...what do you think of the following quote from Stinchcomb's book: "For Joaqu?n Balaguer (1906-2002), the former four-term president, Haitians are responsible for all that is wrong with the Dominican Republic, especially hunger, disease, and moral decay (La isla al rev?s, 41)"?
Obviously Haitians are not responsible for what's wrong with the DR, but their massive illegal immigration flow certainly doesn't help. Their massive unchecked presence causes more problems and costs to Dominican society than it does benefits, mainly because the costs are shared by everyone while the benefits are mostly accrued privately.
To understand why Haiti is the way it is, one has to look into why Haitian leaders made the decisions they made. The answer seems to be based on the very cultural values that lead to the creation of the Haitian state and the subsequent degradation of Haitian society. A good read is this essay:
An Island Drifting Apart: Why Haiti mires in poverty while the Dominican Republic forges ahead
It boils down to a long established predatory habit on the part of the Haitian political and economic elites, mostly due to the cultural cleaveges that developed in Haitian society due to having been the only country to be formed by ex-slaves. In a way this attitude continues to manifest itself with what appears to be a desire for other nations to take Haiti's problems and make it their own, fix them if you will. That sense of entitlement is simply not conducive to create the conditions for progress in Haiti or outside of Haiti.
As a result of such actions, Haiti is in the worst possible condition it could had been. For example, diseases that in other countries are contained, are quite curable and in many cases were eradicated, in Haiti continue to exist and kills many people that could had lived had the Haitian authorities, through the years, been much more in tune with the necessities of its people and with the importance of developing a sound economic base, rather than the predatory model that kept Haiti afloat.
Balaguer, having been born in 1906 in a country with less than 1 million people and with a very tiny Haitian population, lived almost the entirety of the most revolutionizing century the island had witnessed, except for the 16th century with the colonization process and the 19th with the result of the Haitian Revolution, albeit for the most part confined to the western coasts, islands and peninsulas of Hispaniola.
He witnessed a country that changed before his very eyes in very profound ways. By the time his first 12 years of power ended in 1978, he had witnessed a Dominican Republic that successfully eradicated of diseases such as Malaria and Polio. This was quite an achievement executed by the desires and interests of the Dominican political, economic and social elites; for the benefits of the entire Dominican society. But, by the time he died in 2002, he had witnessed how Malaria made a reappearance in the 1990s, with the first cases having been identified in new Haitian immigrant communities. A year before Balaguer died, even Polio made a reappearance in a Haitian migrant community in Jarabacoa. That event made the Dominican Republic the only country in the Americas to have had eradicated Polio to see it come back two or three decades later, and the only country that saw its return via a migrant community.
The aids epidemic is overwhelmingly a Haitian immigrant ordeal. Right now we can see the issue with the Cholera epidemic, also introduced to the country by Haitian migrants; and the DR is the only country in the Caribbean, aside from Haiti, that continues to have spontaneous reappearances of Cholera in neighborhoods with substantial Haitian presence.
With a track record of such nature regarding diseases that with much aspirations, optimism, and effort were eradicated for the benefit of the Dominican people only to see them reappear via the Haitian migrant community; is it wrong to say the obvious?
Is it bad to say that thanks to the stupidity of the Haitian political elites through the years, that today many pregnant Haitian women rush to the border in an attempt to enter the DR, just to give birth in our hospitals; and thanks to their complete lack of medical attention during their pregnancy (thanks to the Haitian government's wonderful job), the numbers of infants that die at birth or just after birth is so high, that the Haitian component on its own elevate the DR's infant mortality rate to among the highest in the hemisphere?
So much effort and resources have been devoted through the years, all in the name of Dominican progress and wellbeing, to only see it undone faster than anyone can say wow, and having identified the source of such backwardness. Is it wrong to state the obvious?
Of course Balaguer was correct about Haitians bringing diseases to the DR, he was correct not because he said it, but because we see it happening right now.
And there is much poverty that accompanies the Haitians, tremendous poverty. There is much straining of very limited resources for public health care, public education, and other public programs.
But the Haitians are not the reason for the moral decay. The evidence, as I see it, points to other sources and other influences. Haitians are a major driving force in the cultural Haitianization of Dominican society, but not of moral decay. There are people now that want to present Rara music as Dominican, when its nothing more than Haitian Gaga music and the vast majority of the people that enjoy and practice such music are Haitians and Haitian descendants; most of illegal immigrant status. So why so much insistence on imposing this Haitian music on Dominicans and trying to present it to the world as Dominican, when it obviously is not? That's one example of the Haitianization process, but not moral decay.
Balaguer lived at a time when social darwinism was in vague and widely held as legitimate, and anyone that was concerned with the wellbeing and the future of his country, would had taken such ideas and theories into considerations. It was only during the final decades of his life that such ideas and theories began to be questioned internationally and were beginning to be replaced with other theories.
Along with the new theories, the Dominican state changed as well. Cedulas no longer have the color/race category, that's a thing of the past. Everyone learns of the African heritages in our schools, that's a thing of the present. And it's all the result of not just the changing Dominican Republic, but also the world in which in exists.
But Balaguer was a man of his times, and remained a man of his times; not a saint. He wanted the best for his country, but his time, much of his time, had explanations that today are considered pass?, but none-the-less, in the past were as serious as anything we take seriously today.
Men are judged according to their times, not according to ours. That's the only way we can identify the true villains of our history and separate them from men that wanted the best for their country, but were handicapped due to the ideas that prevailed during their time.
But, he was right on the Haitians bringing poverty and diseases. This may not be politically correct, but the problem is that it is the truth. The evidence is there, for whomever wants to search for it. It's crystal clear.
That a man like Balaguer, having been a man of his time, even considered as a possibility that an island wide union at some point in the future would most likely be the best solution to the Haitian immigration problem; is a testament to his greatness, IMO. He managed to put aside his life long ingrained beliefs due to having been a man of his time, and formulate an unorthodox solution to what essentially is the worst problem facing the Dominican Republic.
I, personally, don't agree with him on his island wide suggestion; but like him, I am a man of my own time and interpret several futures that could be true, while not sacrificing the republic.
