i am the first person to attribute certain maladies to a lack of money, but we also have to look at a culture that does not place too much stock in education. we were all told in our youth that if we work hard, and study hard, we will make progress in life. well, this might be so in very many countries, but not so in the DR. this is a country in which success and progress are, by and large, reserved for people with hyphenated surnames, and family connections. the average guy looks in from the outside. this is not Abe Lincoln country; this is a land where you can go to university for half your life, and if you have no contacts, you might be lucky to get a job as animation director in some all inclusive hotel. look at any poor person here today; in the preponderant majority of cases, their parents are poor, and they are going to be poor, and so will their kids. it is all a part of Thunderpants's posting about learned helplessness, and fatalism. if you see people who have succeeded by hard work at school, you will emulate it. if your niece is unemployed, and has a college degree, why send your kid to school, when the son of the mayor is a dropout, but is driving an Audi Q7? it is fatalism, plain and simple.
Si Dios Quiere...
