[griddle]

^Good point and it's a good 2 hear an insider perspective.

SDQ these days reminds me of "Miami Vice", that is, a lot of residential and commercial construction projects arising everywhere, from fortunes that wouldn't survive the most minimum scrutiny. Dirty money is displacing clean money at an accelerated pace.

[Wsjltrhe]

SDQ these days reminds me of "Miami Vice", that is, a lot of residential and commercial construction projects arising everywhere, from fortunes that wouldn't survive the most minimum scrutiny. Dirty money is displacing clean money at an accelerated pace.

Do u rent or own in STO DOMINGO?

[farmarrl]

Do u rent or own in STO DOMINGO?

Own, thank the Maker, but it was bought when my Mom was still working at the bank (that is, in 1997). It would have been impossible for us to buy in the same zone nowadays, since we're practically in ground zero from whence these constructions are arising.

[bataovady]

So is the dirty money from government skimming or other sources? Are there any major international rackets in DR like drugs, human trafficking, etc. as a distribution center, or is it mostly involving only local demand?

I have been under the impression that the drug distribution business to the US via the Caribbean was pretty slow since NAFTA was enacted and we started supporting Coast Guard interdiction with AWACS etc. That's why Mexican cartels are so rich and powerful now.

[Forexampleee]

So is the dirty money from government skimming or other sources? Are there any major international rackets in DR like drugs, human trafficking, etc. as a distribution center, or is it mostly involving only local demand?

I have been under the impression that the drug distribution business to the US via the Caribbean was pretty slow since NAFTA was enacted and we started supporting Coast Guard interdiction with AWACS etc. That's why Mexican cartels are so rich and powerful now.

All of the above . The main triads here are controlled by Mexicans, Colombians, and even a few Russians, with Dominicans, Puerto Ricans and even Haitians serving as hitmen.

[qQVXpYM6]

Yeah there's Colombians in Haiti and Jamaica too doing no good.

[VarenHokalos]

Yeah there's Colombians in Haiti and Jamaica too doing no good.

We're practically reliving the "Pirates of the Caribbean" scenario, although in a more sophisticated (and deadlier) setting.

[VDAu5p33]

We're practically reliving the "Pirates of the Caribbean" scenario, although in a more sophisticated (and deadlier) setting.

Wow...sounds like so much excitement until I got to the "deadlier" part. *imagines bullets flying overhead* That's exciting in a totally different way.

[spacecrafty]

Wow...sounds like so much excitement until I got to the "deadlier" part. *imagines bullets flying overhead* That's exciting in a totally different way.

Adrenaline shouldn't have to be bought at so steep a price, I agree. I miss the old bucolic, village days. It certainly beats living on an urban nightmare any day.

[Johnny]

Adrenaline shouldn't have to be bought at so steep a price, I agree. I miss the old bucolic, village days. It certainly beats living on an urban nightmare any day.

We are both country bumpkins. Apparently, one of my great aunts (my great-grandmother's frisky sister) caused such a ruckus in the countryside as a girl (she severely whipped a white boy with a switch, leaving screaming wounds on his back, after an incident over a dog he named Nigger), that they sent my great-grandmother to go fetch their mother ten miles down the road to come and tend to the boy's injuries with a polstice she developed from an old indigenous remedy. The boy's back was healed within two weeks and he had no scars left! As a result, that white family and my family were friends from then on, even though this was in the middle of North Carolina during Jim Crow and race relations were rocky. You can only tell of such stories in the country.

[pkxlugbsbv]

We are both country bumpkins. Apparently, one of my great aunts (my great-grandmother's frisky sister) caused such a ruckus in the countryside as a girl (she severely whipped a white boy with a switch, leaving screaming wounds on his back, after an incident over a dog he named Nigger), that they sent my great-grandmother to go fetch their mother ten miles down the road to come and tend to the boy's injuries with a polstice she developed from an old indigenous remedy. The boy's back was healed within two weeks and he had no scars left! As a result, that white family and my family were friends from then on, even though this was in the middle of North Carolina during Jim Crow and race relations were rocky. You can only tell of such stories in the country.

What makes it all the harder is the damn noise. I will never be able to get used to it, in spite of living the better part of 15 years up to the neck on it. It makes centering oneself so difficult.

[stadiaKab]

What makes it all the harder is the damn noise. I will never be able to get used to it, in spite of living the better part of 15 years up to the neck on it. It makes centering oneself so difficult.

I know what you mean. Outside, I hear some of the most ear-cringing, graphic slang. And there is always someone hollering, "PAAAPPPPIIII!!!" drunk on Friday nights.

[hieklyintinee]

Stereotypically speaking. I think of FARC and Los Pepes etc. Labs in the jungle. Assassins with UZIs on the back of motorcycles in a hillside urban slum. I don't think of Shakira.

When I think of Colombia, I think of FARC, drugs and really hot women (Shakira and Sofia Vergara from Modern Family.)