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Imagine getting lost here...at night...
Interesting home made movie out of Montellano & about barrio life, filmed in Montellano & Puerto Plata, produced & directed by Aroni Rodriguez Pe?a & filmed by Jhan Carlos Pe?a, called Viviendo Bajo el Fuego. There's a trailer on You Tube
YouTube - Viviendo Bajo el Fuego
Berzin: How many more years are you going to be blaming "imperialism" for all our ills? Are imperialists to be blamed for our present political class that graduated 49 years ago?
Have you forgotten that our independence is only 68 years younger than USA's. We're not that young anymore to continue blaming Uncle Sam, Spain and France. We have had our own self-determination for too long to continue this blame-game. It is too easy an answer.
How do you explain Taiwan, South Korea, Israel? Some of these nations are not even older than our current "democracy"(1966-2009 period). Why do they succeed and we don't. Oh yes of course, you'll tell me with help from Uncle Sam. But why can't we convince Uncle Sam to be generous with us too? Are Israelis smarter than we are?
We had two chances to become a Taiwan in 1916 and 1965. We had the Americans here. But rather than get the best out them we told them "Yankees go home". We still do. We hate them. We hate the empire. We envy them(that's the biggest problem). Puerto Rico is headed the same way. Lost opportunities! Latins are just ingrates.
But let's stick to us Dominicans. We despise Spain, whom we used to call "La Madre Patria". We can blame them all you want for the oppression of indians. But that's how history works. Alexander the Great was no angel. Yet what would civilization be without him?
Now Spaniards develop most of our beaches and help create a tourist industry that is the envy of many of our neighbors. But we continue to deny their contribution to our society as a whole. While our socialist and left wing friends keep up this fantasy life without imperialism, our women want nothing more than marry a Spaniard. They spend hour chatting in internet looking for "un Espa?olito" because our Dominican men are a bunch of machistas who want their little ass for nothing.
Spaniards are not so bad to our women. It is perhaps our men who hate them because the do better for our women. They are culturally, educationally and financially better than most of us. Whose fault is that?
Let's take India. How long has India been a nation? Why are they now a potential world power? How did they react to imperialism? What did they learn from Britain? That's the difference. Some of us take advantage, others live their life in hatred and retribution.
When "the Yankees" came here in 1965 we blamed the Marines for sex violations. What sex violations? Our girls and women came rushing to them my man! Let's stop the lies. They loved those 6 footers with blue eyes with sharp uniforms. Let's stop hypocrisy. My own girlfriend went for a Marine, and then for another one. That's fair game.
Berzin, I'm sorry. I'm sick and tired of these "imperialism" books. So what about Africa? Africa was better during colonialism. There hasn't been so much famine and poverty as now. Are Anglos to blame for Egypt's underdevelopment, a nation that existed long before Rome? Why are the Nigerian people so poor with all that oil? Why does the Saudi dictatorship do better? Is South Africa a better nation now with apartheid over? Why have they lost their opportunity to become a better nation?
But history is full of success stories. Take Australia. What was Australia before the British but a bunch of wild aborigenes feeding their dingos. What about Canada?
When you look at it it's a cultural thing. When we migrate to foreign powers we continue our cultural underdevelopment by crowding together in ghettos instead of merging into the new culture. We try to bring our own culture and force it into the system, instead of integrating fully for better development.
We stick to colmadones, bachata, playing dominoes on sidewalks, and living the easy life(welfare, drugs, gangs)
There are many Dominicans abroad who took the hard way and made it in the system and live a better life and can say I am one of them.
I stick to my prediction that Dominican Republic will not come out of this vicious circle for another 200 years. We have lost 50 years already because we are now worse than 1961 as an organized nation. We have failed every test as a state. We will be a failed state for many more decades, perhaps centuries. It is our destiny. But don't blame the Yankees or the Spaniards.
I recall a bold foreign policy step we took under Hipolito Mejia's leadership. He sent our troops to Iraq. That was a wise decision and a smart foreign policy strategy. But did we take advantage of this success? No. We lost our resolve and pulled out to follow now a bankrupt policy of appeasing terrorist nations and joining a ghetto storefront organization called Petrocaribe and potentially become member of ALBA.
We lost every opportunity we had to be with our friends and live with our friends, but instead we choose the enemy. We're slowly betraying an old friend, Taiwan, for the promised land of dictatorial China.
We'll see how far we're gonna go with China, Russia, Lybia, Palestine, Iran, Syria, Venezuela as our new trusted partners.
Have you forgotten that our independence is only 68 years younger than USA's. We're not that young anymore to continue blaming Uncle Sam, Spain and France. We have had our own self-determination for too long to continue this blame-game. It is too easy an answer.
How do you explain Taiwan, South Korea, Israel? Some of these nations are not even older than our current "democracy"(1966-2009 period). Why do they succeed and we don't. Oh yes of course, you'll tell me with help from Uncle Sam. But why can't we convince Uncle Sam to be generous with us too? Are Israelis smarter than we are?
We had two chances to become a Taiwan in 1916 and 1965. We had the Americans here. But rather than get the best out them we told them "Yankees go home". We still do. We hate them. We hate the empire. We envy them(that's the biggest problem). Puerto Rico is headed the same way. Lost opportunities! Latins are just ingrates.
But let's stick to us Dominicans. We despise Spain, whom we used to call "La Madre Patria". We can blame them all you want for the oppression of indians. But that's how history works. Alexander the Great was no angel. Yet what would civilization be without him?
Now Spaniards develop most of our beaches and help create a tourist industry that is the envy of many of our neighbors. But we continue to deny their contribution to our society as a whole. While our socialist and left wing friends keep up this fantasy life without imperialism, our women want nothing more than marry a Spaniard. They spend hour chatting in internet looking for "un Espa?olito" because our Dominican men are a bunch of machistas who want their little ass for nothing.
Spaniards are not so bad to our women. It is perhaps our men who hate them because the do better for our women. They are culturally, educationally and financially better than most of us. Whose fault is that?
Let's take India. How long has India been a nation? Why are they now a potential world power? How did they react to imperialism? What did they learn from Britain? That's the difference. Some of us take advantage, others live their life in hatred and retribution.
When "the Yankees" came here in 1965 we blamed the Marines for sex violations. What sex violations? Our girls and women came rushing to them my man! Let's stop the lies. They loved those 6 footers with blue eyes with sharp uniforms. Let's stop hypocrisy. My own girlfriend went for a Marine, and then for another one. That's fair game.
Berzin, I'm sorry. I'm sick and tired of these "imperialism" books. So what about Africa? Africa was better during colonialism. There hasn't been so much famine and poverty as now. Are Anglos to blame for Egypt's underdevelopment, a nation that existed long before Rome? Why are the Nigerian people so poor with all that oil? Why does the Saudi dictatorship do better? Is South Africa a better nation now with apartheid over? Why have they lost their opportunity to become a better nation?
But history is full of success stories. Take Australia. What was Australia before the British but a bunch of wild aborigenes feeding their dingos. What about Canada?
When you look at it it's a cultural thing. When we migrate to foreign powers we continue our cultural underdevelopment by crowding together in ghettos instead of merging into the new culture. We try to bring our own culture and force it into the system, instead of integrating fully for better development.
We stick to colmadones, bachata, playing dominoes on sidewalks, and living the easy life(welfare, drugs, gangs)
There are many Dominicans abroad who took the hard way and made it in the system and live a better life and can say I am one of them.
I stick to my prediction that Dominican Republic will not come out of this vicious circle for another 200 years. We have lost 50 years already because we are now worse than 1961 as an organized nation. We have failed every test as a state. We will be a failed state for many more decades, perhaps centuries. It is our destiny. But don't blame the Yankees or the Spaniards.
I recall a bold foreign policy step we took under Hipolito Mejia's leadership. He sent our troops to Iraq. That was a wise decision and a smart foreign policy strategy. But did we take advantage of this success? No. We lost our resolve and pulled out to follow now a bankrupt policy of appeasing terrorist nations and joining a ghetto storefront organization called Petrocaribe and potentially become member of ALBA.
We lost every opportunity we had to be with our friends and live with our friends, but instead we choose the enemy. We're slowly betraying an old friend, Taiwan, for the promised land of dictatorial China.
We'll see how far we're gonna go with China, Russia, Lybia, Palestine, Iran, Syria, Venezuela as our new trusted partners.
gini index, etc
For the benefit of those who like to play around with global statics
List of countries by income equality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
You can shift and sort these tables around for some perspectives
The United States now has a Gini Coeiffient index of income inequality
Gini coefficient - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
with a greater divide between the rich and the poor ... at the highest level of its history.
The EU hovers around 30, the US now at over 46, the DR at 49.9 Haiti at 59.2
Now, some may argue that this is not the desired goal... that they do not want a flat distribution of income like the northern european countries.... denmark, norway, etc.....
but no one actually wants to be at the bottom of this scale.
We can argue ad nauseum as to the historic causes here in the DR or as to the future possiblities... but perhaps we can agree on some points that are going to
Forever and always hinder development? Could we?
say perhaps we could start as follows?
lack of expenditure for public education?
corruption in government ?
lack of independent civil service
patronage
uncontrolled migration from Haiti and lack of political will to control same?
lack of ????
presence of gambling as a culture?
presence of foreign aid as a corruptor
???
?????
For the benefit of those who like to play around with global statics
List of countries by income equality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
You can shift and sort these tables around for some perspectives
The United States now has a Gini Coeiffient index of income inequality
Gini coefficient - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
with a greater divide between the rich and the poor ... at the highest level of its history.
The EU hovers around 30, the US now at over 46, the DR at 49.9 Haiti at 59.2
Now, some may argue that this is not the desired goal... that they do not want a flat distribution of income like the northern european countries.... denmark, norway, etc.....
but no one actually wants to be at the bottom of this scale.
We can argue ad nauseum as to the historic causes here in the DR or as to the future possiblities... but perhaps we can agree on some points that are going to
Forever and always hinder development? Could we?
say perhaps we could start as follows?
lack of expenditure for public education?
corruption in government ?
lack of independent civil service
patronage
uncontrolled migration from Haiti and lack of political will to control same?
lack of ????
presence of gambling as a culture?
presence of foreign aid as a corruptor
???
?????
Corruption is the root cause for the ills of the Dominican economy and society, not imperialism. Installing a socialist-marxist system of redistribution of wealth, will add only evil to the corruption, destroying liberties while only improving some basic services.
The enforcement of existing laws could solve most of the problems of this society.
The enforcement of existing laws could solve most of the problems of this society.
sick are no better for being poor. in fact, it is better to be sick and rich if one cannot be healthy.this is all pretty talk of the poor who have no money, no education and no resources and the only thing left is pride. they cannot be proud of being successful, of graduating, of achieving anything material so they are proud of what is left.
girls flaunt their bodies because they have no education, no knowledge, no ambition and no future that will last any longer their beauty can hold. they will dance on the street, sell their beauty to young tigres, get pregnant, get beaten up, age without grace and die of diseases. they will go through life not knowing why, never wondering, never having any deep thought, never making significant decision.
this is the world with no exit - we may speculate how would it be to be lost in a barrio at night but they are the ones who are truly and deeply lost in there, in a barrio full of dead end streets, in houses destroyed by a whim of nature. they cannot drive out, they cannot walk out, not even crawl. even if they happen to physically get out they never really leave, barrio mentality lives on.
yes, one can argue that barrio people REALLY live, in wittgensteinian sense that only one who lives in the present lives forever but this is existence frozen in time. there may be cable television, cell phones, pasolas and cars but mentally times does not move, it stands still in that petrified moment when there is no past for one never think and recollects and there is no future for one does not hope and anticipate.
Sabana Perdida etc
Amigos,
having visited a couple of the barrios I think the dangers are greatly exaggerated, especially by those who live fairly close to them. I was warned that I would get mugged, drugged, stabbed and so on but the people I met were friendly and generous. I have some photos on Facebook and Panoramio and you can see for yourselves. Seeing people build a house next to the river while others were cleaning up after the floods of the night before was a bit bizarre, but obviously they build where they can. A 'desayuno' consisting of sugar squeezed from the cane seemed a bit inadequate, but you can see that the people smile a lot more than those of us from the northern hemisphere.
The most scary moment was a visit to the home of a 'brujo' (I 'made my excuses and left') and a trip to the countryside with a whisky drinking taxi driver.
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http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2014759&id=1448659532&op=24
Panoramio - Photos by Iarla > Santo Domingo
Amigos,
having visited a couple of the barrios I think the dangers are greatly exaggerated, especially by those who live fairly close to them. I was warned that I would get mugged, drugged, stabbed and so on but the people I met were friendly and generous. I have some photos on Facebook and Panoramio and you can see for yourselves. Seeing people build a house next to the river while others were cleaning up after the floods of the night before was a bit bizarre, but obviously they build where they can. A 'desayuno' consisting of sugar squeezed from the cane seemed a bit inadequate, but you can see that the people smile a lot more than those of us from the northern hemisphere.
The most scary moment was a visit to the home of a 'brujo' (I 'made my excuses and left') and a trip to the countryside with a whisky drinking taxi driver.
Login | Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2014759&id=1448659532&op=24
Panoramio - Photos by Iarla > Santo Domingo
the happy native
Happy Planet Index - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
That stat that keeps getting tossed about is the Happy PLANET index and has to do with ENVIRONMENTAL impact of the lives of the people. The lower the carbon footprint, the Happier the PLANET!!!
Sorry, I just do not buy it... about how happy they are down by the river in their mud and wattle huts, with nothing for tonight's supper, vs. the condo on Mirador Sur... it is facile and a good way to keep the grim statistics from keeping the comfortable awake at night.
The fact is that there is grinding poverty here amid conspicuous wealth and there are very few who speak for the lives of the poorest.
There is no public outcry for public education.
ah, no...
rather we have the picture of the happy poor!!
that is a very very dangerous lie
Happy Planet Index - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
That stat that keeps getting tossed about is the Happy PLANET index and has to do with ENVIRONMENTAL impact of the lives of the people. The lower the carbon footprint, the Happier the PLANET!!!
Sorry, I just do not buy it... about how happy they are down by the river in their mud and wattle huts, with nothing for tonight's supper, vs. the condo on Mirador Sur... it is facile and a good way to keep the grim statistics from keeping the comfortable awake at night.
The fact is that there is grinding poverty here amid conspicuous wealth and there are very few who speak for the lives of the poorest.
There is no public outcry for public education.
ah, no...
rather we have the picture of the happy poor!!
that is a very very dangerous lie
Agree with you Annie. The whole "Poor Dominican people are so happy..." is a load of crap and I can say it because I was one of them and a lot of my relatives still are. This is all a picture seen through the eyes of people who have a comfortable life and who just visit the poor once in a while and at the end of the day can just leave and go back to their hot showers, air conditioned rooms, stocked fridges, etc...
The poor can and do party just like anyone else, but the difference is that if let's say El Chaval is playing at the local disco I can go if I want to and not have to think twice about the money I'm about to spend, they cannot and believe me they would love to.
Your life as a poor person is just so restricted and you spend most of your time worrying about what am I going to eat tomorrow, getting enough water to take a "shower", cook and clean, etc. There's no time to think about getting a career to better yourself. Now I was lucky that I was a poor from El Campo so we didn't have to worry about food at least because it was plentiful (at least viveres, eggs, and other stuff you grew / raised yourself), but if you live in a place like Capotillo you don't have a piece of land big enough to grow some of your own food.
Goll: The people who are warning you about the danger of these places may be exaggerating a bit, but don't completely dismiss it. Just because you were able to visit and nothing happened to you that one time doesn't mean you should make it a habit. Believe me if you hang out at these places once the tigueres find out some info about you and realize you're not some bad ass dude you'll be a likely target.
The poor can and do party just like anyone else, but the difference is that if let's say El Chaval is playing at the local disco I can go if I want to and not have to think twice about the money I'm about to spend, they cannot and believe me they would love to.
Your life as a poor person is just so restricted and you spend most of your time worrying about what am I going to eat tomorrow, getting enough water to take a "shower", cook and clean, etc. There's no time to think about getting a career to better yourself. Now I was lucky that I was a poor from El Campo so we didn't have to worry about food at least because it was plentiful (at least viveres, eggs, and other stuff you grew / raised yourself), but if you live in a place like Capotillo you don't have a piece of land big enough to grow some of your own food.
Goll: The people who are warning you about the danger of these places may be exaggerating a bit, but don't completely dismiss it. Just because you were able to visit and nothing happened to you that one time doesn't mean you should make it a habit. Believe me if you hang out at these places once the tigueres find out some info about you and realize you're not some bad ass dude you'll be a likely target.
The conditions are bad, but not the people
I would not want to imply that I think people are happy living in mud with no education. I was greatly touched by the poverty I saw, but I do not like the attitude that many people have - that everyone in the barrio is evil. I have been obsessed with Santo Domingo for a year since I visited Barrio Los Minos last September, and would like to do something to help out. I am helping a couple of students as I believe that education is the most valuable thing they can get, and I can't rescue all those thousands who are crowded down by the river.
As for safety, I think that treating people as equals and showing some respect will go a long way, and nowhere on earth is 100% safe.
I would not want to imply that I think people are happy living in mud with no education. I was greatly touched by the poverty I saw, but I do not like the attitude that many people have - that everyone in the barrio is evil. I have been obsessed with Santo Domingo for a year since I visited Barrio Los Minos last September, and would like to do something to help out. I am helping a couple of students as I believe that education is the most valuable thing they can get, and I can't rescue all those thousands who are crowded down by the river.
As for safety, I think that treating people as equals and showing some respect will go a long way, and nowhere on earth is 100% safe.