Monday Musings After The Show V.1 & 2

Last week Mari and I kicked off LATINO Heritage Month with a very, very brief discussion on the troubled relationship between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. But stupid little, scared little me only made the show 1/2 an hour.

We did not get to listen to all of the callers AND we were not able to touch on all of the factors that keep these two nations from working together as one.

Enter this new feature: Monday Musings After The Show (see how I keep stealing from Oprah? Nobody tell her, okay?). After each broadcast, not only will I stay on the line for an additional 15 minutes with callers discussing the topic after the show is done streaming, but I will devote a blog post to it as well. Every Tuesday. If nothing else, this will tell you when to visit my blog and when to skip it.

This week, of course, we're a bit late so we'll do two in one: DR/Haitian relations from the 9/15 show and Internet Dating which was last night's show (did you listen??? NO?? Well, here's the link. Go listen now.), just so we can catch up. OK? Wait- why am I asking you?? It's not like you have a choice...

So, Dominicans... Haitians... As Mari stated in the show (click here if you missed it) there are MANY underlying causes, but it really boils down to racism and jealousy and a wedge left in between the two by their colonial parents (France and Spain, for those of you who live in a vacuum).

My girl Celia emailed me her two cents, including the issue of language which YES, I wish we had had time to discuss on the show:

Haitian history & relations is really an interesting and complex topic. In Nyack, there's a huge Haitian population. In HS I was amazed at the lengths families would go through to get people out of their country and into America. There were female head of households taking care of ten plus children loosely related to them. Even poor families felt bad for these kids.

Recently, I talked to a Haitian historian who believes that much of Haiti's current poverty and unrest can be traced back to The Spanish American War. A group of Haitians were shipped to America, trained in warfare, given guns and after the war was over, sent home to Haiti. When they arrived home this trained and armed group of men fractioned off and fought for control of their island. This resulted in civil war, poverty, and later an American occupation.

His theory is, there's been civil unrest and political instability ever since. This is a much simplified version of history of course. It doesn't take into consideration Haiti's bloody battle with slavery, weather, crops, language, culture, race or the Country's bad luck with horrible dictatorships. But, it was an interesting example of American politics once again having devastating effects on her neighbors.

As far as Dominican/Haitian relations, I think the one thing that was not touched on during your short half hour time frame was the distance caused by language. The separation caused by French vs Spanish Colonization is still felt today through speech.

So, hermanos y hermanas, frères et soeurs, what is your take on this eternal "beef" between these two countries/people who, really, should be like BFFs! Imagine how much better both could be if they worked together...

Internet Dating... Jack and I went over the dos and don'ts and RUN FOR YOUR LIVES of it all for your benefit and now we want to know what your thoughts are: do you meet people online? what has been your experience? And most importantly- what was your WORST online date?!?!

I mean, you all heard my top three: The Narcoleptic who fell asleep while we were on the phone; Toothless, who showed up for our movie date with NO DAMN TOOTH; and Shorty Lazy Eye, who not only lied about his height and swagger, but also failed to mention that his left and right eye do not operate on the same lever.

So it's only fair that I hear yours...

(I want to thank Lani for calling in last night and adding more insight on the topic... you ROCK, girl!)

*smooches...fulfilling my high-brow post requirement for the week*
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please feel free to add in your own personal experiences, thoughts and even questions regarding this matter... intellectual dialogue is more than welcome over here.

we promise not to giggle in your face... :D