Broadband and the World Wide Web as we know it are over 20 years old. The ability to go online, search among multiple URLs (or Uniform Resource Locators) and hyperlinks and find information with a few clicks is a relatively new phenomenon that has changed the world. But still, according to the International Telecommunications Unit (ITU), some 52 percent of the world’s population does not have access to the internet. The broadband connectivity gap arises due to the lack of a broadband connection in developing nations.
In lacking broadband, developing nations are also lacking Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) which enable communities to engage with others around the world. ICTs provide ease of cross-national communication and transfer of information and have been successfully implemented by multiple industries including education and healthcare. A study by Ericsson found that social and economic indicators of a country’s sustainability are closely correlated with ICT maturity, suggesting that investing in ICTs can drive social and economic development worldwide.
In 2010, UNESCO and ITU established the Broadband Commission for Digital Development to “boost the importance of broadband on the international policy agenda”. In 2015, the commission evolved into the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development in response to the U.N.’s inception of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). In recognizing the importance of global broadband connection, the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development targets four of the seventeen SDGs (education, gender equality, infrastructure, and partnerships) with the objective to reach these goals by 2030.
The Broadband Commission met on September 17, 2017, in conjunction with the United Nations General Assembly. In the State of Broadband 2017 Report, the ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao recognized “that accessibility to broadband is increasing with more affordable prices worldwide (but that) by the end of 2017… 3.9 billion people will still not be online and only 17 percent of people in developing countries will be connected.”
While it is projected that 3.58 billion of the global population will be online by the end of 2017 (up from 3.4 billion at the end of 2016) the disparity between developed and developing countries is apparent. Global household connections, for example, display a disparity with “rates varying between 18 percent for Africa and 84.2 percent for Europe in 2017.” But closing the broadband connectivity gap can bring immense benefits to the world: the ITU’s 2017 annual report details that every additional $1 of ICT infrastructure investment could bring a return of $5 in global GDP by 2025.
The developing world accounts for 95 percent of the people facing this coverage gap. In order to address this, the Commission facilitates a discussion between UNESCO countries and leaders across multiple industries on how to achieve global broadband access by 2030. In response to technological advances, the Broadband Commission enforces policy implementation that allows technologies to bring broadband to the benefit of countries experiencing a connectivity gap. Major cities in developing nations are seeing the first effects of broadband because their infrastructure can support it. Of the people who are not currently connected, 1.25 billion live in an area without 3G or 4G mobile coverage. In rural areas with minimal access and insufficient infrastructure, the installation of broadband connectivity is necessary for developing technology to support further connectivity and finding solutions for future installations.
Mobile broadband networks, combined with the capabilities of smartphones, have enabled billions of people around the world to connect to voice and internet services. Now, nearly 50 percent of the world’s population has access to the technology needed to use these mobile networks. Leveraging this existing mobile infrastructure, according to the annual report, is the most cost-efficient way to bring more people online. Since 2010, mobile operators have invested $1.2 trillion in capital expenditure as they look to deploy mobile broadband networks and increase capacity. Much of these expenditures focus on developing the necessary infrastructure in remote areas to address the broadband connectivity gap. Digicel, for example, launched 4G services in Papua New Guinea in 2011 and now provides telecommunication services to nearly 500,000 previously unserved people.
The establishment of coverage in areas seeing a broadband connectivity gap is one thing, but bringing effective ICTs to the global community also requires the necessary speed and connection capabilities to encourage a sustainable user habit and contribute to affordability. Stronger connections to broadband networks support faster speeds and ease of access to the internet, which is where the fixed broadband networks come in. ITU’s annual report highlights two specific satellite technologies that are “challenging conventional assumptions about speed, capacity, and latency.” High-Throughput Satellites (HTS) and Non-Geostationary Orbit Satellites (NGSO) support increased broadband capacity, faster speeds and lower costs for rural, non-connected areas.
HTSs are small satellite devices like balloons or drones that “fly just around 20 to 50 kilometers off the ground and deliver ‘surgically precise’ connectivity to specific locations.” Many established satellite companies like Intelsat, Inmarsat and Eutelsat have already developed connections using HTS technology. NGSOs operate anywhere from 500 to 2,000 kilometers above the earth in clusters that deliver a steady stream of broadband.
Reaching the goal of complete global connectivity by 2030 needs a combination of complementary technologies and policies enforcing their implementation. Notable companies like Facebook and Google have partnered with satellite companies to provide connectivity to some of the hardest to reach areas on the globe. Each new development, partnership and plan of action advance access to broadband for developing countries. These capabilities go further than just providing access to the internet: broadband connections also lend towards developments in maritime research, aviation technologies and energy developments, to name a few. Global connections lead to breakthrough developments in other sectors and will bring developing nations into a new era of invention and close the broadband connectivity gap.
– Eliza Gresh
Photo: Flickr
Education in Belgium: A Model for the World
Belgium has one of the most complex and successful education systems in the world. Between 2008 and 2012, 98.9 percent of male children and 99.2 percent of female children were enrolled in primary school. These statistics show that mandatory primary school is enforced and taken seriously in Belgium.
Compulsory education lasts 12 years, similar to the United States, and goes from age six to age 17. Belgium also has equal primary and secondary education enrollment rates for both boys and girls, showing equal access to education for both. What is even more impressive is that since 2007, at least 20 percent more women than men have enrolled in higher education.
Education in Belgium is monitored by a number of comprehensive policies. In 2002, the Decree on Equal Educational Opportunities created local consultation platforms to ensure fair school admission and enrollment processes. In March of 2014, the “M Decree” was passed, which is meant to promote the inclusion of students with special education needs in mainstream schools. The Decree indicates that schools may only refer students to “special education” if they can justify having tried all possible methods to allow them to follow mainstream education programs.
This system is very thorough and accounts not only for what happens while children are in school but also works to make sure they can integrate effectively into the labor market. It is this system that improves not only education and literacy rates, but economic success, crime rates and domestic stability.
Education in Belgium is setting an incredible example for the rest of the world. While it is a very rich country, its model can still be used to improve education in other, less financially stable, countries. It continues to improve further, as seen with its 2014-19 plans to implement measures to reduce dropout rates, and will hopefully help lead education systems in developing countries to similar heights.
– Liyanga De Silva
Photo: Flickr
Renewable Energy in Africa: Uganda’s Success
According to the International Energy Agency, Chinese firms were responsible for 30 percent of the utility power-generation capacity built in sub-Saharan Africa between 2010 and 2015, and 56 percent of the capacity they have built (or will build) this decade comes from renewable sources, including wind and hydroelectric power.
Still, Africa’s utility-scale energy infrastructure is notoriously underdeveloped, which means localities and individual consumers often opt for smaller, more independent means of generating energy and their associated programs.
GET FiT Uganda is one such program. Its goal is to increase the country’s energy production by 20 percent by stimulating private investment in smaller green energy projects. The program draws funding from the Norwegian, German, and United Kingdom governments as well as the EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund. It culminated in late 2016 with the unveiling of the 10-megawatt solar power plant in Soroti, capable of powering 40,000 homes, businesses and schools in the town and surrounding district.
The plant’s operations manager, Phillip Karumuna, has said of the plant, “The abundance of the solar resource in Eastern Uganda makes it perfect for solar power generation. The sun shines throughout most of the day, there isn’t too much rain here, and this means the plant will produce lots of power for years to come.”
The new plant means the district will enjoy access to computers and the Internet, and activities like cooking will no longer be relegated to the dim light of lanterns. Achom Naomi, director of a local nursery and primary school, says that once the schools gain access to power, more students will enroll and school standards will improve—a result of access to light for reading and homework at night.
The Soroti solar plant—the largest of its kind in East Africa—follows the launch of a power plant in Kakira in 2015, and a third plant will be coming to Tororo. All three plants were funded through GET FiT.
The situation in Uganda is a snapshot of what renewable energy in Africa is achieving—and can achieve—on the continent itself and across the developing world. And the United States should not be content to let China and Europe dominate the investment sphere. By ramping up spending on renewable energy in Africa and other developing nations, America stands to build instrumental alliances and partnerships in trade and for national and global security.
– Chuck Hasenauer
Photo: Flickr
Minimal Hunger in Saudi Arabia Due to Government Initiatives
Given Saudi Arabia’s interest in accelerating and expanding all aspects of socioeconomic development, all of the nation’s needy groups have been specifically targeted. There is a wide availability of services provided throughout the Kingdom, including education, health and social services. The Kingdom’s actions have been undertaken in efforts to reduce poverty, but also to improve the standard of living and establish a “firm” middle class.
These efforts have been effective, as the number of Saudi households living below the extreme poverty line was at a mere 0.06 percent as of 2009. However, the context of the Kingdom’s poverty line is essential because it was raised nationally to $2 per day over the Millennium Goals level of $1 per day. Further, the Kingdom achieved one Millennium Development Goal by eradicating food poverty ahead of the 2015 deadline.
Fortunately, the Kingdom’s efforts to fight hunger are spreading elsewhere. Saudi officials report that both private and public donors in Saudi Arabia have made considerable donations in the Middle East and abroad as part of a global initiative to end hunger. The World Food Programme (WFP) praised Saudi support in 2006 specifically due to the Kingdom’s tenfold increase in support of the humanitarian cause from 2005. Through WFP operations, Saudi donations have benefitted nations including Lebanon, Cambodia, Palestinian territory, Pakistan and several areas in East and West Africa.
Despite Saudi success, the Kingdom must remain diligent in maintaining its successes in eradicating hunger in Saudi Arabia. While most citizens do not face hunger, some within the borders do still struggle. For example, women are particularly vulnerable to hunger in Saudi Arabia because they typically are not employed and rely on their husband’s support. By Islamic law, a widowed woman is stateless and not recognized as a Saudi citizen, which means it is also barred from welfare and aid. Additionally, the surrounding countries are permeated with hunger. Specifically, Yemen, a bordering nation, is one of the poorest and hungriest of the Arab nations.
Currently, Saudi Arabia is successfully fighting hunger both domestically and internationally. While some Saudis are at more risk, as women, as long as officials continue to focus on improving conditions, hunger is likely to remain outside of the nation’s borders.
– Taylor Elkins
Photo: Flickr
Walking With Water: Africa’s Solar-Powered Water Carts
The concept of the Watt-r is simple: this cart aims to make carrying water from sources to villages much easier and significantly more efficient. The cart is powered by clean, environmentally friendly solar energy, rather than human labor. Furthermore, the cart’s capacity is far more than a pair of human hands: in a single trip, it will likely be capable of carrying up to a dozen 20-liter containers of water. This is the same amount of cargo that 25 people would be able to carry.
When not in use, the cart stores solar energy for locals in villages to power cell phones and other small electronics, while the entrepreneur using it sells water.
The creators behind Africa’s solar-powered water carts have stated that they hope their product will go beyond transporting water – this could include crops, medicine, tools and many other types of cargo safely and efficiently.
However, the question still remains: how will it foster economic growth, if people are still walking to collect water?
Ultimately, the Watt-r’s goal is to not only improve the speed and efficiency of collecting water but also foster entrepreneurship of those collecting it. The creator of this product, Jose Paris, estimates that an entrepreneur making daily micro-payments on the cart would be able to pay it off in a mere three years. “There is a market for this service already and people are paying for it”, he says, citing already-existent kiosks in Nairobi selling cans of water in the streets.
Africa’s solar-powered water carts have the potential to completely revolutionize communities that employ them. The increase in transport efficiency and speed, electricity provision, and entrepreneurial opportunity allows them to be employed by the world’s 663 million who currently struggle to access reliable or clean water sources – and empower them to improve the stability of water, income and opportunity in their lives.
– Brad Tait
Photo: Google
Hunger in Barbados: Tackling the Effects of Malnourishment
Barbados is an eastern Caribbean island that, along with other Caribbean nations, has faced problems with malnourishment. Hunger in Barbados and other Caribbean countries was a major issue between 1990 and 1992 when there were an estimated 8.1 million malnourished citizens in these countries.
However, by 2016, that number decreased to 7.5 million, improving by 7.4 percent. Barbados is also one of the leaders in the Caribbean when it comes to ending malnourishment. Barbados, along with Guyana and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, met the global hunger target set at the World Food Summit in 1996. Hunger in Barbados is nearly gone; the estimated rate of malnourishment in Barbados is less than 5 percent.
Barbados has taken great steps towards ending hunger; however, Barbados has a new problem: childhood obesity. At the National Committee Monitoring the Rights of the Child, Consultant Pediatrician from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Professor Anne St. John gave a speech. She praised Barbados for conquering malnutrition and the illnesses that go along with it, but then said, “now we have gone from under-feeding to overeating, and obesity is a form of malnutrition.”
Dr. St. John also explained that the average Barbadian is now eating 400 more calories a day than they were just 30 years earlier. According to a 2005 study, about 27 percent of students in primary school are obese, which could be a result of these extra calories that mostly come from fat and snacks. Dr. St. John believes that cultural practices and traditions may be a contributing factor to this weight gain in adolescents. She says that some parents claim their child is a picky eater, but some parents take more drastic measures. She has heard stories of parents hitting their children with a belt or ruler if they do not finish their plate or some resort to “shoveling food down the child’s throat”.
Along with the increase in calorie intake, the idea around exercise at a young age has also affected obesity rates. Dr. St. John explained that when children begin choosing classes in the third form, some schools do not have physical education as a requirement, so some students no longer take it. Also, students’ parents are using conditions such as asthma as an excuse to take them out of these classes, when in reality they should stay in, as it helps increase their lung capacity.
Barbados is working on ways to stop this increase in childhood obesity, such as removing mascots from children’s cereal like Tony the Tiger. Children may choose these cereals based on the characters when in reality they are full of sugar and less healthy than alternatives. Educators are also trying to teach children that fruit juices, though they contain fruit in the name, are actually unhealthy based on the added sugars. Like hunger in Barbados, obesity is another issue that Barbadians will be sure to solve.
– Scott Kesselring
Photo: Flickr
Dabbawalas – Feeding the Poor of Mumbai
Dabbawala, the legendary lunch delivery system in Mumbai, India is known worldwide for its reliability. They have delivered lunch in dabbas (lunch boxes) prepared in customers’ homes to their offices for the last 125 years. Every day the Dabbawalas, which translates to “ones who carry the box,” collect lunch boxes from over 200,000 homes and deliver them to their customers’ offices, and then deliver the boxes back to their homes on the same day. These men have a reputation for battling all kinds of weather, floods and even riots to provide their services mostly on foot or bicycle.
Share My Dabba Initiative
A few years back, the Dabbawala Foundation started a new initiative for feeding the poor of Mumbai, in association with Happy Life Welfare Society, a nonprofit organization. The process is very simple: every customer is given stickers and whoever wishes to share their lunch puts a sticker on their lunch box. The boxes with stickers are separated and then distributed through a network of volunteers. As a result, tons of food that would otherwise go to waste every day reaches the needy on the streets with the help of the most efficient delivery system in the city. This is a small step, not a complete solution to the vast starvation problem. But it is a great beginning.
Roti Bank
About 400 Dabbawalas have also started a Roti Bank, a campaign for feeding poor and starving people in Mumbai. They work with party planners and caterers to help reduce food waste that happens at celebrations and weddings. The Dabbawala distributes the food after their shifts from 6 to 9 p.m. each day, feeding the poor of Mumbai.
Apart from the above initiatives, the Dabbawalas are also brand ambassadors for the Clean India Campaign, a volunteer campaign to clean different parts of the city. The Dabbawalas have become an inspiration for many as they use their efficiency and skill to feed the poor of Mumbai.
– Tripti Sinha
Photo: Google
Syrian Hospitals Go Underground
Mahmoud Hariri is a surgeon, born and raised in Syria, who has faced the consequences of war on Syrian healthcare. He reports having once seen a patient pull a tube out of his own body in order to evacuate the hospital he was receiving care in because it was being bombed—again. Hariri spoke of the complications that these forced evacuations cause, particularly for the often unconscious patients in the intensive care units. As many of the hospitals are without elevators, doctors and support staff are left with no choice but to carry these critical patients down the stairs.
To save patients and allow medical workers to provide better care without the risk of bombings forcing evacuations, entire hospitals have been relocated into basements and caves. In essence, hospitals are using makeshift, military-style fortifications so operations can endure the bombs falling above. If a hospital chooses to stay in the buildings above the surface, they are building concrete walls and even creating “sacrificial” floors to take the brunt of the aerial attacks.
As Syrian hospitals go underground and construct protective structures, the question of financing the relocations and fortifications arises. The United States and U.N. grants are largely responsible for making these expensive projects possible. However, as the U.S. considers a drastic budget cut to the International Affairs Budget, worried aid groups are wondering how to fill the potential void caused by reduced funding.
Currently, around 25 underground facilities are in operation. However, each facility can cost $800,000 to $1.5 million depending on what the hospital needs. As a result, doctors have turned to crowdfunding in a desperate attempt to continue the construction of these makeshift facilities before any official aid is lost. Even if aid continues, the regulations on how foreign aid can be spent have caused a few problems. For example, the construction itself is deemed “development,” not a humanitarian expenditure.
The good news is in the last six years, over $1.7 million has been collected by pooling funds. While the U.N. remains the main source of financial support, the French government has provided nearly $500,000 and over $2.5 has been given by private donors and Syrian NGO grants.
Syria has a long way to go. As the civil war is ongoing with no definite end in sight, medical access remains a high priority to those still in Syria. The request for pooled aid in 2017 alone was over $500 million. In order to continue to provide this much-needed care in a war zone, the medical staff is relying on the U.S., the U.N. and all the other donors to continue supporting them. It is essential that Syrian hospitals go underground. Otherwise, proper medical care simply will not be able to keep up with the needs of war-torn cities like Aleppo.
– Taylor Elkins
Photo: Flickr
The Internet of Things in Developing Countries
In developing countries, IoT technologies have brought increased efficiency and effectiveness to existing processes. For instance, farmers are using remote sensors to monitor moisture levels and soil conditions in the fields to avoid crop failure. Similar sensors are providing remote control of micro-irrigation pumps in India and water pumps in Rwanda, improving the functionality and reducing repair intervals. And in Haiti, healthcare professionals are using “smart” thermometers to better track vaccine delivery and storage.
According to the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, Nexleaf Analytics in Haiti has developed a way to monitor the “cold chain” delivery of vaccines by tracking refrigerator temperatures. Their ColdTrace system sends SMS alert messages when temperatures rise above or fall below the narrow ranger of ideal storage conditions. The developing world alone uses over 200,000 vaccine refrigerators, and these real-time updates ensure their effectiveness. Governments can use data from the system to divert vaccine deliveries from broken refrigerators and address power supply issues with greater speed.
With more devices going online as a result of the IoT, security and privacy are becoming concerns among businesses and consumers alike. Once a device becomes “smart,” it is vulnerable to cyber attacks from hackers across the globe. Smart thermometers, water pumps and utility and transportation grids can be hijacked and shut down by outside parties, effectively crippling vital processes that have come to rely on virtual infrastructure. Icon Labs has pointed out that the mass-produced nature of IoT computers and sensors makes them an easy target for hackers—if they can break into one, they can replicate that attack across a host of devices.
Meanwhile, the cost of IoT technology remains a barrier to its widespread use, especially in developing nations. Embedding computers into everyday devices is still a fairly new concept, and innovation has yet to bring down the design and manufacturing expenses. Perhaps because of this, Business Insider predicts businesses will be the top adopters of IoT, followed by governments, with consumers bringing up the rear. But the Internet of Things has already transformed vital services and infrastructures in developing nations, and many of its luxuries available in advanced economies may eventually trickle down as innovation reduces costs.
– Chuck Hasenauer
Photo: Flickr
Addressing the Broadband Connectivity Gap in LDCs
In lacking broadband, developing nations are also lacking Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) which enable communities to engage with others around the world. ICTs provide ease of cross-national communication and transfer of information and have been successfully implemented by multiple industries including education and healthcare. A study by Ericsson found that social and economic indicators of a country’s sustainability are closely correlated with ICT maturity, suggesting that investing in ICTs can drive social and economic development worldwide.
In 2010, UNESCO and ITU established the Broadband Commission for Digital Development to “boost the importance of broadband on the international policy agenda”. In 2015, the commission evolved into the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development in response to the U.N.’s inception of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). In recognizing the importance of global broadband connection, the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development targets four of the seventeen SDGs (education, gender equality, infrastructure, and partnerships) with the objective to reach these goals by 2030.
The Broadband Commission met on September 17, 2017, in conjunction with the United Nations General Assembly. In the State of Broadband 2017 Report, the ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao recognized “that accessibility to broadband is increasing with more affordable prices worldwide (but that) by the end of 2017… 3.9 billion people will still not be online and only 17 percent of people in developing countries will be connected.”
While it is projected that 3.58 billion of the global population will be online by the end of 2017 (up from 3.4 billion at the end of 2016) the disparity between developed and developing countries is apparent. Global household connections, for example, display a disparity with “rates varying between 18 percent for Africa and 84.2 percent for Europe in 2017.” But closing the broadband connectivity gap can bring immense benefits to the world: the ITU’s 2017 annual report details that every additional $1 of ICT infrastructure investment could bring a return of $5 in global GDP by 2025.
The developing world accounts for 95 percent of the people facing this coverage gap. In order to address this, the Commission facilitates a discussion between UNESCO countries and leaders across multiple industries on how to achieve global broadband access by 2030. In response to technological advances, the Broadband Commission enforces policy implementation that allows technologies to bring broadband to the benefit of countries experiencing a connectivity gap. Major cities in developing nations are seeing the first effects of broadband because their infrastructure can support it. Of the people who are not currently connected, 1.25 billion live in an area without 3G or 4G mobile coverage. In rural areas with minimal access and insufficient infrastructure, the installation of broadband connectivity is necessary for developing technology to support further connectivity and finding solutions for future installations.
Mobile broadband networks, combined with the capabilities of smartphones, have enabled billions of people around the world to connect to voice and internet services. Now, nearly 50 percent of the world’s population has access to the technology needed to use these mobile networks. Leveraging this existing mobile infrastructure, according to the annual report, is the most cost-efficient way to bring more people online. Since 2010, mobile operators have invested $1.2 trillion in capital expenditure as they look to deploy mobile broadband networks and increase capacity. Much of these expenditures focus on developing the necessary infrastructure in remote areas to address the broadband connectivity gap. Digicel, for example, launched 4G services in Papua New Guinea in 2011 and now provides telecommunication services to nearly 500,000 previously unserved people.
The establishment of coverage in areas seeing a broadband connectivity gap is one thing, but bringing effective ICTs to the global community also requires the necessary speed and connection capabilities to encourage a sustainable user habit and contribute to affordability. Stronger connections to broadband networks support faster speeds and ease of access to the internet, which is where the fixed broadband networks come in. ITU’s annual report highlights two specific satellite technologies that are “challenging conventional assumptions about speed, capacity, and latency.” High-Throughput Satellites (HTS) and Non-Geostationary Orbit Satellites (NGSO) support increased broadband capacity, faster speeds and lower costs for rural, non-connected areas.
HTSs are small satellite devices like balloons or drones that “fly just around 20 to 50 kilometers off the ground and deliver ‘surgically precise’ connectivity to specific locations.” Many established satellite companies like Intelsat, Inmarsat and Eutelsat have already developed connections using HTS technology. NGSOs operate anywhere from 500 to 2,000 kilometers above the earth in clusters that deliver a steady stream of broadband.
Reaching the goal of complete global connectivity by 2030 needs a combination of complementary technologies and policies enforcing their implementation. Notable companies like Facebook and Google have partnered with satellite companies to provide connectivity to some of the hardest to reach areas on the globe. Each new development, partnership and plan of action advance access to broadband for developing countries. These capabilities go further than just providing access to the internet: broadband connections also lend towards developments in maritime research, aviation technologies and energy developments, to name a few. Global connections lead to breakthrough developments in other sectors and will bring developing nations into a new era of invention and close the broadband connectivity gap.
– Eliza Gresh
Photo: Flickr
Hurricane Relief in Puerto Rico’s Massive Debt Crisis
The storms affected an already economically crippled Puerto Rico, which is under a regime of debt-driven austerity measures. In May, Puerto Rico declared bankruptcy, and it has since been trying to restructure more than $70 billion in debt. An already stagnating economy will struggle even more under the financial burden of reconstruction after the hurricane.
The call for hurricane relief in Puerto Rico has already been answered, although much more support is needed. Some 5,000 active-duty troops and National Guardsmen members have been deployed to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has 600 people on the ground coordinating relief efforts. FEMA reports that “more than 4.4 million meals, 6.5 million liters of water, nearly 300 infant and toddler kits to support 3,000 infants for a full week, 70,000 tarps, and 15,000 rolls of roof sheeting [have been sent] to the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria’s landfall.”
In addition, the current administration granted a 10-day waiver from the Jones Act, a maritime regulation that requires all shipping from one U.S. port to another be carried on American-made and American-operated shipping vessels. This regulation itself is economically draining for Puerto Rico as it drastically increases the price of shipping. A 2010 study by the University of Puerto Rico found that the Jones Act cost the island $537 million per year.
Luckily, the waiver will allow goods to enter Puerto Rico more efficiently; however, the long-term effects of the raised prices in the U.S. territory will still be felt if the Act stays in place. It is unlikely that the Jones Act will be repealed without broad support because President Trump has stated, “We have a lot of shippers and a lot of people that work in the shipping industry that don’t want the Jones Act lifted.”
Hurricane relief in Puerto Rico must be a priority for the U.S. going forward, but it must also be coupled with a renewed sensitivity to the ever-present economic struggles that the small island faces. Puerto Rico is a territory created in the legacy of U.S. colonialism and their short and long-term suffering must be treated with urgency. Hopefully, in the wake of this disaster, the U.S. government will continue to work with Puerto Rico beyond the immediate recovery efforts and towards alleviating the poverty and austerity created by the debt crisis.
– Jeffery Harrell
Photo: Google