Behind the "deportations"

Musings from an armchair journalist.. stuck in the Capital.. longing for a field assignment......

Neiba is small city, perhaps 50,000 inhabitants, located in a valley between two mountain ranges and several rivers and an overflowing brackish below sea level level which is home to one of the world's endangered species, the American crocodile. The crocodile has more international supporters than the farmers of Neiba, who rely primarily on the traditional crops of coffee and plantains and whose land is being eroded by the mysterious rise of the waters of the lake.

The only advantage that Neiba has over other small towns is that it is one of the few places where grapes can be grown. Grapes, along with apples, used to be imported only at Christmas and have come to mean luxury, Christmas all year, to the Dominican people. Now, there are local, rather than just imported grapes for consumption. There is even a small local wine industry.

Neiba is also home to many Haitian immigrants as are all the mountains of the southwest. Where there is a coffee harvest, there are always Haitians who come to work to pick the beans, just as they go to the cities to build skyscrapers. And the mountain ranges are so vast, and so very inhospitable for those who do not know how to live without electricity and water, that those who do not know how to do so have not usually bothered these Haitians. No one goes to hunt them down and deport them, no one arrests them while they were working. The Haitians have simply been left in peace.

But things have tipped now on the balance of how many Haitians are in the Dominican Repubic. There are never figures on how many illegals are here. Even though their skin hue may be exactly the same, as it is in many areas such as Samana and the south, Dominicans and Haitians swear that can always tell one another apart, even just by the walk, or perhaps the dress, or some instinct. 

The balance tipped. The fire ignited. And the pot boiled over in Neiba when someone killed a seventy year old local Dominican couple, coffee growers, at their home. Killed them by machete, which is known as a Haitian weapon because Dominicans use guns. Guns are the weapon of choice here in the Dominican Republic. It is against the law to carry a concealed weapon, so it is common to see a man riding on his motor cycle with a pistol in his belt. It is to be assumed that most home owners have a gun in their homes. 

Just as it is  assumed that anyone who is killed with a machete (hacked to death would be phrase used whether or not that was true) was killed by a Haitian. So, when that older couple was killed, a younger Haitian, probably a Haitian who worked for them, who may or may not have had anything to do with killing, was knifed to death by a Dominican mob. Knives are a weapon without nationality. At first the reports were that he was lynched. But lynching is not Dominican style public justice, it is Haitian style. 

Over 200 Haitians in the town, with or without proper passports or visas,sought refuge from mob violence in the police station.  A few days later they were escorted to the Haitian border, about an hour away, and returned to their homeland.  Now the police have the name of the actual murdered and have asked the Haitian authorities that he be extradited to face trial and justice here in the Dominican Republic, which will most likely be a very safe option for him as there is no death penalty here, and he has taken away the source of livelihood for these 200 people and their families and most of the other Haitians in Neiba and his life will be in danger in Haiti.

When I lived in Las Terrenas, a popular Frenchman was macheted to death by his former young Haitian lover whom he had dropped and left with nothing. The lover came back with a friend, killed the Frenchman, and stole his high end motorcycle. The local police started questioning the local Haitians to find out where the Haitian had gone. The rule, which I was told, was that if you are seen talking with the Dominican police after a crime here, your family in Haiti will be killed. There are very few Haitians in the Dominican prison system. These particular Haitians were found. The family of the Haitian who was seen talking to the police in Las Terrenas were all killed.

But there were 200 Haitians who were voluntarily in police custody in Neiba and only killer. 

 

"

Pro Haitian, Pro Dominican

Last week someone on one of the Haiti list servs called me an apologist for Trujillo, the Dominican dictator who murdered some 40,000 Haitians. This was in marked contrast to the ususal rants against me on the Dominican list servs where I am regularly invited to move to Haiti. So I am clearly doing something right in my ability to irritate all and everyone.

The Dominican Constitutional Court just handed down a decision which has sparked protests at Dominican Embassies all over the world and garnered protest letters from the Haitian government and the United Nations among others.

I seem to be alone in not being concerned about the outcome for the 700,000 persons who are potentially affected by the decision. Perhaps because I have read the decision which it seems to me most of the people who are writing about in the press have not. Perhaps because I have been aware that there has been a problem with this issue for a long time. that the children of illegal immigrants here are NOT entitled to Haitian citizenship, and NOT entitiled to Domnican Citizenship and that the problem was only going to grow.

It is, of course, somehow, so much easier to be on Haiti's side on everything. Because they are just the underdog in everything. And I usually am. Not this time.

It is not the fault of the Dominican Republic that the majority of the illegal immigrant who come here.. some say a million to date.. but who can tell?.... have no papers whatsoever. Nor is it the Dominican Republic's fault that they come.

Yes, it is the fault of the Dominican Republic that the gates at the border are wide open twice a week for market, with no papers checked,. because they want the trade. But the border is long and porous. And there will always be economic refugees from a poor country to a wealthier one. And since the earthquake, it has been from a much poorer country to a wealthier one.

But the DR is not a wealthy country. It still hovers just above poverty. One cannot drink the tap water. Schools are only for four hours a day. Unemployment is massive. Salaries are low. Visas to other countries are heavily restricted.

It is in no position to accept waves of unskilled, uneducated, undocumented workers.Without documents, there is no way to even begin the path to citizenship. So rather than protesting at the Dominican Embassies, would it not perhaps be more useful for some of the Haitian diaspora groups to volunteer in Haiti as census takers and help get everyone their birth certificates or identity cards?

The DR is taken to the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights, the Hague of the hemisphere.. and subjected to the scrutiny of the world for its treatment of the Haitians. Everyone screams at them "racist" "xenaphobe" . After the last decision in 2004, the DR changed its constition to jus sanguinis from jus solis, and made it even more clear what it meant by persons "in transit".. i.e. "illegal". More outcrys.

Yes, well. I know Haitians who work for half of what Domnicans work for. That is true. Is that racist? is that xenophobic?  or is that just taking advantage of illegal migrant laborers?  Dominican workers are upset about that. That is capitalism.. That is exploitation.

There is also an elimentt here that says  "you have a problem, blame the Haitians"

 But Haiti is the DR's second largest trading partner, accounting for one fourth of her trade. And this is an island. No way out. Sharks all around. Cuba on one side, US Coast Guard on the other. So these two nations, who have been doing a live rendition of a Russian novel for 500 years, are going to have to work it out.

The Haitians who are not here seem to think that the Dominicans all hate them. But the Haitians who are here mostly want to stay, not because they love it here but because there is work here.

The ruling of the Constitutional Court directed the Electoral Council to make a list of all those whom they thought might have Dominican identity papers which are in question and then it directed the Executive Branch to come up with a solution to the issue, on how to regularize the status of these persons. Both were directed to complete this within a year.

But there are lots of folks, I guess, who get paid for screaming at Embassies. Or perhaps that is all they know how to do.

Political Advise for President Martelly

I posted this on the English list serv before the Haitian election in April of 2011 and asked that someone print it out and put it in the hands of Sweet Micky.

They assured me that they did.


Hola, Sweet Micky!
>
> First, let me say that I love your music. And we need more music here on
> Quiskeya.
>
> I am an American journalist, seven year resident in the Dominican
> Republic, lover of Haiti where I used to live. Quaker. Peace Maker. I
> speak three languages. I am a political science graduate of the City
> University of New York.
> I have advised US Senate candidates,.( ok, we lost but did really well in
> the primaries! against all odds)
>
> So know that I offer you this advice (free, I might add) so that.. IF you
> should
> win (and that is entirely up to your people) we can move forward in peace
> and solidarity. The elections are only ten days away and you need to
> clear this one up ASAP as soon as possible.
>
> Now I have watched your interview with Nuria, who is just about the top
> of our journalists, and I want to applaud you for your Spanish. It was
> really great to hear you speak it. It is about your what, fourth
> language? So good for you.
>
> But it is clear that you did not really understand the subtleties of
> the questions, are not quite up to date on Dominican Haitian relations,
> and therefore fell into quicksand. See
> this
> http://www.dr1.com/forums/general-stuff/112313-have-you-guys-read-what-lu
> natic-said.html
>
>
> So, never do it again.
>
> Should you get the chance to speak to the Dominican press, always have a
> professional translator. Take your time. Understand the question. Ponder
> it. Then respond.
>
> Your remarks and those of some of your supporters have started a
> brushfire here
> which threatens to undo all the great work of solidarity and friendship
> that has
> been forged between the two countries.
>
> The Domincan Republic poured its heart out to you in your time of
> trouble. They were the first on the ground. There was not one store or
> church or neighborhood which did not collect goods for you in your time
> of trouble.
>
> 1. Whenever you speak about the Dominican Republic you must first THANK
> them for
> their incredible support to you in your time of need
>
> 2, Always use a translator when you are speaking with the Dominican
> officials or press.
>
> 3. Understand that over 10,000 Haitian women a year cross into the
> Dominican Republic to give birth (.and this figure is before the Quake)
> They make use of the free, public Dominican health services. This is
> primarily due to the fact that you have little to no public health
> services on the border. You have zip zero zilch, ie a building with a
> first aid kit, in Wanamet, you have a good hospital in Belledare, you
> have nothing at the Jimani border, you have a clinic now under the
> direction of Batay Relief Alliance, run by a Haitian, Ullrich Gaillard,
> on the border at Anse a Pitres.
>
> The Dominican Republic treats all these mothers free of
> charge.
> http://elizabetheames.blogspot.com/2010/10/haitian-mothers-cared-for-in-d
> ominican.html
>
>
> Because most of them have had no prenatal care, their deliveries are
> often difficult.If the births are difficult, the DR, Free of Charge,
> transports these Haitian mothers to their best maternity hospitals in
> the DR.
>
> When these mothers give birth they are given a birth registration for a
> foreign birth, a pink page, called the Libra Rosada. This was instituted
> by the government here after the court case in the Central American
> court This is the same paper that is given to child of any foreign
> mother.
>
> After they give birth, Haitian mothers must go to the Junto Electoral (as
> Dominican mothers have to do as well) and get an official registry of
> their birth.
>
> Understand that 15% of the Dominican mothers do not have the wherewithall
> to seek these papers, and their children cannot therefor enter high
> school..
>
> THEN if the Haitian mothers are born in Haiti, they must register the
> births with the Haitian Embassy here in Santo Domingo.
>
> (NOTE the embassy here is notorious for saying that they cannot do
> anything and referring people to PAP, The DR receives the least educated
> of all the Haitian diaspora. Many cannot read or write. Understand the
> burden that the failings of your nation have placed on this country)
>
> You need to promise to increase the capacity of the Embassy here so that
> all these Haitians who are born here have valid and definitive Haitian
> birth certificates.
>
> Promise to increase health services on the border so that the Dominican
> Republic
> does not have to bear the cost of those of your mothers who are only
> crossing over for the health care.
>
> You need to thank the Dominican Republic for all the aid that has given
> to all the Haitan mothers over the years, their compassion, their
> support.
>
> And then promise that you will see to it that all those entitled to
> Haitian citizenship get their proper Haitian birth certificates.
>
> 3. Unification. NEVER ever ever mention the word.
>
> If a Dominican utters the word, you simply say that you are two
> different countries, with different languages and cultures, who each
> treasure their heritage, their culture, their language.
>
> Say that you understand that the Dominican Republic celebrates its
> independence from Haiti every year and that you have no wish, no
> intention, of again trying to unify the island into one nation.
>
> Say simply that you are not an historian but that you understand that
> there was a difficult relationship in the past but that was a long time
> ago and
>
> you wish to move forward as friends,
>
> noting that DR is now a more advanced country than Haiti and that you
> would welcome tourism from here.
>
> 4. The border...
>
> You need to announce that under your Presidency,no Dominican will need a
> visa to
> cross into Haiti.
>
> You will welcome all visitors from the Dominican Republic. You will
> only charge
> the modest transit fee of what is it $5? that other foreigners pay.
>
> You hope that they will all come and visit your pristine beaches, You
> will welcome them with open arms because we are sister nations.
>
> You need to do an interview VERY QUICKLY with all and sundry who will
> listen to
> you.. If you can get Jaqueline Charles of the Miami Herald to report that
>
> you are very sorry that you were perhaps misunderstood,
>
> that will be the absolute best.
>
> I hope that you will accept this in the spirit of friendship in which it
> is given.
>
> I cherish your people.
>
> kembe la
>
> elizabeth
>
>
>

An Island United

We are one of the few divided islands in the world-- I think there are 10 or so but a few of us. like Cypryus, have always had a bit of sibling rivalry. Dominicans and Haitians have never had good relationships until the earthquake two years ago. When the quake hit, it was Dominicans who raced to the border with the hearts and hands open.

There was not one single church or store or town that did not contribute something to Haiti. There was not one dry eye in the nation. There was not one church empty.

I watched them, covered them as a journalist,as i also fervently monitored the internet postings for news that I might usefully cross post from French into English, via this blog, via Facebook, on to my nephew who works at FEMA.

The Servicio Jesuito de Migritorio were the ones who were first mobilized as they are the ones who work with the Haitian community here. Within a day, they had a warehouse and trucks lined up. On the first day, the donations started trickling in. A few boxes piled on the walls. Volunteers sat impatiently at the tables, waiting, becoming angry. Their anger was dissipated when a middle aged woman walked in carrying two plastic shopping bags full of boxes of saltines, and said:

"I am sorry. It is not much. It is all I could afford."

Here is the story that I wrote on that.