subject: Unusual News From The Dominican Republic [print this page] When historians are looking for sociological traits of a culture or a record of major events from a previous era, they look at manuscripts from the city's scriptorium. Monarchs from as far back as Ancient Egypt had scribes who would document the activities of the royals and keep records of sociological and political events in the cities. Their written records were stored in a massive vault, called a scriptorium, which was basically a news archive. Today, the newspaper is still a chronicle of our time; recording the news that is important, mundane and perhaps weird. What better way to get to know a vacation spot than to read the local news?
Pretty much every news outlet, in every little town or city across the planet, has an assortment of offbeat stories to convey. After all, people will always find interesting ways to express themselves. Elected officials have even been known to work a bit off the map. A ban on unusual names was considered back in 2009, by the Dominican Republic's federal name registry. Apparently, there was a growing trend among new parents in which they would name their infants after major brands, cartoon characters, celebrities, parts of the body or a combination of those listed.
Among some of the branded names registered with vital statistics are Toshiba Fidelina and Mazda Altagracia. Historical figures and American film personalities are also present, such as Winston Churchill de la Cruz and Rambo Mota (Spanish for Rambo Pot, the latter being a reference to weed). Of course there are also the downright silly names as well; including one child named Querido Familia Perez, meaning Dear Family Perez. Another was given the unfortunate name of Tonton Ruiz, or Dummy Ruiz. Not too many people, one would think, want to go through life called Querida Pina, or Dear Pineapple. It's probably just as well that the civil registry staff wants to put an end to these poorly chosen names.
Next we have something a little more serious, but just as funky. In the Barahona Province in the Dominican Republic, there is a little village called Polo. Polo and its surrounding region is well known for its lush green mountains, upon which some of the finest coffee beans are grown to perfection. Polo is also known for a peculiar optical illusion that takes place on one of the country roads just outside of town. An illusion takes place, as one drives up a slight hill on El Discovery Road - often called Gravity Hill. Interestingly, one can put the car in neutral with the brake off, and the car will seem to roll uphill of it's own accord. Despite the moniker, there is no unusual gravitational pull. The phenomenon is actually caused by the layout of the surrounding landscape. It's an optical illusion - as the horizon is obstructed and the trees grow on an angle (not vertically), we experience the hill as going up not down. El Polo Magnetico, just one of many fabulously offbeat elements of the Dominican Republic.
