On no! Not in New York City, too!!??

[MikeFisher]

just out of curiousity(sp??, sorry, darn word),
is that way usual on the haitian border?
i did not cross there since a very long time, and i did it at all only twice back in the day.
when i leave/enter the DR here at the PUJ airport i received by immigrations never anything else than na nice smile/como estas?/how are you aso, i hand over my passport with the residency card inside on the page of the passport picture, and they've been always fine with that.
and i leave and enter quiet often towards the US and every couple years towards europe, too.
Mike

 

[Thandie]

It can boggle the mind.

Corruption is very entrenched here so much that even normal God fearing law abiding Christians don't always recognize it, rather see it as a normal way of doing business.

To wit, I just got back from Haiti and came in the southern entrance to DR whereby this Dominican customs dude claims I have to pay US25 to enter. I sternly asserted I had already paid US25 in Dajabon and was not paying anymore. He insisted until I said I was calling my "General" friend and then all of a sudden he says, "oh sorry, I see the receipt stamp right here". Anyway, he says follow me in to the office and on the way there he says give me something on the side for letting you pass through w/o paying and I said sure if you can explain what favor you are doing me. He comes up with some gobbledygook and then I asked him to reference the law that requires I pay an additional fee. Of course he can't and then he says I need to pay the tourist entrance fee whereupon I shoot back by saying bud I travel all of the time and don't pay that as I'm a resident so just forget about it. He finally runs out of tricks and gives up, or so I think. He sends some guy over to me to ask for a small tip for a beer on his behalf and I ask the dude what favor did he do for me. He comes back with "cmon bud it's late and the jefe just wants a cold beer" and beside this guy might do me a favor in the future. I finally relent and give him RD50 and this gall-full sob asks for RD100, whereupon I told him RD50 is enough for a small Bohemia. True story.

The roughest part was trying to get my Dominican and Haitian friends to understand why I was upset afterwords, and one of them is a pastor!

I was dying laughing reading your story LOL...I am surprised he didnt say 'come on its only 50 pesos more , thats nothing'! (It is comical when it is not happening to me of course LOL)...Because that is so typical, I remember myself and Dominican and expat friends going through similar stuff. The sad thing is your friends were confused why you were so upset because they EXPECT that level of blatant corruption...because to them that is the way life is. Such abnormal behaviour is normal for them.
Sad!
This relates to Hillbillys post a few days ago, about Obamas speech in Ghana about high levels of corruption and how it effects a country. Does true democracy exist when you have to pull out your 'my friends a General card' , or can grease the palm of the right person, to get treated better? And if you have no General amigo, or no money, like the majority of Dominicans? Sucks to be you.

P.S. for all those who complain about too many illegal Haitians in the DR, part of the blame lies with these Dominican customs fools at the border. For a few bucks as you can see they will let ANYONE, with ANYTHING in.