Samuel's father in law, who is a businessman and politico here in the DR put him in contact with a woman who is un "disputado" - a representative in the Federal government from Santo Domingo. When she was a teenager her family was persecuted by Trujillo and was forced to flee to Mexico. About 10 years ago she returned to the DR to try to help the country. Samuel spoke to her about the camp and she was very interested in what we're doing so she came to the camp today to see for herself and to speak to the children. So, we got the three older groups together (have I mentioned that we have five classes this year with a total of 80 students?) and she spoke to them for about 45 minutes. For the first part of her talked about the Constitution to the kids and explained how the government works. I found it very interesting. Did you know, for example, that seven of the 190 member of Congress represent Dominicans living outside of the DR (2 for those living in Europe, 2 for those living in other countries in the Latin world and 3 for the Dominicans living in the U.S.?) I'm not sure what expat Dominicans have to do with the governing of the country but, knowing the DR, it sort of makes sense. In any event, then, towards the end of her talk she asked the students what they thought of when she said the word "disputado". An uncomfortable silence ensued. She pushed forward saying, "You know, when you hear the word 'sun' you think of heat, or life or light. But what comes to mind when you hear the word 'disputado'? It's alright you can be honest." Then one boy, rather shyly raised his hand and quietly said, "Ladrón". Now a ladrón is a thief so the the class burst out with lots of oohs and ahs. But the woman continued unpurturbed asking Felix, "why do you say that?" And he replied, "Because the disputados take the money which is supposed to be used to help the pueblo and instead use it for themselves." At this point I thought she was going to dispute that (being a disputado and all. Ja! Ja! ) but she just took it all in stride and said that Felix was right and that there is a lot of corruption in the government. She went on to explain that disputados are allowed three tax exemptions, items they can buy for which they don't have to pay taxes. One of these is supposed to be used to buy a car but many of the disputados sell their exemption to rich Dominican businessmen or baseball players who use it to buy a luxury car from the U.S. And have it shipped here tax free.
She ended her talk by telling the students that they are the present and the future and it's on them to make changes in the way the government works; that some of them have to grow up and run for office so that they can make the changes from within and end corruption once and for all (those weren't her exact words as I'm paraphrasing here). This idea that our students can become change agents is one of the main themes of the camp and it was fantastic that that message was conveyed by a person of power in the federal government. As a footnote, this woman lost the election this past Spring and will be ending her term in August.
