I will love to part of such networks, it has been proven by the Americans that networking is a vital part of a person's education and professional development. However, I am concerned that such network will be used to infuence our political afiliations and beliefs. I hope that such institution will be totally independent from government's influences. We the professional Dominincans often struggle to find Dominicans and hispanic professionals with the skills necessary to fill open positions. During candidate search, I always try to find hispanics or Domincans to bring them in and offer them an interview for the job. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to do so, at least here in NYC.

Sure, you bet it will be used for political purposes. Why does Leonel Fernandez do it now? He has been President for almost 4 years and now is when he can implement that. The best thing he can for the Dominicans abroad is to reduce the taxes that DominIcan has to pay everytime they travel to the country; to provide better treatment from the Dominican authoritIes when they are either entering or leaving the country; to provide more opportunity for them whenever they decide to move back to the country. Ask a Dominican, how easy is to purchase a car in the US and then take it back to their country if they want to move back. This basic item for a Domincan living abroad is not easy to obtain. Why? To preserve the powerful that control the car business in the country. Leonel is a charlatan!!! God help us !!!.

Before you become bamboozled and hoodwinked by the snake charmer's promise of a so called Diaspora network read on:

A.M. - A partir de ahora?

http://www3.diariolibre.com/noticias_det.php?id=1836

Ed. - Datos fríos

http://www3.diariolibre.com/noticias_det.php?id=1825

Espejo de papel. - Los dos crecimiento

http://www3.diariolibre.com/noticias_det.php?id=1838

Manos expertas

http://www.hoy.com.do/article.aspx?id=139005

Irrespeto al Estado y la nación

http://www.hoy.com.do/article.aspx?&id=139007

If after reading these items above you still think Lio-nel Fernandez is worthy of your support, you have no respect for yourself or our country!

IT WOULD ALSO BE A GOOD IDEA IF IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC IT WERE IMPLEMENTED, A LAW THAT WOULD REQUIER EMPLOYERS TO PAY THEIR EMPLOYEES AN ADEQUATE AND HOURLY WAGE. SO THAT PEOPLE WON'T HAVE TO LEAVE THEIR COUNTRY TO MAKE MONEY AND BE ABLE TO EAT, ITS RIDICULOUS WHAT THEY PAY, FOR THE HOURS THEY SLAVE AT A JOB, FOR THE FUTURE PRESIDENT OF THAT STATE MAYBE YOU ALL SHOULD SEE WHO OFERS ANYTHING CLOSE TO THAT, BEFORE ELECTING THE NEXT GREAT LEADER. DISCRIMINATION IS THE OTHER THING THAT THE NEXT PRESIDENT HAS TO NOT HAVE, FIRING AMERICANS FROM POSITIONS THAT ARE FOR DOMINICANS ONLY! THATS NOT RIGHT, PRESIDENT LEONEL YOU WOULDN'T LIKE IT IF THE DOMINICANS THAT ARE HERE IN THE UNITED STATES WERE DISCRIMINATED AGAINST, THEIR NOT ANY DIFERENT THAN WE ARE HERE, NOR SHOULD WE BE THERE, THINK ABOUT IT, OR MAYBE THAT JUST DOSEN'T MATTER TO YOU AS LONG AS THEY VOTE YOU BACK INTO LAW, I'M NOT DOMINICAN BUT MY FUTURE HUSBAND IS AND I JUST WANT YOU ALL TO KNOW YOU ALL ARE AWESOME.

1st don't SHOUT at us, we are able to read ...

2nd A western salary is only possible IF the country knows what it own monetary system is worth.
Till today the peso is stuck on a level, and kept there, for other purposes than making it a better value for the country.
Only a few ppl are gaining on this trick, btw done by our goverment.

3rd
What work?? where?? at the moment somebody starts a company and he is not 100% pro the ruling political party and has no "(so called) friends" than he can close his doors quickly.

Yes we read reports that 2000-5000 people got a job with goverment help.
but you did not read a very small article that stated that another 20.000 people lost their job, because the ANOTHER factory moved out of this country, due to the idiot tax system and goverment bribes.

Look how much buildings are empty in the freezones .. ALL the people who used to work there have no job anymore ...

Also Dominican tabacco and alcohol companies are pulling their main ad

ministration away from the DR, to avoid those crazy taxes (3x VAT-ITBIS)
And there goes the oh-so needed cashflow out of the DR

So there wont be many companies left (except goverment protected) who are ABLE to pay a decent salary ..

joop2, that is some powerful stuff. the dominican government is the biggest obstructionist force when it comes to commerce. we keep hearing all this idiotic bragging about foreign investment, but that is all a political dog- and -pony show. nobody wants to do business here. all the so-called investment is in real estate purchases, which i do not consider to be investment. no sane people want to start a factory here and have to deal with the bribes you have to pay for permits, the continual payoffs you have to make, the irregularity of essential services such as electricity, the shortage of a well trained workforce, the mañana attitude of everyone, the transport monopolies, and the threat of being taken over by some politico; not to mention the tax regimen and lack of help from bureaucrats in terms of information. these guys are hopeless; a puerto rican firm seeking to do business here packed up and quit before opening their doors. the management said that it was impossible to do

business here and headed off to explore opportunities in barbados. this is real, folks.until this changes, we are heading for the bottom of the barrel; the world will pass us by!

Dagtan, I'm sure you would like to join the Dominican network but since you are not Dominican you won't join!

ny4life, I'll simply ignore your divisive and baseless comment. Please do yourself a favor, that is if you in reality is not afraid of people knowing the truth about your lack of sucess in the U.S. hence your need to degrade other people due to your anger and disatisfaction. I have been in contact with Mr. Gonzales-Acosta a well respected columnist here on this magazine, he often post his articles on the opinion section. We are working in developing some sort of "salon" type meeting group among members of this forum. I am conrently desgining a format to e-mail it to him and then he will work on it as well, so we can have one chapter here in NYC and one in SD. Mr. Gonzales-Acosta and I goal is to create some sort of a Dominican Scholar organization to produce information and share among oursleves and with other organizations. If any of you iis interested, Mr. Gonzales has posted his personal e-mail on his latest article in the opinion section. Please e-mail him your info, cont..

and desire to be part of this forum. I am not concerned with your position since people have the right to differ from each other on the same topic. I have made my contributions to the DR not only by making our country proud by becoming a sucessful and respected individual in my field of work, but also by becoming a productive immigrant. I am too educated to spend my time asnwering to nonsense. BTW ny4life, if you are a professional that is able to back your words up, please sing up and show your credetials at our first future meeting. Lastly, I am the first one on the list, so please follow suit and do not be afraid of other people knowing that you were simply bluffing, I'll forgive you for your ignorance ny4life.

Dear all,

Please allow me to add my two cents into this debate, as I have been lurking around some of the comments that I have found quite informative from the outlooks of development economics and the mechanisms that mold the structures (in any way that they move) of economic and political structures and the process of institutional development. From all accounts the DR is not an isolated case within this whole paradigm, where most developing countries have to face and confront head-on this notion of "developmental state". In other words, we find ourselves, as development practitionners with the needs to carefully weigh different paths of political development and dynamics to address policy gaps vis-à-vis the nature of economic reforms, and how change mechanisms could be enhanced to strengthen the functions of the state, and on the same token position public policies within consistent paths in terms of economic and social objectives. It goes without saying that those angles carry

Cont.....

a very strong overtone in respect to certain settings, where deep inequalities should be addressed pro-actively in order to overcome the tensions between the distribution of wealth, market functionnings, redistributive policies; and above all the concessions needed to bring-about stability (whether in terms of economic, political or human development) and social cohesion.

Dagtan, I have nothing to bluff about! I am also successful and I don't have a boast about how I am better than everyone like you do. Your always putting Dominicans down and act like your are the ambassador for the Dominicans in the U.S. That's not the case my friend. You talk about how you are in the "know" about everything is going on in DR but you haven't been there in years!!!!!!!! You can't rely on everything you hear buddy, you have to go see it for yourself!! That's part of doing research, it's just reading this, it's also seeing things for yourself! I mean if you are a real professional that's what you do! In either case, like most people on this forum have stated previously or a Haitian or a Dominican of Haitian descent that is just frustrated about DRR. It's ok to admit it, you don't have to deny it bro!

I'll have no problems on joining the forum as long as it's a democractic process where all views are accepted and people have equal say rather than a dictator process where only you are right and everyone else is wrong.

Actually ny4life, people like are the ones with the superiority attitude on here and are often shouting people out beucase they are largely critical of what is going on in the DR. As far a race goes, it only shows you norrow mind, hece your lack of education. You are that I have not spent a lot of time in the DR in the lat few years, but that does not mean that I have not been there. I often travel to th DR on weekends basis, to go to premiers such as films and theatrical presentation such as the "fiesta de palos" moreover, I have my family sending me almost all the new literature that is prublished in the DR, I have an extensive library that I am sure you do not have. Yes sometimes I come across as arrogant, but it is the only way to deal with fanatics like you. My protest against the DR comes from my personal experience and the lack of services that were available to poo people like me over there, I am not basing my argument on some sort of fantasy or mision, but soley on, cont

my my personal experience and the fact that when I go there I see the poverty around me and I simply hate it because it reminds me of my first 14 years of life which I spend in DR. As far as decendancy, that is a really stupid rationale, people feel more afiliation to place of bith, rather than decendancy, once again showing your lack of education and the reason why Ido not believe that you are a well educated person. If decendancy was the factor of natinalism,thenonly a few countries such as Iran, China, Jaan and India would fit this view, most of the rest of society can not track their decent clearly and that is the reason why nationality as in place of birth is what is followed at least by civilized people, I dnot know about people like you. Once again, I do respect your opinion and would like to share by knowledge with out any prejudice as many of you tend to present yours here. Finally, as always or almost in every case, poor Domincans are black or mulattoes, so yes,cont..

I am a black Dominican if you that makes you feel better, Mr. ny4life. Simply stop making our discussion a racial discussion, because no oe wins, the only outcome is more ignorance.

Great idea! if it were true.

Although, I know I didn't live in DR or plan on doing so, I still represent my people in this country and all over the world. l always do so even if my "nationality" as you previous stated is not Dominican.

Dagtan,

You are were you are born from. However, your decendency can really sway your opinion. I am American but my roots are Dominican. In this country, if you are not a white European than you are not apart of the majority. As a minority, you are asked, "Where are you from?" I'm from New York, I'm American. No really, "Where are you from?". I am Dominican. I a lot of people grow up in this country with this complex where you feel like you have a double-nationality. Born American and raised Dominican is what it comes down too. I love my Dominican roots and culture and I would never trade that for the world! I'm proud to be of Dominican decent and in this country I do refer to myself as being Dominican even though I know I'm technically not. I have travelled numerous times to DR and always remain abreast with latest news.

Dominicans, my people, hard working people who are forced to leave their country due to lack of opportunity. Once they arrive on foreign soil, they work hard and never forget their roots. They provide financial support to family in the DR and continue to visit their beloved home country with the hopes of returning later on in life. All this is done while raising a family in a foreign land and having new foreign born Dominicans. At home, influences from Quisqueya la Bella flows through the viens of these foreign born children who are raised Dominican. They grow to be adults and continue the love and passion for their Dominican roots. That's the story of a Dominican-American. Eh pa'lante que vamos mi gente. Continue to work hard to get better, our strides in the U.S. are seeing it's fruits from our arduous abor. Let's continue to develop as a people and help each other grow along the way. Let's keep supporting one another to do the right thing!

Mr. ny4life, my decent and roots in the DR are far more rooted than yours. You were not born there and your identity was not shaped by pure Dominican culture as mine was. I migrated to the U.S. when I was 14 years old, and I am not that old. It hasn't even been 20 years since I left, so do the math, Mr. ny4life. I still remember vividly what I left behind and of course miss it, but not with the ardor as you even with your hallow connections to the island. While I really appreciate your unreasonable nationlism at the same time I do not, because people like you were the ones I grew up looking at as they came to barrio and simply experienced the good 2 months that they spended getting all the attention and having comforst that I could only have in dreams due to your upper n inc you travelled, you are one of those that we use to call a "domincanyoi" in the cibao. There is no doubt that your experience was always good, since your parents as poor as they were, that is if they, cont..

were, made the ultimate sacrify to travel back and provide to you with things that Dominican nationals (poor or the majority) did not have. You see, your view of the DR is flawed by defenition, because you never had to deal with strikes and seeing some of your friends killed by the abusive police, which I fear more than criminals in DR. You never had to walk miles upon miles to go to school, to srive at a building with no facilities, or books, electricity and other amenities that you enjoyed here in the U.S. regadless how poor you were. The fact that we Dominicans hold ourselves so tight to our island is due to the lack of sucess among so many of us, and since you only feel sucessful upon your return and the hard earned money doing low level jobs take you t another level from you left (atleast for a month or so) then you as a person fel good. The Irony is that there is so many Dominican students that I have met through some of my reserach and working with Mr. Noguera, cont..

that know of DR and identify themselves as Dominicans, but they do not speak Spanish. That is my friend a real shame, these kids call themselves Dominicans but not read or write the native language of the people they claim to be part of it. They barely speak it, language is the only medium for you to know were you come from and to understand the idioms that shape the culture of a people. The majority of second and third generation dominicans do not speak spanish, but yet they opt to ID themselves as Dominicans and not as Americans, we hav a confused youth to re-direct my friend and your attitude in this respect does not help. Look at the Italians and Irish, they came to stay and flourish, their kids do not speak italian for the most part themselves Ameircans and adapt the American way of life and become sucessful in it, the Irish dropped Gaelic for English and integrated themselves into this society and suceeded, so no need to hold on to a land that could not support them, cont..

the Jews are one prime expample that I often use with the urgency of retaining connection to their past and home language, but this is done to provide to them the opportunity to learn their history and leanr who they are through a rich in knowledge environment. I for one, Mr. hy4life, want my daughter to see herself as American and demand all the opportunities that th child from Italian, Irish, Jewish, Greek, German decent as she is of decent get. hat should be our goal, Mr. ny4life, to inhibit a generation that is proud of being American and enrich their lives with the beautiful decendacy that their parents gave to them. Teach them your native language so they talk to people back home and learn about our history and take the best out of it. I do not consider people who call themselves something, that if they had not live it, and live it again, under the many conditions that those people live. We see the same land and through different eyes due to our different experience, one,con

is superficial (yours) and the other isfundamental (mine). My only hope Mr. ny4life is that you were able to capitalize on the privilege to born in such a great nation like the U.S. I am sure that your sucess most be greater than mine since you had the advantage from birth and I only got the shot not a long time ago. This is how you show your pride, by showing the white majority in America that you as a minority Dominican have the same cognitive abilities and desire to capitalize as much if not more than they on the American dream. I have done my part, since my story is great and I am extremely proud of myself and the good work ethics that I brought with me. One day I'll share it with my kids and hold them accountable to the expectations that are already in place. sorry for jacking up the space guys.

Dagtan, don't stereotype me and my experiences. I am born in the U.S. and what?? I don't deny my Dominican roots and I will never do so. You are just soo pessimistic about the DR it is saddening bro. The same stories you tell, I know from my parents, and I have seen from family in the DR. I know DR is rough but it's changing. Let's hope and pray for a better DR. It will happen as long as we have a willing and capable political figures at the helm.

Dominicans here, second especially know Spanish and continue to bring respect to the Dominican community. We, the second generation are the ones who are succeeding. Yes, we have needs and kids doing bad things but that's just the a small majority. It's not just a Dominican issue. Get over it! Yes, we can work to make things better but you will always have people doing negative things. I respect your opinions but generally speaking your views contrast from mine. I can read, write, and speak spanish.

Your research seems to be skewed. Every time you speak, you have nothing positive to say about Dominicans. I don't think you are happy with your country, your people, and maybe the fact that you are Dominican? I would love to meet you someday to see if we are living in the same world. At the end of the day, I'm sure we can come to the same conclusion, Love thy fellow man and support thy man who wants to progress. Think positive.

Also, What are you doing to make a difference? Are you just ranting about the problems or actually being proactive to correct them? At the end of the day, talk is cheap.

I have done a lot of work in the educational field specially in NYC to come up with solutions to the many problems that are aflicting our hispanics students (which Dominicans are the majority of the student body in NYC). Please read the last report that came out for the 8th grade and the fact that Hispanics are not making progress and are in danger of not being promoted to the 9th grade. The city of NY is currently expending millions in pograms across these neighborhoods to combat the lack of progress among Hispanics and Blacks. I have created and instituted many programs that today allowing many Dominicans to achieve the American dream and have gotten a lot of money in grants to help create transition schools in suburban districts where Hispanics are a very small minority and need advocates to make sure they get what they deserve. I 'll not go any further, but Mr. Gonzales, a respected columnist that often post his articles here knows who I am and the contributions that I am, cont

making to our community. I have been able to transcent race and ethnicity in my quest to create equitable educational environments to allow our kids to receive an education based on equity, maybe you should get incolved and go and volunteer to schools, aliansa domincana and donate to the institutions that have been established to help our community. the aliansa has a program in which professional Dominicans donate their time to go into schools where Hispanics students are struggling to serve as tutor and be a good role model. In the past I put alot f hours into this model, I learned about the educational inequalities throught it and it motivated me to create change. I am extremely proud of my nationality, but discussed we are our quest to be somebody else. I simply hate the lack of equity in our country and the fact that people do not call them out is shamefull. We are a fighting people who defended our lands time after time, but it seems to me that people are these days, cont..

unwilling to denounce the horics that are taking place over there. Maybe is because people like you go over there with a differnt economic base, so you do not mine maintaining the status quo, since you do not have to live in or will never have to live in it. I am so proud, that I make sure that see that we are capable people, that we are not what the news continues to say we are. Yes, americans see us as a liability to their system, and often blame us for their issues, this is a result of the unwilliness to assimilate and abandon our culture. We different in the sense that we like to be bi-cultural or multicultural instead of melting in the pot. I am sure that you and I will come to the agreement that after all we serve different pruposes for the same people and our disagreements are deep rooted and it will be difficult to overcome them. But at the end of the day, people will benefit form both of our positions.

Alianza Dominicana is a scam. We all know, Moises, has just been milking the organization for years for his own benefit. Remember the scandal from the donations from the Hurricane in Jimani, Where's all the money? Flight 587? Corruption from the DR follows here. The Dominican community as a whole is underrepresented with corrupt officials who don't care about the community. Same corruption and lack of respect from Dominican officials happens here in the U.S. It's getting to the point where people prefer to vote for another politican rather than a Dominican due to corruption and lack of support rendered to the community. However, this situation can change. We need fresh young minds to get involved in the political scheme in the U.S. so that our community could be dignified and better represented politically.

There is no need to abandon the culture, if you do so you are losing who you are. We need to assimilate and we are. According to you, this assimiliation process is taking place as most college students don't speak Spanish and say they are Dominican. I agree, the right word should be Dominican-American. The Dominican part should never be denied, it's part of who were are. The best scenario is to assimilate but not lose your cultural traditions which is what happens as the generations grow in the U.S. Dominicans will become more American and lose there culture (language, etc.) if traditions are not kept alive. American born children of Italian, Irish, German, and even Puerto Rican decent have assimilated and in the process have lost there traditions. Many can't speak the language, have never been to the country, and claim to be of a European nationality. Dominicans on the other hand continue passing those traditions to their children and their children continue with some traditions.

The problem with the attachment of our native tradition is a disconnect to the American culture and a sense of disenfranchisement from Dominican students who do not fit in the scheme of things in U.S. schools. The fact that they do not ID with the U.S. leaves them countryless and in some sort of purgatory in terms of identity. Many students of Dominican decent are suffering from identity crisis exactly because of this phenomenon that takes place almost exclusively within the Dominican community in the U.S. We see many families travelling back to DR during the the xmas break while removing their children from school for periods ou to two weeks, this also happends during holy week and for the summer instead of signign them up in school capms so they can develop social skills that in common with American values, they send them to DR. This does not help the Dominican youth develop a sense of belongness and membership to the American culture, which they are going to stay in for, cont..

the rest of their lives and their offsprings as well. As for you comment on the Alianza I have never seen such things there and give my time with pride. But if you do not feel comfortable with them, then you can go in person and volunteer in the many schools that need professional Dominicans to serve as role models for our troubled youth. Also, you can donate to the Dominican Institute to help preserve the largest Dominican literature and research organization in the U.S. Finally, the groups mentioned, although they have lost the language, their sucess is undeniable and their integration into the American society allowed them to become part of it and take advantage of benefits of assimilating. However, I do believe that preservation of culture is primal, but assimilation is more important for the future of the group. We Dominicans need to instil the learning of our culture and language to our youth and motivate them to adapt the culture in which they live, because that is, cont..

the culture that is count if they are sucessful or not. You can be as Dominican as you can be in the U.S. and if you do not set yourslef apart from the mainstream perception, then you are just another statistic Mr. ny4life.

I agree. Keep Dominican roots alive while assimilating into mainstream America. That's the way to go.

good talking to you ny4life again.

Always, Dagtan. These views are important and need to be discussed for the greater good.