According to the government there is no "wave of violence". A recent Dominican Today article covered the police minister's announcement of a 80% reduction, so what are they protesting about? 15 km is quite a good walk. Regardless it is a pity Dominican Today doesn't announce these events before they happen so the readers can participate.

Folks Lie-onel, his puppet Danilo and his for show wife Margarita are deaf and blind to the Dominican peoples suffering, but nevertheless I support your noble effort!

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Here someting else worth protesting against:


DR has most deputies

Political patronage is evident in the long list of legislators appointed to Congress, reports El Caribe in an analysis of the number of deputies in the DR compared to other countries in the Americas. The 222 legislators in the Dominican Republic are among the best-paid government officials, enjoying some of the highest salaries in government and generous perks, plus comfortable and flexible working schedules.

The newspaper found that there are more legislators in the DR than in any other Central American or Caribbean country. As of this term, the number of legislators was increased to 222 from 215 to include the new seven overseas deputies in the 2010 Constitution, despite proposals to reduce Congress to one chamber and the number to 150 made by former Chamber of Deputies president Julio Cesar Valentin in the days leading into the revision of the Constitution.

continued:

We condemn violence in a march but glorify it in movies, toys, TV, computer-games and DVDs.

El Caribe reports that Costa Rica has 57, Panama 71, Guatemala 80, El Salvador 84, Nicaragua 90 and Honduras 128, according to data from the Observatory of Representative Institutions in Latin America, published by the University of Salamanca, Spain.

El Caribe says that excluding the new seven overseas deputies, and with an estimated population of 9,378,818, the DR has one legislator for every 43,622 inhabitants. This is followed by Honduras that has one deputy to 62,500 with a population of eight million. Guatemala is next with 80 legislators with a population of 14,713,763, or one deputy for every 187,000.

El Caribe reports that the Central American countries have only one legislative chamber, that of the deputies.

In the region, the DR is the only system with two chambers of the Congress - 32 senators and 183 deputies.

continued:

The 20 deputies assigned to the Central American Parliament (Parlacen) need to be added. The entity has been criticized for its worth. In the DR, the Parlacen appointees are ten from the PLD, nine from the PRD and one from the PRSC. Each receives a monthly wage of US$4,200, assigned in the Dominican budget.

The debate about the size of Congress is not new, although it has consistently been ignored by those in power. Sociologist Rosario Espinal says such a large Congress is totally unnecessary, and a Senate is not necessary as this is a geographically small country. "And while the parties try to present the overseas deputies as an achievement to benefit expat Dominicans, it is more a way to keep party assets abroad," she writes.

continued:

Espinal also concurs with statements by the executive director of civil society group Citizen Participation, Javier Cabreja who says that the legislature here is larger compared to our regional counterparts because, as occurs in the rest of the state, it is a source of political patronage for the large Dominican political parties (PLD, PRD, PRSC).

"The problem is that in the DR none of the parties cut posts, so there is not much hope the situation will change. A bloated government has much yield for parties and the clientelist system. That is why Congress is so big," says Espinal, a professor at the Department of Sociology of Temple University in Philadelphia.

continued:

"In the 2010 constitutional reform an excellent opportunity was lost to achieve an adequate number of legislations. Now we have a Legislative Branch that is more dysfunctional and less operative," says Javier Cabreja of Citizen Participation, who has denounced frequently administrative irregularities, excess charges and responsibility evasion by members of Congress.

DR1

josean,

Countries with a bicameral system of government (2 houses of parliament or congress) are usually as a result of a history of federation of a number of unequal-sized states or colonies. This is to protect the interests of the smaller states or colonies from being overridden by greater proportional representation of the larger states or colonies, which was was the case in the USA and Australia.
In the case of the UK, the lower House of Commons was as a result of the implementation of democracy, while still maintaining the influence of the aristocracy through the House of Lords.

I would argue that in this day an age, an upper house or senate it totally redundant and against the interests of efficient government and democracy.

Meanwhile regarding the anti-violence movement, please consider this;
No-one on Dominican Today openly advocates violence, but when there is an allegation (allegation, not finding in a court of law on the basis of evidence) of some crimes, readers have no hesitation in advocating lynch-mob summary torture and various violent forms of execution. Self-righteous outrage is no excuse. If it is, then all kinds of violence becomes acceptable, and perhaps that's what's happening in this country?

A march for Peace?

Isn't that Cute?


Useless but Cute.

Perhaps a ,march in favor of freedom of expression would be better served

A march for Peace?

Isn't that Cute?


Useless but Cute.

Perhaps a ,march in favor of freedom of expression would be better served

Some more information would be useful - like who's face is on the banner, and who's face in on the tee-shirts, and why.

Roy
The person in the photo (RIP) was Claudio Francisco Caamaño Vélez, son of 1973 guerrilla survivor, Claudio Caamaño, who was working for his dad, administering the small family farm near Bani, when he was shot in the head "by mistake", by a delinquent who wanted to kill the guy next to him, while the deceased was having beers in a colmado, with the intended victim.

Thanks, generoso.
Wow, that begs the next questions, who was the bullet really meant for, and what happened to the killer?
I understand there are about 2,000 murders every year in this country, one of the highest rates per 100,000 population in the world. What do you attribute that to?

Roy
Like I said , the bullet was meant for the guy that was next to the deceased, and it mistakenly hit the wrong person (Claudio Francisco).
The killer was arrested and is in jail now, many Haitians protested the article that came out a few days ago in DT, and pointed to many commentaries as "racist", because the suspected killer was black.
I attribute murders to machismo, short tempers, too much drinking, and unnecessary infatuation with carrying weapons, as an extension of your manhood.
For any trivial reason, someone might pull a gun on you, and if drunk use it. Once I "touched" a person in front of me in a pick up truck, with my car, and he came out holding a gun on me. To make a long story short, after a few minutes he was out his gun, and he was humiliated in front of many bystanders, but looking back, I was real lucky he was just full of wind, like some here.

Way to Go Generoso !!!!

I see there is a dog marching in the photo, there you go, even the dogs are tired of the violence and abuse.

NO SPCA to protect them or take them out of their misery.

Absolutely, DR_guy,
and he looks like he's under 18 too.

Thanks again, generoso.
In most countries, anyone who pulls a gun on someone, whether it's loaded or not, is in big trouble.
Robbery under arms is common in our area, and if you resist they will not hesitate to pull the trigger.

I don't think black people are discriminated against when being sentenced in the Dominican Republic, provided they have the financial means to strike a deal with the victim's relatives. Everything seems to have a price here, even the life of a loved one. To hell with the general deterrence of more murders through consistent sentencing. This reinforces the notion that if you have money, no-matter how you get it, you are above the law.