Archive for the ‘Dominican Republic’ Category
Junot Diaz : writing feels like rolling up my emotional sleeves and putting my hand into a fire
7:34 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Books| Culture| Dominican Republic| Dominicans| literature · 1 Comment
27 Jul 2009
I don’t know why I didn’t come across this interview with my Dominican boyfriend, Pulitzer Prize winning Junot Diaz, before, pero it made me love him more. Hopefully we won’t have to wait 11 years for his next book.
Before I immigrated, I had no interest in books, no interest in newspapers, no interest in anything like that. There were plenty of little comics in the Dominican Republic, little pictorial books, penny dreadfuls: I had no interest in those whatsoever. But when I immigrated to the United States there was the crisis of being an immigrant who couldn’t speak the language very well, who didn’t understand the culture very well. I needed a way to express myself and a way to be engaged in the English language without it being a form of punishment. Speaking, during those early years, was a punishment. There was a lot of ridicule and a lot of cruelty, and instead of practicing aloud I could more safely read and practice language in my head.
The 2nd Happiest Place on Earth : The Dominican Republic
8:23 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Dominican Republic · 1 Comment
9 Jul 2009
Jennifer already told us that Costa Rica was the happiest place on earth. The second happiest? The Dominican Republic and that is making many Dominicans crack the hell up.
Via Monaco:
Como bien dice El Nacional en su editorial de hoy, la noticia de que República Dominicana es el segundo país más feliz del mundo ha causado hilaridad y hasta escepticismo, pues nadie se explica cómo se puede estar feliz en medio de apagones, basura, y el caos que predomina a nivel general.
My translation: just like it’s written in today’s El Nacional, the news that the Dominican Republic is the second happiest country in the world has caused hilarity and even skepticism, because no one can explain how you can be happy in the middle of blackouts, garbage, and the chaos that dominates at a general level.
Remesa Reversal
9:34 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Dominican Republic| Dominicans| Money| economy · 1 Comment
18 May 2009
The current economy has had an impact on all communities, but especially Latinos, who were already feeling the pinch. This has caused a reduction in the amount of money that immigrant communities are sending to their home countries, and anti-immigrant scapegoating has a role to play as well. Pero here’s a very interesting development, as reported by Feet in 2 Worlds, remesas have started to change their usual traveling direction, with money coming from Latin America to the United States.
“We have seen a significant increase in the number of money transfers made from the D.R. to the U.S.,” confirmed Reny Pena, supervisor of customer services and transfers at the company’s office [La Nacional] in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights.
Pena said that the volume of transfers from the Dominican Republic to the U.S. grew from between 80 and 120 monthly transfers in 2006 to the current rate of about 150 transfers a day. The increase has prompted the agency to expand the department that deals with U.S.-bound remittances from one to five employees.
What Mala is Reading on Saturday Morning
10:44 am By Maegan La Mala · Blogs| Dominican Republic| Education| Internet| Linking Latinos| race · Comments Off
13 Dec 2008When do kids realize the difference between weekdays and weekends? Not soon enough if you ask me, which is why I’ve been up since early, reading the internets.
Some things that caught my ojo:
President-elect Obama named his choice for secretary of HUD and it’s a Ny’er, pero not Carrion
University students in the Dominican Republic are on a hunger strike over problems registering.
Did you know you could salsa for freedom tonite?
Happy Saturday!
World AIDS Day : Children with HIV / AIDS in the Dominican Republic
10:56 am By Maegan La Mala · Dominican Republic| Health| children · Comments Off
1 Dec 2008In the Dominican Republic there are 1033 children registered as having HIV. The grandmother of one of these children, 2 year old “Mariano”, says that one of the hardest things to deal with is the discrimination her grandson faces.
Su abuela doña María, con los ojos húmedos, cuenta que para ella lo más difícil es la discriminación y el rechazo “me duele porque en el barrio los vecinos saben que mi hijo murió de sida y no les gusta que mi nieto juegue con sus hijos, por eso no lo quiero mandar ni a la escuela”.[My translation] With tears in her eyes, the boy’s grandmother, Doña Maria, tells that the hardest thing is the discrimination and the rejection. “It hurts me because in my neighborhood, the neighbors know my son died of AIDS and they don’t like for my grandson to play with their children, and that’s why I don’t even want to send him to school
Man Bathes in Blood to Protest Violence Against Women in the Dominican Republic
7:09 am By Maegan La Mala · Bizarro| Dominican Republic| Women · Comments Off
20 Nov 2008Last week we wrote about the large number of women being killed in domestic violence situations in the Dominican Republic. One man is making a statement with his body and cow’s blood to denounce the femicide.
This Year In the Dominican Republic, At Least 102 Mujeres Have been Killed by Partners
12:22 pm By Maegan La Mala · Dominican Republic| Dominicans| Women · Comments Off
13 Nov 2008The year is not quite over yet statistics coming out of the Dominican Republic show that so far this year (through to September), 102 women have been killed by their partners. 154 women in all have been recorded as being murdered in the Caribbean nation. The sad thing that is never recorded in statistics is the number of incidents of violence against mujeres that are never recorded, that are covered up yet reverberate through communities in silence.
In response, the state has set up 14 centers throughout the country to deal with familial violence. Yet the state also is taking an almost threatening approach to community movements inside DR who have taken their struggle to the streets in search of justice and a fundamental change in how women’s lives are valued.
R
adamés Jiménez, Procurador General…advirtió que todo aquel que altere el orden público será sometido a la justicia.
In other words, we’ll take care of the problem just don’t disturb public order, as if violence against women and the threat that hangs too often over the lives of women isn’t a disturbance enough.
Via / Panorama Diario, Remolacha
Ike’s Unwated Visit to Caribbean
10:01 am By Maegan La Mala · Cuba| Dominican Republic| Haiti| Weather · 1 Comment
8 Sep 2008
Hurricane Ike plows it’s way through the Caribbean today, with Havana, the capital of Cuba in it’s path.
Ike already went through Haiti and the Dominican Republic as a category 3 hurricane, killing at least 58 people in Haiti alone and one reported death in the Dominican Republic. Ike has since been downgraded to a category 2 storm, with 105 mile-per-hour winds.
Haiti has been hit particularly hard, with a death toll of at least 319 people from an unrelenting four storms in a row.
”With the others we lost houses, we lost animals and we lost plantations. Never bodies,” said Lisemene Ferry Raphael, 46, standing across from her dead 12-year-old god daughter.
There are bodies on almost every other corner inside the town, where two rivers and the torrential rain of Ike swallowed houses and swept children and old women downstream, according to The Miami Herald, which has the only international reporter at the town along Route 1 on the road to the city Gonaives.
Franzt Samedi’s 5-year-old adopted daughter, Tamesha Jean, was among the dead.
”I’m the one who she calls Papa. I’m the one who is responsible for her. If she were with me she would not have died,” Samedi said.
Via / Citizen Orange
231 Dominicans Tweet
1:03 pm By Maegan La Mala · Dominican Republic| Tech · Comments Off
19 Aug 2008
There’s a really interesting article up about the use of Twitter in the Dominican Republic. According to the article there are 231 tweeters in D.R. 11 of them being non-Dominicans who live/work there. 26% of the Dominican users have protected entries (hmm what are you hiding). 42% of the tweeters have blogs. 1 of the tweeters is a politician.
For more on who tweets in D.R. check out the full post here.
Via / Global Voices, My 2 K-Cents
Spain Says it Won’t Abide by Harsh EU Immigration Directive
10:49 am By Maegan La Mala · Dominican Republic| Immigration| Politics| Spain · Comments Off
8 Aug 2008The Vice President of Spain, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega cleared up any possible doubt about her country’s stance on Europe’s harsh new immigration directive — “The Return Directive” — which would criminalize immigrants and allow them to be held up to 18 months before deportation. Speaking at a roundtable on immigration in the Dominican Republic — and flanked by her party’s Secretary of Integration, a Dominican immigrant and naturalized Spanish citizen, Bernarda Jiménez — De la Vega made things perfectly clear:
De La Vega said “[The Directive] has not been applied and will never be applied,” and asked that Latinos looking to immigrate to Spain “remain calm”, stating that Spain’s national laws provide for a maximum of 40 days detention if immigrants are picked up by authorities. In a serious tone, De La Vega ended her statement by saying “Is that clear?” She also urged potential immigrants not to worry about the economic slowdown which has left many in the construction business — a key sector for immigrants — jobless because Spain is poised to “continue growing”, insinuating that foreign labor will still be in demand.
Wow, sounds exactly like when our politicians talk about immigration, right?
Via / Público
Hola!
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