Dominicans in route to Iraq

[Mirador]

not trying to make an issue, but...

Many years ago, when the wars in Central America were over, particuarly El Salvador, many Dominicans were contracted to rebuild the 'infrastructure' there. However, many returned with the advise to grieving family members not to open the caskets. After a little research, I learned that they had been involved in clearing land mines... the press never mentioned this. By the way, who's the Dominican ambassador to Irak?

Mirador

 

[Pib]

You are not concerned about the "Poor,uneducated Dominican Truck driver!You are out to promote your agenda.

Would you be so kind as to let me know what exactly my 'agenda' is as I have seem to have misplaced it somewhere?.

IF (big if) these drivers have made an informed decision, then yes, you are right, but as it is I suspect that this is not the case. If you hire me you MUST inform me of the inherent risks of the job, in detail. If that is not the case then you have acted with malice and intent to deceive, not legal terms I know, just the reality.

 

[Criss Colon]

Please don't try and hide behind the,"They Don't Know What...

...They Are Getting Into" defense.Dominican Truck Drivers may not watch "CNN",but they do have eyes,ears,and mouths! So I doubt they are as inmcommunicado,uninformed and ignorant as you proclaim them to be! It is common practice to hire unskilled labor to work in "War Zones",and the "Oil States".They come from the Philipines,Thailand,India,Pakistan,"North Africa,and lots of other "Thirld World Countries".Lots of North Africans went to Germany,and other European Countries after the second World War to work for "Cheap" wages.MY point is,this is "Business",not "Politics" as "SOME" would have as their "AGENDA"! "If The Shoe Fits,WEAR IT"! If not,"Keep On Walking"!


You can "Describe" the risks of war in all the detail you wish,but until you been on the wrong end of a "muzzle Flash" it doesn't do any good.


That "Land Mine" story just proves that there are "Urban Legends" in the DR,as well as the rest of the World.It ranks right up there with kidnapping Dominican Children to Puerto Rico to remove their "organs" for transplant!!!!CC

 

[Spirit7]

So please,spare me the hystrionics,and your anti-war,anti-US "BS" at the same time! Cris Colon

In all the posts above, the only 'hystrionics' are yours.

Why are you so offended by the likely political implications of the DR and USA governments being somehow involved? With which of the two are you involved?

And take it easy, these are just folks giving their opinions and yours have not an iota of more value than anybody else's!

 

[Tony C]

IF (big if) these drivers have made an informed decision, then yes, you are right, but as it is I suspect that this is not the case. If you hire me you MUST inform me of the inherent risks of the job, in detail. If that is not the case then you have acted with malice and intent to deceive, not legal terms I know, just the reality.

I doubt there is any "IF" About it. As soon as they heard about the jobs they talked with people and I am sure they were swamped with all of the Terror stores about how they were all going to be headed and feed to some Camels.

How Dominican is this? You are making excuses for somebody you don't even know!

Nobody is forcing these guys. ("Please spare me the sob stories about poverty") They are all adults and made a decision. Wish them well and hope that they don't all blow their money on Rum and Girls when they get back.

 

[Chirimoya]

...they were all going to be headed ...

be headed where?

All in all I think their odds are better than if they were to board a yola for PR.

 

[NALs]

I doubt there is any "IF" About it. As soon as they heard about the jobs they talked with people and I am sure they were swamped with all of the Terror stores about how they were all going to be headed and feed to some Camels.

How Dominican is this? You are making excuses for somebody you don't even know!

Nobody is forcing these guys. ("Please spare me the sob stories about poverty") They are all adults and made a decision. Wish them well and hope that they don't all blow their money on Rum and Girls when they get back.

For those of you who were wondering (and those who were not wondering too), that was precisely my point in my posts on this thread.

These guys are adults and they are mature enough to make decisions by themselves, decisions that they know will impact their lives and those around them for better or worse. Nobody is forcing them to take those jobs, they are simply taking what's best coming to them, not necesserily what they best deserve.

I just don't like this attitude of thinking of these grown mature Dominican men as "little kids who don't know better" simply because they are poor! That is bolony, poor people know enough to make rational decisions, especially if it will impact their own lives. The fact that they are poor doesn't mean they are not capable of "fending" for themselves.

They may be poor, but they are not stupid. These guys know what they are getting into, they might not know the exact details, but then again, many of those Westerners who supported this war did not know that a war meant killing, beheadings, and total anarchy and chaos!

It took me a while to stop looking at the poor as "helpless biengs". Now I realize that the poor are only as "helpless" as others perceive them to be, but they are smart enough to come up with ways to keep the limited checks coming in and maintain their own survival. If they can do that (otherwise the mortality rate in this country would have gone through the roof), then these men can make rational decisions for themselves.

Here is a company offering them more money than they are probably currently making. They know Iraq is in a war and many Dominicans know what that means. As such, they know enough to make a rational decision, though it might not be the best decision.

In short, they are not "helpless children who don't know better", in the contrary they are grown men who know more than people perceive them to know.

 

[thick_neck]

Chiri,

I think Tony was trying to say that the Dominicans going to Iraq are headless, then they will be headed - heads will be added. But I don't understand the part about the Camels...who be them? Are they cannibals?
I thought Lecter was only in the movies. Ahora me desayuno.

 

[Chirimoya]

Heh! I don't know about headless but anyone who takes up a contract somewhere that dangerous has to be somewhat lacking in the cranial department, no matter how much they're being paid. (I know...)

Instead of asking 'do they realise how dangerous it is?' maybe the question should be 'do they realise how much people from other countries are getting paid for the same work?'

I also ask why they have to go as far as the DR to find drivers willing to do this work? There are millions of needy people in the region, but either the employers don't trust the locals or the locals aren't prepared to take those sort of risks.

Why the stress on Jordan anyway? They could be assuming that the average DR driver does not have an intimate knowledge of Middle Eastern geography.

 

[Porfio_Rubirosa]

I also ask why they have to go as far as the DR to find drivers willing to do this work?

In that question, you have your answer, don't you? Last I checked, even some US National Guardsmen were refusing to drive trucks in Iraq.

 

[NALs]

Heh! I don't know about headless but anyone who takes up a contract somewhere that dangerous has to be somewhat lacking in the cranial department, no matter how much they're being paid. (I know...)

I agree with you on that one.

I also ask why they have to go as far as the DR to find drivers willing to do this work? There are millions of needy people in the region, but either the employers don't trust the locals or the locals aren't prepared to take those sort of risks.

Pure chance I would say. After all, if Jamaica was chosen upon, the Jamaican expatriates who are so "worried" about the locals as you yourself are would have asked the same thing. The same thing would have been asked if Mexicans were the one's who that company went to hire or Venezuelans, or maybe Colombians, etc.

The fact they asked Dominicans would have to be pure chance (I don't want to say pure luck for obvious reasons, but I guess I just did).

Also, Dominicans are not the only one's in to this Iraqi thing. Others have gone before it and more will unquestinably follow in the near future. Dominican truck drivers will be honking their horns along with the truck drivers of Poland, Jordan, heck, probably even Kenyans and a bunch of other folks.

There are more chances these Dominican me will come back in one peace than they will get caught by rebels and beheaded. If one is caught, that is pure bad luck.

We only hear about the few who do get caught and beheaded, we never hear about the thousands that come and go with out a scar to prove they actually were there.

Let's give this a rest, because in the end, these Dominican men are going and that is their final decision that they among themselves concluded upon.

 

[Mr_DR]

I agree with you on that one.


Pure chance I would say. After all, if Jamaica was chosen upon, the Jamaican expatriates who are so "worried" about the locals as you yourself are would have asked the same thing. The same thing would have been asked if Mexicans were the one's who that company went to hire or Venezuelans, or maybe Colombians, etc.

The fact they asked Dominicans would have to be pure chance (I don't want to say pure luck for obvious reasons, but I guess I just did).

Also, Dominicans are not the only one's in to this Iraqi thing. Others have gone before it and more will unquestinably follow in the near future. Dominican truck drivers will be honking their horns along with the truck drivers of Poland, Jordan, heck, probably even Kenyans and a bunch of other folks.

There are more chances these Dominican me will come back in one peace than they will get caught by rebels and beheaded. If one is caught, that is pure bad luck.

We only hear about the few who do get caught and beheaded, we never hear about the thousands that come and go with out a scar to prove they actually were there.

Let's give this a rest, because in the end, these Dominican men are going and that is their final decision that they among themselves concluded upon.

Why do you think that they are Looking for Dominican truck drivers now?

Are you kidding me?
Nobody wants to drive there anymore and there are many people quitting these jobs because their lives dont even worth risking for the money they were getting paid.

How come nobody went to hire Dominicans before these beheadings started taking place?

 

[Tony C]

Why do you think that they are Looking for Dominican truck drivers now?

Simple. Because they are cheaper. There is a waiting list a mile long in the US of people wanting to work in Iraq.

Sure some people are afraid but most realize the odds are in their favor.

Do you realize the Mortality rate for a US serviceman in Iraq is over 50% lower than a serviceman stationed in the US?

 

[Porfio_Rubirosa]

There is a waiting list a mile long in the US of people wanting to work in Iraq...Do you realize the Mortality rate for a US serviceman in Iraq is over 50% lower than a serviceman stationed in the US?

SOURCE :ermm: PLEASE!?!?!

 

[Mr_DR]

Any news on these DR truck drivers?
are they there yet?
Pobres infelices.
we all should pray for them.

 

[Texas Bill]

Well, it finally happened.......

One of the truck drivers is no longer with us...He went to sleep and died in the insuing wreck.

4 others are being deported for smuggling gasolene/oil products in their water trucks.

How many more will return thusly???

Texas Bill

 

[pasha]

Come on folks....

If those beknighted souls [sic?] don't know what's going on in Iraq then they must have been living on the DR equivalant of a lunar landscape. Do you reckon they knew how to buckle their seat belts on the flight, or did an attendant have to do it for them? How about making another assumption; ie, that they do know what they're in for but are willing to risk it for the pay. Not much by the all mighty standards you seem to be applying, but know this: an Indian driver makes half that.

And, ohbytheway, head cuttings are down tremendously these days.

Best, P

 

[drscorpionking]

I have been reading this forum for the past few hours.

I'm a Dominican living in NYC. I have noticed that the US has been deporting many Dominicans to the Dominican Republic for the past 10 years and they are doing it more often now. It is embarrasing to me that the Dominican government is even leding a hand by allowing these people to contract with American companies when the US government is basically ****ing on us like this. We are not even treated so farily in the US, now the Dominican Government is allowing this too.

Shame on the Dominican Republic.

 

[Texas Bill]

I have been reading this forum for the past few hours.

I'm a Dominican living in NYC. I have noticed that the US has been deporting many Dominicans to the Dominican Republic for the past 10 years and they are doing it more often now. It is embarrasing to me that the Dominican government is even leding a hand by allowing these people to contract with American companies when the US government is basically ****ing on us like this. We are not even treated so farily in the US, now the Dominican Government is allowing this too.

Shame on the Dominican Republic.

If you will notice the date of this thread, you will see that it is over 3 years old. What the discussion is/was about are/were the Dominicans who accepted employment driving for companies operating in and out of Iraq.
Nothing to do with the relationships between the two countries today.
Catch up with the rest of us, please. You'rea reading something out of context.

Texas Bill