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President Mejia attends investment conference President Hipolito Mejia traveled today to Jamaica to participate in the opening of the Caribbean Investment Forum, a conference sponsored by Euromoney Institutional Investor and the Jamaica Promotions Corporation. The annual event highlights the major investment opportunities available in the Caribbean region. This year it is being held at the Ritz-Carlton Rose Hall in Montego Bay. While there, President Hipolito Mejia will meet with Prime Minister Percival James Patterson, and will participate in two forums that focus on investments and economic stability, as reported by the Listin Diario. President Mejia is traveling with Minister of Foreign Relations Hugo Tolentino Dipp, Minister of Finances Jose Lois Malkum, Minister of Industry & Commerce Hugo Guiliani Cury, Minister of Tourism Rafael Subervi Bonilla, the Governor of the Central Bank Frank Guerrero Prats, and the director of the Office for the Promotion of Investments, Danilo del Rosario, among others. |
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16 May election results schedule The Central Electoral Board (JCE), the government body in charge of organizing the municipal and congressional elections of 16 May, says it will announce on May 18 which parties received the most votes during the election. This will decide the winners of the 31 senate seats. Next, the JCE will announce the winners of the municipalities. Franklin Frias, director of informatics for the JCE said it would take them six days to reveal the winners of the deputy seats. He said that all the results should be known by 22 May. |
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Development of Bahia de las Aguilas The Ministry of Tourism called upon purchasers of property in the Bahia de las Aguilas beach area to visit the Ministry’s legal advisor within the next 10 days. The Ministry is acting on Decree 273-01 dated 23 February 2001 that created a commission for the planning, promotion and development of the prime beach area in Pedernales province within the borders of Jaragua National Park. In the past, the beach had been off limits to tourism development. The commission was created to present recommendations to the Executive Branch for the development of the area. Ecologists object the development of the fragile beach area and have urged that hotel constructions take place outside of its perimeter. |
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Norwegian forestry group opposes Guaigui Dam The Association for International Water and Forest Studies (FIVAS), an independent Norwegian organization, has issued a report that shows overly negative consequences would result from construction of the Guaigui Dam in La Vega. The Oslo-based organization was founded to prevent Norwegian financial participation in projects with significant negative social or environmental impacts. It obtains and disseminates information about the consequences of large dams and hydroelectric projects in the Third World. The group focused on the Dominican Republic as part of its role of keeping an eye on power developments involving Norwegian companies or institutions. Following an inspection visit, FIVAS confirmed that the stated goals of the multipurpose project had been changed during the planning process. Alternative solutions which might have caused fewer social and environmental costs were not evaluated. This means that instead of investigating the best way to serve La Vega’s needs, the focus has been on how best to justify building the dam. Construction is planned to start soon, even before population resettlements and compensation are agreed upon. FIVAS warned that the vested interests of the tourism business are stronger than what has been expressed publicly and that this could conflict with the other purposes of the dam. It also observed that the dam’s ability to control floods, provide irrigation water and potable water was being questioned by some academics. The organization also found that the project conflicts on several points with international standards set by both the World Bank and the World Commission on Dams. Listin Diario interviewed the executive director of the National Institute of Hydro Resources, Silvio Carrasco, who said that once the project is completely designed they will know which families will need to be relocated. He also said that the ecotourism project would focus on the lake that would be created by construction of the dam. To read the report on Guaigui, see http://www.solidaritetshuset.org |
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More taxpayer money to finance politicians El Caribe criticizes the government for allowing politicians to disguise their political organizations as non-profit groups. To make matters worse, most of them are financed by taxpayer money. The newspaper criticizes that there are over 2,046 non-governmental organizations that eat up RD$772 million of the budget, or 1% of the total. Most congressmen and women have at least one non-governmental organization (NGO) with an allotment in the national budget and some have a dozen or more of them, denounces the newspaper. El Caribe goes on to explain that the congressmen demand the government fund their NGOs as a condition to voting in favor of the national budget as sent by the Executive Branch. The newspaper says other politicians and governors of provinces have followed suit and now demand government funding for their own profit-seeking NGOs. El Caribe points out that of the 2,046 organizations funded by the state, 915 organizations receive RD$266 million directly from the President's Office budget. The President of the Senate, Andres Bautista Garcia (PRD-Espaillat) lobbied for 40 non-governmental organizations. He is president of Fundacion 2 de Mayo, to which the government gave a RD$840,000 budgetary allotment. The spokesman for the PLD block in the Senate, Bautista Rojas Gomez (PLD-Salcedo) lobbied for 32 organizatons in his province. He is the chief coordinator of the Fundacion Enriqueta Valdez, which received RD$600,000. The president of the Chamber of Deputies Rafaela Alburquerque has admitted in the past to having at least three foundations in San Pedro de Macoris funded by national budget money. Thus, El Caribe says these organizations have become another way of illegally and immorally financing political campaigns, adding to the generous salary, meal allowances, tax exemptions and other benefits congressmen receive. A law is pending in Congress that would regulate the operation and approval of non-governmental organizations. El Caribe comments that while the politically-oriented NGOs have an abundance of funds, others that carry out true public services, such as the Rehab Center, suffer major delays in the arrival of their monthly subsidies. |
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Maternal and infant mortality The number of deaths of women giving birth declined from 260 per 100,000 births in 1999 to 104 in 2001, according to official statistics presented at the Meeting of the Health Ministers of the Caribbean and Central America taking place in Santo Domingo. DR Health Minister Jose Rodriguez Soldevilla said that infantile mortality has also declined, going from 42 per 1,000 births in 1999 to 28 per 1,000 births in 2001. Ministers of public health from Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Belize, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Haiti also attended the event. |
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Fireman’s children die in home blaze Andres, Boca Chica volunteer fireman Juan Pool lost his three children, aged 12, five and four years old when a short circuit ignited a fire that burned down his home at 1:30 am Sunday. Police reports say that Pool had gone out to assist a friend who had been injured in a brawl at David’s Discotheque in Andres, leaving his children unattended. The news reports said the mother did not live with the children. Pool, in shock, expressed his frustration at having been able to save so many from fires but not being able to save his own children. |
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Barahona city to get its beach Barahona, the largest city in the southwest, will soon have its own beach. The government is building a breakwater between the Navy area and the port off the Barahona-Batey Central highway. Engineer Jose R. Hawa said the beach conditioning will include walks for pedestrians, a new boulevard, green areas, parking and illumination. In the past, the people of Barahona had to travel 20 minutes or more to get to a beach at El Quemaito, San Rafael, Bahoruco, Cienaga, Los Patos or other coastal locations. The beach is being promoted as Playa Casita Blanca. It is expected to enhance tourism to Barahona. |
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Washington, D.C. internship program The Dominican American National Roundtable has announced openings to participate in the Dominican Internship Program (DIP). Ten summer internship positions for Dominican college students are available in Washington, D.C. This program is organized by the Roundtable with the support of the Group of Dominican Professionals-Washington and the Dominican Studies Institute at City University in New York (CUNY). There is a 1 May deadline to apply. All Dominican students or students descended from Dominicans, attending college outside the Washington, D.C. area are eligible to apply. The grants provide internship placement in congressional offices, federal agencies, national or international organizations in Washington D.C.; housing with host families in the Washington, D.C. Metro area; instruction through the Dominican Studies Institute at CUNY; domestic round-trip transportation to Washington, D.C. and money for expenses. For more information and how to apply, see http://www.danr.org |
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Placido Domingo at the National Theater Placido Domingo takes the stage this evening at the National Theater. This is the first time the world famous tenor will perform for a Dominican audience. In his most recent CD, Quiereme Mucho, he included tracks by Dominican composers Juan Luis Guerra, Manuel Troncoso, Armando Cabrera and Mario de Jesus. “I think they are excellent, one never finishes discovering Dominican music. I have studied Dominican music and have discovered wonderful songs that I for sure will include in a future CD in a new production,” he told the Listin Diario. The announced program for tonight’s concert is: Gaetano Donizetti: "Una furtiva lágrima", (1797-1848), aria from the opera "L'elisir d'amore". Leo Delibes: "Les filles de Cádiz", (1836-1891). Song for soprano. Giacomo Puccini: "E lucevan le stelle" (1858-1924), aria of the opera "Tosca". "Un bel dì vedremo", aria of the opera "Madama Butterfly". Francesco Cila: "Lamento di Federico", (1866-1950), aria from the opera "L'arlesiana". Giuseppe Verdi: Obertura (Symphony), (1813-1901) from the opera "La forza del destino". "Gi nella notte densa", duet from the opera "Otello". Federico Moreno Torroba: "Adiós, dijiste", (1891-1982). Romanza of the zarzuela "Maravilla". Pablo Luna: "De España vengo, soy española", (1879-1942). Romanza of the zarzuela "El niño judío". Pablo Sorozábal: "Hace tiempo que vengo al taller", (1897-1988). Duet from the zarzuela "La del manojo de rosas". Gerónimo Jiménez: (1854-1923) Intermedio from the zarzuela "La boda de Luis Alonso" Franz Lehár: "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz", (1870-1948), aria from the operetta "El país de las sonrisas". "Meine Lippen sie Kuessen so heiss", aria from the operetta "Giuditta". "Lippen Schweigen", duet from the operetta "La viuda alegre". |
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