end of propane subsidies and the rise of deforestation?

[PICHARDO]

Originally Posted by Lucille

The car that I am thinking to bring to the DR is a 2007 Honda Civic-Hybrid. I fill up the tank every 3 weeks...ha ha ha .......Oil changed every 4,000 miles....I am very happy with that hybrid car I call it Micky Mouse.....

Wait for the new regulations that will come into play after Sept (more or less depending on the participation of the opposition) for Hybrids, Flex fuel, NCG and electric vehicles. The savings will be a huge chunk of money...

We're in the process of negotiations with the mid-large car dealer/importers in the DR, trying to make the switch as soft as possible so that current inventories don't sit idly in the lots versus the new energy saving vehicles.

[Lucille]

Pichardo....Thank you ....I will appreciate any info for Hybrids law and the savings.....

[PICHARDO]

The aim is to cut above 25% off from the current import taxes on vehicles of the same class (sedan vs compact, trim levels, etc...).

Some vehicles that don't need imported fuels/energy will have a further cut in taxes.

We have heavy resistance from the local importer/dealers still now for the changes. They argue that current inventory levels will last well over the summer and into late Nov. Plus they add the trade ins will be hard to resell once the new vehicles hit the market. All valid points with certain levels of gravity, yet for all this, if we continue to put off the new bill it will never take off...

We're making great strides with the Japanese companies as well as newcomers like Korea, which could satisfy the local auto market. Japan holds a great advantage over the US manufacturers on the new fuel saving vehicles.

We have people already taking part in field investigation and data gathering in Brazil's flex fuel vehicles and their immediate needs to be able to incorporate successfully in the DR. Ethanol E85 is our major field of focus instead of the 10% mix in the US.

Bio diesel is also top priority, but as it stands, requires the direct involvement of major private sectors of the DR to make it viable via gov initial funding with foreign loans. The private market is best geared towards profit and short term ROI. The idea is to provide gov backed loans that the private sector would in turn use to update the internal Bio Diesel industry to meet phased criteria.

Loans taken out by the gov are more flexible for private industry investment and repayment.

Much work needs to be done still on that area...

The highway network of the country will be upgraded and expanded with private support as well. Toll expressways will be up and running within the next few years (not the one in Samana-SD) and bridges are being planned to replace the ones in poor condition.

All this takes money and taxes are going to be the way to get that money, instead of always looking to indebt the country with external loans that the country can't pay without heavy tolls to the internal economy.

[Hipocrito Mejia]

Originally Posted by PICHARDO

All this takes money and taxes are going to be the way to get that money, instead of always looking to indebt the country with external loans that the country can't pay without heavy tolls to the internal economy.

People in DR are fed up with the amount of taxes they pay as it is; they can't stand any more! Maybe if so much money had not been spent by the government on campaigning and buying off this last presidential election, there would be some money left to invest in these projects, instead of having to suck away more of our money.

Our country could be so much better, if it wasn't for all the crooked politicians from the entire alphabet soup of polical parties. How can anyone who's not on the take have any faith in these thieves, when it is obvious that their first priority is to figure out how much they can skim off the top from each project that they propose?

[PICHARDO]

Show me a Democracy in the world where corruption is not the soup of the day...

The big departure of those with the one in the DR is that ours is all in the clear, the others are called bi-partisanship and swept under the myriad of bills that get approved in their trillion dollar Democracies...

Better to owe internally than to foreign pockets...

Just think about this: The US economy is still going under, mostly due to the fiasco of the sub-prime mortgages and greedy bankers.

The DR got hit with a banking scheme fraud that given both countries GDP's and parity (disparity better said), makes Enron look like an unpaid traffic ticket...

Yet for all the hoopla, here we're still with a positive growth in our economy, more European countries becoming infatuated with our beaches and take it slow type of living. Canadians, Russians, Brits, you name it and they're all coming in herds...

Once we do away with paper currency and set the tax tables accordingly to income and quality of living, then and only then can we start to thrive in a Democracy where money bleeds and nobody's in a hurry to get the first aid kit for the patient.

We're creating the basic building blocs of our future society and industry. We aim to provide universal health care to all but not via public (deficient) care systems, but a private network with check and balances in partnership with the gov.

We aim to skip the unrealistic expectations of public education (miserably in comparison with the private ones all over the world) via real investment from elementary to college and Masters to our children. Just like an education loan, individuals will be able to repay (a % of expenses) to the gov so that the cycle is continued with the new generations. A boundaries free schooling system is the true form of the Education guarantee that any gov should offer their citizens until full cycle and integration into the work force is achieved.

We aim to skip the known failures that keep piling upon failures and break away from them. Schooling should be a formative instruction regarded upon each individual's abilities to cope with information and excellence, not age or set pensum.

We understand that most children develop mentally and physically at different paces without a set standard due to age or size. We must therefore allow the excellence to rise and those in the back to develop normally and not using the one size fits all to measure progress.

We aim to support the students and professionals that will become our future scientists, today without the tools or means to reach and surpass the limits of their enclosures.

We aim to reap the rewards of sending our brightest to the best schools in the exterior to prepare the future leaders of our developing industries, today non-existent.

We aim to do much, but money is the key to 100% of those aims. If taxes are the precursor to reach those goals, then we'll tax as needed until the sacrifice is rewarded with real opportunity and unmatched progress in our history.

We'll liberate our country from the grip of foreign oil and exporting that way the biggest part of our economy. Sugarcane was once the valuable coin of its time, tomorrow it will prove to be the coin of ours...

I'm not condoning the taxes to come and doing jumping jacks in celebration, but you show me a real (not utopian) way to get that money from without selling Samana outright and a whole lot of tired, hard working people will listen very attentively to your proposals here. This I promise!

[Hipocrito Mejia]

Originally Posted by PICHARDO

I'm not condoning the taxes to come and doing jumping jacks in celebration, but you show me a real (not utopian) way to get that money from without selling Samana outright and a whole lot of tired, hard working people will listen very attentively to your proposals here. This I promise!

Well, since you asked, here's a few:

1. I want Diandino's share from the construction of the SD metro.

2. I want the ridiculous amount of money (75%) that was skimmed from the purchase of the metro cars.

3. I want the money from Plan Renove.

4. I want the government to stop handing out monthly checks to party members.

5. I want the senate/deputies/regidores to stop giving themselves raises.

6. I want Felucho out of the Ministry of Tourism. How the hell is he allowed to be a partner in just about every endeavor undertaken by his ministry?

7. I want the ministry of education to stop buying watered down milk.

8. I want Eligio Jaquez in jail and the money from the invernaderos.

You want more? You see PICHARDO, I may yearn to see some, if not most of the same things that you want, but before I see any of that, I want to see heads roll. I want to see a whole bunch of known thieves in the current and previous governments pay for what they have done to our country and its people.

The government can keep taking in more money, but as long as such a large share ends up going into the pockets of crooked officials, and not into improvements in education, the health system, and other infrastucture, it will continue to be 1 step forward, 2 steps back, while these sleaze balls laugh all the way to their foreign bank accounts.

[A.Hidalgo]

I agree, until the country faces its ugly reality and cleans house from top to bottom, the existing crony system will keep being the only game in town....one step forward three steps backward.

[PICHARDO]

Originally Posted by Hipocrito Mejia

Well, since you asked, here's a few:

1. I want Diandino's share from the construction of the SD metro.

2. I want the ridiculous amount of money (75%) that was skimmed from the purchase of the metro cars.

3. I want the money from Plan Renove.

4. I want the government to stop handing out monthly checks to party members.

5. I want the senate/deputies/regidores to stop giving themselves raises.

6. I want Felucho out of the Ministry of Tourism. How the hell is he allowed to be a partner in just about every endeavor undertaken by his ministry?

7. I want the ministry of education to stop buying watered down milk.

8. I want Eligio Jaquez in jail and the money from the invernaderos.

You want more? You see PICHARDO, I may yearn to see some, if not most of the same things that you want, but before I see any of that, I want to see heads roll. I want to see a whole bunch of known thieves in the current and previous governments pay for what they have done to our country and its people.

The government can keep taking in more money, but as long as such a large share ends up going into the pockets of crooked officials, and not into improvements in education, the health system, and other infrastucture, it will continue to be 1 step forward, 2 steps back, while these sleaze balls laugh all the way to their foreign bank accounts.

Yes indeed, but still elementary grade schoolers in comparison to the Halliburton’s associates and big wads of pork barrel... Ours are still in the clear (case in point on how easy they're to spot and list as you did) unlike the older and stronger models of democracies...

We can't expect to clean house yet, as you put it. We're on the way there!
It takes time to bring about the changes in a well-oiled machinery that operates with doomsday efficiency. What we can do is attack the gears, bearings and oil that feed it, in the hopes of making the changes give fruit in the long term.

The only other option to end this shameful activity is to do away with the machinery all together, but again, who wants to turn into a Cuba or Venezuela at this day and age?

We have a working system that provides ample opportunity to make changes, slow as that may be, is changes that are happening nevertheless...

You can nominate a great civic minded person to a post and only follow the end results. Like the adage goes "power corrupts". You can trust and mistrust all you want but in the end, the responsibility ends with the individual and their actions.

The steps to weed out and penalize public servants is ongoing and hopefully, in the coming years we'll witness the advances in that field with the unfortunate prosecution of public figures. Which took the trust laid over them and violated that oath while a public servant of the people.

We need to clean house, yes, not questions about it... But again your post only details the known ills of our democracy. We don't need to be pointed towards that, which we already know and are engaged in doing something about; the democratic way (not standing up people before a shooting squad).

We all can list the wrongs in our system, but can we be able to list the ways (not utopias again) to make it just a bit better, without departing from working within the system itself, not trying to become Superman and fixing it with one steeled fist...

[Hipocrito Mejia]

PICHARDO, what I want is not "utopias", as you want to call them.

As much respect as I've lost for Leonel; he's a very smart man, and he may very well be the best man for the job that he was elected to. However, he needs to stop looking the other way on some of the crooks that he has chosen to surround himself with. I'm not asking for the "machinery" to be dismantled and for the country to be turned into Cuba or Venezuela, but for an example to be made of the most egregious of offenders. Why not open up the books on the SD metro project? Let's see where the money came from and where it was spent. Do you think that if they did this, that maybe, just maybe, a few people would be caught with their hands in the cookie jar?

Why is Alejandrina still the secretary of education? You mean to tell me that there isn't another qualified person for that job in the entire country. Maybe one that wouldn't look the other way when their relative's company sells them watered down milk.

Why aren't Eligio Jaquez and his cohorts in jail when all his friends and relatives ended up with the invernaderos during Hipo's administration? I know that he was tried, but don't you see the complacency from the prosecution in the way that they botched; I mean tried the case. The prosecutors and the judges from that case should all be sharing a cell with them.

Why can't Leonel put a stop to the handouts for PLD members? How dificult would that really be? I mean, they were all going to vote for him anyway. At least that was the excuse that they finally settled on after a few tries.

Why can't Leonel tell the senators/deputies/regidores that there is a freeze on wage increases for themselves? The PLD has the majority, so he can impose his will if he really wants to.

So you see... these are simple things that can easily be accomplished to make some things better, without turning the country upside down, while at the same time showing people that it will no longer be business as usual. If this administration is really sincere in its efforts to make significant changes, that may very well be the most significant change of all. Make a few examples out some big fish, and show their replacements and the remaining old guard what will happen if they play the same game.

[PICHARDO]

Originally Posted by Hipocrito Mejia

PICHARDO, what I want is not "utopias", as you want to call them.

As much respect as I've lost for Leonel; he's a very smart man, and he may very well be the best man for the job that he was elected to. However, he needs to stop looking the other way on some of the crooks that he has chosen to surround himself with. I'm not asking for the "machinery" to be dismantled and for the country to be turned into Cuba or Venezuela, but for an example to be made of the most egregious of offenders. Why not open up the books on the SD metro project? Let's see where the money came from and where it was spent. Do you think that if they did this, that maybe, just maybe, a few people would be caught with their hands in the cookie jar?

Why is Alejandrina still the secretary of education? You mean to tell me that there isn't another qualified person for that job in the entire country. Maybe one that wouldn't look the other way when their relative's company sells them watered down milk.

Why aren't Eligio Jaquez and his cohorts in jail when all his friends and relatives ended up with the invernaderos during Hipo's administration? I know that he was tried, but don't you see the complacency from the prosecution in the way that they botched; I mean tried the case. The prosecutors and the judges from that case should all be sharing a cell with them.

Why can't Leonel put a stop to the handouts for PLD members? How dificult would that really be? I mean, they were all going to vote for him anyway. At least that was the excuse that they finally settled on after a few tries.

Why can't Leonel tell the senators/deputies/regidores that there is a freeze on wage increases for themselves? The PLD has the majority, so he can impose his will if he really wants to.

So you see... these are simple things that can easily be accomplished to make some things better, without turning the country upside down, while at the same time showing people that it will no longer be business as usual. If this administration is really sincere in its efforts to make significant changes, that may very well be the most significant change of all. Make a few examples out some big fish, and show their replacements and the remaining old guard what will happen if they play the same game.

Again, give something out of the political machinery to discuss the possibilities of it becoming a reality. Yet for all this, here you are again on the political corruption bandwagon!!!

Let's see Bush open the books on the war funding deal in Iraq?!? Let's see the British parliament open the books on their dealings since the now defunct coalition of the willing...

Don't ask for Herculean endeavors! Whatever they're doing their time in the court of public opinion (and criminal as well) will come to those that abuse such powers.

I'm not here (note my posts) talking about politics, Prez Fernandez or the machinery. I'm here discussing the ways that we can obtain better results for our country's progress.

We didn't fold the tent when the PRD had the administration but the reverse of it! We had to work harder to keep plans and future investments alive in contrast to our economy back in those difficult times.

You propose political hunts for the embezzlers, crooks, thieves and public office abusers. I'm not in that bandwagon, for the simple fact that witch hunts never resulted in anything better than a public show.

Very little can be gained by sounding off the war trumpets against a known enemy and their tactics. Much can be gained when you get close to your enemy and gather resources and use their own tactics to your favor.


Again I ask you: Where is your input/idea/possible plan that can result in a better living and progress to our nation. If you want to take on the political field then pick your rifle and take to the field with your cannon and flags.

You can change the gov when you change the people that support it...