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Lake Sumatre, on the DR-Haiti border.
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UNITED NATIONS, NY.- Dominican Republic and Haiti yesterday signed an agreement to protect the lakes located along their border, with the support of the UN’s Environment Development, and World Food programs.

The pact aims to develop strategies by both nations to conserve and protect the water resources, which have been exceeding their normal levels, placing the lives and properties of thousands of people at risk.

The document signed by diplomats of both countries states that in addition to the devastating effect to biological diversity and agriculture, the overflowed lakes have significantly damaged the roadways along the border.

Moreover, the flooding jeopardizes the zone’s poorest communities, affecting their means of subsistence, mainly agriculture.

The two most threatened lakes by flooding are Enriquillo on the Dominican side and Azuei in Haiti, where despite the lack of torrential rains this year, their levels continue raising.

As part of the UN agreement the lakes, located at the foot of high mountains will be the subject of research on their importance as water sources and also to an ambitious reforestation program.

The Dominican and Haitian officials also pledged to work to reduce erosion and promote development to increase the income of the affected zones’ inhabitants.

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COMMENTS
33 comment(s)
Written by: eddiearkadian, 18 Dec 2009 11:18 AM
From: United States, Chicago, IL
They can "agree" all day, money talks, more money talks more. UN food programe better be coming with more money and have corruption already factored into the budget. Good Morning!!!
Written by: Blutarsky This user is banned, 18 Dec 2009 11:32 AM
From: Dominican Republic, No Spin Zone
they always agree to agree
Written by: BorderGuy, 18 Dec 2009 11:39 AM
From: Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo
Given that both lakes are salt water lakes, I wonder how the UN plans on using them as water sources?
Written by: bernies, 18 Dec 2009 12:20 PM
From: United States, key west fl
Borderguy, the same way that other islands like Curacao and Aruba are doing it, by converting sea salty water in to drinkable water for human consumptions.
Written by: BorderGuy, 18 Dec 2009 12:40 PM
From: Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo
Do you really think that the UN will propose installing a desalination plant on this lake as a means of reducing the lake level--wouldn't it make far more sense to install that on the sea directly?
Written by: xwill7, 18 Dec 2009 12:50 PM
From: United States, El cuarto bate
use the treated sea water for the car washes
Written by: glomarexplorer, 18 Dec 2009 12:52 PM
From: United States, Fresh Water Paradise-NY Finger Lakes

With the stellar conservation record both these countries enjoy, we should all sleep better tonight.
Written by: TanBellaMami This user is banned, 18 Dec 2009 1:24 PM
From: Dominican Republic, Cabarete

This is an example of bilateral talk most extreme radical pundits fear. The radicals know if both nations start to engage bilaterally in efforts to solve issues on the island that they will be out of a job.

Watch, I will not even see much complement for the effort agreement reached as stated this article keep a look out instead for how many will tarnish this article by projecting negativity rather than positivity of what this little step actually means for both sides. I say this is a step toward other possibilities in fixing some other environmental issues such as deforestation and perhaps maybe both nations might be able to start tackling some social issues as well.

I feel there is reason to hope and believe there will be better days for Hispaniola especially if these Copenhagen buffoons come t some tangible agreements.
Written by: oupala07 This user is banned, 18 Dec 2009 4:49 PM
From: Canada
There are several answers to your enquiry borderguy. Among others you have:

1- Electrolysis which is the decomposition of water (H2O) into oxygen (O2) and hydrogen gas (H2) due to an electric current being passed through the water.

2- Reverse Osmosis.
More info here: http://www.allaboutwater.org/reverse-osmosis.html

3- Distillation
More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distillation

Personally, I prefer the first and the third because they are more efficient and less dangerous for the human body.

Written by: oupala07 This user is banned, 18 Dec 2009 5:04 PM
From: Canada
I totally agree with your comment TanBellaMami,

The way your pseudo is written makes me think of something I read about how the hungarian programmers write their variables names.

This being said, I have to tell you that I agree to desagree with you about the name of the island. You can keep callng it Hispaniola, but we the Westerners prefer a less colonial name, and that is the reason why we have rejected all name that would have reminded us of the old colonial masters/owners. Therefore, you can enjoy Hispaniola from your side, and we Haitians will stick to Haiti, Quisqueya and Bohio, the same names the Tainos, the Arrawaks and the Caribes used to call it.

Written by: oupala07 This user is banned, 18 Dec 2009 5:06 PM
From: Canada
Let's try to keep the good relationship flame alive, because all of us need to take a leap back and realize that this island, for being the starting point of the colonisation of an entire new world, should be the socio economic power house of the Americas. And it is a pity that so many among us, from both sides, are not educated and unselfish enough to understand just that.
Written by: oupala07 This user is banned, 18 Dec 2009 5:26 PM
From: Canada
"Do you really think that the UN will propose installing a desalination plant on this lake as a means of reducing the lake level--wouldn't it make far more sense to install that on the sea directly?"

This is a real clever question Borderguy. In fact, I believe that we must leave our lakes alone and let the caymans enjoy their stay there. The island has enough shoreline and coastal water in order to built dozens of desalination plants.

Therefore, since, according to your pseudo, you seem to live in the border area and maybe in the vicinity of those lakes, I advise you to be on the watch and mobilize people from both side of the border, as soon as those international bozos will be moved by the idea of destroying our lakes. Because, unless they are directly connected to the sea (which I suspect), taking water from them, will rapidly lower their water level, and we run the risk to see our beautiful bodies of water ending like Lake Tchad in Africa.
Written by: Lautaro, 18 Dec 2009 5:45 PM
From: Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo
I agree with leaving the lakes alone. In fact, I'd go as far as suggesting to move the people living near those lakes as far away from them as possible, cuz' the intensive slash and burn agrarian practices of the peasants on both sides of the island (what we call conuquismo over here) are the main responsible for putting the flora and fauna of those lakes on the verge of extinction, specially the iguanas and alligators. It would be better for the governments to forbid the establishment of human settlements on the area and let nature take its course for the years to come.
Written by: oupala07 This user is banned, 18 Dec 2009 6:21 PM
From: Canada
Welcome back mister Lautaro,

I am pretty certain the reason why you have decided to pay us a visit today, is because the forum starts to smell good. I hope we could keep it that way and avoid to pollute it with... well! Ya know...

This being said, I cannot agree more with you my friend. However, what we must understand is that our leaders, either they're not motivated enough by the steady destruction of the island ecology, or they simply drop their arms in front of the task to protect it. As a matter of fact, when you are dealing with illiterate citizens like in my country, you must use the system of carrot and stick in other to have them to collaborate to your program.

I suggest that the two governments organize teams of ecology advisors whose goal will be to instruct the peasants of the necessity to protect the environment and how to achieve that. We could start by providing them some alternate source of energy in order to sway them away from the tree cutting.
Written by: oupala07 This user is banned, 18 Dec 2009 6:28 PM
From: Canada
We could teach them how to protect the mountain slopes and assist them in that task. And more importantly, we could create a corps of environment rangers whose duty and mission will be to keep the border area ecologically sane and clean.
How do we realize all this, well, the ball is in our politicians camp because you and I have done our share with our suggestions.
Written by: Sajomero, 18 Dec 2009 7:40 PM
From: United States, Del primer Santiago de America....y el mejor!!!
I don't think that the UNs proposal is for the lakes to become a "fresh" water source. Its not feasable. The lakes are also in the Biosphere reserve as well as the national park where no such plant can be built. DR has plenty of water sources to supply water to both sides of the island, they just aren't managed well or developed. With the new dam at Monte Grande, the whole southern region will have a huge water supply. DR should do like Cuba with water conservation and distribution, where a really good infrastructure has been developed. This region needs to be closely watched for a lot of poor peasants in the area can only make it worse if left unsupervised.
Written by: TanBellaMami This user is banned, 18 Dec 2009 8:21 PM
From: Dominican Republic, Cabarete
I of all people support a new name for the island which is not affiliated with any colonial trends. Thus I am all for the other three names the island had during the time of the indigenous Hayti, Quisqueya or Bohio indeed. However since I know both side die to their known resentments for each other are going to spar on this, I suggest we both go for Bohio.
Written by: glomarexplorer, 18 Dec 2009 9:50 PM
From: United States, Fresh Water Paradise-NY Finger Lakes

Oupala,

I don't always agree with you, but some of the content of your statements above make sense to me, particularly those concerning preservation

I just hope the evolution of the story will remain civil, for the rest of the topics you raise have always instigated the ire of some forum contributors. Perhaps the eloquent Lautaro and Dagtan will help keep the dialogue intelligent and firmly planted. Let's just hope so.

MJEV.
Written by: Lautaro, 18 Dec 2009 10:02 PM
From: Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo
Well oupala, I don't know if you (or anyone here) will agree with me on this, but I have always felt that, if we really want the island to prosper, we have to tone down our natural subsistence farming and herding inclinations and instead become a seafaring people, more in accordance with our status as an island. We have to revive the "Mare Liberum" theory of the inmortal Hugo Grotius and tell the international bozos out there (specially the UK, which have taken a lot of our territorial waters with impunity) that we have as much a right as they have to earn our sustenance from the sea. Maybe it's the sailor in me that is making me to tell this, but I can't help but being dazzled whenever I look in the direction of the empire of Japan, an archipielago with few to none natural resources of note, but with a people that have defied the elements to be where they are now, and whose first steps as an empire where taken when they were but simple fishermen.
Written by: oupala07 This user is banned, 20 Dec 2009 10:17 AM
From: Canada
TanbellaMami,

Once again, we Haitians have no problem with the island name or names. For more than 200 hundred years we’ve been calling it Haiti, Quisqueya and/or Bohio. Our “Sambas” (Arrawak word meaning poet and song composer) have been celebrating those names for ages. When you’ll finally open your eyes and discover the truth, I am pretty sure you’ll be as proud as us Haitian Westerners in bearing those same beautiful names. Let me se if I can find one for you. How about “Republic of East Haiti?” There are two Koreas, two Yemens, Two Timors, two Carolinas, two Dakotas, two Cyprus, two China and finally fifty American states. So what’s wrong about sharing a name with your black neighbours if not sheer racism? Do the Americans make a fuss about naming one of their fifty states “New Mexico”? How do you think the inhabitants of that state call themselves? Whether it is New Mexicans or simply Mexicans, it proves that you can share a name with another state and be proud it.
Written by: oupala07 This user is banned, 20 Dec 2009 10:27 AM
From: Canada
"I just hope the evolution of the story will remain civil, for the rest of the topics you raise have always instigated the ire of some forum contributors."

Thank you Glomarexplorer,

As I said previously and numerous times, I don't start fight but I finish them. I will never intentionally hurt someone feeling if he does not throw insults at me the way some of you are enjoying doing it. And until now, we Haitians are the subject of all kind of racist slurs and bigotry expressions from some die hard ... well, ya know...
However, as I promised a friend, I will stop answering tit for that to them, because I have realized that only the deranged, the uneducated and the frustrated ones are vitriolic toward my people and country. The others educated ones understand perfectly the situation, and are willing to discuss it with the most civilized manner possible. You must understand that we have semi educated peasants from both sides of the border, why not ignoring them all?
Written by: oupala07 This user is banned, 20 Dec 2009 10:51 AM
From: Canada
My friend Lautaro,

Once again, you are right in the money. I remember a hot debate I had last year with some of my countrymen on the various reasons responsible for our demise as an ex military and economic power house. I told them as an island nation, we and the Dominican Republic should have been maritime power houses, and we should have been able to dominate and be the cops of the Caribbean. That would have taken us directly into conflict with the colonial powers and the United States, but even if we’d have been vanquished, we would have surely earned a lot of respect from them, because nations tend to respect other nations that give them a hard time during their existence. That is the reason why Russia and China are nursing a profound respect for the Japanese because that small nation (compared to the landmass of the two others), have been kicking their butt for centuries.
Written by: oupala07 This user is banned, 20 Dec 2009 10:53 AM
From: Canada
Our forefathers have simply forgotten that when you are living in a place surrounded from all sides by the sea, your very first instinct of survival should be to built yourself the most powerful and defensive fleet as possible. We have never thought about doing that and look at the result: Haiti and the Dominican republic, the very first European settlement in the Americas, and the very first independent state in the Caribbean and the Americas after the United States, are simply mere economic colonies for the same colonial powers your ancestors and I have fought in Cuba, in South America and in our island.
Written by: oupala07 This user is banned, 20 Dec 2009 10:56 AM
From: Canada
And I find it really sad that, just because of skin color (and it is a fact) that the two sister nations can’t find a way to make this island an economic and military power house the same way Japan and tiny little Singapore have managed to do. I guess everything is a question of education, for only educated people are fitted with enough brain power and stamina, which will enable them to think and understand what must be done in order to insure the long term future of their country and people. And if our people keep following this submissive path, we will still be regarded as kids whose parents must constantly feed and help cross the street lights at the corner.

Written by: JRRubirosa, 20 Dec 2009 7:00 PM
From: United States, Port Washington, LI (New York)
Dominican Republic or Quisqueya la bella for Dominicans (our side of the island)

We could care less how the "Creol people" want to call to their side of the island.
Written by: oupala07 This user is banned, 20 Dec 2009 9:12 PM
From: Canada
Like the one who just wrote a stupid comment, but he/she is forgivable, because like a I said, only half educated dud can "crash and burn" like that.
Written by: Pepe32, 22 Dec 2009 3:46 PM
From: Dominican Republic
"Our “Sambas” (Arrawak word meaning poet and song composer)"

There are several versions about the birth of the word "samba". One of them claims to be from the words "Zambra" or "Zamba", come from Arabic, having been born more precisely when invasion of the Moors to Iberian Peninsula in VIII century. Another says it is originating from one of many African languages, possibly the Kimbundu, where "sam" means "give" and "ba" means "receive" or "thing falls".
In Brazil, folklorists suggest that the word "samba" is a corruption of the Kikongo word "Semba", translated as "umbigada" in Portuguese, meaning "a blow struck with the belly button".[4]
Written by: Pepe32, 22 Dec 2009 3:58 PM
From: Dominican Republic
As far as the lake topic ,I agree ...on the other hand on the name for the island ,as far as we are concerned we already have a name for the island and we could care less if our neighbors don't like it. They came in the late 1700's anyhow and have no real ties to the original inhabitants.

As far as removing all ties to the colonial past that is ludicrous ,they would have to start by renaming Port au Prince,St Michel,Mirebalais,St Marc and most of their towns and cities while we have many cities and provinces and regions dedicated to our original inhabitants (Jacagua,Cibao,Maguana,Bayaguana,Nagua,Bayahibe etc. )

We are a product of ALL three of our backgrounds and they are all a part of our culture ,our island is La Española (Hispaniola) and our nation is La República Dominicana... now if our neighbours want to change their name to Western Hispaniola ,no problem ...otherwise you do on your side what you want and leave us the f..k alone!
Written by: Pepe32, 22 Dec 2009 4:00 PM
From: Dominican Republic
Rubi ,it´s funny that the dude that has spread the largest amount of excrement in this forum (outside brasilenos and his many clones) thinks himself an intellectual....

Written by: poponlaburra, 26 Dec 2009 6:51 PM
From: Dominican Republic, Civil Rights and Peace Activist for Our Dominican People
We need to preserve our environment, with a border wall! Nothing will stop the destruction of and the cutting of our trees, only an environmental border wall protection will fix the problem first.

It’s quite estrange, years ago I never heard of any Haitians calling themselves Quisqueyanos, only Dominicans used to call themselves Quisqueyanos, even our Hymn calls us Quisqueyanos, but for a very strange reason, lately, lots of Haitians, especially at this forum have started to call themselves Quisqueyanos?! And obviously that was the name of the island before its people parted away, the Haitians to the west and the Spanish/Tainos descendants to the east. I wonder?!
Written by: eddiearkadian, 26 Dec 2009 11:49 PM
From: United States, Chicago, IL
Kiskeya (no matter how you spell it) has always been an important term for Haitians, who have always viewed themselves as being of Kiskeya. We're not as hardcore with the term as Dominicans but its still a part of the national identity. Although Haitians don't have as much native blood as Dominicans, that has always been a highly venerated part of our history. Anacaona, Kiskeya, Taino/a, have always been a standard part of Haitian vocabulary. Just google a bunch of words like that next to Haiti and you will find no shortage of thier use in Haitian history, literature (even E. Danticat had a book about Anacaona), art, music, names of schools, organizations, restaurants etc. Haiti itself is one of the original names for the land along with Quisqueya, Bohio. Haitians are well aware of this history and view it as theirs. There's even a branch of vodou, Petwo, that is Taino derived and has no direct African equivalent.
Written by: oupala07 This user is banned, 27 Dec 2009 4:46 AM
From: Canada
"It’s quite estrange, years ago I never heard of any Haitians calling themselves Quisqueyanos, only Dominicans used to call themselves Quisqueyanos, even our Hymn calls us Quisqueyanos, but for a very strange reason, lately, lots of Haitians, especially at this forum have started to call themselves Quisqueyanos?! "

We don't have to keep calling ourselves Quisqueyans in order for the whole world to understand that we are from the island of Quisqueya, because once we changed the island's name in 1804, all inhabitants of the ex French colony of St Domingue have inherited a new nationality, and it was based on the names the Arrawaks and the Caribs have always called this island, and they are, once more and for your information : Haiti, Quisqueya and Bohio. You want your own name? Go get something else, and stop copying everything we do, and try taking the credit for it. Didn't you help the Yankee destroy our country, and go trumpet all over the world that we're a failed state?

Written by: oupala07 This user is banned, 27 Dec 2009 4:52 AM
From: Canada
"Haitians are well aware of this history and view it as theirs. There's even a branch of vodou, Petwo, that is Taino derived and has no direct African equivalent."

Those new comers in the World have no idea how we Haitians are deeply rooted to this island. They think just because a few of their ancestors have been born here, they have more right to this land than us, while they do not know shit about its history and its culture. One way or the other, when we will be ready, we will rule the island again, and them included. Who knows we might be their saviour again, because we Haitians, can't let the foreign Corporations grabbed all the Eastern part of Quisqueya. Therefore, we will have to free the land and demographically and economically.

Oh! What's up pea soup brain Pepe32? As I can see, you are looking for an audience which is not listening to you. Would you mind yelling your insults louder? Maybe someone will pay attention. LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL
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