RISE IN NUMBER OF DOMINICAN "BOAT PEOPLE"

El Caribe reports that the US Coast Guard has intercepted 1,100 Dominicans attempting to make the hazardous crossing of the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico. This represents a sharp rise in the number of would-be illegal immigrants to the neighboring island. The figure for January alone equals 74% of the total number of such detainees over the previous 12 months, meaning that an average of 39 people each day have been thwarted in their attempts to make the crossing. In addition to these statistics, it is reported that this week saw two people die in the attempt. It must be emphasized that the numbers quoted here do not include the unknown numbers of people who succeed in their endeavor and arrive on Puerto Rican shores undetected. In one incident yesterday, Coast Guard officials stopped a group of 27 illegal voyagers who fought them off with machetes, knives and sticks, forcing the officials to call for reinforcements. In this case the individuals concerned were taken into custody, but in the vast majority of cases the migrants are repatriated immediately. The Dominican navy confirms there has been an increase in the number of illegal crossings. It is believed that the numbers began to escalate in October 2003, when inflation began to eat away at family finances. El Caribe's editorial observes that there is no similar record of the number of middle-class Dominicans who have left the country for similar reasons, but using legal and less risky methods.

please noone here is concerned about the DR...the only reason this post exists is because it's bad news...there's a strong Dominican complex in here...some of us just love to hear bad news coming from DR because it gives us some sort of gratification for having a dying country...it's like seeing your mother dying and you cant do anything so instead you hope your neighbors fall sick and die to since you hate them and feel inferior...that's exactly what's happening here

can I see some posts about the DR when things were booming last year and they had the fastest growing economy in the world? can I see some post about some of the world leaders meeting in DR when things were good for them...can I see some about the Miss Universe pageant that was held there...show me some of good news...why not? because if someone was to post good news about DR the same ones posting these poinless threads would say "this is a Haitian site not Dominican" but anything that is bad coming out of the DR they want to keep the people informed so we can feel more secure about the fact that our side is losing and we stand for nothing but sit and wait and see what happens...and since it's sinking and we are unwilling to pull together and throw the people a rope, why not focus on the DR and pray to god they sink along with us...

We look so hopeless now that we have turned into Haters....so so sad...this and the other post made realize how hopeless the situation in Haiti has become...it has made us even grudge our neighbor even more.

Dman...there's nothing wrong with knowing what goes on in DR but when we sound like we are rejoicing because we hear bad news over on that side it makes us look very sad...personally I dont care where from, I hate hearing bad news about any poor people...I remember I was in Miami when the two cubans were found in the water trying to make it over here and it was almost like the Haitians in the building I was in were happy to see that we are not the only ones being embarassed...I can almost understand that case more then the DR case since the U.S. does treat Cuban refugees different and I can see where some resentment would come from but this DR thing just makes us look petty...very petty...when they were doing good, was there threads about their booming economy from the always so informative Kreyolbro? so why should we rejoice to hear that there are a few of them going to PR on boats?...what we have a complex now afraid that we'll one day become the only boat people?...I just think it's sad when we are watching over our neighbor's lawn hoping it starts to erode just like we let ours...information is information but the way some of it is embraced is what shows the intent of the information...Kreyol already established his negative feelings towards Dominicans here once and this kind of information only shows he got a wiff of joy when he read things were getting bad in the DR...and it was embraced exactly the way he would have hoped

I think what we are seeing is anti instead of pro...alot of you come here and love to lash out at others by saying you are pro-Haitian...pro-Haitian my anus...you are just anti-everyone who's doing better you not pro Haitian...I'll bet if the DR started doing just as bad as Haiti or worst some of your opinions about them would be much different

Ape_man (here we are again, how is your HX year so far?), I read you 2 posts. Good stuff. Strong guts. (You've just made yourself an alter ego: Hater_Guest ... lucky you)

I do agree with you that a lot of Haitians have developped that universal animosity for a lot of countries. Especially the DR. Haitians are indeed figthing with principles and new education to reverse that hating trend laid dormant in the depths of their conscience since almost 2 centuries. Bad news about the DR does make a lot of Haitians feel better. It's sad, it's not true for everyone but it is the reality for most Haitians.

The reason is simple and understandable. Haitians align themselves with communities or nations who doesn't tolerate emperialism on whichever form. Because Haitians "BELIEVE" (not necessarily true) that the DR is too malleable by the US, the Haitian anti-imperialistic war takes the form of anti-Dominicanism. So the failing of anything in the DR is a recomfort for Haitians to prove themselves right once again: there's no lasting good in being friends with emprialistic monsters.

Nonetheless, I don't think Haiti's problems have turned them into haters. Ape_man, you are pushing and cracking the envelope here. It's better to understand than to judge because when judging prior to lucid analysis, it's easy to become myopic or blind about the truth.

Haitians have never revered politically Martinique, Guadeloupe and the other French overseas department in the Caribbean. But that doesn't mean they hate them. Haitians simply can't understand why a sovereign nation will voluntarily accept to be colonized by a superpower and go on with life as if everything is okay.

That's the overwheling Haitian political mentality. Whether that has served us to our peril or salvation, that's the mentality Haitians have ingrained in them from the womb of their mothers. They need not be scholarized or educated about it. They're born with that rebel and independent-from-the-superpowers fire.

Another example - Haitians see no hero in Martin Luther King. Freedom can't be asked for as a favor. That's why Blacks in the US are still being cornered whereever the Whites want them to be. Affirmative actions and all the alikes are very disrespectful but effective ways to quiet a whole race down. It's not freedom. It's silence through consolating gifts.

However, Haitians are very revering of Malcom X because the latter share the same combat rhetorics and principles as they. And it is of no surprise that Malcom X wanted the Black Americans to learn about Haiti's history, especially about Toussaint Louverture, rather than their own black role models in the present and the past. That's the foundation of the weak link between Haitians and "Afro-Americans" today. If the latter were delivered the Malcom X way, I guarantee that the link would be so strong that Blacks in general would be in much better political and economic position in the US.

A more vivid example that Haitians are not haters because of their unfortunate situation: CUBA! Here again, if you are UNDERSTANDING the concept of our nation, you will see that we tend to love anybody who doesn't fall in love with the starred beast. I KNOW for a fact that a lot of Haitians WISH they were Cubans. And some are even more Cubans than Haitians. Several Haitians have moved to Cuba to enjoy what they dream of their country. Haitians love Cuba in ways that no nation has ever loved any other nation in history because Cuba represents what we should be in the face of the starred crocodile.

And the list can go on about Venezuela, Che Guevara in all South America, Salvador in Guatemale, Allende in Chile, Sandino in Nicaragua, Patrice Lumumba in Africa, North Vietnam, Russia (once upon a time), etc... The motive for being on the side of or apart from a nation is simple for Haitians: the behavior of that nation vis-à-vis the US. Haitians are not haters, they are only revering those with the same fighting principles as theirs and want no good for the others so their point can be proven true.

And I know Kreyolbro enough to say that he didn't post those news because he hates the DR. The reasons he said he posted are truly the reasons. And Ape_man, you seem to forget that ONLY BAD NEWS IS NEWS. What you said about Haitians posting good news about the DR is pure absurdity. If you look at a lot of threads by Kreyolbro and Heleze since 2 months, they all start with a lot of BAD NEWS about Haiti. Do you think they posted them because they know Haitians on HX would feel good since Haitians have grown to be self-haters?

Come on, Ape-Man, you have valid points but you need to think twice before you draw the sword! Kreyolbro is right, we need to educate ourselves with the examples of infant-democracies so we know how to handle situations like the DR's. It will happen to us if we ever get onto the true democartic road.

Thank you Amber for understanding that also.