Filed under: Bateys, Dominican Republic, Personal Revelations | Tags: Batey, Dominican Republic, Economics, Haiti, Mass Media, Peace Corps, Xenophobia
I lived in the Dominican Republic as a Peace Corps volunteer from September 2006 to November 2008 – 27 full months. The Dominican Republic shares the diminutive island of Hispaniola with Haiti. The DR is a lower-middle income country with a GDP per capita about ten times Haiti’s $600 per day. Not a rich country, but a land of milk and honey relative to Haiti.
Nevertheless, in my 27 months, not once – not once – did I hear about how many Dominican-made goods Haiti consumes; about the sheer quantity of goods that literally pour over the border. It was not until I arrived in Haiti that I was able to see the extent to which Dominican consumer goods dominate the Haitian market and so boost the Dominican economy.
Mind you, this is no small piece of news to stumble upon. The Dominican press and politicians of all stripes rarely let an opportunity pass without excoriating Haiti and Haitians for provoking all the DR’s woes. They are the perpetual scapegoat for the failures of Dominican politicians and the Dominican state. Socially, Haitian immigration into the DR is portrayed as a threat to the Dominican social-fabric; economically, they are blamed for taking menial jobs and driving down wages, while being an oversized strain on the national budget. “Haitian” is actually an insult.
Nevertheless, while I was a Peace Corps volunteer, I lived in a Haitian community – a “batey” – I co-founded a group to bring the realities facing Haitians to light in the Peace Corps community, I was a self-styled champion of Haitian rights – and yet I never learned of the huge economic boon that Haiti is for the DR. Under these circumstances, imagine how much your average Dominican can be expected to know?
What’s more, Haiti is in the middle of making huge infrastructure investments in roads and bridges, and it’s Dominican companies and Dominican specialized labor that’s reaping the profits. Projects you would expect too big to keep under the radar. But still, you’re average Dominican, or Peace Corps volunteer, knows nothing about how much the DR benefits from Haiti’s purchasing power.
All this isn’t to draw ire to Dominican companies for meeting a demand that few Haitian companies are capable of meeting. This is only to remind us that those who control information control more than just facts and data.
In this instance, those with control over the information that shows Haiti making a contribution to the Dominican economy, and who choose to conceal it, are directly responsible for the misunderstanding, fear and lack of trust that characterizes the Haiti-DR relationship. They also must bear a share of the responsibility for the xenophobic violence that plagues the Haitian existence in the Dominican Republic, which has led to the deaths of dozens of Haitians over the past few years.
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