It's What We Can't See!

On my recent trip to the Dominican Republic I again found myself frustrated because of the unseen forces that cause the visible hardship.

All Aguas Negros needs is a simple storm sewer system. Seriously, if the borrow had a simple system by which the rain water could escape without flooding their homes with filthy and germ filled water much would be solved. How can people attempt to advance themselves when large sums of time are spent continually drying out their belongings and places of business after rain storms? The best of us would just stop trying after waking up to several inches of water in our bedroom time after time.

It is not for lack of people willing to work on the drainage system. I met with a group of men willing to dig the trenches and install the pipe by hand. They have the time – more people are unemployed than employed. The design isn’t expensive – they already have it. It is certainly not complicated – the burrow has a natural slope to its typography and a river to allow the drainage to empty into. It would take some capital investment but that is not the real problem either.

The problem? What is here that we can’t see? The Burrow has been eyed for ten years as a possible place for a cruise ship port. The City of Puerto Plata has failed to take care of its residence and has allowed them to live in disease infested, low lying squalor because it might want to “relocate” all 5,000 residence to create a dock for tourists to come ashore. The unspoken issue is the possibility of tourism which is more important to the leadership of the City and Country than the people already there.

The systems behind the decision making result in poor or nonexistent decisions. In this case, the system is flawed because it is failing to care for those who can make the City great today in hopes that maybe there might be a possibility of something tomorrow. Those who have power refuse to use it to assist those who don’t. It is a good illustration of the most common oppressive environment around the world. Instead of leaders seeing the power they have as a gift to be used to share influences with others, it is used to retain influence for themselves.

I recently read “Uncles Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stow. This is a classic volume chronicling the journey of slaves in the southern United States just before the Civil War. It is not a “feel good” read as it debates the merits of a social and governmental system that legalizes the complete oppress and abuse of an ethnic group. Ignorance, cruelty, and greed feed a system of inhumanity and barbarism.

At one point in the book Master St. Clare is convicted of his use of people as objects and is wrestling with his Christian beliefs. When asked why he is not a practicing Christian he says, “My view of Christianity is such, that I think no man can consistently profess it without throwing his whole weight of his being against this monstrous system of injustice that lies at the foundation of all our society and if need be, sacrifice himself in the battle” (Harriet Beecher Stow in Uncle Tom’s Cabin). Since he is not willing to fight the system of slavery, and to be a Christian and not do so would be hypocrisy, he chooses to not be a Christian.

I thought of this quote the whole time I was in the Dominican Republic and I know I will think of the same when I am in Zambia in January. As a follower of Jesus, I need to throw my “whole being” into battle against the systems and leaders that continue to oppress people with their self-preserving decisions and policies.

We must not only feed people today but change the systems so they can feed themselves tomorrow.  Let’s help people clean up their homes today and then work with them to keep them from flooding tomorrow. Join me in causing men and women to get an education today and to repair the educational system so kids can get an education tomorrow. Let’s bring healing and medicine to the sick today and make it so their environments will not make them sick tomorrow. You and I need to band together to bind up the war torn and to insure peace tomorrow.

People next door and around the world don’t want us to do it for them – they want justice and liberty to be equal so they can embrace the solutions to their own woes today, tomorrow, and always. Let’s dig deep and fix what is broken underneath and all that is seen will be mended!



Aguas Negros