How modern is Santo Domingo and DR in general?

[NALs]

Muchacho! No pierdas tu tiempo, que estos no estan interesados en hechos, mucho menos en aprender nada.

Ya lo saben todo! Mas aun de la Rep. Dom...

Ahora quieren discutir sobre que es la ciudad de Santo Domingo y donde termina. Solo mira como creen que es la provincia!

Asi ocurrio cuando me debatian de la ciudad de Santiago... No saben nada y asi seguiran de ignorantes, sobre todo lo que es la RD.

Ahora quieren discutir con nosotros, QUE es la ciudad de Santo Domingo! Te parece poco?

Parece que les educan en Florida, que la ciudad de Miami tienes los mismos limites, que el estado donde se encuentra.

Well, I’m not losing any sleep over this.

There are a lot of people that don’t know a lower middle class neighborhood when they see one and this is most likely the cause of the confusion among many here. It’s a purely psychological issue that is exacerbated due to the informal origin of many of these neighborhoods and certain characteristics that are very DR specific.

This may not be good for the image of the country, but it is good for the few that know the country well because it eliminates many of the would be successful business owners in various niches and thus, leaves a much larger share of the market for fewer players for now and well into the future.

 

[NALs]

O&C you kind of redeemed yourself in the last paragraph as I thought it was going to be yet another "Bring El Jefe back post". Yes during Trujillo's days things were orderly, from what I hear...but that is all a fallacy.

The water maybe was drinkable, but only like 20% of people had access to running water. The streets were clean, but only about 30% of the country had proper streets. The police and army were disciplined, sure...but they would haul your @ss to jail for such offenses as "not wearing a shirt in public" if you just happened to be lounging in front of your house and a patrol went by. You'd get yous @ss beat, maybe even disappeared...you'd live in a constant state of paranoia making sure you never did anything that would displease the apparatus. The trains (well the One train) ran on time...did anybody own a car other than the connected and rich? Nope. Santo Domingo was a city of a few hundred thousands people. You couldn't have your own company unless Trujillo allowed you to and you paid a "royalty". I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to live in such an environment.

You forgot to mention that the vast majority of the population lived in wooden huts with dirt floors, cooked in open pits (fogones) and used charcoal as fuel, and slept on catres instead of actual beds. The typical Dominican woman had to actually hand wash hers and the family's clothing in the nearest river instead of in washer machines that today are widely used even in neighborhoods such as Cristoy Rey. The list is very long and tedious of other etc that for the most part began to disappear from Dominican life quite rapidly in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

Even young Dominicans have a hard time understanding things such as that over 90% of cement homes were literally built in the last 20 to 30 years. That is why the image of the typical Dominican living in a wooden hut hasn't disappeared yet from popular culture, as is evident in the many paintings of small wooden huts in a green and pristine mountain setting representing "typical" Dominican life. In reality, wooden houses are now home to a minority of the population, but we will not be seeing a change in this perception among artists for a very long time.

My impression is that any Dominican with less than 25 years of age has no clue how the DR was and in a country where the average age hoover the 26-28 range, that's a huge chunk of the population.

Many people simply don't have a clue of what the DR was, but because of certain DR specifics (such as our disorganized ways, I'll admit it; and also that while most aspects of Dominican life has moved forward, there are some things that have not such as the security situation and people love to focus on those few things in order to feed the pessimism and fatalism that has been a part of Dominican culture for centuries.) Given all of this, its no wonder that so many people completely miss the signs of progress that are evident pretty much everywhere in the country.

 

[Naked_Snake]

You forgot to mention that the vast majority of the population lived in wooden huts with dirt floors, cooked in open pits (fogones) and used charcoal as fuel, and slept on catres instead of actual beds. The typical Dominican woman had to actually hand wash hers and the family's clothing in the nearest river instead of in washer machines that today are widely used even in neighborhoods such as Cristoy Rey. The list is very long and tedious of other etc that for the most part began to disappear from Dominican life quite rapidly in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

Even young Dominicans have a hard time understanding things such as that over 90% of cement homes were literally built in the last 20 to 30 years. That is why the image of the typical Dominican living in a wooden hut hasn't disappeared yet from popular culture, as is evident in the many paintings of small wooden huts in a green and pristine mountain setting representing "typical" Dominican life. In reality, wooden houses are now home to a minority of the population, but we will not be seeing a change in this perception among artists for a very long time.

My impression is that any Dominican with less than 25 years of age has no clue how the DR was and in a country where the average age hoover the 26-28 range, that's a huge chunk of the population.

Many people simply don't have a clue of what the DR was, but because of certain DR specifics (such as our disorganized ways, I'll admit it; and also that while most aspects of Dominican life has moved forward, there are some things that have not such as the security situation and people love to focus on those few things in order to feed the pessimism and fatalism that has been a part of Dominican culture for centuries.) Given all of this, its no wonder that so many people completely miss the signs of progress that are evident pretty much everywhere in the country.

The problem I see with the foreigners complaining about the issues on this country is that most of them don't understand that the DR, for all of its current advances in some spaces, is still a century behind the developed countries they came from and major Latin American players (Mexico, Brazil, Chile). In that sense, it would be very useful for them to read the book "Composici?n Social Dominicana" by Juan Bosch. On that book (many of whose observations still apply to this day), the good professor explains that most of this country's lag can be explained by the fact that the national burgueoise is a creation of the mid-XXth century, or most specifically, of Trujillo's dictatorship (although he only intended to remain as the sole oligarch here). Many of the capital accumulation practices he indulged in wouldn't have raised too much eyebrows had they been enacted a century or two ago, since those very same practices were the ones that the burgueoise class in the developed countries (US, UK, France, etc.) enacted to accumulate their capital resources, so any analysis of the current situation must be made keeping this in mind.

 

[mountainannie]

ok .I am convinced. I have been to three different places looking for Dr Scholls' insoles.. and no one seems to even know what i am talking about. so backwards. Damn. I am gonna have to order them on the internet! so inconvenient! since we get the US programs without all the US commercials. so they do not know about half the trash that is being marketed. jajaja ...

 

[CARIBETORNO]

I bought those dr scholls crap. I had blue feet when they burst.. not kidding

 

[mountainannie]

I know a woman, a Brit, who has lived here for the last 25 years, who says that city basically ended at Maximo Gomez-- well, that can't be quite true but almost, I guess. Most of the construction from Lincoln to the west.. the business district - the areas like Naco and Piantini, look very modern to me.

There is the whole section of really elegant single family homes that you come upon suddenly behind La Sirena on Churchill.. that must be older - the way things were say 50 years ago, maybe?

It would be great to see some old pictures if anyone has them

 

[ROLLOUT]

Liberty City Miami

Doesn't look much different. We get it Hernandez, there are barrios in DR. Santo Domingo is a second world city with many first world amenities. Of course there is room to improve and clean up.

Hey!! I know that corner.

 

[Mauricio]

Here's a modern city:

[video=youtube_share;b18BJ37hcrA]http://youtu.be/b18BJ37hcrA[/video]

 

[CARIBETORNO]

Its' modern enough for me.

 

[CARIBETORNO]

i am not the type of person that correct grammar, but the word "funner" is bad!!!! People will look at you funny if you use this word or the word "funnest" you are looking for "sd looks like it is more fun".

Its just that word "funner" drives me crazy because so many inner city youths used this word and i always correct them.

I know there is an entire thing going on with the word"fun" as a noun or adjective, but in your sentence you are using it as a noun.
If you had used it in a sentence like " i am going to the fun house" then it becomes a adjective, which some people say it is okay to say "i am going to the "funner" house which still sounds so bad to me.

Sorry about this can't believed i even typed this much lol!!!

wow, bored?????

 

[Taca?o]

I don't know what to think of this city! I mean what I'm about to say happens in many "modern" cities all over the world but this is actually the first time it hit me.

I live in La Zona Colonial, around that zone you're in a barrio with the less fortunate people. Because I used to spend my time there a lot more than in the richer areas my idea of Santo Domingo was more or less uhmmm..

But this week is the first time I took a Metro, even tho I went to Blue Mall before (so called mall for the rich people) I now went to Agora and Sambil. Man, these malls look GREAT! Not once would you think you're in a country with poor people, the metro also looks nice and all that!

But to call this city modern, I'm used to FAST wifi like everywhere, I'm used to seeing not so messed up cars on the street, I'm not used to getting people at your windows hustling at every red light, I'm not used to messed up looking buses, I'm not used to messed up looking taxi's (without mirrors or even windows!?!?!) and the list goes on.

I do not live in the rich side of the town, but then again.. I couldn't call it modern just because a couple of features are beyond NICE!