Wrong approach.... Lets update the police stations first and furnish them with the qualities necessary for performance to handle the calls. There was once an article not to long ago about a police station having to use the computer at a cyber cafe to conduct a international warrant search.

Medina is everywhere! Hate it or love it you have to admit he's working hard.

admit he's working hard.==So he's made matters worse. Lay off 350,000 Gov.employees; would be a correct thing to do.

Dan, you CAN"T just throw money at things and expected it to work if a flaw already exists... Where is the logic.

He's a micromanager so he'll get to those flaws. Same like how he threw money at agriculture and then started going to the fincas himself.

You're comparing apples to oranges. There is a return on the monies for agriculture, you can't get monies back from a failed and inadequately equipped police department...

wow! just like new york city...........

see pres. leos dream is coming true........santo domingo will be an other new york city.................

if u call 911 in new york city or in the florida keys within 2-3 minutes their will be 2-3 police cars.
in santo domingo if u call 911 and tell the police u have lots of money in your pocket u will have 9-10 santo domingo police and maybe one general withing one minute to help u.
choo choo
all aboard the 911 express.

More like another 100 million for the police to act once they respond......darn ! I forgot the court system and prisons.

Danilo is a guy with many good ideas. i like this guy. however, i hope that he will allocate at least 5 million to an education initiative to teach Dominican drivers to get out of the way of emergency vehicles.

i concur with your comment dread, haha, make that 100 million since the majority of people in dr dont know that an ambulance with the siren on means to let it through and step out the way.


but man am surprised with danilo, am impressed and happy, a 911 service will be a good addition to making this country a 2nd wolrd country. good job danillo, now people when they have an emerjency they wont have to get on a motorcycle and risk dying on the way to the hospital.

I have to agree with the horse in front of the cart approach. UNfortunately our stations are woefully antiquated and we all know...unless there is money waiting at the other end of the call...response will not happen for 80% of Dominicans.

To give an example of the "rapid response"...last week a head on collision occured seconds before I arrived on the scene. By this time at least 40 Dominicans surrounded the accident...not one police or special service personnel. I continued up to the police station at a good pace to inform them of the accident. The Politur person who I mentioned this to was talking with a PN and AMET member and seemed the least bit concerned about what I had told them. I returned to the scene at a regular speed. This was 1 mile from the station. Only 15 minutes later...the first AMET guy arrived. 30 minutes later the ambulance arrived (had to drive 3 miles).

PuntaCanaMike, you hit the nail on the head. rapid response is cultural. the people entrusted with the responsibility to react quickly will have to disabuse themselves of any tendency to see things through the manana lens, and realize that some things have to be done immediately. it will need a very determined re-education process, to inform some people that things have to be done NOW.

The mindset, passive agressive, and no response is the best response behavior of the police (law enforcement authorities) as alluded in previous posts has to be corrected to positive action behavior before any thought of installing a 911 systems.

The politicos responsible for the installing a 911 system will thump their chests with vote seeking pride once some yes man tells them the system is up and running in Gazcue. However, "IF" a police agent answers a 911 emergency call it does not mean that his cohorts will pull themselves away from a meal or Presidente or nap or car wash to respond to a public emergency. They are not paid enough.

Advanced technology will not fix police behavior. It is only another lame ingredient in a sour sancocho.

The party is just beginning. US$50M !!!!!!

It will be like a low budget novela to see who will get the contract for the 911 system. Just think of all the intrigue that will be generated over the years of who, what, when, where, and how he got it.

I think that Danilo honestly is trying to do a great job..YOU ARE RIGHT Dan
Danilo is everywhere !

White people using CRT screens - how old is that photo?

dreadlocks:Don't you think

That 911 should be picked up by Mr Sim since he got the bigest contract on DR cell Phones?

RoyStone:
White people at NASA also use Cathode Ray Tube screens,so what is the big deal?

absolutely, Mr Rancier. he has the kind of resources to develop that system. besides, he also has the physical assets. you have a brilliant idea!

Thelmo,
I actually paid money in a computer shop in the Duminican Republic for a second-hand CRT screen. They said it was new but when I asked for the box, manual and warranty-card, they admitted it was second-hand. In civilized countries, you have to pay for people to take away these dinosaurs.

I don't know who NASSA is, but I doubt NASA still use them as normal computer screens.

Roy:
It is not the looks on a compuer screen that counts if it serves the same purpose as the flat screen.The latter could save you space since it has no "yoke". Carefull with the yoke since it is a step up transformer and could give you a good electric shuck,therefore they are eliminating it ,specially on a TV where the voltage could be on the 18kv and above.

RoyStone,

Agree. I don't think you will find any CRT's anywhere nowadays, in part, because they consume more power than comparable LCD displays.

Arcangel96:

I agree that a CRT screen draws more power than an LCD because its yoke and it is bulkier where space is a factor.
Nevertheless I have 6 CRT TV,and 2 computers flat screen LCD.Up here in USA electricity is cheaper than in DR and I have the room for,nor are they all on at the same time,each room has one .I don;t believe on competing with the Jones,since this is not a Hotel,but convenience for 2.

I don't have 6 TVs, Thelmo, and I wouldn't admit it if I did. I note that in many Duminican homes there is a TV in every bedroom, but not a book to be seen, anywhere. We tried to buy a book-case in San Cristobal - went to many furniture, general and department stores - not one available for love or money. What does that tell you?

Yes, Arcangel96, not only consume more power, but emit harmful radiation, are susceptible to magnetic fields (like from power supplies), are less reliable, and unless they are expensive models, have lower resolution and tend to flicker.

Roy :
It tells you,there is no need for building book shelves to accumulate dust if no one is going to read books placed in it.Furthermore if you want to read, then you go to the public library and either borrow the book or read what ever the topic is, in the library's computers in NYC But I do agree with you people are not educated enogh so as to read, they rather play domino and wait for the welfare checks to arrive send to them by a close relatve from abrod.
I guess you are telling me am one of those New Yorkers that rather watch TV than read and I must have an expensive TV to avoid flickering and radiation for more reliability.They are all HD the
signals are supplied by Cablevision. I get 15 international channels of which 3 are Dominican,PR Spain,all SO America,Central America,Mexico and over 100 local.They are quite intelectual such as ,History,Learning,Military etc,
Roy what you need to do is go to the Cibao region and ask any craftman to buid one for you at your
specs.

Mr Rancier, i have a question for you. my neighbor spent the better part of a day running around in POP, trying to find schoolbooks for her daughter. finally, she gave up, because none of the stores had any of the prescribed texts in stock. why does the Ministry of Education leave the responsibility of textbooks to bookstores? when i was in school, each school submitted a list of its needs to the Ministry, and they imported the books. a tiny little bookstore might not have the resources to buy 1000 copies of 6 textbooks. so, kids start the school term without the required books, and my neighbor waited 3 weeks for a particular book. what is the good of 4% for education, if we are going to use primitive methods in 2013?

Dread:

You are 100% correct .All these BS came about from the decentralization of the national board of
Education,so they could teach what ever the teachers wanted without any superviision. By spv I mean an inspector from the B/E assigned at each comune to see all went well at the regional level as well. I remember when I was attending school .all books had to be at the national specification.When Trujillo finally was able to build his own book printers the books were mandated by him and the others were taken out of circulation.He didn't do it for the good of the nation but for his own benefit. If there was money to be made he was the first to invest.Prior to DR coming up with these 13 pamphlets looking books they used to get them from Spain & Argentina but the cost was too high. When BALAGUER as the secretary of education could provide them at $1.98 @ as compared to the others at $15.00@.To conclude 62 years ago the educational system was much better than now.

cont.
The books were made or pamphlets if you may call it without any hard backing to it ,but the info was there,so by the end of the yr there weren't any readable information left for you to pass it down to some one else.Each subject curriculum was separate in a pamphlet and since there were 13 you had to buy all the sets from the board of education(mandated) or your child does not enter school.Also all the kids had to wear kaki uniform,an industry also owned by him for its
military as well.They used to say there were no diferent a rich child from a poor,all were dress alike,which i agree on and they should go back to the same,but Trujillo did not do it for that reason it was his own personal gain.
They should also go back to the National Approved exams also provided by Board of Education
directly from the Capital.I think in the English world they call them REGENTS,which in my days NYC had 12.Later did away with them for the GED and that was when NYC educational system failed.

Thelmo,
Don't forget that the Catholic Church has the final say in what the curriculum does and doesn't include. This is enshrined in the Concordat, which is apparently more sacred than the 4% GDP for education in the Constitution.
Perhaps religious indoctrination counts as education in the Duminican Republic?

Mr Rancier, sounds to me like when you and i attended school, both our countries had the same ideas. i had to wear khakis, too. only thing is, you had to wear short pants and knee high socks until you left third grade! Trujillo, despite his ulterior motives, did have some good ideas. one has to give the devil his due. without regents, how do you establish relative achievement? how can we tell if Bonao is on the same level as Higuey? in Jamaica, in order to graduate high school, you had to sit an exam called the General Certificate of Education, Ordinary Level, at 16 years of age. the exam was written, and graded, by the University of Cambridge. every ex british territory sat the same exam. therefore, you could judge not only the standards of your own kids, and schools, but you could tell how a kid from Antigua was performing relative to one from Barbados. if you passed 5 or more subjects in the Ordinary level, you could spend 2 more years in school, and study for the Advanced Level

that was when you specialized in 3 subjects, in preparation for University. guidance counsellors assessed your abilities, and suggested to you what you should specialize in. i studied Economics, Geography, and History. the final exam was 5 essay questions per subject. your results were graded Distinction 1, distinction 2, and ordinary to 5. below 5, you failed. you could retake the exam the following year. it did make for a solid education process. RoyStone can tell you that. oh, finally, every school had a library, and a librarian. you got a library card, and you could borrow 2 books at a time, for 4 days, then you had to turn them in for someone else to use. my school had 300 students, but the library was bigger then, in the 60s, than the biggest library in POP.

Dread;

You are absolutley correct, I think BALAGUER in DR, had a lots of influence in Trujillo's lasting as long as he did. Must likely all these ideas were borrowed from the English Empire, since the Spanish Empire as far as equality goes does not show me a dam thing,that is why they lost it all.
In my Town we did not have a library,public or private. The books i could get my hands on were my grandfather's who used to cherish them with his life,provided to him by the education ministry
I was able to take advantage of the NYC public library for extra reading since all the books used in shool were then provided by the STATE and had to be kept in good condittion or else made my parents pay for it,since it was only a lowner for the next year students to use. Another thing the NYC school system had was school lunch for poor kids at $1.13 a week up to the 9th grade prepared by professionals.

Roy :

If am not mistaking the "CONCORDAT" was only applicable to parroquial schools,still had to follow the ministry of education guidelines. It was meant to give CATHOLICS a subsidy for being the country's first and chosen religion.I think it was sign in 1954 .Before that it was separation of State and CHURCH,but I was here already.I don't remember going to Cathequism after school or before or during classes.

Mr Rancier, my buddy and i were discussing the book issue, just yesterday. some guy should set up a business wherein he took in all used books from school kids, pay them a portion of the new book value, refurbish the book, and sell it as second hand. that would surely help the poor kid who could not afford a new copy. it would also make the repairer a steady income.

dread;

That is a bright idea .Why didn't any one think of that before?. I guess you must want to and care.
Hojos...Dominicans usually take advantage of the situation and skip out.Remember the breakfast insident for the poor, feeding them garbagge,as nutrition and pass for nutritionist? I wonder what happened to that wonderfull person ? She should be jailled !

Mr Rancier, we plan to take it beyond the idea stage. if we can find someone who wants to put up some seed money, we will work out the logistics. it is going to be sorely needed, as economic conditions in the future are going to put a severe strain on the poor. i am going to pitch the idea to a group of folks next monday evening.

Dread:
Better yet why not used the Board of ed to lend the capital out as a small business and take it from there nation wide,or go beyond and ask the president to put the seeded money as a loan
to be done in a big way nation wide. I still like the idea of centralizing the system as it used to be and use standard books even if they are refurbished the way you want. The idea is wonderfull but
I doubt if you will find private investors that are not looking for a short retun on their investments

thanks for the ideas, Mr Rancier. this might be my opportunity to make a positive contribution to the children of this country

Dread;

I knew you would come up with something good, Good luck in the new adventure and thanks for looking out for our poor kids .

i hope some people see it our way on monday. thanks for your kind encouragement. much appreciated.

Dr Dread;

What was the outcome of today's meeting Monday? Don't give up ,if needs be, bring it up to the Education Minister and higher if you have to.

thanks for the encouragement , Mr Rancier. there was an illness in the group, and the meeting has been set back for a week. that gives me the time to do more research on the subject, and to try to speak to some book refurbishers in the USA. i am fully on board with this. i am not quitting until they prove to me it cannot be done.

Dready,
It is common in Australian government schools to re-cycle prescribed text-books, however it does not include re-refurbishment.

Roy :

You are talking about a well organized nation such as AUSTRALIA, as well as industrialized. Dread
is looking for book binders stores in NYC to see if they could re-refurbish them. Again it will not be cheap,since the UNIONS are in the way.

Mr Rancier, i almost forgot about that aspect of things! now i have one more thing to research. why does everything here have to be obstructed by mindless A-holes?

Correct me if I'm wrong, Dready,
but I thought you were in favor or unions when it comes to stopping mining projects.

Dread:
There might be a way if you get behind some charitable organization where they neither pay taxes
nor the UNIONS brake their chopps.Something like fund raising non profits,untill you get going.