NBC News Had Piece On Dominican Boat People

I saw that report.

I had no idea that the boats could be so overcrowded! I mean no place to sit down! About 150 people on one boat,only a few inches of "boat" above the waterline.A small wave and down they go.It looked exactly like the pictures of the Mariel Boatlift,and the "Haitian Boat People" of several years ago. The Coastguard said that the average cost was 25,000 pesos.

Those of us who "Know and Love" the DR,"Live" here,or visit here a lot get a warped view of this place! Remember,this is a Third World Country,with only 8 million population.(Did you know that?)The DR has virtually no economic impact world wide.Nobody knows where we are,or what we do!
Hell,if it weren't for all the "Ilegales" coming to the US from Mexico no one in the USA would know anything about Mexico other than "Taco Bell",and "Corona"!Anyone know the population of Mexico?
The DR is important to "Us",just like our dog is important to us,but no one else in the World really cares! CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Criss Colon said:

Hell,if it weren't for all the "Ilegales" coming to the US from Mexico no one in the USA would know anything about Mexico other than "Taco Bell",and "Corona"!Anyone know the population of Mexico?
The DR is important to "Us",just like our dog is important to us,but no one else in the World really cares! CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

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I'm not sure if this was a rhetorical question or not. According to the CIA world factbook the population of Mexico was estimated at 104,907,991 in July 2003. The Dominican Republic's population was estimated to be 8,715,602 in July 2003.

It was a "legitimate" question!

My point being that if "no one" knows anything about Mexico,which has a population 12 times larger than the DR.,what will they know about the DR? Give us the size of the two countries in sq.miles if you would.Just to prove my point!CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

I agree with you when you say no one cares except the people who live here. My guess is they (other countries) think of DR they way they think of all the carribean countries. Nice place to visit but wouldn't want to live there.

This is not directed at you Criss but some people seemed to be more concerned with what will "the neighbors" think. More than the actual problem. No other country is going to care about why people are leaving DR and no other country is going to step in and try to change the lives of the Dominican people. All they care about is, is it safe for me to travel there and how expensive is it. Given all that they will still come once a year to play golf and then go home. It's up to the Dominican people to do what they can to put the right people in office.

We cannot gauge how bad things are over the number of yolas in the ocean today. People have been doing this for YEARS. There was a somewhat downtime for a little while, but right around the time that Leonel came into power there was a another rash of yolas out there. This is nothing new. There have been other stories on it before, this was not the first one either.

I agree, these governments have bigger fish to fry (or oil to get) the DR has nothing they need, thus nothing "they can do about it" - same goes for Haiti.

Talldrink, I think we can certainly gauge how bad things are by the numbers of yolas in the ocean - it is a direct indicator of the people's desperation. What we cannot gauge is an accurate estimate of how many yolas in fact set sail, only how many are apprehended.

From DR1 News:

The record-breaking year was 1996 with 5,430 people caught, which declined sharply to 1,143 in 1997 and continued to decrease until 2002, when only 177 people were apprehended making the perilous journey. Numbers rose dramatically to 1,748 in 2003, however, and with 2004 just one month old, a figure of 2,290 has already been reached, according to the newspaper?s statistics, which is more than during the previous two years combined.

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Yes Jane, things are bad, actually worse than they have been in a long time now. But my point about the yolas is that if you would have asked a Dom a year ago (when things were much better) they still cried and complained about how the world was ending for them. I always heard of someone?s neighbor, brother, sister or cousin jumping on a boat ?porque la cosa ta mala.?

So I?m not saying that it is not bad and I?m certainly don?t want to undermind the situation. But as far as the people trying to leave, the have been leaving, they will keep trying to ?escape? it, leave ?hell? and everything else they say forever more.

Talldrink said:

We cannot gauge how bad things are over the number of yolas in the ocean today. People have been doing this for YEARS. There was a somewhat downtime for a little while, but right around the time that Leonel came into power there was a another rash of yolas out there. This is nothing new. There have been other stories on it before, this was not the first one either.

I agree, these governments have bigger fish to fry (or oil to get) the DR has nothing they need, thus nothing "they can do about it" - same goes for Haiti.

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You still don't get it. These are record numbers, which means it has never happened before in this magnitude, making it new...not "This is nothing new".

And yes, you can gage how bad things are over how many people are fleeing their homeland. How can it be anything but a direct correlation?

m

And she never will "Get IT"!

She doesn't live here,she doesn't know! Ask "PIP"! She held on to her "Dominican Optimism" for a looooooooooooooooog time! She has now come over to our side! We realize that things here are in terrible shape,are getting worse,and there is little hope for a change for the better in the near future!!! It does eveyone a diservice to say that things are "Not That Bad"! (Usually said by someone living in the USA!)I used to make almost 3000 dollars a month,now I make about 800!
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I'm not saying "is not that bad" because I can see that it is. Is true, I dont live there, but im very much tied to DR. I UNDERSTAND THAT IT IS BAD - Caps just for you Criss, I get it.

People have been leaving in boats forever, hence the term Wetbacks and that Doms travel via AA...

Criss, who's or what is PIP?

I'm sure everyone realizes things are bad in DR right now. But that's not the only reason why there's an increase in boat people. My husband who is currently in DR has mentioned on more than one occasion how people he knows are talking about trying to make it to the US. All of them are talking about the new amnesty program that Bush has proposed. They think if they get here they will be eligible for amnesty.

Talldrink, CC is referring to our friend, la Pib.

I know what you're saying, though; the yola thing is nothing new and neither is abject poverty. What is new is that the desperation is extending itself over a larger group of people, which can't mean anything good and must be worth noting.

I'm not sure that the Bush proposal applies to the DR. I think that was more for the direct borders ie Mexico, (or those scurrilous Canucks) where the influx is so great, and really, in many places , very beneficial. The DR will be viewed as Haiti, a "democratic" government...so political asylum is out of the question..and economic asylum does not fly.

Of course , that is also a bone to Mexico, who has a fairly great economic base in raw materials, and has workers to harvest said materials. Those were temporary allowances for workers, not permanent. Much easier to follow a worker across El Paseo Del Norte in El Paso, than thru a port like Miami or now Ft Lauderdale.

I agree with you when you say the proposal was geared more toward the Mexicans. The first time I spoke to my husband about it I had asked him what was going on because I heard a lot of people talking in the background. He laughed and said they were all talking about the amnesty program. I did tell him he should let them know that Bush had the Mexicans in mind and that it is temporary. Of coarse the government here would probably never say it's only for the Mexicans but I bet they will put aside more than 60% of the visa's for them.

The thing is you say "AMNESTY" they will come. In their minds even if it is only for three years. They probably fiqure for three years they can come here make a lot of money to send home. Improve the conditions back home. Then when they go back to DR they'll have enough money to make due until they're eligible to re-apply.

As far as the proposal not getting off the ground. I don't know that may very well be the case but you try and tell that to someone who believes that is the answer to all their problems. After all anyone who would get into a yola has got to be operating on a wing and a prayer.