Writing in Hoy on Saturday 8 December, spurred by escalating crime levels in the Dominican Republic, Jose Dunker points the authorities to the real causes of increase in violence.
Engineer Francina Hungria lost her eyesight during a horrific attack, in broad daylight, in one of the busiest areas of the capital city.
“The event cannot be attributed to any particular evil of those two criminals because ‘the fever is not in the sheets.’ It is a systemic problem, and those are symptoms of a sick society. The United Nations attributed violence to the absence of the rule of the law: ‘in the nations where the rule of the law has strengthened in recent years there has been a decline in violence, and in nations where there has been a decline in the rule of the law, there has been an increase in violence’ (United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, UNODC). In that way for living “like lawless goats” is that we are as we are.”
The World Justice Project, in its Rule of the Law Index (2008-2012) analyzes 99 countries rating these by points between 0 (the worst) and 1 (the best). Our rating is 0.36, among the most corrupt countries in the region, with the Presidency assessed as worse than the police, and our Congress is among the most corrupt in the planet (0.10) only surpassed by Ukraine, Thailand, Nigeria and Kenya.
The World Economic Forum (2012-2013) reviewed competitiveness for economic development in 144 countries, and reported that we are in last place in favoritism and in last place for wasteful spending for government expenditures, even worse than Haiti (ranked 136th). An example of this is the present budget (2012) submitted by the Executive Branch, approved by Congress, validated by the Supreme Court of Justice, and in violation of 24 laws.
“That is the origin of violence! And that is the root also of: (1) poverty: we are one of the three countries in Latin America where there was not a reduction but rather an increase in poverty (ECLAC); (2) we have the second highest percentage of people who have seen a their income decline in the past two years (Barometer of the Americas); (3) along with Haiti we are one of the few countries that has stagnated, or has decelerated, in terms of hunger reduction (FAO); (4) we are among the higher consumers of alcohol in the world (FLACSO); (5) we are the country with greater risk of accidents in the American continent (FundaRed); (6) we are among the 10 countries with the highest rate of teenage pregnancies (UNICEF); and (7) since 2003 we are among the countries with the highest rates of violence in the world (Mayra Brea and Edylberto Cabral, “Violence in the DR”).
“Summing up, institutional chaos is responsible for the illness. This chaos took out Francina’s eyes, but also your son, your brother, your father, whether as a result of accidents or of violence on the streets. And we do not need a dictator. We need rule of the law to be the dictator!”
http://worldjusticeproject.org/rule-of-law-index/
www.hoy.com.do/opiniones/2012/12/8/457978/Por-que-Francina-perdio-los-ojos