I've long been fascinated by the differences between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
One of the most remarkable economic divergences in the world.
In 1950, Haiti was as rich as the Dominican Republic.
In 2018, Haiti was POORER than it was in 1950, while the D.R.'s GDP had increased by a factor of TEN.
These countries are two halves of the SAME ISLAND. - Noah Smith
Geography-wise Haiti and the D.R. are the combined size of Vermont and New Hampshire. Imagine if they spoke French and were so much poorer in Vermont while in New Hampshire they spoke Spanish and were doing much better financially than their neighbor to the west. That's Haiti and the D.R. in a nutshell.
Perhaps the fundamental cause for the differing financial fortunes is the fact that they play baseball in the D.R. and in Haiti they play soccer. One is a sport of individual achievement (just look at the stars like David Ortiz or Pedro Martinez) while the other is a sport of faking injury whenever anyone so much as touches you.
Perhaps all this woke crap and cancel culture in the US is due to the fact that we've started having our children play soccer. We should fundamentally return to baseball and tackle football for the good of the nation before it's too late. Just saying.
One of the reasons why the DR remains better than Haiti is that they have a border fence. They have men with rifles patrol the fence. Any Haitians that try to climb the fence get shot, no warning, no questions.
ReplyDeleteAs a result, there are more Haitians in NYfC than there are in the DR.
Interesting - maybe New Hampshire should try that too ;)
ReplyDelete