It is a norm of Dominicans to find humor in even misfortune. You may hear of a government official having caught SIDA, which is the Spanish translation for AIDS. He/she may call you and say, did you know I have SIDA. You will sympathize with the caller, to only hear the punch line next. SIDA does not stand for the mortal disease. Rather it spells "sin ingresos desde agosto" or without income as of August. This is in reference to those that need to go job-hunting as they expect to be unemployed as of 16 August 2000.
