So Ferré
went running around collecting Pre-Raphaelites, which at the time were both
around and cheap, relatively. Consequently, the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico,
has one or two of the best collections
of Pre-Raphaelites
in the world. Want to see this picture?
Head to
Ponce!
What
doesn’t Ponce have? Well, despite two seriously large cranes,
and despite ten years of dithering, it doesn’t have the super port that
the late mayor
proposed
for it. And why not? It wasn’t lack of money—we’ve already spent a quarter of a
billion on it. Nor was it lack of potential: we had the infrastructure, the
ties to the US mainland, the engineers to do the job. In fact, ten years ago we
were in a good position to capture a developing market. Now? Here’s
Caribbean Business on
the subject last year:
"At
that time, all the horses were at the starting gate. Now, all the other horses
have finished the race. Our neighboring islands expanded their facilities,
signed agreements with global operators and are fully functional while we never
got out of the gate," Lewis said.
What
happened?
Well, I
could look it up and tell you all the various issues and controversies that
cropped up, but why bother? In a nutshell, it was business as usual, which in
Puerto Rico means politics. And so when the governor was of one party, the
mayor of Ponce was of the other party. And on those rare occasions when the
mayor and the governor were of the same party? Well, then they only had four
years—insufficient time to reverse all of the progress that had been made—if
any,—revoke the contracts to the former governor’s friends, fight the legal
challenges that ensued, and re-award the contracts to the preferred companies /
cronies / friends. All of this takes time, you see.
Time which
the Dominican Republic used well, since they now have a super port and
cheap labor, whereas Puerto Rico? No super port, expensive labor.
Happily,
while Ponce may have blown—or had it blown—their shot at a super port, they are
not without resources. As proof, Inquiring Reader, I bring you this….
OK—here’s
what you need to know about Ponce: it’s fiercely hot and just as dry. In fact,
there is a certain point in crossing over the central mountain range when I
will unconsciously start to sing Copland’s Rodeo—because at
any moment you think that Agnes
de Mille is going to send her dancers out. Oh, and the mountains
spontaneously burn during dry season, which lasts nine months.
It’s
perhaps the fact that he has never seen a river that accounts for the desire of
a legislator from Ponce, Víctor Vassallo,
to convert this “body” of water into the Panama Canal. Because
where you and I might see a ditch, what does Vassallo see? Let The New Day tell the story:
Vassallo
está convencido que su proyecto es viable y sueña con la idea de que Ponce
tenga una obra que opere con un sistema de compuertas o esclusas con ingeniería
de la utilizada en el Canal de Panamá. Otro que confía en la viabilidad del
proyecto es el presidente de la Comisión de Desarrollo de la Industria
Turística, Ángel Matos García, quien desconocía el costo total del proyecto. Indicó
que “en su primera etapa no veo (que la inversión sea) mayor a $2 millones”.
Loosely,
“Vassallo is convinced that his project is viable and dreams of the idea that
Ponce have a work that operates on a system of compartments and locks with
engineering like that used in the Panama Canal. Another who believes in the
viability of the project is the president of the Commission for the Development
of the Tourism Industry, Ángel Matos-García, who was unaware of the total cost
of the project. He indicated that, “in the first stage, I don’t see that the
investment would be greater than two million.”
Vassallo
sees the canal as having twin benefits. First, it would be an excellent form of
transit, and who hasn’t suffered through a Ponce traffic jam? Second, it would
be a terrific tourist attraction—who wouldn’t want to come and see the canal,
the locks, the boats floating gently through the arid landscape?
The
predictable scoffers are sniffing, of course. There’s the fact that not one of
Puerto Rico’s rivers is navigable. There’ also the fact that the US government
has stuck in 375 million bucks to build a dam on the river four miles north of
the city. Why? Because when the weather isn’t being fiercely hot and dry, it’s
being torrential. So what happens? The ditch that you saw above overflows,
carrying off cars, cows and the occasional child.
Despite all
these obstacles, what’s happened to Vassallo’s proposal? Well, even despite all
the objections and difficulties, guess what? Our legislators have agreed to
study the matter.
Oh, and the
water level in the Río
Portugués yesterday?
Two inches!
