"funds will be used in education, agriculture, potable water and competitiveness programs"

What no money for METROS what has the world come to!

Josean,

Rejoice, isn't this what you've always wanted? By the way, I posted the article in the Forum but didn't follow the rule of all materials within a single post and thus I'll have to post again later.
If you don't want to wait, here's the address:


http://www.yale.edu/ccr/workshop/schrank.doc

It's not only the Haitian elites and government leadership that stinks on the island.

Thank you I will read it!

We are supposed to give 4% of the budget to education. We say that we give 2 1/2%. We don't. How could anyone believe that this money, earmarked ror education, will actually wind up being used to improve our pathetic public education? I can see the new being ordered now. Come to think of it, that is probably the reason that the recent car feria was such a success.

Juanb,

You want to be truly pissed-off at the Dominican leadership and elite structure? Have a go at the article I sent to Josean. Balaguer and the recalcitrant elites were offered a golden opportunity back in 1966 to modernize the nation-state and they passed on it. Yes, you read that correctly, they said basically, "no thanks."


http://www.yale.edu/ccr/workshop/schrank.doc

hope the funds are actually used for education. This would be great.

Atabey,

First of all thank you it’s a very interesting piece and you are right it will piss people off.

For those of us who are already pissed off, its because we either have knowledge of these political economy issues or can't not figure out why we continue to effectively move backward, although the political mirage appears to be of modernization and development because we are taken in by the "cement projects!"

I would be willing to volunteer sweat equity in building a dozen METROS if necessary but only after we have built a world class competitive educational system, preschool to graduate school. I get exasperated as to why the average Dominican can’t see this, although I understand the manipulation they are subjected to by the powers that be to keep them ignorant and dependant. During the cold war they (the national elites and their foreign allies) used the bogyman of communism to attack any effort at reform and therefore destroyed any real possibility towards change;

thus, the excuse to eliminate Bosch from power.

The sad thing Atabey, is that both Balaguer and his understudy LIE-onel Fernandez were/are smart enough to understand what needed/what needs to be done(please Banistan no Lenin inferences ok!) but the chose the wrong side and de facto the wrong side of history. They decided to rule in favor of the few against the interests and benefits of the many and thereby leading the country into the downward spiral we currently find ourselves.

To a degree you can almost understand Balaguer’s solidarity to the interest of the backward national bourgeoisie, having come from their ranks and the “Cold War” mentality of seeing communism under ever rock, around every corner and behind every motive for change. As are many here on DT who still are stuck in the 50s and 60 do.

However, in LIE-onel Fernandez case it is different. This man comes from poverty and a marginalized neighborhood, a Blackman, with a so-called cosmopolitan world view,

the experience of living abroad, the tutoring of one of our modern founding fathers, Juan Bosch, (one of the most brilliant minds of Latin America and the world for that matter) and without the Cold War dilemmas, yet he betrays his people!

If anyone should be and advocate for education is LIE-onel Fernandez because without the opportunities it afforded him he would be “conchando en la 27” or running a bodega in Washington Heights if he were lucky. How can he wake up in the morning and look himself in the face knowing he has done no better than Balaguer; and for the reasons I state before, in my opinion, even worse?

This is why I am so hard on him. He could have done so much for so many but he betrayed, his roots, he betrayed Dr. Bosch and more importantly he betrayed the millions of Dominicans who placed there hopes, aspirations and the future of the children and their nation in his hands.

I included!

He will go down in Dominican history as one of the worst if not thee worst president and one of our most tragic figures.

As the article points out we wasted our future and opportunities with Balaguer and you can see that we are following the same policies under LIE-onel Fernandez and have wasted another 12 years we could not afford. Especially the millions that did not advance or regressed under the dark ages initiated by Trujillo continued by Balalguer and codified LIE-onel Fernandez. Only sharks in El Canal de La Mona and the elites have benefited from his betrayal of Juan Bosch and loyalty to Balaguerismo AKA Trujillismo. Those same elites that probably laugh behind his and Margarita’s back, never accepting them as one of their own but using them nevertheless; and they allowing themselves to be used so maybe the will be accepted someday.

Again thanks for the link to the article and I recommend that everyone read it!

Josean, you are the foremost Dean of this forum

Josean,

It's good that we, and I hope others, open up about the true issues that hamper the DR's full participation in modernity. I do not share your total rejection, if that's your opinion of the man, Fernandez. I think that as with all leaders in power, Fernandez was faced with an enormous list of issues that needed attention. You, of course, would have placed greater emphasis on public education from the get go. What I and perhaps others have tried to emphasize is that often internal divisions within the elite composition of the DR, as happens in other developing nations, severely hamper such efforts. The paper by Schrank describes just such divisions between the Neo-Trujillistas and others, including Balaguer, in accepting a golden opportunity to use Export Led Industrialization, a la Puerto Rico, South Korea, and others. We would not be having this discussion had those fools accepted the offer. Education in the DR would be as advanced as in Puerto Rico, and our level

Part 2

of economic development would be the envy of other similar size nation-states. And since our population size is far greater than Puerto Rico's, the scale of wealth, better distributed because of modern practices enforced by the Export led model, would have severely impacted the huge wage, health, educational, and wealth divide in the DR. Even Haiti would have been positively impacted by this development.

Our leaders blew a chance of joining the advanced world. Now we have the road of CAFTA-DR and other mechanisms to guide our path. For there are few, if any other, viable options available to the Dominican Republic today.

Hay muchos que piden ser incluidos, pocos que son aceptados, pero son menos los que toman la decision de complir con su deber.

In other words, you can lead the horse to the river, but you can't force it to drink.

Joseano, if LF falls in the category of trujillismo/balaguerismo, where do you place hipolito mejia?

" Especially the millions that did not advance or regressed under the dark ages initiated by Trujillo continued by Balalguer and codified LIE-onel Fernandez."

Missy,

If you ready carefully you will notice that Mejia's reign was within that time frame also. He was too insignificant for the sake of this discussion since he was a one term president. . As bad as Mejia was or even as bad as people want to make him to be some honestly and other for political convenience, he was but a fly in the ointment.

We are talking about three figures like it or not extremely important persons, Trujillo, Balaguer and Fernandez who collectively ruled or have ruled the DR for almost 67 years into two centuries

What we are or aren’t as a nation is do to the legacy of three men who have cast a shadow and imprint in our society that as Dr. Starngelove correctly reminds us often, it may unfortunately take generations to recover from and eradicate.

Continued:

Although LIE-onel Fernandez has ruled the least of the three he has modernized Trujillismo with a Madison Ave style of campaigning that has bamboozled the Dominican masses which is quite dangerous. The latest incarnation is the trial balloons of offering his wife as a potential presidential hopeful ala Peron, because only LIE-onel Fernandez or those blessed by him are capable of ruling DR: Similar to El Benefactor de La Patria.

He is the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing!

Remember Missy matamos a Trujillo pero no al Trujillismo!

teach, Dean, teach.

Thank you dread, but I am just an untutored peasant.

Please post more often I need all the learning I can get, my brother!

then do not get tutored. you might lose your edge.

I hear you Dread, I hear you LOL!!!!!!!!!!

dreadlocks,

You too should read the article; it's not only for Josean's perusal.


http://www.yale.edu/ccr/workshop/schrank.doc

"As the article points out we wasted our future and opportunities with Balaguer and you can see that we are following the same policies under LIE-onel Fernandez and have wasted another 12 years we could not afford. Especially the millions that did not advance or regressed under the dark ages initiated by Trujillo continued by Balalguer and codified LIE-onel Fernandez."

I disagree with you that we see another Balaguer type of administration in Leonel Fernandez. While no one can say what Fernandez would have done in 1966, had he been President; my gut tells me that he, based on his schooling and influences, would have opted for what the USA was offering the Dominican Republic. Certainly the forces of the Neo-Trujillistas were far stronger in 1966 than today; and this should give anyone pause in thinking that a radical departure from the traditional and stratified political-economy could have been successfully managed.

Josean

Great post there WOW finally got away from the Metro LOL. I think you and I agree on the education issue of DR and is something that needs a lot more attention to both the parents and the student. To me education is a roll to be played by Parents,Students and gov. I know we disagree on how much of the education responsibility fall on the gov. bucket but at least we agree education is the way forward. If the education problem would have been solve in the 60s like atabey said then the illegal immigration problem would have been look at differently by Dominicans since by now most or at least a much larger portion wouldn't have to be competing at the bottom of the race.

Atabey,

It is not I who labeled LIE-onel Fernandez as a Balguerista but rather LIE-onel himself who stated it. He also classified him as Vinchista, if that is not regressive I don't know what is!

Belly,

Read the article. It's quite revealing.

http://www.yale.edu/ccr/workshop/schrank.doc

Josean,

So what's your opinion of La Union Civica. Would they have been a better alternative, or would they have also been forced out like Dr. Bosch?

"To me education is a roll to be played by Parents,Students and gov."

I agree Belly, but remember in a Democracy the government is not a sterile disconnected entity or shouldn't be!

Parents,Students and WE are the government!

THis is very good news but social welfare needs always to be a priority .Maybe after centuries of neglect ,the administrators here are realising that education is an investment in the future and this view will be shared by all current and aspiring politicians. This investment in education and potable water has been made possible by judicious borrowings which give early opportunities of social advancements.

Josean

The gov it's got a play in this education game and so do WE. So where do you think the education system improvement should start. From what i have seen and read there isn't a one side fits-all type of education system i.e. Just the other i was reading a paper on the comparison of the education system of Finns and Singaporean and even the people who wrote the report were surprise that despite these 2 country taking a total different approach to education in their school they get the same results in topping the world in best in class education. After their report they concluded that the one thing they had in common is the effort of the parents and push from the gov. with a real "no child left behind". That's something our own gov can learn from them. A great book about all this is called "Beyond economic growth" which i can send you a link to download. Great book and goes into details about the combination of education and reforms to make a education worth to gov. and citizens

Belly,

In a truly Democratic and pluralistic society education must be public and non sectarian. I would begin by revoking the “Concordato” and return to the Hostos model which served us well until Trujillo sold out to the reactionary Catholics.

The majority of the people pay taxes but the majority can’t afford private schools so taxpayer’s money should go to public schools and not religious ones which most can’t afford but are forced to support via their taxes. If the resources go to the public schools the majority of the populace will benefit and we will get more bang for the tax payer dollar.

Obviously those that prefer a private school or religious school would be free to send there children, they just would have to fund its operation fully via tuition and not depend on the have-nots tax dollars to support the haves private luxuries.

Continued:

I would send a group of our most promising students who have a true avocation for teaching to go thought-out the world to learn the best educational practices and return to teach them to our new teachers. I would also have outstanding teachers from other countries come and teach, collaborate and network. I would use virtual class rooms via the net to also stimulate the general learning experience for the broad public.

These are but a few of my simplistic but heart felt ideas!

I doubt if anyone could argue with your last posting ..it would be wonderful . I had never taught anything before I arrived in la Romana but I have quickly learned what the children want to know and also what they have to know ..One of the main problems is concentration and I have had to learn when to slow down and when to proceed with new lessons.
The net can be used very well in the classes

"One of the main problems is concentration and I have had to learn when to slow down and when to proceed with new lessons.'

Ricky this could be as a result of diet deficiencies, either inadequate amounts of daily calories or poor quality of the calories consumed or both!

Remember ours is a country were the former minister of education, Alejandrina Guzman, was allowing the watering down of milk. Possible affecting the only solid or nutritious meal those children would be exposed to in a day.

And how was she dealt with, after Nuria exposed her, moved to another post and is now in charge of the PLD conventions!

¿Y No Era Y Que Pa’Lante Que Íbamos?

Yes I am sure diet is one problem but also the need to have more sleep as the children are all very poor and live in noisy and crowded areas .

Its hard to sleep on an empty stomach no matter how quiet it is.!

atabey, many thanks for the article. i intend to print and bind it. dead serious. it is that worthwhile.

dreadlocks,

There's a longer version of this article, and I'm in the process of getting it. It's pretty sad that those clowns had an opportunity to initiate the modernization process back in 1966! Over 40 years ago, for crying out loud. By now we would be passed all these Metro and other infrastructure issues, mass education would have looong been solved, corruption issues probably still in the picture, but in the main, DR would be conservatively at 16-20K per capita level.

Atabey, in the likely event that you do secure the article, please give me the link. it would appear that the current malaise in this beleagured land is not occasioned by pure happenstance