NewsWhore
09-07-2009, 04:10 PM
Since 4 August 2006, when unemployed laborer Angel Sosa carried a cross from Dajabon to Santo Domingo and became what the press and television called the 'Dajabon Pilgrim', a wave of self-sacrificing people seeking to draw the government's attention to their communities' problems has, generally speaking, failed.
Some would even say the protest mechanism has failed miserably. According to Hoy newspaper, even Sosa's 316-kilometer pilgrimage, a walk that was covered, due to its novelty, by all the television, radio and print media, did not get him an appointment with the President.
Sosa was campaigning for better highways and other public works projects for the border province. He never met the President but was granted a meeting with two government officials who listened to his litany of requests. A few days later the Minister of Public Works began some of the projects he had requested.
Since then, there has been a stream of pilgrimages from every corner of the country: Bonao, Miches, Moca and Neiba, just to name a few. The group from Miches was met by a Police cordon that intercepted them before they reached the Presidential Palace, after walking 191 kilometers. The pilgrims refused to hand in their petitions to third-tier officials and returned to their towns without even a promise.
Eddy Reyes rolled his wheelchair 220 kilometers from Neiba in Bahoruco province, and was received by Presidency Vice Minister Alejandro Herrera, but nothing has come from the trip, according to the newspaper.
Recent pilgrims from Moca were blocked from reaching the Presidential Palace and decided to camp out in Enriquillo Park and see if some official would receive their stack of requests.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)
Some would even say the protest mechanism has failed miserably. According to Hoy newspaper, even Sosa's 316-kilometer pilgrimage, a walk that was covered, due to its novelty, by all the television, radio and print media, did not get him an appointment with the President.
Sosa was campaigning for better highways and other public works projects for the border province. He never met the President but was granted a meeting with two government officials who listened to his litany of requests. A few days later the Minister of Public Works began some of the projects he had requested.
Since then, there has been a stream of pilgrimages from every corner of the country: Bonao, Miches, Moca and Neiba, just to name a few. The group from Miches was met by a Police cordon that intercepted them before they reached the Presidential Palace, after walking 191 kilometers. The pilgrims refused to hand in their petitions to third-tier officials and returned to their towns without even a promise.
Eddy Reyes rolled his wheelchair 220 kilometers from Neiba in Bahoruco province, and was received by Presidency Vice Minister Alejandro Herrera, but nothing has come from the trip, according to the newspaper.
Recent pilgrims from Moca were blocked from reaching the Presidential Palace and decided to camp out in Enriquillo Park and see if some official would receive their stack of requests.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)