Diario Libre’s managing editor Benjamin Morales Melendez editorialized on Tuesday, 21 November 2023 on remarks blaming climate change for the tragic deaths of 18 November 2023.
The editorialist calls for citizens to demand instead more of their government, including constructing an adequate drainage system. He also says that the population could have taken more seriously the warnings that it would rain hard.
He wrote: “Santo Domingo would not have been flooded if the politicians had built a drainage system and if the citizens had forcefully demanded it. The tunnel would not have fallen if the politicians had done what they had to do and we had forced them. People would not cross the rivers if politicians tried to educate people well in civics and the people were not satisfied with being instructed to be followers and not thinkers. The worst thing is that all this misfortune, which exceeds 30 deaths, will be repeated, because the politicians do not accept the blame and we do not fix it, because it is better to say that it was climate change.”
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Diario Libre
22 November 2023