Democratic republic of congo in the last month congolese Government Forces a fighting a local militia in the region more than one point four Million People have been displaced by the violence that since august twenty sixth in. The headlines the stream starts now on al jazeera after that. I am really could you and youre in the stream and then how do you rebuild an entire island one thats already under an enormous amount of debt after its been decimated by a hurricane and thats the challenge facing puerto rico after Hurricane Maria devastated the u. S. Territory but government officials on the island have vowed puerto rico will rise again so what does that look like when joining us from san juan to discuss this we have renee vargas a lawyer and newspaper columnist in puerto rico is about she is the managing director of con. A nonprofit focused on the social and Economic Development in puerto rico in new york hector figaro a puerto rican activist and president of thirty two b. J. Service employees International Union also in new york kate aronoff shes a reporter with the intercept and a writing fellow at in these times welcome everyone to the stream know we also invited the mayor of san juan on charge show she originally agreed but later declined due to her scheduling conflicts so lets start here on my laptop with this headline via the Washington Post when Hurricane Maria hit puerto rico everything collapsed simultaneously renee with a disaster of this magnitude where does the recovery even start to start with roads electricity grid water. Well first of all we have to work to get things. They can i dont think that they will be back to normal anytime soon but at least. I have a country that has drinking water. Electricity that has been talked about this Mass Communications we are going now most people cant even communicate. Messages to people that are accounted for like. I was talking about earlier but i think that the biggest holder right now is that this will require a lot of investment in infrastructure. And the country is bankrupt there are several. Large why. Theyre trying to make. More of its income my more of its budget on a dead that has not been already to the people of puerto rico frankly a part of i dont know what really went so you mentioned a lot of things in the response but i just want to pick up on one which is that the u. S. Government needs to give to puerto rico and isabel i want to read you these tweets but one from david he says for one the president should not be so passive aggressive towards providing puerto rican taxpaying american citizens and then also treated as she says we need a comprehensive recovery package from Congress Puerto Rico was already in the hole financially its going to take years and money to rebuild so isabel we know that President Trump since declaring it a state of emergency has allowed the u. S. Congress to work on a comprehensive aid package for puerto rico is about what do you hope to see in that aid package well im hoping to see nothing less that what they had for other areas of the United States that have been suffering from something similar. And what does that mean yes i think. Ok go ahead go ahead and jump in i think something that ive been looking at just as following whats been happening in puerto rico and of course im not there is just how to rico has responded to these sorts of crises before in one nine hundred twenty eight a storm called sense a leak hit the island and i did thirty two a. And between that was of course the Great Depression and the way that the United States government decided to respond to those three storms but i had puerto rico then most often massive levels of relief and to really revolutionize americas public sphere and so in thinking about you know how to respond to this crisis and any sort of overlapping crises that are affecting puerto rico its not just sort of austerity or really a kind of weak recovery that is what we have to offer but actually look to quarter goes on history in the way that you know that the United States government has to go recover and really rebuild not just thinking about immediate recovery but long term rebuilding and investing not just in revolutionising things like roads and Electric Company structure but also making that a democratic transition. May be different than what were expecting today i mean i think he has to show that i need it is as important. Because so sure and if the nation really. You know study we did it with the latter the media at me about what could it go if they. Were five or and they were declared a show to these effect yesterday that need to comb through a quick conclusion that a. Particular county is going to be repaid and then the money that if he said Oversight Board. To trim the municipality if. Out of this study the process needs to be returned that has to happen immediately and obviously we need to get billions of dollars the damages are estimated to be over eighty five billion dollars and counting and adding two to provide for four they need that we need now but but then you need the political vision. We need we need people to get those part of those billions of dollars of the island that was so rightfully deserve and that we have worked for paying taxes and serving in the military people need to apply for fema and the team has to do a better job at getting out there to the people because right now what theyre saying is you need to fill out the form online i mean people dont have Energy People dont have water so we need to make it easy for people to be able to apply for this remarkably cations thats step one. So i mean the first is that is to normalize as much as we can figure the chances for the people in puerto rico but on the question of rebuilding were going to need nothing short of a Marshall Plan for the island the recognition that you need to have several components of economy developing here that really if you change the way of making Decision Making right now is on the hands of the fiscal Oversight Board that needs to be the market size and going back in the hands of puerto rico with support from the federal government because officials should not be running through this race caliber cyberwar in an emergency like this and then we also need to have a plan about what puerto rico should look like the Energy Sector needs to rely more in Renewable Resources less on fossil fuels that is an opportunity here to have a sealion fossil you know free you know puerto rico just like i said you can has been doing rematch in the infrastructure for tourism for dorrigo cannot become a place to this kind. Hard to go. To be reasonable peter the time is going to lose. So i do know that its a question. Well that we already know what youve already got im just saying that i mean its the end of our International Audience in case they havent seen our other shows or in puerto rico you mentioned the fiscal Oversight Board that is probably some reporter rican puerto rico oversight management and economic stability and thats the board thats. By congress the u. S. Congress and twenty sixteen to oversee the islands detonates about seventy billion and a little over that dan i know the community has thoughts on that that they have not been because of that but one of the also one of the things hector mentioned that Puerto Rico Needs a Marshall Plan were seeing concerns that things might not go the way that he would like it to go over and i want you to listen to these tweets we had natalia she wrote as she said certainly expecting big contracts to be parceled out to politically connected happened after Hurricane Katrina will happen again and that also goes into the question renee that you mentioned of disaster capitalism of privatization happening after the shock of the hurricane this is something that naomi klein scholar has referred to how would you oppose that. Well the only way. Just for for there to be investing in puerto rico but by by the u. S. Government in the state of the Marshall Plan like after World War Two and the reason is like if you let put a rico just on itself at this point put a recall is going to be at the mercy of bone holders were just one holders and bunch of fans at this moment are just looking to make a quick buck out of the bottom so they re bought on the market and if were and put are we go and this is what actor was saying. We can not only focus on the immediate relief we have to think about the transformation of the relationship between puerto rico and the United States because that is the relationship that has brought us where we are where we cant manage to squeeze us off on our own because we dont have the opportunities we do not have the access to resources that other states has or that independent countries have so we are stuck in this by cuba and then we have bondholders sort of one on one side both your folks on one side we have what we need what we need to do to reconstruct our island and then we have a u. S. Congress that does not seem to be interested in tackling this head on so definitely there needs to be a combination. And the only way to protect put or we go from pound holders and from both your phones and for it to be able to actually get off the ground is for the u. S. Government to step in order to be a transformation in our relationship with the u. S. Either of the two major. Bond from Getting Started on that now is about once a job and when and kate as well take go ahead yes and a colleague of mine in these times was talking to organize you and other local here in the states on the left really need its own person. And. Shocker not to enforce the privatization. Another corporation sort of looking at the wreckage of maria to make a quick buck are likely to do in the coming weeks and months really to see this as a way to democratize what it calls a column a democratized because government the fiscal control board is only required to help one puerto rican member on it and so i think that this can be a real opportunity to really rethink part of the United States functionally that a lot of us in the United States have forgotten about for a long time and really think about this as an opportunity to rebuild and in some cases build a better relationship the United States is how to puerto rico sort of whole history so one question i keep coming up year after year as a bill actually want to read the statement for you one question that keeps coming up is that of statehood for puerto rico and i know people are both for it and opposed to it take a look at the statement we got from jose fuentes hes with the puerto rico state council he says puerto rico destruction gives the u. S. A chance to do the right thing we build the struggling territory as a strong state and the long term recovery of puerto rico that does not resolve its status in favor of the statehood would be incomplete isabel are you in favor of statehood for puerto rico i am not going to get into state satis conversations right now i think that thats what ive been a part of the problem that when we keep talking about the status and not about what are the best solutions for puerto rico in terms of Economic Development what i will say about that that is that. President trump said yesterday and fox news said he was just going to wipe away the dept i dont know what that means until we know what that what that statement means we can start understanding what are our cards on the table and what are our options and i also want to say in terms of rebuilding puerto rico we do have an amazing talented and knowledgeable Human Capital and thats our biggest asset and we have puerto rico is in the island and we have puerto rico outside the island that are ready and eager to jump and and help in any way possible it could be with their connections it can be with their know how and what i have what i am expecting and what im seeing thats going to happen is that Civil Society think towns nonprofits are going to come together and want to Work Together as a team to rethink puerto rico in a Sustainable Way and so it is about what you were talking about there im just going to im going to hold this up and i had it right here and i hear you have turned im going to go to you but i want to explain for our International Audience what is about mentioned comments from this week trying to wipe out puerto ricos debt in an interview on fox news then this happened this is via the hill though a lot of other news organizations have it just in budget chief contradicts trump on puerto rico debt and this is the white house budget director Mick Mulvaney who on wincey said were absolutely not going to bail them out this headline is he walking back trumps comments on wiping out puerto rico that so have i know that you and your organization have been out on the streets i have this tweet pulled up here we have to restructure puerto rico so it works for the people not the hedge funds and banks and thats the piece of your organization the only one im going to meet with im going to do that if you go back to the question of the. Need to that were going to explore how strong. The institutions that lives with me whether this is official or believe it will be put to recall has been this debate it largely inflicted by. You know six if you. Many stations are implementing austerity programs we need the Labor Movement in the state to help the Labor Movement put the ricoh to rebuild itself so we have a strong worker voice that informs how their restructuring and redevelopment is going to happen we also need to get the kind of institutions and organizations in the Progressive Movement foundations and others to really really support the efforts on the grassroots you know neighborhoods are going to stations organizations and the environment organizations about Affordable Housing in the poorest communities or puerto rico they are being wiped out the imagine this year it came having of root it already for you know institutions that allowed these voices to be at least be heard they are now being silent so we have to make sure that they put that he could be asked what are five of the hedge funds and the vultures funds that are trying to profit on the island we need to organize a political power of the political comedian. That cross every country we needed to the man congress to take action on this damon correcting trial is shameful Chapter Eight but the rico cannot pay this that is not about bailing out but that rico is about doing what is right for three million americans and then we also need to strengthen the independence Civil Society organizations and sectors in puerto rico they are the cultures they are the labor sector advocates of the Community Level so we can build a strong counterbalance i do the right thing but i dont know that its going to happen i pulled out a couple of headlines here in this is on the intercept here to get the theme because he worked on a few of these so this one puerto rican debt holders respond to a catastrophic hurricane by offering puerto rico more debt that your colleague at the entrance that in earlier we saw hurricane earl a touchdown in puerto rico Hurricane Irma unleashes the force is a privatized a nation in puerto rico some of these seem to be forces that are going to work against what health care is advocating what is a case. So exactly right i think something to really be paying close attention to and if weve learned anything from Hurricane Katrina is that there are going to be a lot of people making looking to make money off of whats stopping this human tragedy to stop and. And some of those people may be the same folks who created whatever goes debt crisis in the first place so mastery of banks engineered what may well do you know legal forms of debt and continue to issue these bonds and but at the same wall street banks have created massive infrastructure. Over the last decade since the since the Great Recession one of them being Goldman Sachs which is already had a hand in putting tyson. Roads and highways through a Company Called natural used us so to really look out towards just that the cultures are going to sort of bend and theyre already starting to do less with that was happening long before the Puerto Rican Electric Power Authority and that was happening long before even Hurricane Irma hit they had the just go control board had signed a contract with Mckinsey Company and had been very clear that it wanted to privatize electric Power Authority so something to really be watchful for is you know who is benefiting from these rebuilding efforts and is that the same people who have put a rico in some of the same crisis that its dealing with today so one of the consequences that we have fighting those are the oh sorry tractor i just want to read is one of the consequences that weve seen of the out my of the debt crisis and now people are worried that its going to worsen with a hurricane is out migration people leaving puerto rico for the mainland renee take a look at these tweets that we got from roe he says the last i heard my mom was trying to convince dad to come stateside leaving home due to his health hes been reluctant so far they are staying he also added that a couple of cousins he believes are moving from puerto rico to the mainland because of the hurricane renee. Does this concern you people leaving puerto rico for the mainland because of these overlapping crises. It has been a concern for the last decade but a recurrence depopulating and were not only loosing were losing our talented seducing were losing University Graduates are losing the cream of the crop of this country and theyre leaving because theyre looking for a better opportunity because our government on our core and situation. Has not been able to provide good stable jobs for them i know of course now thats even worse because most companies that were operating and are operating in puerto rico do not do not have power didnt have ways to restart their business unless they they get decent have generators which is an additional expense especially for small commerces and Small Business owners and entrepreneurs who are out of puerto rico so this is this is you know this is going to make it worse and it is making it worse is that theres going to be people leaving but theres also going to be people coming back and im hoping that those believe its temporary but theres going to be people coming back were going to need engineers were going to need to reconstruct this country you know. If we have something is good engineers and weve lost a lot of them that have left to the mainland us but were going to have to meet them back and thats going to happen in many other industries and im confident that were going to get back on our feet who what where and how they instead of broken can you share with us why do you think about. It because quarterly concern resilient people and weve been to the tough situations before but if theres something we do is we connect with the diaspora whats going to station money focuses in connecting that they ask to local opportunities and no matter where Puerto Ricans are they can help somehow and they will because they are helping right now and thats what we have to focus on so were together speaking out of this optimism im sure that youre going to go ahead to a day. Im sure im sure that to help out they will come back and they might be temporary but we need to create a party we need to create Economic Opportunity for these people and as long as we have a crystal fiscal crisis and an economic crisis our people are going to keep leaving at once again those are issues that we need to tackle at the local of the local with our government but also in congress with reforms to statutes concerning puerto rico and as long as that doesnt change were going to be stuck in the same place and i do share our optimism in the short term but im not so sure in the long term and i do hope that were able to move forward and im we are we have recently been we are working right now but there is a reality if you cant get a job if theres no Economic Opportunity in the island people are leaving everything gets worse i want to focus on how to change that situation i was speaking of a speaking of how to change the situation some one idea thats been proposed is rebuilding the entire electrical grid for the island kate i want you to take a listen to this video kannan we got from martina to newquay hes a journalist with city lab so the main problem with that or it was great is that it is pretty much and i would say they were the mental system it is a system that has only regained six percent of its capacity since the hurricane strength fell over two weeks ago so now the challenge for the at the end is to start rethinking reimagining how do when we built a greener safer more sustainable and more efficient grid and one of the ways to achieve that is to start thinking about my parades as a bible solution also the allianz should start thinking about alternative sources of energy such as like solar power or wind power and drift away from oil and gas as sources to power its electricity demand. So ok do you think this is what Puerto Rico Needs to move to Renewable Energy sources and smaller scale grants i can be disconnected so that it doesnt affect the whole island. I think thats a huge part of a part of the solution to whats going on or go right now in part because what weve seen is that one one one power line going down ten thousand people can lose power maybe more one one color panel goes out thats not the same so not only is transforming prep transforming the great a real chance to make the system more stormers only and to make Energy Cheaper in some cases but its also put a lot of people back to work which can go to addressing some of the longer term crises like what are we going to dealing up so i mean the biggest challenge we have is that in the u. S. We are going if actually in the opposite direction that we have an administration that hes advocating for more force if you are a more efficient of gas and coal and oil. Isnt range with the interests of the Big Oil Companies so so i want to go back to the question of how do we actually get in this i take it was exactly that action that we should go on that rebuilding of the greed and hes a sack levi that we need to encourage but he comes to go back to rebuild the island and supported cation and is to do shows on the island so they can develop the tide in that would be necessary you know Going Forward over the next decade or two but we also need to recognize that we have to build bridges and alliances with those that are fighting the very forces that are going to oppose these kind of changes in puerto rico so its good that we have confidence in ourselves that we can under these ourselves alone we have to reach out to the people in this state not just in the put a can they ask whatever beyond who should have a share in todays Economic Justice in renewables in challenge in this administration in that white house in the direction that hes taking in the u. S. If the u. S. Is going to learn i think that the recall is we built the repeal effort to recall is now going to go in there on the other that action that we want it either so we have to build political power and indication i know were going to facial. You know john i mean i think that is a Perfect Place to end this conversation we cannot do this ourselves alone and i heard is about to jump in and agree with that unfortunately were out of time for this part of the program a big thank you charge guests and of course our community if you want to leave us with the last word that will give the last word to angela today who tweeted to remind us that Puerto Ricans are u. S. Citizen she says help them they are americans that shouldnt be a discussion while side until next time well see online. In the house. When News Coverage consists of a punch she had like a five second sound bite and an easy solution. Delve deep and says challenge the status quo expose double standards and debate the contradictions join me mad the hot sun for a new season of the show the frank loved up front. But this time ill just read. Aljazeera. Where ever you are. Facing the realities your president said that there would be a complete audit a hundred percent audit that audit hasnt happened yet. To the heart of the matter so are you saying then that the future of the g. C. C. Will be in doubt. Here the story. On talk to aljazeera at this time. The nature news as it breaks. Away. I would like to be doing that with detailed coverage this is what you mean when you go to find a raid by the Nigerian Army hundreds like these up and just forward in the past few months from around the world there are also hundreds of thousands of arabs that have arrived here in recent years fleeing by so and they feel very let down by the baghdad government. And heres a quick recap of the stories making headlines today