I have been living here in the Dominican Republic since June 2000. During these past eight years, one observation that has stood out above all others is the apparent lack of planning.

The lack of this phenomenon is evident in the lack of actions on the part of individuals and of Government entities.

I find myself asking the question, “Are the factors of everyday life so paramount that the individual and the government seek to relegate them to obscurity in an effort to maintain a semblance of sanity”?

I am increasingly reminded of the remark by an unknown author that says, “ It is difficult to think about draining the swamp when you are up to your rear-end in alligators.”

That homely seems to fit the psyche of both Dominicans and their government.

We seem to be inundated with rhetoric of future actions promulgated by politicians, businessmen and intellectuals, but seldom are these rhetorical commentaries carried to fruition.

The same would apply to the average Dominican who, though saddled with excessive taxation, diminished income and purchasing power, continues to accept the gross inefficiency, the clientism,  the attitude of “to hell with you, I have mine” and the continued prevarication of their leaders, to their detriment.

I have observed “huelgas” being held for the most ridiculous reasons. Those being held because the price of petroleum products have increased (something the government has absolutely no control over, since these prices are dictated by International Cartels like OPEC), those being held because physicians refuse to accept government reimbursement for services rendered, and lack of performance by other entities over which the government has no legal control.

I would think that huelgas would be held because of excessive taxation, because of the inequities and inconsistencies in operations that affect the society as a whole, rather than those affecting a single entity such as the Transportation Unions and others who are singularly focused for reasons of greed and power over the public.

As I drive through the country, I am increasingly bombarded with the impression that the people are accepting their unequal lot because they have retreated into an attitude of acceptance of something over which they believe they have no control.

They continue to vote for the same political entities that have placed them in the very situation they obviously abhor, but accept as normal.

This acceptance increasingly reinforces the attitudes of their elected representatives, political appointees, government employees, who have their positions due to “botellas” and not through competitive examinations, and others who have demonstrated a total lack of empathy for their fellow citizens.

Mind you, the above observations are not an indictment of Dominican Society, but are merely observations and the resulting conclusions arrived at through inductive and deductive logic on the part of the author, who has experienced many of the frustrations symbolized in this article.

In the matter of “Education”, I have observed that the “average” Dominicans whom I have had contact, really have no idea of what an education really is. It is not just attending classes; it is the reinforcement of the knowledge presented and the absorption of that knowledge through constant revisiting. It is the imparting of that knowledge by qualified, and educated, instructors in a particular field, or discipline.

It is noteworthy that there are very few Public school, and in many cases Private School, instructors who possess the required qualifications mentioned. Then there are the so-called “text books” which are, at best, simple pamphlets which do nothing more than outline the subject material in a very minimal fashion.

The employment of “teachers” and “text books”, as mentioned above are certainly not an adequate method by which to educate a nation’s students and provide them with the tools of knowledge so necessary in today’s highly competitive business world.

Then there are the areas of technical expertise for which technically oriented Schools have been inaugurated. One of the problems, which presents itself in this society, is that of proper education and standardizations of such education.

There is no licensing requirements for technicians. Moreover, many of these o-called technicians have never attended a qualifying school, but have learned their trade “at their father’s knee”, who may, or may not, have had the appropriate knowledge himself.

In the final analysis, it is evident, based on results of overall testing of randomly selected students by the UN, that the Dominican Republic has, in-place, an educational system which is substandard to the requirements of a growing, or established, Nation and that a maximum effort must be inaugurated and insisted upon to correct this deficiency.

Billy H. Adams

Santiago, Santiago

Dominican Republic