Probably something everybody is aware of, but I was just thinking about it today while driving from a client to my home. In the middle of the afternoon I see men everywhere doing nothing, walking around in casual clothes, sitting with some other guys talking and laughing and I'm not talking about a barrio but sectors like Millon, Evaristo Morales.
When I have to go somewhere early in the morning (before 7am) I see the street full of people going to their jobs: 80% women (were are the men?! they appear a few hours later in the streets doing nothing). Besides there are many men having jobs that are completely unproductive: watchmen, messengers (why does this economy still needs so many messengers, its about time to modernize the paymentsystem, fase out the use of checks and reorganize the economy to be able to generate real jobs for al those people sitting around.
Our maid comes from San Cristobal. I was bringing her to Pintura this week, for her to drop of some notebooks for her daughters, she started fighting with her husband on the phone while I was bringing her (about money). Later I ask her if her husband works. answer: Claro! he works in the weekend as a watchman in for some building and 1 day in the week he collect money for someone....THAT'S HIS JOB??? Letting his wife work from monday till friday long days in the capital and be at home the whole week sitting in the colmado doing (almost) nothing?
My homecountry is a small country, having about 16,000,000 habitants and a GNP of USD770 billion. Why does DR that has 10,000,000 habitants only a GNP of USD37 billion. I know I am comparing a wealthy developed country with a country in development, but that s about 5%. Keeping in mind that my country does hardly have any natural resources and DR does.
I'm afraid that what's wrong with the DR has to do a lot with mentality. As long as a great part of the population is conformist and not willing to do something to improve their situation, this country is going to stay the way it is, with an economy that's always in crisis, the few people that DO want to work (and the few people whose ancestors did) are doing well and will keep developing, while the rest will stay what they are: poor.
No. I get it. These idioms that you say are meaningless have a powerful influence on the culture, albeit subconsciously. Do you understand fatalism? It's the the idea that one is powerless to change the outcome of one's life. The advantages of planning and being proactive are not understood. Responsibility is not taken for one's action or inaction. Soy como soy. You are correct, most Dominicans are not devout in their inherited beliefs, but just look around and you'll see messages everywhere(on guaguas, buses, stores, restaurants, the highways, etc.) that are indicative of a culture that's counting on someone else to fix what's broken.
Says the person that comes from a country with a sh*t load of unhappy people, even when they have it all (or so they think).
Fatalism? DR? Wrong country, culture and people!
DR has not EVER nor will it expect or wait for somebody from the outside to FIX our problems!
We're not Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba, Venezuela, Italy, Spain, Greece, etc...
We are, after all, the ONLY country (since the vatican doesn't count as anything like it) to have the white cross with the bible in the middle of it in the national flag!
We accept other people's religions and don't force ours to them in our country. We are a very welcoming and friendly people that will say good morning to complete strangers in the streets (imagine that!).
We looooooooooooove and respect our elders like polished gold and diamonds.
We don't think that we must work until we hit the late 60's to then retire on our nests, but with a body which life will flicker as a candle on the wind. We work until we satisfy our needs, not our greed.
For foreign people that come from their work till you drop dead rich or die trying first world countries, seeing people that take it easy and roll with the moments is a big shock and resulting mystery!
Here you can be yourself, not matter if you own half the country's riches or only a banana peel to cover your private parts. Share a table with the big man or the poorest folks.
But you can't see that, for that's something you have never had since birth where you came from...
We're a country with marked inequalities, but where people MUST mingle together no matter where their economic status falls in society. Try that in your first world of richness!
The powerless ones are foreigners from their rich first world countries, that see with their eyes what they only know of their world, and see the DR and people like easy fish and complacent to all that goes around.
We're far more than just Presidentes Frias and Merengue...
But that's o.k.! Since you are a foreigner that only knows/understand what you were born into...
