This EXTREMELY offensive op-ed appeared in FOX news today:

Haiti Should Merge With the Dominican Republic

Nothing short of a radical approach will lead Haiti's people to a better future.


As someone who has lived in several places in the Caribbean, I am well aware of the fragility and pride that exist in the nations there. I have been able to visit Haiti many times and I’ve seen firsthand the misery that saturates the entire country.

The 7.0 earthquake that rocked Haiti to its very foundation, is just the latest in a string of seemingly endless tragedies.

Let me start with a little history. Haiti, a nation neighboring the Dominican Republic to its east, is on the island Hispaniola. Hispaniola was discovered -- well before what we now call North America -- by Christopher Columbus.

Like other Caribbean nations, Haiti saw its share of upheaval as it went from Spanish control to British, Dutch and eventually being taken over by the French. It fought and won its independence in the 1800s, but at a heavy price.

In 1957, Dr. Francios Duvalier was elected the country’ president. During his early years, Duvalier was known for his humanitarian efforts, which quickly disappeared into one of modern history’s most corrupt and repressive regimes.

Under Duvalier it is estimated that 30,000 Haitians lost their lives. In 1964, “Papa Doc,” as Duvalier was then known, declared himself, “President for Life.” The Tonton Macoutes, a paramilitary group was put under his control. They were created with the simple purpose of enforcing Duvalier’s will by way of threats, voodoo and other forms of intimidation.

After “Papa Doc” died in 1971, his son, Jean-Claude, was placed in power and control of Haiti. “Baby Doc” as he became to be known, stole hundreds of millions through the tobacco administration.

In 1986, Duvalier resigned from power and left to live in exile, but not without sending Haiti deeper into economic despair.

Fast forward to 2010. The 7.0 earthquake has taken a country already in deep despair to utterly dire straits. Haiti now has two options if it is to survive.

The first option is to leave things as they are. To stick with the status quo, in other words. This would mean a continuation of policies (or lack thereof) that have already created many problems: piecemeal assistance in the form of aid from around the world, little enforcement of the rule of law and little oversight with just a sliver of hope for a brighter future for Haiti.

The second and more radical option is to integrate Haiti with the Dominican Republic. Like the reunification of East Germany and West Germany, there will be structural, political and sovereignty issues to contend with.

Haiti is a destitute nation that suffers not only from the lack of a strategic vision of what it should be, but also from a lack of any kind of effective leadership.

Haiti is a nation where government has little if any powers. There are only a few people in the Haitian government -- and that number could be even smaller now -- who possess the will, skills and know-how required for true nation building.

Instead there is widespread corruption throughout the government at all levels and an unemployment rate that exceeds eighty percent. It is a country in which many go hungry every day and resort to eating “clay pies” made of dirt. Corruption, unemployment and yes, hunger, exists in many developed nations, and even in the mightiest of them all, the United States of America -- but nowhere is this as pervasive as in Haiti.

I propose that Haiti be merged with the Dominican Republic.

My proposal is to use a business-style approach much like that used by major corporations where the merger process brings forth each company's strengths and weaknesses, and like the merger of two corporations, each can be analyzed to assure that the new company will be an entity that will bring about positive and long lasting change.

This new nation state, perhaps called the “Dominican Haiti Republic”, can evolve into a nation with a combined population of 19 million, who would be able to harness its natural resources collaboratively and govern in unison.

There will inevitably be power struggles and fights over who gets what and how, and who will lead this new nation, but just like the merger of major corporations, these issues can be re-mediated at the beginning.

Economic powers from throughout the world can come together to provide guidance and funds for this bold initiative, rather then just funding something that has failed to provide even a semblance of a return on investment.

Of course, there will be those critics who will deride this as too much experimentation with a nation that has refused to accept change, but I say this, that doing nothing will continue to perpetuate a vicious cycle in which Haitians will only survive in the smallest of senses; while others will seek to migrate to other places in order to find a better life.

We are all now opening our wallets and our hearts to the fallen of Haiti, but what they need most now is for our collective brainpower to be brought to bear on a very sad and destitute nation with a people whose great faith and hope is rapidly diminishing for a future filled with a better tomorrow.

Nothing but the most radical of approaches must be attempted. Doing nothing is not an option. If we choose to do nothing Haiti will become a nation that will continue to exist in even greater poverty and greater loss. And it will become a nation populated by the most physically and emotionally scarred people on earth.

Daniel Rodriguez is co-founder of the Alliance for Economic Stability and an adjunct professor of International Business at Mercy College in New York.

I went to the website for this "Alliance for Economic Stability" that the author of the above article belongs to in the hopes of acquiring an e-mail so that I can give this goon a peice of my mind but I couldn't come up with one. If anyone can come up with some contact info for this "Daniel Rodriguez" please, please share.

So far I've been able to ascertain that the stooge works in Mercy College in the Bronx as a professor. People such as this individual need to be contacted and put in their place by all Dominicans who do not wish to see this nightmare he is propsing come to pass. I will contact him in due time and I suggest that some of you do as well.

I read the article a couple of days ago and thought to my self this guy must be insane.Based on the comments most people were leaving in that article at fox news I'm sure there have been a couple of people contacting Fox about this article.He is just another dumb a** and now I just have to question on how he was able to get a Degree as a economist.Anyways I tried to find some information on him the first time I saw the article but couldn't find anything.Anybody if you find it please share it here because I would love to send him an e-mail.

By the way there are many articles like this being written lately there is another at the www.chimpout.com: ("Haiti Should Cease to Exist" ) and some other sites pushing for this same idea.

This guy is talking from his a#s... He clearly has never been to DR, does not know that neither side wants to be known as one... This guy should be fired from Fox... Yes, please find his contact information so we could send him some nasty letters. What of piece of crap...

Daniel Rodriguez AKA Haitiano... trying to make a name for himself

Whenever I read these types of articles I'm always surprised as to just how far removed from reality some academics can get.. I guess sitting in his writing room or office this guy made this highly theortical scenario sound somewhat plausible in his mind. The East & West Germany example is so far off that I don't even know where to begin.

This clown at fox does not know the blood bath this would create... You think alot of people died during this quake? You can triple the amount of dead people from the battles that would be created by this

This unification issue is something that only people who are very poorly informed seem to think is possible for I cannot imagine many Haitians or many Dominicans wanting any part of it ....The amount of paranoia is frightening ....This is something that cannot be imposed by outsiders ....Stop beating the war drums The moment anyone with a brain makes themselves aware of the complexity of the issue they realize it was not such a good idea no matter what they thought from afar

This speaks to the intellectual level of business school faculties. Everything is a transaction to them, a chance to use the latest corporate jargon. The possible exception is professors of finance. The rest (marketing, admin, etc) are glorified communications professors.

FOX, pffft...

My response to the jokers!!
This article has so many things wrong with it I don’t know where to start. My first problem is with a false and misleading history. The island of Hispaniola was discovered in 1492 by Columbus for the Spanish crown and was the site of the first European settlement in the new world.

In 1697 under the treaty of Ryswick France was given rights over the western third of the island in what is today Haiti but the people we call Haitians today were not even on the island at that point and were frankly not even aware of the islands existence since they were in West Africa.

In the late 1700’s the French began importing a massive number of African slaves into their side of the island, these are the ancestors of today’s Haitians.
So for close to 200 years the island was under Spanish rule and only after 300 years did today’s Haitians arrive on the island!

When the Haitians were able to defeat the French (Malaria killed more French than did the Haitians), the Haitians proceeded to invade the Spanish side of the island which had declared Its independence from Spain in what would be known as the ephemeral independence (cut short by the Haitian occupation) and occupy the country.

The occupation by Haiti imposed a draft of Dominican youth, attempted to wipe our Spanish culture and institutions and imposed heavy taxes to pay for the restitution Haiti agreed to pay France .Discrimination against the Spanish “criollos” (those of Spanish blood born in the Americas) and mulattoes was rampant and many fled to Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Finally in 1844 Dominican Republic regained its independence.
The Haitians attempted multiple invasions of the Dominican Republic in the attempt to re-enslave the country under the Haitian yoke. In many of those invasions the Haitians used a scorched earth policy and what today would be called ethnic (racial) cleansing. They killed, raped and destroyed all in their path but that only strengthened the resolve of the Dominicans who knew that surrender to such a bloodthirsty foe was not an option. One of the most bloodthirsty , Soulouque commented that if he was able to enter the Dominican Republic even the chickens wouldn’t live!




Now given this history and the current condition of Haiti ,why would Dominicans want to lose their nation ?The reality is that Haitian population growth is much larger than that of the Dominican Republic and that in a short period of time Haitians would overpower the Spanish speaking citizens ,this is a demographic reality.

Can Mr. Rodriguez please tell us why his solution for Haiti future should mean setting back Dominican Republic ,losing our nationhood and giving people who have continuously invaded our nation what we have struggled so much to achieve.

We are a small and relatively poor nation, slowly making strides in many areas and those who want to solve Haiti’s problems on our backs are seriously mistaken for we will fight with all means necessary to maintain our freedom which has cost so much to our forefathers. Let Mr. Rodriguez look at solutions within the more powerful and wealthy nations especially France who caused the fiasco we now see in Haiti. Let the US ,France ,Canada each take one million Haitians as part of their “real” dedication to the problem or as some have posed ,let the Haitians accept offers from Senegal to take as many Haitians as want to and give them land .

We will help Haiti as a humanitarian act or as a goodwill act to our neighbors to the west for Dominicans are known for our hospitality to all, but wherever the readers are from ask yourselves, would you want your country unified with Haiti to solve problems ,especially if you had many problems of your own?

Why Should we?

I doubt that any real professor would write such a stupid article with so many historical misinterpretations, and simplistic managerial reasoning.
The guy is a real a..hole and pendejo, and maybe the whole article is written to "test the waters" and see what public reaction will be.
I'll say, don't give it any of your energy, the whole thing is preposterous and laughable. It takes a real jerk to suggest a merge with somebody that, other than strong arms, brings NOTHING to the table, except illiteracy, disease, famine, ignorance, superstition, and immigrants of the lowest type.
Haiti has weighed the DR down for centuries, and we have done real well keeping them far from us, let us keep it that way. Haitians deserve Haiti, and Dominicans are happy with the status quo, although we will like maybe the "professor" to adopt a few Haitians and bring them on to his campus to live.

Here is the scoop on Daniel Rodriguez:

Daniel Rodriguez is Founder and Managing Partner of MGR Group, a marketing, media and government-relations firm that provides strategic and crisis communications counsel and solutions to businesses, as well as campaign management to elected and non-elected individuals. Mr. Rodriguez is also Senior Vice President at Prestige Media Inc., a full-service advertising concern specializing in out-of-home programs. Before founding MGR in 1994, Dan held various Executive positions in marketing, corporate communications and government relations at Gannett Co., Hughes Television and PBS. He also worked on the staffs of Congressman Ben Gilman, Senator Daniel P. Moynihan, and Senator Alfonse D’Amato; as well as with various New York State and Westchester County governmental organizations. Dan brings extensive experience in government and the role that financial regulation played in the crisis of 2007-2008.

Dan is a graduate of Fordham University, where he received a Bachelor’s in Communication, and in 1991 he was awarded a National Urban Fellowship, making him the youngest recipient ever to receive this prestigious award. As a NUF Fellow, Dan obtained a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Baruch College’s School of Public of Affairs.