Economist and historian Bernardo Vega says that while violence predominates in the streets of Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Iraq, Iran, Paris, Hong Kong, Lebanon and Haiti, this is not the case in the Dominican Republic, a land that suffers many of the problems that have enraged the peoples in those countries.
Why are things so quiet in the Dominican Republic? What are the buffers that prevent our masses from getting upset? What is our daily Valium that keeps us sedated and calm?, he asks outloud.
In the op-ed piece in Hoy/Acento media he writes about seven of these reasons:
- The PLD has inflated the public payroll to such levels that, out of shame, it has stopped publishing the data on how many public employees there are. The more “bottles”, the stronger the “PLD corporation” is and those employees fear losing their jobs if they demonstrate against the government. [A “bottle” is the local term for a political appointee in a post that contributes little if anything to government.]
- Welfare cards, which cover a high proportion of voters, are another Valium. If the neighborhood Peledeist boss sees you participating in a Green March protest, for example, you know you run the risk of losing your Valium [the Solidarity Card].
- The remittances we receive from abroad add up to more than half of what we who live in the country pay in taxes to our government. The total in remittances exceeds what the government pays in salaries, pensions and subsidies to the population and that “Valium manna” is free, because it is paid very generously by the ex-pats.
- More than 20% of our population lives abroad and there is no way to get the airplane and dinghy out of the brains of our youth. An escape valve, an effective frustrations shock absorber. Surveys indicate that most people want to go live abroad.
- The poorest people in our country are undocumented Haitians. Although they would be the ones who should be protesting the most, they don’t, because if they are undocumented, they could be deported. Undocumented Dominicans residing in New York do not protest publicly either.
- We have been borrowing abroad for eleven years. That’s another Valium, because it replaces new taxes and austerity policies, a sure detonator for street violence. Every Dominican child born today, as journalist Juan Bolivar Diaz reminds us, does not do it with a loaf of bread under his arm, but with a US$5,000 promissory note, because that is the child’s share of repayment of an external debt that transfers the crisis from one generation to another.
- Finally, there is the very growth of our economy, the GDP, the highest (along with Panama) and, in addition, it has been achieved with price stability and that combination generates new jobs. Another Valium. In Chile, one of the shortest but most eloquent banners on the streets is the one that proclaims: “Down with GDP”.
“Let’s keep getting our daily Valium, but let’s also keep a good inventory of tear gas handy”, he concludes.
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Hoy
18 December 2019