Monday, May 25, 2015

Unjust Corruption and downsides of Dominican Republic

For as much as I love their transparent turquoise Caribbean ocean and their prolific tropical fruit supply, my aversion to Dominican Republic as a country slightly surpasses the admiration. It is the built-up anger from everyday encounter that got the better of me to finally reveal the ugly truth of this place. At first when I first arrived in town, I was upset at my foreign friends who have been here for months for being rude to the locals, but now I understand their motives more than anyone else. 

1. Ignorant and uneducated people

Dominicans perceive all Asian-looking people as some copy-and-paste figures categorized as 'la china/el chino'( the Chinese). For every single step I took, there were at least 2 people shouting 'hola la China!', 'mirami chinita (look at me, little chinese girl!)' Or some 'ching ching chong'. The cleaner at the hostel I worked at remembered every single person's name but mine to her was simply'China'. Don't get me wrong, she was sweet and nice to me, just ignorant. 50 times a day and 41 days consecutively being labeled 'la china', sometimes the word gave me a terrible shiver and it started ringing inside my head as soon as I closed my eyes in bed at night. I convinced myself not to be mad because these people were simply unfortunate to not have had the luck for some good education. They had no idea their expression of curiosity about this new rarity that was roaming about town was offensive. 

2. sanky panky and shameless sexual harassment 

Sankies refer to local dominican men that attempt to make foreign women fall in love with them, get them pregnant,hence a marriage visa to a new land of hope. They sound cunning and brazen but at least they put an effort in being gentlemen to women; a lot of Dominican men (regardless of age) simply harass exotic women on the street with flying kisses, 'sip sip sip'(women are not dogs!) 'my baby', 'mi amor/my love, I love you'. 'I want you to be my girlfriend' the very second they catch a glimpse of them. The worst in fact would be those creepy sexual insinuations such as '¿te gusta la pasión?( do you like passion?)'and '¿no quieres tener sensación?(don't you want to have sensation?)' 

3. Lack of proper and up-to-standard medical system 

There are a lot of villages with no proper hospital or clinical setting. Not all, but there are certainly doctors that barely finished university but managed to buy themselves medical license. When my friend had a car accident, a rusty needle was used to sew up his wounds. His reputable insurance company in England had later paid for his bills, yet, those Dominicans claimed that they did not receive any payment. One night, he was dragged by a police with a real gun pointing at him to an ATM. He was  forced to withdraw twice as much as the amount he was supposed to pay. 

4.Whites (gringos) are always at fault

In Dominican Republic, you do not need to do anything wrong to be found guilty. If you are a foreign white person, you are most likely guilty when someone crashed your bike. The friend I mentioned above was tailgated and hit by a big car from the back. The car driver remained unharmed and healthy whereas my friend was bleeding a river, and was asked to cover thousands of dollars of compensation. Police involvement is the last thing a white person want in this country. Once the police is involved, all of your bank saving might end up being split amongst police officers. Besides, witnesses could be paid to lie about the entire situation.

5. Dishonest Money sucker

Everything is up for negotiation. Regulation or standard price almost does not exist. It could be a good things, but for people that are not familiar with the living prices here, they would innocently be overcharged. Getting around from places to places is always the biggest annoyance.There are different types of transportation in Dominican Republic, for instance, taxi ( which is split among up to 8 people in a regular 4-seat 4-door), guagua( mini bus), and motor taxi( literally a motorbike as a taxi). When I first arrived downtown Cabarete, a sincere-looking motor taxi driver convinced me that the hostel I worked at was very far, so he asked for $200pesos. After a while of living in town, I realized downtown Cabarete and the hostel are within walking distance. The reasonable price would be $25-50 pesos. Another time, the exact same thing happened to a new hostel comer, I firmly defended for our new customer and told the driver off when the traveler was about to pay $200 pesos. The driver's defense was 'I know he is a tourist that doesn't know anything about this town, but that was our deal, he promised to give me $200pesos as a gift'. 

6. Lawless and CORRUPTION

In a country where police goes around to hit on girls is considered the thief, you can really trust nobody. A local friend of mine has received 5 driving tickets. I picked them up and asked him how much were they. Without hesitation, he replied 'I don't know, I have never paid. Here no one pays, we just pay the cops.' If that is not worst enough, let me share a story about a pin bursting a ballon filled up with an element called 'the insupportable'. 

On a Saturday, I was excited to move on to my next destination-Italy. My italian family and friends were anticipating my arrival. I checked in at a small airport, la roman airport 3.5 hours before the boarding time. I passed the hand carry scan ( they didn't even notice my full water bottle). I was halted at the proceeded custom desk. The first thing she said was 'you need a visa to Italy.' I hold a 'Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the Republic of China' passport. Yes, there is the the word China, but it is obviously not a China passport. Hong Kong passport is ranked 30th on the list of the world's best passport while China passport sinked down the bottom. On official italian as well as Hong Kong immigration pages stated clearly that Hong Kong citizen is privileged to access Italy visa-free. 


I spent hours explaining to them that Hong Kong is not the same as China, hence I do not need a visa. After all the proof I showed them, they simply changed their argument to' I get it, but either way our list says so' and 'well, perhaps you are not allowed to enter because you were in Honduras before and you hold an American visa'. Perhaps? Perhaps cannot be a reason. No one from Hong Kong ever needs a visa to Europe but me because I am departing from this backward country? I have not seen any official proclaim that says support their claim? The last time I asked them, they gave me such absurd respond 'el jefe no quiere (the boss doesn't want to)' to kick me out of the airport. I asked them to sign off a letter or anything official stating clearly why I was not allowed to leave the country. The airline company, Meridiana, claimed that the custom was responsible for that, the customs referred me to Meridiana. The flight attendance of Meridiana said it might be the custom/airline in Italy that rejected my entry. It was apparent that the custom conspired with the airline company to not let me leave at all cost ( even if it means to make up trashy bullshit) in hope that I would be smart enough to offer them couple dollars as tribute. 


Dream on! I do not support corruption! 


There was not a personnel in the airport that speaks fluent English and some of the Meridiana staff shouted 'la china next'. The whole conversation of 3 hours was conducted in Spanish. But If it were to happen to tourists that don't speak any spanish at all, they wouldn't even have a chance to defend for themselves. 


It was unfortunate that unpleasant events never stop happening in this country, but we should not give up on appreciating the 15% of great Dominicans( I was helped by a gentle dominican and a sweet Romanian at the airport, and I am forever grateful to them), the magnificent beaches, nice latin music, and the freedom for creation and enjoyment this country encourages.

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