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Reactions to Mejia’s statement continue The lead article in all of today’s major newspapers concerns reactions to the declaration made last Sunday by President Mejia. In his speech, Mejia announced that, if necessary, he would rule by decree, without the Congress. Hoy newspaper features the statement made by Cardinal Lopez Rodriguez, whereby he says, “I have never been nor will I ever be in favor of an Electoral Board made up of politicians.” He suggests also that the resignation of the entire Central Electoral Board is the best way to start solving the current political crisis. He further warned Hipoloito Mejia that, in a democracy, absolute rule by decree is not acceptable. The Listin Diario says that the government has accepted a plan for a dialogue, as suggested by the PRSC (the Reformist party). It says that Hipolito Mejia has accepted the proposal and furthermore, has authorized Monseignor Agripino Nuñez Collado to work on the agenda to be discussed, giving the cleric his “full confidence and support” in carrying out this mission. The announcement was made by Mejia himself in a public statement, which put forth the idea that he (Mejia) “is convinced that the nation is calling on all the different political entities to join together in order to successfully face up to the great challenges that we have before us.” The Dialogue proposed by the opposition PRSC would include the political community, the Government, the Civil Society, and the productive sector, with the Catholic Church, in conjunction with other churches, serving as mediator. | |||
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Residential Blackouts Blackouts returned to punish the population yesterday. The situation is being made more difficult by the need to service the 69,000-volt line that serves the central part of the National District. The present interruptions are affecting the residential sectors and have lasted as long as 8 hours. The electrical distributors, EDE SUR and EDE ESTE, explained that they had previously warned of this happening due to ongoing maintenance work to correct problems in some of the substations and install transformers. EDE SUR said that the interruptions are also due to procedures that will see the replacement of equipment, the repair of connections, modification of the circuitry architecture and the trimming of trees. At the same time, AES/ EDE ESTE explained that the balckouts that occurred in the area of Los Mina, Ensanche Ozama, Invivienda, Los Trinitarios y Hainamosa were due to the installation af a new 50-megawatt transformer that will improve the service in these areas. | |||
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More on the Census Training will be the key element in the success or failure of the VIII National Census. Some 150,000 people have been trained to carry out the census on population and housing. This figure includes the census takers, the area supervisors and the polygon superintendents. This personnel has been recruited from schools, clubs, universities and government offices, examined and then trained after selection. Now they are charged with covering the entire country from house to house, for the three days of the Census. The training classes were held in local schools, community centers and other public and private facilities that were placed at the disposition of the National Office of Statistics (ONE). The training included both theory and practice and after some 12 hours of classes the students were taken to different areas where they were taught how to apply the coursework to the actual practice. | |||
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Meatpacking is a RD$4-billion peso industry The Dominican meatpacking industry is one of the areas of greatest progress and technical advancement in the last six years, within the Dominican economy. This market revolves around some RD$4-billion pesos annually and consumes approximately 200 million pounds of meat in the production processes of six large and medium businesses and 25 smaller processors. The statistics also show that roughly 65% of allpork and beef produced in the country is consumed by the meatpackers. About 52% of the production is in the form of salami and about 10,000 people are directly employed by this sector. The numbers show that individual consumption is nearly 24 pounds per person, nationwide. As much as 90% of households consume these products. | |||
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Poor nutrition a growing problem According to the front page article of today’s El Caribe newspaper, 26% of the Dominican population suffers from some form of malnutrition. This statistic is especially worrisome to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) because a large proportion of the food products consumed by the population come from outside the country. This situation has placed the Dominican Republic in the category of nutritional risk, and shares part of the worst ranking in Latin America, along with Haiti, Guatemala and Nicaragua. An estimated 4 million Dominicans are considered poor, and, of these, about 70% (or 2.8 million) are considered “indigent”, or without sufficient means to feed themselves properly. From these numbers a conclusion can been drawn that 35% of the population risks malnutrition. But the real situation is that currently some 26% of the Dominican population, mostly women and children, already suffer from malnutrition on some level. According to FAO, any country obliged to import 20% or more of its foodstuffs will suffer from this condition. The FAO is prepared to institute a program called Secure Food in the country and there are two main causes for this situation, says the FAO’s local representative. One of them is that, despite an admirable production of agricultural products, too much is lost between the fields and the marketplaces. Another is the inefficient use of water. In fact, according to the statistics provided, the typical resident of Santo Domingo uses four times as much water as the world average and in the countryside up to five times the average. | |||
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Construction is important in Santiago According to a report in El Caribe, 30,000 jobs are produced by the construction industry in Santiago. This year the construction companies will invest RD$3.6-billion pesos into different projects around the province, as compared to just RD$1.5 last year. As late as the early 1980s, there were only some 15 construction companies in Santiago, but today there are nearly 150 firms dedicated to this business. The industry generates an estimated RD$300-million pesos a month in the local economy. | |||
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Big Fair in La Romana More than 150 businesses from all over the country are participating in the Seventh Multisectoral Fair “Expo 2002 East” in the La Romana Sports Complex. The event is being called the “commercial party of theyear” by its organizers. According to Julio Gomez Camacho, head of the local Chamber of Commerce, diversification of the products and services to be offered will be a key factor to the event’s success, with sales expected to reach as much as RD$10,000,000. The fair will last until Sunday. | |||
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