This past week I heard a woman talking on her cell as she stood by her child at the kids park, "Yea I haven’t heard from Monster."  I walked to the Gazebo and I found Carola chatting with another neighbor about how some other site was more effective than Monster.  Up until then, at the park, I had only heard talk of a Monster from the mouths of kids running around without a care in the world.

When we moved to our neighborhood the houses would sell like hotcakes.  Our own house was spotted by us the very day the classified ad was published in the newspaper.  Two months later we were moving.  Now as I drive up to the neighborhood there are atleast 6 for sale signs at the entrance to the subdivision.

How things change. 

Today I saw a water company rep. parking in front of a neighbors house. I asked what he was up to, suspecting first and foremost he was about to shut somebody’s water due to lack of payment. It is not unheard of in this middle class neighborhood that people are always leaving one bill behind to pay the next month. Concerned for my neighbor I asked willing to pick up the tab to avoid the sensation of walls falling in on any neighbor. 

 For eight years, we have been working to open a market for alternative technologies, a market open to innovation, building greater economic opportunity for local technology companies.   We have also worked with government to assist in bridging the gap between government strategies for economic development and  a vibrant and diversified private sector. 

Jim and I are invested in this economy, we cannot just get up and go.  Perhaps we could, but the sweat equity we have put in drives us to want to see the change come about, to experience the satisfaction of building trust and opportunity back into the equation.

Today I remember those who left and prepare to say goodbye to the ones leaving everyweek.  I wish I could do something to stop the diaspora now,  something more immediate. I wish it were just enough to say "Puerto Rico te necesita."

Idania, Juan Carlos, Damián, Pedro Javier, Melisa, René, Oliver, Holly, Alberto, Gloria, Diego, Bobby, Carola,  the list goes on but these names I know.  In the year 2000, most of these talented young profesionals were gainfully employed and full of idealism and drive. In the years that followed their careers and dreams hit a wall.  The economy stalled and started moving to a depression. Little by little they left for better opportunities.  Most of them felt they were forced into exile. They have made their lives in Miami, Orlando, Virginia, Maryland, California, New Mexico and New York.