Dominican President Leonel Fernandez was able to play the role of peacemaker during the XX Summit Meeting of the Rio Group. The moment when Fernandez brought Colombia's Presidente Alvaro Uribe and Venezuelan Hugo Chavez together was telecast several times on CNN and BBC international newscasts presenting the positive image of the DR as a peace- promoting country.
Events over the previous weekend had placed Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela in a heated dispute over issues of terrorism, sovereignty and violence. The Organization of American States (OAS) condemned Colombia for violating Ecuador's territorial limits, and Venezuela sent troops to the frontier with Colombia. However, during the Rio Group Summit in Santo Domingo, President Fernandez managed to get the parties talking, smiling and even shaking hands. Hugo Chavez was in the spotlight, as usual, and pleased the audience with a stanza from "Quisqueya", a traditional Dominican song, and praised the role of women in society. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe showed the group letters allegedly found in computers seized in the raid into Ecuador. The letters established a connection between Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and the FARC rebel group. However, after it was all over, the three South American leaders exchanged handshakes, smiles and hugs.
India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed interest in strengthening relations with the DR during a meeting with Dominican Ambassador Hans Dannenberg in New Delhi. Meeting on the occasion of the Republic of India Day, Prime Minister Singh expressed his concern about the tropical storms that affected the DR in 2007, and an interest in hearing an update on the DR-CAFTA implementation. He invited President Fernandez to visit India to bring bilateral relations to a new working level. Prime Minister Singh extended his usual courtesy greeting to ambassadors at the event to express his special interest in the DR. The DR has had an embassy in New Delhi since 2006, which has contributed to more active links. Among the achievements is the award of 30 scholarships to universities in India for Dominican students in 2007, as well as an increase in trade in pharmaceuticals, textiles, tobacco, metal products and motorcycles.
With the approach of Easter week, 16-22 March, the Emergency Operations Center (COE) plans to launch a campaign targeting alcohol consumption. Last year, more than 500 traffic accidents were recorded during the week, so this year a campaign called Guardian Angel will be implemented starting on 17 March. The program was created by Diageo, a leading liquor company, and will be focused on highway toll areas and beaches across the country. Similar programs stressing the dangers of drinking and driving have been introduced in seven other Latin American countries since 2005. COE director Luis Luna Paulino told reporters from Diario Libre that his staff would work with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (AMET) in order to reduce the number of tragic accidents.
The town of Moca, in the heart of the Cibao Valley is now a WiFi city, thanks to the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (INDOTEL). The WiFi network also benefits the neighboring towns of Villa Trina and Gaspar Hernandez, according to INDOTEL president Jose Rafael Vargas. Vargas said that anyone in a two-kilometer radius from Moca's central park should have access to a wireless Internet connection.
The Ministry of the Interior and the Police has advised the Dominican Medical Association (CMD) that their marchers will not be allowed to use the Dr. Delgado Street nor Mexico Avenue for their next protest, announced for 12 March. Nonetheless, the doctors have told reporters that they will not bend to pressure and that they will exercise their legitimate right to protest. CMD president Dr. Waldo Ariel Suero told reporters that while doctors are currently treating emergencies at the hospitals during strikes, it is possible that even these duties will be relinquished in future. Dr. Suero said that "we do not discard any action, including abandoning the hospitals..." Their plans for future protests include longer work stoppages at the hospitals, with the next strike lasting for 72 hours or even a week. On Wednesday, doctors are planning to march from the Luis Eduardo Aybar Hospital to the Presidential Palace.
Today, PROINVEST, in conjunction with Caribbean Export, is hosting a workshop where regional furniture manufacturers can learn about opportunities for cooperation with their Caribbean and European Union counterparts. The EU-Caribbean Partnership Meeting - "Furniture and Complementary Decorative Items" will be held at the Dominican Fiesta Hotel between 10 and 12 March. The three-day workshop will provide Dominican businesses in the furniture and decorative accessory sectors with an opportunity to establish cooperation agreements with European businesses, specifically with Spanish companies seeking to invest in the Dominican tourism sector. These agreements could include collaborative schemes such as investment, joint ventures, technology exchange, decorating concept and supply for hotels (contract), clustering, marketing and manufacturing. INTERCO (France), UNEX (Spain), IGA-CNI (Italy), Chamber of Kavala (Greece), BELTRAIDE (Belize), GOINVEST (Guyana), JMA (Jamaica) CEDA (Caribbean Export Development Agency) and CODOPYME (DR) are taking part in PROINVEST's regional program. UNEX has been chosen as the intermediary organization to support Spanish investment opportunities in the DR. Alan Ramirez Risk, Executive Director at Caribbean Export, explains that the cooperation between Dominican and Spanish firms, using the new "Contract" concept, will only increase the value of products offered by the Dominican hotel and tourism industry. He adds that this week's workshops are just a platform for future investments in the country and will aid small and medium sized businesses that would have been left out of the market in the past, to make deals with investors looking to invest in the DR. UNEX secretary general David Camara Navarro, speaking to dr1.com reporter Lu Olivero, explained that in the past, Spanish companies seeking to invest in the DR had found it difficult to do so and that workshops like these are aimed at making it easier for Spanish businesses to invest in the DR and vice versa. Minister of the European National Authorizing Office (ONFED) Onofre Rojas, speaking at the launching of the event, commented on the continued efforts to strengthen relationships between the EU and the DR and highlighted how these relationships can help provide small and medium sized businesses (PYMES) with employment opportunities and strengthen the Dominican economy.
Eighteen people, all students and teachers, were injured in Puerto Plata when a balcony they were watching a parade from collapsed under their weight. As reported in El Caribe, two of the students are still in intensive care and it is feared that one of the teachers could lose one of her legs as a result. According to the paper, students from the Carlos Maria Hernandez School on 27 de Febrero in Puerto Plata were watching an International Women's Day parade when the balcony collapsed as they were jumping around. Hugo Gonzalez, the provincial director of the Civil Defense office, told reporters that the injured were being treated at the Bournigal Clinic and the Jose Gregorio Hernandez Medical Center.
With the price of oil reaching US$106 a barrel on the international market, the Dominican Republic is facing the very real possibility of having to spend US$150 million on its electricity sector subsidies program. This warning comes from superintendent of electricity Francisco Mendez. Mendez told reporters from El Nuevo Diario that this is nearly three times the US$60 million allocated to the electricity subsidy in 2007. In spite of the dire forecasts, Mendez said that the government is not considering increasing the electricity rates, already the highest in Latin America.
As many know by now, fuel prices skyrocketed over the weekend. The price of West Texas crude reached US$106 on the international market, and Dominican fuel prices increased by as much as RD$5.40 a gallon. However, since this is campaign season, the price of propane gas used in many taxicabs, automobiles and in home cooking, was kept at RD$59.95, the same price for over a month and a half. Premium gasoline went up by RD$4 a gallon; regular gasoline increased by the same amount; and kerosene went up by RD$5.40 a gallon.
The Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources has fined the Liberian registered Seaboard Caribbean, owned by Neils Jules, a total of RD$7 million for spilling nearly a thousand gallons of fuel oil in the area around Punta Caucedo, near Andres, Boca Chica on the Dominican south coast. Resolution 02-2008, dated 7 March, puts the punitive fine at 1,380 minimum wages or RD$3,659,608.20, and the cost of cleaning up the beaches and coastline near the port at RD$3,435,706.30. The costs were calculated based on the ministry's administrative regulations. The prosecutor's office at the ministry will take the case to court, and there are still pending charges since the oil spill affected wildlife and the ecology of the area as well.
The Dominican Teacher's Association (ADP) has complained about the lack of schools, pointing out that in many cases teachers have to teach as many as 78 kids in a classroom. Maria Teresa Cabrera, the head of the association, reports that the school system only has 5,417 buildings housing 11,000 schools. (In the Dominican Republic, a school building will typically use one name for morning classes, another for afternoon classes and yet another for evening classes). According to a report in Hoy newspaper, there are just 31,000 schoolrooms in the country, and 16,135 of these schoolrooms house 1,259,000 children. The teachers' leader told reporters that while every government builds schools, they are not building enough for the school-age population. Ideally, the teachers would like to see no more than 30 or 35 students per classroom.
Dominican universities are faced with an unfortunate reality: graduates in many fields are not finding jobs. As a result, according to the article in today's El Caribe, universities need to look at the courses on offer. The latest statistics from the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology say that recent graduating classes have provided 13,407 graduates in Social Sciences, 12,270 in Philosophy and Humanities, 4,464 in basic science and technology, and just 3,937 in engineering fields. Health sciences graduated just 2,605, agricultural graduates numbered only 299 and applied science only 228. The same set of statistics reveals a similar distribution in current students: 126,000 in Social Sciences (including law, accounting, business administration and marketing), 82,000 in humanities and philosophy (including education); engineering and technologies with 69,000 and health sciences with 40,000.
One again investigative journalist and television commentator Nuria Piera has exposed a government scandal of immense proportions. Said to be more pervasive than the Sun Land US$130 million loan issue, the CB affair (Comite de Base in Spanish) purports to reveal payments, using state funds, of between RD$3,000 and RD$4,000 per month for thousands of unemployed PLD party members. According to Diario Libre, the government could well be involved in something similar to the much-criticized PEME program in the previous Fernandez administration. According to Piera's revelation, the government pays out this money through "special 'CB' payrolls". In order to qualify for the monthly check, all a person has to do is present a letter from the Intermediate Committee to which they belong, and swear that they do not have a job. The PLD has 55,000 Base Committees and says it has 1.2 million members. According to Piera's investigation, the Ministry of Agriculture has a special payroll of 4,252 people with a budget of RD$9.7 million a month; the Dominican Agrarian Institute has 3,000 lucky folks on its lists and RD$9.44 million per month; and the Dominican Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INDRHI) distributes RD$26 million to 8,731 people each month. However, it doesn't end there. The National Potable Water Institute (INAPA) hands out RD$20.1 million to some 6,700 unemployed PLD loyalists, and according to sources, the Ministry of Public Works has even more people on its "CB" payrolls, but the figures were not forthcoming. The reporter called the financial offices of the different government dependencies and asked: "Are the CB checks ready yet?" Often the employee would respond, "Not yet." Even the Santo Domingo Water Works (CAASD) has a special place behind their main offices where the checks are distributed. PLD party leader Reinaldo Pared Perez said that he did not know about any such program.
In his A.M. column today, editor Adriano Miguel Tejada describes such use of public funds as "criminal." He says that the government is going to have to tread softly in this case in order to explain it away. He says that when he writes "tread softly" it is because handing out this money is a violation of several laws, including possibly the Constitution, and has no way of being hidden and could be worse, in legal terms, than the Sun Land case. The CB program is being carried out in violation of the austerity laws, budget controls, personnel controls and a long list of etceteras, and could not have been put into place without the involvement of the principal PLD leaders, including the President, a direct beneficiary of the program. It's like this: no official of the treasury, the controllers office, no minister or director can authorize a payroll of this kind with their own funding and without affecting their other programs, without the corresponding permission. Tejada says that the recurrence of policies like the PEME means that this will bring about, no doubt, judicial actions and a movement against presidential re-election as an institution. "With this going on, one has to question payment of taxes," he editorializes.
Once again, and despite a "gentlemen's agreement", serious violence has broken out, this time in the town of Azua. Three people were wounded as the PRD accused PLD deputy Julio Brito and his driver of shooting at PRD sympathizers after a political rally in Azua. According to Hoy, witnesses to the events said that both Brito and his driver carried out the shooting. Apparently, the PRD supporters were waving their flags as a procession including President Fernandez was passing by. The "gentlemen's agreement" stipulated that the parties would coordinate activities to avoid crossing paths during the campaign.
The Dominican Conference of Bishops met in Santiago over the weekend and heard a detailed report from Roberto Rosario, the chief magistrate of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) Administrative Chamber. The bishops, headed by Santiago archbishop Ramon Benito de la Rosa y Carpio and Nicolas de Jesus Cardinal Lopez Rodriguez, pledged their support for the election process and promised to cooperate with efforts to strengthen the JCE as an institution.
Santiago mayor Jose Enrique Sued has been chosen as the Vice Presidential candidate by Amable Aristy Castro of the PRSC. Sued, known for his efficient city council and dynamic municipal government, promised a government that looks after the needy. Aristy Castro told reporters that the former PRSC caudillo, Joaquin Balaguer, had always remarked on the great leadership qualities Sued had demonstrated in his province.
Economist Enrique Iglesias, a former head of the Inter-American Development Bank, is expected to be released from the hospital either today or tomorrow as he continues to recover from complications leading to dehydration and exhaustion over the weekend. Iglesias was hospitalized at the Abel Gonzalez Clinic ICU with an intestinal blockage late on Thursday night. Over the weekend he was removed from the ICU, and placed in a normal room at the clinic. Iglesias, the secretary general of the Madrid based Ibero-American Council, is expected to return to Spain as soon as he is released from the clinic, according to his assistant, Eduard Perez Reyes.
Iglesias was expected to attend the XX Rio Group Summit Conference, but his health emergency prevented his attendance. Iglesias has been a long-time supporter of Dominican development policies.
Will the personal tragedy of a Dominican-American victim of gambling addiction change the gaming industry? The New York press is focusing on the story of lawyer Arelia Taveras, who successfully worked with AA587 victims' families, and is now suing casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City for her gaming addiction. She has sued seven casinos for US$20 million on the grounds that they should bear some responsibility for her compulsive gambling. Gambling destroyed her previously successful legal career and has placed her deeply in debt.
The case raises the question of where the line should be drawn between personal responsibility and a paternalistic society. There are laws on the books where bartenders can be held liable if they knowingly serve alcohol to a drunk customer who may later drive intoxicated. Additionally, the tobacco industry has already had to settle class-action lawsuits brought by governments of individual states in the 1990s because of the argument that the tobacco companies knew the cigarettes were addictive and didn't do enough to warn of the adverse effects. They sued to recover health costs and won a big settlement against the tobacco industry.
Casinos are well known for using security intelligence to monitor gamblers to check for fraudulent gambling.
According to her story, the casinos were well aware of a five-day non-stop gambling binge that she went on in 2005 and didn't stop her. It is likely to be a tough case for her to prove in court, but a judge already declared that two of the six casinos have enough detailed information that would enable the lawsuit to go through.
Taveras told DR1 that she started the lawsuit for the following reasons:
1. Every state with a casino should have a treatment facility, "if they create junkies, then they should provide junkie treatment;
2. We need casinos to acknowledge that they owe a duty of care to gamblers when they are in their casinos;
3. We need mandatory exclusions (from 30-60 days) when gamblers admit they may have a problem with gambling at any casino;
4. We need to revamp reporting requirements;
5. Casinos need sensitivity training so that they recognize compulsivity when they see it;
6. Limits need to be placed on how much time a person gambles, I gambled for 3-4 days without sleeping or eating. That is compulsive. (For more on her case, see www.mycasinolawsuit.com)
Meanwhile, the case has met with US press interest, and she appeared on Good Morning America today. The New York Post, Associated Press and New York Daily News all have carried stories on the lawsuit.
www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/MindMoodNews/story?id=4420153&page=1
The Dominican relay team has won the bronze for the 4 x 100 meters relay in the 2008 12th IAAF World Indoor Championships that took place in Valencia, Spain - a major victory. The US won the gold with a time of 3:06.79 (James Davis, Jamaal Torrane, Greg Nixon, Kelly Willie), while Jamaica won silver with 3:07.69 (Michael Blackwood, Edino Steele, Adrian Findlay, DeWayne Barret), and the DR was right behind with 3:07.77, a new national record. Representing the DR were Arismendy Peguero, Carlos Santa, Pedro Mejia and Yoel Tapia. Poland, Great Britain and Russia followed. The victory augurs well for the Dominican team's prospects in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 1996-2008. DR1. All Rights Reserved.