GM for President 2012!

Guillermo Moreno has talent for buck-passing.

It's of course not only legitimate but necessary to criticize weaknesses inside.

But to cast the blame for the oil crisis from the outside on corrupt elements or even sectors of the DR bourgeoisie and middle class on the inside seems a little overcooked or overdone.

"The speculation with oil, when in fact ' the leaders are elected, not top show themselves off in describing the problems that we know, but rather the contrary and should lead us with concrete plans to solve them,' " DT reports on Guillermo Moreno's comments.

So, when repeatedly assaulted from the outside, the DR shouldn't talk about these assaults. Just cook up "concrete plans to solve" weaknesses inside.

Perhaps, the assaults from the outside intensify the preexisting weaknesses inside or perhaps the two are independent of each other.

So, either/or the outside or inside.

Never both, Moreno suggests.

Crackpot isolationism.

Leonel Fernandez is a Lawyer
Stalin 1921 would solve this problem!

Talk about being out of touch with reality. Scary thought that this guy was a presidential candidate. Does he really think that fixing 4 years of PRD mismanagement and disasters can be accomplished overnite? And who else was to blame during those 4 years? Last I checked it was the PRD that ruled. I love these guys that stand up and criticize but offer no real solutions to real problems. This guy expects Fernandez to solve the problems of rising fuel costs? This is not a problem specific to the DR. I'd like to know how "he" would solve it. After all it is all speculation. Supply and demand are no different now than they were before the rise. It's a trend, first technology, that burst, then housing, that burst, let's try oil. Please...this guy needs a reality check.

The usual characteristics of criticism and looking to point the blames of D.R.'s problems on the present issues such as the rise of petroleum. Apart from the facts that the president of D.R. has invested on things that are not a priority, this ex-candidate is trying to show a lack of considerations on the part of the actual president in dealing with the present economics conditions. The last administrations (PRD) is long gone and yes four years is more than enough time to bring about solutions that are for the problems of today. A popular president always has the advantage of being overlloked when in his mandates high officials do as they wished, like given themselves raises while denying others to adjust to the high costs of living. A popular president seems to do no wrong. There's a lot of wrong and the first is a yes of the used of EXCUSES. The solutions to the economics problems of D.R. is a simple one: mainly the re-distribution of wealth and controls of prices -- food, etc.

If Guillermo Moreno really wanted to rise to the level of an electoral opponent with, at least 5% of the electorate, he would become LF's PROMINENT ally against the current outside assailants and the longstanding inside weaknesses.

Since there's a long time before 2012, ambitious PLDs may tolerate his prominence for a while.

But Guillermo Moreno enjoys his status as a mere propaganda opponent without any prospects of winning electorally.

Perhaps, the DR is the only country in the world where a reactionary like LF is to the left of a liberal like Guillermo Moreno.

Guillermo, I am one of the men who is with you, and would love to see you sitting in the government Palace, but this is not the time to speak about blaming whoever,
if you have not been paying attention to Oil prices, and the effect it has in the World and not only us in Dominican Republic, then you are playing a game the people of the PRD plays very well.
I would hate of you to have similarities with everybody else, since I believe in you, please refrain
yourself from comments out of place at this time.
If you were the President, I am sure, you also would have to speak about what is affecting the
World population, Oil prices, not enough food to feed the world.
I believe you are our last hope, out of the vultures of the PLD and the PRD.

i think the point of Mr Moreno´s scoldings is being sorely missed by some posters here. i do not see where he attempts to downplay the effects of external factors. what he is saying, and which cannot be denied, is the severe mismanagement and misallocation of resources, which cannot be blamed on others. when you have a beer budget, you cannot go ordering Courvoisier brandy. there is no upside to bragging rights at the expense of the economy. the metro will go down in history as one of the colossal blunders of all time, given the fact that it displays a monumental lack of prioritising resources. none of this can be laid at the doorstep of hippo, any more than can the 50 plus million peso mansion built by the secretary of education, on a government salary!!

I totally disagree with your assesment of the SD Metro going down as the colossal bluders of all time. Those same sentiments were expressed during Fernandez' first term in the 90's when he constructed overpasses to facilitate traffic congestion. Now everyone benefits from utilizing them and no one thinks they're blunders any longer. Over time, the population will wonder how they did without the Metro in the first place. SD is a rapidly growing city and the flow of traffic is just as important as anything else. Populations of most major cities blessed with a mass rapid system will utilize such as system and in the wake of rising fuel costs, even more so. Stop living in the past and be a visionary. SD is no longer a "pueblecito en el monte"; it is a major Caribbean metropolis growing by leaps and bounds.

actually, latinhunk, mass transportation is a very critical aspect of city survival, but not necessarily underground subway systems. as a matter of fact, given their less than optimal performances in most cities in which they are deployed, their proclivity to operate in the red, necessitating subsidies, and general downsides, most town planners are abandoning them and contemplating alternative approaches. and, might i remind you that increaseing fuel costs affect the metro also, since they need energy for propulsion. one of the major problems is that they run to a schedule, and even if they are empty, they are burning fuel at a prodigious rate. the fixed costs ( fuel, in this case being one), are just too overwhelming for them to be cost effective.

I disagree. Fuel cost being what they are, it will still be much cheaper to ride the Metro than to fill your tank and transport oneself to and fro in one of many vehicles congesting streets and highways. It also helps reduce pollution and gets people to their destinations quicker as opposed to sitting in a traffic jam for hours at a time. Underground systems are more efficient since they do not intefere with above-ground traffic thus enabling more flow of traffic altogether. The London and NYC subway systems are the oldest in the world and I would dare say those cities would come to a halt should their respective systems suddenly stop running. Try being in NYC during a transit strike and you'll understand the meaning of chaos. Systems that operate in the red are simply a product of years of mismanagement and not as a result of inefficiencies.

Subsidize rail or the car.

Which subsidy is larger? The car.

I don't know about DR road funding. So, I'll talk about US funding and hope it applies by analogy.

At one time, the car wasn't subsidized. No! No!

The car paid the national gasoline tax and the tax paid for the roads.

Something happened. Road wear out. Too high to fix.

Most roads in USA are near or have exceeded their designed life span, which necessitates replacing bridges, overpasses and driving surfaces on many roads nationwide so that the car can run right.

But these costs are too horrific for national gasoline tax to pay for. The tax ain't enough no more.

So guess what?

EITHER subsidize the car ... OR ... those bridges, overpasses and driving surfaces ain't gonna get fixed.

If they ain't fixed, your car is gonna fall into the river, run over the overpass, or turnover on the driving surface.

Rail riders can't pay for the rail and cars can't pay for the roads.

Subsidize.

The problem with the rail is the lumpen.

Either he pisses outside of the restroom in the rail station or he holds somebody up.

When you drive your highly subsidized car, you don't have smell piss [ unless it's yours ] or step in it and you can run over a robber.

Let me ask you all this, would it be better if there were no one to criticize, despite things being done wrongly? I praise the brave, civic oriented leaders like Moreno and the MIUCA that try to create a better society. If you want solid proposals from Moreno or the MIUCA, simply refer to the Political program they proposed during the election. Compare that to the status quo, and you tell me what you think would more democratic, inclusive, and civic-oriented.

"Let me ask you all this, would it be better if there were no one to criticize, despite things being done wrongly? "

oooo

Moreno should and must criticize things being done wrongly?

But make sure it's a thing being done wrongly.

Is LF criticism of the perpetrators behind the oil and food crises that severely impact the Dominican people a "thing being done wrongly."

Moreno seems to be criticizes LF's strong and repeated criticism of the speculator-produced oil crisis and the food-for-fuel-produced food crisis.

"LF, shut up about the speculators and food-for-fuel, just tell us what you gonna do about consequences of speculation and food-for-fuel," Moreno seems to say, as if LF's demanding regulation by the imperialist US regime of the looting of the speculators is a thing being done wrongly.

Just because LF criticizes the outside origin of things that have adverse effects inside the DR doesn't mean that LF neglects inside measures to mitigate the effects.

For example, take the oil crisis.

Over the weekend LF and other heads of state got the cash portion of Petrocaribe deals refuced from 50% to 40%.

Before, the DR bought 30,000 Petrocaribe barrels a day at 50% [or $65 per barrel] of the market price of about $130.

That is cash up-front money of about $1,950,000 PER day. Everyday. See?

Now, the DR buys 30,000 Petrocaribe barrels a day at 40% [or $52 per barrel] of the market price of about $130.

That is cash up-front money of about $1,560,000 PER day. Everyday.

So, the increase in savings in $390,000 PER day. Everyday.

Ain't that doing something inside?

But what is the point, if you quietly let speculators jack up market price and wipe out the $390,000 PER day increase in savings.

"LF, please shut up about US speculators," Moreno says.

latinhunk, accounting is a simple concept. in its most basic form, it is disbursements and receipts. if you spend more than you make, you lose: plain and simple. in order for a system such as an underground train to make money, or to avert major losses, it has to have sufficient fare box receipts to offset the cost of operation. it has massive fixed costs, which have to be offset by an equally massive contribution margin. the fares that most subway systems can charge are not high enough to produce said margin. besides, they almost always fall below their target ridership. do you realistically believe that most subways fail because of mismanagement? if that is the case, how long do you think the metro will last, given the legendary propensities in the DR for mismanagement?