What Has Lionel Done thats been good?

[cobraboy]

During Leonel's first term he enacted a permanent civil status for government employees to try and stop the rediculous 99% turnover that happens everytime the administration changes. Hipolito repealed that too and thus on Leonel's first day the entire government was replaced....all the way down to the cleaning ladies (with a few exceptions). Nobody can work with that kind of turnover. It takes people a year to learn a new job anyway.

Scandall

I am absolutely amazed that people don't see this as the single biggest obstacle to a stable, consistent day-to-day government there is. This needs to be fixed, period.

Additionally it adds to the corruption and extortion on the lowest level, because a worker knows he's got 4 years to get all he can before he joins the ranks of the unemployed.

A total workforce of patronage employees is laughable in terms of respecting the institution of government.

The US would appear to be Third World, too, if it ran its day-to-day governmental affairs the same way.

If the DR wants to play in the First or Second World, it has to function like a First or Second World country governmentally.

 

[cobraboy]

In case people are not aware, the single most important thing to me is the overall economy or macroeconomics of the country. When that is doing good, that means the microeconomics is doing good and most people are doing good.

Afterall, the reason people leave is not because of anything other than economics!

Having said that, so far, the Dominican economy has grown by slightly more than 5% in the first half of this year!

The last time the economy grew was in the first year of Hipolito's rule, and that was a mere residue of Leonel spectacular booming years.

Inflation is virtually nonexistent compare to the past four years, we are in single digits again. Overall, the economy is doing better and it will only keep getting better.

Some people (one or two actually responded to this thread in a surprising tune) were not so sure about this a good 10 months ago, in fact, many went as far as bashing me. But, as with everything, time has revealed the truth and the economy is now in the best shape it has been since this decade started, the sad part is that its 2005, almost half of the decade has been lost. But, let's not focus on the past, it's the future what's coming and so far, it looks pretty good.

The economy of the DR should end with an economic growth rate for the year of around 4 to 5%. I have been claiming this since November of last year right here on DR1, some people questioned if this was possible. Now, I am sure they don't question such thing.

The good times are beginning to roll! E Pa' Lante Que Vamos!

Of course, some problems in the country still are apparent, but then again, it has only been 1 year!

^^^^ What he said.

I am constantly amazed when people actually expect any economy to recover overnight because of an election, especially an economy about to crash and burn like the DR was even just a year ago.

IMO, although I fully understand that many have suffered economic pain, it could have been one hell of a lot worse. I give the current administration high marks for intelligent economic management in light of a nasty can of worms they inherited. I just hope the Dominican people have enough patience for the job to be completed.

 

[DesiArnez6]

wow alot of PLDeistas

Maybe you all disagree but, i don't see much that Leonal has done, First of all, remove the Baninter crisis fom the Hipolito years, and THEn compare him to leonel, in my opinion besides baninter we were alot better with hipolito, and he also gave some raises to the public sector, especially to those who worked in the electricity plants. Now remember it is also debated as to when the Baninter crisis started, some would say it was equally both administrations fault for nor properly monitoring the situation, and if that were the case, it was a ticking time bomb that would have brought crisis to whichever administration in power at the time, it has not been proven that Baninter was "caused" directly by mejia admin.

Now remember the it was almost 60 pesos per dollar back in February, and before elections Hipolito managed to bring it down to 37 per dollar i believe, the "downward" trend continued even after the elections as did the new roads, schools and drainage ditches in my community, showing that hipolito was a man of his word regardless of losing. When Leonel dropped the dollar further to the 20's it was artificial, this constant 28.8 we see is overvalued by about 26% according to an artcle here on dr1.com. so the real value is .... yep about 36 per dollar, so who brought the peso down in reality... Hipolito, not through artificial exchange control as leonel uses

Leonel brought privitization which left many including my family into uneployment, and his constant goal of "efficiency" did the same in all sectors creating an excessive demand for work, and then abuses and stagnant wages.. now he wants Bush's DR-CAFTA agreement which could limit Dominicans abilities to make generic medicine, and would yes.. import agriculture, hurting farmers, his economic policies are pure republican, just do comparisons, and he is way too friendly to int'l bankers, and world market. IMO, PRD has been more skeptical of DRCAFTA, b/c they know, how will poor dominican afford american medicine, how can you eliminate our free health care (as leonel proposed, but was blocked by the senate 1st term), besides Santiago, and Santo Domingo, no one else had monety flowing into roads/projects/housing, with the PRD, every province you went there something being built, i live in the countryside, and nobody had ever seen so much, he spoke in our town, and visited, and reperesented us from the cibao, he talked like one of us, and was not so elite.

Leonel criticized people having to cook with fire instead of gas (my family had to) b/c lack of money, so what did he do? removed the gas cap at 25 pesos, and almost doubled its price, the gasoline kept going up, and everything continued to ridse in price. Wasnt his whole campaign on lowering prices? Just wait till he passes the CAFTA agreement and bankrupts the country from lost tax revenue, following in the same footsteps as Africa taking the wold banks advice, argentina followed the advice of the intl bankers as well and we all remeber the crisi that followed. Why do we need cafta? there is already an agreement that we can export to US without tariffs, this will just allow the us to export to us without tariffs, which is not fair to a third world country to have to compete with American farmers without tariff protection, end rant

PRD Always!

 

[bob saunders]

, no one else had monety flowing into roads/projects/housing, with the PRD, every province you went there something being built, i live in the countryside, and nobody had ever seen so much, he spoke in our town, and visited, and reperesented us from the cibao, he talked like one of us, and was not so elite.

PRD Always!

Where in the cibao, do you live? The only thing he did in Jarabacoa was pave the road to his mansion that he built with other peoples money. Now the potholes in town have been fixed, first time in 4 years. He talked like an Camposeno with no education. He is just another Jorge Blanco(crook) and when/if all the information about his crimminal activities are found out about the Americans will want to extradite him.

 

[Rocky]

Maybe you all disagree but, i don't see much that Leonal has done, First of all, remove the Baninter crisis fom the Hipolito years, and THEn compare him to leonel, in my opinion besides baninter we were alot better with hipolito, PRD Always!

I am searching for polite ways to tell you what I think about people like you, who obviously benefited personally from the Hippo's reign in terror, and as someone mentioned, might very well be prosecuted for the crimes he commited, as should be all those who jumped onto his lunchwagon.
You are the reason everything costs me more today.
You are the reason our future is uncertain, because people like you in large enough groups might very well influence another election for another "Hippo type".
We can't take another hit like the last one, no matter what Leonel can accomplish in 4 years.
Another 4 years of an administration like the last one, spells bankruptcy, and the end of the DR as we know it.
Your statements about Hippo improving the pesos before the election is a crock of shyte.
He did no such thing.
The change occured after the election, before Leonel took power and after the Hippo pillaged some more.

 

[RHM]

I am searching for polite ways to tell you what I think about people like you, who obviously benefited personally from the Hippo's reign in terror, and as someone mentioned, might very well be prosecuted for the crimes he commited, as should be all those who jumped onto his lunchwagon.
You are the reason everything costs me more today.
You are the reason our future is uncertain, because people like you in large enough groups might very well influence another election for another "Hippo type".
We can't take another hit like the last one, no matter what Leonel can accomplish in 4 years.
Another 4 years of an administration like the last one, spells bankruptcy, and the end of the DR as we know it.
Your statements about Hippo improving the pesos before the election is a crock of shyte.
He did no such thing.
The change occured after the election, before Leonel took power and after the Hippo pillaged some more.

Rocky. That was more diplomatic than the average PRDista would have been to you

I've heard the argument almost non-stop for the past year or so. Some blame everything on Hippo, some claim that he did his best and was the "victim". I think he was a tragedy for the following three reasons:

1) A Listin Diario journalist wrote an unflattering editorial about Hippo. He was arrested and jailed for 2 days.

2) 2 DJs from SF de Macoris made fun of him. They were arrested and jailed for 2 days.

3) Banninter collapsed and Hippo guaranteed ALL of the funds with the people's money. He did not have the right of the authority to do this. He just turned on the magic peso machine and started printing. This, more than anything else, killed the economy. MOst of the money in Banninter belonged to only about 100 account holders.

History will not be kind to Hippo nor should it. ALL successful nations in the world have three things in common: 1) free speech 2) the right to private property 3) the rule of law. None are perfect so please don;t give lame examples of failures in the US and Europe. The US and Europe are the first world in spite of their faults.

Edited to include: And to say "hey...take Banninter out of the equation" is not being realistic. It happened and he botched it.

Common sense always

Scandall

 

[cobraboy]

Rocky. That was more diplomatic than the average PRDista would have been to you

I've heard the argument almost non-stop for the past year or so. Some blame everything on Hippo, some claim that he did his best and was the "victim". I think he was a tragedy for the following three reasons:

1) A Listin Diario journalist wrote an unflattering editorial about Hippo. He was arrested and jailed for 2 days.

2) 2 DJs from SF de Macoris made fun of him. They were arrested and jailed for 2 days.

3) Banninter collapsed and Hippo guaranteed ALL of the funds with the people's money. He did not have the right of the authority to do this. He just turned on the magic peso machine and started printing. This, more than anything else, killed the economy. MOst of the money in Banninter belonged to only about 100 account holders.

History will not be kind to Hippo nor should it. ALL successful nations in the world have three things in common: 1) free speech 2) the right to private property 3) the rule of law. None are perfect so please don;t give lame examples of failures in the US and Europe. The US and Europe are the first world in spite of their faults.

Edited to include: And to say "hey...take Banninter out of the equation" is not being realistic. It happened and he botched it.

Common sense always

Scandall

Shame on you for confusing people with facts...

 

[RHM]

Shame on you for confusing people with facts...

Sorry. It's one of my many character flaws.

Scandall

 

[rellosk]

In Inflation is virtually nonexistent compare to the past four years, we are in single digits again. Overall, the economy is doing better and it will only keep getting better.

While I agree with you and have always felt that Leonel has done wonders fixing an economy that was wrecked by Hippo, it is strange that the latest Gallup-Hoy poll, as reported in yesterday's DR1 news doesn't agree:

The Gallup-Hoy poll taken just one week ago shows that inflation, crime and blackouts are the major problems facing the nation. Gallup Dominicana carried out the survey for Hoy newspaper. According to the interviews most of the population felt that the economy was either bad or very bad. Only 12% felt that the economy was "good."
At the very top of the chart of major problem areas were inflation and the cost of living (61.3%) and crime (61.1%).

The fact that only 12% of those polled felt the economy is good leads me to believe that I may out of touch with reality. However, it would be good to see the full results of the poll.

Does anyone have a link to the full results of the poll?

 

[HOWMAR]

While I agree with you and have always felt that Leonel has done wonders fixing an economy that was wrecked by Hippo, it is strange that the latest Gallup-Hoy poll, as reported in yesterday's DR1 news doesn't agree:

The fact that only 12% of those polled felt the economy is good leads me to believe that I may out of touch with reality. However, it would be good to see the full results of the poll.

Does anyone have a link to the full results of the poll?

Obviously, either the poll was flawed, or those polled were out of touch with reality, when they rank inflation as one of their major concerns. For at least the past six months inflation has been well controlled. In fact if you take petroleum products out of the equation, there has been minimal inflation.

 

[rellosk]

Obviously, either the poll was flawed, or those polled were out of touch with reality, when they rank inflation as one of their major concerns. For at least the past six months inflation has been well controlled. In fact if you take petroleum products out of the equation, there has been minimal inflation.

That's why I would like to see the actual results of the poll. Firstly, to see the questions, secondly to see all the responses.

Keep in mind that it people's perception is reality. Statistically, inflation has been low for the last 10 years in the US. But if you speak to a working class person, they would say that inflation has not been low because the cost of food, health care, gasoline, home heating, and rent have exceeded their wage increases over the last 10 years.

 

[RHM]

I agree with Rellosk about polls...you have to look close. They are oftentimes misleading and flawed. The phrasing of the question and sampling can be very biased.

Also, it does not surprise me that Leonel's popularity rating has declined some. I remember walking along the Malecon and Ave. Independencia the day after the election. There were people everywhere in the streets partying and singing "E pa fuera que van!" like Christ had returned. I looked at my buddy and said, "Wait six months. When their not all rich they'll blame Leonel."

Scandall

 

[Rocky]

The fact that only 12% of those polled felt the economy is good leads me to believe that I may out of touch with reality. However, it would be good to see the full results of the poll.

I guess it depends on how you ask the question.
I'm not happy with the economic situation, but I do realize that it was Hippo that created the problem and that we are in the "fix it up" stage.

 

[Rocky]

"Wait six months. When their not all rich they'll blame Leonel."
Scandall

That's why I worry when I see posts like desiarnez' above.
It wouldn't take much to sway the vote in the next election when at least 90% of the country's population doesn't understand economics.
We should start preaching the word to all our Dominican friends as of now, to make sure they understand and don't throw us and the whole country into a bottomless pit with another Hippo.
We have 3 years to convince them.

 

[Criss Colon]

Lack Of a Stable/Affordable Source Of Electrical Energy is "BY FAR"

The number one problem in the Dominican Republic!
"Inflation" and "Crime" can both be laid at the "doorstep" of the "Electricity" problem!
Homes and business' (Free Zones are going "belly-Up" for lack of stable electricity!!)fortunate enough to have a "Planta" are more and more dependent upon those "plantas" for their electricity.If a "Colmado" must use it's "planta" to save it's inventory,and sell cervesa,"Bien Fria" the cost of running the "Planta" must be passed on to their customers,hence "Inflation"!
Being in the "Security" service I know that two ways to increase "Crime",is to increase inflation,"Indirect method",and to decrease "illumination","Direct method!A guy who can't buy something he wants because it is out of his reach,may choose to steal it instead."Darkness" is the friend of the thief,and makes him more bold and therefore more active.
I have been visiting the DR for 20 years,and a working resident for 10 years.I said it before,and I surely will say it again,"Without stable affordabe electricity the DR will NEVER pull itself out of the "Third World,or "Developing Nation" Status!!!
The Dominican Government is to blame,as they have made electric cost subsidies for the "POOR" into a "Political Right" that no party has the "Balls" to eliminate!If "Social Security Benefits" is the "Third Rail" of "American Politics, "Electric Energy Subsidies" to the huge number of Dominican "Poor" is the "Third Rail" here!....
"Touch "IT" and you commit political suicide!!!"

I get MY electricity the "Old Fashion Way",I STEAL IT!!!! :bandit:
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

 

[mondongo]

Obviously, either the poll was flawed, or those polled were out of touch with reality, when they rank inflation as one of their major concerns. For at least the past six months inflation has been well controlled. In fact if you take petroleum products out of the equation, there has been minimal inflation.

No offense to a lot of you, but the poll reflects the reality of most Dominicans. The problem is that you read bits and pieces of economic data and then make incorrect conclusions.

Very few, if any, understand what is going on with the inflation numbers and its relationship to the exchange rate and the GDP numbers reported.

 

[mondongo]

I am not PRD or PLD

Now remember the it was almost 60 pesos per dollar back in February, and before elections Hipolito managed to bring it down to 37 per dollar i believe, the "downward" trend continued even after the elections...

This claim is basically true. The exchange rate went down to 37 days after Leonel was inaugurated. If we are looking for facts, that was essentially factual.

 

[RHM]

No offense to a lot of you, but the poll reflects the reality of most Dominicans. The problem is that you read bits and pieces of economic data and then make incorrect conclusions.

Very few, if any, understand what is going on with the inflation numbers and its relationship to the exchange rate and the GDP numbers reported.

Pray tell Mr. Modongo, enlighten us. Just kidding.

The truth is that NOBODY understands exactly what the polls represent. Thus, they end up supporting people's personal opinions.

Example: "52% of Americans oppose Bush management of Iraq war."
Then someone writes an editorial about how 52% of Americans are against the war in general. The truth may be that they disagree with the "management" and just want to nuke the place! Being "against the management" of something does not denote support or a lack thereof.
(Just an example...let's not now debate the war...that's old already)

So the polls of how Dominicans view the economy can be just as easily flawed. Also the sampling. Were people questioned face to face? Where and by who? Over the phone? (that would exclude a lot of people). How do we know the sample is representative of the population. Remember the "Census" three years ago?

Of all the Gallup polls in the US not only have I never been polled but I don't even know anybody who knows anybody who has ever been polled.

Polls can be whatever people want them to be.

Scandall
"Professor of Social Science Research Methods"

 

[rellosk]

We should start preaching the word to all our Dominican friends as of now, to make sure they understand and don't throw us and the whole country into a bottomless pit with another Hippo.
We have 3 years to convince them.

For those of you that live in the DR, and especially those of you that are citizens, it is more important (and more immediate) to support (and vote for) local PLD candidates.

Having a larger PLD presence in congress should help Leonel achieve his agenda and hopefully get him re-elected.

 

[rellosk]

No offense to a lot of you, but the poll reflects the reality of most Dominicans. The problem is that you read bits and pieces of economic data and then make incorrect conclusions.

Very few, if any, understand what is going on with the inflation numbers and its relationship to the exchange rate and the GDP numbers reported.

I agree that the poll may reflect reality, but it's difficult to gauge without seeing the wording of the questions and the full results of the poll.

The poll must have appeared in some of the local papers, does anyone have a link that we can click?