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Daniel Abreu Translation by Marta Díez and Andrea Des Marais Dreams and steps towards a more democratic society:
The beginning of an ideal She's on the horizon. I take two steps towards her, she takes two steps back. I take ten steps and the horizon runs ten steps further away. No matter how far I walk, I will never reach her. What is Utopia good for? For just that, for walking towards.
I once came across this phrase, proudly posted in a silent office. From that moment I resolved, once again, to never stop dreaming in spite of the social injustice which enfolds my country; in spite of the absurdity of that portion of the world which takes such pride in announcing a shining new technological advancement while the rest of the world shamefully suffers in unnecessary poverty; in spite of the worrying history of humankind, full of wars, hate and stupidity. Despite all the evidence that pushes me towards disillusionment and apathy, I assume the somewhat Quixotic stance of nursing dreams of an ideal society. I must admit that I carry a deep bias, fed by the unusual example of Mahatma Gandhi and by the compelling thoughts of Nobel Prize winner in economics, Amartya Sen. Sen carries the idea of a better society into the realm of economic philosophy by defining development as the expansion of human freedom, in other words, a society that allows each person to choose the life he wants to lead. Sen's ideas seduce me and feed my vision of the ideal society that I would like the country I was born in to become. However, before sharing this ideal, it seems appropriate that we first look at an assessment of the social reality of this country full of contradictions and quandries. An assessment We should cast into the oceans of time a bottle of astral castaways, so that the universe will know of us what the cockroaches that survive us will be unable to tell: that here existed a World where suffering and injustice reigned, but where we knew love and where we were able to imagine happiness.
A bit of history The Dominican Republic is a country located in the very heart of the Caribbean, sharing its territory with Haiti. At the start of Spanish colonisation it was one of the most important colonies, only to become in the next century one of the most abandoned. By the 18th century the Dominican Republic is one of the Caribbean islands with the largest population of mestizos (where whites and blacks have had the highest amount of mixing, noting that the native taíno population was completely eradicated). Around this time the Spanish Crown cedes the Western part of the island, allowing for the creation of the nation of Haiti, which during the Napoleonic empire becomes the richest colony of France. The Dominican Replublic wins independence from Haiti in the middle of the 19th century and later gains independence once again from Spain, after a bankrupt president sells and annexes the entire country to the two-times coloniser. To recuperate a debt, in the first half of the 20th century the country is occupied by the United Status, then suffers for three decades under one of Latin America's harshest dictatorships. In the sixties, civil war breaks out and the country is again briefly invaded by the United States, this time with the support of the OAS (Organisation of American States). In the seventies, the Dominican Republic endures a pseudodemocracy under an authoritarian and repressive regime. Like the rest of Latin America, the country precariously survives the 'lost decade' of the eighties, and since the mid-nineties, has maintained a relatively stable electoral system. The assessment: a country of contrasts In 2007, the Dominican Republic has the honour of being the Latin American country that has had the most economic growth in the last fifty years; though it seems incredible, it has had notably higher growth than countries like Chile, Brazil or Costa Rica. On the other hand, and in spite of its great economic success, it is the country with the second lowest level of investment in education on the continent, and is ranked 113 out of 122 countries with regards to its educational system, according to the World Economic Forum. Interestingly, the Dominican Republic is one of the countries with the highest number of luxury cars per capita in the world, as well as being a paradisiacal tourist destination for the more than two million tourists who annually enjoy its unforgettable beaches and the human warmth of its inhabitants. The dark side of this reality is that the same country, that wears a costume of offensive wealth, maintains one of the highest levels of social inequity in Latin America - the region that itself is the most unequal in the World - while poverty drags down over half of the country's population. Contrary to this extreme polarisation an astonishing fact presents itself: within the region, this is the country whose population has the highest level of confidence in the democratic system, according to the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) 2006 survey, which reveals that almost 80% of dominicans believe that democracy is the best form of government. In short, the Dominican Republic is the country which has generated the greatest level of wealth and worst distributed it, and in which, despite countless disappointments, the population maintains stubborn confidence in the democratic system. I have several dreams Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us and the world will be as one...
My vision of an ideal society is reflected first through a gaze at my immediate world: directed at healing the old social wounds that still bleed in the hearts of the abandoned Dominican people. I also maintain another gaze, a wider, freer and more daring one. They are ideal visions which are inspired by the backbreaking inequities that I have seen innumerable times in my own country; they are also inspired by the twinkling sparks of hope which emanate from those brave enough to dedicate their lives to serving others. My vision of an ideal society can be summarised in a simple and embracing declaration: I aspire to live in a society where the human rights established in the Universal Declaration of the United Nations are a constant reality and not an unreachable dream. My ideal country: 1. All people have access to high-quality educational and health systems; 2. All people are given equal treatment before the law; 3. Those who are elected to political posts represent the people who elected them and, based on true leadership advance towards the acheivement of common objectives; 4. The environment is protected and used in sustainable ways; 5. The press is a mechanism for divulging the truth; 6. State and private sector corruption are tackled and eventually eliminated; 7. In my ideal society there are problems and challenges (I believe in the ideal, not in the impossible); the difference is that all people assume the responsibility of contributing to the solutions. My ideal world: 1. No country ideologically or politically dominates the others, and no country engages in unilateral military intervention in another nation; 2. The United Nations advances continually towards its reason for creation: the achievement of true and lasting peace throughout the planet; 3. All the nations of the world maintain authentic democratic regimes where women fully enjoy the same rights as men; 4. The radical imposition of liberal capitalism as a dominant system of international exchange is overcome, and multiple strategies are developed that allow for the global distribution of all the material wealth and knowledge created on the planet; 5. There is complete liberty of mobility of people among all countries; 6. Technology is developed and implemented to reverse all the damage the human species has caused to the environment, and all the people of the world have access to the principle technological advances that improve the quality of life; 7. Finally, wars and poverty definitively become phenomenon of the past. Humanity finds infinite ways to give meaning to its existence instead of fighting with each other and playing power games. In spite of how far away this ideal is, I have made a challenging effort to envision something which I know is possible to achieve. Several nations have managed to develop, within their own societies, effective mechanisms of social equality. For example, the Scandinavian countries maintain exemplary institutional systems in which corruption is practically non-existent, and have extremely balanced distribution of wealth and gender equality. Japan and the United States, among other countries, have the capacity for technological investigation and the knowledge to move towards solutions for almost all human challenges. To a degree more difficult to measure, in many poor countries, especially in Latin America and Africa, a large portion of the population maintains an attitude of happiness towards life that contrasts with the material and human difficulties they suffer. This marks a notable difference from the high suicide rates and unhappiness which one observes in the world's wealthiest and most organised societies. In summary, the world posesses, for now in a dispersed manner, all the elements for creating 'ideal' societies. Now then, to divise an ideal and do nothing to put it into practice is one of the most irresponsible things I can imagine, much worse than having no ideal at all. So I have begun to contribute solutions to help shorten the long bridge separating my ideal from the reality which surrounds me. An example which radiates hope: Project Councils Youth and ChildrenWe must become the change we want to see in the world
In a personal way, I have been part of an illuminating and stimulating experience. UNICEF Dominican Republic developed an innovative project consisting of the creation of youth councils, in other words, a real local goverment structure, but made up entirely of children and young people under the age of 18. The implementation of the project began in 2004 in five pilot municipalities. Over several months, international and national volunteers from the university organisation AIESEC (of which I was at the time President for the Domican Republic) collaborated to push start the project. The idea was to undertake an authentic democratic electoral process, but this was a very large challenge due to the fact that the Dominican Republic has one of the highest levels of corruption in Latin America, and precisely what they originally were seeking with this project was to allow children and young people to experience a transparent electoral process in which they would learn the correct way to participate in a democratic system. Moreover, the project aimed and still aims to provide practical training for young people and children in the correct management of local government. For example, in the Mao Municipality in the Northeast of the Dominican Republic, an Italian volunteer named Silvia Mestroni worked within the Municipal Council developing a structure for action under which she created a Support Committee made up of local government representatives, non-profit organisations, and dedicated citizens, and together with the Council's Head for Childhood, began an awareness-raising campaign directed at all the children and young people from the community. More than 40 youth and children applied to be candidates, and sent proposals for solving the most urgent problems they percieved young people and children from their community to be suffering from. These candidates recieved intensive training in the areas of transparency, leadership, administration of local government, strategic planning, accountability, etc. A broad electoral process was immediately started. In contrast to common adult practice, private investment in the campaign was banned; all the young people were promoted through the same means, for example a single poster was produced with all candidates photos on it; the candidates could only compete using their own ideas for solutions, and were banned from making insults or negative comments towards other candidates. They all participated in television and radio programmes, and communicated their proposals in person to hundreds of children and young people who attended a public event. On the day of the election, more than 12,000 children and young people (almost 75% of the total population) exercised their right to elect representatives. Two weeks later, the first Youth and Child Council of Mao was sworn in, composed of a Youth Delgate, a Vice Delegate, five councilmen and their respective alternates, a treasurer and a secretary. They performed their duties for a year, during which they periodically recieved a small budgetary allowance, which they used to advance the proposals they had developed. In another municipality called Baní, in the southeast of the country, the recently created Youth Council developed a project which gave it financial independence from the adult Municipal Council - they rented a cinema once a month and presented films for young people. With the money collected they implemented their own projects (reforestation campaigns, sporting activities, health education activities, support for students with difficulties, etc), becoming a true example of effective local government management - something truly amazing for a team where the mean age was 15! Enriching experiences can be observed in the five pilot municipalities, and other municipalities showed interest and also implemented the project. Currently the intiative is recognised nationally and internationally. UNICEF has recognised the project at regional level as a good practice, and at the end of 2006, the President of the Republic included the role of these young people in a national process of revision of the constitution, an unprecedented action in the history of the country. To achieve this we faced many trials, but in the end this project was a big surprise for all the adults who observed it, as young people have demonstrated a capacity for initiative and responsibility which was considered impossible for their tender ages and inexpert heads. I had the opportunity to be the first coordenator of this project and to see it grow from a feverish dream to an enthusiastic meeting to manifest itself in reality, after much effort and faith. I can say that at least one experience in my life screams at me that change is possible and that hope is far from lost. Xiong asked what it was to be a true gentleman. The Master replied: "It is he who only preaches what he practices."
Translated by Marta Diez, WYMD Secretariat References Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL). 2007. Estudio Económico de América Latina y el Caribe, 2005-2006. Latin America Public Opinion Project (LAPOP). 2006. Americas Barometer. PNUD República Dominicana. 2005. Informe Nacional de Desarrollo Humano: Hacia una inserción mundial incluyente y renovada. Sen, Amartya. 1999. Desarrollo como Libertad. Transparency International. 2006. Global Corruption Barometer. World Economic Forum. 2006. The Latin America Competitiveness Review 2006: Paving the Way for Regional Prosperity |