Here we go again. Andy, haven't you learned not to speak of that which you don't know by now?
Andy, you're out in the stix and just shown that you're also out of touch. Samana's reality is not the D.R. as a whole. Samana has been missing out over and over again. It just isn't quite connected with the major tourism routes yet. It's too remote. And when it is no longer remote, it will lose the one of the only draws it has - it is remote!
You can't possibly know the state of the various projects that the current government has in the works, let alone whether money is disappearing or not. You know only what everybody else knows, and that's what the media reports, what the international analysts say, and what the government reports. How many times has the media spoken, only to eat crow the next week. Sometimes they do it just to invoke a response when they feel they government is not cooperating with making information public. To know more you'd have to be working for the administration. An occassional visit to Santo Domingo doesn't cut muster (or "mustard" as Mondongo says
). The only small businesses I see that fall victim to constant corruption and hand-outs by the local authorities are the gringo owned businesses. A Dominican knows how to navigate these waters.
I'm sorry your sector is failing. What did you expect. I said more than a year ago, the big areas that are being developed are Punta Cana and Boca Chica. Not Samana. There had to be a winner!
Why would you, Andy the well connected, be making random payoffs to the local authorities. I guess you aren't so well connected after all.
Most of the major infrastructre projects in the plan were announced within the last 6-18 months. Of course the projects aren't finished or in many cases not even started. Rome was not built in a day. You may not even see the results by the end of this term.
Any gringo who has had a sucessful and prominent business for any good length of time knows better and doesn't pay the local beat cops. You go right to the top, make your favors or whatever your connection is, and the beat cops stay away. You start paying the cops on the beat and it will get worse and never end. Plus, the local cops transfer around so often that you'e always be starting over.
Now, if you want to do the local beat cops an occassional favor, that's different, but if the little authorities are shaking you down, your connections stink.
The common report on Boca Chica has been as I described it, not the way you or Scaramooch defined it. After all, who knows Boca Chica better than I? Only you and maybe one or two others that haven't even been to Boca Chica in years give the conflicing report. Robert himself gets down there quite often and if you check the archives, he more than once has confirmed what I say. The town is not like before. That's good and bad depending on what dars
The beat cops in Boca Chica don't even touch the local businesses down they. These are Turismo cops. They are polished, spit-shined shoes, and they are friendly but professional. They make arrests when their boss tells them to and they aren't going up and down the street shaking down the businesses. Those that pay, pay at the top, not to the cops walking the beat. The are relegated to collecting from your occassional tigre, sankie, or prostitute and that's about it.
I tell you, the police presence with uniformed beat cops has done wonders for killing crime. Pick pocketing in the street is gone. Phantom robberies by way of "visitor" motochonchos are gone. It is really rather pretty at night and I can even recommend now that families stroll Boca Chica early in the evening. It is quite charming these days. It sucks for whore-mongering.
Of course its killing the kind of tourism and nightlife it was once known for as well because much of the local scene has moved out and that was a major part of the draw. So if you are looking for hottie Dominicanas, in abundance with the mindset of "go with tourist", look to Santo Domingo, not Boca Chica.
Things are quieter these days but then again, Boca Chica is transforming and the travel industry has taken a big hit world wide. But Boca Chica's face lift continues and new construction is still happening all around you. It is undergoing a major face lift right now, as it has been ever since Hurricane George. When they finally get those new antique street poles plugged in, it's going to take on a very quaint atmosphere. A lot of the business are keeping their Christmas lights on year round.
You have no way of knowing why a particular project was stopped and certainly have no basis to imply that the projects stopped because officials stole all the money.
That road from Boca Chica to La Romana sure is nice. Those renovations at the Santo Domingo airport are fabulous. The improvements in and around Boca Chica are peachy. I see the results all around me.
I've never been asked for a mordida from a cop, although I did offer one when I got pulled over on a motorcycle and didn't have any ID or papers for the cycle with me. The cop just kept asking about what the police in NYC were like. I got the message, he got un regalito, we both smiled.
Some of us know how to cut a path, some of us don't. Golo, AZB, Chris, those guys don't seem to be having a problem. Robert, Pib, Hillbilly, myself, and a few others don't seem to be having a problem getting things done or complaining about the mordida system killing their life and business. It's part of the culture. It's the stand-alone gringos that get taken for a ride.
In this country you either keep out of sight, or make friends. The average small business does not have the problem you do. The foreign owned ones, yes, if they are not well connected, but it's as I stated, a foreigner needs to be well connected to run a prominent business under the nose of the local Dominicans.
Connections. Sometimes they come free, sometimes not. It just depends on the nature of your connections.
Too bad your part of the country is being neglected but somebody had to win. Long Live Boca Chica. I reported here two years ago that it was being positioned for renovation and will be the up and coming start, second only to Punta Cana. I was right on the money. And this is just the beginning.