By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
SANTO DOMINGO, Sep 18 2011 (IPS)

From a small office inside a public school on the eastern side of the Rio Ozama in the capital Santo Domingo, a programme operated by a local NGO, Ce-Mujer, has been leading a quiet revolution to empower women in the workplace for the last 13 years.

The women who complete full training in the Ce-Mujer programme can expect to earn two or three times the minimum wage. Credit: Elizabeth Eames Roebling/IPS

While the government donates the space for the office and classrooms, as well as the services of the teachers, Ce-Mujer provides the administrative staff and the direct contact with the students.

“Our work is probably equally divided between teaching them a skill and building their self-esteem and their motivation so that they can once again discover their aspirations and their dreams. We believe that work has no sex,” Nelly Charles, the project director, told IPS.

There is no tuition charge, but the students must pay for transport and for a wardrobe which may be different than the one they wear at home. Since many of them are mothers and grandmothers who have to care for young children, Ce-Mujer provides a child care facility close by. While it is subsidised, it still costs 25 dollars a month. Yet it is one of very few such centres available in the Dominican Republic and so makes the classes more accessible.

The programme is aimed at very poor women. The average age of participants is 35, and the courses are two months long. While some students only take one, many will study for two years and become fully qualified in a given area. Then, Ce-Mujer works to find them jobs.

“While there are many businesses with women who are very responsible and very organised, it is also true that there are others who see a woman and expect her to clean the bathrooms,” Charles said. “We present them with women who are qualified, who can really do the work, and they have to change their minds.”

Charles speaks with an angry edge in her voice when discussing the unequal investment made in the technical training of women.

“We have technical schools here, big ones, where the administration alone employs 30 people, and you will see that both teachers and students are totally segregated by sex. The women will learn hairdressing, acrylic nails, flower arranging, cake making. And the men? The men learn residential electricity, furniture making, carpentry, automotive mechanics, electronics,” she said.

“And they will invest five million pesos for a mechanics workshop and only 50,000 pesos for a beauty shop. And in that one there are 100 percent women.”

According to the figures from the Centro del Investigation para Accion Feminina (CEPAF), 62 percent of the university graduates in the Dominican Republic are now women. But this does not always translate into jobs.

At 25 percent, the unemployment rate for women is three times higher than that for men. In addition, 40 percent of households are headed by single women. There also is a gender gap inside of the university, with only a small percentage of women studying engineering and only 30 percent engaged in any study of information technology.

The women who complete full training in the Ce-Mujer programme can expect to earn two or three times the minimum wage. Some have even bought houses.

An average of 100 women are qualified every year, but not all of them will actually work in the field.

“Say that 20 or 30 percent of those will decide to work. But those who take jobs turn out to be very permanent workers,” Charles said.

In addition to the classrooms, Ce-Mujer also has a store on a corner in the neighbourhood not far away, where students and graduates can sell their pieces on a consignment basis. The shop is filled with the finely upholstered heavy mahogany furniture which is the style here, along with more modern pieces such as clothes hampers and babies’ cribs.

Loyda Jerez, 45, started her fourth course last month. “I come to class four hours a day. First I took reupholstering, then furniture refinishing and now cabinetry. Now I say I am an interior decorator,” she told IPS.

Jerez has three children at home, ranging from 13 to 19 years old. She first came to class just to save herself some money.

“Every time that I went to have my furniture repaired, it was very expensive. Now I see that I can do it myself and I really enjoy the work. This is my last course. Now I am going to have to go out and look for money,” she said.

Jerez appeared downcast for a moment, but immediately regained her enthusiasm. “A friend and I are thinking of starting a little business together,” she said.

Charles added that, “What we are doing is subversive and revolutionary, and we have made real advances. This is a novel idea in this country. We have to teach the women who sometimes say that they cannot do this because the men cannot cook, or the men cannot do the dishes.

“But we have shown that if they are given the chance, we have shown that women can do anything. Because we have many women now who are furniture makers, and upholsterers, and who do it with joy, and with a sense of responsibility equal to that of men.”

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
SANTO DOMINGO, May 26 2011 (IPS)

A project to help reforest after the devastation of Hurricane David 32 years ago has grown into a plan to lift small coffee farmers out of poverty, all by the introduction of a gourmet ice cream.

On a small holding of one hectare, a farmer can plant about 200 trees, for an anticipated first harvest price of 2,500 dollars. Credit: Elizabeth Eames Roebling/IPS

For 15 years, the trees were simply planted. They began to produce nuts but the shells were very hard and the nuts were unknown here. Since there was no market for them, the macadamia nuts – the most expensive nut on the world market – were left to rot on the ground. Because the trees were seen as having no value, peasants began to cut them down and use them to make charcoal.

Enter Jesus Moreno, founder of the local ice cream company, Helados Bon, who was committed to preserving the ecology of his country. He introduced Macadamia nut ice cream as the founding flavour of a gourmet line of ice cream, and thereby created a sure market for the nuts.

Ten years later, in 2005, the local production of macadamias exceeded the market for the ice cream, and Moreno started commercially packaging the nuts under the brand name of “La Loma“. Today, small cans of the delicate nuts are sold in local fine grocery stores and tourist shops. They are billed as “grown with love in the Dominican Republic”.

But Moreno saw a possibility that this tree could do more for his country.

The macadamia nut tree grows to a height of 15 metres and usually begins producing nuts when it is six years old. The first year, a tree may yield five pounds of nuts, but as it matures, it may produce 40 pounds of nuts a year. Because its root system is shallow, it can be planted right beside existing coffee plants, also producing the needed shade.

Moreno thought it could benefit the 10,000 small impoverished coffee producers, who usually have landholdings of less than one hectare (2.43 acres). The macadamia nut could lift both current and future generations out of poverty.

Edison Santos, manager of the La Loma Project, drives the company truck up into the rainy hills of Bonao, an hour north of Santo Domingo. He talks about the nut trees with the enthusiasm of someone who has discovered gold.

“We have a business plan now for sustainable agriculture. We grow the trees in a nursery until they are two years old and then give them to the small coffee growers along with all the technical support they will need,” he told IPS.

“We assure them that we will purchase the nuts from them. Right now, we buy the nuts for 2.70 dollars a pound. We have to train the farmers, and help take care of the young trees, since it will be four years before the trees produce nuts. But after that, they will produce for 100 years.

“They do not need much care, simply fertilisation every six months, and protection from the rats who love to eat the nuts,” he added. “But the nuts themselves are easy to prepare for market since they dry by themselves on the tree, and do not have to be cared for like coffee beans.”

On a small holding of one hectare, a farmer can plant about 200 trees, for an anticipated first harvest price of 2,500 dollars, with the possibility of a future yield approaching 21,000 dollars per year at current prices. Since the majority of these farmers earn less than one dollar a day, such numbers may appear a fantasy.

But there are farmers who have already seen the results.

Servio Martinez has been growing macadamia nut trees for the last 12 years. He planted 250 trees, but not all at the same time.

“I started growing these trees inside my coffee plantation,” he told IPS. “I am very satisfied with this project and so, when anyone asks me, I say that I am sure of one thing: I have a plantation with a product that definitely has a secure future. So I encourage other farmers to join in the project.”

Martinez sold over 8,000 dollars worth of nuts last year and not all his trees are as yet yielding fruit.

The La Loma project has received international aid money so that the farmers can be given the trees and technical assistance for nothing. But Santos explains how they plan to sustain the project.

“We have designed a small box with a plastic tree, which has the story of our project recorded on it. We are selecting tourist hotels in which to put them. Tourists can then become sponsors for an individual tree,” he said.

“The hotels will get the nuts shells, which are very hard and beautiful, for use around their landscapes. Then, once a farmer’s trees are producing, he will pay back to the project the original cost of his plants, over the course of five or six years, so that we can give trees to other farmers.”

The La Loma project can be found on both Facebook and Twitter.

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
SANTO DOMINGO, May 16 2011 (IPS)

Two years ago, Knights Apparel, based in the U.S. state of South Carolina, decided to lead the race to the top by opening a factory that not only paid its employees a living wage but guaranteed their rights to a union.

All the factory floor workers at AltaGracia are paid the same wage, 527 dollars a month, 333 percent of the legal minimum wage. Credit: Elizabeth Eames Roebling/IPS

Rather than take local sources for guidance, the WRC did its own exacting study on what constituted a living wage in the Dominican Republic. The study found that a living wage for a family was 497 dollars a month or 2.93 dollars an hour, whereas the allowable minimum wage in the Free Trade Zones is just 147.95 dollars per month (84 cents per hour).

Knights Apparel agreed to meet this standard. As a result, the company has garnered free publicity and ongoing marketing support from activist groups around the world. Alta Gracia garments include a tag with a picture of one of the workers, attesting to the fair wages and good working conditions.

Alta Gracia-made logo clothing is now available at over 350 university campuses. While more expensive than generic brands, it is less expensive than some competitors such as Reebok and Nike.

All the factory floor workers at Alta Gracia are paid the same wage- 527 dollars a month, or 333 percent of the legal minimum wage. By agreement with the union, work is four days a week, from seven in the morning until five at night, and Fridays from seven a.m. until noon. There is a half hour morning break and one hour for lunch.

In the office off the factory floor, Sara Adler-Milstein, the local WRC representative, translates on a web cam conference call between a student group assembled at the University of Birmingham, UK, Teresa Cheng from United Students against Sweatshops in the United States, and two union representatives from the Alta Gracia factory.

The employees are allowed to leave their posts on the factory floor to answer questions from the students since this call may well result in increased orders for the factory.

“Ten years ago, students in U.S. universities staged protests to force their universities to affiliate with the WRC,” Cheng said. “This is the first time that we at USAS have actually been able to support a factory, which is Alta Gracia, because it is the only union which meets our standards for non-sweatshops.”

Maritza Vargas, a union representative, told the students a bit of her story. “My life has changed completely since I started to work here at Alta Gracia. Before, I worked far away and boarded my children. I could barely afford the cost of food and I could only pay for school for one child. Now all of my children live with me and I have money not only for their education but for continuing my own as well. ”

“This is true not just for me but for all of the workers here at AltaGracia,” she added.

“Here in the DR we have great labour laws, but the difference between what the law says and what happens is huge,” Vargas said. “When workers go to the government with violations, they often turn their back on us. There is no accountability, the owners can leave the country, close the factory, without paying the workers the severance that is due. It is also common when unions form here for the management to fire all of the workers who join. ”

“Alta Gracia has changed the entire union movement here in the Dominican Republic because of the living wage and the dignified treatment which we are receiving here,” she said. “This has given hope to all the other unions, that they too can achieve these goals.”

Pablo de Jesus spoke of his experiences in other factories and the realities of unionising in the Dominican Republic. “The salaries were very low and they used to speak to us with bad language, saying things like ‘You are useless. You are not working hard enough.’ Also we suffered from physical mistreatment. They would not let us take bathroom breaks when we needed them.”

Adler-Milstein has been investigating workers’ complaints at another local factory here in the Dominican Republic, where the apparel company Gildan Dortex is accused of harassing and firing union organisers and then forming a management-based “yellow” union.

She says that visiting Alta Gracia is the highlight of her week.

“It has been exciting to see something that is so life-changing for the workers and for the managers as well. Compared to other factories, the biggest changes that you see is when the workers go home, since they are happy, they are living in much better conditions, they have health insurance,” she said.

“There are less noticeable things here such as the investment in ergonomic chairs here so that their backs do not hurt,” she added. “They don’t have to fear what they are going to have to give up in order to put a meal on the table.”

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
SANTO DOMINGO, May 7 2011 (IPS)

The government of the Dominican Republic, where one-third of the population of is under 14 years of age, is facing a well- organised and growing citizens’ campaign to increase the amount spent on public education.

Protesters outside of the Palacio Nacional. Credit: Elizabeth Eames Roebling/IPS

The Dominican Republic spends much less on public education than most countries in the region. Cuba spends the most in the hemisphere at 18.7 percent, El Salvador spends eight percent, Jamaica spends 6.1 percent, Mexico 5.3 percent and Costa Rica 5.1 percent. In this hemisphere, only Haiti at 1.4 percent and Ecuador at one percent spend less on educating their children.

The campaign was launched by various civic groups and is aided by advertisements featuring local celebrities urging people to come out for various protests, wearing something yellow. Large yellow umbrellas with “4 percent “printed in black are displayed on balconies around the capital. An increasing number of cars sport the bright yellow bumper stickers.

At four p.m., on the fourth of each month, supporters are asked to assemble, wearing something yellow, at various points in the country. On Wednesday this week, some of the protestors were removed from the entrance of the opening of a two-week book fair, one of the main events in the capital.

Earlier, at the scheduled four p.m. time of assembly, a protest group stood on the sidewalk opposite the National Palace.

“We here to demand that the government comply with the law of spending four percent of the gross national product on education,” Diomedes Mercedes, an attorney, told IPS. “So on the fourth of each month, at four p.m., we are going to stand here in front of the Palace to remind them that the people want this. We will be here until they fulfill their promise. We have been here every month since January. Last year, we gathered every month until November. ”

“There are too many people here who do not have access to education,” he said. “And even for the ones that do have access, much is missing. We have been fighting for three years for a decent level of development here in this country.”

Many of the organisers and civic groups behind this action came together two years ago to fight the government’s plans to grant a lease within the national park on the Samana peninsula, Los Haitiese, to a private local company to produce cement. The group that came together represented both young and old, and crossed educational and class lines. Many who participated said that they had never before seen a similar convergence.

In the end, the cement factory was defeated but the coalition remained in place.

Mercedes was part of the protest that saved Los Haitisese.

“We have a certain authority in the country now,” he said. “And we are putting it to the service of the cause of education, which is not only a law but also something that is necessary for our development. We believe that we will be successful because we are expressing a national sentiment. Polls have shown that 94 percent of the people in this country support the four percent.”

The president of one of the major organising civic groups “Toy Harto pero Creo en Mi Pais” (I am fed up but I believe in my country), Elizabeth Mateo Perez, is a former student leader and attorney who worked for the Supreme Court.

Behind the public face of the protests, Toy Harto is pressing a lawsuit with 1,078 plaintiffs – named defendants include the entire Senate and Congress – for failing to comply with the law requiring four percent for education when they passed the latest budget.

Standing under a bright yellow “4 percent” umbrella in the light drizzle, Perez explained why the increase in the budget is needed.

“We are missing 11,000 classrooms, [and] many of the classrooms which we do have are overcrowded,” she told IPS. “We need 75,000 new teachers. There is no programme for any sort of preschool education. There is not even room for the five to seven-year-olds who wish to enter the system. Autistic, disabled, and Downs syndrome children, are now completely outside the system.

“A teacher must work three shifts to provide a basic living for her family,” Perez added. “We have had studies done by economists which show that 30 percent of the federal budget is spent in excess. That is in an excess of ministers, an excess of benefits for them, and to corruption. This is the money that should be spent on education.”

Dominican schools are divided now into three shifts of four hours each. Students attend schools only four hours per day. An elementary school teacher receives a base salary of 268 dollars per month, which does not cover the “canasta basica”, or basket of goods, at the lowest level of poverty which is 276 dollars.

The “canasta basica” is a measure released by the Central Bank indexed on 350 items which comprise 90 percent of the living costs for a family of four. The middle class cost of living is pegged at 609 dollars. A teacher who works two sessions will have eight hours of class a day and only earn 596 dollars.

The government will start debating the 2012 budget in October.

Asked if she thought that the coalition would succeed, Perez said, “I believe we will. We have assembled the largest coalition of civic groups that this country has seen in 20 years. And we have the people behind us.”

Excerpt:

At first glance, the Dominican Republic appears to be a bastion of free information, with seven print dailies and seven national television stations. But journalists here say that more subtle means of coercion have become the norm.

Three years ago, reporters took to the streets to protest a wave of harassment and violence against colleagues. The country’s Reporters Without Borders “Press Freedom Index” ranking slipped from a 2008 score of 18.1, placing it at 82nd of 173 countries, to a score of 26.13 and 98th place in 2010.

While murders and physical attacks on media workers have since largely abated, some longtime journalists say that self-censorship and corruption are lingering problems.

“There are many ways that freedom of the press can be curtailed. It can be by way of threat, but it could also be an offer of money or another sort of benefit by means of which information can be silenced,” said Manuel Quiroz, editor-in-chief of El Caribe, a daily paper 77 years in publication, who has worked as a journalist for nearly five decades.

“Those who are interested in political power can be featured so that rather than objective information and truth, there is propaganda in favour of those in power,” he told IPS. “What is needed is to count on the press executives and journalists who value integrity and have high ethical standards and who have a level of personal and economic independence which allows them to resist whatever type of pressures, of threats, and any sort of temptation.”

“The government tolerates dissent [but] they try to diminish this dissent by buying off journalists,” he said. “Thousands of journalists, including many who are journalists at the daily papers, and at the television stations, and the most important radio stations, are in the pay of the state. There are very few journalists who do not have some sort of income from the state.”

Diaz explained that when three banks failed in 2003 and inflation hit 45 percent, business owners were slow to raise salaries and workers in nearly every sector were struggling. He said that representatives from the government would call journalists and offer them a part-time job. An evaluation of salaries at Tele Antillas subsequently revealed that almost all the journalists were in the pay of the government.

“Most of the journalists worked from 8:00 to 4:00. They were told that the new jobs would not take much time, they could come in the afternoons,” he said.

“There are some journalists who do some work, since they will not take money without working for it. But the great majority of them do nothing,” he contended.

During the time of longtime president Joaquín Balaguer, Diaz was the victim of a car bombing and was sentenced to six months in prison and fined 200,000 dollars, after being convicted of defaming the head of the company Comunicaciones Ltd., Generoso Ledesma, after a trial that lasted just one and a half hours.

“There is much more freedom now. I walk out on the street and am not afraid of attack or being put in jail,” he said. “The issue is not that we do not have freedom of the press. The issue is that freedom is of so little use.”

He said that reporters at Tele Antillas exposed a fraud several years ago, in which the minister of health had allowed his brother to sell life insurance to all the ministry’s employees. “It was shown that the brother did not have an insurance company, and had never paid a claim. It was shown to be a complete fraud, but the minister kept his job,” Diaz said.

This is just one example of the lack of transparency in the government, he told IPS. “Our president, Leonel Fernandez, has a Foundation, Funglode. We do not know where their money comes from or how much it is. The president can travel to a foreign county, at the expense of the nation, and also receive a donation to his private foundation.”

“The foundation has a golf tournament every year, with a very high inscription fee. What business here is not going to participate in this? The foundation must have a budget of two or three million dollars a year but we do not know the source of the funding. There is an atmosphere of impunity here.”

Diaz contrasts this with what happened when a government official from Costa Rica visited here and was given a membership card to the Cap Cana resort. It was only an entrance pass yet when the news of broke in Costa Rica, there was a scandal and he was forced to return it.

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
ANSE-A-PITRES, Haiti, Jan 17 2011 (IPS)

The cholera epidemic ravaging Haiti has affected even this small southern border town, which lived primarily from the trade with its neighbour even though it counts for less than five percent of the cross-border market trade.

Fishers and traders on the Haiti-Dominican Republic border say they have been hit hard by the cholera epidemic. Credit: Elizabeth Eames Roebling/IPS

Samuel Elouest, a trained human rights observer, walked proudly through the formerly dusty and rutted main street of his home village, Anse-a-Pitres.

“The streets were paved for the Binational Fair last year. We have a large generator now,” he told IPS. “We have lights at night. It is only for the main street and the churches so far, none for private homes. But it has changed our lives.”

“Our population increased from 22,000 people to about 28,000 after the earthquake. But since the market has been closed for two months, there has been little money in town,” Elouest explained.

Whitney Alexander, a Haitian doctor who received his medical degree in Cuba, is now the attending physician at the small clinic on the border. It was without staff until the Batey Relief Alliance took over the clinic’s management from the Haitian state a few years ago.

“We cannot say how many cases of cholera we have had since we do not have a confirmation from Port-au-Prince,” Dr. Alexander told IPS. “All the cases here have been cases of suspected cholera. I do not wish to say that it is not serious since there is a nationwide alert against the disease.”

“We are the only [medical] centre here, serving more than 50,000 people in the surrounding communities,” he said. “I have been here for two years. We were already busy before the cholera outbreak two months ago, but with the help of the international community, we are managing.”

Behind the clinic are three large tents for cholera treatment, isolating those cases from the other patients inside the clinic building. The tents are manned by a doctor, a nurse, and a technician from Doctors without Borders. They are assisted by nurses and personnel from the Haitian Red Cross.

Upon entering the cholera treatment tent, everyone is required to run their hands under the spigot of a five- gallon jug of chlorine while standing in a box lined with material soaked in the disinfectant. The same process is required upon exiting. Of the 12 beds available, only one is occupied, by a thin older man connected to an intravenous drip.

While there are now over 150,000 cases and more than 3,700 cholera deaths reported in Haiti, the Dominican Republic has managed to keep its cases to only 145, with no deaths.

Next to the border fence on the Dominican side is a new Health Department building, with four sinks and soap on each. Posters in Kreyol and Spanish explain briefly how cholera is transmitted and how to avoid it.

The government of the Dominican Republic, under pressure from many sectors, announced last week that it would resume repatriations to Haiti, which had been suspended after the earthquake a year ago.

Residents in one section of the nation’s second largest city, Santiago, which is only two hours away from the northern border of Haiti, threatened to start expelling illegal Haitian immigrants. Protestors said that the immigrants were living in unsanitary conditions, defecating in plastic bags which were thrown on the street. Police in that city warned residents not to take the law into their own hands and then started deportations.

More than 900 Haitians have been repatriated since the beginning of this year. This prompted a call from Amnesty International to stop the deportations.

The Presidential Palace offered a clarification that the government was actually not deporting Haitians but simply increasing efforts to halt illegal immigration. It did acknowledge that it was searching for many of the convicts who escaped prison during the earthquake and announced that more than 100 convicted felons had been returned to Haitian authorities.

The U.S. State Department announced that it might introduce sanctions against the Dominican Republic if it did not do more to prevent the trafficking of Haitian children across the border. According to officials and rights groups, these children are often sold into prostitution or to organised groups of beggars.

The U.S. government spokesman said that the Dominican Republic has not brought any criminal cases against traffickers. Sanctions could include suspending economic and military aid, blocking of exports into the United States, and opposition to its votes in international organisations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

At the end of the main street of Anse-a-Pitres, by the small rocky beach, four gaily painted 35-foot open boats ride at anchor. A policeman comes out from the whitewashed barracks which house the local complement of eight officers and blows his whistle. The small group of fishermen and traders stop and stand in silence, facing the flagpole as the flag of their nation is slowly raised.

Jesner Amboise watches as sacks of flour are prepared for loading into his boat. He says he will leave for Marigot, which is 45 minutes by truck from Jacmel, at 8 pm and arrive at 2 am the next morning.

“It is too hot to sail during the day. The sun is too strong and there is no shelter, so we make the trip at night,” he said. “I used to travel with a full boatload of people. But the closing of the market has been hard on us.”

“I used to make 15,000 gourdes profit from each trip, twice a week because of the number of people who would come to trade at the market,” Amboise said. “Now there is only the transport of some goods. I am lucky to make 5,000 gourdes after I pay for the gas.”

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, Oct 29 2010 (IPS)

In the spacious lobby of the Nuestra Señora de Altagracia maternity hospital, more than a hundred people wait quietly in chairs, overlooked by a 20-foot-high coloured mosaic inset portraying the patron saint of the Dominican Republic.

Haitian mothers in the waiting area of the Nuestra Senora de Altagracia hospital. Credit: Elizabeth Eames Roebling/IPS

The Department of Public Health reports that of the 36,606 babies born in the country during the first half of this year, 16 percent were born to Haitian mothers. The catastrophic earthquake that devastated Haiti’s infrastructure in January has not only driven expectant mothers across the border, but doctors say many of those births are riskier due to trauma and a lack of prenatal care.

Charlyn Misdave, holding her baby of a month old, speaks only Kreyole, like many of the Haitian women who come here. This presents a grave problem for the doctors at the hospital.

“I lost everything,” she told IPS. “That is why I came here after the earthquake. My baby is a month old. I paid 500 pesos ($13) for the delivery. I can bring him in for check- ups but they do not give me any medicine or any supplies for him.”

The Dominican Republic usually spends the equivalent of $10 million a year on health services for Haitians here, the bulk of it on maternity care. This year, the department estimates that the health services delivered to Haitians will be closer to $27 million.

Dressed in a crisp white coat, Dr. Veronica de la Rosa, assistant director of the hospital, told IPS, “We ask for a token payment of 700 pesos ($19) for a normal delivery and 1,000 pesos ($27) for a caesarian birth. If it is a normal delivery, a woman stays here a day or less. But if there are complications, it can be five days or more.”

“Since the earthquake, we have more mothers who are staying longer since they are coming with pathologies,” she said. “This is using up a larger portion of our budget since we generally have to use our social services budget for these patients as they come with nothing.”

Just under a third of the hospital’s beds are occupied by Haitian mothers, she said.

“With these patients, we are also managing cases with a much higher degree of risk. Here [in the Dominican Republic] we have prenatal care and some control over the poorest sectors of our population. We do not have this control over foreigners as they come over here directly,” De la Rosa explained.

Of every six patients in intensive care, four of them are Haitian, she said.

“From 32 to 37 percent of our births here are delivered by Caesarian,” De la Rosa added. “This depends on the number of patients who are HIV-positive. For these women, caesarians are used to prevent the vertical transmission of the virus [to the infant] during birth.”

While many of the Haitian mothers are long-time residents of the Dominican Republic, others cross the border specifically to give birth and are referred here from regional hospitals in the border areas of Elias Pina, Bani and Barahona. Cases from the northern border region are referred to hospitals in Santiago.

“We can tell the difference between Haitians who live here in the country and those who come directly over the border as residents usually have an address and a better command of Spanish. Also they usually come with a family member,” De la Rosa said.

Upstairs, in the recovery rooms of 20 beds each, Haitian and Dominican mothers lie in neighbouring beds with their newborns. Some have intravenous drips attached to their arms. Teams of residents sweep through each ward, filling out charts and instructing medical students.

The only difference between the mothers is the colour of the birth registration document that is sent to the Dominican government. Several years ago, the Dominican Republic introduced a separate birth registry for children of foreigners and for those who are considered to be here “in transit”, which includes the majority of Haitians.

Dr. De La Rosa explained the process. “All births are registered with the Junta Electoral of the Dominican government. Foreigners who give birth here are registered in a special book, called the Libra Rosada. The mothers are given a copy of these papers, but it is up to them to go there and register their babies with their own governments to get their proper papers.”

“This book is for all foreigners, not just Haitians, but it is true that about 98 percent of the foreigners who give birth here are Haitians,” she noted.

Citizenship rights, particularly for Haitian migrants, have been the subject of ongoing international controversy. The new constitution approved a year ago maintained the wording barring automatic citizenship for those born here of parents of foreign diplomats or “in transit”, and added the words “or those who are in this country illegally”.

However, it did extend citizenship to those born here who do not have the rights of citizenship in any other nation, clearing up a matter of statelessness for many grandchildren of Haitians. Under the Haitian constitution, one may only claim citizenship if one’s parents are born in Haiti.

The Dominican Republic is no longer giving direct assistance to Haiti, but Deputy Rafaela Albuquerque, a former Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, says that public health expenditures have become a form of de facto aid to the stricken neighbour.

“We do not actually have a budget line for helping Haiti. There was discretionary spending for the disaster which President Leonel Fernandez requested and the Congress approved,” she said. “Our president speaks of Haiti in all his international encounters, particularly in front of the U.N. He recently spoke there of the rains and how the people are living in tents and are suffering greatly.”

“Our general budget has a line item for public health which is distributed among all the public hospitals. This budget was not designed to aid any other country,” she said. “It is a form of humanitarian aid that the Dominican Republic helps Haiti in this way. The Dominican Republic has never asked for reimbursement for this money.”

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
SANTO DOMINGO, Feb 11 2010 (IPS)

Despite a history of often tense relations, the first nation to render assistance to Haiti after last month’s devastating earthquake was its island neighbour, the Dominican Republic.

A child amputee sits up in her hospital bed in Jacmel, Haiti. The Dominican Republic provided the first aid to the devastated southern city. Credit: UN Photo/Marco Dormino

These kitchens have now served almost two million meals both in the capital Port-au-Prince and in Jimani, the main border crossing into the Dominican Republic. The meals, along with the bags of water which are given out with them, have cost this country about 2.1 million dollars. But this is only a small portion of the aid that has been given.

Much of the aid is being coordinated by FUNGLODE (Fundacion Global Democracia y Desarollo) , the not-for-profit established by President Leonel Fernandez.

Human rights violations against Haitians and their descendants, including lynchings and mass deportations of migrants, have been longstanding problems in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola and a 380-km border with Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

At the same time, the Dominican Republic is heavily dependent on Haitian workers, who perform an estimated 60 percent of the agricultural labour and much of the construction work.

Since the earthquake, though, average Dominicans, and their government, have turned toward Haiti with a tremendous outpouring of aid and sympathy.

“The people of the DR have made a great effort to help the people of Haiti,” said Jhoselyn Ruiz, assistant to FUNGLODE’s executive director. “We are receiving donations of water, canned goods, tarpaulins and clothes in many collection centres of in all part of the country. All these donations that are received, we are coordinating taking them over by boat and truck. We try to give the most help to those who need it.”

The Dominican Republic has put six of its naval vessels at the disposal of the rescue efforts in order to help get aid to the outlying affected areas, such as Jacmel on the southern coast. The ships arrived in Jacmel carrying 100 tonnes of food, water and medical supplies, including volunteers from the Dominican Red Cross. It was the first aid the devastated southern city had received.

It has also placed its southern airport at Barahon at the disposal of rescue operations. Since the main port in Port-au-Prince has been completely inoperable, much of relief supplies and volunteers must come into Haiti along the one border road, which snakes between Lago Azui and a cliff and has been subject to flooding.

At the border in Jimani, the Dominican hospitals performed over 1,500 surgeries on wounded Haitians.

The office of the first lady has announced that 15 portable classrooms will be sent to assist in getting some Haitian children back to school. As many as 5,000 schools were destroyed in the Jan. 12 earthquake, and an estimated 1.5 million children are without classrooms.

“The helicopters are leaving continuously from the airport of Higuero,” Ruiz told IPS. “The helicopters are going to Jimani where they are coordinating the aid. Other centres are sending their own trucks. Universities, for instance, are sending their own trucks. So there is no way for us to know how much aid has come from the Dominican Republic.”

The assistance that the Dominican government alone has given is estimated at 83,000 dollars per day.

In addition, President Fernandez has become an advocate for Haiti before the international community. Following a proposal by the director of the Inter-American Development Bank, Luis Alverto Moreno, that there be a “Marshall Plan” established for the development of Haiti, Fernandez has stated that such a fund should be for 10 billion dollars and the reconstruction plans for 10 years.

Fernandez sat in a round table here with President Rene Preval at his side, before the ministers of 76 governments.

His first proposal was that all the debts of Haiti be forgiven. Then he recommended that this fund be established with the principal and interest payments owed to the Paris Club of Paris of Western donor nations. Fernandez proposed that both the interest and capital payments of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean for the next 10 years be diverted into the fund for Haiti.

At Centro Bono, the main collection centre operated by the Jesuits, Anna Coronado has been on duty every day since the earthquake.

“We have emptied this room about three to four times a day to go in the big trucks to the warehouse for organising and shipping, so that is more than 20 trucks that we have filled every day,” Coronado told IPS.

“We have had at least 20 volunteers every day, sometimes as many as 40. We have altered the list of our requested donations a bit since the beginning. We are still asking for water and canned food, but we are also now asking for sleeping bags, mattresses, sheets, tarps, large plastic bags to collect the garbage, and also the dead. I have been working every day from nine to nine but I got off early, at six pm on Sunday,” she said.

The list at the entrance to the centre now has, in addition to canned food and water, black garbage bags, body bags, detergents, antiseptics, gloves and masks, tents, mattresses, mosquito netting, plastic plates, cups and utensils.

In the lobby, six young Haitian men surrounded a compatriot slumped in a chair who had recently arrived from Port Au Prince.

“I lost my mother. I lost my father,” said Jean Daniel from Grande Goave. “I have no home and nowhere to go. I sent my younger sisters to the countryside and came over here. I was lucky to have a passport and visa.”

Asked if they thought that the outpouring of aid from the Dominican Republic would forever change the normally tense relationship between these two countries, all of them nodded.

Guillame St. Pierre said: “It is incredible what this country has done. No country could have done more. They have completely opened their hearts to us. I think that this will forever change our relationship. We will not forget their generosity to us.”

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
SANTO DOMINGO, Jan 15 2010 (IPS)

The Dominican Republic, which has historically regarded its Haitian neighbour with suspicion, has turned toward Haiti with a tremendous outpouring of aid and love since a devastating earthquake rocked Port-au-Prince on Tuesday.

A grizzly scene marks the road to mass graves holding hundreds of bodies near Port-au-Prince. Credit: UN Photo/Logan Abassi

Unedited images of the dead lying covered with sheets on the western third of their shared island, along with compassionate commentaries, run almost constantly. An estimated 50,000 people were killed.

The day after Tuesday’s earthquake, which was felt mildly throughout the entire island, the Dominican government dispatched across the border mobile kitchens capable of serving 100,000 meals a day, 39 trucks with ready-to-eat food, 46 doctors, including 10 trauma specialists, eight mobile clinics and tonnes of water, vaccines, rehydrating solutions, and painkillers.

Also on Wednesday, the Jesuit Refugee and Migrant Service at Centro Bono sent out a massive email appeal for canned food and medicines. The Jesuits have long been staunch defenders of the rights of the Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic and assist more than 50 organised groups of Haitians here.

By four o’clock in the afternoon, the eight young volunteers at Centro Bono were discouraged that only 50 donors had arrived, despite the boxes of medications and food that were stacked up on the walls.

One woman arrived with two boxes of saltines, saying “It is not much, but it is all I can do.” Several of the volunteers assured her that the important thing was that she came. Shortly after, a couple arrived with 10 boxes of medicine from their lab, which kept the volunteers happily occupied with sorting and labeling.

By Thursday noon, however, a passing line of 40 volunteers was needed to offload the pick-up trucks that were arriving with boxes of food and water. The gym-sized room, close to empty the night before, was nearly full.

Despite all the international rescue workers arriving from overseas, Dominicans understand that their country is the closest source of food and water for their island neighbours. Even the food to supply the U.N. peacekeepers, the MINUSTAH force, has always been bought here and shipped there.

Most Dominicans are not wealthy, with a median annual income just above 6,000 dollars and an estimated 42 percent of the population living below the global poverty level of two dollars a day. Dominicans survive because of their strong family structure and generosity.

An estimated one million Haitians live in the Dominican Republic, most of them without visas, many without passports, and some with no identity papers whatsoever. There has been a growing public conversation about the arrival of more and more Haitians as their home situation worsened over the past year, calling it a “pacific invasion”. Now the television and radio announcers consistently refer to Haiti as “our sister nation”.

Deportations of Haitians from the Dominican Republic, which have been condemned by some human rights groups for their lack of due process, have been halted.

At the Red Cross Center, which is the main staging operation for transport of donations of goods, more than 40 Dominicans were seated waiting to give blood specifically for Haiti. There was only one Haitian among them.

Gracion LaShelle sat with two Dominicans who appeared as affectionate as parents.

“I have been here for four years. I study at the university and work for these two Dominicans who are with me here. I call them my family even though my true family is back in Haiti. But they are my Dominican family,” LaShelle told IPS. “I am from Gonaives, but most of my relatives are now in Port-au-Prince. I have not been able to reach anyone by phone so we came here to donate blood. Because it was all we could do.”

Sergio Vargas, director of the Dominican Red Cross, explained their operation.

“We have people in Haiti who have already crossed the border,” he said. “They have started to make their first assessments. We will start the operation with the people who are now there. We are the main assembly point for donations from the public which are coming in.”

“We have room for volunteers, but they must come from their local chapters of the Red Cross. They have to know how the Red Cross operates,” Vargas said. “We are now receiving staffing help and funds from the international Red Cross. We will send all the supplies to the border at Jimini and will start distribution as directed by the teams on the ground there now.”

“We do have room for doctors and nurses,” he added. “The main problem is the language barrier. We have some Haitians here who have been trained by the Dominican Red Cross. We are asking the international public to donate funds designated for Haitian relief and we will get part of that.”

Richard Goughnour, head of USAID, when asked about satellite phones for the Jesuits, said: “Thus far, we have not received any additional funding for this operation. We are getting calls from many organisations here on the ground but we are unable to respond as yet. When the money does come in, it will most likely be used for food and transport.”

A message went out from the Haitian Embassy that even President Rene Preval is in need of five satellite phones in order to help his government coordinate relief efforts. Despite some early reports that President Preval would be evacuated to the Dominican Republic for fear for his safety due to the aftershocks, he remains in Haiti.

President Leonel Fernandez went to the border at Jimini and then by helicopter on to Port-au-Prince, where the two leaders conferred.

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
SANTO DOMINGO, Dec 22 2009 (IPS)

Dominicans have an extraordinary passion for baseball. All young boys play the game, sometimes with uniforms and equipment on a town baseball diamond, sometimes using coconut shells and old planks as ball and bat on an empty street or sand lot.

Many of them have the dream that they will be selected to go to one of the nine baseball camps which the major leagues run here in the Dominican Republic, and then join the other 1,500 Dominicans who play professionally in the United States. Baseball success means not only a visa but holds the promise of great fortune.

Along with the standard players’ statistics, home runs or no-hit games pitched, there is now posted another statistic – how much money players make. In a country where the per capita income is around 6,000 dollars and a good middle-class income is 24,000 dollars a year, these numbers are staggering: in the course of their careers to date, Pedro Martinez has earned 146 million dollars, Sammy Sosa took in 125 million, and Miguel Batista has earned 45 million dollars.

At a recent gala at the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo, the USAID programme launched an initiative to help leverage the popularity of Dominican ball players into aid for their native land, inviting some current and former Dominican baseball stars.

“Twenty percent of the players in the major and minor leagues are Dominican. We are creating a mechanism for funding that combines the motivation of teams, players and fans in the States and links it to development projects in the DR,” said Megan Rounseville, director of the Major League Baseball Dominican Alliance at IDDI (Instituto Dominicano de Desarrollo Integral).

“There have been individual initiatives by teams and players, but this is something that is really attentive to local needs,” she explained. “We have six local NGOs, some of them are international but all work locally, and they identify projects.”

“We now have five projects on the ground – an after-school project which completes the school day, another working with HIV/AIDS patients, another with micro-credit, another donating beds,” she said.

One of the first Dominican baseball stars, Rico Cardi, who is now the undersecretary of sports and director of the little leagues, as well as running his own foundation, discussed how baseball evolved in the country from the perspective of someone who signed with the major leagues in 1959.

“I came out of San Pedro de Marcoris, which is the heart of baseball in this country,” he said. “I think it was because we were surrounded by the sugar cane factories, which were American-owned. We were blessed by the Almighty God by that, so that all these kids, surrounded by these sugar cane factories, all they look at is baseball.”

“When I came out of here there were no camps. It was all ability, just raw ability. You didn’t have nobody to tell you to do this or do that. I signed with nine ball clubs and tour ball clubs here, because I was just a kid and I had no lawyers,” Cardi recalled.

“Everybody was just coming at me. But I did not take any money from anyone which kept me from being suspended from baseball forever. Eventually I was signed by the Milwaukee Braves but I played for a lot of teams in my day,” he said. “When I walk down the street, yes, I am a star, but the important thing is to keep your humanity, to be kind with the people.”

Miguel Batista, who earned nine million dollars last year playing for the Seattle Mariners, travels in the off season throughout Latin America delivering humanitarian assistance and speaking of baseball. He first signed with the major leagues in 1992.

“When I was in camp, we were just a bunch of guys, living together and playing baseball. Now they have these great installations with everything that they could have in the minor leagues here in their own countries,” he said. “The fact that they have been treated professionally is the most important.”

“There are guys who made that possible, guys who opened the doors for us, and I believe that a lot of us are doing that for guys now coming up, to get better treatment, for a better future,” Batista said. “I do a lot in South America on behalf of Major League baseball trust fund to help their communities. I help the kids understand that it is not magic, it is having a dream and following it.”

Rounseville says her project is only for three years, to set the links in place. “It is a unique project for USAID which has put in place a 50,000-dollar matching fund to help get things started.”

Manny Moto, who, like Cardi, is now 70 years old, says, “This is a great project. I retired in 1982 but I have been coaching for the Dodgers. I just try to give the kids good advice, to stay in school and get a good education.”

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
SANTO DOMINGO, Dec 2 2009 (IPS)

Dominican organisations focused on the rights of women are bringing in assistance from all over Latin America to aid them in their fight against Article 30 in the recently approved constitution which states that the right to life is inviolable from conception until death.

Women march against the anti-abortion law in Santo Domingo in April 2009. Credit: Elizabeth Roebling/IPS

The Nov. 24 forum is only the first of several that will be held across the hemisphere, including one in California in which Alice Walker will be a keynote speaker, followed by conferences in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Margarita Zapata, of the Zapata Family Foundation in Mexico, opened the conference, saying that this initial conference had been planned for the Dominican Republic in order to honour the Mirabel Sisters, martyrs for justice, for whom the International Day Against Violence to Women is named.

Zapata said that all over the region legislators were exercising their political power against the wishes of the majority of their population, the women. Observing that while most statistics on gender violence reveal that much of it is family based, the violence of the state against women is strong and persistent.

She roused the crowd of 200 women with the statement that: “It is unjust that so few can decide so much for the lives of so many!”

A leader of one of the local organisations, CEAPA, Margot Tapia, expressed her fears about the effect of Article 30. “With the passage of this amendment, the violence against women will increase. There is already a great deal of violence against women in this country, but now the state itself is making it worse. A woman who becomes pregnant from rape will not only have the violence of that act itself but will also have the violence of being forced to keep the pregnancy, which is a violation of her rights. A recent Gallup poll here showed that the majority of the people in the Dominican Republic wish this article changed. The people here support abortions in the case of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother, all prohibited now.”

Those in opposition to Article 30 are careful to limit their discussion of abortion to only those circumstances, rape, incest, and risk to a mother’s life, and not to expand their demands to any sort of free access to abortion. Most acknowledge that abortions are readily available in the Dominican Republic to women who have the means to pay for them and that only the poor will be placed at further risk.

Medical authorities recognise that death from illegal abortions is one of the main contributors to the high rate of maternal mortality here. The Dominican Republic provides free medical assistance to Haitians who come here and many of these pregnant women, sometimes estimated as high as one third of the deliveries here, have often had no prenatal care and poor nutrition. While the maternal death rate has fallen dramatically over recent years from 230 to 160 per 100,000, the fear is that this number will increase.

Mejia Chalas, from one of the leading women’s organisations, Ce Mujer, said: “We have not lost any funding because of our position. No one has told us to be quiet. Both our Board of Directors and members of our general assembly have been demonstrating in a very public manner against this measure. We are in 11 municipalities and we have 7,000 women who are organised as community leaders in all these communities. … They are all in agreement that we stand united against this Article 30. The people who passed this do not know the reality of the lives of women. We wish them to know this reality and to listen to the voice of the majority of the Dominican people.

The strict amendment was passed over the objections of the medical community and even the leader of the opposition party, Miguel Vargas who asked all of his party members, the PLD, to vote against the amendment, saying that a vote for the amendment could turn his party into a “party which is an enemy to women.” Nevertheless, only two members of his party were among those 34 votes cast in opposition, versus 128 for the controversial amendment.

Josefa Castillo, one of the two members of the opposition who voted against the amendment, stated in her address to the Congress on this issue that while she is Catholic, that church has held more than one position on the subject over the years and that their position has no biblical basis, and that this subject rests inside the space where each person meets with God. According to Castillo, the state has the responsibility to protect the lives of mother’s who are at risk.

She holds out no hope that the new constitution will not be signed by President Fernandez as scheduled on Dec. 6th. “We always took the stand that this article should never have been put in the constitution. Now we are facing many years of struggle to strengthen the rights of women here in this country.”

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
SANTO DOMINGO, Oct 23 2009 (IPS)

The Dominican Republic passed the 38th version of its constitution Thursday evening, amending more than 40 articles that drew public protests and opposition from civil society groups and many average Dominicans.

Drafted by sitting President Leonel Fernandez and his main political rival, Miguel Vargas, it met with little political opposition in Congress.

The last constitutional revision, in 2002, allowed a second consecutive presidential term. The new constitution allows for unlimited re-election of a president as long as another president serves after four years.

Two other articles were also highly controversial – first, a ban on abortion in all cases, including rape, incest and even to save the life of the mother, and second, the insertion of the words "respecting the rights of private property" in the section which states that all beaches, rivers and water sources are part of the national heritage and belong to the people.

Legislators said this was to protect the important tourist industry. Protestors said it was to take away their patrimony.

Numerous protests over both were held in the major cities. One prominent daily newspaper ran a poll which indicated that 80 percent of the population did not support the new document, and stenciled signs declaring "This is not my constitution" have been appearing around the capital, Santo Domingo.

Nevertheless, on Nov. 6, the new Constitution will be law of the land.

Lorena Espinoza, one of the organisers of the protests, said recently, "There are many sectors engaged in this protest. I am a member of the Collective Mujer y Salud, but we have academicians, students, women's groups, workers, citizens' groups, all joined together here."

"This is not just about the privatisation of the beaches, this is about all the rights that they are taking from us, the rights of women, the collective rights of the citizens, against all the rights which are being cut by this constitution," she said.

Other aspects of the new charter have also caused consternation. While there is a supreme court to rule on the constitutionality of laws, ordinary citizens are barred from bringing challenges unless they have proper legal standing. While the free access of citizens to information held by the state is affirmed, it is also stated that the state itself will only release information which it deems to be true.

Citizenship rights, particularly for Haitian migrants – the subject of ongoing international controversy – are addressed at length. The new constitution maintains the current wording barring automatic citizenship for those born here of parents of foreign diplomats or "in transit" and adds the words "or those who are in this country illegally".

However, it does extend citizenship to those who are born here who do not have the rights of citizenship in any other nation, clearing up a matter of statelessness for many grandchildren of Haitians. Under the Haitian constitution, one may only claim citizenship if one's parents are born in Haiti.

Although there was little public protest, marriage is now defined as solely between a man and woman. This makes the Dominican Republic the only nation in the world to ban homosexual marriage at the constitutional level.

At the same time, many regulations and rights are now made explicit in this constitution which were previously absent.

Administrative corruption of public officials is now a constitutional offence. Officials are barred from holding more than one paid government position. Rights to labour organising, strikes, public education, and swift justice with the presumption of innocence are all now constitutional rights.

In a roundtable discussion held by FINJUS (Fundacion Institucionalidad y Justicia), a civic group that has studied and provided detailed input into the reform process, Flavio Dario Espinal, a former ambassador to the United States, reviewed the most important aspects of the new charter.

"We cannot say now whether this constitution will be progressive or not," he cautioned. "Often the points that we think are important now will in fact not be important in the future. And yet something that we have not even considered now may turn out to be exceedingly important in the future."

Espinal pointed out that this constitution was, for the first time, the result of a consensus among the two major political parties, with the aid of the third party. Earlier constitutions were imposed on the nation by one leader or one party.

However, he recommended that the entire constitution be subjected to a referendum.

That suggestion was rejected by Frank Martinez, a member of the Assembly, who claimed that average citizens were not adequately informed or educated to vote on the constitution and that their votes would be subject to bribery and corruption.

Because of the collusion of the political parties, many members of the public are sceptical that it will serve the greater good.

Julio Cesar Vargas, an instructor of political science at Intec, voiced the suspicions shared by many.

"This constitution was made by agreement with the political parties, with the thoughts of those who are in power, not to expand the rights or the protection of the citizens," he said. "The constitution was not a result of the opinion of those from below but those who already have and wish to consolidate their power."

"They have cut back on the rights of the citizens. For example, they have placed religion in the place of science in the regulations on abortion. It was not discussed with all the depth needed to reflect what the people really think," he added.

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Aug 19 2009 (IPS)

Following the recommendation of President Rene Preval, the lower house of the Haitian Parliament voted Tuesday to raise the minimum wage in the assembly sector from 1.29 dollars (70 gourde) to only 3.20 dollars (125 gourde) per day, rather than the 5.12 dollars (200 gourde) which had been demanded and passed.

This exemption must now be approved by the Haitian Senate. Preval, bowing to pressure from business owners, had refused to sign a bill which called for an across the board increase in the minimum wage to 200 gourde a day.

He returned the bill to Parliament on Jun. 17, recommending instead that the minimum wage for an eight-hour day be fixed at 125 gourde. The "assembly sector" is defined as those industries whose products are dedicated to re-exportation.

The close vote of 38 for to 36 against, held by secret ballot as permitted in the Constitution, opens the way to a resolution of the disturbances that have rocked the Haitian capital since April.

Industry leaders had threatened that if they were forced to pay the minimum wage of 200 gourde a day, as proposed, many of the more than 300,000 workers might lose their jobs.

Reginald Boulos, president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that management was opposed to the way in which the minimum wage was being fixed for the assembly workers since production is calculated by the piece. He was quoted in the national paper as saying that "with the implementation of this law, the worker will automatically become unproductive."

Another industry leader, Richard Coles, was more direct, saying that if the wage increase were passed, he would close his five factories, putting 3,000 people out of work.

Fernando Capellan, representative of the Dominican company Groupo M, which runs the CODEVI plant in Ounaminthe on the Dominican border, indicated that if forced to pay 200 gourde a day, his company would cut 2,800 jobs.

According to the U.N. Development Programme, the unemployment rate in Haiti now stands at 50 percent. Fifty-six percent of the population lives below the internationally recognised level of extreme poverty of one dollar a day and six out of 10 people live on less than two dollars a day.

Workers at the SONAPI industrial park have been staging wildcat strikes and work stoppages since the beginning of August.

More than half of the 23,000 workers there are women between the ages of 18 and 35. They have held marches along the road from the industrial park, which is near the airport, to the Parliament building, carrying banners and chanting: "Up with the 200 gourde! Down with the 150!" and "The bosses, the president, the leaders, must see our sorry state!"

One of the protesting women, Esperencia, explained a bit about her work life.

"We workers work every day except Sunday, from 6:30 in the morning to 4:00 in the afternoon. Sometimes, it is later than that, if there is an order to finish. And sometimes it is without any rest," she told IPS.

Esperencia was joined by Dieulla, who has worked with her at an assembly factory since 2006.

Both women preferred that only their first names be used.

"We must rise at 5:00 AM to be at work at that time," Dieulla said. "This wage of 70 gourde has been the same since 2003. It is a pittance. With 70 gourde we cannot even meet our own needs, let alone those of our children. The bosses offer no advantages to the workers. Many of the workers are only paid as day workers, from week to week."

On Aug. 10 and 11, the workers were joined by others, notably striking university students, and violence erupted at the SONAPI Park. The crowd burnt tires, threw rocks and burnt and damaged vehicles, including one belonging to an official at the U.S. Embassy.

Both the National Police and the U.N. force in the country, MINUSTAH, were called in to maintain order. More than a dozen protesters were taken in for police questioning.

After Aug. 11, all the businesses at SONAPI closed their doors. The Association des Industries D'Haiti (ADIH) announced that it thought that security, despite the presence of the National Police and MINUSTAH, was inadequate to protect the workers.

According to Haitian law, the minimum wage is to be periodically adjusted for inflation.

Eddy Labossiere, a university professor and president of the Association of Haitian Economists, indicated that the inflation rate in Haiti in some years has been at 20 percent and has even gone as high as 40 percent since the minimum wage was set at 70 gourde.

Labossiere acknowledged the charges that raising the minimum wage would raise costs, but said," I think that a 15 percent profit is reasonable and that the adoption of the 200 gourde set out in the new law would only be justice for the workers."

Jean Kesner Delmas, director of the National Society of Industrial Parks, said that he is aware of the poor working conditions in the factories and hopes that that a decision will be reached so that work can resume.

"I am for an effective raise in the minimum wage in the assembly industry. It is inconceivable and impossible that a Haitian worker can live with 70 gourde today given the high cost of living in Haiti," he said.

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
NAJAYO, Jul 9 2009 (IPS)

If you are a woman in prison anywhere in the world, you would be fortunate to be in one of the new model prisons in the Dominican Republic.

Sitting at the table in the air-conditioned library at the women's prison in Najayo, Maya, from Serbia, draws in her notebook. Given a sentence of eight years for attempting to smuggle cocaine out of the Dominican Republic, she served time in the old-style prison in La Romana before being transferred here:

"I saw things there I thought I would never see in my life. There were drugs and alcohol easily available. It was completely overcrowded. There was only one metal door separating the men's prison from ours and there was a flap that opened through the door," she said,

"You don't want to know what went on there. They transferred me because I was a foreigner, because I have no embassy here in this country, and no relatives, so they thought I would have an easier time of it," Maya explained.

There are 236 women here, part of a plan to convert the entire penal system in the Dominican Republic to correctional centres of restorative justice.

That concept is broadly defined as institutionalising peaceful approaches to harm, problem-solving and violations of legal and human rights. These range from international tribunals like the South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission to innovations within the criminal and juvenile justice systems, schools, social services and communities.

Officials travelled to various model prisons around the world – in England, the United States, Holland, France, China and Colombia – to choose elements they wanted to incorporate.

Ian Worthington, the ambassador from Britain, which provided technical assistance to the project, is enthusiastic about its success.

"Of the 36 prisons in the island, 11 have been converted already. The women's prison has a re-offence rate of less than five percent, which is unheard of," he said. "Although the prison has only been open for less than three years, the initial signs are hugely encouraging."

"When you visit there you see that there are the number of people in the cell that the cell was built for – you don't get the overcrowding," he added. "Their liberty is withheld, but their dignity is respected. This has helped people accept the training for skills that the women can use after they leave prison."

The Dominican Republic has a very small percentage of women behind bars. Only 3.1 percent of the prison population is women here compared with 10.8 percent in Costa Rica, 7.8 percent in Jamaica, 6.4 percent in Belize and 6.9 percent in Panama.

Roberto Santana, general director of the Escuela Nacional Penitenciaria, which trains the guards for the model prison system, explains that just half of the women are Dominican.

"The other half are foreigners, Europeans mainly," he said. "Strangely, there are very few Haitian women, perhaps three or four. I think this low percentage is due to a cultural question.

"The women in my country have always walked along the correct path, almost always," he said. "It is very rare that a woman commits a crime, and if she does, many times it is because she was first a victim of violence done to her, inside the family.

"The other issue is the phenomenon of drugs. We have strict drug laws in this country. But if you take out these two factors, the number of women who commit violent crimes is extremely low," he noted.

Santana is a retired chancellor of the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo, the first university founded in the Americas, in 1538. While a student leader there, under President Joaquin Balaguer, he was himself imprisoned for a total of 72 times, once for a period of two years.

"In a traditional prison there are people who are very dangerous. They teach the other prisoners," he said. "The problem of prisons is not only to change so that each person has a bed and food. The challenge is to change these people into people who are useful, and can lead productive lives and contribute to the security of society."

Except for the obvious distinction that they are behind bars, the women could be in a strict boarding school.

Confined to cells of no more than three inmates, in cell blocks of 30, they rise at six a.m. and proceed with a strictly regimented daily schedule determined by the staff. Showers, head count, breakfast, classes, doctor's visits, therapy, lunch, rest hour, classes, exercise, classes, supper, recreation, bed.

Inmates may purchase personal items at the store with money sent by relatives, and are allowed visitors on weekends. Religious participation is mandatory although they have their choice of which religion.

If a woman gives birth, she may keep the child for the first year and a half, then she must put it in the care of her family. While conjugal visits are allowed in the men's prisons, they are not allowed in the women's prison.

"This is a historical fact of our country that the men have been given rights which have been denied to women," Santana acknowledged. "But we have plans to include these visits. Of course, it is more complicated for women than men, since men cannot become pregnant."

Throughout the prison, inmates attend classes in literacy, drama, religion, dressmaking and design, cooking and baking, hairdressing, computing and agriculture, including raising rabbits and chickens.

Angela, an attorney who was sentenced to 15 years, of which she will most likely serve half, as do most of the women, said, "Really, I am learning a lot here. There are always classes. There are always things to do. I even teach some classes."

Asked if she would not prefer then to stay, she replied, "Ah, no, freedom has no price."

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
SANTO DOMINGO, Jun 29 2009 (IPS)

Among the colourful houses in the neighbourhood called Vietnam in East Santo Domingo, many families have at least one family member among the 1.5 million Dominicans living abroad.

Mercedes Berenice Pérez runs a small beauty saloon. "All the businesses are affected by the crisis in remittances" Credit: Willian Silveira/IPS

Nelis Polanco, mother of three, used to receive about 100 dollars per month from her children’s father in the U.S. Six months ago the remittances stopped.

"I’m very glad I have a job and that I’m not totally dependent on the remittances. But I will feel the difference when the school semester starts and the children need their uniforms and supplies," she says.

The children’s father used to have two jobs but in February he told Nelis he was losing one of the jobs and the other one was cutting down on his working hours. She has not heard from him since.

"I think he is ashamed to call as he is not sending any more money."

Nelis walks through the neighbourhood shaking hands with people, asking them how the mother is, or the baby, telling some young men off for not having attended a job searching course the other night.

She works for the ‘Tú, Mujer’ project with transnational families, giving 300 families in East Santo Domingo support and guidance. The organisation gives workshops in starting small businesses and how to invest the remittances so that they create opportunities, rather than dependence.

Mercedes Berenice Pérez is the head of a household of one of the participating families. She lives in a small house with her two children. Two grandchildren. Arlene, 7, and Alexis, 2, are playing in front of the house.

The house is divided into two sections, living quarters along with a small beauty salon. But business has been slow lately, as the remittances that Mercedes used to receive from her Dominican partner living in Miami to pay for the material she uses in the salon have become smaller. What used to be around 100 or 150 dollars monthly is now an occasional remittance of 15 or 20 dollars.

"You can feel the lack of money in the neighbourhood. And you can also feel the sadness of many people living here. All the businesses are affected by the crisis and decline in remittances," she says.

Pérez knows of many in the neighbourhood who have a family member working abroad. "And you can tell when it is a woman because she always thinks of the children and the family. She always sends money to the mother or clothes for them."

Pérez explains that it is the women who are the ones administering the economic changes. It is them who are worrying about how to make the money last.

"I don’t have the products for the salon, but if someone comes to get their hair done or dried, I make some 50 pesos (less than two dollars), which I can use to buy some eggs or an onion. Whenever I get hold of some money I try to buy things I know I will need later on, like the school supplies."

Christina Sanchez, executive director of Tu Mujer says: "The women living abroad are also affected, as they are in a vulnerable position. Often they are the first persons to be fired, especially if they are undocumented migrants."

"But," she continues, "we have seen that in the families where there is a woman migrant sending remittances, families keep recieving something, at least. It is more common that the male migrants stop sending remittances."

She cites the example of young people whose mothers live in Spain, who register for university, but at least they are receiving something, to eat, to survive. "We see that the migrant women worry a lot, they feel strongly for their family back home, for their kids, their well being. They send a lot of letters, make many phonecalls."

Letty Guitierriez, who works at the Central Bank and holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University in New York, did intensive studies in remittances across the region.

"Our culture is very specific," she says. "Every Dominican who lives abroad is expected to send home remittances. Most Dominicans, in the States (U.S.) at least, are intending to return here for their retirement. They send home money to help their families and their communities. I even had some of them in New York who asked me if I wanted them to send money to me when I returned."

She explains that the remittance delivery system in the Dominican Republic is very advanced. The money, in pesos or dollars, is delivered right to the home, all across the country. Many of the companies are not even charging now for transmission, making their money on the foreign exchange rate.

"This," according to Guitierriez, "makes it difficult for the banks to get this money into regular accounts, where perhaps the receivers might access other bank services such as credit for business. Remittance money is seen as something separate, as money that a person can keep and spend just as she wants."

While the rate of remittances has dropped over the last year, the Central Bank figures still show a steady rise over the years. From 1999 to 2008 the total value of remittances doubled from 1.5 billion to 3.1 billion dollars a year. Remittances account for more than 10 percent of the GDP.

Will there be a decline because of the U.S. crisis? "Families will be hard hit as this money is used primarily for daily living expenses, for rent, school, food, not luxuries," she replies. "But there is also a concern since remittances are the second largest source of dollars for the Dominican Republic, after tourism. That is money that we use to pay our foreign debt."

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
ELIAS PINA/BELLEDARE, Apr 29 2009 (IPS)

Elias Pina sits in a fertile high mountain valley on the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Twice weekly, the side streets fill with Haitians and Dominicans trading produce, used clothing, kitchen equipment and shoes.

Going to market in Belledare, Haiti. Credit: Elizabeth Eames Roebling/IPS

Juanita Duran, 48, comes down twice a month to buy because the used clothing here is cheaper than up in the northern market in Dajabon, Dominican Republic, where she lives.

Juanita returned to her native country after working for 18 years in the United States, taking care of the elderly. She speaks with mixed emotions of her life back there.

"Sometimes there would be 10 or 14 inches of snow on the ground. I left [for work] early, even before the stores were open, to make the train. I would sometimes work 12 hours a day. It was very hard work," she said.

"It is a country of laws there. You have security and police protection. My children live there now. One drives a cargo truck and one is in the military. I was treated well. But here I have a better life."

She now has a successful business buying and selling clothing and perfume from one market to another, although the Dominican government has just announced that it will be enforcing the existing law against the importation of used clothing, which, along with rice (originating in the U.S., and heavily subsidised), is now the primary trading commodity on the border.

"I buy things here and I bring things back with me when I visit the States – new clothes with the labels on, which sometimes sell for 100 dollars. Women are willing to invest in some good pieces. I buy perfume here that the Haitians bring. I have contacts down in Santo Domingo that I sell to," she said.

"It is hardly like work at all now, compared to the life that I had. I have so little stress." Juanita looks with pride over at her late model SUV in which she travels the four hours from her home to the market. "It is completely paid for. And I own my house as well. I could not live this well in America. Last year I made a profit of one million pesos (27,000 dollars). Profit, after expenses."

One of the Haitian merchants tells another side of the story. Maglie Joli is a "Madame Sarah," a walking saleswoman, who carries her merchandise in her arms. She sells underwear, socks, toothpaste, all brought from Haiti to sell in the market of Elias Pina.

She started her business with 35,000 Haitian gourdes (39 gourdes equal one dollar) but business has been so bad that now she only has 3,000 gourdes left.

A mother of three, Joli's husband works in agriculture. "I used to buy things here to sell in Haiti. But now there is so little money over there that no one can afford to buy so I stopped doing that. It costs me 100 pesos in transport to get here and some days I do not make that much."

"We are often abused, verbally and physically, by the Dominican men," she added. "I wish the authorities of both countries would pay more attention to the border."

Crossing into Haiti, after the border post, the paved road turns to dirt and rock, passable best by mule but also accessible by the motorcycle taxis which wait to carry passengers on the 15-minute ride into town. At the edge of the market, by the abandoned library, a loudspeaker broadcasts a French lesson. Here the merchants do not pay for their spaces.

As on the Dominican side, most of the vendors are women. The plentiful produce is primarily local. On this particular part of the border, which is rich agricultural land, there is work in the fields all year. However, because of the lack of advanced techniques and tools, Haitian agriculture is very low in production compared with the Dominican side.

The former large traffic in poultry and eggs has been stopped by an ongoing embargo by the Haitian state, imposed after an outbreak of H5N2 last year. Haitian women used to buy eggs on the Dominican side and carry them, in flats of 48 eggs stacked as high as 10, on top of their heads, into Haiti and resell them. Because of the loss of this revenue, there is little money on the Haitian side.

The embargo has not been lifted, although the bird flu virus has been reported under control on the Dominican side of the border.

Both the Dominican Republic and Haiti largely neglect their shared border, turning their backs to one another, partly a lingering response to the 20-year occupation and bitter war that the Dominican Republic fought for independence from Haiti in 1844. Still, overall trade between the two nations is brisk, but lopsided – with the Dominican Republic exporting about 350 million dollars worth of goods to Haiti each year but importing only 3 million dollars of Haitian products.

Haiti is the Dominican Republic's fourth largest trading partner, with most of the exports going directly across the border in large trucks, destined for Port au Prince or other large cities. The border market mostly affects the local areas – and smaller merchants, primarily women.

Behind the display of powdered soap, Ivose Ange, 26, sits at a small charcoal stove, cooking slices of sweet potatoes to sell. She is the mother of four children, aged 4 to14, but has the support of her husband who drives a bus from Belledare to the capital.

Ivose stopped going to the market in Elias Pina after the embargo. "The Haitian customs authorities smashed five big cartons of eggs so I lost my day’s earnings. And I don’t go there because they abuse us. The Dominican guards take away our merchandise, the things that we bought, and the food that we bring in that we made in Elias Pina. Also we are charged too much tax," she said.

Gerda Pierre, a saleswoman, also 26 years old, has three sons, 17 to 4 years old. She used to buy and sell from the Dominican Republic. She bought different consumer products but now she only sells in the Haitian side. She stopped selling on the Dominican side because she says they are charging too much tax.

"I used to buy products in Elias Pina but in order to get the goods out of Dominican customs, they charge me tax. The same thing happened when I brought the products into Haiti, so I stopped trading across the border," she said.

*With additional reporting by Auguste Cantave.

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
SANTO DOMINGO, Apr 23 2009 (IPS)

A truck full of female police officers, dressed in black riot protection gear, pulled up in front of the General Assembly building here to confront and control the crowd of women who had gathered on Tuesday to protest a “right to life” amendment to the Dominican constitution.

Women march against the new anti-abortion law in Santo Domingo. Credit: Elizabeth Eames Roebling/IPS

The amendment was introduced along with 43 others by President Leonel Fernandez, who asked for his entire party’s support.

The debate has pitted civil society and medical groups against the heavy influence of the Catholic Church.

Both the College of Physicians and the Dominican Gynecology and Obstetrics Society have public positions in favour of therapeutic abortion to save the life of the mother or in the case of rape or incest.

On Wednesday, the Obstetrics Society warned that the number of maternal deaths – currently about 160 per 100,000 live births – will increase considerably with the approval of the amendment.

“Those deaths are the product of unsafe abortions,” said the society’s president, Aldrian Almonte. “I would like the honourable legislators to tell me what are we going to do before the presence of a woman with severe preeclampsia or eclampsia, convulsing in any emergency room around the country, what must we do? See her die to protect ourselves from the repercussions that Article 30 stipulates?”

The Cardinal of Santo Domingo, Nicholas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez, used his Good Friday sermon to restate the Church’s opposition to abortion under any circumstances. A local parish priest at a press conference later accused feminist groups, physicians and legislators of having been corrupted by money from foreign NGOs.

On the day of the vote, hundreds of women stood behind the barrier in front of the Senate in the afternoon sun, carrying signs such as “No Rosaries on our Ovaries” and chanting slogans against Article 30. By the fence, a group of six counter protestors held up signs reading “Abortion is Terrorism.” Earlier that morning, a Catholic Mass had been said in front of the Senate.

Lillian Fundera, a gynecologist, explained the implications of the constitutional amendment.

“If Article 30 passes as it has been proposed by the executive branch, it will increase maternal mortality. Many more women will die. Why? Because women will still seek abortions as they have always done,” she told IPS.

“Here in the republic, we have 100,000 abortions a year. This was certified by the Guttmacher Institute in 1999 and again in 2000. We have no figures after that because it is not talked about,” she explained.

She said the cost of the procedure would increase because the process will become more clandestine. “Also this amendment will also prohibit the use of some forms of contraception, such as the IUD, which prevents the implantation of a fertile egg. Fifteen to 20 percent of the women in this country use this form of contraception. This is a form of contraception used with stable couples. But remember, in this country most women do not have stable partners, over 39 percent of the households are single mothers with children.”

Fundera said the amendment would make the “morning after” contraception-blocker pill illegal as well, and would bar therapeutic abortions in the case of ectopic pregnancies.

“There is nothing else to be done in an ectopic pregnancy. If it is not ended, the mother will die. This amendment makes that life as valuable as the life of the mother,” she said.

The current abortion law in the Dominican Republic is extremely strict, carrying criminal penalties between six months and two years for anyone causing an abortion by any means. These penalties can be applied to the doctor, any attending medical personnel, and the female patient.

While both politicians and Church leaders repeat publicly that abortion is illegal, in practice, the law is not enforced. The Maternity Hospital Altagracia in the capital, the nation’s largest, reported 6,300 abortions performed last year, over 80 percent of them on teenagers.

Many of these were the result of complications after home use of the drug Misoprostol, one of the two drugs used in RU486, which is approved for use in medical abortions in the United States. In the Dominican Republic, Misoprostol, like most non-narcotic medicines, is available at pharmacies without a physician’s prescription.

Asked if she knew of any cases of criminal prosecution under the existing law, Dr Fundera said, “I have information on two cases, but these were both abortions by choice, not therapeutic abortions. But in both cases, the woman and the doctor were released within a day with no further legal action.”

Maria Lora, of the Research Centre for Feminist Action, explained the legal implications. “In this country, we have a history of constitutional reform. No matter what government comes in, they always reform the Constitution. Now in this round of reforms, there is one that recognizes the rights of equality of the sexes, and on that, we are completely in accord,” she said.

“Article 30, however, will cause many difficulties. From the medical point of view, it will mean that doctors will be completely prohibited from any type of abortions, because it will be in the Constitution. They will have to stand by and let the women die,” Lora told IPS.

Doris Dominguez put her concerns more personally. “If a woman is unwilling to give birth, she should be able to have an abortion,” she told IPS. “If a girl is raped by her father, or a criminal, she should not have that child because it will be a child full of pain because the mother does not want it. What will become of this child? Nothing.”

Late in the evening Tuesday, the amendment came to a vote, with 171 votes in favour and 32 opposed. There will be a second reading of all the amendments. Feminist groups vowed to continue the fight and to bring the case to international human rights organisations.

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
SANTO DOMINGO, Mar 16 2009 (IPS)

On a rainy Saturday evening, beneath the leaking tin roof of an empty carport in a working class section of Santo Domingo, a group of Haitian immigrants met to form a neighbours' association.

Even relatively well-educated Haitians, like the members of this neighbourhood association, say they face daily abuses in the Dominican Republic. Credit: Elizabeth Eames Roebling/IPS

One man spoke of seeing a Haitian being beaten by a group of Dominicans inside a building. They knocked out six of his teeth. The witness had no one to call, no way to help, as he too was in the country illegally.

In contrast to the common impression here of Haitian migrants as uneducated peasants, lacking even the simplest papers, such as a birth certificate, only one of the 54 Haitians present lacked a valid Haitian passport, and 20 of them had valid visas for the Dominican Republic.

The bulk of the attendees were young men, between 18 and 30. All reported that they were here because life was so hard in Haiti. Most came with the hope that they could continue their education or at least find work.

Their neatly pressed clothing, shined leather shoes, watches and cell phones, as well as the high cost of both a Haitian passport and a Dominican visa, which costs 200 dollars for one year, indicated that they were among Haiti's middle class.

By a show of hands the attendees indicated that all of them had more than 10 years of formal education. All could speak and write both Kreyol and French, 14 could also read and write in Spanish and five were fluent in English as well. Yet only one had the "cedula", the identity card proving his legal residency here and giving him the legal right to work in the Dominican Republic.

Figures from the Haitian Education & Leadership Programme, which provides scholarships to students in Haiti and hosted former President Bill Clinton and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on their recent visit to Haiti, indicate that this group represents some of the best educated young people from Haiti.

HELP's most recent statistics show that, with a population of 9 million people, almost half under 20 years old, just 60 percent of Haitians attend primary school, 20 percent make it to high school and 5 percent graduate.

This particular group of educated young Haitians had come to the Dominican Republic to find work in the tourist hotels, in construction, as household workers, or day labourers, in the hopes that they will survive and be able to send some money home.

They spoke of the difficulties that they were all having in finding work.

"We are hard workers. But the jobs require that we have residency papers, and those are almost impossible to obtain for us," one said.

The Dominican Republic has a programme through which foreigners may obtain residency, but its requirements are lengthy.

The first step, for provisional residency for one year, requires a certified copy of the applicant's birth certificate, translated into Spanish by a official translator, copies of relevant pages from a current valid passport, blood tests to indicate that the applicant is free of HIV, TB and drug use, four photographs, a certificate of good conduct from the police in the Dominican Republic, and a letter from a Dominican legal resident guaranteeing that s/he will be responsible for all the costs of that person during the process of obtaining residency and will also pay costs for deportation or repatriation, should that be needed.

In lieu of a guarantor, the applicant must have on deposit in the Dominican Republic at least 2,800 dollars. The same documents will need to be filed again in one year for a permanent residency.

While it is not officially required, most foreigners use the services of attorneys whose fees start around 1,000 dollars. For most Haitians, this sum represents three years' total earnings. Despite the fact that the Dominican Republic depends in large part on Haitian labour for its agricultural, sugar cane and construction industries, there is currently no programme for guest worker visas for Haitians.

Marcelin Hamilton spoke of their common experience: "Life for us is not good in the Dominican Republic. Sometimes months pass without being able to buy one phone card for 100 pesos so that we can talk to our families in Haiti. Also our rights as human beings are violated. We live in situations where we do not know what to do: to return to Haiti or stay here."

Francois Philippe, who works in construction, added: "The abuses are daily towards the Haitian migrants. In the construction industry the Haitians are the workers most sought after but while we are necessary and important in the economy of the Dominican Republic, nevertheless, our rights continue to be violated."

"If another foreign person is stopped by the police and asked for his papers, if he says they are at home, the police will let him go to his house and look for the papers, but Haitians, no," Philippe said.

Others nodded their heads in agreement with one young man who said: "The government of Haiti is indifferent to the condition of her people. We ask the international community to request transparency in the management of the funds of the NGOs so that they invest their money in the social problems of Haiti."

"That way, the situation of misery and desperation of the Haitian people can improve with good development plans, so that the future of the youth of Haiti will be more secure," he added.

The meeting ended as it had begun, with all participants standing together in prayer, which practice, they said, was customary in Haiti.

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
LAS TERRENAS, Dec 15 2008 (IPS)

Located along white sand beaches on the north coast of the lush Samana peninsula, this is the latest Dominican boom town. Entering the town from across the high mountains, developers’ signs are perched on the steep hills, with prices in dollars, promising a piece of paradise.

Inside the small village, crowded with motorbikes and SUVs, real estate agencies seem to be the major business. Empty new storefronts dot the sidewalks. New four-storey apartment buildings crowd along the beach front.

Twenty-five years ago, the small village of a few hundred people lived off of fishing. Now the estimated 30,000 residents, including more than 5,000 foreigners, predominantly French, wait for others to come and buy the land that was long ago bought from the original owners.

Charlie Simon, a local artist, says things are worse for him now than a few years ago. He is concerned about all the new construction and what it will mean for the future of the place.

“It is not such a good thing to build so many apartments. People come for a week or two and then lock the place up and leave. Or people come for the weekend from the capital, they come with their own food, with everything. These people, what do they bring? You don’t need many people to work in an apartment. It is not business for a town. Fifty apartments will produce maybe five jobs. How much will they make each month, the maids, the gardeners, maybe RD 5,000 pesos a month? This is a benefit for the country? No.”

Free Trade Zone earnings and tourism are currently the country’s fastest-growing export sectors. So-called “real estate tourism” – foreigners building vacation homes – alone accounted for 1.5 billion dollars for 2007, and that number is expected to double within three years, according to the Dominican Association of Real Estate Tourism Companies.

Dr. Jose Bourget, a Dominican who teaches via the internet as a professor at the University of Maryland, settled in Las Terrenas with his family six years ago.

He shares Simon’s concerns about development. “I think Las Terrenas has grown too much, too soon. That has had a tremendous impact on basic services and infrastructure, on water, roads. People were building any way they wanted, anywhere they wanted. Much of it was done by paying off officials,” he told IPS.

“The damage cannot be undone. The corals are dying. The quality of the water is…well, there is no quality. We know that the underground water cannot be trusted because there are too many septic tanks. Now they have built a town sewage treatment plant, but they put the collection tanks right on the beach. Some of us have reservations about how well it will work. But the damage has been done. No one was thinking of how to control it when the place exploded,” he said.

From May until October, there was a halt on all new construction projects in Las Terrenas. One tourism director put the ban in place and his replacement in the new administration lifted it.

While Dr. Bourget believes that there should be a freeze on growth for five years, he is opposed to the manner in which the central government has been directing things in Las Terrenas.

Recently, the government released a “master plan” for the town, containing marked areas for green zones, commercial development and private residences. The plan was designed without any local input.

“If you are making a plan for a city, how can you not ask the residents of that city what they want for their home? This was a lost opportunity for participation, to have a local discussion. for general focus groups and town hall meetings, ” Bourget observed. “Most likely a lot of things that are in the plan will be said, like ‘we want more sidewalks, more green areas, protection for the beach, solution for the traffic problem’, but it feels differently if there are hearings, if people have their say. ”

Bourget and his wife, Annette Snyder, started the Anacaona Community Library three years ago and run summer camps for some of the local children, with the aid of volunteers. The small library, which serves about 270 local people a week, also serves as the town’s only children’s playground.

When asked about the public education system, Bourget threw up his hands. “Yes, the system has grown. Now there are two secondary schools. But there are 40-50 kids in each class. You cannot teach in a classroom with 50 kids. Graduates of eighth grade here do not read or write well. That is the most critical issue here and no one is talking about it. Leadership should be coming from government, otherwise the people will not be able to raise themselves out of poverty.”

Simon’s voice carries an edge of bitterness when he talks about the future of the town, reserving most of his anger for the resident foreign population.

“The foreign population of Las Terrenas, they do the same thing that Dominicans do, every day. They are here for their business. Some people come from France, very young, they are supposed to stay in France, working until they retire but they do not do that, they come here with 5,000 dollars and open a restaurant and the French tourists go there, not to our comedors to eat our rice and beans. They use our country to make money. They talk bad about our population.”

“If we look what we have to do to grow in a positive way, we need education for the people. If development is only for the rich people, the town will be finished,” he said.

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
SANTO DOMINGO, Nov 25 2008 (IPS)

Raising their voices in agreement with the declaration over the loudspeaker that "machismo kills", hundreds of Dominican women, carrying banners and roses, ended a march through the streets of Santo Domingo Tuesday in front of the Supreme Court Building, protesting the rising level of murders of women.

More than 100 Dominican women have been killed by their partners so far this year. Credit: Elizabeth Eames Roebling/IPS

The Police Department recently released statistics showing that 154 women had been killed this year. Of these, 102 were killed by their intimate partners. This is seven more than last year. According to a report issued by Spanish authorities, this places the Dominican Republic as the sixth highest nation in the world in the rate of the murder of women.

The police have started a publicity campaign on television and radio against the rise in crime in the country. Although many have attributed the rise to organised drug crime, the statistics show that only a third of the crime is "organised". According to an interview with Franklin Almeyda, Secretario de Estado de Interior y Policia, "Over two thirds of the crimes are perpetrated by citizens are cases of inter-family violence, street fights, and other types of incidents."

Gracia de la Cruz, of the group, SER MUJER, told IPS, "I am not sure if there is really an increase in the violence or that it is that we have become more successful in showing the reality in the country. The police are keeping better records now. More women are coming forward now."

"We must continue to denounce the violence. We must not be ashamed to do this," she said. "Many men hit women in parts of the body which are not seen. The women take pains not show that they have been beaten. We have had a culture which has blamed the women. Also many women are afraid to denounce their partners. They are afraid that they will be left without any resources for themselves and their children. "

Among the handouts to the crowd, a publication by CIPF (Centro de Investigation para Accion Feminina) had a definition of "machismo", a word which has defied English translation. It is "the expression of the magnification of the masculine, the exaltation of brute physical superiority, brute force and the legitimisation of a stereotype which creates unjust power relations."

In two studies on the murders of women in the Dominican Republic, done by ProFamilia in 2002 and 2003, interviews with killers showed that these violent men had the perception that a man, by the sole merit of being one, had the rights of a permanent privileged status in relation to women, treating them, consciously and unconsciously, as servants in all circumstances and over all women.

Fatima Portareal of the Collectiva de Mujers y Salud explained the significance of this particular day: "We have a history in this country of standing up to violence. Today is a great day in our history. For today, the 25th of November, marks the day of the assassination of the Mirabel sisters who fought against Trujillo."

"The United Nations, in recognition of their bravery, declared this day to be in the International Day Against Violence towards Women. Therefore, we Dominican women, women from the city and the countryside, have come here to present the government with a document asking for greater protection for women."

The actual document presented showed the differing agendas of the four organising groups, Colective Mujer y Salud (SMS), Centro de Apoyos Aqeularre (CEAPA), Centro de Servicios Lesgales Para la Mujer (CENSEL), and Confederacion Nacional de Mujeres del Campo (CONAMUCA).

Calling for an end to "the beatings, the wounds, the psychological aggressions, the risk of contracting AIDS," the proclamation also called for an end to the "blackouts, social abandonment, officially sanctioned gender violence, neoliberal political economics, and free trade agreements which impose the use of foods with genetically altered seeds".

All "constitute the principal expression of violence under which Dominican women live."

In addition, the document called for constitutional reform on the issue of therapeutic abortion, which is not permitted under any circumstances. The women's groups are calling for the right of abortion to protect the life and health of the mother, and in the case of rape or incest.

This effort has the support of the nation's Obstetricians and Gynecological Doctors' Association. It was assumed to be close to passage last year, despite the opposition of the Catholic Church. However, anti-abortion protesters arrived here from the United States and placed explicit videos on the desk of each legislator. The measure was defeated. Both doctors and women are subject to imprisonment under the current law.

The three Mirabel sisters, whose husbands were imprisoned by Trujillo, were assassinated in 1961. Their courage has been credited with galvanising the resistance to the dictator.

The story was popularised in English in the book and movie "In the Time of Butterflies" by the Dominican-American author Julia Alvarez. One of the Mirabel sisters, Minerva, was asked, "And if they kill you?"

She responded: "If they kill me, I will raise my arms from the grave and be even stronger."

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
PEDERNALES, Dominican Republic, Nov 18 2008 (IPS)

The contrast between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola, is nowhere so stark as on its common border.

A group of Haitian journalists meets their Dominican colleagues at a three-day gathering to promote cross-cultural understanding. Credit: Elizabeth Roebling/IPS

Across the river in Haiti, Anse-a-Pitre has no paved roads, and only a few wells. Only the small barber shop with a solar panel and the small hotel with a generator have electricity. Fishing boats with large outboards line the rocky beach on the Dominican side while in Haiti, only one of the few dozen boats has a motor, the others must fish under sail.

It is easy for citizens of a country which has running water, electricity, gas stoves and plentiful food to assume that they are superior to citizens of a nation that does not have these modern conveniences.

“I do not blame Dominicans who hold negative views of Haitians since that is how they were taught since they were young,” said Giselda Liberato, coordinator of Intercultural Programmes for the development agency Plan International. “We were told terrible things. We were told that they were savages, even that they were cannibals. So it is not the fault of Dominicans who have been misinformed.”

“Many Dominicans do not have an opportunity to meet people of a high level of education. They do not meet their peers. We wanted Dominican journalists to meet Haitian journalists who are at the same level of education, so that they can meet one another as professionals,” she told IPS.

With help from Plan International, six Dominican journalists who run espacinsular.org as volunteers recently organised a three-day meeting of Haitian and Dominican journalists. Their website carries news articles from both Haitian and Dominican news sources translated respectively into Spanish and French in order to promote better cross-cultural understanding.

The Nov. 14-16 meeting drew 50 representatives from newspapers, radio and television – 25 Haitians and 25 Dominicans. All agreed to work towards better understanding between the two nations, draw the attention of their respective governments to the needs of the border region, and focus on specific human rights violations rather than allowing individual aggressions to escalate into disputes between their two nations.

A group of eight media representatives was selected to form an ongoing network, the “Dominican-Haitian Binational Press Network.”

Liberato is a rare Dominican so fluent in Kreyole that she was able to serve as translator for the event. She said that PLAN supported the project to give Dominican journalists an opportunity to meet their peers from the Haitian press, to perhaps help counteract some of the negative images of Haitians held by Dominicans, and vice versa.

Ruben Silie, sociologist and former general secretary of the Association of Caribbean States, explained to the group the history of the island from the discovery by Columbus to the present day. When questioned particularly about why Dominicans do not identify themselves with any African heritage despite the obvious racial characteristics in their appearances, Silie explained: “Under Trujillo, the history books were written to eliminate all mention of slavery. The people were told that they were descendants of Spanish colonists and Indians.”

The information caused a stir among the Haitians in the room. Marie Keetie Louis, a Haitian interpreter who lives in Santo Domingo, said, “But they were taught a lie. That explains so much about them.”

Jose Seruelle, ambassador from the Dominican Republic to Haiti responded: “One must remember that Trujillo was a fascist dictator, that he used the issue of Haitians for his own benefit. He did this to maintain himself, as a pretext to combat his opponents, his Dominican opponents. There was always the pretext of the blacks, the Haitians, who had to be put out of the country. But it should be remembered that this same Trujillo used the Haitian workers to exploit them and to enrich himself. There was hypocrisy there.”

“But in the interior of the Dominican soul, there is no racism,” Seruelle added. There is a racism that is present at the level of the schools, but this is fought more and more by the Dominican people and by the Dominican government because the Dominican government does not accept racism.”

“President Fernandez is a man who is anti-racist. He does not accept racism or discrimination on the basis of religion or the colour of the skin because we a people who are truly diverse, We have blacks, whites, people who come from Arab countries, from European countries, the United States, Canada, Cuba, Caribbean, how then, could we be racist? It is not possible. This is not the Dominican mentality. It is true that there are some historic events that have been badly explained. We must try to understand one another better.”

“If two people respect one another, they will get along. We are two people, the Dominicans and the Haitians, who are married to one another, in the sense that we share the same island, a common history, and a shared ecosystem. We must respect one another. We must preserve our island, we must love it,” he said.

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
SANTO DOMINGO, Nov 5 2008 (IPS)

On the island where the African slave trade was first introduced to the western hemisphere in 1520, the United States embassy in Santo Domingo hosted more than 1,000 people to view the possible election of the son of an African to the U.S. presidency.

Fritz Cenas, Haiti's ambassador to the Dominican Republic, at an election night party. Credit: Elizabeth Eames Roebling/IPS

At the entrance to the elegant Jaragua Hotel, Dominicans could cast mock ballots for either Obama or McCain and have their photographs taken next to cardboard cutouts of the candidates.

The gathering reflected the skin tones of the Dominican Republic, whose population is described as 15 percent white, 15 percent black, and 70 percent mixed race. For Dominicans themselves, the issue of race and skin colour is more subtle than the simple “black-white” line in the United States, with six different shades of skin tones, including “blond”, “wheat”, “indian” and “negro (black)”.

Few Dominicans self-identify as “negro” or celebrate any historic relationship to Africa. The majority refer to themselves as “indians” despite the fact that historians estimate that the indigenous Taino Indian population fell from over 400,000 to less than 3,000 within the first 30 years of Spanish domination.

The Dominican Republic has been accused of racism against Haitians, both by human rights activists and representatives of the United Nations. However, most Dominicans insist that any animosity is not based on race but on nationalism.

The Dominican Republic celebrates its independence from Haiti, which it won in 1844 after 22 years of occupation. The differences between the two nations are much deeper than racial tones and encompass respective preferences for soccer and baseball, as well language and culture.

Nevertheless, last year the U.S. embassy issued a directive that none of its employees could patronise two of the upscale discotheques in the capital which had denied entrance to several African-American embassy employees.

Subtle reminders of racism are evident in most Dominican women’s hairstyle, straight and long like Indians, referred to as “good hair”, not curly like Africans, called “bad hair”. Hidden racial tag lines in job advertising, such as “good presence”, indicate a national preference, reflecting both the larger regional and global preference, for whiter skin.

Ramon Martinez Portorreal, trade ambassador to Eastern Europe, who attended college at Columbia University in New York and whose own skin tone is darker than Obama’s, discounted the issue of race both inside the United States and for Dominicans.

“I think that the black-white issue was one for the 1960s. Today the issue is the economy, just that. I think the U.S. needs closer relations with the Caribbean in general, not just the Dominican Republic. We need closer relations with the United States – both political and business relations – and I think that Obama will be better for that.”

“I have family in the United States, as do many Dominicans,” he said. “This country receives a lot of money from the United States, both in trade and in money that is sent home.”

Remittances from Dominicans who live abroad usually account for 10-12 percent of the annual GDP. Although there are Dominicans in many European countries, primarily Spain, the majority of the Dominican diaspora, of 800,000 to one million people, live in the United States, concentrated around greater New York City, Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island.

Predicting that the majority of Dominicans would vote for Obama, Jedeon Santor, who serves as a governmental advisor on Central America, observed: “Dominicans feel more comfortable with the Democrats in power. The Democrats have more tolerance, both for immigrants, racial minorities, and cultural differences.”

“Latinos also believe that when the Democrats come into power, they grow the economy from below, increasing incentives, lowering taxes, and better redistributing the wealth, more aid goes to immigrants and minorities,” Santor said.

He noted that this is a contradiction for Dominicans since the Dominican Republic was twice invaded and occupied by Democratic U.S. presidents, first from 1916-1924 under Woodrow Wilson and then again briefly in 1965 under Lyndon Johnson.

A group of police officials said that they had been invited to learn about the U.S. electoral process. One of them said: “There is a feeling in people to imitate the positive in the United States. So this shows us that things are possible and that the democratic system works. This shows that the democratic system holds the key to resolve our differences, that the people can simply vote. This is a very important lesson.”

He noted that the electoral process is different in the United States than here in the Dominican Republic. While this nation has had five different presidents in the past 44 years, one of them, Joaquin Balaguer, served for 24 years.

The ambassador from Haiti to the Dominican Republic, Fritz Cenas, was also in attendance. “I cannot speak officially as the ambassador, since in that post I represent the government,” he said. “And of course, the government of Haiti will work with any American president who is elected. But personally, I can say that I support Obama.”

“However, I can say that historically for Haiti, as the world’s first independent Black nation, the fact that the United States may have a Black president is thrilling to us,” he added.

The results of the mock vote were announced even before the state of Ohio was called for Obama. There was one write-in vote for actor Jack Nicholson, two for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, three for Hillary Clinton, 53 votes cast for John McCain and 448 for Barack Obama.

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
CONSTANZA, Oct 8 2008 (IPS)

Traffic crews on the switchback road signal drivers down to one lane as workers spray concrete on the mountain barrier to prevent landslides. The posted speed limit on the road to the 1,300-metre-high valley of Constanza, three hours north of the capital of Santo Domingo, often drops to 20 km an hour as the road winds along the high mountain ridges.

Trucks wind their way through the mountain passes of Constanza bearing fresh produce for market and export. Credit: Elizabeth Eames Roebling/IPS

While sugarcane remains the nation's most important cash crop, Constanza is the heart of its high-tech agricultural production. Unlike many other Caribbean islands that are heavily dependent on expensive imports, the Dominican Republic grows about 85 percent of its own food.

With global fuel prices doubling over the past year, in turn pushing up the cost of key commodities like wheat, corn and barley, the new mantra among policy-makers across the region has been how to replicate and expand on successful local farming models – like Constanza.

The area was first developed in the 1950s, when then dictator Raphael Trujillo invited 50 Japanese farming families to settle there and help industrialise the agriculture production.

Their legacy is seen today in the sweeping irrigated fields of potatoes, garlic, carrots, strawberries, cilantro, onions, tomatoes, beans, corn, broccoli, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, leeks, celery, beets, cabbages and flowers that supply not only the population of 9 million people of this nation, but also the vast appetite of its tourist hotels and a growing export business.

The hanging moss from the cedar trees, the occasional palm tree and the egrets in the fields are the only indications that this valley is in the tropics and not in Europe or the United States. Although it is close to Pico Duarte, the Caribbean's highest mountain at 3,175 metres and which is climbed by more than 3,000 people every year, Constanza is not yet devoted to tourism.

Both a high waterfall and a cave with Taino Indian writings on the walls are found nearby, but there are no tours offering access. Nor are there hiking trails, campgrounds, mountain bikes or horseback tours for rent in this valley whose clear mountain air offers a welcome respite from the summer heat.

Its few hotels are filled on weekends only, mainly by Dominicans escaping the heat of the capital. Winter temperatures here can go below the freezing mark and are normally 20 degrees cooler than the surrounding low lying areas. The majority of the population of 80,000 here is at work in the fields by 7:30 every morning.

Virgilio Rosado, a native of Constanza, who works as an agricultural advisor for PACTA, an NGO funded by a grant from the Inter-American Development Bank, speaks with pride of his home.

"We are the only location like this in all of the Caribbean," he told IPS. "Our production here is extremely advanced. Ten years ago, we had 12,000 tareas [1 tarea equals 629 metres] in agricultural production. Now we have only 7,000 but at a much higher intensity, with full irrigation systems and sophisticated crop rotation and fertilisation. We produce more food now on less land than we did 10 years ago."

On a tour of the valley, neatly divided into small and large fields by barbed wire fences, as the aroma of cilantro fills the air, Rosado explains the irrigation systems, which operate from water pumped from a neighbouring river into canals and then into holding ponds.

"We still are getting help from the government of Japan. They were the first who built these irrigation canals and holding ponds and demonstrated the irrigation systems," he said.

The sprinklers douse a field of cabbages. "With this system, the vegetables themselves are watered, not just the ground. Every drop is measured. Much less water is used," Rosado explained.

Noting that almost every field has an irrigation system in place, Rosado said: "With three tareas of land, a family can support themselves. A good irrigation system costs 4,600 pesos (135 U.S. dollars) for 200 metres and will last for 10 years. The farmer can install it himself. We give him the technical assistance on how to do that and how to use it."

Rosado notes that the land in Constanza is expensive now: "It would cost at least one million pesos for 10 tareas." But he notes, "There is a land nearby in other valleys and land that has not yet been put into cultivation, which would be less expensive. We have the capacity to greatly increase production."

Constanza is always in production and harvest. Rosado notes, "Everyone rotates their crops. We have learned that and give anyone who asks for it expert advice. Everyone grows a bit of everything, although some may specialise in one or two crops. That corn field is being grown just to nourish the field. It will be plowed under to feed the soil."

The price of gasoline is now at 197.5 (5.80 dollars) pesos per gallon which affects the cost of production. "All the water must be pumped from the canals or holding ponds," said Rosado, pointing to the small pumps at the side of one pond.

Asked about gravity-fed systems, Rosado said, "Some farmers have installed some systems for that but not many. You still have to pump the water. And the price of oil also affects the price of fertiliser and transportation."

Hugo Arriasa Morales, of NRECA International, an NGO which works on installing rural energy systems, says that solar energy can help reduce the costs of production.

"We are working to install a small hydroelectric system in Constanza. And if a group of farmers, perhaps 20, combine for a solar system, we can help them greatly reduce costs of production," he said.

There are a few apple orchards in the high mountains, further away, but most of the mountain land that is not still forested is used for cattle grazing. Rosado notes "the weather is getting warmer so that the farmers are putting more land into farming production. The government's farming bank gives them low interest loans for seeds at 1 percent interest."

Perhaps because he himself is an expert in the risks of farming, Rosado prefers cattle raising. "I have eight head now. I prefer it. It is sure and secure. Less work. Less risk."

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
SANTO DOMINGO, Sep 29 2008 (IPS)

Media rights groups in the Dominican Republic are protesting what they say is a climate of legal and physical intimidation of journalists throughout the country.

Media workers and supporters march in Santo Domingo on Sep. 23, 2008. Credit: Elizabeth Eames Roebling/IPS

Castillo said that it was not the government itself that was behind the threats but individual judges, private companies, private security firms and drug dealers.

"Reporters and media producers are not only being sued, they are being verbally threatened, both in person and by telephone," she told IPS. "We feel that we are being plunged into a massive wave of intimidation."

She cited the case of one journalist who approached the district attorney in Bani, asking for information on the whereabouts of packets of cocaine and dollars and Euros seized in a recent drug raid. The district attorney allegedly told the reporter to "Go home and look in your own house to find them."

And in early August, a cameraman for the daily news programme "Detrás de las Noticias" (Behind the News), Normando García, was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen in the city of Santiago, 163 kilometres north of Santo Domingo. García covered drug trafficking and crime, and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating whether his death was in retaliation for his work.

On Sep. 23, more than 300 people assembled in the capital for what the CDP called a "March of Mourning" against assaults on the press. Participants, wearing black, also wore black ribbons around their heads, arms, or, more dramatically, their mouths.

A light rain started as the crowd proceeded along the brick pedestrian walk, El Conde, from the statue of Christopher Columbus to the gilded gates of the Parque Independencia, holding umbrellas and predominantly handmade signs. The Communist Party carried a large printed banner memorialising a few of the many journalists who lost their lives under both long-time dictator Rafael Trujillo and his protégé, Joaquín Balaguer.

The right of free speech and the liberty of the press are guaranteed under the country's constitution of 1973. However, reminders of the era of severe repression were seen in several printed support statements passed around the crowd which contained neither the names nor numbers of contact people.

One sign, asking for a minimum wage of 15,000 pesos per month for journalists (the equivalent of about 428 U.S. dollars) indicated the low salaries for the majority of the profession. Even the threat of the cost of having to defend a court case could be seen as a tool to silence the press.

Huchi Lora, a prominent investigative journalist, took the bullhorn to protest a recent court decision which allowed a private company to enter a journalist's office and take unedited tapes, calling this decision a threat to freedom of the press.

Lora, along with a colleague, Nuna Piera, had been raising questions for months over the quality of the milk supplied by the government to more than 1.5 million children in the public schools, saying that it contained deproteinised whey mixed with salt, a waste product which is fed to pigs.

The journalists based their original claims on a 2007 study done at the University of Santo Domingo which involved samples taken over several months during the 2004-2005 school year. The study found that the milk, which is a mixture of powdered and locally produced whole milk, varied in its protein and fat content over the sample months and fell below the legal guidelines posted by Department of Education.

Both journalists were sued by the milk supplier, Lacteas Dominicana (LADOM), which denied the claims. Lora said that the court's ruling set a dangerous precedent.

The office of the president, in response to the journalists' reports, and subsequent calls from the National Association of Pediatricians along with other civic groups, sent recent samples of milk taken from schools to two laboratories in the country and one in the U.S. state of Florida. They then called a press conference to release the results that all samples conformed to the standards required by law.

The new minister of education, Melanio Paredes, who took office this year, has said that the current contract for the school milk expires in December and all contracts will be under strict review. In addition, the amount of whole milk from local sources required in school milk programme will be raised from 33 percent to 50 percent. A rigid series of inspections of samples will take place over the next quarter.

Manual Frijas, a singer and spokesperson for the Association of Cultural Workers, comprised of singers, composers, musicians, and writers, marched along with six members of his union. He expressed his solidarity with the journalists, saying: "Without the press, there is no truth."

One of the signs held the words from a song written by Frijas: "And what would life be if the singer did not lift his voice in the courts."

Castillo said: "It is a constant fight. We have one battle here, another one there, across the entire country. Now reporters are being harassed in the courts and on the streets. We are here to ask the public to respect the freedom of the press, to let us investigate, to respect our profession, to allow us to do our jobs."

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jun 5 2008 (IPS)

Several thousand people, including remnants of the wealthy and educated class who remain in Haiti, took to the streets of Port-au-Prince Wednesday to rail against what they say is government inaction amid a rise in kidnappings.

Marchers protest a kidnapping wave on Jun. 4, 2008. Credit: Alex Carlasse

The march, organised by 113 civic groups, including the Catholic and Protestant Churches, and the Voudousants, as well as universities, civil society groups and the Chamber of Commerce, was billed as completely non-violent. Participants were asked to wear all black or white and organisers reserved the right to confiscate any signs that did not conform to the spirit of the march.

Marchers who started out from the Church of Sacre Couer received T-shirts, printed in Kreyole, that read: “Koukouwouj san Pran souf kon Kidnapin” (continue the fight against kidnapping).

Walking 10 abreast, clapping in unison and chanting “Nou bouke” (We are fed up), the crowd – containing more light-skinned faces than are usually seen in any picture of Haiti, reflecting the country’s economic and racial divides – grew as it headed downhill to confront officials at the Palais du Justice. There were only a few members of the Haitian National Police in attendance, most of them content to direct traffic away from the march.

Some here speculate that the kidnappings are done within families, by poorer relatives against richer ones who are unwilling to help them. Others blame the problem on organised criminal gangs.

About 80 percent of Haiti’s 8.5 million people live on less than two dollars per day, most of it going to cover food costs.

In February, Port au Prince was rocked with protests over the rising cost of rice, the mainstay of the national diet. But even as food prices in Haiti were inflating at a rate exceeding 20 percent in April, according to the World Bank, business interests have been battling Congress to cut the minimum wage from 150 gourde a day (1 gourde /37 U.S. cents) to 78 gourde.

While only 15 percent of the population in the capital receives a public education, private school fees, many of which must be paid in U.S. dollars, can run as high as 5,000 dollars a year for tuition alone. Transportation costs are 10 gourde each way for a ride on a crowded bus, and a gallon of purified water costs 25 gourde.

Since the food protests, Haiti has received some international aid to feed the hungry, but addressing the problem over the long term will require massive investment in the languishing agriculture sector, local experts say.

Wednesday’s crowd, about 8,000 strong, came to a halt in front of the Palais du Justice, and cheered as the doors opened and employees came down the steps to listen to them. A chant went up: “If the judges are not the kidnappers, then they must send them to jail.”

Vendors went through the crowd selling bags of salted dried plantain chips and iced ginseng drinks. Three armed Haitian police, wearing flack jackets, huddled near the fence, appearing more concerned for themselves than for the justice ministers.

Having had their say, the crowd moved on to the white domed Presidential Palace, across from the green park known as the Champs de Mars.

Robert Monde, a congressman from Nippess, when asked what he thought the government could do to respond to the population’s concerns, said: “I and other Congressman are presenting legislation to Congress to call on the president to exercise extra-constitutional powers and introduce the death penalty for kidnapping. This is not permitted under our Constitution. It is not historically in our nature. Yet this is an extraordinary crime wave and we wish to have it stop.”

When asked if he thought the deportees who were returned from the United States after serving time in prisons there were implicated in the recent crime wave, Deputy Monde said: “No, they come back with an imperialist attitude, but they are just petty criminals, most of them drug dealers. What we are dealing with here is a fully organised gang of operators.”

At high noon, members of the crowd took pieces of rock to the rows of flag poles to produce a clanging sound in imitation of the “concert de cassorolles” called for by organizers. A wail of pain, a great scream rose up from thousands of throats, broadcast live from the tape recorders and cell phones of the Haitian press corps.

As the crowd dispersed, one of the giant white U.N. tanks that patrol the streets of Port au Prince, whose troops pointed weapons loaded with live ammunition at the peaceful gathering, parted the crowd. The crowd surged toward it in rage, making angry gestures with their hands.

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
DAJABON, Feb 4 2008 (IPS)

In a display of national sovereignty, Haiti is continuing an embargo against the importation of all poultry products from the Dominican Republic, prompting some Dominicans to boycott border markets in northwest Dajabon province.

The border crossing at Dajabon market. Credit: Cesareo Guillermo/PADF

It remains in place despite two official Dominican delegation visits to Haiti and one official inspection visit of Dominican poultry sites by Haitian agricultural and health officials.

Embargos on imports from nations affected by avian flu are common internationally. The United States has in place an embargo on the importation of poultry products from 37 countries, including parts of France and England. Yet all of these nations had outbreaks of the most virulent strain of the virus, H5N1. The strain of flu found in the Dominican birds was H5N2, which has never crossed between birds and humans. Imports from the Dominican Republic are not under United States embargo.

The outbreak of the avian flu H5N2 in two discrete areas inside the Dominican Republic was first detected on Dec. 10, 2007 following a routine inspection of fighting cocks being exported to Colombia. Dominican authorities slaughtered the 114 affected birds and notified the international authorities, OIE (Organisation Internationale des Epizootes) on Dec. 12, and the Pan American Health Organisation on Dec. 21 after confirmation of the flu at laboratories in the United States.

Imports of live poultry and poultry products from the Dominican Republic were quickly banned by Puerto Rico, Colombia, Guyana, the Turks and Caicos, St. Martin and neighbouring Haiti. The embargo by Puerto Rico has since been lifted.

On the OIE website, the avian flu outbreak in the Dominican Republic is listed as ongoing.

In 1982, an outbreak of swine flu inside the Dominican Republic led the United States to pressure the Haitian government to slaughter all of its indigenous small Creole pigs, the backbone of the Haitian economy. This episode marked a swift descent into deeper poverty and malnutrition in Haiti.

A recent 10-hour long call-in radio programme in the Dominican border town of Dajabon aired the traditional hostilities between these two nations. Relations are particularly sore between Ouanaminthe, Haiti and Dajabon, site of the 1937 massacre of tens of thousands of Haitians under Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, the confiscation of fertile farming land of the Maribaux plain for the Dominican Groupo M free trade zone, and continued forced deportations of undocumented Haitians.

According to a report issued by the Jesuit Society on Immigration, Dominican exports to Haiti had already fallen almost 8 percent in the first half of last year, with Haiti falling from the number three importer of Dominican products to sixth place. However, Haiti has been the receiver of 52 percent of the Dominican egg production, commerce that reaches into the millions of dollars annually.

Dominican poultry and egg producers have taken extraordinary measures to ensure the safety of their poultry, including washing all trucks entering and leaving their facilities and having their workers change clothes upon entering work.

Dominican authorities had no fears that the flu would infect their own domestic production and assured the local population that plenty of chickens would be available for the traditional Christmas dinner.

Because the Haitian embargo included not only live birds and eggs but all products made from chickens, including soup and salami, and since the avian flu virus is not transmitted in properly cooked eggs or poultry, Dominicans suspect that the embargo has more to do with trade than health.

Asked whether the embargo is to show the strength of the Haitian state vis-à-vis the Dominican Republic, rather than a matter of health, Jean Baptiste Bien-Aime, Haitian Consul in Dajabon, told IPS: “This is not what we are looking for in Haiti. We took this decision to protect both the human and poultry population. The Dominican Republic and Haiti are both members of the OMSA (Organisation Mundial por la Sanidad Animal) (World Organisation for Animal Health) and they have both signed international agreements in which the OIE under the OMSA is the only organisation which can certify that this virus is under control.”

He said that OMSA had done so on Jan. 7, but that “the final clearance has not come through”.

“I hope that this resolves itself quickly. This has not done much good either in Haiti or the Dominican Republic. On the contrary, in Haiti, neither chickens nor eggs are being eaten since we are not sure where they come from. Haiti has more interest than the Dominican Republic in having this issue resolved,” he said.

Answering a question about the Dajabon-Ouanaminthe market, which is held twice weekly on the Dominican side, Bien-Aime said: “It would be better if it were held one day a week in Haiti and one day a week here. That is more just.”

Dominican merchants carried out a threat to boycott Haitian goods at the market Monday. Thirty to 40 percent of all trade between these two nations passes through this northern boundary, according to Haroldo Dilla Alfonso in the newly released book, “Ciudades en la Frontera” (Santo Domingo, 2008).

However, Monday is Carnival in the north of Haiti so that not much trade would be expected.

Excerpt:

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
ANSE A PITRES, Haiti, Nov 20 2007 (IPS)

At 11 a.m., five hours after the start of the market day on the southern border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the driver of the bright red Haitian truck named "God of Justice" swung down the back gate and started unloading the full load of 60-kg burlap bags of coffee.

Men unload coffee at a market on the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Credit: Alexandra Pope

Men hefted the bags onto their heads and pushed their way across the narrow concrete footbridge. There they waited alongside the stacked bags of U.S. rice for the guards to open the gate in the high chain-link fence at the entry to the market in the Dominican Republic.

Although the road signs say "international market", the market is now completely on the Dominican side of the border. Several years ago, with economic assistance from the European Union, the town of Pedernales built a covered concrete market area, which the town maintains and rents out at nominal cost to both Haitians and Dominican merchants on Mondays and Fridays. On the Haitian side, locals have built uncovered stick structures which mimic the architecture on the Dominican side.

Before the deployment of the new Dominican border guard, Cesfront, the border only had a knee-high chain across it. Haitians could circulate freely to work in the town of Pedernales during the day.

Now the Dominican military makes regular roundups through the town, collecting any suspected Haitians they see and transporting them in trucks across the border. Estimates are that as much as 20 percent of the population of remote Pedernales is illegal Haitian residents who live in poor sections on the outskirts of the town, without access to running water or electricity. They build houses out of scraps of wood and tin and river rock, with dirt floors.

"It is a real problem," said Colonel Carlos Santos Nin, director of the Cesfront operation. "Most of the Haitians have no documentation at all. No papers whatsoever. No birth certificates, no identity cards, no passports, no visas. Eventually, they will all have to leave. But it is reasonably calm here. Not like Dajabon."

Pedernales, population 18,000, faces Anse a Pitres, which has about 14,000 people. But Dajabon, with 26,000, faces Ouanaminthe, with a population of 56,000. Since the completion of the new highway from Ouanaminthe to Cap Haitian, the traveling time from Cap Haitian to the northern city of Santiago in the Dominican Republic is only six hours.

The differential in prosperity can be seen in the eight banks located in the northern market towns, in contrast to the one bank in Pedernales, which had no money in the cash machine from Friday to Monday.

Activity on the border in Pedernales is now being closely monitored both by Dominican government officials and representatives of GARR, a Haitian immigrant rights group.

Jean Robert Ruiz, the representative of GARR in Anse a Pitres, said that abuses have diminished since the introduction of the Cesfront forces. "It is more orderly. They do not try to collect a tax for this, or a tax for that," he said.

Speaking on the repatriations, Ruiz said: "It is just an exercise that they must perform. The army brings them across the border in the morning and by evening, they cross the river to return back to their homes again. Most of them who live over there are not from here, from Anse a Pitres, they are from further away."

As for the lack of identity papers, Ruiz said: "Yes, this is a major problem. We do have a magistrate here in Anse a Pitres who can register births. But for anyone who does not already have papers, it is a long process. There is a legal process possible, but it requires a lot of work. It would mean a trip to Port au Prince. It would mean hiring a lawyer."

Obtaining a Haitian passport also requires a trip to Port au Prince, and costs 450 gourde (35 gourde equals one dollar). Sourette Morland, a chic young woman with gold jewelry and high-heeled sandals, proudly displayed her Haitian passport with the one-year multiple entry Dominican visa in it. The visa cost her 100 dollars, a bit less than one quarter of the annual per capita income.

"This was my first trip. I took the seven-hour ferry from Jacmel. I went to Santo Domingo and sold perfume and clothes that I had brought from Haiti. I made enough money to pay for the trip, so I will return," she said.

Inside the modern health clinic just by the Haitian border, the wail of a newborn baby cut through the air. Ruiz opened one door to a white-tiled room in which two motorbikes were stored, saying: "We have the building. But we have no equipment and very little staff: no doctor and only two nurses and one assistant to dispense a few medicines. If there is a complicated birth, the mother must go to Pedernales. And if they cannot treat her there, she must go to Barahona, or to the capital."

The Supreme Court of the Dominican Republic has ruled that children of Haitians who are born in the Dominican Republic are "in transit" and are not entitled to citizenship under the Dominican constitution.

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By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
SANTO DOMINGO, Nov 9 2007 (IPS)

The bus carrying relief volunteers from the Colectiva de Mujeres y Salud stopped at the flooded Bao River, about three hours&#39 drive from the capital, unable to cross.

A young man watches the raging waters after Hurricane Noel's passage across the Dominican Republic. Credit: Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidraulicos

More than 155 communities are still cut off from the rest of Dominican Republic due to the destruction of bridges and roads by Hurricane Noel, which was still just a tropical depression with winds of 35 mph when it made landfall here on Oct. 29.

To date, 85 people are reported to have died during the five days of downpours, 45 are still missing, and more than 80,000 were displaced.

The country shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, where at least 57 people were killed. While Noel also dropped heavy rains on the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas, those countries recorded less damage and far fewer fatalities.

For some of the relief volunteers, a large number of them university students, this was their first experience with the marginal lives of many of their compatriots, who eke out a living on unclaimed fertile ground on the high river banks. Although the houses had concrete floors, the walls were made of thin strips of wood with mud plaster packed between.

"I was raised in the capital," said Dayanna Hirnedez, a lawyer with the Collectiva. "I had never seen the poverty in the countryside until I went out once as a volunteer with the Collectiva. We live in a bubble in the capital."

The Collectiva de Mujers cancelled all its ongoing projects to travel to some of the country&#39s more remote areas. Thanks to the transport workers&#39 union, which donated buses, 40 aid workers managed to reach a stranded village outside the eastern city of Monte Plata.

Teams of doctors, psychologists, and other volunteers spent one day with a group of 80 people who were living in waist-deep water. Two days later, the Collectiva was out again to this settlement near the prosperous city of San Juan de Maguana.

Organised and divided into teams, the Collectiva commandeered the settlement of 150 people, creating an areas for vaccinations, for private doctor&#39s consultations, for meetings with the psychologists, for entertaining the children and yet another for the distribution of the material aid.

Raphael Polanco Peralta, press officer in the government&#39s Department of Water Resources, described the damage.

"It rained continuously for more than seven days," he told IPS. "Rivers flooded with no warning. Two of our dams were overwhelmed."

Many residents lost not only their homes and possessions but their livelihoods as well.

According to World Bank statistics, 42 percent of the population is poor and 16 percent live below the extreme poverty level of one dollar a day.

"The greatest tragedy is the loss of life. From that we will never recover," Peralta said. "If we have the resources, which are not in our current national budget, we can perhaps repair the damage to the dams and reservoirs within a few months. But who knows how long it will take for the agriculture to recover?"

"We were fortunate in two things: the tourist developments on the north and east coasts were not affected and the major rice harvest was already finished. But the crops which were most affected, the rice, the plantains, these are our staples. These are what the people eat every day."

The two overflowing dams resulted in the most damage to agriculture, in the northeast provinces of Duarte, Maria Trinidad Sanchez and the southern provinces of Azua and Barahona.

"It is a low-lying area, with lots of water in it already as rice needs a lot of water to grow. But now there is nowhere for the additional water to go. There is nothing but sunshine that will dry this area out," said Peralta.

Traveling west from the capital of Santo Domingo, through Bani and Azua, the major rivers have subsided, leaving large stone river beds. The floodwaters cut through the high embankments like a cleaver, exposing as much as seven metres of fresh soil. A week after the storm, water was still gushing off of one plantain field into the ditch at the side of the road. Other fields, covered in mud, showed ordered humps that betrayed a neatly prepared and planted field underneath.

The outpouring of aid both from within the nation, from the Dominican diaspora and the international community has been swift and profound. Yet it may take weeks and months for the aid to arrive and normal life to resume. Many schools are still being used as shelters. National examinations have been postponed.

Rains are predicted again for the rest of the week. A heavy rainstorm came again that afternoon beside the Bao River, forcing the volunteers to crowd into the small houses.

The owner of one house, which had served as the pharmacy, stood proud and unflinching next to wife and four children. With simple resignation, tinged with neither anger nor resentment, he said: "We have lost everything now. The water took away our land which we built. Now there is nothing. We will have to chop wood to sell for charcoal."

By dusk, the rock and dirt road had turned to mud. The large truck did not appear so the women walked back the three kilometres to the banks of the river. They ended their 16-hour day by crossing the Bao on foot, in swirling water rising to their thighs.

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By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
PEDERNALES, Dominican Republic, Jul 12 2007 (IPS)

The border between Anse a Pitres in Haiti and Pedernales in the Dominican Republic, both seven hours from their respective capitals, is barred only by a chain that pedestrians can easily cross.

Unlike some other crossings that are tightly controlled, Haitians pass freely back and forth during the week. No immigration checks occur until buses are stopped at the fort leaving the town.

Still, relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic are so delicate that the theft of a motorbike, which precipitated a melee along the Pedernales River last week, drew the intervention of the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti and representatives of both the national governments.

The governors of Pedernales and the Departmente du Sud Est from Port au Prince met last week on the southern border to publicly demonstrate that there was no conflict between the two nations.

In the Jul. 4 incident, a Haitian was accused of stealing a motorbike from the Dominican side. A number of Dominicans crossed into Anse a Pitres and started to beat him up. A lot more Haitians arrived to aid the accused. In the end, there were as many as 200 people gathered on the banks of the river fighting with rocks and machetes.

Local residents, including Ramon Mateus, director of Plan International, and Frederico Oscaldo, the Haitian consul in Pedernales, insist that the altercation, in which eight people were wounded, was merely infighting among gang members.

“It is an organised gang of delinquents who regularly steal motorbikes from the Dominican side and sell them on the Haitian side. This is an ongoing problem,” Oscaldo said.

Mateus, whose office works to promote friendship between the residents and dispel any ideas of “anti-Haitianismo”, added that, “The people in Anse a Pitres are country people, not sophisticated. They could not be regularly stealing motorbikes without the cooperation of people on the Dominican side.”

This belief was shared by Marino José, owner of the Hotel Dona Chava, a lifelong resident of Pedernales who himself has never crossed over the border into Haiti.

“Certainly it is a gang of delinquents,” he said. “The Haitians could not be doing it alone. They could not be wandering about stealing without someone catching them.”

José said that young Dominicans have crossed over into Haiti to get their bikes back. But if the bikes have been seized by the Haitian authorities, which often happens if they discover that a Haitian has a bike with Dominican identification plates, they require them to pay a “recovery fee” that is sometimes more than the bike is worth.

There is also a large population of Colombian nationals living in Pedernales who own several apartment buildings, and a concrete company, along with a dock with a ship on the deep water port of Cabo Rojo. The company has not been producing concrete for the last year.

The 20,000 residents of Anse-A-Pitres, which has no electricity, live primarily through fishing, although few of their boats have motors so that they do not catch as much as the motorboats which leave from the Dominican side and can go further out.

Many of the women go into Pedernales during the day to perform domestic labour in Dominican homes. A wage of 50 dollars a month is typical, and there are many more people looking for work than there are jobs available. One Haitian woman working at a local hotel is paid 65 dollars a month for seven days a week, 12 hours a day.

Mateus challenges the local custom of keeping young Haitian girls to do housework in Dominican homes for room and board only, with no salary.

“I have been at meetings with Dominican women, high-level women, who have these girls of 13 years old at their homes. They do not pay them. They do not send them to school. I say to them that this is a form of slavery. They say that it is not, that they are giving them a place to live and food. But if you are not sending them to school and not paying them, what do you call it?” he said.

On market days in Pedernales, Mondays and Fridays, the consul on the Haitian side and his assistant and two customs officials on the Dominican side eye the goods coming out of the market and determine the duty on the spot. There are no set customs duties posted. Neither official could give an estimate of how much money changed hands during the two market days every week.

Marino José says that the director of customs is building a new house. “The front door alone costs 50,000 pesos. His salary is only 15,000. How is this possible? I have watched them collect the customs. There is no paperwork, no records.”

Recently there has been a tightening of controls on Haitians arriving without proper passports and visas. Three hours before the local bus from Santo Domingo arrived in Pedernales, the bus driver received a phone call.

“Two or three, you say?” he commented.

At the next military checkpoint, he turned to the fare collector and pointed out one of the guards, saying: “Go talk to that one.” When the fare collector got back on the bus, he told the driver: “He says we can only bring in two and he wants 300 pesos each.” The driver said: “That means that we will charge them 1,200 pesos” – about 36 dollars.

Jose says that the military men at the border checkpoints are paid the minimum wage, about 120-150 dollars a month. If a bus stops and is not carrying any undocumented Haitians, the officer will say to the driver: “You are not bringing anything. You are not bringing a livelihood.”

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By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
SANTO DOMINGO, Jun 20 2007 (IPS)

On a recent trip from Pedernales, the most southern province on the border with Haiti, Dominican officials boarded the bus 12 separate times.

Anti-Haitian protestors burn tires in Los Llanos, Dominican Republic. Credit: Uncommon Productions

The heightened security follows reports that Haitians were entering the Dominican Republic by paying off border guards, and an outcry among many Dominicans who fear that their nation will be overrun with Haitian immigrants escaping poverty and environmental degradation.

In response, the Dominican Republic government has increased the guards’ salaries and launched a new military frontier force which recently held exercises geared to restraining a massive influx of Haitian refugees.

Plainclothes government officials now stop the buses inbound from the Haitian border.

The majority of the passengers on the journey from Pedernales presented Haitian passports, which had cost them 75 dollars, about 15 percent of the average national income, and single and multiple entry visas which cost between 33 and 150 dollars.

Riders on the bus confirmed that until a few months ago, it was possible to enter the country by simply paying off the driver, who would negotiate passage with the border guards.

“We could come with nothing, no papers, only money,” said one of the women. “Now we must have papers.”

The Haitian men said that they were coming to work, that there were no jobs in Haiti. But none of their visas gave them the legal right to work.

A new law, which would formalise the status of temporary workers, was passed in 2004 but needs a presidential protocol to be implemented. The Dominican Republic is heavily dependent on Haitian workers, who perform an estimated 60 percent of the agricultural labour and much of the construction work. Few of the newer Haitian workers come to look for work in the sugar cane fields, preferring to live in the cities or look for other agricultural work.

The Dominican Republic has been accused of “modern-day slavery” in two films about the living conditions among sugar cane cutters, now showing in France and the United States. There have also been negative reports by Amnesty International and an internal and international campaign on behalf of Dominican-Haitians without documentation.

One result has been an upsurge in nationalistic sentiment. Moderate voices have been overwhelmed as local newspapers publish letter after letter conveying the fears of many Dominicans that their nation, traditionally “white, Spanish, and Christian”, will be overtaken by Haitians, from whose rule they gained independence in 1844.

The accusations of abuses against Haitian migrants have been taken by many here as attacks on the entire nation. The sugar industry was privatised in 1999, but sugar and its by-product, rum, were for centuries the backbone of the Dominican economy. Leaders in the tourism industry, now the main economic engine, fear that calls for sanctions and boycotts against the nation will affect revenues.

Following the settlement of a 10-year-long case at the International Human Rights Court in Costa Rica, a non-binding judicial arm of the Organisation of American States, the Dominican Supreme Court reasserted its sovereignty by stating that it would not grant citizenship to the children of illegal workers, as the court had recommended, but would instead establish a “rose book” for the registration of the births of children of foreign nationals. Edwin Paraison, director of Foundation Zile and a former Haitian consul working for the rights of Haitians in the Dominican Republic, supports the “rose book”.

He believes that the sugar cane workers do indeed live in conditions of modern slavery, but speaking of the “rose book”, Paraison says: “It is a first step. At least all children will have a record of birth and we can work from there, to get them official documents, either from Haiti or here.”

“There are as many as 600,000 Haitians living in this country, but only 5-6,000 of them have proper legal status,” he emphasised.

All the others are living in conditions of insecurity, subject to deportation at any moment. However, massive deportations of Haitians have slowed down, with only 5,000 registered in the first five months of this year as opposed to an estimated 20,000 last year.

Paraison also urges implementation of the new migration law. “Bosses call the police to have Haitian workers deported so they don’t have to pay them,” he added.

This abuse was confirmed by Luis Manuel Ramirez, representative of the International Organisation for Migration, based in Geneva.

“Employers often call the police to have Haitian workers deported to avoid paying them, this is true,” he told IPS.

Working with the Dominican government from the local office in Santo Domingo to ensure that deportations are done in a humane manner, and that deportees can collect their pay and notify their families, Ramirez says: “Things are a bit better over the last two years. They are transported in buses, not open trucks. They are fed while they are in custody. Fewer children are being taken.”

While the IOM takes no position on citizenship, deeming that a Dominican domestic matter, Ramirez believes that “conditions will improve once the new law is implemented.”

Contrary to the impression that all Haitians live under appalling conditions in the Dominican Republic, evidence suggests that the majority of them live as well as their poor Dominican neighbours.

A nationwide survey (Encuesta sobre Inmigrantes Haitianos en Republica Dominicana, 2004 by FLACSO, Facultad Latinoamericana de Cience Sociales) of a representative 40,000 households found that over 70 percent of the Haitians lived with electric lights, beds with mattresses, toilets and city supplied water.

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