Ed Morales

This isn't a book about Puerto Rico's economic situation, with facts presented and then conclusions drawn from those facts. It's a rant by a Marxist who lives in NYC and is somehow part of the establishment, with family from Puerto Rico, who uses a few examples from the past ~40 years of Puerto Rico's history to try to advance his agenda. Particularly hilarious when he talks about how horrible irs 936 was (which brought a lot of manufacturing to the island, including some very high value pharma with great jobs), and then how bad it was that 936 was ended, and then how bad other current incentive programs are. The "everyone is secretly in favor of independence but afraid to admit it" angle is also pretty lulzy.… (mehr)

This was hard going. In part because I'm not a political being, so I found the political element rather dense. I couldn't really tell you what neoliberalism actually means, but there seemed to be quite a lot of it. It is very focussed on the American experience, with very little in relation to the perception and influence outside the American hemisphere. On the other had, the intiial chapters were really interesting and I feel that I learnt something that I had never considered before.
I won this book from the Al-Rhodan awards, which aims to encourage understanding between cultures. In which case, it partly achieved its aims. I have certainly learnt something about another cultural tradition, it's origins and conflicts. That I didn't understand all of it is as much my lack of point of contact as the author's writing for a more specific than general audience.… (mehr)