Anna in the Tropics: February 2009

The Dominican economy is two things: corrupt, and unstable.

I'm not going to go google any statistics for you, but way too many people are poor, nobody makes enough money, lots of things are too expensive and lots of things are really horribly low quality (healthcare. education. to name a few.)

It's not that they don't have enough money. They just finished, for example, the first subway line in Santo Domingo. Today I rode it down and back (it goes N-S, they're working on an E-W one for sometime in the next century), and it is FAN-CY. It's very nice. Smooth, modern, clean, efficient (seeming). One glistening piece of evidence that the government has got some $$$. And although the specific ways and people are so hidden and complicated that I believe there are few people who have a great depth of knowledge on the subject, COR-RUP-TION is decidedly a big presence in the network of those who decide the fate of the country. How infuriating is that?

Secondly, the country is financially resting on three rickety, ridiculous stilts, and these are

tourism!
free trade zones (zonas francas)
remesas

I think tourism is pretty self explanatory-- but development for the sake of attracting tourists often ignores the needs (and/or the existence) of the people who live in the country, and also of that thing we like to call "the environment."

Free trade zones are bad news, you may or may not understand them better than I do but for some reason or another large sections of the country are available for everyone and their mother's corporation to build giant factories, also known as sweatshops, and be exempt to some degree from taxes and other annoying expenses. So Nike may be like "i'm going to build a shoe factory in the DR," and lots of people (many of them women, many of them single mothers) will work there in the usual sweatshop way of long hours horrible conditions and low wages. And then one day Nike will go, "why would I pay women $1 a week to make shoes for me in the DR when women in Indonesia will make them for 50¢? See ya!" and the jobs will disappear, etc. Who benefits from this situation besides the corporations is pretty unclear.

Remesas, the third pillar of the Dominican Economy, are-- get this-- money sent to people here by relatives who have emigrated to the U.S. !!! This is not a very good situation for anyone. But the pay here, as they say, no rinde... it doesn't get you very far.

I learned all these things in my favorite class, which is the compliment class to the "volunteer internship" part of the program. In this class we get real information which immediately helps us understand where we are and what the deal is and how someone someday might be able to theoretically help with some of the country's (and the world's) problems.

The actual "internship" that I am doing is working in a home/ school for girls between the ages of 6 and 14. The work that I am doing is mostly teaching english to the third and fifth grade classes. I also spend time hanging out with the girls at recess and planning friday afternoon activities for the kids who don't have families to go visit on the weekend. It's a really lovely place, getting to know the kids is so much fun, and trying to teach english with no experience or training is definitely a valuable experience for me. But I have also realized, from talking to the internship coordinator and other students, from reading an interesting, controversial speech by Ivan Illich called "To Hell With Good Intentions", and from my own thinking, how hard it is to actually do valuable "service work"-- just how much is required, and how much further I have to go. You first need to know where and what you want to help with, you then need extensive knowledge of and experience with the context you will be working in, and training with people who have done what you want to do, and even then I believe the process will be a learning experience in itself. These things-- the specific goal(s), the extensive knowledge and research, and the training-- are things that I simply do not have. Thus, although I may supposedly be doing "volunteer work," all I am really doing this semester in Santo Domingo is learning, learning, learning. And that is alright with me-- great, actually. You got to be a sponge.

These things are amazing:

$2 assortment of fruit from the vendor a block down from CIEE: pineapple, papaya, mango, cantaloupe, watermelon and more
Helados Bon frozen yogurt bar
75¢ made-to-order empanadas with hot sauce and ketchup
Parque de los Haitises: 1600 km of prehistoric looking coastal tropical rainforest wilderness. Arguably the best-kept secret and the coolest attraction this country has to offer.

More later! And no more economics lectures! I mean who do I think I am? Geez.

Your homework is to find the meaning of these phrases:

¡Vaya al Carajo!

¡Coño!

¡Tú ta toda la vaina!