samoa since the only legal means of transit involves flying first to Hawaii, then to Los Angeles, then back through New Zealand all to satisfy Homeland Security immigration and transit requirements. Because the United States rules people who do not have a participative voice in government in this way, among others, the United Nations lists the United States as an ongoing colonial power and advocates, at least theoretically, for the clarification of the status of these territories and either the full independence or enfranchisement of the people who live there.<\/p>\n France opted to make all of its remaining territories departments equal to those of continental France, so now sovereign and fully participatory areas of France and therefore the European Union exist in the Caribbean, South America, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean. The United Kingdom gave the residents of its remaining territories a choice between independence and continuing association with the Crown and those that chose to remain in association were probably wise to do so since they are generally small and not economically viable on their own. In some situations, the United States has given residents a choice through a referendum process, whereas in other cases, most notably Guam, there is no choice because the territory is deemed too vital to national security to risk it going independent. Ultimately I suppose the point of this section, likely to be referred to by at least one reader as a “manifesto,” (a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer per Webster’s Dictionary) is that even if you are indifferent to how these areas are governed, at least be aware that they, and those who live there, exist, and be aware of the irony of our nation’s supposed commitment to democracy while we continue to govern people as colonial subjects.<\/p>\nHow Other Powers Have Handled Their Territories<\/h2>\n
All About Puerto Rico<\/h2>\n