DR1 Paranoia?

[NALs]

In reviewing some of AZB's threads - regardless what anyone think of his threads or posts or opinion, we can all agree that its very entertaining - there are some recurring aspects of DR1 members that continually comes to light in such threads. For starters, its amazing how many gringos - in the context of this poll, gringo is used to denote all foreigners interested and/or living in the DR - are completely clueless as to how Dominican society functions. Even more interesting, is noticing how some gringos only subject themselves to particular subsets of Dominican society and then take the liberty to assume that such subset represents all Dominicans and everything that Dominicans are. To the detriment of many, AZB is one of the few gringos who gets it. In fact, I don't even consider AZB a true gringo anymore, since he understands the DR better
than most Dominicans. Ironic, no?

In anycase, in AZB's most recent thread (you can access by clicking here) an interesting phenomenon that has been prevalent in the forums for a while now presented itself.

Even after AZB made it clear that the guy that followed him in PUCAMAYMA was gay and not some criminal, and he should know since of all the participants in that thread AZB is the only one who was present in the incident, there are people that continue to insist that it could had been a criminal of some sort.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Some DR1ers seem obssessed with kidnappings despite these being relatively rare since less than 50 kidnappings a year occur in this country of barely 10 million people. Expatriates being scared to death of being kidnapped, when on a yearly basis if 2 foreigners are kidnapped in the DR, that is a record for any year!

And this is the case with pretty much everything else. There seems to be a high level of interest in the crime issue, the interest elevates even more when it deals with crimes of isolated incidents; despite crime having registered a continous decline since 2005 and despite the relative rarity of crime against the expatriate minority.

So, my question is this:

Do you think DR1ers are paranoid?

-NALs

[A.Hidalgo]

I can't understand why you used that thread by AZB (Oh no, secret service is after me) as an example for your paranoia question, but after reading post #21 from that thread I can understand why some are.

now the crimes in santiago have become violent but still nothing in comparison to capital. now-a-days, some junky criminals shoot first and then rob later. A friend of mine was coming out of main Ochoa ferretaria on av. imbert, at 2pm. It was a bright day with hot sun shining above. 2 tigres come on a motrocycle, one simply shoots my friend 2 times on his leg. While he was down, they take his wallet and gold chain and run off. This was in bright daylight with 2 guards watching. I am not sure if the guards were armed or not. they are the ones who give you a ticket when you enter the parking.

[ElvisNYC]

I don't know if I'm paranoid, but I was born and raised (and travel there regularly every year) in Guayaquil, Ecuador - where the norm is car hijackings, muggings after ATM usage, hiring an assassin for US$100, regular holdups of restaurants, buses, banks and other business establishments, I can say that Santo Domingo is a haven.

As for Santiago, I have never been exposed to the dangers people talk out, even going to dangerous barrios (always have been with dominicans), but I always compare my hometown to any place I visit, because I take the same precautions everywhere. I know that rarely would you hear about someone robbing you at a restaurant, but I don't discard it either. It's quite weird that the level of criminal activity is nowhere near what you see in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador. Although it helps that DR is nowhere near Colombia

[Lambada]

Originally Posted by NALs

So, my question is this:

Do you think DR1ers are paranoid?

-NALs

Why do you ask?

[sawsky]

good 1 lmao. lambada,when i hear about crime in the dominican republic,i dont see it being any worse than any other country in the world, including the safe havin of canada,crime here too,but not put on a billboard like dr1, bad news is a seller,if put under a magnifieing glass would yours pass,the posts on ripoffs and different scams are always a good read and informative, but paranoid, no.thks dr1, try too be on here everyday feliz novidad

[POP Bad Boy]

.............


"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you"

[apostropheman]

If you mean most of the DR1 members....then no

Originally Posted by NALs

So, my question is this:

Do you think DR1ers are paranoid?

-NALs

Not to say that paranoia is absent from DR1...not at all.

[BushBaby]

Originally Posted by NALs

In reviewing some of AZB's threads - regardless what anyone think of his threads or posts or opinion, we can all agree that its very entertaining - there are some recurring aspects of DR1 members that continually comes to light in such threads. For starters, its amazing how many gringos - in the context of this poll, gringo is used to denote all foreigners interested and/or living in the DR - are completely clueless as to how Dominican society functions. Even more interesting, is noticing how some gringos only subject themselves to particular subsets of Dominican society and then take the liberty to assume that such subset represents all Dominicans and everything that Dominicans are. To the detriment of many, AZB is one of the few gringos who gets it. In fact, I don't even consider AZB a true gringo anymore, since he understands the DR better
than most Dominicans. Ironic, no?

In anycase, in AZB's most recent thread (you can access by clicking here) an interesting phenomenon that has been prevalent in the forums for a while now presented itself.

Even after AZB made it clear that the guy that followed him in PUCAMAYMA was gay and not some criminal, and he should know since of all the participants in that thread AZB is the only one who was present in the incident, there are people that continue to insist that it could had been a criminal of some sort.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Some DR1ers seem obssessed with kidnappings despite these being relatively rare since less than 50 kidnappings a year occur in this country of barely 10 million people. Expatriates being scared to death of being kidnapped, when on a yearly basis if 2 foreigners are kidnapped in the DR, that is a record for any year!

And this is the case with pretty much everything else. There seems to be a high level of interest in the crime issue, the interest elevates even more when it deals with crimes of isolated incidents; despite crime having registered a continous decline since 2005 and despite the relative rarity of crime against the expatriate minority.

So, my question is this:

Do you think DR1ers are paranoid?

-NALs

As usual NALs has produced us a preamble which has little to do with a sane, structured & unbiased Poll. It makes various 'assumptions' & 'suggestions' that (I would suggest) many of us would refute.

To be objective in responding (& maybe even answering) to the poll question I would need to know:

1. Is this really NALs that is asking the question?
2. If 'YES' what HIS interpretation of Paranoia is & to which type of paranoia he is referring?
3. Are we being requested to give our response to HIS interpretation rather than the DEFINITIONS given in recognised medical reference manuals (MDM4, Merck etc) on the subject or those as given on Wikipedia, OED, or Google ET AL?

A GOOD Poll will make reference to the SUBJECT MATTER of the question, so as to give insight to those not aware of the what the question is really asking rather than giving vent to some totally irrelevant diatribe trying to produce a biased response from the person being questioned.

So NALs, may we (I) have YOUR INTERPRETATION of the word/medical condition referred to as Paranoia? OR do you perhaps mean "Do you think that DR1'ers have PET HATES that cause them to respond forcefully at times"?

Please keep the response to one side of a 10x8 sheet if you can!! ~ Grahame. (Having a pet hate about poorly designed Polls!!)

[BushBaby]

Okay, to help you a bit NALs, my reference to MDM4 was a ploy - it should be DMD4 . I was interested to see how you came back on that & to show your level of understanding on the subject. Get back into wikipedia with the above reference & I am sure you will have more success.

Or was the problem that I asked you to limit your reply to only a 10" x 8" page? ~ Grahame.

[2dlight]

I think "DR1ers" are "paranormal"