Officially published on: http://journalen.hio.no/journalen/Utenriks/article14435.ece
The Dominicans don´t play Golf.
By Helle Holte
Pictures: Brian Olguin
At Journalen (journalen.hio.no)
At least, not when the neighboring people are starving to death during the earthquake disaster, says the Dominicans in Oslo.
The anthropologist Christian Krohn-Hansen believes that the earthquake disaster will improve the tense relationships between Haitians and Dominicans. This is also supported by the Dominicans in Oslo, whom also refers with condemnation to a recent headline from an Italian newspaper.
She and her common conversational partners for the evening - Felipe Diaz, Kennington Espinal and Alex Geneux - are all Dominicans who keep close tabs on the situation after the earthquake disaster. All of them are concerned about the Haitians getting help, and they are sure that the Dominicans are fully into it. They told us about the civil initiative that was build in the Dominican society just hours after the first earthquake broke out in the afternoon local time, Tuesday the 12th January.
- An hour after I had received a mail from a friend at home who sent me links to various organizations and groups that had already started with the planning for food and medicine, "says Felipe.
“In particular, the young Dominicans are involved now”
- The activity on Facebook is great. A big concert was held on Monday, where material and money was collected from those who wished to contribute. Something good is about to happen, "says Mariel.
If something good is about to happen to the relations between Dominicans and Haitians, was not a pre-set in their historical timeline. Like Krohn-Hansen, the five Dominicans admit that, the historic local Haitian-Dominican conflicts are something that neither the Dominicans nor Haitians can easily ignore or forget.
- During and after Rafael Trujillo, the dictator who ruled our country between 1930 and 1961, the intention was to create a distance with Haiti. Since Haitians are not white, they are black and Trujillo´s way of thinking at that time was fixated with the Europeans, thus the ideal was to be white, have light skin and straight hair. His policy was to bring many Europeans to the Dominican Republic and other people from around the world who were white, to "fade" the skins and ethnic characteristics of the Dominicans. Spaniards, Italians, Germans ... They would come and "make the breed better," said Felipe, and adds:
- Now we do think differently, however.
- Now we have come so far that we've begun to think that we are all humans, no matter how we look. We can handle to be together all along. And I am glad, "said Kennington.
But, to be seen as African is still something bad?
- We are all descendants of Africans. However, people have throughout decades have been fed with the idea that white is good, while black is not. For example, many people still look at her hair as bad hair, "said Felipe, as he points to the thick, curly, black hair of Mariel:
- As a problem. It cannot be intended that she let her hair be like that [curly], leave it as it does naturally. She should have ... What's it called? Corrected it. So when Mariel goes with hair like that at home, people will ask if she cannot go to the hairdresser. There are examples like this that are legacy of the ideas from Trujillo-time that still now manifest, he says, and continues:
- Now that disaster has broken out in Haiti, some of the people at home are also beginning to ask themselves: What are they going to do? Will they come rushing in masses to the Dominican Republic, in a kind of invasion? Then, most of the media clearly emphasize that. No, it is not the case, it won´t happen. So that we will continue to help, so that we cannot forget that they really need help right now. But in the inherited form of racism, if one can call it like that, still exists among the Dominicans, and it can fire at any time. We young people can definitely fight this. But these thoughts are deep inside of the Dominican way of thinking.
Is the same rhetoric used against migrant workers in Europe.
- Exactly. In the same sense that here in Oslo they’re afraid for both jobs and crimes, "said Kennington.
- But one must certainly not forget that it is Haitians in the Dominican Republic who work in the construction sector and on the plantations. Most Dominicans do not do it anymore. So we also need Haitians, shoots Alex in.
To go to the Dominican Republic to work is certainly not something Haitians do with joy, express all five Dominicans.
- My understanding is that they set themselves to suffer in order to achieve the goal of earning more money, "said Felipe. And tells that a Haitian friend explained to him that when families think about planning and deciding to find work in the Dominican Republic, the usual response is: "to travel to Dominican is to travel to a daily war," he continues.
How is it for you to travel to Haiti?
- The smiley Felipe, tells us something interesting in the following story:
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