the war zone.

people, this world is not fair.
i feel like a little girl, stomping her feet and jumping up and down - not fair! not fair!

but it's not.
these past two weeks have presented some wicked situations around these parts, and i'm just left sitting here shaking my head. the dominican government passed a law that would literally strip thousands and thousands of people of their citizenship - just because their grandparents (or great grandparents) were illegal immigrants. the banks were taken to court over some credit card fraud (the people won! finally!) and personally, we've just been getting hit hard with crap.

lots and lots of crap.

gracias a gentetuya.com

on saturday, the police entered into a shooting match with some local hoodlums. i don't know all of the details -- and nobody will probably ever know the details. the story is that these two police officers are known for their love of prostitutes and for greasin' it up with local drug dealers. who knows, really. police here are corrupt. they are paid nothing and expected to uphold justice.

it's hard.

but, when they entered into a shooting match in a neighborhood filled with children - that was bad. and when one of their bullets killed a 12 year old boy with special needs, that was worse. the neighborhood went crazy. on saturday, there was no way to risk entering that neighborhood without the risk of being hurt. there were tires burning, rocks being thrown, garbage tanks overturned.

it's not fair.
this type of protesting is common here. it's violent and it's deadly. and it's scary because these people are at whits end and really, just have no way to protest in any other way. they have been rendered mute by the lack of education, the substandard conditions they live in and the impotency of local authorities.

gracias a gentetuya.com

today, there is a nationwide strike. i'm not sure what they are protesting today. but, there are highways that one can't pass through. bullets will fly and tires will burn. it is very possible that people will be seriously injured.
we cancelled classes today. it's the safe thing to do. we don't need any more kids in the streets during these eruptions of violence.
but i'm a little crazy, and i drove back to school this morning. it seems that the protests in cienfuegos have eased off - the judge put the police officer in "preventative" jail for one year to await trial. now we just have to wait and see if that ruling sticks. - but the streets are filled with the remnants of frustration.


men lined the streets, but let cars pass freely. it was difficult to avoid the boulders in the road, the street covered in broken glass and trash. the fires in each intersection still smoldering, waiting for someone to put them out, or re-light them. the police sat in front of the station in full riot gear, waiting, i imagine, for someone to light the fuse or throw a bottle or, worse, shoot a gun.

it's not fair that this is what we've got. a whole lot of people stripped of their dignity and worth - a whole lot of impotence. people who don't even have viable means to "talk it out" anymore - either because they're not given the chance to talk or because they don't have the words. and it's not just in the dominican republic. it's all around the world.