Following up on news about Haiti and expat videos about the Dominican Republic led me to wonder about the history of relations between the two countries. Political instability and economic problems were resolved in ways that led to increasing inequality. The anti-immigration attitudes / policies and resulting human rights violations in the DR are deeply disturbing. The video below provides an interesting perspective on colonization in the Americas, the European view of discovery / conquest commonly used in teaching history, influences from Spain vs. France, and the sense of identity expressed by people living on Hispaniola:
Based on this, the restructuring plan in the first article really needs to address the influences of class, corruption, and culture on future development.
Part one, though he sums it up at the beginning of the one above…
Seems to me that only white men who are tenured and secure in their position could imagine that this will help this situation… But hey… I’m a historian who is tenuously employed, so I must suck at what I do…
time to promote this film, again.
it’s a gut punch of a movie, with today’s history in mind, yet there are beautiful, long silences, playful children and the family the story centers on.
if you haven’t seen it, i hope you will.
that scene starts the waterworks in me every time.
now ya done it…
I agree. There´s something in my eye too.