My first exposure to DR, one of the things that struck me immediately was the amount of inefficient manual labor performed for which modern equipment could be substituted. Things such as digging miles of roadside ditches with pick & shovel, cutting grass on hands and knees with machetes, watering an expanse of yard for hours with a handheld hose instead of sprinkler, sweeping a large parking lot by hand when a leaf blower could do it in minutes, etc, etc.
The years go by and recently I was in the U.S. listening to my tired and aching sister (mid-40's) recount putting in a new 20 foot x 20 foot flowerbed. As the soil is largely clay, she'd had to water the area extensively to soften the ground, pull out a roto-tiller on which the pull cord broke, repair the tiller, spend literally hours trying to get the tiller to break through the earth, get the tines of the tiller unstuck several times, pull out an axe and chop through several large roots, load up the clay and haul it off, bring in planting soil, and plant shrubs and flowers.
As the story progressed, all I could think was "you should've hired a Haitian!". As we were sitting in a restaurant, I wasn't willing to voice my opinion lest someone nearby overhear. In that environment, it would've sounded crass at best, extremely racist at worst.
No point to the story, other than how one's thoughts change over time based on experience.
The years go by and recently I was in the U.S. listening to my tired and aching sister (mid-40's) recount putting in a new 20 foot x 20 foot flowerbed. As the soil is largely clay, she'd had to water the area extensively to soften the ground, pull out a roto-tiller on which the pull cord broke, repair the tiller, spend literally hours trying to get the tiller to break through the earth, get the tines of the tiller unstuck several times, pull out an axe and chop through several large roots, load up the clay and haul it off, bring in planting soil, and plant shrubs and flowers.
As the story progressed, all I could think was "you should've hired a Haitian!". As we were sitting in a restaurant, I wasn't willing to voice my opinion lest someone nearby overhear. In that environment, it would've sounded crass at best, extremely racist at worst.
No point to the story, other than how one's thoughts change over time based on experience.