Is it a bad dream, a nightmare provoking somnambulance? We all think the best of green gentrification because we have been taught, in spite of the climate sceptics, we need to do something to improve our resilience. We are also told by the media that while people know about climate change and the havoc it plays in their neighbourhoods, jobs are more important because many of us are one paycheque away from poverty.
We are perhaps more polarised now than at any other point in recent history. As we become tropicalised into submission, we are also told that we should no longer stay in our traditional family homes. In fact, after 2017 hurricanes Maria and Irma, in Puerto Rico, people’s homes and land were taken away from them while they sheltered elsewhere. This does not even begin to grapple with the kind of hate speech shared over chats by the governor and his cronies. There is a saying in Spanish, quítate tú pa’ ponerme yo, which translates to basically taking all that you have for me. The resounding influence in this line of thinking is that in climate change and cultural erasure, we are suddenly under threat of disappearance. Except that when Puerto Ricans realised that this was proof that their suspicions were true, they found a collective voice after the hell of Maria and Irma.
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