tagged w/ Dominican Republic
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McClatchy Newspapers reports that coal ash dumped in the Dominican Republic from a Virginia-based power company has caused severe illness and birth defects in the local population. After years of repeated miscarriages, women whose blood levels show abnormal levels of arsenic are giving birth to babies with cranial deformities, with organs outside their bodies or missing limbs.McClatchy Newspapers reports that coal ash dumped in the Dominican Republic from a... more
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This is a collaboration with the Dominican fashion designer Joel Diaz www.jolibe.com and Gravure Magazine www.gravuremag.com.
Directed and Edited by Carolina Garcia
Produced by Frej Hedenberg
Music by Sigur Ros / Lei A∂ Lifi
Model : Andressa Fontana / Supreme
Makeup : Ingeborg K
Hair : Yukiko Tajima
All clothing by Jolibe S/S 2009This is a collaboration with the Dominican fashion designer Joel Diaz www.jolibe.com... more
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Rohan Marley, son of the late Bob Marley, working with a partner, has acquired lands in Jamaica for coffee farming and launched Marley Coffee, marrying his father's famous name to another world-class brand, Blue Mountain.Rohan Marley, son of the late Bob Marley, working with a partner, has acquired lands... more
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"I dont care what DJ you are or how much of a music savant you is. . .
You still aint up on this Dominican sh*t:""I dont care what DJ you are or how much of a music savant you is. . .
You still... more
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Exploring life in a Dominican Batey (a sugarcane town), the
story follows two Haitian men who live there. Their lives
intertwine in Batey 6, revealing the different realities of
what it is like to live and to work in the sugar cane
economy on the island.
Time: 6pm @ 2nd Ave and 2nd Street
Join us for a brief reception after the film.Exploring life in a Dominican Batey (a sugarcane town), the
story follows two... more
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Quiz question: What’s the difference between a cave and a cavern?
In common usage the two terms are mostly interchangeable. But there is a technical difference between their definitions. Pretty much any underground chamber qualifies as a cave. To be a cavern a cave must 1) have formed naturally out of rock; and 2) be able to produce speleothems, which are those icicle-shaped mineral deposits created by dripping water.
There are several bars and restaurants around the world that are in caves. There are only two on the planet that are in caverns. Both of them are in the Caribbean . . .Quiz question: What’s the difference between a cave and a cavern?
In common usage... more
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Five migrants rescued after 15 days lost at sea ate a dead comrade to stay alive, a Dominican official said Sunday.
One of the five, the only woman in the group, died Sunday in a hospital after the group was found near the Turks and Caicos Islands, Dominican Minister of Tourism Francisco Javier Garcia said.
Garcia said the remaining four, part of a large group of migrants, told him that without food, they ate from the corpse of the last person to die.
A total of 33 Dominican migrants were trying to reach Puerto Rico by boat when they were reported missing by relatives in mid-October. Survivors said they lost their way after the captain abandoned the ship.
Bodies of the other dead were thrown into the sea, Garcia said they told him.
The five migrants were rescued by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter on Saturday and taken to a hospital on the island of Providenciales.
"The other four are dehydrated and have swollen legs but are expected to recover," Garcia said after visiting the survivors with Turks and Caicos Premier Michael Misick.
Many of their relatives presumed they were already dead.
Hundreds of Dominicans take to the sea each year in small boats, many of them homemade, trying to reach Puerto Rico through the dangerous Mona Passage.
In 2004, 36 survivors in a group of 87 migrants drank breast milk, sea water and ate human flesh in desperate acts to survive.Five migrants rescued after 15 days lost at sea ate a dead comrade to stay alive, a... more
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Three migrants died and 26 others were captured when a fishing boat trying to reach Florida ran aground on Friday at one of America's wealthiest locales, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Authorities searched the sea off Miami after some of the survivors said there could be more people in the water.
Most of the migrants said they were from the Dominican Republic, while four said they were Brazilian, the Coast Guard said.
The 30-foot (9-meter) boat ran aground off Fisher Island, a wealthy enclave just south of Miami Beach. Forbes magazine this month named Fisher Island the most expensive postal code in the United States with a median home sale price of $3.8 million.
Southern Florida is a frequent target for Cubans and Haitians seeking better living conditions in the United States. Many are brought by organized smuggling rings.
"Twenty-nine people have been accounted for. Three of them are deceased," Coast Guard Petty Officer Jennifer Johnson said.
She said some of the migrants had reached shore and were taken into custody by the U.S. Border Patrol and others captured at sea were being questioned on a Coast Guard ship.Three migrants died and 26 others were captured when a fishing boat trying to reach... more
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Explored and claimed by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage in 1492, the island of Hispaniola became a springboard for Spanish conquest of the Caribbean and the American mainland. In 1697, Spain recognized French dominion over the western third of the island, which in 1804 became Haiti.
The remainder of the island, by then known as Santo Domingo, sought to gain its own independence in 1821, but was conquered and ruled by the Haitians for 22 years; it finally attained independence as the Dominican Republic in 1844. In 1861, the Dominicans voluntarily returned to the Spanish Empire, but two years later they launched a war that restored independence in 1865.
A legacy of unsettled, mostly non-representative rule followed, capped by the dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo from 1930-61. Juan Bosch was elected president in 1962, but was deposed in a military coup in 1963. In 1965, the United States led an intervention in the midst of a civil war sparked by an uprising to restore Bosch.
In 1966, Joaquin Balaguer defeated Bosch in an election to become president. Balaguer maintained a tight grip on power for most of the next 30 years when international reaction to flawed elections forced him to curtail his term in 1996. Since then, regular competitive elections have been held in which opposition candidates have won the presidency.
Former President (1996-2000) Leonel Fernandez Reyna won election to a second term in 2004 following a constitutional amendment allowing presidents to serve more than one term.
Explored and claimed by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage in 1492, the island... more
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In annual findings on the global illegal drug trade, Bush for the first time says Bolivia had "failed demonstrably" to meet its obligations to battle narcotics under international accords and US laws governing overseas aid.
Bush's comments came in a memorandum for US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, dated Monday but released at the White House on Tuesday, identifying 20 major drug transit or drug producing countries.
Bush put Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela on the list.
The US president noted that appearing on the list does not necessarily mean governments are not trying to stem the flow of illegal drugs or are not cooperating with Washington.
Instead, it can be "the combination of geographic, commercial, and economic factors that allow drugs to transit or be produced despite the concerned government's most assiduous enforcement measures," he says.
In annual findings on the global illegal drug trade, Bush for the first time says... more
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Don't like the Iraq War? Think it costs too much? Read the Miami Herald story today about one Florida Republican donor who may beg to disagree.
Harry Sargeant III has $1 billion in contracts to ship fuel to the military in Iraq. In March, John McCain tapped Sargeant to be his Florida campaign co-finance chairman.
Not bad for a company Sargeant founded in 2004 with a Jordanian business partner. If not for bundled contributions from Arab Americans in California-- apparently foreign nationals-- Sargeant's business activities and influence peddling in Washington might not have come to light.
"The company has established a massive operation, with some 300 tankers shipping oil from Saudia Arabia to Jordan, where the fuel is trucked in convoys into Ramadi, Iraq, using drivers from Jordan, India, the Sudan and the Dominican Republic, according to a Defense Department newsletter."
The Herald report is sprinkled with refusals, denials, and unavailability for comment by Republican officials with close ties to Sargeant.
Hey, someone has to get fuel to our troops in Iraq: it might as well be a Republican. In the past two years, Sargeant has given $2 million to political causes and candidates-- mostly Republican.
Don't like the Iraq War? Think it costs too much? Read the Miami Herald story today... more
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Some 800,000 of the most impoverished Dominican households will receive as of the 25th of this month a subsidy to buy cooking gas with the "Bonogas" card distributed by the government through the Solidarity Program, headed by vice president Rafael Alburquerque.
The investment,whose monthly allocations is RD$ million, will benefit around 4 million Dominicans whose receive RD$228 each month for the purchase of gas.
Alburquerque said the program will include 400,000 new homes that participate in the program "Eating is First" and also receive the benefit of subsidized gas.
He said to date 200,000 Visa electronic cards have been distributedto for use in the 700 gas stations participating in the program and the remaining 200,000 cards expected before next Saturday.
He said that with the targeted gas subsidies, the government will save RD $6.0 billion per year.Some 800,000 of the most impoverished Dominican households will receive as of the 25th... more
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Hurricane Gustav is moving towards the Cayman Islands as it continues to threaten Cuba and the US Gulf Coast. The storm has already killed at least 71 people as it passed through the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica. Gustav could develop into a category three storm over the weekend as it passes over warm waters.
The warnings came as New Orleans buried some of the last unidentified victims of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the city three years ago. Both New Orleans and coastal Mississippi have been holding commemorations for the victims of Hurricane Katrina on the anniversary of the storm sweeping ashore.
Away from the US, Gustav strengthened from a tropical storm on Friday to become a category one hurricane and currently has sustained winds of up to 130 km/h (81mph), officials said.
The storm hit Jamaica with heavy rains and strong winds, tearing roofs off houses. It is now moving slowly, at about 12km/h (7.5mph), and there are fears that it could intensify as it lingers over the warm, deep waters of the Caribbean Sea.
Cuban authorities have already evacuated more than 60,000 people from low-lying coastal areas and have mobilised medical and emergency rescue teams to deal with the possible aftermath. The BBC's Michael Voss, in Havana, says that Cuba has one of the most efficient disaster preparedness and evacuation organisations in the region, but that the poor condition of housing in the capital could pose additional risks in a major storm. Gustav's projected path also takes it over the oil-producing Gulf of Mexico.
On Friday, residents of the Cayman Islands were boarding up windows and stocking up on supplies of food and fuel. Tourists on the low-lying luxury islands were flown to safety or told to ride out the storm in bunkers. Workers were being evacuated from oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, as oil prices on trading markets rose amid forecasts Gustav could threaten oil installations in the region.
(continued at link)Hurricane Gustav is moving towards the Cayman Islands as it continues to threaten Cuba... more
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Tropical Storm Gustav killed at least 17 people in the Caribbean as its squalls battered Haiti and the Dominican Republic, officials said.
Forecasters warned Gustav, which was a Category 1 hurricane when it made landfall in Haiti on Tuesday, is likely to regain hurricane intensity.
The forecast shows Gustav entering the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday or Sunday as a Category 3 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of at least 111 mph (179 kph). However, hurricane movements are erratic, and long-range forecasts are subject to change.
Pinchinat Pierre Louis, deputy director of Haiti's Civil Protection Directorate, said nine people were killed in the storm and another person was missing. There were unconfirmed reports of other deaths, including at least one man killed in a landslide, he said.
A mudslide in the Dominican Republic killed eight people, according to Col. Juan Manuel Mendez, the nation's director of emergency operations. The landslide happened in the Guachupita neighborhood in Santo Domingo, officials said. iReport.com: Send us your photos, videos
Nine hundred homes in the Dominican Republic were damaged by Gustav, they said.
Concerns about Gustav's apparent path to the Gulf of Mexico were partially to blame for an increase in oil prices Wednesday, officials said. Oil platforms in and around the Gulf account for more than one-fourth of U.S. oil production.
"People seem to be convinced that the track of (Gustav's) path will lead into the Gulf," said Tom Orr, head of research for Weeden and Co. financial services firm.
As of 11 a.m. Wednesday, Gustav's center was about 110 miles (178 kilometers) west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and about 125 miles (201 kilometers) southeast of Guantanamo, Cuba, according to the National Hurricane Center.
It was creeping west-northwest at near 5 mph (8 kph) and was expected to continue in that general direction as it picks up speed over the next day.Tropical Storm Gustav killed at least 17 people in the Caribbean as its squalls... more
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A fiery Spanish Priest risks his life to confront modern-day slavery on the sugarcane plantations of the Dominican RepublicA fiery Spanish Priest risks his life to confront modern-day slavery on the sugarcane... more
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Dominican Republic’s equivalent to drugs czar yesterday slammed Washington for its “persistent obstruction” that limits his country’s initiatives and efforts “to resist and defeat” drug trafficking’s aggression by sea and air.
Marino Vinicio Castillo (Vincho), Cabinet minister and the Presidency’s narcotics adviser, said the United States authorities know the number of flights with drugs that occur every week in the Dominican Republic.
He said the current problem destroys the collective calm, affecting entire families and noted that since his previous term in office president Leonel Fernandez has fought against drugs with determination.
Castillo spoke in the launching of the National Strategic Drug Plan, where its objectives and measures stressing the damages narcotics cause were detailed, and the integration of Government agencies and private institutions with that purpose.
The official also criticized the alleged permissibility of ex president Hipólito Mejía’s administration (2000-2004) with drug trafficking and Washington’s supposed indifference against that behavior, for the presence of Dominican troops in Iraq. He said that participation “produced more deaths for us from the addiction of our youth than the U.S. casualties in the war.
He warned that the amount of drugs now entering can lead the country to the condition of a Failed State, since it’s not in “mere transit,” as much of it is consumed in this nation. Dominican Republic’s equivalent to drugs czar yesterday slammed Washington for its... more
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Chip Hoffman had never seen such staggering poverty in his life: Poor Dominican kids wandering the garbage heaps, barefoot, digging for metal scraps to sell. Their hands wrinkled and scarred from who knows what chemicals in the trash.
"Seeing this, you begin to realize how privileged you are," the North Fort Myers photographer says. "You stand there in absolute shock.
"Tears start running down your face."
Once the tears dried, Hoffman set to work photographing those 8- and 10-year-old kids called Divers. As in diving in the trash heaps.
The result - along with other photos he shot in Santiago, Dominican Republic - will be shown for the next two weeks at Arts for Act Gallery. The show benefits FGCU Spanish/German professor Ingrid Martinez-Rico, who was injured in a February car crash.
Martinez-Rico and her husband, Craig Heller, started the yearly trips to the Dominican Republic as a way for Spanish students to immerse themselves in the language - and also to gain an appreciation for how many people live.
"Most of those students have never been out of the United States, let alone gone to the Third World," Heller says.
Heller and Martinez-Rico have organized the spring break trips for eight years. They work with Accion Callejera, a Dominican nonprofit group that helps children living and working in the streets.
In March 2007, their friend Hoffman came along and brought his Nikon digital camera. He taught the street kids how to take photos, and later documented the poverty he saw there. Shoe shine boys working the streets. A river polluted with feces and chemicals. Families living atop a landfill in "La Mosca" - loosely translated, "The City of Flies."
"There's a smell there I can't even begin to describe," Hoffman says. "You can't get it out of your clothes."
Hoffman hopes those photos help Heller and Martinez-Rico. They're being sold for $500 each, and $200 of that goes to their medical bills. Mixed-media artist Yunia Pavon will also sell her art and donate part of it to Martinez-Rico.
People can also donate directly to the cause.
It costs $700 a day for Martinez-Rico's treatment at The Florida Institute of Neurological Rehabilitation in Wauchula, Heller says. And insurance won't cover any of it.
Until a month ago, his wife didn't even recognize the people around her hospital bed. Now she knows them and talks a little bit, but she still gets confused sometimes, Heller says.
She'll be at the Institute at least another three months, Heller says.
"It's a long road," he says. "She's improving, though. She's making progress."
Hoffman hopes the photos help his friends, but also that they open people's eyes about the world beyond our borders.
"I think what Ingrid and Craig do is really amazing," he says. "I know I'm forever changed, in some ways. It's life-shifting."Chip Hoffman had never seen such staggering poverty in his life: Poor Dominican kids... more
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The HIV rates among sex workers in the Dominican Republic run three to 10 times higher than in the general population. Now some women in the region are uniting to take a stand against the virus. Reporter Antigone Barton and videographer Stephen Sapienza explore how sex workers are striving to educate others in the business on the dangers of the virus and the importance of using protection.
This video was produced by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting in association with Azimuth Media.
To learn more about this issue, visit www.pulitzercenter.org.The HIV rates among sex workers in the Dominican Republic run three to 10 times higher... more
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In the Dominican Republic, politics and discrimination has left an underclass living in poverty and being denied proper access to healthcare. This is the story about Marisol's work to help keep her community together. In the Dominican Republic, politics and discrimination has left an underclass living... more
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Carlos left the Dominican Republic to learn English and do stand up comedy in Los Angeles.
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