Big Day

[Stewmuse]

One of the things that are present here is an abundant supply of amber. It's mined by property owners in small dug-out caves, and the DR produces some of the best in the world. It's highly sought after for its quality for jewelry and presence of fossils for study. Amado has put several "caves" into his property over the years, and began one recently. In quick fashion, they've put a 6'x6', 35' deep tunnel into the hill. Today he showed me some of their finds. I thought this is a particularly good sample. It's dark in the picture so you can't see the translucence, but trust me it's right purty....

That is awesome. When did you find out about that stuff?

[Kip]

One of the things that are present here is an abundant supply of amber. It's mined by property owners in small dug-out caves, and the DR produces some of the best in the world. It's highly sought after for its quality for jewelry and presence of fossils for study. Amado has put several "caves" into his property over the years, and began one recently. In quick fashion, they've put a 6'x6', 35' deep tunnel into the hill. Today he showed me some of their finds. I thought this is a particularly good sample. It's dark in the picture so you can't see the translucence, but trust me it's right purty....

That is awesome. When did you find out about that stuff?

Before we moved here, actually. I've been an amateur rockhound/collector since very young childhood (even if my collection is now mostly dispersed in TN and FL).

It's illegal to take it out of the country in its raw state, because so much was being exported. Now, it has to be "worked" into jewelry, etc. before its legal to take out. "Worked" is a pretty loose term, though....

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[Kip]

I don't even wanna know what was chasing this joker....

https://www.facebook.com/elnuevodiarior ... 110764912/

[Zedman05]

As is the case in most of the world outside the US, yesterday was May Day/Labor Day/Workers' Day. The government here used the occasion to release the latest employment stats. According to their stats, 42% of working age adults are unemployed. I don't understand the methods, but this somehow translates to only a 6% unemployment rate. Non-DR governmental numbers put the unemployment around 25%.

Other interesting stats were pay ranges - including the government sector (the major employer) - which have more than half the working population earning less than 15k pesos/month (about $300 US).


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That is both a crazy unemployment number and monthly wage. I had been throwing around the idea of working in a camp job, doing a shutdown at one of the plants up north and this pays about the same $15k in a 6 week span (not pesos though haha). It is amazing the cost of living differnece though. My brother lives in Fort MacMurray north of us, and if you make less that $100k/year you are considered below the poverty line.

[Kip]

There is a pretty significant piece of the population here that is Korean. No matter how many times it happens, it always strikes me as amusing when I have a Spanish conversation with Korean folks because I don't speak Korean, they don't speak English, but we both speak Spanish. I don't even know why it's amusing. It just is.

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[Kip]

My brother lives in Fort MacMurray north of us, and if you make less that $100k/year you are considered below the poverty line.

Yeah....but it's the friggin' land of the 10-minute summer





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[Zedman05]

My brother lives in Fort MacMurray north of us, and if you make less that $100k/year you are considered below the poverty line.

Yeah....but it's the friggin' land of the 10-minute summer





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Opposite.
Sun comes up at like 5:30, goes down at around 11ish pm.
If you are refering to the length of summer, yes it is very short.

[Kip]

Yeah the length of summer. This year, I heard summer up there occurs on July 25th right?

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[Kip]

The amount of daylight hours was one of my favorite things when we visited Scotland in 2008. We went in July, so the sun was up before 5am and didn't set until after midnight. It was fantastic - we could visit all the touristy operations during business hours, then drive around the countryside exploring ruins and other points of interest all evening, essentially getting 2 days of fun each day. It was glorious.....but there's no way I could live in the corresponding darkness during winter months.

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[Kip]

First, a preface: It's absolutely not my intention to trivialize or politicize tragedy. Just some observations after reading local press. Don't preach for/against gun laws at me. I've been a gun owner since I was 8 years old, although I'm not permitted to be one here (mine are safely stored with a friend back in the US). This isn't my point. I'm just pondering and need a place to hold the thought until it matures.


I find it ironic how condemning the Dominican press can be every time there's a mass shooting in the US. The lax American gun laws and rampant cowboy comparisons are made, all the while pointing out the strict gun laws here in the DR. Guns have been banned for private ownership import for many years. My understanding is that all legal firearms that land here for all those years are for the military. Rifles are all but extinct except for military use. Handguns and shotguns come with huge monetary requirements that essentially prevent most legal private ownership by the citizenry (high user/licensing fees, and market pricing about 10x US costs in a population that earns small fraction of American income ). Shotguns are common for security details at many businesses. Sidearms less so, but commonly seen in the same situation. The number of firearms in circulation has decreased greatly as the stock goes out of commission. Yet, gun crime increases, and quickly.

What isn't showcased by the press is the fact that the Dominican firearm fatality rate, per 100k residents, is 400% the US rate, and overall homicide up around 600%. Frankly, if more people here could afford a firearm to commit suicide and domestic violence, the fatality number would likely be astronomically higher. Suicide and domestic violence homicides are rampant; most just opt for other methods that are more accessible. My news feed is (literally daily) filled with videos and stories of shootings. These occurrences don't even generate more than a blip for about 24 hours before what appears to me to be a very fatalistic acceptance of "oh well, that's just this country these days". It's almost as if the killing of several people at one time is much more grave than a dozen every single day or two spread across an area half the size of Florida. I'm not sure why, but these rates have roughly quadrupled since 2000.

I'm not here to preach gun control, nor the fight against it. I see enough argumentative jackwagons on both sides of that fence via Facebook. It just seems obvious that, in this country (DR) anyway, a deeper problem exists in a pervasive cultural lack of respect for life. I can't even begin to tell you how often AMET (traffic cops) or National Police draw down on people in the street. Heck, not too long ago, a video circulated of CESTUR (tourism police for crying out loud!) pulling a weapon and shooting a man in the leg simply for raising his voice. No threats. No physical markers for someone about to get violent. The officer just lost his cool. It happens with no small amount of frequency. The controls exist here, but out of control theft, corruption, and hot-headed authorities make this problem very visible to me. Why the average José on the street can't see it is beyond me.

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