Dominican Republic Heritage - Essay Sample

Introduction

The Dominican Republic is a country situated on the isle called Hispaniola in the West Indies. The Dominican Republic takes up about two-thirds of the eastern aisle of Hispaniola which it occupies with the land of Haiti that is located to the west of the island. The Dominican Republic occupies an area of forty-eight thousand six hundred and seventy-one square kilometers which makes it the second biggest Caribbean country after the nation of Cuba which is the largest Caribbean nation. The Dominican Republic has a population of almost ten million nationals. The capital city of the Dominican Republic is a city called Santa Domingo which has a population of approximately three million people living there. The national currency for the Dominican Republic is known as the Dominican Peso which is abridged as $ or RD$. The exchange rate for the Dominican peso with the United States Dollar as of March 2019 stood at fifty point zero eight pesos per one United States dollar.

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Environment

Conservation Policies/Programs, Rain Forests, National Parks, Deforestation

The Dominican Republic as a nation faces some environmental challenges which include deforestation, in turn, causing the erosion of soil which leads to the destruction of the countries coral reefs. Also, the nation faces challenges of lack of land for farming as the nation's population continues to grow thus leading to cutting trees and agriculture in mountainous areas. As of the year 1993, the United Nations conducted a study on deforestation in the Dominican Republic and reported that every year the country was losing about twenty thousand hectares of its woodlands or rain forests as a result of deforestation which was mainly driven by the citizen's profit-making interests. The Dominican Republic's government had outlawed the cutting down of trees since the year nineteen sixty-seven in an attempt to reverse the harmful effects of indiscriminate cutting down of trees by unscrupulous people in business and farmers to sell timber or farm the land (Cambeira, 2016). Nonetheless, the practice of cutting down of trees continues up to this day as farmers try to gain more land for the cultivation of food and cash crops.

The environmental problem of soil erosion comes about as a consequence of precipitation and the utilization of property located in hilly parts for farming. The issue of deforestation in the Dominican Republic has dramatically affected the countries national parks and rain forests because they are the areas that are majorly encroached upon as people in business look for timber to sell and as farmers look for more land for cultivation. The principal government agencies which are involved in environmental safeguard within the Dominican Republic are the Department of National Parks and the Department of State for Farming.

Urban Environment: The Metro/Transportation, Energy (Private/State Foreign Control), Energy Supply (Residential/Tourist/Free-Zones).

Transportation within the Dominican Republic is modern and advanced with more advancements and development continuing to be advanced by the nation's government each day. As part of a more excellent plan to modernize and improve transportation within the Dominican Republic, the Dominican government introduced the Santo Domingo Metro. The Santa Domingo Metro is part of a significant urban national master plan aimed at improving transport in the Dominican Republic's capital city Santa Domingo as well as improving transportation in the rest of the country. The first line of the Santa Domingo Metro was constructed to relieve the congestion of traffic along the Hermanas Mirabal and Maximo Gomez Avenues. The second rail of the Santa Domingo metro which was opened in April 2013 was meant to get rid of the jamming along with the Duarte Kennedy-Centenario strip within the capital city from west to the east.

The Santa Doming Metro has become a significant and essential means of transport within the capital city of the Dominican Republic with most residents of the city using it for transportation from time to time around the town. In the Dominican Republic close to ninety-five percent of all electricity usage is not charged or billed (Guerrero-Liquet, Sanchez-Lozano, Garcia-Cascales, Lamata & Verdegay, 2016). However, the energy sector in the Dominican Republic has been very undependable since the Trujillo era, and much of the infrastructure is very old. During the government of Leonel Fernandez, the energy sector in the Dominican Republic was privatized. It can also be noted that tourists' zones within the country tend to be more developed about energy supply and it also tends to be more reliable.

Migrations

Chinese Culture, Business, Sports

The Dominican Republic has a large population estimated to be around eighty thousand people of direct Chinese origin. Many of this Dominicans of Chinese descent were born in the Dominican Republic and are citizens of the country it being that they are the children of immigrants who had earlier on moved to settle in the Dominican Republic. These Chinese dependents living within the Dominican Republic are referred to as Chinese Dominicans. It is recorded that a considerable number of nationals from China moved to settle in the Dominican Republic during the American occupancy of the Dominican Nation around the year's nineteen sixteen to nineteen twenty-four. Further, in the year nineteen thirty-seven, the Sino Japanese war occurred which lead to an influx of Chinese immigrants into the Dominican Republic. Today the Chinese community within the Dominican Republic comprises one of the most prominent Chinese groups of people within Latin America (Stoyan, Niedzwiecki, Morgan, Hartlyn & Espinal, 2016). Many of the Chinese Dominicans have been assimilated into the local Dominican society thus dropping many of their Chinese cultural practices. Many of the traditional Chinese sport activities practiced in central land China have also been lost. The Chinese Dominicans have however helped to foster business and trade relations between mainland China and the Dominican Republic hence enhancing trade relations between the two nations.

Jewish Communities and Towns (History and Integration)

There currently exists a population of close to three thousand known Jews within the Dominican Republic. Most of these Jews will be found residing within the towns of Santa Domingo and Sosua. The Jewish community within the Dominican Republic came to settle there during the Second World War. This was because the Dominican Republic was among few countries which were willing to offer refuge to Jews who had escaped persecution in occupied Europe. During that time the government in the Dominican Republic formed the Dominican Nation Settlement Association abbreviated as DORSA to help resettle the persecuted Jews within the settlement town of Sosua in the Dominican Republic's Northern coast. Though some Jews were assimilated by the Dominican people and switched from their traditions and customs, many Jews still stuck to their traditions and customs within the Dominican Republic and continue to practice their traditions up to this date.

Christian & Muslim Arab Social & Political Influence

Christianity is the whole broadly practiced religion within the Dominican Republic. Thus Christianity has a lot of political influence in the nation it being that the power of Christianity is so strong that it influences the laws of the land. Also, Christianity within the Dominican Republic is so strong that politicians in this nation try to appear to adhere by Christian standards in their politics anything contrary to such would lead to a lack of support for the politician. There are believed to live only about three thousand known Muslims within the Dominican Republic. This number of Muslims is too small to have any impact or influence on the political arena within the Dominican Nation. However, the Muslims within the Dominican Republic have tried to ensure that their voices are heard by forming organizations to represent them like the Circulo Islamico de Republic Dominican which translates to the Islamic Circle of the Dominican Nation.

Haitian Conflict

History, Legal Status, Labor Conditions (Male/Female), International Human Rights Organizations, Violent Incidents, National/Foreign Media Coverage

The diplomatic relationship between the Dominican Republic and the Nation of Haiti has been strained and complex mainly due to the ample cultural differences between the nationals of the two nations. The other problem which further strains the relationship between the Nation of Haiti and the Dominican Nation is their political differences and outlook on international and domestic affairs which is further exasperated by the fact that the two nations share the small isle of Hispaniola which is a section of the greater Antilles within the Caribbean area. The Dominican Republic is more developed when compared to Haiti. The living standards of the citizens of the Dominican Nation are generally higher than the living conditions of the citizens of Haiti (Betances, 2018). Also, the labor conditions within the industries in the Dominican Nation are much better when likened to the labor conditions within Haiti which are generally bad for the males and even worse for females. International human rights associations like the widely known Amnesty International and the International Federation for Human Rights have many a time called out the Dominican Republic and the nation of Haiti over the poor conditions under which workers in their countries are subjected to, and this has always been meeting by a reply by both countries that they are implementing the required changes.

There have been various violent incidences between the Dominican Republic and Haiti one of which occurred in the year nineteen thirty-seven in October when the Dominican Republic head of state Rafael Trujillo ordered an attack against Haitians at the border between the two nations claiming that Haiti was protecting his political opponents. In this attack, Haitian nationals in the tens of thousands were slaughtered when trying to escape. During such incidences of conflict between the nations of Haiti and the Dominican Nation, it is usually seen that the national media coverage on each side represents their facts and side of the story according to their favor which can be seen when one looks at foreign media coverage which is unbiased.

Arts, Music, Culture

Salome Urena

Salome Urena was a poet and a Dominican Republic national who is credited with having made a significant contribution to society through opening a center of higher education for young girls and women within the Dominican Republic which was the first of its kind. Due to her vision six women teachers graduated from the school which was very uncommon at that time.

Pedro Henriquez Urena

Pedro Henriquez Urena was a literary scholar and Dominican Republic national who is credited with having written the famous article titled "the Utopia of America."

Pedro Mir

Pedro Mir was an accomplished poet, writer, and the Dominican Republic national his poetic and literary works are highly acclaimed. In the year nineteen eighty-four, the Dominican Congress christened him as the Poet Laureate of the Dominican Nation.

Juan Bosch

Juan Bosch was a Dominican Republic national credited with being the first democratically voted head of state of the Dominican Nation.

Oscar de la Renta

Oscar de la Renta was a Dominican Nation national and Dominican-American fashion designer. He is credited with starting a fashion house that is famous all over the world.

Julia Alvarez

Julia Alvarez is a poet, essayist, and novelist. She was born in the...