For that matter, 911 also doesn't work either. At least not when you need it. I'd like to see the government do less things, but more well done/consistent.

Am sure if it was politicaly oriented or to a personal cell phone the responce would be ok and
the necesity for receptionist would not be needed . All this agencies work the same way ,bunch of useless burocrats.

i know what you mean, Mr Pineda. my friend spoke on the telephone to a lady from the government department which concerns itself with matters of international trade. she gave him an e mail address and instructed him to request the information via the internet, which he did. to date,he has sent 4 emails to this individual, without reply. when i worked in the private sector in new york, you could not go home from work with an email on you computer which was not responded to, even if it was received at closing time. you were bound by company regulations, and a sense of duty and responsibility, to address the concerns of those who sought information. we also had a ring rule; your telephone should not be allowed to ring more than 3 times before you answered. any violations of that rule would lead to a verbal warning by the team leader. if this was repeated 3 more times, you would be terminated. that is one of the reasons why businesses in the USA function efficiently, for the most part.

dreadlocks:

You nailed the main problem: A lot of employees aren't afraid of loosing his job. On the other hand, consumers just accept that things in the DR just "work like that".

The Dominican State is blatantly inefficient in all it’s efforts to provide services for it people.

to DaniDr; i think you are describing the people who are not afraid of losing their jobs, because they wont. correct me if i am wrong. the issue is one of accountability. a person such as the one whom i described in the email issue has no fear of losing their job. they more than likely got it through their uncle or some political godfather, not because they are competent. and also, there is no chain of accountability. in the united states, instead of sending 4 or 5 emails to the same person, you would call the company telephone operator and ask for the number to the department supervisor after the second attempt. you would not waste time trying with the same person over and over. and the supervisor would rectify things right away! here, you might already be talking to the supervisor, who is no better than the guy in the mail room. things wont change, because people have low expectations for service, and too much tolerance for incompetence

Imagine how well the METRO is going to work!

The problem in the Dominican Republic is the "Odderguy". It is always the other guys fault and not mine. Taking responsibility is a big problem here.

yes, Josean, that is a great point. people who wonder should look at the postings by Mr Thelmo Rancier, an authority on the subject.

Mr Escott, that is one powerful observation. the country has always been run by dictators, then by absolute monarchs, and the concept of personal ownership of problems, and the responsibility for their solutions, has never been a part of the culture. even today, every infinitessimal detail of governance is overseen by the president. responsibility is not delegated to individuals .in the usa, there are chains of command. there is someone in strategic points along the chain who is responsible for his area. if there is a breakdown, it is his responsibility! nobody wants to hear that it was someone elses fault, hence the saying THE BUCK STOPS HERE. in this society, because of its extremely paternalistic constructs, nobody has ever been taught to be the person ultimately responsible for anything; all final responsibility rests with BIG DADDY!

u guys should run the country.

No More DAMS

I agree, dreadlocks, MrAlmeyda and all the other great posters should run the country.

Is a shame such a beautiful county with lots of possibility but NO ONE CARES. Just about every one in Government, The Armed Forces, the National Polices and including the Presenden know what’s going on in the country. Not just with the country emergency phone line, but also with crime, drugs, health, education, water, and electricity but NO ONE CARES!!!!!! Just as long as they keep making money, live a healthy and safe life with there family is ok. What makes this a bigger shame is the most of them will get reelected into office and the new one coming in will do the same. NO ONE CARES,
NO ONE CARES, NO ONE CARES.

Goverment in the Dominican Republic? really... Do they really have a Goverment... Naaaa!!

Why Dominican Republic doesn’t work? at the begging of the colonization there was a huge amount of wealth going out and less coming from Europe at that time, then it came the Haitians, The Haitians are the # 1 cause for our economic fall out & poverty, they made all those white Spanish & French colonist run back to there homeland, making the country less stable, than by the following years many invasions from other countries such as the US made it worst!, more corrupt governments came to power, manipulating the people. And in the present time this is what we see.. ibet you you put some governments from countries like Japan for a period of 4 years and they will do a lot!! butt a lot!..

@Imaginary Dr controlled by Japan on 2015:

A recall has been issued for all Toyota Hilux'es pickup trucks built between 2010 and 2015 after reports of the 4 wheels detaching from the car at the same time when travelling at high speeds and defective seat belt tensioners. Juan Hubieres, the president of the DRAW (DR Auto Workers) denies that the fault comes from the production plant at Higuey, and threatend to go to strike if they bother him any more with this issue.

Can someone please explain to me the following? I am having a difficult time understanding. 1. Why do we need such a big-armed force? And whom are we going to fight with? 2. Why do we have generals in the national police? 3. Why do the police officers look like they belong to a gang with no nametag, unit patch or badge on their uniform? Not to mention how poorly trained and equipped they are.
4. Why do retired high-ranking officers need 24 hours security (bodyguards)? 5. How is it that plans filled with drugs are coming in to Dominican air space without being detected by the DR Air force? 6. Why do we continual to purchase fighter plane instated of purchasing light and heavy lift helicopters that can be use for multipurpose missions, such recurring neutral disasters victims, Carrie humanitarians aids thru out the country, put out forest fire, and move troops ware ever is needed. 7. And the one million dollars question, why don’t we have non-stop electricity and running water thru

@josh: Because it's all just a big reality show.

There are so many things the armed forces could do in this country, but their just sitting there playing domino or being used as chaffeurs or watchman's.

DaniDr
As a retired Major in the U.S.Army and Dominican born, I see so much opportunity in our country
if we all think and work as nation not as individuals. I wonder if our goverment offical see it the same way I do or if they just don't care.

The problem is that the government officials work as PLD or as PRD, not as a country. They see that the next 4 years of the country may be "of the enemy". There is a lot of potential in this country, and little has to be done to start exploiting it. It's just that officials don't wan't to contribute to that tiny effort, because it's like giving it to the enemy.

well, many intelligent words have been exchanged in this forum, all trying to assess the reasons for the woeful state of the economy and the political system in the dominican republic. it has all been in vain; we have wasted an inordinate amount of broadband time. Euromax has solved the riddle; its those doggone Haitians, who had the effrontery to rebel against slavery and expel their oppressors over 200 years ago that are at the root of all our troubles. and to think that some of us bother to study economics, sociology, history and politics; what a waste. we can just blame the haitians every time!

oh, gee; i forgot. the japanese will turn us around in 4 years! if they came here and took over, they would be gone in a year! their societies are what they are because they have human capital. as i repeat incessantly, the countries of the east have very few natural resources. what they have is educated people, far sighted politicians, and long term planning. my friend just came back from cambodia, and the capital is linked to the second largest city by a dirt road. i guarantee you that in 50 years that country will be way more advanced than we will be. just look at korea; in the 1950s it had a lesser gdp than we did at the time; now just Samsung or Hyundai can buy and sell us all before lunchtime.

Here goes my two cents! For a nation to make progress it needs to have in place certain items. Since someone mentioned japan, let us see what is their history. Japan in the 1800's was just another feudal country until the U.S. paid them a visit with modern gunships. It was that recognition by emperor Meiji, that they had to copy the industrial advances of the West if they hope to ever be in a position to compete. Meiji saw what had happened to the Chinese with their primitive weapons and decided that that would not happen to Japan if he could help it. The results were that in less than 50 years Japan was kicking ass all over Asia. They even defeated Russia and took a bite out of China. Now, what did they do? They copied the West. They invested like crazy in Human Capital. They developed their own industries. Their own internal Markets. They copied the best of the West with the idea of making it better, faster and cheaper. It took them a while but they did it. What have we Dominicans do

To joshtati:Permit me to answer some of the good questions on Dec.26/07 1:38 pm if i can.

DR does not need such a large armed forces since they are not going to fight any one. DR can
get by with 1 infantry brigade out of 6.The entire thing revolves around military pensions after 20yrs
and the domino games are over like Danidr said on his poster. As to the generals being excorted
by military troops 24/7 is to create their needs as well as repercution of their bad behavior while active. also every one of them are branded as abusive.That image was left behind by Trujillo ex-dictator of DR and a civilian killer who also structured civilian police from the military with the respective ranks.Think of DR military as the welfare dept.of the USA. Savings could go for electric power,running water,health and education ,if they got rid of 25,000 useless so call military personnel.The DR air force does not want to detect any air planes since those planes bring extra botellas. continue

To joshtati from above:
DR buys fighterr planes instead of heavy lift helicopters that could be used as you said for multi-
purpose missions, mainly to help civilians as was the resent case of the two floods.Then they would have to stop playing domino in the barrack as well as consuming alcoholic beverage and work for a living instead of leaving all the work to the USCG and the UK's ships that had all that.
The main reason would be the constant maintanance of the helicopters that Brazil does not make. Also a good kick back on the buy, where they could not get that from the USA or RUSSIA.
Also by reducing the amount of troops in place, high ranking officers will also be reduced and the
military academy would fold unless they could be placed in a civilian position as they are doing now.As to the absence of name tags on their uniforms is done purposely so you don't turn them in
for drunks and miss behavior or abusive power.I would send them all 40,000 to Irak with their Generals.

Thats a common stuff. 1411 NO SIRVE. How many time they gave me a fax number, or a number that does not exists. Many times. So you must have a system, you asked for telephone number, then you asked the operator for any other telephone number. And then you search internet for telephone numbers or call some friends.

Worse example is that 1411 does not have a POLITUR telephone of Bavaro but only POLICIA NACIONAL from Veron, but as you can imagine, Policia Veron, does not have Politur number.
Por favor.

Accountability starts from the top. Where in the chain of command is there lack of accountability. It seems there is little fear of getting caught for wrong doing for the president or any offical or even any worker from an outside policing. In other nations if there is suspicion of wrong doing with any officals of gov'ment there is a court that handles problems, there is pressure of other politcal parties and then citizens.
R.D. there is next to nothing. The officals push as much as they can until people revolt. The people don't revolt because they do not know any better. "It not worth it", "No vale la pena" that is the attittude I feel when I'm living there. It is a cycle of poverty and unorganization amongst some of the population. With that being said some are aware of how to obtain progress. Using techniques that are used in developed nations. What makes R.D. great,layed back attittude, but it has many consequences. Progress, its up to the citizens, invest in education.

no matter what we say that is dominican republic very sad when that happen in my country no service for poor people.

The problem is that the US has always supported the corrupt ruling class (the money families), politicians, military, and police, so that US business interests can have slave labor. United Fruit is gone, but US clothing businesses replace them. It used to be slave labor for farm hands, and now it's slave labor for sewers. Dominicans should support Hugo Chavez!

jasfalon --- I pity the DR if they ever align with Chavez. Chavez has yet to keep his promises to his own people let alone people in another country. His goal is a Latin American dictatorship with himself as the top man. The people of the DR should all remember what a dictator does. I doubt that they forget their history so soon.

THE MAIN PROBLEM IN DOM REP IS //////// EDUCATION \\\\\\\\\\ LACK THEREOF.

Corruption is only a bi-product of the overwhelming lack of education that is pervasive in the DR. It is like rice, beans and plantains, endemic. It is part of every day life. Until the prominent educated and unaffiliated, affluent minority in the DR and abroad decide to make a change, change is not going happen. A solution would be to produce a financially secure ex-pat anti-corruption and politically active movement that has no ties to politics and government thereby deprecating the allures of money, status, and materiality. All which are instruments of corruption.

A sad realization, with all the current wealth of affluent prominent Dominicans both in the U.S and abroad, as Dominicans we cannot unite our resources and intellect to change the sad pitiful-state of our country. Just realize this, If the situation and economic conditions are in dire state now, wait to Cuba opens it's doors.

Ladronazo, one of the problems with the affluent, educated class in foreign lands is that it usually comprises secondary or tertiary generations. most of the dominicans posting intelligent commentary in a forum such as this are the children or grand children of the original immigrants, who themselves were products of the status quo. these new generations, who have seen a different way, and who are outraged when they come home for christmas and semana santa, have set up life in new york, perhaps, and are not willing to endure a life of product shortages, power outages and general anarchy. it will be sufficient to make the annual sojourn to visit abuela, but jose will not give up all six channels of HBO to live in valverde-mao. so they end up posting scholarly articles , but reality will not allow them to come home for good and make some difference, however small it may be. they have to wait until jose graduates from college and dona josefina has passed on before they can

contemplate a return home. by then ,they are just about worn down by the stress of life in the fast moving first world lifestyle. they just want to retire in peace, play some dominoes, have some friends over on sunday for sancocho, and berate politicians at the dining table!!

before i am assailed by outraged readers, let me clarify one thing in my post: i am aware that there are several dominicans who are locally based ,offering intelligent commentary. when i speak of dominicans making intelligent commentary, i am focusing on the expat group.

It takes a very committed person to turn around a nation. If we look a LA history we will see the following: Juan Bosch was kicked out of power because he wasn't willing to go all the way, even if it took the country to a civil war. Salvador Allende refused to arm the people and believed that the military would never betray their country or the constitution, he too was kicked out and killed along with an entire generation in Chile. Fidel Castro has had to put up with being the boogie man of LA and the Cubans have gone through hell by the blockade. Hugo Chavez is on his way to making a choice, another Cuba or he and his supporters will get wiped out by a Pinochet-like military goon supported by you know who?. The DR needs the kinds of people who are willing to do the necessary hard work of organizing and that takes time and dedication, how many are willing?

Regarding dreadlocks, 24 Mar 2008 10:26 PM comments:
I am not referring to "secondary or tertiary generations" as you stated. I am referring to Baseball players, Performers/entertainers, Big business and a wealthy expat community that prefers to cocoon themselves in the DR in their big homes with all the amenities and flaunt their money. In addition, all the amenities in the U.S. are found in DR. Sat TV water, fine restaurants etc. My example a baseball player that has no formal or advanced education is drafted from the slums of DR goes to the U.S. to make Millions of Dollars returns to DR and build a multi-million dollar home and cocoons himself. Dominicans don't know the value of community re-investment.
EDUCATION.

Ladronazo, i am in full agreement of what you say: i make reference to the expat community for emphasis. i have no idea if it is because most people who have migrated to the USA come from really deprived backgrounds, but there is a scary phenomenon i detect in New York. Dominicans are willing to exhibit and express pride in their baseball players, because they are undeniably good, and it would be silly to do otherwise. on the other hand, i have sat in barbershops and listened to the most scurrilous of ridicule for the country coming from all quarters.they berate all the amenities, the institutions and the governments with a level of vitriol i do not hear from any other immigrant group. they like to go to the colmado and buy dominican products, but speak of the country as if they are severely ashamed of being dominican. there is almost a disconnect between them and the country. one has to wonder if their failure to re-invest in their homeland comes from the fact that they are so awed

by what they see in the usa that they think their own country is a waste of time. they would rather buy a piece of property in rockland county, where the lights never go out. if and when they do return to the DR, they choose to disassociate themselves with the classes from which they came. maybe they feel that poverty in the country is the fault of the poor, having been indoctrinated in the usa with the concept of THE AMERICAN DREAM.

Dreadlocks, I agree with certain aspects of your statements. I agree that most Dominican immigrants come from poor backgrounds, none-the-less Education is the primary issue. Example Cubans have nothing in Cuba. But Cubans have Education and thus have a sense of priority. They come to U.S. improve their English register in schools and continue their education and get involved in their communities. I recently met another Cuban who arrived to the U.S. via DR. Dr to PR and then U.S mainland. He tells me he had lived in PR among many Dominicans some who had taken the same journey from DR. He recently went back to visit old neighborhoods and found most if not all his Dominican counterparts doing the same, hanging out, clubbing etc none had successfully learned English. He asked me why is this. In one year he will graduate with his Engineering degree. Dominicans are to complacent. It is this complacency that is scary.

one of the problems which the DR suffers from is that throughout history it has always been a caudillo culture, to one degree or another. there have always been powerful, paternal figures who virtually controlled peoples lives. this might not be today in the degree it was during Trujillo, but it still exists. i was amused to see ambulances and school buses with the letterin GIFT OF HIPOLITO MEJIA or LEONEL FERNANDEZ. the unenlightened public believes that it a benevolent gesture from the one who takes care of their needs.they do not understand how government works, and that these machines are purchased from the public coffers. can you imagine a fire truck in the USA with the lettering GIFT OF GEORGE BUSH? the masses have been purposefully undereducated, with the aim of reinforcing this dependency syndrome. why work if we can get a handout from the government, channeled through the local political warlord?
that is why at election time, candidates simply go from constituency

to constituency doling out what i call pork rinds. the people vote for those who can give the grander largesse. some give pigs, others liquor, other creative types issue water fowl.when the creation of an admistration is achieved on those predicates, are you surprised at the lack of personal initiative?

Ladronazo, a new phenomenon is developing in the culture which the economists describe as Resource Complacency. we now are developing a dependency on tourism like never before. as more and more foreign speculator money pours in, we believe the problem has been solved. so we build all these high tech monuments to advancement, when there is no sound backbone to prop things up. as the minister of technology in south korea once observed:"high tech coffee shops do not indicate development. what indicates development is what the citizens are reading while they drink their coffee".

dreadlocks Regarding your post 30 Mar 2008 10:53 AM and thereafter:

Yes you're very right. But I still hold our own responsible. But those in positions to make changes. Not the poor or disenfranchised or average immigrants that arrive to the U.S to make a life and struggle to make a better life for themselves, but those who rise to prominence and have the ability to eradicate ignorance at a dangerous juncture. I hold those who can collectively make a change but wish not to do so. Those who have the ability to make small but significant contributions to society. Those who have the knowledge, resources and do not invest in there communities. Though not prominent or rich, I hold myself responsible as well.

Ladronazo, you are absolutely correct. in the united states, the koreans have become a prominent economic force through collective habits. they control the fruit and vegetable markets in new york, and have done so by helping each other. they pool their resources to buy the stores. a group will put money together so one family can buy a store. when that store gets off the ground, it is expected that the owners put something back into a pool so the next aspiring buyers will have something to work with. it is part of the eastern religious tenets of sacrifice. we in latin america are products of roman catholicism, which promoted the dog eat dog, self aggrandisement methodology. the indians are another example. when a family seeks to buy a house, several families contribute to the downpayment. then, as in the case of the koreans, a reciprocity of duty is expected when another family seeks to buy a house. our culture has not evolved to that degree of communal living. we are part of the

american dream modality, wherein each person wants to be his own island, work his ass off and become individually rich, but the community is poorer for it. we have been duped into believing that communal efforts are outmoded. i do not think the koreans agree!

The problem is the haitians, they need to be "SURE" before they raise their hands. Then the funky stink hits you. Then youre reminded why people leave when a haitian moves near you! FO FO!!!!!

there not the problem are young people dont want to work they have cell phones go out on the weekend and do drugs with hand me downs

well, arcatype, thank you for simplifying things for us all. people of all intellectual stripes have pondered weighty questions for years, trying to assess and understand why things are the way they are in our society, with varying results. then along comes aracatype, to clear up the mess, and expunge all equivocation: the problem is the HAITIANS, he opines. marvellous analysis such as that deserves to have arcatype placed on the short list for the Nobel Prize this year!

Good response dreadlocks, it's only a joke no offense!

Tell him Dread