its only 13%?

built some more choo choo as fast as u can.......

choo choo
all aboard the ican't read or write passangers...
pres leo i would guess did not know about this did he?

all aboard the choo choo going to work in the cheap tee-shirts factory.....
we now offer express service to this location .

two weeks ago my daughter has tryed to have the luz open in the apt near her school....
its been 2 weeks and still no luz......
she said yesterday dad these people are very and ont care about any thing do......
{shes dominician and was born in the dr}
i said please dont tell me any more just hope that soon u will have the luz...
any office u go into in the dr most of the time your going to run into problems when their is no problem the only problem most of the time is the people that work there.
get an education fast......

This is wrong, statistically it is wrong...With 85% of the country only making 10,000peso a month for the bare necessities needed to LIVE ? . Like usual, the numbers are WRONG.

10million people
8.5million making less than 10,000 monthly
And only 600,000 not able to read OR write, someone is Fibbing .

have a friend who has a baby girl.. she has a other young girl watching her kid... shes paying her $3,000 a month..
this girl has a room in santo domingo at $1,500 a month..... shes working in san perdo so now she needs $500 pesos to go home on the weekends...

shes left with $1,000 a month to live on.....

how can any one live on this?
many of the foods in the dr are more... expensive then in miami....

and only 600,000 not able to read or write, someone is fibbing
if i say this most hate me....
for 6 years i have place comments on this site about education for the young.....

u go and build a choo choo train?
come on the kids in many schools do not even have a chair to sit on
a choo choo train?.... why? .
so pres leo goes in the history books?
the metro is a good thing but 1st on the list to do in the dr is it?
where is the education, the jobs for the young, the luz, a real police force? where are they?

this is why dominicans rule rikers island..... give these kids at least a fighting chance in the fast changing world....

if they f%&# up later in life after they get a good education then its their fault.......
but at least the government gave them a chance to travel down the right roads in life.

13%
it is way more than that....

Again, with such low investments over the past 50 years, this is no surprise. In fact, that it's ONLY 13% is remarkable! I would think far higher.

Costa Rica and all the other nations that have had some success in National Education have spent FAR AND ABOVE the 4% mark that we in DR are only NOW starting to invest in this vast underfunded National Goal. It will take some years to make up ground in this area.

Remember that DR spent something like 1.9% of GDP on average over the past 50 years!

What can one expect with such low, dismal investments in this crucial area?

4% of GDP and higher with good management will eventually see this problem fully addressed in DR.

It will take some time: 10-20 years to see a significant change.

Just hope no one is surprised by this revelation. In, fact I am more surprised that the numbers don't look worse.

MJEV.

Atabey , care to explain to the readership how it is that Equatorial Guinea spends .6% on education, and has a higher literacy that the DR? how about Ecuador, at 1%?

It starts with the parents, as far as literacy is concerned.

After 12 years of Narco Marco PURPLE Neo-Liberal Economic Miracle he are the results!

¡Maybe that’s why the ridership on the USELESS METRO is so low the people can read the Signs!


"13%
it is way more than that...."

I agree Mr. hernandez!

"It will take some time: 10-20 years to see a significant change."

You Purple BUMS have had 12 already!

dup

It starts with a National Government committed to a National Goal: Education.

Other countries have achieved across the board national educational achievement. The DR hasn't because it has NEVER implemented a true National Program to eradicate illiteracy and achieve K-12 proficiency among the populace. Even today, the educational coverage does not meet 100% ; there are still large pockets that aren't being served. In addition, you have no FULL DAY sessions for K-12!

Until such deficits are removed, DR will continue to leave behind many talented people in poor educational opportunity environments.


If true national educational achievement could be had for 1% of GDP, Jamaica would be the first nation to cut back its expenditures to that level as it owes an enormous amount of debt payments, Currently known as the GREECE OF THE CARIBBEAN.


:)

What does this have to do with Jamaica?

Its the PLD that has been destroying the country since 1996!

Josean, i'm not for any party because there really isn't anyone thats better than the other but the PLD is by no means the only culprit. Is the PLD party a bunch of thieves and criminals, yes, just like all the other parties. Every single politicial party for decades has done only one thing. Line their pockets with the money that is supposed to go to education, health care, infrastructure and just about anything else. The dominican government is its people's worse enemy. It helps when your constituents are ignorant and illiterate, its easier to keep them down.

Let's not forget to thank the PLD and PRD for keeping us poor AND stupid so that we meekly come with hat in hand waiting for a few crumbs to fall off their banquet table.

They have had their chances, both of them.

Let's vote the bums out.

Juanb your words are like sweet, sweet music! Unfortunately dominicans have been indoctrinated to live in the corruption filled society that exist today. We need to fix the culture, the mentality of the people as well. Without that nothing will change.

"the PLD is by no means the only culprit”

zonyk157,


I have never said they are!

However, they have had control of the Dominican State for 12 plus of the last 16 years.

They currently control the ENTIRE State Apparatus and they claimed to be the Smartest, most honorable and honest political party in the history of the DR. They use to claim that the DR was divided into two groups the Corrupt and the PLD.

The billed themselves as God’s gift to the DR. So when you have sold yourself as the best thing since slice bread you have set the bar very high and should not complain when people take you to task for your lack luster performance.

So how does go it go; “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Luke 12:48

continue:

In Baseball you don’t blame the former manager for this year’s loss; you’re the current manager so you must take the praise or the blame!

The PLD wants all the Praise but refuses to take any responsibility for any of the Negatives!

I think it would be more useful to take a close look at the 13% and what it comprises of and also the definition that is used here for reading and writing ..This country has a large peasant population who have little interest in reading or writing so I assume that the the bulk of the 13 % come from this group ,but I may be totally wrong .

Nations either get serious with the task of modernization or they fall behind in crucial areas. The Dominican Republic has starved the Educational budget for over 50 years. It's average investments of 1.9% of PIB is among the lowest, I believe ONLY HAITI is lower, in Latin America.

A serious National Effort is required. When Puerto Rico resolved to achieve educational modernization, the State took charge and even went house to house in the country side too, to get the children of reluctant parents to comply with the national goal of education. Fines and even prison terms were used to force people into compliance.

Nothing can replace a strong and active State in pursuit of National Goals. Unfortunately for Dominicans, the strong State took the form of Trujillo and was thus never institutionalized outside his authority. Thus when he was assassinated, the State withered with his departure.

Strong and focused attention- INVESTMENTS will end this poor state of affairs

"It will take some time: 10-20 years to see a significant change."

You Purple BUMS have had 12 already!

yes 20 years....... but well worth the wait............
small invesment for the government when they see the end results.

mother and fathers are a hugh part of this but the teachers are also a big part....u need teachers that really care about their students and love their job as teachers.
well educated local work force will bring in serious international investors
pay good teachers what they want and then pay them more then they want to keep them.

many think today about trade schools....... we all cant be doctors............
open trade schools in the dr.... health care is hugh today in the states... many high paying jobs are their for the taking....

one guy i know told me that they where bringing in nurses from the islands and even the dr i dont know for sure about the dr but this is what i was told....
good nurse today in the state of florida works 3 long days but the salary is about $2.000...... was told their are other states where the salary is even larger.....
not a bad job i would guess .. better then working in a cheap tee-shirt factory in the dr..

Fines and even prison terms were used to force people into compliance.

good comment..... and the way to go...... its the only way for this to work.....

if this does not happen the kids are on the road to rikers island......

says the idiot Atabey, who alwats decides to make childish remarks

If true national educational achievement could be had for 1% of GDP, Jamaica would be the first nation to cut back its expenditures to that level as it owes an enormous amount of debt payments, Currently known as the GREECE OF THE CARIBBEAN.

answer the question, fool. let me ask it again. how does EQUATORIAL Guinea achieve higher literacy levels than the DR, when they spend .6% (point six, moron) on education, and the DR spends 2.3%? how does Ecuador achieve better results than the DR, when it spends only 1%? Jamaica might be the new Greece of the Caribbean, but it pays attention to education, to make sure it does not produce morons like you.

Atabey:

I must agree with you.I remember when in Trujillo's days ,education was compulsory and if you didn't send your child to school for reasons aside of been sick with a Dr's note you got a fine $5.50
,which in those days it was lots of money.
The 13% national illiteracy must likely is in the Sto Dgo proper.I bet it is more like 25% nation wide.How did they arrive at those small figure when a census was not even taken?
The 4%GDP for education should be kicked up to 16% to start up an accelerated program and down size it by 1% every year for the next 10 yrs, for the 50 yrs of neglect.

says Ricardolito

Written by: Ricardolito, 29 Jan 2013 5:12 PM
From: Dominican Republic, vieja Santo Domingo
I think it would be more useful to take a close look at the 13% and what it comprises of and also the definition that is used here for reading and writing ..This country has a large peasant population who have little interest in reading or writing so I assume that the the bulk of the 13 % come from this group ,but I may be totally wrong .

little interest in reading and writing. i am glad you said it, not i. the cretin Atabey believes that if someone tells them that the allocation is now 4%, they will suddenly develop an interest. you see, he believes that the problem is money, or the lack thereof. he does not understand that you can lead the horse to water, but you cannot force him to drink.

says Atabey

. It's average investments of 1.9% of PIB is among the lowest, I believe ONLY HAITI is lower, in Latin America

nobody cares what you believe, because the entire readership understands that you are not the sharpest tool in the shed. i have stated that Ecuador spends 1%. you choose to ingore it, because it does not fit in with your agenda.

Atabey, any reason you are ignoring my forum thread? the one about tax rates..

Atabey:

I must desagree with you when it comes to Jamaica.They by far had more money pumped into their system than us and had by far better results,better yet when the British were in control,all these without a dictatorship. They at least paid attention to Vocational/Technical education which we never did.

Says Dready the Jamaican,


Blah, blah.


Dready care to state how much Jamaica spends/invests as a percent of GDP, on education, over the last 30 years?

On average, how much does it invest as a percent of GDP?


SHOULD BE SIMPLE FOR A MIND LIKE YOURS.


:)

Dr Dread:

I absolutely agree with you "you can lead a horse to water but can't force him to drink".

Dready the Jamaican asks Atabey the jackass

how does Ecuador achieve better results with 1%.? Atabey the jackass declines to respond, because he cannot. he just hates the question with his guts.

Atabey:

Money does not buy quality of education ,if that been the case NYC should rank #1 nation wide.

absolutely correct, Mr Rancier. it is not money, but vision. ever since i was a young man in high school, Jamaica had a College of Agriculture. they realized that not everybody was cut out to study Latin and poetry, and some guys and girls were farmers by nature. so, they built a school for those people, where they could learn the technology of agriculture. then they built teachers' colleges, for people who wanted to make a career in the classroom. they knew that not everybody wanted to go to university to become a lawyer, or a doctor, so they built institutions like the College or Arts, Science and Technology for people who wanted to learn how to build houses, fix engines, and repair air conditioners, and radios. it is not only money. it is vision. if we allocate 20% of GDP to education, and maintain the same old ideas, we are doomed to remain exactly where we are.

Money may not buy you a guarantee of educational outcome, but if it were true that a nation could uplift its uneducated masses out of ignorance on the cheap, as the ass *ole from Jamaica thinks, his country would be first on line to reduce expenditures so they could pay their bills.

Dreay,

Do your own country some good, and suggest she follow the brothers from Africa, Equatorial Guinea, and only invest .6 of GDP on education. Would save your Jamaica a bundle in hard cash. Perhaps you might stop being referred to as the Greeks of the Caribbean.

they might be the Greeks of the caribbean, but they are literate Greeks. they do not produce people like you.

Ricardito:

why do you fail to point out that 50% of the DR population lives in Sto Dgo and that not all are as bright as you.
if you have a group that at least went to school up to the 3rd grade from, as you call them peasant population, then they are not illiterates but under -educated due to lacking the facilities to attend.
Why don't you stress the fact that the unemployment rate in DR in the big cities mainly the capital is due to the lack of the resources & insentives available that by using the so call 53,000 know it all HS grads and make them all teachers instead of hangimg around doing nothing. I know your answer already the gvt does not pay enogh.Something is better than nothing or starving.

MrThelmoAlmeydaRancier,and others:

I'll post the graphs representing the educational expenditures of Jamaica versus the Dominican Republic on the Forum.

You be the judge.

If Dready is right, there is a vast amount of money that Jamaica is now WASTING by following its course of action.

Atabey, stop making an even bigger fool of yourself than we already know you are. firstly, the critical aspect is not simple a number like 4%, or 5% , or whatever, but expenditure per pupil. every six year old child knows that. when you attain the mentality of a six year old, so might you. so, Atabey, in order to try and make a correlation between money and educational attainment, you have to do a little more work than copying and pasting. let us see you give us a chart for expenditure per pupil for all the countries listed in something like Nationmaster. then, give us a chart with expenditure per pupil and educational achievement, such as some international test. show us a correlation between amount spent per student, and test scores. you see, Atabey, literacy is meaningless, because each country has its own benchmarks for literacy. so, literacy means something different in Barbados than it does in the DR.

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance! Like i said earlier as long as you keep a large portion of the population ignorant and illiterate is easy to keep them down. That way you dont have to worry about them rising up. Then the dominican politicians, military and police can continue to rape the people and they can continue buying villas and mansions in spain, miami, switzerland- they also like hiding their money there. Its not that people don't know whats happening its that their hoping to be able to do the same thing next. That's the only reason they vote anyone out of office.

when you have subjected the matter to more rigorous analysis, then you can come to conclusions. you cannot, because you are too lazy, academically, and you do not know how to. simple as that. now prove me wrong, and come up with the charts.

Atabey:

Don't forget also to show on the chart their population compared to ours and the Haitian influx.

Go to the Forum section. I posted some very useful information.


:)

it is useful to you because you do not know any better. insofar as your argument is concerned, it is beyond worthless.

Where I am exposed to local Dominicans, I say 15% can read or write to an American high school level, which isn't saying a lot either.
And if they can write, it is illegible.

I suppose thes computers have a lot to answwer for ,,,maybe those who cannot write can type .. I was reading in DR1 that the main pockets of the uneducated are on the Haitian boder and in the north west ..I suppose just keeping alive absobs most of their time

There's no doubt that the wave of far worse off migrants, illegal in many cases, has made tthe situation even worse for the Dominican Republic. No other nat I'll n in the Western Hemisphere has to contend with such a massively neglected population of people'ss crossing their border.

But when the DR underinvests to the tune of 2.3 versus 6.08 percent of GDP in the case of DR versus Jamaica, even worse I. Comparison with Cuba, the numbers reflect the investments. There are no substitutes for clear National Planning, good oversight, and long term public investments in this endeavor.

Countries that have made the commitment have successfully reached their goals. Primary and secondary, with a strong technical aprentership program to take in thousands of young adults. The university should be more tightly managed. Far too much waste there.

Ricardito :

Yes.. As supposed to being a capitaleno unemployed pimp,know it all and acomplish nothing.
Yes keeping bussy and usefull to society and not been a leach to the rest of the country,

I agree with you Walnut.

Census: 13% of the population over 6 can’t read or write

Is everyone certain this is not a typo and actually reads...

Census: 13% of the population over 6 can read or write

Atabey just keeps on trotting out the same old nonsense, over and over. he believes that the more he says it, the more it becomes true. he believes that if he avoids the real questions, that makes his contention true. funny thing, he cannot explain the disparity in performance between Asians and African Americans in the same school.

Dreadlock i dont mean to sound rude but why does it matter how much is spent on education in jamaica or haiti? This is a dominican news forum.... It's good to hear the perspective from someone on the outside looking in , i do appreciate it, but do you really have any skin to lose in this fight? I know you mean well, but there have been a few foreigners here that seem to enjoy twisting the knife a little too much and i don't mean the retards-we expect it from them.

Dready's issue is that he's been outed.

Go take that low investment strategy over to Jamaica and see how long before they boot you AGAIN from the island.

Yes, Dready go take that, "I can save your country billions in needless expenditures by providing education for 1% of GDP or even better, .6% of GDP, like Equatorial Guinea! LOL


It didn't happen in Costa Rica, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, and Cubita, the Ex-Soviet Republics, and IN YOUR OWN JAMAICA!

Here is something we are number 1 in after 16 + years of PLD Neo Liberal Privatization!


"The Dominican Republic is number 1 in Latin America and the Carribean in power outages!"

Read the rest at:


RD, país de AL y el Caribe con más apagones

Al mes ocurren 17.7 cortes, siete veces más que la media de 2.5



diariolibre.com/movil/noticias_det.php?id=369437


Thank you Do Nothing Narco Lie-onel!

This is beginning to smell Bad!


Anybody know if they started?

According to El Caribe, no one at the Ministry of Education or Public Works knows how many classrooms have started to be built or where they are located. It's worth recalling that in a big ceremony on 3 January, President Danilo Medina distributed RD$2.8 billion to 341 engineers contracted for an equal number of schools and for repairing another 31. Since then the initiative that appeared to give a good start for the Medina administration, appears to have stalled. El Caribe learned that as well as legal problems with the properties where the schools were to be built, in some cases there was no property available in the area, and this has stalled the program. Another issue is apparently some differences of opinion between Education, Public Works and the Office of Supervising Engineers of State Projects.

continued:

Yesterday when El Caribe tried to find out where work had started, none of the entities were capable of providing the information.

DR1

Are Narco Lie-onel loyalist trying to make Saint Danilo look bad?

Everyone that knows that little island of ours knows that we have flushed its future down the toilet by allowing every politician, police , military official to run off with its coffers hoping that we would be the next one to hold the country up at gun point and become multi mlllionaires in 4 years with about as much education as a shoe shine boy. Regardless of whether or not the poor are interested in being literate is irrelevant, they can be forced to take their kids to school, just like everywhere else in the world. The problem is that after the crooked officials have bought their 3rd italian villa there just isn't any money left for social programs, and dominicans will continue to let it happen because we are hoping to do the same sh!t next! We deserve every bad thing that happens to us!

says zonyk

Written by: zonyk157, 29 Jan 2013 10:50 PM
From: United States
Dreadlock i dont mean to sound rude but why does it matter how much is spent on education in jamaica or haiti? This is a dominican news forum.... It's good to hear the perspective from someone on the outside looking in , i do appreciate it, but do you really have any skin to lose in this fight? I know you mean well, but there have been a few foreigners here that seem to enjoy twisting the knife a little too much and i don't mean the retards-we expect it from them.

zonyk, i do not want to sound rude, but you are not paying attention. it is Atabey who brings up Jamaica, not me. i made no reference whatsoever to Jamaica. your words should be addressed to him, not me. i keep telling him that this is DominicanToday, not Jamaica today. maybe now that someone besides me has said it, he will listen. you are right,of course. who cares what Jamaica spends?

zonyk, you are a breath of fresh air. i like your stuff. Atabey keeps blathering on about how much is spent in Jamaica, and how much is spent in the DR. well, the past Minister of Education in Jamaica, Burchell Whiteman, is a good friend of mine. he went into politics a poor man (relatively speaking). he owned a small home in a rural town, and a car with many miles and years on it. after 12 years , he still owned the same small home, and s newer car, but nothing special. that is the reason why the ministry had results, because he did not steal the funds, and surely did not allow his charges. to steal, either. the DR Ministry of Education got hamstrung by kleptocrats like Alejandrina German, who built a mansion as soon as she got appointed. several floors of structure, and a private road leading there. it is just like school feeding programs. the money was allocated, but the criminal element pocketed it, and fed the kids useless food.

nitwit Atabey blames a shortfall in allocation, without realizing that if the government had allocated more money, all that would have meant is that more people would have been driving better jeepetas, and would have been owning more high rise condos in residential towers. he is yet to establish what is an appropriate per student expenditure in the DR. he tells us about other countries, as if the purchasing power parity across the board is the same. once again, this is a guy who likes to think that he knows something, when all he can do is google, copy and paste, and lie.

Oh FFS!

Obviously this study must have taken the staff - of DT - into account with those reported to be illiterate.

"...The study adds that in the group below 55, men are illiterate than women."

Which is it DT? Are the men 'more' or 'less' illiterate than females?

Are you using Google Translate to write this paper? You're supposed to be professional. This isn't horseshoes or hand grenades. Close is not good enough.

@ zonyk157

You are dead wrong in stating that the Dominican people deserve this. No one deserves this.

Further, I do not understand why you'd imply that education, (literacy), has no merit in solving the ills that plague the land your family fled.

If that is so, then why do oppressors eliminate intelligencia, public communication, and un-biased education, as their first act of securing domination? It's nothing more than the recognition that an educated public is not conducive to absolute control.

And if this is not so then why did you leave the RD? You must have been educated enough to know that you have options. Whether you realize it, or not, there are those - in the land you fled - who do not think, or even imagine, that they have 'options'. It's easy to cast stones downward and forget that you - or your family members - were once there.

it is easy to blame a lack of education on anything. to my way of thinking, people can get an education if they want to. some years ago, Oprah Winfrey visited a bunch of villages in an African nation( i forget which). she asked a group of girls what was their fondest dream. they all told her that their dream was to wear a school uniform! yes, they wanted to go to school! they did not want Nike sneakers, multiple trips to the salon, a gringo boyfriend to send them Western Union money, or a blackberry. they wanted to go to school. so, she built them one. in today's world, wherein we have themost powerful tool known to mankind, the internet, to blame government for a lack of education is a copout. it is true that government has to build infrastructure, hire teachers, and set the tone. and government and leadership has not set the tone. i did a six month study on internet usage in internet cafes on the north coast.

96 % of the adolescents i observed over the time use the opportunity to use the social media, such as facebook, and myspace, and whatever else is available. others were listening to bachata and reggaeton, playing video games, or hooking up in chat rooms. the rest were using it to do homework. if you have the internet, you are well on the way to an education. children from villages in Africa, who have never seen google, are cleaning our clocks. why? they want to learn something. they want to make it on their own. they do not want to get all dressed up, go to some hotel disco, and fish for a gringo to support them, while they give a part of his money to their passola boyfriends, who are equally lazy and uneducated. money helps, but all the tea in China cannot fix lack of motivation. people have to help themselves. i know 15 year olds who have blackberries, but cannot spell the word. they do not own a single book. they have never read a newspaper. whose fault is that?

Recognizing the education need, for the corrupt leaders, just allows the robbers to line up for their quarterly payday. Normally, it's the electricity money they are stealing. Now, it's the construction money.

I have just started a school for 6 and 7 year olds who, when finished with just a few years, will read and write Spanish and English perfectly. Their math skills will be superior. The use of a notebook computing device will be standard. And we are teaching life skills and morality. No religion, no government interference.

Waiting for the local authorities to help to useless. They will come to shake me down for their cut first.
Ladrones.

Atabey believes that if government throws more money at education, that will fix the problem. do you think Belkis cares if the expenditure per student is 4,000 dollars, or 1,000 dollars? she cares about the price of the latest designer jeans. if government spends more money on classroom furniture, what does that have to do with the fact that as soon as school dismisses for the day, she is off to some secluded spot with her little boyfriend, getting knocked up? parents do not even know whether she got homework or not, nor do they care. school is daycare, a place to send the kids, so all the parents (mostly women) can get together to gossip, while the men play dominoes. they see their kids when the kids decide to come home. they have never been to school to ask the teachers how their kids are doing, and what help they might need. the kids spend a year in class, and pay the teacher for a good grade in math. the teacher cheerfully sells good results. can money fix that?

walnut, i admire your contribution. having been a teacher myself, i would like to come visit your institution some day. as you rightfully imply, throwing more money at education simply means giving more money to the ladrones. education begins at home. if kids do not want it, you cannot give it to them. if parents do not tell children that it is valuable, they will not make the effort to get one. when mothers stop helping daughters to beautify themselves, so they can find some gullible gringo, and start telling them that an education, unlike beauty, is something that never fades, they will stop using their money to go to the salon, and instead use it on pens and a notebook.

Mr Thelmo if you botheres to read thhe report ,,and much of it is in DR! ,you can read that the areas where the problem is the greatest is along the Haitian border and in the NW.. Thre port says the problem is not so great in Santo Domingo and in the east ,,,That may alter your rather obnoxious comments

"Written by: Ricardolito, 30 Jan 2013 8:46 AMFrom: Dominican Republic, vieja Santo Domingo

"Mr Thelmo if you botheres to read thhe report ,,and much of it is in DR! ,you can read that the areas where the problem is the greatest is along the Haitian border and in the NW.. Thre port says the problem is not so great in Santo Domingo and in the east ,,,That may alter your rather obnoxious comments"


After reading that comment do you still think Little Rickey is not a PURPLE Dominican masquerading as an English speaking foreigner?

Dreadlocks my apologies, you are correct, you weren't the one that was constantly ruminating on the Jamaica GDP. As for originalmrb, no one has said that education has no merit, on the contrary if you read my post - i say to force the poor to send their kids to school just like everywhere else in the world. As far as forgetting where im from- i was the child of dominicans who left the island as soon as they had the opportunity because unfortunately there are none there if you are an honest person. My parents, just like many others cry because their dream was always to go back and live in their beloved land, but everything keeps getting worse. Instead of the people standing up for their basic rights as human beings they just seem to flow with the sewage. I still have family there and feel horrible that i can't pull them out of DR. I've tried to find a way to go in there and help make things right, but besides an armed revolution i see no way of fixing anything there because the corrupt

I see no way of fixing anything because the corruption is part of the dominican soul now. When selling your children to europeans and americans for sex is now a tourist attractions you know that something is seriously wrong. I would be the first to go there and start executing corrupt officials if i thought the people would respond and fight the corrupt regime.

zonyk, you and i are in similar positions. i left Jamaica in the prime of my early youth, after having had a bitter argument with the Prime Minister, over economic direction. i was in his advisory circle, and i agreed with him on many things, but some of his ideas were lunacy. later in his life, he admitted on a TV interview for the US media that he had displayed serious lapses in pragmatic judgement. poor Atabey does not understand the distinction between criticism and insult. if i gave up a promising career because i saw something i disagreed with, i will criticize anyone i feel like. this is the internet. i live in the DR, and pay taxes here. i am a legal resident, and just as Dominicans living legally in the USA have every right to criticize the USA, i will call out the bad things i see in the DR. yes, the kinds of things that made you, zonyk, leave your homeland, apparently for good. the same things that explain why some of the guys who attack me are posting from Manhattan.

Dreadlocks, i think that there are more dominicans living in manhattan than in DR. Im sorry to hear that you had to leave Jamaica like that. Unfortunately alot of dominicans have transplanted their warped view of reality to the US, especially when u stay and simmer in the same dominican communities and are never exposed to anything else. The drug dealer, rapper, everything is about money ignorant attitude that has engulfed DR comes from there. So there is alot of ignorance there. A perfect example of that is Lionel.

For someone who cares sooooo much about DR, perhaps a little caring is in store for your OWN native land of Jamaica, Dready. It does appear that Jamaica is in SERIOUS need of help given their recent Christening as the "Greeks of the Caribbean," no? And that's not because anyone has confused Jamaica with a modern Athens. LOL

So how is it that investing all that money on education, having a decent civil service corps, etc., has led to the discombobulation of the nation-state of Jamaica?

And here we have these un-educated Dominicans shooting at one another, and STILL they manage to forge ahead gaining on Jamaica, and surpassing her in some quarters?


If you feel right to criticize DR, I have EVERY SINGLE right to do so about YOUR OWN HOMELAND, Dready.

Get that.

:)


BTW, how are your Greek lessons going?



:)

Jamaica's crippling debt crisis must serve as a warning to Greece

The experience of debt-ridden Jamaica shows the damage done when the interests of creditors are given too much weight

Mark Weisbrot
guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 July 2011

It's hard to imagine a worse disaster for Greece. It is worth a closer look at what has been done to Jamaica, not only as a warning to Greece, but to shed some light on the damage that can be done when "the international community" is willing to sacrifice a country for the sake of creditors' interests.

Jamaica – a middle-income developing country of 2.8 million people – has one of the worst debt burdens in the world, with a gross public debt of 123% of GDP.

At first glance this looks better than Greece (166% of GDP) but the more important number is the interest burden of the debt: for Jamaica it has averaged 13% of GDP over the last five years. This is twice the burden of Greece (6.7% of GDP), which is in turn the highest in the euro

This is twice the burden of Greece (6.7% of GDP), which is in turn the highest in the eurozone. (It is worth keeping in mind that the burden of the debt can vary widely depending on interest rates, and on how much is borrowed from the country's central bank – Japan has a gross public debt of 220% of GDP but pays only about 2% of GDP in annual net interest, so it doesn't have a public debt problem.)

Not surprisingly, a country that is paying so much interest on its debt does not have much room in its budget for other things. For the 2009/2010 fiscal year, Jamaica's interest payments on the public debt were 45% of its government spending. This crowding out of public investment and social spending has hurt Jamaica's progress towards the Millennium development goals.

Jamaica's coverage rates for detection and treatment of tuberculosis declined from 79% in 1997 to 43% in 2006, the worst decline of 77 countries for which data was available.

The net enrollment ratio in primary school declined from 97% in 1991 to 87% in 2006/2007.

Jamaica's long term development failure is striking, and has a lot to do with its debt burden. For the 20 years from 1988-2008, real income per person grew by just 14%, which is incredibly dismal. The the country was hit by the U.S. and global recession at the end of 2008, losing export revenue, remittances, and other sources of aggregate demand.

The government turned to the IMF, which had already had a terrible track record in the country with almost continuous programmes from 1973-1996. Unfortunately the 2010 IMF prorgamme called for policies that would be expected to worsen the recession, including a reduction of the fiscal deficit, as well as real decreases in spending on health, education, and childhood development.

In February of last year the Jamaican government reached agreement with creditors on the Jamaica Debt Exchange, which restructured Jamaica's debt with the support of the IMF. The restructuring extended the average maturity of the debt and lowered interest rates enough to reduce the government's interest burden by about 3% of GDP annually over the next three years.

This would be quite substantial if Jamaica had a debt burden the size of Greece or Ireland, but unfortunately it still leaves the country with unbearable interest payments. There was no reduction in the principal, and Jamaica will have to refinance some 46% of its debt within the next one to five years – which could prove disastrous if there are unfavorable market conditions.

Jamaica's debt burden is outrageous, and needs to be drastically reduced. It is difficult to imagine the country making much progress in economic development while so much of its resources go to interest payments.

While the situation of every over-indebted country is different – in terms of the burden and structure of the debt, whom it is owed to (international or domestic creditors, official creditors such as the IMF or World Bank, and other specifics) – the most important issue is the same: how much should a country sacrifice in order to keep paying off its debt?

Unfortunately the people making these decisions – the European authorities, the IMF, the Paris Club and allied institutions – look at this issue from the point of view of the creditors.

But a responsible government will make its decisions on the basis of the needs of its people – for employment, economic growth, and better living standards. It is this conflict of interest that underlies the debt crises we are looking at in most over-indebted countries.

Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington, DC.




And DR has issues, says Dready! LOL

i see that you have switched gears. since you seem to have conceded defeat in your attempts to link education with expenditure. the reason why this has happened is that you are the consummate fool, and you cannot learn anything. we have been over this already, and i ripped you a new one then, just as i will do again, if you choose to continue this idiot idea of yours. by the way, i am still waiting for you to tell us which school you graduated from, that gives Magna Cum Laude degrees to people with 3.9 GPA. can't remember where you went to school? did you go to school? inquiring minds need to know. i already do.

Atabey, the financial deficits in Jamaica are almost as bad as the education and moral deficit in the DR. Jamaica is in a mess because of bad planning, and unfavorable world prices for aluminum. you are in your position for far deeper reasons. ithink that solution of macroeconomic problems is a far easier task than trying to teach people how to be honest.

Atabey i understand you are insulted by the fact that a foreigner has criticized the DR, but you know we are doing pretty bad too. We need to focus on DR. If it wasn't because we are constantly taking handouts from world financial organizations, and the dominican politicians cooking the books so the numbers don't look as bad we know they are we would be screwed as well. We literally rob Peter to pay Paul.

zonyk, when i read your postings , i wonder if i wrote them. you are so spot on. why do you believe that the days when gringos used to marry Dominicans and take them to foreign countries is over? because they know the deal. as soon as they get out of the airport, their first ambition is to head to the Heights. they get all kinds of opportunities handed to them, but the only thing they can think of is to run to the Dominican sectors,and get back right to Munoz..it is only when they have children that real progress is made, because the children take a different approach to life than they do. every ethnic group seeks out its roots, but i can think of no caribbean territory in which people have been given such opportunities as the people from the DR. most other women have to join lines, and fight for visas. gringos apply for fiancee visas, bring Dominican women to the USA and Europe, and give them a headstart, yet they refuse to leave the barrio, mentally.

zonyk, let me just bring you up to speed on Atabey. he is not offended that a foreigner criticized the DR. he is offended that a Jamaican, or person of color, dared to do so. he is a self hating Dominican, who believe that only causasians should have a right to criticize, since he sees them to be his betters. dozens of other posters say far harsher things than i do, but Atabey knows his place, and understands that he should not respond to his betters. come to think of it, they are his betters. everyone is.

Atabey we need to change as a people. As long as we keep selling our country and our people out to the highest bidder there will continue to be takers but eventually we'll have nothing else to sell and the only ones who will survive will be the crooked politicians who made the dirty deals. Thats what we need to focus on .

zonyk, what has to be done here, as a partial solution, is to stop with the bragging rights theme. this thing about what we have here, vis a vis the rest of the caribbean, is ridiculous. too many posters claiming we have the best women, the best food, the best music, the best tourisst industry, the best economy, bla bla bla. so, the politicians us that tendency to distract them, and keep them happy. as long as they believe that Juan Luis Guerra is the best artist that the caribbean ever produced, they are happy with life. so, the politicians make them happy, by doctoring the books. they do not tell them the truth, because they know how much Dominicans like fantasy. right now, the DR has 3 months of foreign currency available, when 6 months is usually the minimum safe cushion. think the government is going to allow that to become public news? not. tell the people that Trip Advisor says we have the best hotel in the caribbean, or some such foolishness.

they count returning dominican vacationers as tourists, while no other country in the region does. then they tell you how much bigger, and better, the DR tourist industry is. of course it is! you use different accounting methods! the DR has just been hit by a rash of blistering taxes, the dollar is appreciating against the peso, on a daily basis, and the real devaluation is yet to come, later this year. yet the moron Atabey is fixating on another country. when they cut off the electricity to hordes of barrio people, because they cannot pay the bill, i will drive through, and comfort them by telling them that Atabey says Jamaica is worse.

That was a rough one dreads, wow. I don't know if that is his issue but it is definitely a problem of many dominicans. White is right. The spaniards left us with that, even though most of us aren't. There are lots of things from the slave days we haven't been able to shake off yet. DR needs a cleansing. All those bad people need to disappear.

trust me, zonyk, it is his issue. there are hundreds of posters here who are foreigners. some harsh stuff has been said here, really rough things. yet i am the only one here he attacks. there are many more like him in the site, so i will give him that. he is not the only self hater on DT. so, if i make the most obvious criticism of the DR, he runs off to google to see if he can find some article on Jamaica with bad news, as if to compare the two countries. i prefer not to compare, because it means absolutely nothing. my housekeeper called me yesterday to ask me to help her with next month's rent, because things have been rough for her this month. do you think the Jamaican GDP means squat to her? you think she cares if someone in Montego Bay is going to get evicted tomorrow?

Education reform has made impressive strides in the last several years. Once taboo, school-choice policies in the form of charter schools and vouchers have become increasingly prevalent as the years pass, and policies holding schools accountable for student performance are now the norm. But better schools are impossible without better teachers. And the surest way to upgrade teacher quality is to tie pay to performance.

By now it is well established that teacher quality — that is, a teacher’s independent contribution to the academic improvements of her students — is the single factor within a school’s control that is most responsible for student achievement

book by marcus winter
"teachers matter"

bought this book a few weeks ago........
like to send a few copies over to the boys in the government that just need some help if they are serious about getting a real education for the young in the dr.

does it really matter?...... jamaica, haiti, greece, barbabos???
gdp? 1%.....3%....10%...
u all should just load your guns and shoot each other down.

man this bull.... just get some education for the kids not this crap.

Recognizing the education need, for the corrupt leaders, just allows the robbers to line up for their quarterly payday. Normally, it's the electricity money they are stealing. Now, it's the construction money.

I have just started a school for 6 and 7 year olds who, when finished with just a few years, will read and write Spanish and English perfectly. Their math skills will be superior. The use of a notebook computing device will be standard. And we are teaching life skills and morality. No religion, no government interference.

Waiting for the local authorities to help to useless. They will come to shake me down for their cut first.
Ladrones THANK U FOR THIS..... AND YES THE LOCAL POLICE WILL COME AROUND AROUND FOR THEIR PAYOFFS...... TELL THEM YOUR NOT A DRUG DEALER, THE PROBLEM IS THEY DONT GIVE A F%^& that your helping the kids they only care about themselfs....

iam not a house cleaner but i also need some help for my vists to the hardrock casino in fort lauderdale.. to play the slots..
can u help?

lol......lol.......lol.....

any way its all good .... mr. a-rod is all over the news not only in florida but on the cover of the daily news in new york city....
go-away a-rod....... every channel every paper...... go away a-rod.....

hey! its not only the dominician players i have no respect for but u can throw in the lance armstrong's with these low-lifes......
as i said yesterday its not their talent but its the drugs that hit the home runs and win the bike races.....
not for my hard earned money will i spend to see these people. perform
mr xwill loves that sammy guy.... if he likes him so much he should invite him to move into this home this way he and sammy can go out in the back yard and play ball together...........easy mr ex will lol.....lol.....lol

The government spends RD$1.04 Billion pesos, on Haitian illegals health care.

How many Dominicans are in need of that money?

How many Dominican would benefit if that money is spent on education?

How many Dominicans would benefit if that money is spent on their health care??

How many Dominicans would put food on their tables ??

How many bridges would be build in DR??

How many roads paved??

How many schools build??

How many houses build??

How many hospitals ??

How many Kilo Watt of energy produced??

How many dams build??

How many canals for irrigation??

How many docks??

These are the kind of thing some people don't want to understand.

The Dominican Republic is a very poor country.

We cannot have the luxury of spending that kind of money on the health care of illegal Haitians, while our own people are in need of those funds.

EXPEL THOSE ILLEGALS HAITIANS FROM QUISQUEYA !!!!!

VIVA TRUJILLO MOLINA !!!!!

Rokete i don't know where that number came from but i don't trust it. Also, if i had to choose between that money going into Leonel's personal swiss bank account or it actually going to help another human being i would choose the latter. That money would line the pockets of a crooked politician no matter what. That information is put out there to distract you from all the stolen money that isn't helping anyone but the guy with the new villa in miami and a bentley and a yatch and another mansion in spain, etc, etc, etc....

zonyk157

((" if i had to choose between that money going into Leonel's personal swiss bank account or it actually going to help another human being i would choose the latter")

I see your point, and I can relate to that point of view.

However the tax money that I pay is not for that purpose.

It is not to fill the pockets of these crooks in government, and it is not to provide health care for Haitian illegals.

I would like to see it spent where it is suited.

In our country for our greater benefits of our people.

So we start by making sure F@#$ like Leonel never come back to power and by making sure we

EXPEL THOSE ILLEGALS HAITIANS FROM QUISQUEYA !!!!!

Thats a good call rokete, you have to make sure that not only Leonel never comes back but also any other dominican politician that has or ever worked in politics. Or create a very powerful watchdog element with the power to punish the politician regardless of the seat he or she is holding. Also go after all the past ones to set an example. Confiscate all their propreties and bank accounts and throw them to the wolves in jail. Unfortunately not of that will ever happen so....lets continue to make these thieves multi millionaires! Uepa!

where is Atabey these days? spending his time in a rage at google, trying to find more articles regarding Jamaica? i mean, i asked the guy some simple questions regarding expenditure and achievement, and he has gone really silent. simple questions. not brain busters, although any question will overheat his little brain. come back, Atabey. jump into the pool. the water is fine.

Dr.Dread he doesn't like pools ,they are to shallow for him, he likes the Deep Blue Waters of the Forum where he has unlimited opportunities to lie and distort!

that is strange, josean. he just started a forum thread, and ran away.