Last Tuesday, the 27^th of February, was a national holiday here for Independence day, marking the day one hundred and sixty or so years ago, when they first attempted to establish an entity called the Dominican Republic. The land that is currently the DR had up till that point been invaded several times by Spain, France, Haiti and England. Later rulers would then try and sell the country, or parts of it, to Spain, France and the USA, whilst the USA would invade twice. Oddly, the first Spanish colony in the New World is the only one to have not declared independence from Spain, as Haiti was the incumbent ruler at the time when the attempts to establish the DR first took place. Interestingly, one thing that many Dominicans forget is that one of the first things the new rulers did was to try and sell the newly independent colony back to Spain.

The event was marked here in the mountains by all the school children drawing flags at school and parading up and down the road waving them. The radio and television was full of messages of sincere looking pundits telling us how we should be patriotic and love our country. This is part of a wider system of enforcing nationalism, present in all forms of life here from the unsubtle messages about loving your country in the text books to the government funded quangos who exist solely to promote patriotism. I have written before on my discomfort with Dominican nationalism and the veneration of “the hero of the independence” – Juan Pablo Duarte, in particular the uncritical worship of “patriotic heroes”, and the lack of critical thinking about the country’s history and sense of identity. For example, Duarte was a minor player in the independence movement, was quickly sidelined by the rest of the revolutionaries, and is only venerated because of the rest of the revolutionaries turned out to be a rather nasty lot and it would be too embarrassing to worship them. History has thrust greatness upon him, yet he doesn’t deserve it. Rather than being a bunch of patriots (to a country that didn’t yet exist), the revolutionaries were rich landowners who were worried about the Haitian occupiers’ plans for land reform, backed by the Catholic church who were angry at the removal of the huge political power they enjoyed under Spanish rule. In much the same way that the leaders of the US revolution were not patriots, but a bunch of tax dodgers. Incidentally, as they seem so incapable of ruling themselves, we Britishers are going to revoke their independence. We would also like £752,291,184,290,437,613 in back taxes paid promptly. Cheques should be sent to Betty Windsor, Buck House, London.

Dominicans have little idea of what it is to be Dominican, and this is never talked about, yet it is enough to deny Dominican citizenship to hundreds of thousands of people of Haitian descent, despite being clearly in breach of the constitution. Instead, people here are just ordered to ‘be Dominican’ without asking what this is.

This year marks three hundred years since the end of the country of my birth, Scotland, and the beginning of the country of my citizenship, the United Kingdom, and accompanying this has been a increase in volume of the omnipresent discussions on Scottish identity and independence. Whilst there are many inconsistencies and problems with Scottish national identity, mainly caused by Australian film directors, we don’t have either Scottish or British nationalism forced down our throats, and we are always debating what this constitutes. Those who criticise dominant views are given the opportunities to make television programmes and write books, yet if someone was to write what I have just written criticising Dominican national identity they would be lynched.

Just as well that no one reads this blog.