Update on DR street children

MrMike · #1 01-26-2006, 09:54 AM

It has been nearly a week since I have seen any kids working stoplights in Santiago, though the total number of street vendors seems to have increased if anything, they mostly seem to be young men.

It appears the recent police crackdown has been strangely effective, to have removed a figure as traditionally Dominican as children washing windows at stoplights.

Is this the case in other parts of the country? Any bets on how long it will last?

aegap · #2 01-26-2006, 04:58 PM

MrMike, since you live in Santiago, you should be able to understand this article, which should answer your question

MrMike · #3 01-26-2006, 05:19 PM

Great. The article has no date and a time stamp that is still in the future. (if it's today)

So actually it doesn't answer my question much. The government is claiming its program was a resounding success that will result in a lasting victory.

Where's the news? Only 7 out of 77 children didn't lead them straight to mom and dad? I'd say that confirms my theory pretty well.

aegap · #4 01-26-2006, 06:35 PM

Sorry your understanding of the article is very lacking.

I was just trying to be helpful

MrMike · #5 01-27-2006, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aegap

Sorry your understanding of the article is very lacking.

I was just trying to be helpful

Interesting, you sound like you're trying NOT to be helpful.

I am asking if anyone has seen kids begging or washing windows at stoplights, outside of Santiago.

I read the news but I am not interested in what the papers and the government are saying. They are both full of the same crap lateley.

I want to know what members of this board are seeing and experiencing.

If not, do people think this will be a lasting solution.

Potato_Salad · #6 01-31-2006, 12:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrMike

Interesting, you sound like you're trying NOT to be helpful.

I am asking if anyone has seen kids begging or washing windows at stoplights, outside of Santiago.

I read the news but I am not interested in what the papers and the government are saying. They are both full of the same crap lateley.

I want to know what members of this board are seeing and experiencing.

If not, do people think this will be a lasting solution.

I have been to only Santiago and Santo Domingo.

In Santo Domingo, I have seen a few kids (all of them were boys) begging for money or willing to wash windows.

I have also seen a few men with only one leg or one arm asking for money.

It is sad.

J D Sauser · #7 01-31-2006, 07:35 AM

Next thing they're going to prohibit is to be poor, or what?
First, street children selling agua de coco and pasteles, working as limpia botas or limpia parabrisas are no criminals (delinquentes). They seem to do what so many Dominicans don't... trying to survive by working.
Exploited by their parents? Sure, they bring money home, but it's not like they are getting rich on their kids selling agua de coco, now is it. I will not say that some desgraciado dad will not spend all of good part of it on liquor and beat the poor kid up as part of the "fun". But these families need help and solutions first.
How many American kids in the grand ol' South have been picking cotton until their finger were bleading so they couldn't even hold a pen at school anymore. And they where black and white and this went on way into the 50's and 60's? Would we dare to distort history and claim that they were exploited by their parents or that this kids were criminals??? (Read Johnny Cash's and Carl Perkin's books if you care for an enjoyable kick of history memory.). Now, I agree, that wasn't such an unpleasant sight... after all it was just down South in them cotton fields... not on 5th Avenue.

ONLY taking the kids off Dominican streets will only take a way to survive away from them and most likely turn them into deliquentes if no other solution is offered to them and their families (and no, I am not suggesting to just plain and simply give them money).
If they want to get rid of the sight of children peddling in the streets, they will have to resolve the socio-economic problems of their families and the defficiencies in the country's educational system, in other words, to fix up the economy not just with happy numbers for the IMF but for real.

... J-D.

(I know, I know, this is not what the OP asked for...)

MrMike · #8 01-31-2006, 07:39 AM

Um, child labor is bad.

Working on a farm is different, most countries make provisions for this.

Rocky · #9 01-31-2006, 09:06 AM

I'll keep an eye out for them, the next time I'm in POP and let you know if they are still in the streets.
I'm torn between 2 schools of thought.
I hate the little buggers, bugging me at intersections, tossing their wet soapy sponges on my clean car/windshield, yet I would rather see them working, than becoming full time criminals.
That being said, my guess is that their main purpose is to steal what they can when the opportunity presents itself, under the guise of being beggars/window washers/salespeople.

Mirador · #10 01-31-2006, 10:08 AM

Marco, the recent campaign to keep street kids (palomos) of the street is being done more for aesthetics (get rid of the unsightly) than to provoke any meaningful change. The only action worthwhile for the betterment of these children is to institutionalize them, anything else is cosmetics. If you ask these kids who do they fear most, they will invariably say it is the police, who are constantly shaking them down. They are not the problem, the problem is the system that promotes social decomposition, the breakdown of the family unit. Have you noticed that the industrial free zones employers are not requiered by law to have day care centers for the mothers they hire? If everyone in the household has to work just to eat, who's going to take care of the kids, and the government is not up for the job....