seems like Dr has come to a hault...

AZB

Platinum
Jan 2, 2002
12,290
519
113
It seems the Dominican republic (especially santiago) has come to a stand still right after the elections. seems like a city recuperating after a lenghty war. Businesses are dead, several small businesses closed down right in my neighborhood (office area). many others are struggling. the watch repair business near my office is closed for good. 2 restaurants which served lunches, closed, a bar which my friend owned, closed. There is never any electric anywhere and I am currently sitting in my office sweating. Lights often come only for an hour in santiago city area during the working hours. Many busiesses can't afford the high costs of fuels to keep the businesses running. The electric bill keeps going up while the black outs are lasting longer by the day.
Plaza internacional is closed since monday. there seemed to be a fire in one of the stores and now the whole plaza is closed till, god knows when.
The only places which seem to be doing ok are well known bars / cafe, but only a few. More and more dominicans are seen sipping brugal and beers in the streets. The whole places seems like a ghost town on weekends. To me, it seems like seriously bad news. Now I hardly have any patients and the ones who do come, don't seem to have any money. But it seems i have bad days and good days. as long as people have back pains, I will be in business. However, I can't say the same about other businesses. there are people seriously hurting from high cost of living and low income. Lets hope a cool breeze of wind comes our way and the economy take a different turn for better.
AZB
 

mami

New member
Mar 16, 2004
291
0
0
all i heard was back pain

the economy is struggling there and i hope things get better soon i am moving there next month.

but all i heard right now was back pain! i used go to the chiropractor once a week, then once month and i am gonna need one when i get there. after i had my last child... hip went out, couldn't walk for 3 weeks.

anyway every once in a while it goes back out. where are you located? i'll be living in santo domingo. do you recommend anyone in that area?
 

Forbeca

Bronze
Mar 5, 2003
729
2
0
I get a totally different report from other people. I was planning on going down for the July 4th weekend, everyone is telling me come on down, come on down. I don't know AZB, your report makes me want to go to France instead.

I'm depressed enough, why go visit a ghost town?



AZB said:
It seems the Dominican republic (especially santiago) has come to a stand still right after the elections. seems like a city recuperating after a lenghty war. Businesses are dead, several small businesses closed down right in my neighborhood (office area). many others are struggling. the watch repair business near my office is closed for good. 2 restaurants which served lunches, closed, a bar which my friend owned, closed. There is never any electric anywhere and I am currently sitting in my office sweating. Lights often come only for an hour in santiago city area during the working hours. Many busiesses can't afford the high costs of fuels to keep the businesses running. The electric bill keeps going up while the black outs are lasting longer by the day.
Plaza internacional is closed since monday. there seemed to be a fire in one of the stores and now the whole plaza is closed till, god knows when.
The only places which seem to be doing ok are well known bars / cafe, but only a few. More and more dominicans are seen sipping brugal and beers in the streets. The whole places seems like a ghost town on weekends. To me, it seems like seriously bad news. Now I hardly have any patients and the ones who do come, don't seem to have any money. But it seems i have bad days and good days. as long as people have back pains, I will be in business. However, I can't say the same about other businesses. there are people seriously hurting from high cost of living and low income. Lets hope a cool breeze of wind comes our way and the economy take a different turn for better.
AZB
 
Last edited:

MrMike

Silver
Mar 2, 2003
2,586
100
0
52
www.azconatechnologies.com
Yeah my almighty powerful inverters can't even deal with this length of blackouts. 1 hour of electricity at a time is just not enough to keep the batteries charged. I hope this plan to "spread out" the blackouts is going into effect soon, I can't help but think that all of Santiago must be getting the sh!t-end of it right now.

We are not even having blackouts anymore, just occasional "allumbrones" that last about 1 hour.

If this keeps up I will be surprised to see any cold beer anywhere in the country and then there will be riots. Not that it will do any good, I think the government must be on vacation till the change of office.
 

Adrian Bye

Bronze
Jul 7, 2002
2,077
138
0
I have yet to get a blackout of more than 5 minutes since 2 weeks before the elections (early may). In fact, before yesterday, we didn't even have any 5 min power outages.

Electricity has been absolutely rock solid in my part of santiago.
 

MommC

On Vacation!
Mar 2, 2002
4,056
7
0
dr1.com
Where are you located adrianb??

Could be you're in the "right" area not to have suffered the on-going blackouts!
 

frank alvarez

New member
Apr 13, 2004
282
0
0
Punishment from Hippo and gang

Everyone knew that soon after the elections, win or lose, Hippo and his gang could not keep the lights on since his government is broke! Now, after losing badly, it is more like punishment from Hippo and gang.

Rumor has it that the lights will go back on around the middle of July (supposedly THAT money is already budgeted) until August 16th when the new administration takes over. Why? So when President Fernandez finds
the mess Hippo and gang made and not a peso in the bank, the blackouts
will make Hippo look better in the short-memoried sector of the Dominican populace and the new government will have a public-relations mess in their hands.

Did anyone expect otherwise from the worst government in the history of the DR with the most irresponsible, indecent and downright mean bunch installed in the National Palace?
 

miguel

I didn't last long...
Jul 2, 2003
5,261
2
0
113
I know what you are talking about!!!!

MrMike said:
Yeah my almighty powerful inverters can't even deal with this length of blackouts. 1 hour of electricity at a time is just not enough to keep the batteries charged.
It's funny you said that because my girlfriend has been telling me for a few days that the "apagones" are so frequent that her inverters have no time to recharge. Last night she lost her voice while teaching because her inverter was not fully recharged and had to teach without her microphone!. My friend from SD told the that they have found a way to he happy all the time, now they celebrete when the light goes out. Now, she says, that they will be happy 24/7!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe this is not "Montezuma Revenge" but rather "Hippo's Revenge"!!
 

juancarlos

Bronze
Sep 28, 2003
676
0
0
Electricity in the DR

By the way, is there a city in the DR that has electricity most of the time? Why is it that, according to what I've read here, some parts of a city may be in the dark for hours and hours while other parts are not affected? The only other coutry in Latin America where blackouts are almost as endemic is Cuba. I know of no other nation where this problem is as grave as it seems to be in the DR.
 
T

TiberiusMineola

Guest
Nuclear Power Plant!! The obvious Answer??

Strange? The enviroment? Think @ it. A medium sized nuclear plant, in Haiti, nera Monte Cristi, would serve all of the electrical needs of the DR & Haiti, for 50 years. Caveat: foreign owned & foreign operated, of course. 100,000s of thousands of ex pats & DRs would rush to sign up. DR1 should get a national, no international, movement, started!! Chernobyl? 3 Mile Island? 20 - 25 yearas late, what has been the actual harm? Worth it? 1 vote for 'yes'! Comments?
 

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
13,369
3,150
113
TiberiusMineola said:
Strange? The enviroment? Think @ it. A medium sized nuclear plant, in Haiti, nera Monte Cristi, would serve all of the electrical needs of the DR & Haiti, for 50 years. Caveat: foreign owned & foreign operated, of course. 100,000s of thousands of ex pats & DRs would rush to sign up. DR1 should get a national, no international, movement, started!! Chernobyl? 3 Mile Island? 20 - 25 yearas late, what has been the actual harm? Worth it? 1 vote for 'yes'! Comments?

That's what I have been thinking about. Since one nuclear power creates the most energy at one time, we should install at least three. One for each region (SDQ, The East, and the North). Due to the fact that the Southwest is relatively unpopulated and its very poor with no much electricity (at least compared to the other areas of the country) all current power stations could be wired towards that area. Heck, if we produce more electricity than needed, we could sell the excess to Cuba and Puerto Rico via underwater cable lines. The only problem is if one of the plants melt, boy, what a mess.
 

gringo in dr

New member
May 29, 2003
434
0
0
adrianb said:
I have yet to get a blackout of more than 5 minutes since 2 weeks before the elections (early may). In fact, before yesterday, we didn't even have any 5 min power outages.

Electricity has been absolutely rock solid in my part of santiago.

I've been telling people the same thing. But no one seems to believe me. We must be close enough to be on the same grid. I've had rock solid 24 hour a day power since before the elections. At night I can look out and see nothing but darkness all around me.

I was talking with my wife today and she said an ambassador moved into the neighborhood not to long ago.

I'd like to personally welcome my new neighbor.
 

KrackedKris

On Vacation!
Apr 8, 2004
287
0
0
Nal0whs said:
That's what I have been thinking about. Since one nuclear power creates the most energy at one time, we should install at least three. One for each region (SDQ, The East, and the North). Due to the fact that the Southwest is relatively unpopulated and its very poor with no much electricity (at least compared to the other areas of the country) all current power stations could be wired towards that area. Heck, if we produce more electricity than needed, we could sell the excess to Cuba and Puerto Rico via underwater cable lines. The only problem is if one of the plants melt, boy, what a mess.

Only "problem is, the rest of the "First World" that you so despise ain't gonna let you have one. Nah nah nah nah nah
 

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
13,369
3,150
113
KrackedKris said:
Only "problem is, the rest of the "First World" that you so despise ain't gonna let you have one. Nah nah nah nah nah

Your right and wrong.

1. Your right about First World not letting us have one, but oh well, something got to give. We are an independent country and if any other country wants to wage war on us because all we want to do is increase our electric output then people around the world would see the flaw in such thing. It will be Iraq Part 2, but that time the world might lose it since they might think its a trend of invading countries for bogus reasons.

2. I don't hate the "First World". Contrary, you DO seem to hate me because we disagreed in somethings, but hey, that's your problem. There are many things we could agree upon which have not been exposed on this board. Fine, keep thinking I hate the First World. Your opinion is not as important as that of my American friends that are in much more power of their country than you are. Think what you want, I had it with you and your insults!
 

MrMike

Silver
Mar 2, 2003
2,586
100
0
52
www.azconatechnologies.com
1) we build a nuclear power plant
2) The US invades, finds Hipolito hiding in a hole and slap him around before carting him off to jail
3) They are now responsible to "restore" electric power. Make sure they think power was constrant and cheap before the invasion so they leave it that way afterwards.

The downside? Maybe they throw black hoods on the PN and AMET, and PPH and do some very thorough cavity searches, I can't wait to see THOSE pictures on CNN.
 

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
13,369
3,150
113
MrMike said:
The downside? Maybe they throw black hoods on the PN and AMET, and PPH and do some very thorough cavity searches, I can't wait to see THOSE pictures on CNN.

CNN might not be allowed to show them next time because it would "cause strains" in public opinion of the population. They were prohibited from showing the casket of dead soldier going to the U.S., though BBC blasted them around the world.
 

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
18,948
514
113
I am afraid that the price tag

Is too big for a little island.

Plus the tremendous danger ofr earthquakes

Plus the fact that just two or three generators like to one new Newark Airport are enough to light up this whole place. We onlyhave like 2000 MW for the whole country.?? I think I read that peak demand is only 1500 MW at any given time.

HB
 

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
13,369
3,150
113
Hillbilly said:
Is too big for a little island.

Plus the tremendous danger ofr earthquakes

Plus the fact that just two or three generators like to one new Newark Airport are enough to light up this whole place. We onlyhave like 2000 MW for the whole country.?? I think I read that peak demand is only 1500 MW at any given time.

HB

If the DR was to do some research in the electicity aspect of Puerto Rico, maybe even Haiti, Cuba, and Jamaica, I think that investing in creating more electricity than needed would be very good for the government. They can sell the excess to our neighbors.

I do know of the tremendous danger of earthquakes, but California has a few nuclear plants, so maybe they found a way to built them earthquake proof or something. Anyways, the solution would be extremely expensive since if we want to act on the safe side, we are going to have to build new islands a few miles off the coast (yes, that can be done nowadays) for the building of these plants. In case something happen, due to the tradewinds blowing from east to west, the radiation might go with the wind and not affect too much the country, that is if radiation is lighter than the wind power of course and if the wind can actually move the radiation.

Some people suggest putting it in Haiti, I don't think that's a good idea. Despite the many anti-Haitian posts I have placed on DR1 and my clear mentality on their presence in the DR, etc., I don't like to impose anything on them on their land. I would not like it if some other country builds a nuclear plant on the DR. If that plant melts, many people will be affected, people that had not even benefited from that. Doing that to the Haitians would not be nice, especially on their turf. The best option is to build islands off the coasts to place these plants OR building them in very remote regions of the country where little economic activity and small populations are found. Other than that, the solution would be to import electricity from Puerto Rico, but that would be much more costly in the long run than building power plants!

We can also invest in enviro. friendly electricity as well. If the gov. was to purchase and install solar panels on the roofs of every home and/or building in the DR as well as to each street lights, that would be a good way of fixing the problem. The solar panels can produce extra energy for when the power from the power plants goes into a blackout. Another option would be the creation of windmills on man made islands off the coast or in isolated windy areas of the country. These windmills could even be used for touristic purposes in those outback excursions so people can see one way we get our energy, they could become simbols for a region in the DR and Barbados has some windmills already and even though its obvious that they are man made, they kind of fit in with the scenery for some reason.
 

gmiller261

New member
Dec 29, 2002
448
18
0
Nuclear energy

While I am not a big proponent to fission Nuclear we have made some interesting advancements.

Check this link out. It's on High temperature nuclear. The US has a 2010 'deadline' to actually build another nuclear power plant. The design is still undefined. They call this design 'melt-down' safe. There are safety issues I am sure.

The key here is what the US has to do, and that is create a hydrogen economy. At high temperature, these reactors can dissociate water into hydrogen and oxygen (>50%). They estimate a single plant can produce 100's of millions of tons of hydrogen a day. Now go figure.

Now the argument that the US would not let the DR build one.... I am sure they'd love a guinea pig as well as revenue.

http://www.ornl.gov/~webworks/cppr/y2001/pres/110706.pdf