educational titles and mislabels in the DR
I am not surprised to see that President Mej?a has embellished his cv. In the DR many people misrepresent their educational credentials, especially among the political class. They seem to misrepresent everything else, so why not their own educational records? If you dig, many politicos that demand being addressed as "la doctora Fulana de Tal" or "el licenciado Mengano de la Pe?a Prieta" do not, in fact meet the legal requirements to use such titles.
Partisan politics aside, not all local politicos, were liars about this issue. Among presidents for example, Balaguer apparently did earn his PhD and was widely acknowledged to have a well-rounded education and was well versed in classical literature and philosphy, among other things. Juan Bosch, a bona-fide intellectual, was largely a self-taught man; and was always referred to as "el Profesor" because he lacked any formal academic credentials despite his obvious accomplishments and scholarship. he did not use the honoris titles that several universities did bestow upon him. More honest than today's leaders. The always exceptional Trujillo received several 'Doctor Honoris Causa' titles and his sycophants unabashedly would use doctor on top of generalissimo and other obsequious bullcrap to perpetuate the false aura of the larger-than-life, "renassaince man" that el jefe was supposed to be. There is a trickle down effect that lasts to this day on the Dominican psyche. Everyone wants to claim some kind of degree, many without ever doing anything to earn it. Simply because it is associated with high societal status and power.
On top of whatever effect the Trujillo-Balaguer factor may have had on the Dominican culture and its pursuit of ceremonial titles, is that we have a larger Latin American cultural legacy to balme for this largely superfluous mannerism. In the U.S. the use of educational titles is largely confined to academic life, and in everyday life mostly in reference to clinical people like physicians, dentists, and psychologists, etc. with very few exceptions. Not so in Latin America, including the DR, where the use of educational titles is much more widespread. Many old attorneys in the DR received a Juris Doctor degree under the old system of the Universidad de SD despite it being the equivalent of today's licenciado degree. So, nowadays to be entitled to using doctor in front of your name, as in Doctor en Derecho (Law), the individual must have actual postgraduate credentials, usually from overseas (la belle France, where the Dominican legal system emanates from). Else, he or she is a licenciado(a). But the problem is that in the DR anyone with a college equivalent degree is a licenciado; whether in marketing, pharmacy, or social work. And they are entitled to use this licenciado in front of their names.
So some attorneys, that are not actual JD's nor PhD's will take it upon themselves to use doctor to distinguish themselves from the other professions, since in the early days all lawyers were "doctors".
Another observation for newbies to the DR: in the DR anyone with a high school diploma is a "bachiller" (bachelor) while practically anywhere else in the world, this concept applies to folks who completed 4 years of college (or its equivalent) as in Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts programs.
If what's on this thread is true regarding Hippo's academic background, he is technically not an engineer nor an agronomist. Any engineering degree in the DR was and still is at least 5 years of university studies. And a true agronomist must also have a 5 year degree to be entitled to the use of Ingeniero Agronomo. Hippo at best, has an associates' degree in agricultural sciences and completed one or two industry-sponsored courses on tobacco farming in some community college in rural North Carolina over the course of a few weeks.
- Tordok