Just read an article on today's Dominican Today where our tolerance to take criticism is once again put to the test. Now, let me set a precedent here and state for the record, that I too am Dominican. I'm just as proud of my heritage as any islander Dominican, although I live abroad.
However, we can't be foolishly oblivious to the fact that we have shortcomings. Just as many other societies have theirs in their areas, we have ours and the most intelligent thing we as nation heading towards becoming fully globalized can do is to acknowledge those shortcomings so they can be properly addressed, corrected, eliminated, rectified whatever it takes to get us to the 'next level'. There's an embedded pattern of behavior in our society that we must shake off ourselves, especially the next generation of Dominicans - our children. We cannot go on living like a people without order in a complete disregard for law which does nothing but seal our path to complete self-destruction.
The opinion expressed by the exiting German ambassador have only but been repeated time and time again by other foreign dignitaries and rather than acknowledging that 'hey, indeed we do have a problem with this and that' we automatically put our guards up, become aggressively defensive and instead re-direct our frustration back to the critic in a futile attempt to justify our bad behavior. We're on a path to becoming a much more industrialized nation with a very promising future, but before we can get there many, many underlying issues need to be addressed and certainly one of them is our civic manners.
I saw a post somewhere on this forum where someone was appauled at the way foreigners throw trash out their car windows and who can blame them? We're the first ones to do it! WE MUST SET THE EXAMPLE. Forget about what they do or don't do back in their home countries. While in our country they must abide by our laws, and the laws are there; but when society in general shows complete and total disregard for those laws, what do you think tourists/visitors are going to do? They're going to follow in our own trend. So, paisanos, don't kid yourselves. We have problems that need to be corrected and rather than focusing on who they come from, focus on getting them resolved. The issue is not who they come from, but the fact that they exist. Focusing on who the criticism comes from is simply a diversion to the real problem at hand. It is anybody's right to voice their opinion just as the French, Spanish, US and German ambassadors have done.
It is these patterns of overly relaxed behavior, lack of commitment, seriousness, and consideration for each other that is bringing discredit to our country and us as a people. Unfortunately, we might not care to do something about it until it starts to hit our pockets through a decaying tourism.
There. I've vented my frustration. Thank you very much.
However, we can't be foolishly oblivious to the fact that we have shortcomings. Just as many other societies have theirs in their areas, we have ours and the most intelligent thing we as nation heading towards becoming fully globalized can do is to acknowledge those shortcomings so they can be properly addressed, corrected, eliminated, rectified whatever it takes to get us to the 'next level'. There's an embedded pattern of behavior in our society that we must shake off ourselves, especially the next generation of Dominicans - our children. We cannot go on living like a people without order in a complete disregard for law which does nothing but seal our path to complete self-destruction.
The opinion expressed by the exiting German ambassador have only but been repeated time and time again by other foreign dignitaries and rather than acknowledging that 'hey, indeed we do have a problem with this and that' we automatically put our guards up, become aggressively defensive and instead re-direct our frustration back to the critic in a futile attempt to justify our bad behavior. We're on a path to becoming a much more industrialized nation with a very promising future, but before we can get there many, many underlying issues need to be addressed and certainly one of them is our civic manners.
I saw a post somewhere on this forum where someone was appauled at the way foreigners throw trash out their car windows and who can blame them? We're the first ones to do it! WE MUST SET THE EXAMPLE. Forget about what they do or don't do back in their home countries. While in our country they must abide by our laws, and the laws are there; but when society in general shows complete and total disregard for those laws, what do you think tourists/visitors are going to do? They're going to follow in our own trend. So, paisanos, don't kid yourselves. We have problems that need to be corrected and rather than focusing on who they come from, focus on getting them resolved. The issue is not who they come from, but the fact that they exist. Focusing on who the criticism comes from is simply a diversion to the real problem at hand. It is anybody's right to voice their opinion just as the French, Spanish, US and German ambassadors have done.
It is these patterns of overly relaxed behavior, lack of commitment, seriousness, and consideration for each other that is bringing discredit to our country and us as a people. Unfortunately, we might not care to do something about it until it starts to hit our pockets through a decaying tourism.
There. I've vented my frustration. Thank you very much.
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