With love, from the country that won’t give up.

#GoDominicanRepublic

By: Camila García Durán

Whenever a misfortune occurs, facts should be analyzed from the very beginning.
What started last May with a complaint on Facebook from a Delaware woman who
claimed to be the victim of a brutal attack in a hotel from the Dominican Republic, sud-
denly escalated to the carnage of an entire country, as a result of the hate filled false-
narratives of the North American press, and its social platforms’ burgeoning capacity.

Aware of the juicy headline’s profitability, and the opportunity of a “#MeToo” style claim
served on a gold plate, the U.S. media promptly echoed the case, spreading the in-
congruent story of Tammy Lawrence-Daley with “throw me a softy so I can hit it”
shaped interviews.

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From there, as the tale of the egg and the stone, coupled with all that can be expected
from a society governed by people with an openly eugenic mentality, the maelstrom of
a movement that the gringos have nicknamed “Boycott Dominican Republic” kicked
off, publishing tragic anecdotes from American tourists in "the mysterious island” on a
daily basis.

The stories of Yvette Sport, Miranda Schaup-Werner, Leyla Cox, Joseph Allen, among
others, range from chlorine intake poisoning, such as Awilda Montes’ case in La Ro-
mana, to pulmonary edema, multi-organ failures from sepsis, heart attacks induced by
opioid overdoses, or congenital abnormalities, as established in the autopsies of David
Harrison and Robert Wallace who died months apart at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in
Punta Cana.

63-year old Edward Holmes and 49-year-old Cynthia Day, an engaged couple from
Prince George's County who overdosed on Oxycodone and Laxofen —narcotics that
cannot be found in the Dominican Republic— are the perfect evidence of United States
being in the throes of an opioid epidemic. And let’s refrain from those statistics…

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While the northerns find the tourists’ deaths suspicious because of the "similar myste-
rious causes in a relatively short period”, what raises skepticism across the pond is
why only U.S. nationals are being affected and the fact that the “victims” and/or their
relatives waited until this media fuzz to file a complaint.

As a consequence, the nation is taking the heat from the public opinion who carelessly
blames the island whilst disregarding the outcome of post-mortem exams.

There's no mystery about the popularity of the Dominican Republic, the undisputed
queen of Caribbean tourism and the region's most visited country, welcoming more
than 6.5 million passengers via air travel last year—a 6.2 percent increase of more than
380,000 additional arrivals compared to 2017.

The theory among locals states that “Boycott Dominican Republic” is undoubtedly a
smear campaign from competitors in an attempt to influence potential travelers to
choose whatever they have to offer.

“Puerto Rico is eager to welcome visitors, they need tourism dollars now!”, are some of
the popular comments from Dominicans in
social media. While others make conjec-
tures about this being a punishment, since
the island and China cemented their bond
by signing eighteen new cooperation
agreements, including on agriculture, cul-
ture and tourism last February.

Due to the local authorities’ parsimony, on

behalf of journalistic righteousness and in
the aid of a nation unable to defend itself
(not for lack of will, but of resources) we will
stick to the statistics, which have not been
distorted and whose numbers tend to
speak for themselves.

According to a report by the US State Con-

sular Affairs Department, in the past 13
years, an average of 827 Americans have
died abroad from unnatural causes each
year. To put the figure in context, 80 million
Americans traveled abroad in 2017.

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Same data shows that from January 2017 to December 2018 a total of thirty (30) Amer-
icans have died in the Dominican Republic from unnatural causes (suicides, homicides,
traffic accidents, drownings ...). A figure that can be considered negligible compared to
the 4,311,482 U.S. citizens who have visited the island during the same time period, as
can be seen in Dominican Central Bank's charts.

If we make an analogy with the reversed course of the United States human rights, the
Dominican Republic would be, in this case, the wrongfully incarcerated; that individual
that belongs to a minority with the perfect profile for a case framed by the dynamics of
race and class: the one that, from the start, is presumed criminal in the eyes of the law.

Just as their screwed legal system, apparently, American reporters have mastered in
accommodating the evidence at their convenience, utilizing preliminary results as
"strong evidence" to support their arguments, but calling that same proof "inconclu-
sive" when the ball is in their rivals’ court.

A recent survey by the Pew Research Center revealed that 50% of American adults
consider that the creation and spread of made-up news and information is causing

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significant harm to the nation and needs to be stopped, because it greatly impacts
their confidence in government institutions, and even in each other.

“I believe that the journalism which succeeds best fears God and honors Man; is stoutly
independent, unmoved by pride of opinion or greed of power, constructive, tolerant but
never careless, self-controlled, patient, always respectful of its readers but always un-
afraid, is quickly indignant at injustice; is unswayed by the appeal of privilege or the
clamor of the mob; seeks to give every man a chance and, as far as law and honest
wage and recognition of human brotherhood can make it so, an equal chance; is pro-
foundly patriotic while sincerely promoting international good will and cementing world-
comradeship; is a journalism of humanity, of and for today’s world.”

The quote above is a fragment of Walter Williams Journalist's Creed, published in

1905. Apparently, the seven-paragraph ethical statement that now hangs somewhere
on the walls of the Press Club in Washington, D.C. serves more as an ornament.

The US press generally assumes that news of war, crime and natural disasters will al-
ways win an audience. "If it bleeds, it leads," is a well-tried adage of American journal-
ism. CNN and Fox News, for example, turn the hurricane season in a tragic spectacle
that can be quietly enjoyed from the comfort of home. Just as they do with famine, dis-
eases and the usual mass shootings coverages as if they were a show from the Rin-
gling Brothers circus.

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Media moguls continue to turn a blind eye from the collateral damage of their biased
reporting and unfounded claims; monetary rewards lure them to break the blurring line
between satire and deliberate misinformation.

Sadly, responsible press, as we knew it, is extinct. Because its purpose is no longer
justice, but money; because most journalists no longer want to be useful, but celebrat-
ed.

However, in the midst of this crisis, rather than starring at the masses being hypnotized
to Uncle Sam's orchestrated narrative, as Dominicans, we must adapt our speech.
Proving that we are “the all inclusive paradise” is right now futile. The same as with
demonstrating we own the pristine beaches with fine sand, the catchy rhythm of “un
merengue apambichao”, the aphrodisiac properties of the mamajuana, or the tastiness
in a bowl of sancocho.

Instead, we must defeat hatred with our typical kindheartedness. We must stand before
the world and show our true worth: the tiny country with a big heart, and bigger re-
silience, where people lean on each other as they pull through, where children are
raised knowing that giving up is not an option.

Quisqueya, “The mother of all lands”, the one that they call “third world”, poor, power-
less and could lack everything, but bravery.

After all, you just can’t beat Dominicans because that blood carries the virtue of dis-
playing tremendous courage under fire.