Author: KRISTAL ROMAN

This is my first draft for my piece on the political Party in Dominican Republic.

I do want to incorporate one more source for my final draft.

This is what I have gotten so far!

Political Party in DR JRN 3700

For my second story I would like speak on the recent change of political party in the Dominican Republic. The country had been under the same political party for approximately 20 years until the new election occurred. Now with the new President, Luis Abinadel they are under the political party known as “PRM” which stands for “Partido Revolucionario Moderno.” In English meaning “Modern Revolutionary Party.” Before they were with the president Danilo Medina with the party “PLD” which stands for “Partido de la Liberation Dominicans”. In English “Dominican Liberation Party.”

I want to touch bases on how the country is coping with the economic changes this is causing. It is also bringing to light the wrong doings of their past presidents of the “Dominican Liberation Party.” I would interview certain people as sources that are in the political world in Dominican Republic as well as people from both parties to get their perspective on the situation and their feelings toward.

This is not a concrete idea just yet, I was speaking to my parents about current issues occurring their right now since I was a bit stumped on what to write and they told me this is huge story that they believe is very relevant since it happening right now and is a very interesting topic to get the word out on. I am a bit worried about not being able to cover this properly being that politics is a very touchy topic but with the help of research and good interviewed sources I hope I can serve the audience well and get some good information in my piece focusing on some key changes this is causing.

Sade Santos Final Draft

I watched the daily briefing on 10/14 where many different issues were spoken about such as climate change, as COVID-19 in different places including my beat for this semester, Dominican Republic.

The loss of two children in Myanmar raised a lot of concern because there has been an increase of killings of children there. More than 100 have passed in just the beginning of 2020.

As I said they mentioned my beat, Dominican Republic and they spoke on the impact covid-19 has had on the employment there.

There has also been an increase in COVID-19 cases in Libya with the lives of more than 125,000 people are at risk.

It was a bit tough for me to keep up with everything addressed and my internet was a bit glitchy but in my opinion from what I caught although DR is my beat specifically in that of COVID-19 and its impacts I would report on climate change in general. Just because it is something that is affecting the whole world and also a matter that everyone must know about. Although, it would more difficult to cover such a broad topic, but maybe stories on how it affects each place individually.

Watching this just gave me more of a glimpse into the problems of the world. Lately it’s been easy to set all focus in on Corona Virus and we forget there are other issues still shadowing us.

Attached is the first draft of my first story. It is more of a profile piece. However, for the final draft I would like to include more statistics to it as well as minor media.

 

First Draft- Sade Santos

“construction Equality”

Women in Construction

I visited the women in construction Photoville exhibition. I never thought of the sexism these women might face when trying to get into the construction business. Or the female stereotypes that are thrown their way probably on a daily basis. One comment that stuck out to me was one that Jillian Lifson said. She stated that “I feel like I can’t have a bad day…because if I have a bad day, I must be on my period right?”. All women have faced this issue before no matter where you work, you most probably have gotten this comment thrown out you. But I can just imagine working with ALL male coworkers how this must feel. The women portrayed in this exhibit are all strong and all different. You expect a female in construction to be all macho, basically one of the guys. But that’s not the case. I believe the exhibit did a great job in showing different females with different characteristics yet all strong who all went for the same career. One that might not have welcomed the with open arms. But they all fought for their right to gain their spot there. And although they got the job, they still fight for the right to be seen as equal among their peers. Another femaleworker said, “You don’t blend in, you don’t fly under the radar, you’re kind id definitively an outlier”. Some people may not feel like they belong in the office or store or restaurant where they work, but these women face far worse than us when they are viewed as less than just because they chose a career that normally would be filled by a man. But the truth is all women can do what men do and vice versa. This exhibit does well is showing that and explaining different women’s experiences.

Beat Memo: Dominican Republic

How many live in the US? In the tristate area? How many in the home country?

Dominican demographic in United States: Since 2000, the Dominican-origin population has increased 159%, growing from 797,000 to 2.1 million over the period. At the same time, the Dominican foreign-born population living in the U.S. grew by 106%, from 543,800 in 2000 to 1.1 million in 2017.

Around 47% of Dominican Americans live in New York state with 41% in New York City alone, close to 40% of all Dominicans in the city live in the Bronx. Rhode Island has the highest percentage of Dominicans in the country and it is the only state where Dominicans are the largest Hispanic group.

However, my focus will be about Dominicans specifically in Washington Heights or actually in Dominican Republic.

What jobs do a significant percentage of them have?

Dominicans are more likely to be employed in service occupations or production, transportation, and material moving occupations.

Dominicans overall have significantly lower incomes compared to the total foreign- and native-born populations. In 2016, households headed by a Dominican immigrant had a median income of $37,000, compared to $54,000 and $58,000 for all immigrant and U.S.-born households, respectively.

Further, in 2016, some 24 percent of Dominican families were living in poverty, a much higher rate than the 9 percent for the U.S. born and 15 percent for immigrant families overall.

Why did they come? When?

Large-scale migration from the Dominican Republic to the United States began in the 1960s, in the wake of economic and political turbulence that occurred after dictator Rafael Trujillo was killed by rebels in 1961 and the U.S. military and other government agencies intervened.

But more recently, Dominican’s come to the United States for the work possibilities and the and opportunity to grow.

What are some major organizations/advocacy groups/resources in this community?

The Juan Pablo Duarte Foundation Community Space

In Washington Heights/Inwood, stores owned or operated by Dominicans stand out as one of the most significant economic phenomena in the area.

List/link the major media houses in the home country.

• El Caribe – daily.
• Hoy – daily.
• Listin Diario – daily.
• El Nacional – evening and Sunday.
• Diario Libre – daily.

How strong are relationships with the home country? How significant are remittances to the home country’s economy?

Dominicans are very prideful of their homeland. They visit very often and stay in touch religiously with folks back home.

In the homeland what is the GDP per capita? Where does that rank in the world?

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Dominican Republic was worth 88.94 billion US dollars in 2019, according to official data from the World Bank and projections from Trading Economics. The GDP value of Dominican Republic represents 0.07 percent of the world economy.

What is the system of government? When did this system come into place? Was there a colonial power? (Or was it the colonial power?)

The Dominican Republic is a representative democracy, where the President of the Dominican Republic functions as both the head of the government and head of the multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in the bicameral National Congress.

Name of the NY consul general. How long has he/she been in the role?

Eligio Jaquez, since July 2020.

Possible story ideas:

First Story: What life is like as a med student in Dominican Republic with low resources in hospitals. And how the coronavirus has affected their day to day routine and if online learning has affected the process in any way.

Second story:   Related to a Dominican owned business here in Washington heights. How has coronavirus affected the business and has the community being so tight knit helped it stay afloat.

Third Story: I don’t have a concrete idea on this, but I want to write on how tourism has been affected in Dominican Republic.

Sources:

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/immigrants-dominican-republic-united-states-2012

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-19286985

https://patch.com/new-york/washington-heights-inwood/dominican-cultural-center-opens-washington-heights

https://tradingeconomics.com/dominican-republic/gdp

 

This semester I would like to focus on either Dominican Republic or the community of Washington Heights and how COVID-19 has affected the everyday lifestyle of everyone living in these places. My parents are from Dominican Republic and currently live there, and I also went to high school out there and have many friends. I have been told of the many ways that life has differed in the span of a couple of months back there and how hard it has been for everyone to cope with these changes being that the DR has always been a very liberal place with loads of activities that have come to a halt.

For Washington Heights, I currently live here. It is usually called the little DR being that most of its occupants are from Dominican descent. I have many family members around me as well here. I know business owners in my area whose companies have faced tremendous struggle with less business hours and low customer intake.

I would like to focus on either of these places because I myself have experienced living in both locations. I would like to see the differences from how Dominicans in their own country are handling these situations and how Dominicans who are in a whole different country with just similar surroundings to their own home are dealing with todays world and these new restrictions.

As for sources, apart from having many family/friends/ and acquaintances that I can interview I found these websites that can help me look deeper into the crevices of how life has changed for Dominicans and what they are doing to change their lifestyle to fit into 2020.

https://www.godominicanrepublic.com/newsroom/coronavirus/

https://patch.com/new-york/washington-heights-inwood/town-hall-answer-uptown-small-business-coronavirus-questions

https://patch.com/new-york/washington-heights-inwood/uptown-coronavirus-death-rates-among-highest-manhattan-data

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/warning/coronavirus-dominican-republic