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Steven Gregory’s The Devil behind the Mirror: Globalization and Politics in the Dominican Republic is an eye-opening text on the impacts of globalization on developing countries. Based in the coastal cities of Boca Chica and Andres in the Dominican Republic, Gregory offers an insight to the negativity that globalization has induced rather than the benefits and hopes it promises. He shows us how the country’s shift into the neoliberal tourism industry has changed people’s lives, specifically the poor. His main focuses are centered on class, race, and gender.
Summary of Main Points.
According to Gregory, the booming tourism industry has created a sieve for the rich and the poor. Its high returns are mostly enjoyed by the hotel and restaurant owners and
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She despises his tyranny, corruption and his barring her from practicing law after denying his romantic advances. This fuels her urge to revolt against him. With the help of her sisters, uncle and close friends, they form a revolution by exposing the government’s wrong doings and inciting the masses. Another character who resists oppression is Machucha, the lead character in the movie of the same name. His resistance, unlike Minerva and her sisters, is not directly channeled to the authorities. It happens introspectively through the decisions he makes and the way he carries and stands up for himself. The oppressed have the power of their voice. They have the power of observation, numbers and through unity and persistence, they can achieve anything.
Steven Gregory’s The Devil behind the Mirror is a strong book in the field. It offers real and resourceful information on economic, gender and racial oppression and inequality in the Dominican Republic. Although more research should be done on his topics of discussion, Gregory has set in motion a fundamental understanding of the effects globalization has had on specific
get older they start to realize what is really going on in the Dominican Republic. This book takes you
This previously inexistent economy is what allowed Trujillo to attain and strengthen his power in the Dominican Republic. Oddly enough, the same peo...
The novel deals with the pain and pleasure of the past and present and how that effects the identity construction of an individual. The ethnic/racial identity of an individual can be influences by the complexities of a post-colonial society filled with social clashes, inferiority, and the othering of individuals. The novel focuses on the Haitians who have migrated to the Dominican Republic to escape poverty but are still alienated and devalued because of their poor economical conditions. By migrating to the Dominican Republic and crossing the boundary between the two countries they are symbolically being marked as ‘other’ and seen as ‘inferior’ by
During Gregory’s ethnographic research in the Dominican Republic, he encounters many individuals, some tourists, others expatriates, as well as citizens native to the island. One individual by the name of Minaya, discusses changes in the sugar cane industry. In 1988 he became a worker at a sugar mill that his uncle owned, but claimed that the industry became “Capitalized” (Gregory 2007: 15). He explains this capitalization as the industry being leased out to private corporations, which incurred poor working conditions and minimal wages upon the laborers. Minaya also expresses the fact he has no formal education, a big factor...
Today I bring to your forefront of thought, the island of Hispaniola. This island is the namesake for the two countries who run the land, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Both nations hail from a joint introduction into the world market and post-European colonization, but as time progressed, each one had a different outlook to the world stage. The present day Dominican Republic and Haiti are worlds apart on an island which keeps them together. Their culture is separated by the colonial residuals that lay imbedded into their communities. They are on different sides of the spectrum of structural growth due to the resulting outcomes from decades of political ruling and policy making. On one side we have the second independent state of the Americas,
Inoa, Orlando, and Sagas, Ernesto. The Dominican People: A Documentary History. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2003.
The Haitian revolution had tremendous repercussions in the social, political and economic arenas of the world, but especially for the relationship with the neighboring nation of the Dominican Republic. In order to understand the development of the Dominican-Haitian relationship after the Haitian revolution one must examine how the two colonies of Hispanola dealt with each other before it. Throughout history there has been constant stress between the interactions of these nations, yet there is no easy explanation for what has caused it. In effect, it has been an accumulation of events which has allowed for the present relationship to evolve.
The entire book was leading up to the murder of the notorious Mirabal sisters which also put into perspective how oppressed these people were. Not only did this book give the reader an insight on the life of a citizen of the Dominican Republic between the years of 1930 and 1960 but, it showed how an oppressive government could affect the people in both negative and positive ways, using the sisters as examples. Obviously, negative aspects included citizens being jailed and killed by their own government. In a situation such as this, fear was in every person, whether they were brave enough to join the resistance or not. Families were torn apart, as shown in the book. Minerva, Maria Teresa, and their husbands, along with Patria’s husband, were taken from their children, home, church and family to be jailed for going against the government. Alvarez vividly describes the hurt that came to the families when they were broken apart. In jail, the sisters and husbands were also physically ill. They were being starved and being diagnosed with pneumonia which was not unheard
...ic growth, modest inflation, reduction in government debt and a manageable external position. However growth may slow down in 2004 with low growth in the US economy, the source of 87% of export revenues. There have been many negative Political developments such as corruption within the Dominican Republic however the current president Mejia is taking positive steps to eradicate this widespread corruption. The indicators of welfare in the Dominican Republic have improved significantly over recent years, however the economic developments have not sufficiently trickled down to the poorest segments of the population. In conclusion it is clear from the findings of the report that development is not completely stable within the Dominican Republic. It is relatively well developed compared to the other Caribbean countries however as we have seen, figures can be deceptive.
The Dominican Republic is a country appealing to the Haitians, because that is the nearest to them and can have better quality of life. But, in recent years we have seen a massive immigration from Haiti to Dominican Republic. These leads us to ask, what are the reasons which the people of Haiti are fleeing their country. These factors are: to escape of the poverty, deficiency of basic services and lack of jobs. Due to the scarcity of resources, lack of access to basic services and lack of job opportunities, many haitian families have been used as a defense mechanism traditional your transfer to the Dominican Republic to have access to health care services, public schools or work in the agricultural
Like in many other countries, Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic are treated as second-class citizens. Haitian migrants often take on the toughest jobs in indispensable sectors, yet are quickly blamed and looked down upon when the economy goes sour (Burdick and Dixon, 2012). Furthermore, Haitians in the Dominican Republic, are often exploited by their employers to work for lower wages, denied labor benefits, harassed by authorities, physically and sexually abused, and ultimately deported (Burdick and Dixon, 2012). This anti-Haitian sentiment is further supported by Dominican Republic institutions. The Dominican Republic uses identification cards that describe citizens as Indio (light, dark), Moreno, and the racially charged term Negro, which is almost exclusive to Haitians (Burdick and Dixon, 2012). This system has not only institutionalized anti-Haitian sentiment and racism, but it has also failed to protect Dominicans as Afro-Dominicans are often mistaken for Haitians and then
Written and composed by Siedah Garret and Glen Ballard. Performed by Michael Jackson, Featuring Siedah Garret, The Winans and The Andrae Crouch Choir.
Many of the women interviewed joined this work force through their family and friends who have done it, and because their single mothers. Many went to Sosua just days after their partners left for financial gains to support the children. Since all of them come from the poorest social class and therefore lacked the network to land a good job, this business of working for sex paves a prospective path for them. Doing sex work in Sosua allows these participants to begin a savings account to buy a house or small business. According to Attorney General Francisco Dominguez (Attorney General of the Dominican Republic (2004-2006, 2012-Current) “Prostitution has long been practiced openly in much of the Dominican Republic but the trafficking of people for the sex trade, both within the country and overseas, has become so widespread that the government believes it must now impose controls on the industry” (Huffington Post, 2013). However, sex workers look to sex tourists to “rescue” them and they ignore the negatives.
According to the ‘World Tourism Organization’ (UNWTO), the tourism industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world, as it is estimated that by the year 2020, 7.8 billion people (roughly a quarter of the world’s population) will embark on a foreign trip (Bennett & Gebhardt 15). The Caribbean is said to be the most economically dependent on this industry, as the ‘Caribbean Tourism Organisation’ states that the industry forms the “economic backbone of most countries in the Region”(“Caribbean Tourism Industry” 1), implications for what tourism’s affect on the region have arisen and have prompted further research into matter. Since the 1970’s research regarding tourism in the Caribbean has attempted to determine the social, cultural, environmental, and economic impacts of tourism. Much of the research has found that there are in fact many negative adverse affects, and Jackson’s article asserts that, “Governments often commit money and other resources to support the growth and development of tourism and often turn a blind eye to its negative impacts” (574). The reason why tourism looks attractive (and thus turn a blind eye) to these Caribbean countries is because of “its potential to foster GDP growth, to create employment, to increase foreign exchange earnings, and attract capital investment” (Daye, Chambers, and Roberts 2). This paper will overview such impacts by first discussing a case study conducted in Jamaican resort town, Ocho Rios, with Sheere Brooks discussing the observed social, cultural and economical consequences of Jamaica’s reliance on the tourism industry and will finally look at tourism in relation to capitalism, with Robert Fletcher suggesting in his article that the tourism industry (and more specifically...
Tourism is a typical activity of fashion that the public participate widely and it has grown in importance over recorded human history. Innumerable articles refer tourism as “the world’s largest industry”; policy-makers, analysts, and scholars often speak of the size of the tourism compared to that of other industries (Smith 2004: 26). These series of misleading statement, together with the mass media’s reports (out of context), make the idea that tourism is a single large industry branded into many people’s minds. However, in this essay I will demonstrate that it is a simplistic and misleading idea, which should be replaced by the plural term, “tourism industries”. Moreover, tourism is not the world’s largest industry, but largest service sector.