- Thread starter Robert
- Start date
Why Are Dominicans So Apathetic?
suarez, once again you have told it like it is. it is easy to protest something in the USA. there are so many laws protecting freedom of speech, and an ambulance chaser lawyer on every corner, waiting to pitch a lawsuit for anything that can be considered a violation thereof. besides, because of the racial discontent in the USA, if a white cop cracks a black guy over the head for protesting, then the lawyer makes it a racial incident, a hate crime, whatever. there are security cameras everywhere, and a cop cannot get away with anything that smacks of violence against a citizen...see Rodney King. better yet, the USA has a functioning legal system, so guys will be brought to justice, once CNN, and CBS, and Fox, and the BBC , and all the media outlets get a hold of it. guys who are considered to be offenders will surely have their day in court, and maybe days in jail. some lose their jobs, and their pensions, and their futures.
the DR is a barebones democracy, with no vestige of freedom of speech. a cop kicks your ass, who are you going to run to? (ok, Bronxboy; video of Ghostbusters, please). in the DR, people in power have no restraining forces. i once witnessed a police officer firing off rounds from his service revolver into the air, just to impress onlookers. i tried to explain to people watching that if he was a NYPD cop, he would have to write a report explaining the discharge of his firearm. the gap between what is acceptable here and in a more advanced society is so great, that people know that it is easier to just shut up and take the medicine rather than trying to break the bottle.
ask yourselves a simple question; what do you think would have happened if the Monica Lewinsky incident had happened here? do you think some office underling would have survived an attempt to publicly humiliate a Dominican President?
Not only survived it, but she would had been known henceforth as the "second Lady" of the country...
"Yeah", we "Gringos" love "All-The-Above"!!!!!!
The BIG difference is:....we use OUR "Money" for "Sex, and Alcohol", yet seem to hold back enough for "Birth Control", and to provide our children with a "Good Life"!!!!
Dominicans,."Not-So-MUCH!"
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The BIG difference is:....we use OUR "Money" for "Sex, and Alcohol", yet seem to hold back enough for "Birth Control", and to provide our children with a "Good Life"!!!!
Dominicans,."Not-So-MUCH!"
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
You can't have it both ways. You can't rant and rave how easy going Dominicans are and how Dominicans are happy with having less, and then complain how they are not "fighters" Example:
My daughter is 10 years old here in Chicago and she has so much pressure put on her by her family and her school. If she receives a C grade her school counts that as an F. If they label you as an A student you can NEVER receive a C or B grade because they strive for perfection.
She has more pressure on her plate at the age of 10 then I see most Dominican women in their 20's.
You can't admire the "easy going" lifestyle of Dominicans, then in that same breathe complain why they are not fighters.
You are either a fighter or not, there is not middle ground.
My daughter is 10 years old here in Chicago and she has so much pressure put on her by her family and her school. If she receives a C grade her school counts that as an F. If they label you as an A student you can NEVER receive a C or B grade because they strive for perfection.
She has more pressure on her plate at the age of 10 then I see most Dominican women in their 20's.
You can't admire the "easy going" lifestyle of Dominicans, then in that same breathe complain why they are not fighters.
You are either a fighter or not, there is not middle ground.
This is all good you giving me a "History" lesson, but can you explain one thing to me
My GF from Pakistan NEVER walks out of her home showing any type of "clevage" or any part of her breasts, but my ex in Santo Domingo almost never walks out of the house without showing any "clevage"
Now my GF no longer lives in Pakistan and the laws in the USA have no problem with women showing as much breasts as they want.
Now tell me why my girl still does not choose to expose any part of her breasts?????
Tell me why Dominican women and many in the USA choose to have their tits and ass hanging out and women from Pakistan choose not to?
nonsense, JMB. there is no such thing as 'you are either a fighter, or you are not" what do you mean by "easy going"? people from countries where adults, in the main, prioritize their lifestyles, have a tendency to refer to Dominicans as 'easy going". that is code for being cavalier and disorganized. all of us who live here have seen those traits every day, and we all make attempts to analyze them, with varying levels of success, or failure. turning up two hours late for a meeting is not 'easy going". it is slovenly behavior, which smacks of disregard for the time of others. the fact that the others are not dismayed by the tardiness of the offender is attributable to the fact that the recipients of the snub do not value time themselves. when Claro tells me that the serviceman will be at my house at 8am. i plan my day around that information. when he shows up at 11.30, that is not 'easy going". it is devil may care. the trait runs through the entire social reality. if they have lights, that is nice. if they do not, they will just do something that does not require lights. it is too hard to fight for lights. it is easier to bring out the plastic chairs and the dominoes. yes, occasionally a few malcontents will burn some tires, ON THEIR STREETS, disrupting the activities of their own neighbors, who are in the same plight. ask them to march down to Edenorte, and they stay put drinking cerveza.
there is no correlation between apathy and easy going. some people have the most 'easy going dispositions you could imagine, but are warriors for the things that they consider important, and will fight to the death to correct certain aspects of social malaise. see Mohandas Ghandi.
furthermore, JMB, if foreigners believe that Dominicans are so "easy going", they better hope the government does not pass a temporary prohibition law, banning the sales of Presidente for 6 months. then they will see how 'easy going" Dominicans can be.
i can guarantee you that the resultant disorder would be orders of magnitude more disruptive than if they decided to close schools for the same amount of time.
i can guarantee you that the resultant disorder would be orders of magnitude more disruptive than if they decided to close schools for the same amount of time.
No No No!!!! I never said I thought they were "easy going" but many people on this board and people I meet in DR and in airports like ATL, MIA, FLL that are not Dominicans and the FIRST thing they always say is " I love how Dominican people have such a easy going lifestyle" if I had a nickle for everytime I heard something similar to this statement.
The great trick Dominican play on the rest of the world is allowing them to think Dominicans are "clueless" when nothing can be futher from the truth. Dominicans KNOW exactly what they are doing and always have. I do not give Dominicans passes on anything NO MAS!!! nor do I follow Dominican standards NO MAS TAMPOCO!!!
When I am in DR I follow my own standards. If I see my daughter in SD throw garbage on the street I will make her go pick it up and throw it in the garbage can.
i was on a street in Ottawa, in 1997, and i was smoking a cigarette. well, when i had finished, i tossed the butt on the sidewalk, because i was acting like i would have done on Fordham Road in the Bronx, where nobody would have batted an eyelid. an matronly old lady poked me in the ribs with an umbrella, and yelled at me to pick it up, and put it into a garbage receptacle. in justifiable embarrassment, i put it into my pocket.
yesterday, i went into the bank, and ahead of me in the queue were two 20-something Dominicans, waiting their turn, with jumbo Presidentes in paper bags, guzzling away. when they were done, they just placed them on the ground behind the uprights for the line dividers. nobody batted an eyelid. had this been Ottawa, my little old lady with the umbrella would have broken it over their heads.
Dominicans do know what they are doing. nobody disputes that. and it is acceptable in their country. and, if we do not like it, we can all leave. i know that. however, look where their best thinking has gotten them.
everything you need to know about dominicanism is on ThatsDominican.com
here's an example: El ser dominicano parte 2
here's an example: El ser dominicano parte 2
I don't get where people come off saying Dominicans are apathetic. People protest almost every day down there for all kinds of reasons...this in spite of the very high risk of losing limb or life. Show me another country where people take these risks on a regular basis over such basic necessities as water or electricity . I just ran into a strike on my way to the airport this past Friday...mostly women and children protesting the fact they haven't had any water for almost a month.
I'm going to start posting links to threads of protests. Here are a few ones just from today.
Un muerto y cinco heridos en protestas de San Francisco de Macor?s - DiarioLibre.com
Apagones generan protestas en el Cibao - DiarioLibre.com
Paralizan transporte Sabana de la Mar-Miches por arreglo de carretera - listindiario.com
I'm going to start posting links to threads of protests. Here are a few ones just from today.
Un muerto y cinco heridos en protestas de San Francisco de Macor?s - DiarioLibre.com
Apagones generan protestas en el Cibao - DiarioLibre.com
Paralizan transporte Sabana de la Mar-Miches por arreglo de carretera - listindiario.com
There certainly are quite a few huelgas however I do find it ironic that folks protest over apagones when they aren't paying for (stealing) their electric.
How do you know they're not paying? Have you ever stopped to think that maybe, just maybe if they provided stable, reliable electricity people would pay it gladly? I don't think people are necessarily opposed to paying...Example? Punta Cana / Bavaro area, El Seibo, Las Terrenas (I think), etc...
Also I think there's a lot of assumptions here in terms of who really is the one that doesn't pay for service. I know in my area in Cotui and La Mata everyone pays nowadays, yet very rarely do we get more than 12 hours of power a day. You know who the biggest freeloaders really are? The government itself and industries using huge amounts of power with illegal connections underpaying or not paying at all.
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Licey, Salcedo and San Francisco are particularly famous for decades of huelgas. Many people have been crippled, killed or have lost a relative over a huelga.
Hello Gorgon, how are you? I watched espn recently; Sportscenter. The anchor mentioned how one person blogs, one responds and the next 5 or so pages are all people attacking each other and not even responding to the orginal post. I found that funny, but I assure you this will be inclusive of the true begining topic and not an attack against any particular person or statements.
Anecdotes are when someone uses one situation that is close to them are a outliner in the events or circumstances to say that the statement of another is not true. I don't personally know much about the French Revolution, nor do I know much about the events outcome or france in general. I do know that DR was oppressed by some french hatians and I know that history, but that is neither here, nor there. There are more people homeless, jobless, foodless, and all most any other less than you can think of than the entire middle and low class working home owning and career driven people of the world. yet less than 1 percent of the world's population own more than 50 percent of its wealth. Check Forbes dot com if you don't believe that. Why does Warren Buffet have 100 homes and he can only live in one? The truth is painfully obvious to any one that has eyes if you only look. But GorGon, I think if we both fail to take over one of Warren's many mansions we should not be viewed as apathetic. Nor if we personally don't cursade to end poverty are we in fact supporting it? No, Heaveans forbid. The truth is, you and I have decided that we should strive as best we can to live within the society or structure that we do and to get along with that system of rule. We hope and work for the best, doing what we can to help others along the way, and always mindfull of the sacrifices of those who came before us to lead us to where we are now. Now the Apathy, is not that we don't run up in our community leaders houses and pull a overthow, as some might suggest. For every great general in the history of the world can attest to the pen being mightier than the sword. Even as someone has said, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Our actions can and must lead to a more fair, balanced, just, and equal society for not just Dominicans or the people of the Carribean, nor the Northern Hemisphere. All people of the world no matter where they are. Truth is many atrocities of which we speak, would not be known to people outside that area without our debates.
Finally I guess I should learn more of other cultures, even I live in the United states and know much of the history here, I am not very familiar with France, or most of Europe are the other parts of the world. I do know that very few are extremely weatyhy, many more are very poor. and we the masses are the ones who support the system that we now have in place and live in. Thanks for your reply, take care and God bless
Biggs