Dominican Republic versus Puerto Rico

Thirty years ago the President of the Dominican Republic visited Haiti and remarked that he hoped that one day his country would have a city as nice as the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.  Over little more than a generation, the relative position of the two countries changed dramatically.  Today, Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic, is a developing city of 3 million people with a growing economy and a strong leadership position in the culture and economy of the entire Caribbean basin.  While Port-au-Prince has sunk so low in its own sloth and filth that the filth is literally killing it with a raging Cholera epidemic that no amount of foreign aid or bleeding hearts can lift it out of.  What is the difference?  In a simple sense, Haiti receives an incredible amount of direct foreign aid and the Dominican Republic is forced to only accept loans targeted for specific development projects.  One country has drowned in welfare, the other has had to endure tough love.  Tough love is winning by a mile.  Can we predict the future with the Dominican Republic's other neighbor, Puerto Rico?  The numbers are tricky to dig out, but Puerto Ricans as a defined group probably receive larger U.S. handouts per person than even inner-city blacks living in the States.  The figures are hidden in subsidized businesses, tax credits, and a myriad of other governmental smoke and mirror budgeting tricks, but the effect is that the Puerto Rican economy is only floating on the largesse of the U.S. taxpayer.  It takes so long to check out at the grocery store because of all the different welfare cards that are used to pay for items.  Two overloaded shopping carts can come to a grand total of less than $20 actual cash.  Of course it takes a nice new SUV to carry everything home.  The next time you hear that Puerto Rico is poor and needs help go see for yourself before you waste your money.  Puerto Rico is drowning in welfare and there exists no real, productive economy.  This cannot last much longer, once the American taxpayers start demanding more value for their hard-earned dollars. In thirty more years, I predict that the Dominican Republic will be far ahead of neighboring Puerto Rico.  In the past year alone, the noticeable increase in small business investment is amazing and heartwarming.  Tough love and financial  reality, building a better future.

Picking up Police Hitchhikers

Peter Loenning and I drove to Luperon to see a boat he has been working on.  It was sunk in the harbor and he raised it.  On the way, we saw a policeman with the National Police hitchhiking alongside the road.  He was going to Luperon also, so we gave him a ride.  What a contrast to American policemen.  The cops in America all seem to drive nice new cars and most are not physically capable of walking any great distance.  In fact the only time I see them out of the car is to get something more to eat.  But, then again American taxpayers are too nice to really protest.  It is easier to write another check than to take a stand.  In the Dominican Republic, the people actually resist the government noose.  Because of that they have slim, trim, good looking cops that are grateful for a ride to work.  

Return to the Domincan Republic

Yesterday started with a car ride across Puerto Rico for a quick walking tour of Old San Juan and then jumping out at the Airport for a flight to Santo Domingo, in the Domincan Republic.  The long awaited, highly publicized ferry from Puerto Rico to the Dominican Republic is still not operational for passengers, regardless of what their website says.  A last minute purchase of a airline ticket with my name misspelled made things harder than they had to be with security.  Landing in an unfamiliar city after dark, without a firm grasp of the language, kept the day challenging.  I finally got a hotel room for $16 right next to the cross-country bus station.  This morning was a 4-hour bus ride and then a short motorcycle ride to Sosua.  The pictures show the beach at Sosua and the Dive shop where I became a PADI Divemaster.