Happenings in DR

[Brazilophile]

Has anybody been to the Dominican Repubilic recently?  I read a newspaper article today that said there is MAJOR violence against Haitians going on there.

The story so far is that a Dominicana was found murdered last week and it was blamed on a haitian man.  The DR government then expelled at least 2,000 Haitians from a western farm town near the border.  Locals were enraged and beheaded 2 Haitian men 2 or 3 days ago.  Now, Haitians that are still in DR are running scared and hiding in friends' homes or in the mountains.

On top of this, DR farmers just brought in 500 or so more Haitians to pick bananas.  It seems that Haitians in DR are equivalent to Mexicans in California.  They work for half the wages of locals so businesses want to hire them instead of locals.  Haitians work for 150 pesos a day to pick bananas while Dominicans want at least 300 pesos.

[sisko]

... in response to Happenings in DR, posted by Brazilophile on Jun 11, 2005

I have, my fiance lives there.  However she lives in the capital where she is pretty far removed from these happenings.  You are right, these things seem to be more common in the border areas.  Pretty scary.  From what I have seen in and around the capital, the Hatians and Dominicans seem to get along rather well.  My fiance  interviews in early July, so I hope she will be here in the US and be even further removed from all of this.

So after she gets here all she will have to worry about is Crime, High Taxes and Osama bin Laden :-)    So what else is new?

Sisko