Puerto Rico: Regaining Paradise Lost

AS PANAMA continues do its bit to aid the stricken population of Puerto Rico, with even the mid-week lottery focusing on their desperate needs,  regular contributor and one-time Panama resident   Mark Scheinbaum    has been thinking outside of the box for ways to rebuild the shattered  tourist economy, and islanders’ lives.

MIAMI (Sept 27, 2017)—“Hello, Mr. Iger, this is President Trump. I have a job for you: rebuilding Puerto Rico.”

Let’s cut through the regulatory problems in a more efficient way than the piles of slash and trash still on my South Florida street two weeks after Hurricane Irma, and let the “Business President” get the job done.

At this writing many people have still heard nothing from relatives and friends in Puerto Rico.  Three days after Hurricane Maria we finally received some brief text messages letting us know that at least our own family and friends were alive. There is no electricity, and with nothing to power water pumps, probably no drinking water from the tap for more than 3.5 million people. Electricity and cell phone service is more than 85 per cent destroyed and totally destroyed in rural areas.

Bob Iger is the CEO of Disney, which handles tens of millions of visitors a year. Many analysts think they have some shaken times ahead with their movies and TV and ESPN, but they are still an entertainment and resort giant with a market cap of around $152 billion. OK, they are much smaller than the U.S. Government, but larger than some countries.

Puerto Rico’s economy is a tourist economy. Disney can be given a green light by Congress, the GAO, the President or whichever consortium of powers is needed to cut red tape and rebuild the entire island. They can hire Rouse or another real estate, planned community, mall and residential expert to do some of the work.

Is Disney up to doing its biggest assignment in history?

The Orlando Sentinel reports Disney is the global king in tourist attendance with more than 148 million worldwide visitors each year and more than 19 million of those in the Orlando area alone (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/attractions/the-daily-disney/os-disney-parks-worldwide-attendance-2015-story.html )

The numbers vary by industry sources, but basically Puerto Rico hosts almost 5 million visitors each year. Last year more than 1.5 million cruise ship passengers came through San Juan. The main airport handled more than 10 million travelers. Even with last year’s Zika virus scare until this hurricane season, Puerto Rico Tourism estimated 2017 would have set new records.

Disney can use its own fleet and those of Miami-based NCL, Royal Caribbean, and Carnival to put older cruise ships into San Juan and Ponce to house relief construction workers. In New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, shipboard workers helped to rebuild stricken areas.

With 1.4 million people of Puerto Rican identity living in Florida, and many of them in the Orlando area and some already in the Disney World workforce, a cadre of those with family and friends in Puerto Rico and perhaps the Virgin Islands can join the reconstruction team. This is not a joke.

Reality from fantasy
Disney builds fantasies from reality. Disney builds world-class theme parks and hotels from swamps and cattle ranches. Disney buries cables and creates underground clean and efficient infrastructure from electric to garbage disposal. Disney builds monorails and complex bus routes to move people and equipment.

As the Mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz said last week, the Puerto Rico many of us know and love is dead. It is gone. Many young people are gone. Many pharmaceutical companies are gone.  A positive balance sheet is long gone and $73 billion of debt is a fact. Before Hurricane Maria the Commonwealth was bankrupt. Many productive jobs are gone. It is time for a

Before Hurricane Maria the Commonwealth was bankrupt. Many productive jobs are gone. It is time for a total revolutionary approach.

Should malfeasance and misfeasance for decades be ignored? No.

Should a new priority now be shoved ahead of old scores to settle? Yes.

Should the private sector and shareholders be allowed to profit from a gigantic recovery mobilization effort and the risk taken by Disney and others? Yes.

If any one of the 50 States of the USA had 3.5 million people in need of food, water, medical care, nursing homes, creature comforts, evacuation, a job, a future or a life, the nation would be shocked and mobilized. There are pockets of charity and concern. But I don’t see anything like the trillion dollars spent on two dubious wars in Iraq earmarked for US Citizens in Puerto Rico.

Sadly this time around, there is no Puerto Rican hero such as Roberto Clemente to fly off to the rescue during this tragedy and give his life for the cause. But perhaps there is a Business President who knows how modern, energy efficient and world class hotels, resorts, parks, housing, and entertainment venues can make money eventually for Disney and other investors.

I often still wonder whether the Hemisphere fully digested the impact of more than 250,000 human beings’ deaths after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

I truly hope I am not wondering seven years from now whether the Paradise Lost by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, became Opportunities Lost.

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Mark Scheinbaum is managing director of Shearson Financial Services, Boca Raton, FL and is adjunct professor of international relations at Florida International University in Miami. His opinions are his own.  MScheinbaum@Shearsonllc.com