Day 47

I went into Samana today. I spent a couple hours at the internet café which allows me to plug the laptop in, where I caught up on mail, my website, and software downloads. After that I went looking for sneakers, spending an hour and a half looking through bins of Air Jordans, older Air Jordans, and Air Jordan knock-offs. I couldn’t find any my size or cheap enough to warrant buying, so I wandered back to the gua-gua stand, finding the bakery which folks here have discovered makes a great banana bread and the grocery store which has CHIPS – good ol’ basic tortilla chips – and wraps.

When I returned I helped Richard at his new internet location. I helped him drill a couple holes, and cut a couple wires. I wonder what his business plan is – he has 8 new computers, but he’s building a piecemeal system of desks, and it’s a small space. Will he get business? Will he get business after the tourist season? He told me I can plug my computer into his network which, if it works, will be a godsend, but it will probably be up and working the day before we leave. I want to try and help Richard, by either recruiting people to use his system or starting a “club-“ a group of people who will pay a monthly fee to use his lines for a limited time. For example, I will pay him something up front if he will allow me to use his lines before or after hours. Should I be involved? Or should I sit, like most here, and wait to see if somebody else figures it out, and take advantage of it after they do? Especially since we’ll only be here for 3 more months.

I’ve been thinking about corruption. Being in my Haiti mindset, and hearing stories about the Dominican legal and real estate system, I’m becoming more aware of the corruptions all around us here. At the same time, the town council in our small Maine town has just, by a 3-2 margin and despite an enormous popular opposition, voted to give a contract extension to a town manager who, at best, can be described as ineffective and, at worst, as incompetent. These 3 councilors have acted alone on almost every issue they’ve faced in the past two years, ignoring increasing public comment on these issues. Since they did this through an established “system,” does it make it any more legitimate than the Frenchman here who has paid the local electric company to shut off his meter and allowed him to siphon energy from his neighbors who, despite going to the local authorities, have had no recourse? It seems very easy to write off third world situations – hey, it’s their fault because they are poor – but when a corrupt situation happens in the “developed” world, it is due to the ingenuity of the victor.