| Daily News - Tuesday, 07 December 2004 |
President Leonel Fernandez participated in the Clinton Foundation Energy Forum held 6 December in New York City at New York University. During his remarks, President Clinton outlined the key energy issues facing the world: how the global community manages its existing resources; innovative ideas to meet future energy needs; and the profound environmental, economic, security and political consequences energy policy has on developed and developing nations alike. The forum panels agreed that climate change is a global problem that needs global solutions.
"If this country wants to be recognized as a positive force, then we must recognize the need to address climate change," said President Clinton, pointing out that while the US comprises 5% of the world's population, it produces 25% of the world's greenhouse gases. He mentioned the challenges ahead for China and India, countries that soon will be emitting more greenhouse gases than the US, unless ways can be found to create wealth and jobs while simultaneously reducing emissions in order to bring any positive climate change.
Stephen Byers, a member of parliament in the United Kingdom and Co-Chair of the International Taskforce on Climate Change, and the DR's President Leonel Fernandez both discussed the dramatic weather changes causing concern among everyday citizens in their countries. Byers mentioned the rare winter typhoon that occurred in Taiwan and the Philippines, the European heat wave that lead to 26,000 premature deaths in 2003 and the floods in Europe of 2002. President Fernandez focused on the unusual increase in hurricanes that hit the Caribbean last year, mentioning that the region experienced 10 to 12 hurricanes in 2004, compared to the usual two or three. "People would say something strange is happening and there's concern created."
But the question is, how do we translate the science and the concern into action by citizens and their leaders?
Byers said, "The way in is by explaining to people that you're handing down to your children a worse quality of life because of the way you're living."
"We need to start by looking at the tremendous opportunity, rather than the hand wringing," said former Timothy Wirth and president of The United Nations Foundation and Better World Fund. "The key is not to tie energy to national security but to domestic policy and the tremendous opportunity for jobs by creating clean affordable energy."
During the event, President Fernandez explained the realities of energy in his country, and why the Dominican Republic has to stay focused on the short-term goal of delivering a reliable energy system to the people. "It's a question of survival. Eighteen- to twenty-hour blackouts cause political problems and unrest, and threaten government stability." He also pointed to the fact that a country must be able to provide reliable energy for its industries and businesses in order to develop economically.
The Executive Branch announced the replacement of 13 generals and 10 colonels in the National Police. These changes, which are to affect the departments of Community Police, Internal Affairs, Personnel and Stolen Vehicle Investigations, were made upon the recommendations by Chief of Police Major General Manuel de Jesus Perez Sanchez.
The traditional Christmas "tree" of Santo Domingo, the Malecon obelisk, was lit yesterday. Santo Domingo Mayor Roberto Salcedo, Culture Minister Jose Rafael Lantigua and Ivan Ramirez, the president of Verizon that sponsored the tree, were on hand for the event that included a fireworks celebration.
The president of the Central Electoral Board (JCE), Luis Arias, complained yesterday that the RD$2.7-billion allotment they had requested for their 2005 budget had been trimmed down to RD$1.3 billion. He said that the organization received RD$1.4 billion in 2004, a presidential election year, and that the budget cuts endangered the application of the newly-instated law of primaries, as well as affect their operational spending. He argued that 2005 is a pre-electoral year in which they will have to prepare for the congressional and municipal elections of May 2006. He defended the JCE as the "face of democracy," as reported in the Listin Diario. The JCE has requested RD$750 million to prepare the political parties' primaries, but then a judge said it could be done with RD$70 million.
The president of the Dominican College of Medics (CDM), Waldo Ariel Suero, announced the suspension of the 72-hour public hospital strike that would have begun today. The physicians agreed to have the executive editor of El Nacional newspaper, Radhames Gomez Pepin, mediate the conflict after Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez discouraged Monsignor Agripino Nunez from serving as mediator.
President Leonel Fernandez has said that the government does not have the funds to meet the doctors' demand of a 100% salary increase. A 30% raise has been allotted to all public servants in the 2005 budget. Fernandez commented there are doctors in the union who suffer from "acute strikitis," a notion that Suero rejected.
The medics will meet with Vice-President Rafael Alburquerque, himself a former minister of labor and professional labor arbiter, today at the Presidential Palace, where they will continue their talks on how to improve working conditions.
Listin Diario columnist Orlando Gil comments that the strike was only backed by a certain group within the CDM and had no outside support from the population that has endured numerous strikes at the public hospitals. Gil commented that the labor movement has fallen into nationwide discredit.
Olgo Fernandez of the Office for Border Development announced that the Bi-national Artibonite Watershed Management Project would begin on 15 December and is programmed to last seven years. Forty per cent of the project will be implemented on the Dominican side of the border and 60% on the Haitian side. The initiative is being financed through donations from the governments of Canada and Italy and the United Nations. The Canadian International Development Agency has approved a sum of 10 million Canadian dollars for the project whose goal is to help reduce poverty in the border zones in the Artibonite watershed between Haiti and the DR, to help protect the environment, to make sound use of natural resources and to help reduce tensions on the island of Hispaniola by strengthening bi-national dialogue.
The project includes the installation of 24 nurseries with the capacity to produce 400,000 fruit- and wood-producing trees per year.
A recent study shows that 75% of students who enrolled in the state university UASD abandoned their studies prior to graduation. The study on drop-out rates in the public higher education system, as prepared by Maura Brea de Cabral, says that the main reason that causes students to forego their education is financial, as well as a lack of selection in the university curriculum, the socio-economic conditions of the nation, poor coherence between educational policy and the needs of the work force, and the internal policies of the university itself. Other reasons include excessive red tape at the institution and the educational deficiencies that the high school graduates bring with them when entering university. The fields of study with the highest desertion rates were those of engineering and architecture. The careers of education, health, and law had the least amount of drop-outs.
The president of the CONATRA transport syndicate, which reaped the most benefit from the Mejia government's Plan Renove, has filed a complaint with the District Attorney's office against fellow transport syndicate director Juan Hubieres, who is the spokesman for FENETRANO, another leading transport union that profited from governmental support. Hubieres was not included in the Attorney General's charges of fraud against the state in connection with the Plan Renove scandal. CONATRA's Antonio Marte is now accusing Hubieres, however, of overvaluing the 432 vehicles Fenatrano members purchased to the tune of more than US$10,000 each, or US$4.32 million. Hubieres said that if the units are overvalued, then the money should be requested from Sam Goodson, Johnny Morales and Fabio Ruiz, as reported in Diario Libre. These three were included in the case of fraud against the state prepared by the Attorney General office. He said he had documents that support the involvement of those persons. District Attorney Jose Manuel Hernandez Peguero has promised to study the case and proceed if sufficient proof is provided.
Listin Diario op-ed columnist, Oscar Medina, focuses today on the dilemma the authorities are facing following the occupation of the government-owned hills that border the Duarte Highway. He explains that the government chose to expand the highway by using lands that were unoccupied at the time, but took no action when, gradually, the lands closest to the city, near Villa Altagracia, were illegally possessed by families that built their homes there. On Sunday, the new community members paralyzed traffic on the highway for around four hours as they protested the death of one of their own, and demanded that the government build a pedestrian overpass across the highway. Medina writes that now the state has the dilemma of deciding whether to evict the hundreds of families that illegally occupied the zone or spend millions to build alternate housing for the squatters, at great social and economic cost. He wonders if, regardless of which of the two solutions the government chooses, the territory will again be taken over, and asks if this is not the land of chaos?
But there is a third solution, apparently: Listin Diario reports that Public Works Minister Freddy Perez said the government would build the pedestrian overpass linking the new Villa Altagracia communities of La Torre and Pajarito.
The high cost of whisky in the wake of the peso's decline during the first half of the year and ever-rising taxes have altered the habits of Dominicans. Listin Diario reports that whisky consumption dropped 6% from January to September of this year, compared to the same period in 2003. By contrast, sales of rum were up 14.6%, as Dominicans rediscovered the locally-produced beverage derived from sugar cane. Beer sales were also up, but by a lesser 3.8% for the same period. Brugal rum dominates 60% of the market and Barcelo holds a 30% market share. Brugal has not confirmed the news, but it has been repeatedly said that the company has been bought out by the Bacardi liquor company, itself a small player in the Dominican market. Other local brands include Siboney and Bermudez.
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