social problems question

im doing a paper on the dominican republic and im wondering if someone could give me some social problems that the dominican has faced and problems that are still big in the country. thanks!!

Stephanie email me please

Dear Stephanie: First off, I hope that you better your writing skills. At last count, there were at least eight major spelling, punctuation and gramatical errors in your post. Secondly, among non-Dominicans, the Dominican Republic is often referred to as "the Dominican". The people are known as Dominicans. Thirdly, and this is what you asked about, there are several important social issues, but for the student, it is difficult to separate social, economic and political issues. Let's see what we can synthesize here. 1. There are serious educational difficulties. The public school system is inadequately funded; the teachers are poorly paid and poorly trained; the physical plants are often times too few and too small for the children that wish to attend. There are some programs in place that are attempting to address these problems, but it is very slow going. Private schools are sometimes just as bad as the public schools. However, the very best private schools are still far below the average high school in Omaha or Albany or Portland, with one or two exceptions. 2. There are serious issues of sexism, machoism and racism at all levels of society. While there are great opportunities for women that have educated themselves and are viable in the job market, it is also true that women suffer the same abuses in the households as they do in many areas of the world, without much protection. Family planning or sex education is nearly a forbidden subject, the Catholic Church being firmly against any sort of family planning, and the male is usually the "top dog". For example, most males in a family will always ask any of the females to iron shirts or get glasses of water, that sort of thing. And they(the men)usually determine whether there will or will not be children and how many. As far as racism goes, it is far more subtle than in the States, where white is white and black is black. In the Dominican Republic, with its long history of conflict with Haiti, no native Indian population, and general intermingling of peoples for over 500 years, we see racism in different degrees of lightness of skin tone, in whether or not a person presents certain racial characteristics (hair, facial features and so forth), or whether the "family" is "correct." This is just the tip of the problem. 3. There is a serious issue of poverty. The top 5% of the population take home, perhaps, 60% of the wages earned every week. The 'campesinos' (countryfolk) often live in the very poorest of conditions-no lights or running water, no TV and no phones, few schools, few roads and fewer opportunities to get better. For more on these issues, you might like to read Harry Hoetink's book: The Dominican Society. Also Mary Gonzalez has a published study of racism. Finally, the Library of Congress has a very large selection on the Dominican Republic: www.lc.gov

Hope you have fun with this project.

Prof. Hillbilly

how's the research comming? wonder what you've found out about thier massage/spa parlors.

bop

Stephanie--

Good for you!!! Thanks for taking an interest in this precious country! At least you're attempting to learn something so that others, in turn, can have some "good information." Much of what Hillbilly says is true and thensome!

I lived in the DR for a quite a while as a mission volunteer, living in Dominican households, and I can tell you that Machismo is alive and well. Understand that NOT ALL Dominican men are like that[thank God!!!]-- some have come out from under the rock and saw the light of day and mind!!!

The poverty is excruciating to see. It has a long and involved story, yes-- going back 500 years. Available education is as scarce as hen's teeth. Basically, if you have the documentation you can go; if not, you cannot. I am primariily referring to the Dominico-Haitiano children [children born of Haitian parents in the DR-- usually residing on the sugar plantations, sometimes in urban barrios].

A good source of information for you in this country is the Dominican Studies Institute at the Xity University of New York. You can e-mail them at: "dsi@phantom.cct.ccny.cuny.edu" or you can call Sarah Aponte [assistant to the Director] at [212]650-7496.

A good book that is now available is "WHY THE COCKS FIGHT: Dominicans, Haitians and the Struggle for Hispaniola" by Michelle Wucker. She has a web site with links at" http://www.wucker.com"... this book is excellent and has a rich bibliography.

Good luck!

Dee

Professor Hillbilly: You are quite simplistic, prejudiced and idiotic in your assesment of dominican social problems questions. Furthermore, it is a supreme show of bad taste and lack of social graces to correct Stephanie on a public forum when an e-mail would have suffice. I can pulverize every one of your sentences with logic that would show you stupidity but you seem to be an arrogant and cretin unworthy of my time.

Dee do yourself a favor and try to think before you write such absurd sentences such as: >>>>>>Dominico-Haitiano children>>>> For your information, children are either Dominicans or Haitians, period. There is not such a thing as "Dominico-Haitiano".

The worst problem of the DR is all these arrogants foreigners like yourself that feel entitled to patronized the DR people at every single turn. Why the heck don't you stick to buy souvenirs and wear bermudas like all the others?

Re: social problems .... (JCesar)

JCesar,

I'll be the first to admit that my knowledge of the cyber world is woefully lacking, so I'll ask you how would one determine Stephanie's email address from the post she made?

If you have the time, can you give us an answer to the question that Stephanie posed?

Thank you,

. . . CES

Re: social problems .... (JCesar)

I don't have the time to write an answer to Stephanie's question. Besides, I am not the only Dominican writing on this board, so maybe somebody else could post a reply.

As for her e-mail address, it is obvious that she didn't post one but going again to the essence of my reply, if you want to make that type of corrections to somebody you can ask them to post it, or to e-mail you privately with it. People do that here all the time.

End of the story.

JCesar--

please! I already know how vitriolic you are from past postings, so I won't even "go there."

Re the Dominicco-Haitiano children, there IS such, whether you care to admit it. The Constitution of the DR GUARANTEES Dominican citizenship to anyone born on it's soil. The exception that is made is for TRANSITIONAL people. The government, like mine, can use its own rules to accomodate certain situations. [We're involved with the Gonzalez case as I speak.]

I have many friends who are born of mixed parentage- one parent Haitian, the other Dominican. They were born in the DR and HOLD DR PASSPORTS.

Sir, you call me an arrogant, patronizing foreigner?? I came to the DR as a mission volunteer; I lived with the people and became one with them, adopted into a La Romana family and church community as one of their own. I have slogged in sugar plantation mud working with medical teams and spent more hours than I can tell you laying block on church and hospital structures.

Also, if I am such an awful "patronizing foreigner," tell me why I am in a deep, committed relationship with a Dominican?? I am so because I am an adopted Dominican and feel committed to her people and the good from its culture. I did NOT come as a tourist to spend my time on the beasches; I worked very hard; I also got very, very ill while there[Hepatitis A] and stayed in Centro Medico Central Romana. I was always treated well and never look down my nose ar another.

I am not going to trade insults with you. The best I will say is that if you have the opportunity,find out about MUDHA [Mujeres Dominico- Haitiano]. Its president is Sonia Pierre and she will give you particulars.

This is no time to be xenophobic, Julio Cesar!

God bless you.

Dee

>>>>>JCesar--

please! I already know how vitriolic you are from past postings, so I won't even "go there." >>>>>

Listen lady, when most people defend their native countries they are called "patriotic" but when it happens to be a Dominican then you call the person "vitriolic". Your manipulation of semantics revolt my stomach because is another attempt at devising a double standard, with the long side of the stick for you and the short one for the others.

>>>>>Re the Dominicco-Haitiano children, there IS such, whether you care to admit it. The Constitution of the DR
GUARANTEES Dominican citizenship to anyone born on it's soil. The exception that is made is for
TRANSITIONAL people.>>>>>>

Point me to the part of the law, statute or decreed that said so. You are dead wrong. Your passionate hammering of this subject reveals an obsessive compulsive personality blind to reason and logic. Do you think that because the DR is this small country that you delight so much in patronizing it would not have a clear foundation on the framing of his constitutional law?

>>>>> The government, like mine, can use its own rules to accomodate certain situations.
[We're involved with the Gonzalez case as I speak.]>>>>>>

Well, "the government" that you enjoy criticizing so much it is one of Dominicans elected to govern "la cosa p?blica" by Dominican themselves, and therefore it can do without ill-intentioned foreigners like yourself with a passion for interventionism in the internal matters of a country that it isn't asking for your opinion to start with.

>>>I have many friends who are born of mixed parentage- one parent Haitian, the other Dominican. They were born
in the DR and HOLD DR PASSPORTS.>>>

My congratulations to them, and your point is...?

>>>>Sir, you call me an arrogant, patronizing foreigner?? I came to the DR as a mission volunteer; I lived with the
people and became one with them, adopted into a La Romana family and church community as one of their
own. I have slogged in sugar plantation mud working with medical teams and spent more hours than I can tell
you laying block on church and hospital structures.>>>>>

This sounds like a press release sent by your public relations agency. The people that truly cares and do things out of the goodness of their heart don't go around publicizing their martyrdom. Every time that you post, you make a point to publicize your "sacrificial journey" on Dominican soil. How many stars are you looking to sew on your collar with this attitude? Let me know, I have a bag full of them and I will send them to you upon request.

>>>>>>>Also, if I am such an awful "patronizing foreigner," tell me why I am in a deep, committed relationship with a
Dominican??>>>>

You are in a relationship with a PERSON, period. Do you see how gross is your lack of perspective? The fact that you decided for a relationship with a person from the DR, doesn't imply anything special. However, your pointing out of this matter show us that you are expecting sainthood status or some divine blessing for gracing the Dominicans with you mating choice.

>>>I am so because I am an adopted Dominican and feel committed to her people and the good
from its culture. I did NOT come as a tourist to spend my time on the beasches; I worked very hard; I also got
very, very ill while there[Hepatitis A] and stayed in Centro Medico Central Romana. I was always treated well
and never look down my nose ar another.>>>>

Obviously, you have some bad karma to work out. As per Indian Seers sometimes certain people feel an obligation to serve other purely as a way to repay back some accrued consequences that they had encumbered themselves with.

>>>>I am not going to trade insults with you.>>>>>

You already did

>>>>The best I will say is that if you have the opportunity,find out about
MUDHA [Mujeres Dominico- Haitiano]. Its president is Sonia Pierre and she will give you particulars. >>>>

Tell Madame Pierre that je ne m'inquiete pas des personnes Haitienne. Ce femmes sont tr?s ridicules si elles s'appellent avec une nationalit? qui pas existe.

>>>>This is no time to be xenophobic, Julio Cesar!>>>

Then stop posting trash against the Dominican Republic. Charity starts at home.

>>>>God bless you. Dee>>>

Y que la Virgencita de la Altagracia me la proteja a usted tambi?n.

Atentamente,

JCesar

JCesar,

Why do you find it necessary to tell everyone what to do? You are a very insulting person.

JOyce

I travel to Dr frequently, these are some of the social problems that I have been made aware of:

1)alcoholism and consumption of alcohol at an early age:
2)Infidelity- Men cheating on their wives
3)Men - siring many children out of wedlock
4)Not very tolerant of over weight people
5)Prostitution

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