Leonel Watch

[RHM]

Leonel Watch (Original posted here)

Leonel Fernandez (President of the Dominican Republic) recently sent the Dominican congress a list of over 100 changes he’d like to make to the constitution. Here’s how a UN representative characterizes those proposed reforms (from DR1 news):

"Dr. Cristobal Rodriguez, a constitutional specialist with the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), says the proposed constitutional reform would give the Dominican President “unlimited power” adding that the personal management of the state’s resources by the President, as stipulated by the reform, could create a bureaucracy and a culture of potent clientilism."

Scary? A little bit, but it’s not over yet. Hopefully enough members of congress will see the danger and act accordingly.

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The DR recently hosted a technology conference attended by dozens of countries and companies looking to show off new technological products. As usual, Leonel was there to smile wide for the cameras and put on a show. According to DR1 news:

President Leonel Fernandez says that the country has definitely started on the road to modernization and that it is currently entering the transition phase towards a model of knowledge based on science, technology and the efforts of a new productive system.

“There was a lot of skepticism about the construction of the cyber-park, and we were told that instead of spending resources on a technology park, we should concentrate on reducing poverty”. He added that the way to eliminate poverty and push the country towards development is precisely with technology parks of this type.

The President cut the ceremonial tape with a laser beam…

Is this guy serious? The best way to fight poverty is through technology parks? We have millions of people who cannot read or write. Now we’re going to magically turn them into computer programmers and web entrepreneurs? Although he’s been president for 8 of the past 12 years, poverty has increased and the quality of education has become progressively worse. Cutting the ribbon with a laser and declaring his decision to build a cyber park a success is the Dominican equivalent of Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” stunt back in 2003. Both were premature (and needless to say insulting) declarations of success. Reality tells a much different story.

Comments and criticism welcome.

RHM

[JRMirador]

Randy, that's a great thread. You sure are not afraid of jumping into the water.

[MikeFisher]

great thread,
thanks for bring that up.
to the constitutional changes(100!!!):
would be interesting to read those papers with the targeted changes, is such available?
if such changes give, like stated by the UN's expert, unlimited power to the president, that means in my opinion they should get stopped right away. no ctry needs to give unlimited power to it's president, such is not needed to run a country properly. then more decisions by a president personally than more a country is run like a dictatorship and drifting away from democracy. the involvement of different institutions/opinions is always necessary to run a country in a democratic way.

technology Park:
i do not have much info about it, but basically i would see a technology park as progress, science is important to bring a country forward.

fight poverty with such:
yes, i agree with the president's staement on such, even that it could've been brought over better/in better words/together with a good reasons explanation.
science/technologies aso are important for a country to go ahead and their productivity is bringing progress to the whole country, including to the poor people who will personally never be involved in a technology park, including the urgently needed bettering of education.
IF the governing crowd finally one sunny day decides to bring the long promised money into that educational system.
there are always many promises about that theme,
but the day still has to come where such promises come true.

great thread with a lot of room for good discussions.
looking forward to the posts to come.
happy weekend
Mike

[bob saunders]

Has poverty and education gotten progressively worse in the DR? Do you have the facts to back up that, or is it just an opinion?

[MikeFisher]

no Bob, in my opinion it is not been going downwards during 8years under Lenonel.
Mike

[catcherintherye]

Great idea RHM.

Some people might believe Leonel is the best thing to happen to the DR since Trujillo, others might believe he is the worst. Whatever one thinks about him, it is always a good idea to "follow" the leader. If he is honest, then keep him honest. If he is a crook, then expose him for what he is.

In reference to Bob Saunders question, although it was not directed to me; I do not know enough about the history of education in the DR to have an opinion about whether it has gotten worse during the past 12 years, but I do know it is in a shambles now, and if it has gotten better I would have hated to have seen it before.

[RHM]

Originally Posted by MikeFisher

no Bob, in my opinion it is not been going downwards during 8years under Lenonel.
Mike

I think he was talking to me.

And I'd have to disagree with you on that.

World Bank
EdStats

If you choose the DR from the drop down menu you can see enrollment rates through 2006 and a variety of other factors.

Also, if you follow the DR1 news (check archives or just search for keywords in your own email) you see study after study showing alarming rates of under-performance. Add to that the cuts (yes, cuts) in the education budget (as well as several other ministries) to fund the metro over the past few years and it's hard to speculate that things have gotten better.

In addition, my own personal experiences over the past 6 years with the secretaria de educacion have been telling. Staffs have been cut and when they come to visit schools the first things they do is hand you a receipt for their taxi fare. If the people who control the purse strings cannot cover their own expenses it's reasonable to assume even less is getting to the schools (the majority of which are spread out around the country in poor areas).

Here's some more info from UNESCO. Enrollment rates are down according to them too. If that's the case I don;t see how things could be better.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics

This is a sloppy reply because my inversor is dying, but I wanted to at least get some data to you.

Honestly, when we take into consideration that food prices are at an all time high and the impact of crude oil over the past year it's not easy to see how citizens of a perpetually mismanaged developing country are worse off.

Sure, Leonel likes to tout macro numbers and increases in GDP, but that can and poverty can still increase (Pretty sure Cobraboy will weigh on on some of this.)

I think we can all agree that reliable statistics on pretty much anything in the DR are very tough to find. The WB, IMF, UN etc do their best but the "gubmint" itself isn't of much help. Millions are without birth records for starters and if you saw the pic in Diario Libre last week (could not find it on the web) of the storage room at the camara de cuentas (charged with government oversight) it's not hard to see why.

So, to answer your original question, it's based on fact AND opinion (based on experience). Could you publish my post in a peer reviewed journal on those grounds - no.

Again, sorry for the sloppiness and typos but I'm about to "go dark!"

RHM

[bob saunders]

The two links that you post indeed show some grime stats, but they actually show a slight improvement. My own experiences with visiting Jarabacoa every year for the past 10, show a great deal of improvement in many peoples lives; at least with people that I know. My wife's school has gone from around 200 students in 1998 to around 600 presently, and I have spent many hours in most of the public schools in Jarabacoa. While still lacking, there are many improvements in the facilities and the availability of books....etc.
I completely agree that the issues of food on the plate, job opportunities, crime,...etc should all take a higher priority than a metro and certain investments in technology.

[RHM]

Originally Posted by bob saunders

The two links that you post indeed show some grime stats, but they actually show a slight improvement. My own experiences with visiting Jarabacoa every year for the past 10, show a great deal of improvement in many peoples lives; at least with people that I know. My wife's school has gone from around 200 students in 1998 to around 600 presently, and I have spent many hours in most of the public schools in Jarabacoa. While still lacking, there are many improvements in the facilities and the availability of books....etc.
I completely agree that the issues of food on the plate, job opportunities, crime,...etc should all take a higher priority than a metro and certain investments in technology.

I'm glad to hear about the school in Jarabacoa. Is it private or public?

600 students is huge. The private school I teach at in the capital is just over 400 and I think that's about average if not a bit bigger than most. Less competition maybe?

Does your wife's school pull students from the surrounding area? I imagine that's one of if not the biggest school in your area.

RHM

[MikeFisher]

RHM,
i do sure not get against your opinions in case of education and the huge leak of bringting it up further.
i do not read statistics like the above's, because they proof nothing, they are made by people who don't have a clue about what part of the world they are talking about.
YES,
the Metro is aside of some other(compared to the Metro amount just minor of course) stuff a big monster hit for the country's money, it's completely wasted and could've been used for something good, heck, it could've changed the education on the island from the downplace where it is now up to a international competitive level within a decade, i totally agree on that point, will not start a Metro discussion here.
my opinion about the educational system like it is running, better or worse compared to some years back, is not based on statistics, just on my own observations and personal experience as a father and as a distributor of donations for most public schools in my home area, on the east coast.
i can not speak about the capitol or santiago aso.
we have now much more public schools than a few years back, that's in my eyes an improvement, without starting to talk about the quality of their outfit/teacher's experience aso. the youngguns get for their morning classes their breakfast provided, again, i am not talking about the quality of that, just about some changes.
i do not see a huge improvement in the educational system over all, but i see that things start to get implemented.
YES,
there's a hell of stuff still missing,
and Yes, aside of the waste of money on the metro the gobmin has urgently to look for a bunch of money to put in education, there's still nothing really done.
but like i wrote in my short sentence in my former post as a answer to Bob's general question,
NO, i do not see that it got worse.
but i want to add that it did not get enough better neither, YES.
just wanted to make clear that our opinions are not some controverse discussion stuff. the gubmin has to start to put real effords into education,
and they should start soon.
i just hope they never start to think about a Metro in santiago or such.
noap, after the st dgo one there will anyways not be any money for such.
Mike