Tag: Dominican Republic

Post #4

Recently I read an excerpt from Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril, by an Inuit woman, Sheila Watt-Cloutier. The premise of the book is to bring light to the human rights issue of climate change. Specifically, circumstances due to climate change that put certain people, communities, and cultures at risk. If you search google for issues associated with climate change you will almost exclusively get results that mention degradation of environments, extinction of species, changes in weather patterns, and rising temperatures. As climate change has become an increasingly pressing issue, it has become even more interconnected with politics. As long as there is money to be made somewhere, there will be someone doing something to make that money, regardless of what it does to the environment. This is why businesses with deep pockets can lobby governments to not implement new policies, or even to deny climate change all together. The center argument that humans are ruining the planet is not the argument that needs to be made anymore. No matter how badly we treat Earth, it will be able to recover. Planet Earth can survive without humans, but humans cannot survive without Planet Earth. The argument that needs to be made is how climate change affects people.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier goes into detail about the effects that climate change have had on her home environment. The Inuit live in the arctic circle, in parts of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Russia. Primarily dwelling on frozen ocean and permafrost, their main method of transportation is dog sled. This is the only area in the world where ice and snow can be used to travel efficiently on. Even within her lifetime, Cloutier has noticed such a rapid change in climate that she can no longer use the ice to travel, forcing some Inuit communities to relocate. “…eroded landscape, contaminated drinking water, longer sea-ice-free seasons, melting permafrost, (irregular snowfall), and new species of birds and fish…” are just some of the issues due to climate change that she lists.

What is currently being done to combat climate change? As more and more pressure is put on executives to use there pedestal to do something about climate change, changes will start to happen. However, worldwide protests and brute force are not the main driving force that will cause change. Now that new methods of clean energy are coming around and becoming just as profitable as traditional fossil fuels, large companies and governments are shifting focus. According to a report by Jessica Lowrey, some of the largest wealth management companies such as Vanguard, BlackRock, and Fidelity voted in favor of climate resolutions for the first time. Along with this, multiple oil giants, such as ExxonMobil, were forced by shareholders to disclose risks associated with climate change. Entire nations are pledging to no longer invest in fossil fuels. Countries such as Sweden and France are planning to phase out all greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, and many worldwide companies have committed to sourcing from 100% renewable energy.

More so today than ever, sustainability requires innovation. With innovation, comes the opportunity to make money from investment. When governments, investors, and energy companies have ways of making money from renewable energy, they will not hesitate in doing so.

The Dominican Republic has its share of environmental issues. Its major issues include deforestation, water supply, and soil erosion. Because of the soil erosion, the coral reefs surrounding the island are being damaged as well, decreasing biodiversity. According to the UN, as of 1993, 20,000 hectares of forest (1 hectare = 100 acres) were being cut down each year due to commercial interests.

The Nature Conservancy is one of many environmental groups that works within the Dominican Republic to “protect its nature, preserve its life.” Some of the work they do includes protecting freshwater sources, protecting marine and coastal environments, and promoting sustainable fishing practices. Fundemar is another environmental organization working in the Dominican Republic to promote the sustainable use or marine resources and ecosystems. Overall, there seems to be a moderate amount of action being taken in the Dominican Republic to preserve the environment, but there is only so much can be done with limited resources.

Post #3

Nationalism the sense of pride that one feels as a member of a nation state. The term is used often today in the media and is often used very loosely to refer to any opposition to globalization based on a feeling of connection to a national identity. Not to be confused with patriotism, nationalism is often a more radical form of political and militaristic movements. Nationalism is focused around a country’s language, culture, and sometimes race. Nationalist countries are less likely to join world organizations, maintain a higher view of themselves, and promote themselves at the expense of others. According to Fareed Zakaria, nationalism is a danger to the world because it promotes violence. He gives examples of average, everyday people who can have a sense of hate toward other nations for no apparent reason. Nationalism a positive view of taking control of other nations, seeing themselves as the superior nation. In its most extreme forms, nationalism has led to war, genocide, and other horrific tragedies.

One long standing theme of nationalism in the Dominican Republic is their hatred toward their neighboring country, Haiti, with whom they share the island of Hispaniola. In 2013, the highest court in the Dominican Republic ruled that anyone with parents who entered the country illegally would not be considered legal. Until 2010, anyone born on Dominican Republic soil was considered a legal citizen. In fact, it was declared that anyone born between 1929 and 2010 who had foreign ancestry were “not true Dominican Nationals.” The result of this ruling was a mass deportation of those who did not meet legal immigration status, a majority of which were Dominicans of Haitian parents who entered the country illegally.

According to the Michigan State University College of Law, the plan was promoted by the Dominican government as a way to “…reform its immigration system and erase the statelessness within the country.” The government even claimed that “no person born in the Dominican Republic will be expelled from our territory.” This turned out to be a false claim as more than 200,000 people of Haitian descent have either been deported to or fled to Haiti. The tragedy here is that these people of Haitian descent are being deported for something they had no control over.

This is not a new idea in the Dominican Republic, the country has long been in a struggle with Haitians and has committed atrocities against them before. One of these events includes the Parsley Massacre. Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo made his intentions clear in a speech he delivered on October 2nd, 1937. He claimed that “Three hundred Haitians are now dead in Bancia. This remedy will continue.” The remedy, killing Haitians along the border between it and the Dominican Republic who were reportedly stealing crops, provisions, etc. from borderland residents, lasted for a mere 6 days. Estimated for the number of deaths range from 12,000 to 20,000.

The Dominican Republic has experienced above average economic growth. According to a 2013 United Nations Development Program report, its average annual growth rate was 5.4%. Due to a more diversified economy, and strong trade agreements internationally, its GDP rose 50% from 2000 to 2011. Despite these economic advances, income inequality has increased as well as poverty. According to a World Bank report from 2014, the poverty level was 32%, and by 2011 had risen to 40.4%. The report states that income inequality is a larger issue in urban areas. It is difficult for the poor to bring themselves out of their situation. Between 2000 and 2009, 41% of the Latin American and Caribbean population were able to move into a higher income group, while in the Dominican Republic only 2% was able to move up. When there is a large gap between the rich and the poor, a relentless cycle of poverty persists. The Dominican Republic ranks 146th in the world by the GINI coefficient, making it one of the most unequal countries in the world.