26199: Simidor (reply) re: 26180, Raber re: Fernandez visit in NYC (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Daniel Simidor danielsimidor@yahoo.com

The restavek issue in this thread about the plight of
Haitians in the Dominican Republic is something of a
red herring.  Raber, or anyone else for that matter,
is free to start a welcomed new thread on the plight
of the restavek children.  It?s just that there really
is  no linkage between the two issues.

Raber, narrates his personal experience in the DR and
tells us how many times he has been there.  I confess
I?ve never and probably will never set foot on that
side of the island ? not as a tourist, nor as a
would-be investor or migrant worker, not even as a
genealogy buff looking for distant cousins.  I will
not spend a dime in the Dominican Republic as long as
people there persist in the false consciousness that
they are better than me (Haitians), and I encourage
others to do the same. I also wish I had more time for
a point-by-point rebuttal, but the few points below
will have to suffice for now.

By and large, Raber trivializes the problems
confronting Haitians next door.  By his account,
Haitian migrant workers experience few abuses from
their Dominican employers, ?but robbers are a real
threat when they walk back to Haiti.?  Unbelievable!
He goes on to tell us from his expertise on the
question that it?s only a few Dominican bad apples who
mistreat Haitians.  Right!  Never mind that the same
argument could be made about the restavek children,
who often share bonds of kinship with the families
they ?stay with.?  The Haitian economy has gone from
bad to worse and beyond in the last 30 years, and
restavek children (as well as homeless, orphaned and
other poor children) suffer the brunt of this economic
meltdown, but the point here is how in comparing the
two situations, Raber tries to let the Dominican side
off the hook while demonizing the Haitian side.

Does Raber know or does he care that a large
percentage of the current deportees are children who
are violently expelled from the country of their birth
and denied the right of a citizenship of their choice
(they are entitled to both), because the would-be
white Dominican ruling class doesn?t want another
generation of poor and dark-skinned folks to take root
on "their" soil?  Does he know or does he care that
one growth industry in the DR today is the traffic of
Haitian children brought across the border by the
Dominican mafia, to be used and abused as street
beggars?

There is also what I see as a subtle effort to
discourage any effort at mobilization in support of
Haitians at risk in the DR.  We are told that Haitian
voices will not be ?taken seriously on the
international scene,? for lack of progress on the
restavek front.  Sorry Raber, but the international
community is ahead of us on this issue.  The ILO,
Amnesty International and other human rights groups,
churches of various denominations, even the State
Department (!) and the mainstream media
(sporadically), have time and again denounced the
widespread abuse and the enslavement of Haitian
workers in the Dominican Republic.  Granted that the
international community could do more, but the
fundamental problem here is the lack of concern on the
part of Haitians, at home and abroad, who could make a
difference on this issue and who don?t.  That
indifference is a moral disgrace.  Vacationing on a
budget in the DR and pretending not to speak Creole,
while our own people are being treated as zombies and
slaves, is shameful beyond words!

Lastly, there is a definite (and misinformed)
anti-immigrant slant to Raber?s post.  The Dominican
economy grew on the back of its Haitian underclass ?
the backbone of the sugar industry and a
super-exploited labor force in the construction and
tourist industries.  Sure, thousands of Haitians cross
the border for much needed work and wages, but far
from taking jobs from Dominican workers, it is the
value added of their labor (and the lopsided trade
across the border) that keeps the Dominican economy
afloat.  It is common knowledge that immigrants
revitalized many decaying cities in the US, including
Miami.  In the DR, as in New Orleans today and
alongside the US-Mexican border, immigrants are not
the problem, the denial of their rights is.

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