The Dominican Time Bomb - New York Times

[islandhopping]

Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/02/magazine/the-dominican-time-bomb.html?ref=world

I enjoyed the article.As with many convoluted and extensive issues, there are rarely objectively compendious reports on this emotionally charged situation. The article did a respectable justice to the legacy of both countries. Every persons affect by the court ruling, every person implementing the ruling and every person public media reports don't fit in one simple category.

Most international accusers have perspicuously performed similar actions currently or the recent past. The USA on Central Americans children, the Bahamas with Haitian migration, Italy and Spain with Middle East and North African migrants and the list continues.

Ultimately, the Dominican Republic jurisprudence should be judge by its implementing the new cedula program.

Imagine how the DR elite community would react to mainland USA and Puerto Rico implementing new policy similarly affecting primarily Dominicans. What if Panama decided to follow with Dominicans already residing in Panama.

Until there are actually repatriation numbers from the Haitian government or what you claim is a government and people watching at border crossing. We have to reserve judgment on the DR and only criticize the current implementation process.

 

[franco1111]

I don't necessarily argue with the explanation of the situation in the NYT story, but it is certainly not an unbiased account.

The author makes his bias clear from the beginning: "Like so many visitors to the Dominican Republic before and since, I saw a deep vein of racism and xenophobia that a world more interested in the country’s beaches and ballplayers generally prefers to ignore."

His use of language is not objective, he seems to think he has to add sensational flourishes, such as: "In broad daylight, the Dominican military showed off buses to transport the deportees; 'processing centers' awaited exiles at the border." In broad daylight, imagine the audacity. He thinks they should show of the buses in the middle of the night?

He does a pretty good job of explaining the essence of the situation: "Citizenship is at the heart of the current crisis. The Dominican Constitution, like its American counterpart, confers citizenship on anyone born in the country’s territory. But there are technical exceptions for the children of diplomats and anyone who can be said to be 'in transit.' For years, and in defiance of multiple rulings by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Dominican authorities have exploited that vague second loophole to refuse papers and passports to anyone of Haitian descent, arguing that even families who have been in the country for generations are 'temporary.' Then he just tosses in, without any substantiating references, "Those who have tried to advocate for the rights of Dominico-Haitians to fully integrate into society, such the late activist Sonia Pierre, have worked under constant surveillance and threats." I guess we can just trust this statement is a fact.

Then, note his description of the Regularization Plan: "Medina’s government announced a national program — the National Plan for Regularization of Foreigners in Irregular Migratory Situations — that threatened the country’s three-quarters of a million haitianos with deportation. He characterizes the Plan primarily as a threat. Secondarily, he adds "A May 2014 law laid out a program in which those who had lost their citizenship could reapply."

Note also his ability to read the minds of the Haitians that have left: "Fearing violence, at least 17,000 people with ties to Haiti have chosen to flee the country on their own."

[The Organization of American States established the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 1979 to enforce and interpret the provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights. I find it interesting that the U.S. signed but never ratified the Convention. Other countries have. It is beyond the scope of the NYT article to get into this.]

This author is a freelance writer, not a regular writer for the NYT. It may be that he had to give them something with a little punch to sell the story.

In fairness, I suppose it would be good to read this author's other work. "Jonathan M. Katz is a freelance journalist and the author of 'The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster.'"

 

[airgordo]

Yeah right Fair and Balanced doing respectable justice hahahaha...i guess this part was very enjoyable and fair:

"But the intensity of the hatred and violence long directed against Haitian immigrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent in Medina?s country ? and against anyone black enough to be confused for either ? is staggering, like something out of Mississippi in the 1890s, or Europe before World War II. "

ALL are OPINIONS from the ignorant fellow that wrote this piece which happens to be not capable of even breaking the same old format, they follow EXACTLY the same sequence, having read so many pieces of the same BS i remember is something like this:

1- Downgrade Dominicans through diverse means to Nazi, Xenophobic, racist of the worst kind...stating that I leved there, i visited there, etc. etc. etc.
2- Fast Forward to EL CORTE in 1937, then state the inflated number of 20 or 30 Thousand people got massacred by Trujillo, right there the mention of Trujillo's haitian grand mother an the whitening of population, mention of the INDIO term. NOT MENTION AT ALL or VERY BRIEF and PINKY mention of the Thousands of litters of Dominican Blood spilled BY the Haitians beginning 1805.
3- the Disparities between the Two countries and how the EVIL NAZI dominicans kipnapped people and forced them to work on sugar cane fields, NOT mention of course that sugar cane industry has been DEAD on this country for 20 years or not mention responsibility from Haitian Gov on the subject.
4- Then the Spectacular LIES based in thin air, such as 200,000 Dominican citizens deported!, Haitians with Dominican citizenship because anybody that is born on the DR is Dominican or the most vague and generic number of HUNDREDS of Thousands of STATELESS, of course the MENTION to the article 11 of the Haitian constitution that actually PREVENTS the statelessness IS NEVER MENTIONED.

THIS template can be applied to ANY DR bashing article and THAT is what you will find, When I can PREDICT what an article says based on the replication of the formats, it is Proof enough that the SAME agenda is behind that, Just like the Iraq weapons of mass destruction charade that piece is nothing more than pathetic,

 

[airgordo]

I don't necessarily argue with the explanation of the situation in the NYT story, but it is certainly not an unbiased account.

The author makes his bias clear from the beginning: "Like so many visitors to the Dominican Republic before and since, I saw a deep vein of racism and xenophobia that a world more interested in the country’s beaches and ballplayers generally prefers to ignore."

His use of language is not objective, he seems to think he has to add sensational flourishes, such as: "In broad daylight, the Dominican military showed off buses to transport the deportees; 'processing centers' awaited exiles at the border." In broad daylight, imagine the audacity. He thinks they should show of the buses in the middle of the night?

He does a pretty good job of explaining the essence of the situation: "Citizenship is at the heart of the current crisis. The Dominican Constitution, like its American counterpart, confers citizenship on anyone born in the country’s territory. But there are technical exceptions for the children of diplomats and anyone who can be said to be 'in transit.' For years, and in defiance of multiple rulings by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Dominican authorities have exploited that vague second loophole to refuse papers and passports to anyone of Haitian descent, arguing that even families who have been in the country for generations are 'temporary.' Then he just tosses in, without any substantiating references, "Those who have tried to advocate for the rights of Dominico-Haitians to fully integrate into society, such the late activist Sonia Pierre, have worked under constant surveillance and threats." I guess we can just trust this statement is a fact.

Then, note his description of the Regularization Plan: "Medina’s government announced a national program — the National Plan for Regularization of Foreigners in Irregular Migratory Situations — that threatened the country’s three-quarters of a million haitianos with deportation. He characterizes the Plan primarily as a threat. Secondarily, he adds "A May 2014 law laid out a program in which those who had lost their citizenship could reapply."

Note also his ability to read the minds of the Haitians that have left: "Fearing violence, at least 17,000 people with ties to Haiti have chosen to flee the country on their own."

[The Organization of American States established the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 1979 to enforce and interpret the provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights. I find it interesting that the U.S. signed but never ratified the Convention. Other countries have. It is beyond the scope of the NYT article to get into this.]

This author is a freelance writer, not a regular writer for the NYT. It may be that he had to give them something with a little punch to sell the story.

In fairness, I suppose it would be good to read this author's other work. "Jonathan M. Katz is a freelance journalist and the author of 'The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster.'"

I'm afraid His book will be very much the SAME old Afropcentric Racist glorification of Haitian black imperialism, such as THIS part of this "article" wanna be:

Haiti had defeated Napoleon and the most powerful army in the world to end slavery and win its independence; the eastern half of Hispaniola, by comparison, was just another Spanish colony, which took 60 years more to break free.

Break FREE from WHO?? LOL

 

[ltsnyder]

The article is generally accurate....

What he got wrong ....

*The idea that the Taino people were wiped out is a classic cliche claim. Any one who has been there for any amount of time knows this is dead wrong. The number with obvious american indian features is staggering. Which also lends to the use of the “indio-oscuro,” term.


Generally right ....

*The racial guague is what you are not, as long as you are not considered Hatian, you are ok.

The color issue does exist and it is very well defined. Any one who was there before year 2000, when some could afford a Haitian "helper", know how they treated them like dirt.

There are always exceptions to any rule, and I can go on and on, but I'll give you one example.
My wife at the time was black, (by all intensive purposes of the DR she would clearly qualify as Haitian) in mutli-spectrum of the DR color language there was no other word for her color in DR other then Negro.
We picked a resort on the North coast I liked (it existed at the time) "Club Alegre", and book a flight with our kid 8yo at the time.

When we finally arrived at the check in counter of Club Allegre, our reservation, suddenly, did not exist. We had a reservation in another AI in the complex, a cheaper one.
Now I was not use to color coded discrimination, I was an idiot on it, she was sharp as a whip on it. She called her reservation agent in the US and reminded her how much she spent on vacations and that she should fix this, and there was NO DOUBT what hotel was booked! Off this very expensive pay though the nose call, suddenly out reservation in Club Allegre existed.

We enjoyed the trip after that, but the DR implicitly has a different set of rules if you are dark.

I am not saying it always happens, for the barrio I know in DR, there are some Haitians that have been there for 25+ years, and the neighbors know you. But that does not mean you go wandering a new town, you can imagine what could happen. The term Hatiano is used loosely and no papers are needed to apply.

 

[the gorgon]

my very good friend is very dark skinned. one evening in POP he met the owner of a high end club in Santiago, and the guy suggested to him that if he ever was in Santiago he should stop by the club. well, he did visit two weeks later. my friend is what is commonly called a baller, a guy who dresses to the nines in the latest eexpensive clothes, and he spends money like it is going out of fashion. he walked up to the door, and the bouncer dude took one look at him, gave him the back of the hand thing, and told him he was not allowed inside. my friend told him to go get the owner, because he had come from POP, and he wanted to get in. the bouncer refused to get the owner. a few minutes of waiting unsued, and the owner came to the door, and saw my friend. he asked him what was happening, and when he heard that the bouncer refused him entry, he made him apologize.that is standard practice i have observed since i have been coming here. there are places you cannot get into if you are too dark skinned.

 

[william webster]

Note also his ability to read the minds of the Haitians that have left: "Fearing violence, at least 17,000 people with ties to Haiti have chosen to flee the country on their own."

That really is egregious....

The writer got carried away with his own ideas.

 

[sosuamatt]

The New York Times makes a living by finding racism and xenophobia in all countries and societies except socialist and left leaning ones. It was ever this way.

 

[AlterEgo]

What bothers me most about this article is what bothers me about most of what's been printed and written online - this article says that a month ago the DR decided to do this. Another article someone posted a few days ago said "on June 15th they gave the Haitians TWO DAYS to get their papers together or be deported". None of them mention the 18 MONTHS that were given.
Our son considers himself pretty up-to-date on what's going on in DR, and when I posted an article on FB he was one of the first people who responded negatively. Why? He's been reading Junot Diaz's FB posts and other news sources. After a couple of his Dominican cousins spoke up he finally started to read more, and was surprised about the 18 month window everyone had. As he said to me - if a Dominican like him was misled, there is no hope that the rest of the world really understands what is going on.

 

[Xavier_Onassis]

The New York Times makes a living by finding racism and xenophobia in all countries and societies except socialist and left leaning ones. It was ever this way.

The NY Times has run any number of stories about official racism in Cuba.
It has not run any that I have noticed about the rather common racism of White Cubans against Black Cubans in Miami.

 

[Xavier_Onassis]

Ecos del Sur, the online Barahona web newspaper, reported that a large number of Haitians voluntarily left, and showed a picture of empty stalls at the city market. It also mentioned that the DR government had a bus waiting to give all voluntary Haitian self-deportees a free ride back to Haiti, and mantioned that they had no takers.
Barahona was founded by Toussaint L'Overture, because of its natural seaport. Most of the Dominicans in Barahona are dark, but perhaps not as dark as the Haitians who have arrived since the last US occupation.
There does not seem to be any animosity towards Haitians among the people I speak with.

 

[Lando calrisian]

Yeah right Fair and Balanced doing respectable justice hahahaha...i guess this part was very enjoyable and fair:

"But the intensity of the hatred and violence long directed against Haitian immigrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent in Medina?s country ? and against anyone black enough to be confused for either ? is staggering, like something out of Mississippi in the 1890s, or Europe before World War II. "

ALL are OPINIONS from the ignorant fellow that wrote this piece which happens to be not capable of even breaking the same old format, they follow EXACTLY the same sequence, having read so many pieces of the same BS i remember is something like this:

1- Downgrade Dominicans through diverse means to Nazi, Xenophobic, racist of the worst kind...stating that I leved there, i visited there, etc. etc. etc.
2- Fast Forward to EL CORTE in 1937, then state the inflated number of 20 or 30 Thousand people got massacred by Trujillo, right there the mention of Trujillo's haitian grand mother an the whitening of population, mention of the INDIO term. NOT MENTION AT ALL or VERY BRIEF and PINKY mention of the Thousands of litters of Dominican Blood spilled BY the Haitians beginning 1805.
3- the Disparities between the Two countries and how the EVIL NAZI dominicans kipnapped people and forced them to work on sugar cane fields, NOT mention of course that sugar cane industry has been DEAD on this country for 20 years or not mention responsibility from Haitian Gov on the subject.
4- Then the Spectacular LIES based in thin air, such as 200,000 Dominican citizens deported!, Haitians with Dominican citizenship because anybody that is born on the DR is Dominican or the most vague and generic number of HUNDREDS of Thousands of STATELESS, of course the MENTION to the article 11 of the Haitian constitution that actually PREVENTS the statelessness IS NEVER MENTIONED.

THIS template can be applied to ANY DR bashing article and THAT is what you will find, When I can PREDICT what an article says based on the replication of the formats, it is Proof enough that the SAME agenda is behind that, Just like the Iraq weapons of mass destruction charade that piece is nothing more than pathetic,

You sir are a an exceptional and insightful prodigy with regards to analyzing this situation. You have added a fresh voice to thisdebate, once again good job stating the painfully obvious which others REFUSE to even open their eyes to.
That NYT article will be accepted as gospel by thousands, maybe millions. The damage is done but onward and forward the DR must push ahead concerning what must be done. The RIGHT of the Dominican people to even exist is in question here.
We're playing for keeps.

LC

 

[Black Dog]

"against anyone black enough to be confused for either — is staggering, like something out of Mississippi in the 1890s"

More recently than the 1890s I think, try the 1960s or even more recently than that! Within living memory black people were segregated and treated as second class people within the USA.

 

[jeb321]

You are wrong on every point. Do not look any further than yourself and your own exceedingly racist opinion. You exemplify
exactly what this piece points out. How awful you sound!

 

[Black Dog]

You are wrong on every point. Do not look any further than yourself and your own exceedingly racist opinion. You exemplify
exactly what this piece points out. How awful you sound!

Do you mean me?

 

[jeb321]

Dominicans are too immersed in their own bigotry to see anything the way it is presented to the rest of the world.

 

[greydread]

I guess when the Haitians leave drivers will actually stop at red lights, people will refuse any money except that earned by the sweat of their brow, the streets and rivers will be free of refuse (anyone visit the National Zoo? yecch!) and Fathers will actually go to work every day and come home to spend time raising their Kids after.

The economy will bloom, everyone will be polite and sales of rum and Johnny Walker will plummet.

When the Haitians are gone....

 

[jeb321]

You "think". You really do not think Hatians might fear violence? All of you defending the country's intolerance are the brutes the country is so well known for.

 

[the gorgon]

I guess when the Haitians leave drivers will actually stop at red lights, people will refuse any money except that earned by the sweat of their brow, the streets and rivers will be free of refuse (anyone visit the National Zoo? yecch!) and Fathers will actually go to work every day and come home to spend time raising their Kids after.

The economy will bloom, everyone will be polite and sales of rum and Johnny Walker will plummet.

When the Haitians are gone....

i hope they kick their arses out post haste, so i don?t have to be awakened at three am by Jean Pierre?s 175 decibel stereo system.

 

[jeb321]

You sir are a an exceptional and insightful prodigy with regards to analyzing this situation. You have added a fresh voice to thisdebate, once again good job stating the painfully obvious which others REFUSE to even open their eyes to.
That NYT article will be accepted as gospel by thousands, maybe millions. The damage is done but onward and forward the DR must push ahead concerning what must be done. The RIGHT of the Dominican people to even exist is in question here.
We're playing for keeps.

LC

"The RIGHT (?) of Dominicans to even exist? Give it a break..but Dominicans should be aware that if the NYT decides to keep
pushing the truth forward ... People Will stop coming to this wonderful, beautiful, peaceful And Tolerant country. Make sure you are not too dark otherwise the domincans are easily co fused.