Seeing what others don't see:We look at a used plastic oil container and see junk. These boys see a potential toy. Why is it that we missed the toy, waiting to be brought forth?
Cultivating creativity:
Would these boys show the same interest in discarded plastic if they lived in an environment where they were surrounded with ready-made toys? Does the will to play, in the absence of prefabricated choices, count as the prime stimulus to the creative act?
Dead soccer ball:
Today we watched a group of children and one adult kick around a soccer ball that had no air in it. They played on a rocky road, with weeds on both sides. How come they did not complain at the outset and refuse to become engaged in playing with a ball that has no bounce to it?
Economic creativity:
One of the perverse obstacles to long term development of Paraiso is the lack of jobs for youth. And yet the community has the means and intelligence to create a host of new jobs! All it would take is for the local people to shift awareness away from products that must come into the area from Santo Domingo...to products that local entrepreneurs can create.
Fruit wine, instead of Barcelo rum:
The Paraiso countryside is excellent for producing oranges, grapefruit and lemons. The soil has wonderful drainage properties and thus the roots do not suffer from rot or diseases that thrive in soil with stagnant water. You would think that the people have long ago become accustomed to drinking fruit wine instead of importing products such as Bermudez or Barcelo rum or Presidente beer into the area. But the reality is the opposite.
Hardwood walls instead of Koury cement bricks:
In decades past, the Paraiso area benefited from projects to plant hardwood trees with certification for cutting, once they matured. Given that the Dominican Republic finds itself in an area with a long history of earthquakes, one would assume that people prefer to purchase the local wood products instead of cement bricks with questionable resiliency in the face of geological stresses. However the local production of hardwood does not develop, since people prefer to import the Koury bricks.
Prejudice against creating local jobs:
From creating toy racing cars to creating jobs for life: a transition which this part of the Dominican Republic urgently needs. But a major obstacle in the way of that development is the local distaste toward things or materials made in the valley. It is not that people deliberately choose to disfavor local products...but rather that a process of indoctrination is at work. For example, people are brainwashed into judging that Presidente beer is inherently better than a local sangria, when in fact, both are simply acquired tastes.
Looking ahead:
The capacity for creativity is there. (One only has to notice how the boys can become engaged in playing with material that others would immediately pitch into the waste bin.) The Spirit of the Lord of creativity is alive. May people become aware of the brainwashing!
