Regulation can be good
By Carolina Soto
I live in the Dominican Republic for part of the year. I love the colors, the weather, the liveliness of the people, the culture, and how sweet and accepting my neighbors are. As I walk to the beach and back for my daily swim my neighbors yell to me:
“Vecina, (neighbor) have you ever tried Mamon, my tree is full can I give you some? “
“Vecina, I have more watermelons than I can eat, can I give you one?”
“Vecina, I made okra today, I know you like it, please eat a little, take these arepitas made from yucca home!”
Feeling loved and loving the community it was particularly difficult when a young friend of mine died recently. I watched him play in the water when he was nine, try to impress the girls with his antics at fifteen, do two backflips onto a little grassy plateau when he was seventeen (still trying to impress the girls), and watched as his face was covered as he laid dead on the same beach at twenty-two.
Adonis was expressly told not to dive, the divemaster was in Samana, doing his banking forty-five minutes away. Adonis had only two previous dives, but he called the ship's captain, a young friend, to come and pick him up so he could dive as some tourists snorkeled on the outside of the reef. The water was rough but he felt confident as only a twenty-two-year-old could or would, that with his minimal training he could dive alone.
He was in a training program to earn his diving certificate and help grow this part of the tourist industry. He had received a grant from the local government to do this. Adonis worked on the beach carrying out lawn chairs for the beachgoers, serving drinks and coconuts. His workmates told him don’t go.
You are inexperienced and the water is too rough today, they all reported telling him.
No one knows what kind of problem he encountered down below but he came up faster than his body could withstand. This caused bleeding for the entire 24 hours after his death, leading the police to believe it was decompression sickness or the bends that caused his death. He was buried the next morning.
I miss his goofy grin, silly jokes, bright shining innate goodness that kept him from becoming a tigare, a petty thief in the Dominican vernacular, or a kid who breaks into houses because he is disadvantaged. He was instead, a bright, sweet hard-working young man.
There are few or no government regulations.
My problem with that is that no one needs a certification or a divemaster to dive. The captains on the many small boats that shuttle the tourists around are not certified. They are young and inexperienced and have left people at a dive spot to swim back to shore because they didn’t count the passengers. Thirteen year old kids are allowed to ride motorbikes without a license. They do wheelies all the way down the hill. The motor bikes are not required to have reflectors on the back, scaring me half to death when I come up on them suddenly in a car at night. The real estate agents are not certified, some are more honest than others, and you must rely on someone’s recommendation. The land is sold without title and disputed for years in court. The owner of the first hotel where I stayed in Las Galeras, bought the land three times before obtaining a verified legal title. You cannot return anything if it does not work, there is no post office or mail delivery. The police tell you that you must pay them the equivalent of $50 to make a robbery report because they must bring you to Samana to the regional national police headquarters. I am talking to all my neighbors about that. Hopefully I will have formed a group of citizens who will put pressure on the city to change that before the next town meeting.
There is no property tax, but there is also not enough money for schools to stay in session for more than half of the day. Getting the cash for a school bus or ambulance is difficult and falls on community contributions. The city administration has mounted an ecological initiative but without educational backup, it does not amount to much. How does one help the kids like Adonis understand how important the environment and safety regulations are?
There are Pre-Colombian cave paintings of whales made by the Taino Indians in the caves of Los Haitises National Park. The humpback whales that visit here to mate and calf have been making the journey from Cape Cod for eons. The males, who sing and court the females in these exquisite turquoise waters can weigh up to forty tons. The water is so clear you can see them under your boat.
Instead of protecting these longtime guests, the government decided to dredge the harbor of Samana to make it accessible to cruise ships. The cruise ships bring lots of tourists, who visit all of the beautiful sights near the port, eat in restaurants, ride horses, dive, and snorkel using many small boats and employing many local people. Tourists return and it is considered an economic miracle. It is at a great future cost.
Every single day, cruise ships worldwide emit the same particular matter as a million cars. A single large cruise ship will emit over five tons of NOX emissions, and 450kg of ultra fine particles a day. That is the same amount of sulfur dioxide as the emissions from 3.5 million cars. They dump grey water, black water, solid sewage, and ash from the incinerated plastic, cardboard, cans, and glass.
The only regulation? The dumps must be three nautical miles offshore. They tell the tourists that they are very ecological. According to Forbes the cruise industry transported over 26 million customers last year and was worth upwards of $117 billion in 2017. This is capitalism.
The value added is costing you your planet.
The corporations are self-regulating which means they refuse to take any measures to save the planet. Government commitments on oil are being rescinded because of the new NATO war with Russia.
With the government regulations we have in place our planet is almost beyond saving. Many glaciers are sliding into the ocean from Alaska to Greenland. Thwaites Glacier is one of the biggest in Antarctica. Until now, an ice shelf, a floating slab of ice, has held this West Antarctic glacier from the ocean. This ice shelf is on the verge of collapse. How many inches or centimeters will the sea rise as a result of this?
The ocean temperatures are rising. The ocean absorbs vast quantities of heat as a result of increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, mainly from fossil fuel consumption. The ocean had absorbed more than 93% of the excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions since the 1970s. This is causing ocean temperatures to rise. The rate of ocean warming quadrupled since the late 20th century.
I can see the devastation in my little reef. The sad part is I can see it everywhere. We make choices daily about cars, electricity, consumer goods, the food we eat, and our comfort level with air conditioning. Many of our choices affect people's lives. I am living in a small community that demands I act locally but think globally.
What does this have to do with you? I suggest you refrain from cruises.
In terms of the environment, there is a lot that we all have to refrain from.
Reduce the number of trips you take in your car.
Reduce or eliminate fireplace and wood stove use.
Avoid burning leaves, trash, and other materials.
Avoid using gas-powered lawn and garden equipment. (No lawn mowing???)
Make fashion choices that are sustainable (give up all the stretchy stuff?)
Eat less meat and dairy
Use power strips and turn all appliances off
These are things I heard about at the first Earth Day Celebration I attended in 1969. We know what to do but we pretend not to know. The consequences are dire.
The United Nations should have more power in local waters to set in motion good laws that are stopped locally because they interfere with profits. (The same way I would like the United Nations to have an oversight committee for US Prisons!)
Here are several good sites to read more about this:
Environmental Justice – Comparative Experiences in Legal Empowerment
Information on the protection and preservation of the marine environment can be found on the website of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea.
When I think about any of the kids I see here, I feel they also have a right to future outside of poverty and the education that it takes to make that happen. Adonis was giving it his best try but he needed more education and more oversight. Increasing climate catastrophic weather, food vulnerability and the heating up of the oceans leave us all at risk, although the vulnerability indices show that small island developing states like the Dominican Republic are three times more susceptible than developed countries to the negative impacts of climate change. Who is mainly at fault for the green-house emissions? The developed world. The United States.Capitalism (greed) has ruined our world, what will we do about it?
Think fast, we are on the brink of nuclear disaster.
Increasing climate catastrophic weather, food vulnerability leave us all at risk, although the vulnerability indices show that small island developing States like the Dominican Republic are three times more susceptible than developed countries to the negative impacts of climate change. Who is mainly at fault for the green house emissions? The developed world.
Suggested reading: The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth by John Bellamy Foster.
One of “the real women of Orange Is the New Black,” Carolina Soto is one of the founding members of the Re/Creation writing workshop at Restoration Plaza. Unlike the fictionalized Yoga Jones, Carolina has a long history of work in social justice and advocacy, and is a seasoned painter and visual artist. Since beginning her work in the Re/Creation writing workshop at Restoration Plaza in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, Carolina has increased her confidence and aptitude with both the written and spoken word, composing speeches and essays for her advocacy work and as well as written memoir. In particular, her essays and memoirs illustrate her vast capacity for empathy in her descriptions of people with whom she shared time inside. She now splits her time between living in New York City and the Dominican Republic.