The earthquake got me to thinking… how heavily-patrolled or strongly-fortified, if at all, is the countries’ border? Given the chronic poverty and political upheaval of Haiti, I’d want to keep border controls pretty tight, if I were the DR leader. Any Dopers ever been there, or know about it?
I got the impression from Jared Diamond’s book, Collapse, that the border there is similar to the US border with Mexico: patrolled but porous enough that Haitians seeking a better economy can get through. You can see the border in Google Maps without the label on by virtue of the clear lines of deforestation on the Haitian side.
Some further data, although not really an answer to my question - looks like relations were improving even before the earthquake: Dominican Republic aid to Haiti eases historic tensions - CNN.com
Here’s an article on the problem of illegal Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic this year.
Exactly what I came in to say. The Haiti/DR border is one of the few (the only?) that you can actually see on geographical maps. You would think that patrolling it would be trivial and the fact that such a line exist would seem to indicate that there is some force keeping the sides separate. Alas, Colibri’s cite and the testimony of many Dominicans I know attests to the contrary.
the bit about border guards lacking basic equipment is surprising. The Wikipedia article about DR military Armed Forces of the Dominican Republic - Wikipedia describes a reasonably capable outfit, at least on paper.
Spain-France is sort’a visible (the Pyrinees), as is France-Germany (the Rhein).
On the (PBS?) news last night they showed the Dominican border crossing stations being tightened up, but little or no traffic actually coming from the Haitian side because people from Haiti were going off the road and circumventing the stations. They were going ‘through the hills’.
Any river is going to do that, but much of the line between the US and Canada has a swath of forest clear cut from Washington to Minnesota.
Very interesting on the US-Canada border. Big rivers and mountains are not the same. The Haiti-DR border is really impressive to see from the airplane. Quite simply, one side is green, the other is brown. It is not a geographical feature that you are seeing that works as a natural divider.
I checked large sections of Google Earth and really didn’t see anything that clearly and dramatically geographically shows a differences between the two countries. There are a few places where what looks like fields are different, but I don’t see large swaths of forest on one side of the border and brown nothing on the other side.
Maybe a few places where there are some slight differences.
The link from garygnu isn’t all that clear to me either. If I look around I see green areas abruptly bordered by brown areas, but I think that is an artifact of merging two sets of pictures instead of true differences.
I’d be happy for someone to confirm or reassert this disconnect for me.
Here’s one satellite image. Take a look, then go to the “Aerial” dropdown menu and turn off the labels and look again.
Hunter Hawk’s link works very well. Flying over it in a commercial flight also makes it very visible.
Please remember that reality is not as abrupt as clear cut as cartoons. It is not like one side is “Forest Deep” while the other is “Chocolate Delight”, but the difference is still very visible to the naked eye. You can clearly trace the border in that map. Notice that cities are not “Asphalt Grey” either. Now consider that there is no change in natural conditions that explains it. Just that “this is mine and this is yours”. I find it very curious and interesting as an example of how man changes his environment.
How did the one island get divided in the first place, who drew the line and what is the border based on?
Other islands are divided too, one example is St. Martin in the Caribbean which is part French and part Dutch.
And the island of Timor, which is Indonesian on the western (ex-Dutch) end and the nation of Timor l’Este (East Timor) on the eastern (ex-Portuguese) end.
And New Guinea, the western part of which is part of Indonesia and the eastern part independent.
Most of the border goes along rivers, which is the norm around these latitudes.
For further illustration:
The article is in Spanish (I could translate it if someone reeeeally wanted it) and goes on the environmental degradation of Haiti contrasting it with the Dominican Republic. It is the photo that tells the whole story, of course. Needless to say, Haiti on the left, DR on the right.
ETA: The article does mention that Haiti did have a small handicap for being on the leeward side of the island, although it is more than clear that that is not what is seen on this picture.