Cha...Ching....Chaaa.....Chingggg.....

They will start the job

Get all the money they can......

And never Finish......

El País de la Maravilla

These same clowns redid the road from Dajabon to Monte Cristi.

Three weeks later due to shoddy work and inferior materials the road started to collapse again.

I like how they have bumped the most important story from the headlines.

The PLD has been giving out free appliances at their rallies. The Lottery commission has been buying them AT OUR EXPENSE and then giving them to the PLD. A news reporter caught them on film, so they started chasing her and shooting at her.

they been doing this since balaguer, what the F$#k is going on with that country. Is not that big of country. if they do it right the first time with out cutting corner and stop pocketing the money all you have to do is preventive maintenance to keep it moving.

i hope they build a highway that wont collapse in 5 years. we need german companies in theyre

Get the SAJOMA-MONCION road done already you bunch of imbecils. The road infrastructure is very important for this region yet the government has neglected it for years!

we really need juanb to try to keep this country in the same position ..never capable of thinking or writing anything positive about any project in the DR ,,,always preferring to do nothing and to borrow nothing ...if we want to keep the country as it was 20 or 30 years ago , he will be my choice for President

Where exacly is this Sajoma and Moncion... I've never heard of these places except here on DT...

CF,
If you are ever in Santiago take a taxi to San Jose de las matas... You will have a blast... That is real cibao country

Ricardolito (Official PLD spokeman to DT):

We are so deeply in hock that more than 45% of our tax income goes to pay our debt. What exactly do we have to show for it. You want to talk about status quo? What has changed? We still are the lowest ranking country in primary education. We have the highest paid senators in the world, yes the world, with the lowest productivity rate and the most corruption. We pay the highest tax rate for internet IN THE WORLD. We pay outrageous tax rates in gasoline, food, and too many other things to mention.Our underpaid police( thanks to the wasting of money that could go to pay them a living wage) continue to embarrass us.Who is more consistent in praising our thieving gov't than you? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing, the same way, over and over again, expecting a different result. You and your PLD buddies are criminally insane.

And by the way, what is so much better here now than it was 20 years ago?

Your tax dollars at work:

Not so apolitical military

A military contingent interrupted a march led by lawyer Pedro Catrain, the candidate for Dominicans for Change (D x C, No. 26) in the first district on the National District, from the controversial Atiemar Tower to the Funglode headquarters yesterday.
Catrain said that this was the first time that the military had acted in favor of the government's campaign.



Your tax dollars disappearing:

Despite the fact that the Transport Reorganization Office (OPRET) told Diario Libre in April that they had still not reached any agreement with any of the companies that were bidding for the contract, in December 2009 they acquired a tunneling machine that will carry out the excavation of the Metro II of Santo Domingo, a Robbins EPB assembled in China.

and what is so much better here than it was 20 years ago ?? that is a description of your position that you have given yourself that I cannot better .Juanb, you prefer a DR that was definitely a third world country 20 years ago ,a country that offered dirt roads, 95 %of the people in peasant conditions , no money for nothing but yes there was one thing , because nothing was ever done , nothing went wrong ..Just sit under a tree and care nothing about anything ..ah ah those were the days !!!!

Today:

People can't afford to put a decent meal on their family's table, because there are only the most menial of jobs.

Education is at or worse than the level of 20 years ago.
The free zones, vibrant 20 years ago are ghost towns.
The corruption is far worse and more blatant than it was 20 years ago.
Fear of prosecution for criminal acts, at the government level is nonexistant, not like 20 years ago.
We are more third world today than 20 years ago.

Just because you and a few of your gov't buddies are getting rich, at our expense, doesn't mean that things are getting better. Look around at how the pueblo is living. They are living worse than 20 years ago.

Lots of politicians will have nice new driveways.

I'll tell you one thing that is getting better, albeit slowly.

After allowing Rsegura and his family rape and pillage our electrical system for 8 years, finally there is someone in charge who seems to be able to do the job.

Name me one other official who you would say is doing a good job, and back up your opinion with facts. I dare you.

CarlosFranco,

If you are not Dominican google it! If you are, then you must be from la capital.

Mr.leonel fernandez is the best president that we ever had and he should stay there for life.

juanb ,,there are hundreds of thousands of Dominicans who are enjoying a better life because of the increased prosperity of the country and there are those who are not and many of these are just too lazy or too stupid to try and improve themselves ..it is the same in many manaña countries but most obvious here..
the whole world is moving with different industries, technologies and life style and if you want to stay in yesterday that is your decision but for those who want to go forward, then do not try to pull them back

Hundreds? Yes.

Thousands? Maybe a few.

Hundreds of thousands. Only in PLD propaganda.

This is supposed to finish the Circunvalacion Norte in Santiago, a major strech of the highway that will bypass Santiago's traffic jams for those traveling to POP or the Northwestern part of the country. The savings on time and gass will be considerable especially for those that don't know their way around Santiago.

"We still are the lowest ranking country in primary education. We have the highest paid senators in the world, yes the world, with the lowest productivity rate and the most corruption."
-JuanB

Could you please offer proof for your assertions.

While our educational system is abysmal, I don't honestly think that we are "the lowest ranking country in primary education." While our Senators may have large salaries, I doubt they are "the highest paid senators in the world." And while the DR is not even close to being in the top ranks of productive economies, I doubt our economy has 'the lowest productivity rate." Finally, corruption is bad in DR, but again, do we have the "most corruption"? I don't think so.

[Relocated from incorrect placement]

DR must be careful about trying to borrow its way to prosperity, unless it wishes to follow in Greece's footsteps.

Debt accumulation must clearly be in everyone's mind, unless we wish to pass on to our children a country in financial ruin.

Perhaps we should carefully pick and choose projects and only pursue those with payback potential and with enduring value. We must separate "need" from "want", and concentrate on former. I wonder where the METRO extension would fit.

In the end, I'd suspect we would go broke, then hope our debt would be forgiven. Question is: would that be responsible and would it be indicative of growth and maturity? The West's patience with our country should eventually wear thin, and the loans would come to a halting stop. Why keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different outcomes?

MJEV.

Lessee.
Some while ago the UK announces a 470M line of credit for the poor ole DR.
Then the UK chunnel digger, rustin away in Blighty, gets rented to the DR Metro for 470M.
Then the DR gummint denies renting the chunnel digger.
Then the DR gummint announces 470M to repave 12 Kms of the Duarte highway.

Until step four, it all made sense. No money changed hands, high officials could go back and forth to London via Madrid and Paris to wrap up the digger and bring it back to S.D. where they could dance around it. U.K paid nothing to have it taken off their hands, knowing full well the Doms couldn't use it and would break it if it was useable, and they could brag that they gave 470 in charity to the DR and that they rented the digger to get back some of their investment.

No money changes hands. Everybody gets bragging rights. Criollos get parties to Europe, and the Anglos get parties to the Caribbean's primo sex destination.
And oh yeah. The'll put off Duarte paving until 2012.

Pelaut,

Very well put.

Soon, I should expect a parade of our best representatives going to those European destinations to update their wardrobes and that of their ladies. They would also acquire a decent stable MB's, BMW's, Bentley's, etc., etc.

I guess we will all be winners here: we will have a METRO we might not need; a major road in precise conditions we've grown accustomed to; well-dressed politicians with vehicles and home to match, not to mention lots of "queridas" and many kids. Oh, the Dominican way!!!!!!

Anyway, it's quite possible we got the government we deserve.

MJEV.

Ricki

"there are those who are not and many of these are just too lazy or too stupid to try and improve themselves ..it is the same in many manaña countries but most obvious here.."


Wait a minute...are you not the one speaking of all the advancements in Dominican education???

I am confused...really...I am.

Ricki

I have been following your posts here for a while, no disrespect but its fair to assume you work for the ministry of propaganda. For you truly remind me of this fellow Baghdad Bob, remember him?

Mike ,,you can bring a horse to water but you can not make him drink ..I was not mentioning all the extra books that have been made available to the schools and in fact the young children are a good bunch but I was referring to the people who have reached an age to decide better to improve themselves or stagnate

Pat Diamond I call it as I see it ,,,great improvements in the infrastructure here, an economy that is diversifying , a growing middle class, more job opportunities in new sectors but a continued culture of petty corruption both in the government departments and in the population and finally a justice and law enforcement system that is a disgrace .

Ricardolito,

I agree. Yes, we all would like to see even more improvements and less corruption in the DR. Unfortunately our history and the adjustments required for this illusive process takes place in real time and with real actors, all having their human imprint on matters small and large. The culture of corruption and malfeasance did not start with the current or even the past governments, they have been part and partial of our common history in DR. Trujillo and those before him did many bad deeds, but one of the worst was his perversion of the role of government vis-a-vis its citizenry. We are still sadly having to learn from those foul founding foot-steps. As I've stated before, while LF is not close to perfection, in our common historical framework, his attempt is far and away a more modern articulation of what needs to be done in the DR than all previous attempts.

The Bosch attempt was still-born and could have under better, non-Cold War circumstances, have led to a better future. Unfortunately it wasn't to be and the Post-Trujillato continued the mistakes of the dictator with some modifications. Why did those fools reject the US offer of 1966? I still find it difficult to comprehend, but given their old ways of thinking, and the brutal examples of the dictator conditioned people into a continuation of same "business practices." The US official Soloman wanted Balaguer to institute significant changes and Balaguer did not. One important change was in education. Soloman wanted the DR to invest in a national system to eradicate illiteracy across the land.

Balaguer paid lip service and never instituted the needed changes. Soloman insisted on devaluation of the peso, Balaguer said no. Massive in-flows of capital were within DR's reach. And the modernization attempt would likely have been completed by now. Our per capital levels would likely be better than Puerto Rico's, with all the major challenges in sanitation, education, infrastructure, housing largely completed. The DR never truly has recovered from that ignoble decision.