under the bridge

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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in a stark contrast with our thread about middle class here is an article about how the poorest of the poor live:
Cuando la miseria se vuelve costumbre - DiarioLibre.com

this is a story of a family: 31 year old man, 42 year old woman and a 2 year old boy (woman's grandson) who all live under the bridge in SD after their barrio house was destroyed after a nearby river flooded the area. they use a small "stream" nearby as a toilet and they live partially from helping someone sell veggies and partially from collecting and selling plastic gallon bottles.
the child has been abandoned by his mother who got pregnant at 17. she has a new man but he already has children and having a small boy live with them would be a "problem".

in the video the man pretty much describes their daily life, showing were they sleep, defecate and how they live.
 
Aug 21, 2007
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So sad. Many in this country live in similar inhumane conditions.....perhaps not under a bridge, but in lean-to makeshift shacks by the river. With each heavy rain, everything- including documents- is lost in the floods, causing them to wait until what remains, dries. And they then start again. Have you ever seen the trucks here carrying flattened, dirty bed mattresses? These families use mattresses like that over and over and over again as they are soaked, then dried, as many as 5 people sleeping in one twin-size bed, piled together and on top of each other like a litter of newborn pups. And there is no indoor plumbing. Cooking is done on the same ground where they urinated earlier. Water is fetched from the same polluted river where they must deficate, wash their clothes, and bathe.

Life can be harsh.
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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you know, when i watched this video i thought: they could at least clean. they complain about rats. there are rats there because of all the rubbish, remove than ad it should be better. dig a hole in the ground as a latrine, maybe. although the "stream" taking it off is not a bad option, maybe and i truly doubt this "water" would be used for cooking.

my SIL organizes charity shop every christmas where all profits go towards buying small packs of food that are then distributed among the poorest. she went to some village and met with a family there, a mother with 3 kids, pregnant. 22 years old and mentally ill. they all live not even in a house but a den, lair they crawl into at night. the oldest child, an 8 year old girl was already raped, as people were saying...
 

Criss Colon

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Jan 2, 2002
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Why don't they check-in at a all inclusive resort??????
OR, just go to a New Mall??
SOME PEOPLE!!!!!
Right, "Pichardo"?????
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
 
Aug 21, 2007
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Yes, dv8, that is the life of many here. Every week I take bean and rice packets to people just like this. Between hunger and sickness, the needs never end. If you ever want to go see, let me know.

Lindsey
 

Ringo

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Mar 6, 2003
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in a stark contrast with our thread about middle class here is an article about how the poorest of the poor live:
Cuando la miseria se vuelve costumbre - DiarioLibre.com

this is a story of a family: 31 year old man, 42 year old woman and a 2 year old boy (woman's grandson) who all live under the bridge in SD after their barrio house was destroyed after a nearby river flooded the area. they use a small "stream" nearby as a toilet and they live partially from helping someone sell veggies and partially from collecting and selling plastic gallon bottles.
the child has been abandoned by his mother who got pregnant at 17. she has a new man but he already has children and having a small boy live with them would be a "problem".

in the video the man pretty much describes their daily life, showing were they sleep, defecate and how they live.

So.... What have YOU done to help?

Posting something without doing is .... waiting for others to solve something that you find uncomfortable.
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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So.... What have YOU done to help?
Posting something without doing is .... waiting for others to solve something that you find uncomfortable.

i have already stated many times what i think about being forced to help. i help if, when and who i find suitable. i do not find this situation uncomfortable. sad, yes. uncomfortable, no. i did not ask anyone to go and help the family. i report news here. i do not pass the judgement on those who read it.
 

bronzeallspice

Live everyday like it's your last
Mar 26, 2012
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in a stark contrast with our thread about middle class here is an article about how the poorest of the poor live:
Cuando la miseria se vuelve costumbre - DiarioLibre.com

this is a story of a family: 31 year old man, 42 year old woman and a 2 year old boy (woman's grandson) who all live under the bridge in SD after their barrio house was destroyed after a nearby river flooded the area. they use a small "stream" nearby as a toilet and they live partially from helping someone sell veggies and partially from collecting and selling plastic gallon bottles.
the child has been abandoned by his mother who got pregnant at 17. she has a new man but he already has children and having a small boy live with them would be a "problem".

in the video the man pretty much describes their daily life, showing were they sleep, defecate and how they live.

This reminds me of when the sector EL Millon was being erected years ago and the gov't gave
the poor people who were living there money so they go someplace else. Many(the smart ones)
took the money and built adequate homes for themselves. The foolish ones thought they
won the lottery and squandered the money. After it was gone, had no place to live but under
a bridge.
 

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
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I know the pessimists are not going to like this, but...


poblacic3b3n-urbana-viviendo-en-tugurios-2005.jpg


?Argentina, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic ?the countries with the most success in Latin America- have been capable of reducing their proportion of people living in slums by more than a third during the last decade (2000-2010).?
http://www.unhabitat.org/documents/SOWC10/SP/227million_will_have_left_the_slums_by2010.pdf

Notice that the graph is of 2005 and the United Nations article cited covers the period 2000-2010, so actual percentage of people living in slums is less than what is stated in the graph.
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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NALs, no is talking numbers here, did you notice that? no one says "majority of dominicans live like this" or "of all latin america DR is the poorest". i posted one story. no claims.
 

Chip

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Jul 25, 2007
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While many of us maybe don't have time to help out people full or part time because of responsibilities one can assume that people begging are in this type of situation. For that reason I like to load up on change when I go out and try to spend it all on beggars. Maybe it's RD50-100 a day but somebody is getting something to eat because of it, even if just a little.
 

jkc

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Jun 24, 2013
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Un bearable, un believable and very sad!
Wow! Most of these world countries have one issue, corruption. They have received enough aids to help their countrymen, but they would rather put that money in their pockets and Nepotism is a big problem
So sad!
 

william webster

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Jan 16, 2009
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NALs, no is talking numbers here, did you notice that? no one says "majority of dominicans live like this" or "of all latin america DR is the poorest". i posted one story. no claims.

Listen, I'm no 'bleeding heart' but I do see the problems of the poor in RD..... the deviate is/can be compassionate
(pardon my white horse - it rears and whinnies a lot around pretty women)

We all do what we can do...... no stone throwing here pls....I live in a glass house----- with no windows !!!

Check your baggage at the door before entering
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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i do not believe in beggars since i found about rent-a-cripple business venture. some young, healthy and perfectly capable people rent a crippled kid from the family, roll him over to the busy intersection and collect money. of course they get to keep most of the cash and the family of a cripple gets a low daily rate. few beggars here in POP are also known for their drinking habit.
 

bronzeallspice

Live everyday like it's your last
Mar 26, 2012
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i do not believe in beggars since i found about rent-a-cripple business venture. some young, healthy and perfectly capable people rent a crippled kid from the family, roll him over to the busy intersection and collect money. of course they get to keep most of the cash and the family of a cripple gets a low daily rate. few beggars here in POP are also known for their drinking habit.

How sad is that, to rent a crippled kid! The family only gets a measly percentage.
 

william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
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Forgive me.... all these supposedly smart , up to date people don't know this sh!t ??

and it ain't just here........
 

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
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NALs, no is talking numbers here, did you notice that? no one says "majority of dominicans live like this" or "of all latin america DR is the poorest". i posted one story. no claims.
I did noticed that and what you did is usually referred to as sensationalist. What happens to people when they see sensational stories? They blow things out of proportion and begin to make erroneous assumptions. The data puts everything within context.

Look at that poster already complaining about how aid is being syphoned off by corrupt officials. Yes, this is a problem in many places, but the reality is that the issue is not aid. For one thing, the aid that is actually offered by the rich countries is a joke. Remittances alone can, and often are, more than 10 times the amount any given country gets in aid. Secondly, the real issue is too many people for such a small economy, but a high economic growth rate over the long term ensures that this is slowly fixed.

The only countries where the poorest of the poor live well (by global standards) is in rich countries (GDP per capita of US$20-30,000 and above.) There's no way around that.

I always like to use Puerto Rico as a perfect example. Puerto Rico is actually much more unequal than the DR (this is taking monetary transfers -such as welfare, food stamps, subsidized housing, etc into account-), but Puerto Rico is also much more productive as can be evidenced by their much higher GDP per capita. This means that the pie is actually bigger in Puerto Rico than in DR, so even though the pieces in relation to the size of the pie are smaller in the Puerto Rican economy, the smaller percentage of their wealth that goes to the poor is actually greater on a per capita basis than is the case in DR. Result? The poorest of the poor in Puerto Rico lives much more comfortably than the poorest of the poor in DR.

To put it another way, if the DR was as wealthy as Puerto Rico and the inequality in both countries stays as is now (with PR being much more unequal than the DR,) then the poorest of the Dominican poor would actually have a much higher living conditions than their counterparts in PR.

There's no way around this and is something that most people ignore. A country has to grow economically much faster than its population over the long haul in order to have situations such as this eliminated. This is true even with government social programs, because every wealthy country has a much higher tax burden on their GDP than does the DR, which recently increased taxes to a measly 15-16% of GDP and everyone was complaining. Countries like the US have a much higher tax burden on its GDP and in Europe its even higher thanks to all those social programs, but those programs are generous (by global standards) due to those countries being highly productive.

Like I said, there's no way around that.
 
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