Chiri, excellent question that is best left unasked. It's one of those unspeakable best left unspoken
. The answer to this seemingly benign question is chuck full of
unpleasant sacrifices many Dominicans (in fact many humans) are not willing to make. From a political prospective as noted by Dolores, perhaps Balaguer was, in the most broadest of sense, a modern urbanite environmentalist. But even under such strenuous qualifications of the term, he falls disappointedly short of the most casual definition of being an environmentalist. In the strictest sense of the word, according to webster.com environmentalist is:
Function: noun
1 : an advocate of environmentalism
2 : one concerned about environmental quality especially of the human environment with respect to the control of pollution
Both definitions are most interesting. The first definition, how ever simple, is by far the most interesting; perhaps even the most controversial. Again taking full advantage of
www.webster.com, we lookup the definition of environmentalism:
Function: noun
1 : a theory that views environment rather than heredity as the important factor in the development and especially the cultural and intellectual development of an individual or group
2 : advocacy of the preservation or improvement of the natural environment; especially : the movement to control pollution
Again, both definitions are most interesting. The first definition, however, refutes without a doubt any claim that Balaguer was an Environmentalist .
Balaguer was notorious for 'doing away' with intellectuals. It became most obvious when intellects got 'in the way' of his twisted ideal. Most intellectuals didn't necessarily have to be 'in the way' to vanish into thin air. Dominican history, under Balaguer, has many 'examples of vanishing people'. I guess today most wish that part of history be forgotten; I know I do. The fact that Dominicans, in general, are culturally and socially lacking can be credited directly to Balaguer. Trujillo was partly responsible for some deficiencies in the overall educational, civil and social structures but nothing close to Balaguer. Balaguer himself was a renown intellect and much revered in Latin America. He knew the value of education and social development better than, or at least equal to, any other Dominican. Yet Balaguer would ban BOOKS from the public library because he disagreed with the author's views. He would routinely silent the voice of opposition and would routinely promote social division based on economic class. In fact, he is the father of our social-economic class system as we know it today. Clearly this behavior is in direct contradiction with what an environmentalist stands for. But enough with past horrors we elegantly call history. We need not dwell on the failures of the past we need only focus on the successes of the future - or hope for a future-
What successes might those be? Well, it is not installing a new turbo-gas generator nor boarding the cart of the future in the metro of darkness. It certainly isn't FTA, DR-CAFT, IMF, WTO nor AmBev
What then? What? Absolutely not Atlantis. Nope, not even more parks, sorry Mr. Penalosa. It's simple, really. Raising Social awareness and general education; that is all that's needed. I don't mean academic enlightenment either. What I mean is, simple, down to earth, common sense. The thing that needs to be address and taught by mom and pop in every home but just slips through the cracks. We need to re-knit the social fabric of Dominican society and bring back national pride. Focus has to be put on national needs not personal needs.
The DR is a developing nation. Believe it or not, our most valuable asset is our environment. Unfortunately we are under utilizing it and sometimes destroying our most important national riches under the guise of development. Our government has not, most likely will not either, developed a strategy that will free us from the chains of globalize capitalism. The race to compete for an unknown prize has us at a strict disadvantage with respect to environment and our development. Our dependency on imported fossil fuel can only help seal our environment's coffin. Bye, bye future..
If we take a hard look at the past 15 years we could easily conclude that the perceived increase in GDP (PIB) is actually a direct failure of social policies. Our agricultural throughput has been in steady decline in sharp contrast to importation. Specifically, the importation of crude oil has increased by a few order of magnitude, clearly indicating wasteful practices. More energy is being used but less 'useful' products are being developed. Unfortunately DR is a net importer, this can't be good. If better agricultural policies, elevated national pride, better national resources management and education of our farmers and their families would have been available, our agricultural output would easily exceed the nation's needs. The 'extra' crop yields could easily be used as bio-fuel. Our dependency in crude oil wouldn't be so greate today.
BioFuel is an interesting, green, technology that our government should allocate considerable resources to. Three things quickly come to mind as being positives about investing in biofuel.
1. reduction in migration to 'the' city.
2. new micro economies emerging in otherwise economically dead areas of DR
3. Reduction or outright elimination of crude oil importation.
Today Santo Domingo alone is home to about 1/3 of the country's population (~3million). A significant increase from 15 years ago by anybody's standards. The total amount of 'real' jobs in SD is, by all accounts, not more than ~1 million jobs or about 1/3 of the population of SD is employed. That Leaves a good amount of unemployed running 'down' the city's resources without any possibility of contributing, even if they wanted to, they simply can't.
Unfortunately the current situation in SD forces the creation of unregulated jobs. These jobs don't offer the economy any benefits and actually serve to increase government burden and hurt the environment. Most, if not all, of these jobs are in the streets without any control or regulation. These 'entrepreneurs sell food items - health hazard, do mechanical work in the street - environmental hazard, sex favors - a different health issue (HIV aids) and play dominoes - social and self esteem hazard. The government clearly needs to implement a policy that would reward repatriating 'el campo' and penalize those that elect to migrate to the 'big city'. Biofuel production could help solve many of these issues.
The 'campo' today is in dyer need of human and financial resource. The country side is lacking in every respect: lack of trees, animals, crops and people! Yes you read correctly, people. A true testament to the abuse our environment has witnessed through the years and the backlash of absurd government policies. If only our government would invest in the proper projects and in our people.... Perhaps better resource allocation?
All the land that isn't currently producing food crops could be used for cultivating sugarcane, beets or corn for Ethanol production. Ethanol (better known as booze) is a good liquid biofuel that can directly replace petrol (gasoline) in cars with minor modification, it's renewable and doesn't contribute to green house gases. Ethanol can also be mixed with gasoline (up to 20%) and no modifications to the engine is required. Biodiesel is another biofuel that can by made by idle city dwellers or restless farmers while helping our economy, our environment and themselves. Both biodiesel and ethanol are clean, grow your own liquid biofuels that can be made from renewable resources here in DR by our idle farmers with the existing infrastructure. Can someone please tell government officials?
Methanol is another alcohol fuel which can be obtained from biomass but it is much more expensive and does not have all the environmental benefits of other biofuels. The only real advantage of methanol is that is can directly substitute gasoline. No modification to the engine or the infrastructure is necessary, however, it is more costly to produce and it is toxic. Unlike other biofuel methanol is not a good biofuel.
Another easily producible biofuel is Methane (biogas). Methane is produce naturally by Ma' nature in animal manure like pig, chicken, horse and cow dung. Animal dung can produce a fair amount of biogas per day in man made digesters both for cooking, like propane, or for powering combustion engines. In fact, 3-4 cows can produce all the cooking gas a family of four use every day for cooking with the added benefit of providing milk, helping the environment and our economy! Got milk?
Hopefully my mad ramblings have gotten many interested in natures ways of providing for us, I am. Like everything in life nothing is really free and we all have to do our part and pay our share of the price to make our corner of the world a better place. Unfortunately that requires time, effort and sacrifice that many SUV driving, air-conditioner idolaters are just not willing to pay. We sure are in for a rude awaking - let us see what the future holds. Hopefully not more of the same backward thinking governments we've had so far.
Oh, to answer your question - it shouldn't takes a lot of self esteem and self motivation to coerce ourselves into respecting that which is OUR livelihood - the environment! AKA Ma Nature.
NotLurking.