It boils down to geography. What part of the world you were lucky enough to be born in, and into what tribe were you lucky enough to be born into. If you were born in Haiti to impoverished, illiterate parents, you would be vastly different then if your born in Norway or Liechtenstein.
Many here were lucky enough to be born in a Western Industrialized country. Most people on this board have traveled extensively, had good paying jobs, and receive some kind of monthly income right now. Few, if any here, were born into deep seated poverty with illiterate parents.
It's easy to sit back and say...if i were in that girls or guys shoes, i would be vastly different. you're speaking from experience, with a voice that knows the difference between right and wrong, with a life full of choices and options. Any of you can go to the airport tomorrow and leave the island. 99% of Dominicans have never left this island, cannot get a US Visa to leave this island, and have few choices and options to get off this island.
Of course, there are exceptions. there always are. But every time i see some man digging a ditch in 90 degree weather, or hammering at some piece of concrete for 10 hours a day, i think to myself, there but for the grace of someone go i.
My father was lucky enough to leave the DR in 1959, get a job, a green card, and start a family. But his aunts, uncles, and cousins were not so lucky and did not get a chance to leave the DR, or had already started families and could not leave. Anyway, a lot in life has to do with luck--being in the right place at the right time; and with Geography--being born in the right country or province; and with being born into the right Tribe.
For 90% of the rest of the world who are slaving away and living on $2 a day, they were not so lucky.
Instead of just seeing everyone as doomed to their plight in life, i say this: give everyone the same opportunity that you got and see what they can do with it. If they screw it up, you've done what you could. However, if they they seize that opportunity and do as good or better then yourself, well then, you've given someone a new lease on life. What better way to contribute to this world.
Frank