jmchez Feb 11th 2006 6:08PM

That thing with the head happens quite frequently at the Haitian/Dominican border to the continuing dismay of the Dominican government.

Ask any Dominican for a list of historical injustices and invariable they'll put in at the top the fact that the French invaded the island of Hispaniola and divided it in two. Ever since it's been a national tragedy for Dominicans and just about every bad thing that happens on the island can be blamed, fully or partially, on the Haitians, including the almost total deforestation of the western one third of the island.

Few if any island countries of so small a size as Hispaniola are divided between two countries and none can be said to be divided by two cultures so disimilar in almost every regard (race, language, major religion, economy, agriculture, etc). For a small and poor country like the Dominacan Republic to be faced with illegal imigration from another even poorer and more backwards is unbearable to a degree that dwarfs the US/Mexican border issues, specially when so many of those immigrants see themselves as the natural heirs or would-be conquerors of the entire island.

End of rant.