Change

[nicelifealways]

You can't change so soon

I think most of the people in this post have pointed at education or better politicians as redeem from the present. I don't think it is real...

a) Who has to be motivated to be educated?? I think most of the people think it is parents responsibility. While true the vertical mobility with education is so difficult that it almost means nothing to parents and hence no motivation to improve education.

b) If education was a serious priority, I am sure there would enough channels available to anyone who tried hard.

c) Education does not mean anything if there are no corresponding jobs available.

etc, etc. It's a big loop.

May be get real, accept a few things in life.

NO one else is to be blamed for the situation anyone drives himself into. Everyone has the responsibility first towards him/her-self and then the rest.

Get rational, everyone has to worry about maximizing their returns. Think for yourself, improve yourself in life the rest would follow...

 

[Escott]

Re: I agree with Pib on both counts

One, hang them!
Two. No way an honest person could make it to office when she-he doesn?t play by the prescribed rules of the game.. namely get all you can and cover up when you?re done so I?ll do the same when your turn comes to leave office.
If by some fluke an honest individual were to make it into public office, the others would surely make it their business to discredit him-her before the person can do any damage to the status quo.
This spells ruin for any respectable person who attempts to change things from the inside.
The best bet is definetly with education. But why leave it to the public schools? What could be accomplished if each peron made it their point to shed some light into someone?s horizon regardless of how dim it may seem..
If you reach just one out of ten people you speak to, then you have started the machinery for change. When the seed is planted, it is like a vine....
Why wait for someone to educate a parent who had no opportunity to be educated? Be that someone. It?s not as hard as it seems.

How many generations do you think this will take?

How will the class system in place in the country handle this?
Do you think AZB's upper class will allow this to happen or contribute to it?

Won't you still have the government running this country into the ground? What is going to change that? Will anyone want to run for government without a desire to line their pockets?

How does racial prejudice already in place affect this?

What do you think will happen in the mean time while your plan is in effect? Government, economy and business sectors?

 

[Cleef]

It's the usual complainers of how horrible things are in the DR. I posed the same question once to Leonel Fdnz. I was just as sour as all of you.

...and you're so bubbly and cuddly now.

He showed me the light. Dr is not more/less corrupt than the USA. Corruption,grafting,greasing the wheels is an endemic problem in politics around the world. He told me about Enron and similar mega problems in the USA.

True. But no one was asking about a comparison.

His English is pretty good.

Where'd he go to school?

Anyways the changes you guys are asking for are not possible in the DR or elsewhere. Your utopian visions are only possible in the Star Trek universe with their United Earth gov't hogwash.

You might be right, but this isn't a huge place and it holds so much potential. I think the people posting have offered their opinion on changing one thing - looking for the silver bullet. No one is saying it's a terrible place.

Just a peripheral view tells me that a strong and diligent educational system could produce - say in two generations time - a group of people that see the absurdity of building a huge army or navy (who the hell is going to attack the DR? Cuba? Haiti? Who are we competing with? What's next a submarine?).

In addition they might come to notice all of the ecological damage being done to a finite piece of terra (it's not a huge place) and work towards correcting the damage done instead of plowing it over and letting weeds grow in.

Perhaps they'd realize that they need to take more responsiblity for themselves and the work that they do.

Ultimately, they'd come to notice that interdependence, not independence, is something to celebrate.

They'd work to bring a more respectable living standard to all, thereby shrinking the gap of respect between the lower, middle and upper classes, instead of pitting them against each other.

I'll put up 1,000 qualified, dedicated and funded teaching professionals (and outfitted schools) up against 100 x that amount in government agencies, AMET's, PN's, toll booths, railroads, overpasses, battle ships, helicopters, guns, Range Rovers, motorcycles etc. and I bet know who'd produce more real results in advancing EVERYONE involved, whether it's in 1, 3, 10 or 100 years we're comparing.

Guaranteed.

 

[Amber]

My 2 cents

I think Cleef pretty much answered most of your questions.
But here are some thoughts..
There is no way to achieve rapid changes. You need a few generations for that. Take as an example how long it has taken Black Americans to be treated as citizens in their own country-from the civil war to now and still working at it... And let?s not even touch minority groups..
As each generation?s awareness grows through education and increased access to the media exposing the average person to other cultures, society changes. Where do you think many Dominicans get the idea that life outside the DR is more appealing? Who wants to wait 75 years for change? Would you? That?s where I say we can make the difference. Have you ever tried talking someone out of taking a yola , investing the money they would have paid for the illegal trip into a little business. These things make a difference. Families are kept together and the country doesn?t lose valuable human resources. There you have how a small action can have an impact on the economy, teh society and business.
Going back a few years, I can tell you how things have changed. My grandfather?s generation considered educating female children a waste of time. Now this was in a remote campo of Guayubin, and it was not necessarily the case in the larger cities at that time. But something odd happened. Many families migrated to other countries during the sixties and these uneducated women began to understand just how important education was and made sure their offspring had the opportunity they never had. Some of these offspring then took it a step further and started promoting the education of the ones who had been left behind creating a chain reaction.
I don?t know of any way to begin effecting social changes other than on a personal level and letting it evolve.
Right now what you see in the DR is a form of culture shock. The poorest most underprivileged Dominican can view images of places where people change their cars each year and begin saving for their unborn children?s college educations. Can you imagine how incomprehensible this is to a person struggling to live from day to day? What would go through your minds?
One more thing is that the average Dominican still thinks in terms of voting as a favour to a friend in order to cash in on it later on. Most people don?t even begin to grasp the concept of improving the country. Most politicians would rather keep the Bread and Circus policy for as long as possible thereby freeing them to do as they please when they please. They say, yes, we want the Dominican children to have a better education so we will give them access to computers in the public schools.. Meanwhile, not enough teachers are trained to teach the computer courses.. If you look closely, most intelligent Dominicans avoid going into teaching for the obvious reason of survival. Who wants to go to college for four years and earn less than a bank teller? So who ends up teaching?
I don?t delude myself in having the answers to remedy what is going on, but I do act when the opportunity arises. It may be an insignificant grain, but it is better than just talking, wishing or coming up with ingenious solutions no one is willing to listen to because it is not in their best interest to change...