Hillbilly: cuantos ?? how many ??

Hi, this one is for el Campesino (hillbilly), better known as Mr. 'Know it all'..

Here goes: Me puedes tu decir cuantos Generales, Partidos Politicos y Conjuntos musicales hay en nuestro amado Pais?

Can you tell me how many Generals, Political Parties and musical groups are there in our beloved country?

Seasons Greetings for all.

Feliz Navidad, Buon Natale.

SUN_RA

Sorry Sun-Ra, not a clue! Way too many!

There must be hundreds of generals. This information is not readily available to the paying public. they get like 35% of the budget but we don't know who they are or even how much the are supposed to make. They are considered the world's best and most masterful economists, since they are all fabulously wealthy, and most are relatively illiterate. With worthy exceptions of more recent "academic" generales, like Hector Lachapelle, most of these men are really below average.

As far as the political parties go, there are three major parties: The ruling PRD, the former gov't of the PLD and PRSC, now out of power for 5 years...However, there are many tiny parties that spring up like mushrooms every time an election comes around. From the far left to the far right. I would not even attempt to name them.

Musical groups? 150? maybe more if you count "conjuntos T?picos", might be a safe guess.

HB

Re: General Hector Lachapelle

Hillbilly: Hector Lachapelle was handed his rank of General because of his participation in the Revolution of 1965. he never made it to General thru the regular process. During the revolution he was at best, if I recall a lowly Major. He was in the right place at the right time during the revolution and led a tank group across the Duarte Bridge to join the rebels. He never really had the academic background to have become the historian he is. Basicly he learned all that afterwards in a in-the-job training thing when he got offer a TV job about short days in our history.He just would go out and do research for a particular subject and then would present it as an authority in the field. People got used to the idea he was a Historian.

Likewise, I can tell you that another so called historian, who has become a major authority in Dominican History, that works as the Public Relations V.P. for a major DR bank, up until his 21st. birthday was not even in college in the United States and was an unemployed grocery store gossiper in N.Y. He left NY and came to DR and all of the sudden became a celebrity in Dominican history. This is why there are so many versions of events in our history. Most of it is made up and great imaginations.

There are few true historians in DR. Much less, academic Generals.

Re: How about Frank Moya Pons?

Moya Pons is a good academician. He also has shown a good command of enviromental issues as the Enviro Czar in DR, but lately has given up some ground to interest groups with pressure from Hipolito. Max Puig is a revisionist at the service of his Haitian friends, specially Max Alexandre, his Haitian protege and now Haitian Ambassador-to-be- for the DR and a man who belongs to about 40 Anti-Dominican NGOs(waiting for senate confirmation). I would declare him personna-non-grata on the spot. Hector Garcia Michel is not bad either. As for our Foreign Minister, another historian with specialty in Haiti, I cannot comprehend his lack of good speaking qualities. Sometimes he sounds like George Frazier speaking spanish.

PS:regarding our Generals:Our Army Secretary General Polanco Salvador, at a recent event with Hipolito wore ten huge medals on his right side that took up up to his shoulder bone. His left side could not take up any more badges. Altogether I counted about fifty condecorations in his dress suit. And people used to call Trujillo..Chapita! He also carries a cane like Field Marshall Rommel. Good grief.
Between our Armed Forces Chief of Staff and the new Chief of the Volunteer Army their total weight exceeds 600 lbs.

TW

TW

Re: Political Parties in DR(Totals)

There are 16 certified political parties in DR based on 2000 election results, among themRD,PLD,PRSC,PRI,UD,PTD,BIS,PNA,Veterans Party,FNP(Vincho Castillo)MIUCA,PPC,and a couple of others I cannot remember. There are 35 total(including the 16) awaiting the decision by the National Electoral Board to certify them for the next congressional elections 2002.

There are many more parties and political groups which do not participate in the elections because of their ideology, like Fuerza Nacional Revolucionaria(a communist group), headed by Narciso Isa Conde, a bourgeois Bon Vivant himself and the Communist Party.The rest do not qualify for matching funds.

The majority of the 16 certified parties are one-man-shows, with few members, and the votes obtained during elections are usually bought thru false cedulas. Of course family members and close friends would vote for them. Among these fake parties are the Veterans Party led by Retired General Rafael Valdez Hilario, a congressman now by virtue of his alliance with the PRD. General Valdez is another Balaguer. He has a speech impediment, can hardly walk and a ventriloquist talks for him. He has been a fixture with every government and has been involved in every coup in DR. He was Chief of Police, Haitian ambassador twice and many other positions of high income. The guy is the ultimate survivor, but nobody votes for him. He even maneuvered an auto-coup in his own party when dissident veterans wanted to take it over. In a political fix with the Central Board he defeated the coup. Another one is Vincho Castillo(FNP) and his son. At best these people can count on their family vote, but Vincho is a big mouth that everyone fears and knows too much about who deals with drugs in this country.The BIS is headed by one of Pe?a Gomez sons, who betrayed his father and helped the PLD almost win a rerun last year. This party got 40,000 votes, 90% of them Haitian illegals voting with fake cedulas. The worst one is the PTD headed by three headed wise guy Senator Gonzalez Espinosa, who has a big mouth, so to quiet him Hipolito gave him the best job in the country, member of the Judicial Review Board, a job with lots of power but no work. You just sit there and get a nice salary for life. There are groups like Bloque Independiente Pe?agomista, who are nothing more than pe?a Gomez entourage guys and hangers on.

But overall, political parties in DR have no ideology. Not since the days of Juan Bosch and the old PRD. The only platform they have nowadays is jobs and patronage.

Prediction: With the economy continuing to grow due to the fact that Dominican Republic cannot be stopped regardless of who runs it, Hipolito Mejia will be the next President in 2004-2008.He will go for reelection under the banner of the PPH(His own party within a party) Leonel Fernandez will come second and Balaguer third. If Balaguer is not alive by then Jacinto Peynado will be third.

Hipolito will squeeze by with a small margin. He is the teflon president. Nothing sticks to him, not even keeping his eyes closed to corruption in his own inner circle. Besides, 90% of the Dominican people are tigueres and he is the prototype of Tigueraje. People love his rudeness, bad language and ghetto attitude.

TW

TW

Pretty fair assessment, IMO, except for PPH

I know Valdez Hilario so you are right on there....no qualms of "going with the flow'...
i am dying to know who this 21 year old grocery clerk-historian is!! You know Frank is good but could never get tenure in the US in spite of his credentials...strange to me. As for Hector, I know he puts DEM after his rank. I understand that means he graduated from the Escuela de la Batalla de las Carreras...I was referring to that type of "academico". I know there are three or twelve ore like that. I knew them when they were Lt Cols and Cols. Luis Oleaga comes to mind...
Anyway thanks for the very good political panorama....

Hb

Re: Pretty fair assessment, IMO, except for PPH

Hillbilly: I did not mean the guy was a 21 yr. old historian, just that when he was 21 he was not even in a US College. I knew him there and then and he was one of those guys who was always broke in a corner grocery store asking for a free beer or a few dollars. He is now about 58 yrs. old and is the PR man for a bank that claims 2.98% interest for credit cards. Enough said! I think if you know DR well you know who I am talking about.

As for Lachapelle, I knew him well in his youth. He was the older guy in the neighborhood chasing girls. I know his pedigree well. He is no historian.
TW