57% of Dominicans live in poverty

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Acira

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?very "under developed" country has resources, well most of them. It all depends on how many people can access them and history tells and still does that offen in such countries only the "happy few" can.
 

PeaceNik

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Political Economy is not simple math

It depends on how many people those resources have to support.

It's simple math, really...

When talking about distribution or management of resources, i.e. political economy, it is never simple math. It is a fairly complex task that involves resources management, which in turn involves the development and maintenance of solid institutions to do a more or less efficient job. The fact that political economy is not simple math explains the struggles of equitable resources distribution in every nation on earth really. Developing and underdeveloped countries just have a tougher time because of history, geopolitics etc?Solid institutions CAN be resource multipliers. Africa is the richest and largest continent on earth. Its well known problems are certainly not the result of lack of resources or overpopulation; but it is the glaring lack of solid, efficient institutions to guarantee efficiency and a minimum level of equity in resource management in MANY African countries. Of course, this is due to historical factors that we don?t need to get into here.
 

PeaceNik

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Well...

You might want to know that PICHARDO IS one of those connected Dominican intellectuals...:cheeky:

:ermm: The point was never how well connected anyone is; and my intentions were never to insult anyone's sensibilities. My energy can be put to better uses such as drinking a few cold Presidente's and then try to dance salsa :D

...but thanks for the info !
 
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RacerX

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?very "under developed" country has resources, well most of them. It all depends on how many people can access them and history tells and still does that offen in such countries only the "happy few" can.

Peculiar you say this, because Belgium is a 1st World country in Western Europe, although it has no resources. Apparently ALL of Belgium wealth comes from economic interests in former African colonies.

So it benefits Belgium and their interests if African countries perpetually stay in a state of civil war, despair and political confusion. Wasnt that the reason they killed Patrice Lumumba? Kwame Nkrumah? Using proxies and mercenary armies to keep Robert Mugabe in power so colonial interests could stay wealthy(and undisturbed)?

And ASIA is the largest continent on earth.

So why would it be any different here on Hispaniola? Same tune, different player. There MUST be some natural resource of worldly gain that keeps Haiti and all these other Caribbean countries mired in poverty. Because it is the definition of evil if you re doing it just as game.
 

bob saunders

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Peculiar you say this, because Belgium is a 1st World country in Western Europe, although it has no resources. Apparently ALL of Belgium wealth comes from economic interests in former African colonies.

So it benefits Belgium and their interests if African countries perpetually stay in a state of civil war, despair and political confusion. Wasnt that the reason they killed Patrice Lumumba? Kwame Nkrumah? Using proxies and mercenary armies to keep Robert Mugabe in power so colonial interests could stay wealthy(and undisturbed)?

And ASIA is the largest continent on earth.

So why would it be any different here on Hispaniola? Same tune, different player. There MUST be some natural resource of worldly gain that keeps Haiti and all these other Caribbean countries mired in poverty. Because it is the definition of evil if you re doing it just as game.

Apparently you need to do more research on Belgium. Belgium is highly industrialized with most of that having nothing to do with it's former colony in Africa. More research on Robert Mugabe required also.
 

RacerX

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hahaha! o jajajaja! I stand by my statements. Belgium HAS NO NATURAL RESOURCES, so where does it wealth come from relative to its size?

And as well as their are people prospecting for gold in the hills of the western Dominican Republic, they are just as well looking in Haiti. Somehow all the riches wind up in Europe but the materials arent. What say you?
 

cobraboy

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When talking about distribution or management of resources, i.e. political economy, it is never simple math. It is a fairly complex task that involves resources management, which in turn involves the development and maintenance of solid institutions to do a more or less efficient job. The fact that political economy is not simple math explains the struggles of equitable resources distribution in every nation on earth really. Developing and underdeveloped countries just have a tougher time because of history, geopolitics etc?Solid institutions CAN be resource multipliers. Africa is the richest and largest continent on earth. Its well known problems are certainly not the result of lack of resources or overpopulation; but it is the glaring lack of solid, efficient institutions to guarantee efficiency and a minimum level of equity in resource management in MANY African countries. Of course, this is due to historical factors that we don?t need to get into here.
Whatever.

"Resources" include human innovation also.

And generally "resources" in one specific geography tend to be limited. The more people exist to be supported by those finite resources, the less each person benefits from those resources.

The reason "sanctions" work as a means of behavior modification is ~because~ they recognize specific resources are limited. Forbidding oil into Saudi Arabia or coal into West Virginia does not accomplish any BM.
 

MikeFisher

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Robert Mugabe is an enemy of the Colonists,
a reason why Zimbabwe been criticised and sanctionised so often specially by Great Britain and the USA over the last60+Years.
how old is that Man anyways today?
he took forcingly the land from Colonists to bring more 'equality' in the Use of the country's Resources.
I would guess the Colonists sent Mercenaries to Kill Him, not to assist.
Mike
 

bob saunders

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hahaha! o jajajaja! I stand by my statements. Belgium HAS NO NATURAL RESOURCES, so where does it wealth come from relative to its size?

And as well as their are people prospecting for gold in the hills of the western Dominican Republic, they are just as well looking in Haiti. Somehow all the riches wind up in Europe but the materials arent. What say you?

Those that have the natural resources, since that seems to be what you are talking about, but not the technical resources, financial resources, and perhaps not the mental resources will always have someone that has those advantages exploiting those natural resources. The Chinese are absolutely doing this in Africa currently.
 

mountainannie

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hahaha! o jajajaja! I stand by my statements. Belgium HAS NO NATURAL RESOURCES, so where does it wealth come from relative to its size?

And as well as their are people prospecting for gold in the hills of the western Dominican Republic, they are just as well looking in Haiti. Somehow all the riches wind up in Europe but the materials arent. What say you?

I remember having a discussion with a French woman in LT who went on and on about the horrors of slavery in the US -- and I said "and Africa for you would be, what?"

Certainly some of the biggest companies here are multinationals (Unilever, CocaCola) but there are also a lot of large home grown ones (Lista, Presidente).

I think the important thing is the MODEL of colonialism - wherein "management" in imported and the "workers" are local-- this is also the model that most of the international NGOs follow-- and we can perhaps agree that it does not produce self sufficiency.

But neither does a public education budget under 3% Education spending (% of GDP) statistics - countries compared - NationMaster

help development

nor the perception of public corruption
cpi 2008 table /cpi2008/2008/in focus/news room
 

AZB

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The topic is: 57% of dominicans are living in poverty.
So I will tell you why some people will never leave the poverty behind.
I was in a birthday party in santiago in a well-to-do lawyer's house. It was a party given in her huge apartment, about 25-30 people. In addition to her family doing their part, they had 2 well-dressed waiters serving food and drinks to the guests. The waiters were father-son team. The son was active and working like a machine. On the other hand, the dad was slow and uninterested in working. Soon we realized, he was drunk. I found his hidden drinks behind the bar. He was serving 3 drinks and drinking one from under the bar. Within 2 hours of the party, he was already drunk and wobbly. We had to tell him to stop this act or take a walk out the door. Of course, he denied "no fue yo".
So there you have a typical example: you give them work and the first thing they do is screw up. You think he will be offered to serve in any other party or recommended to other people to have him working in their private parties?
This is just one example.
AZB
 

cibaenopuro

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The topic is: 57% of dominicans are living in poverty.
So I will tell you why some people will never leave the poverty behind.
I was in a birthday party in santiago in a well-to-do lawyer's house. It was a party given in her huge apartment, about 25-30 people. In addition to her family doing their part, they had 2 well-dressed waiters serving food and drinks to the guests. The waiters were father-son team. The son was active and working like a machine. On the other hand, the dad was slow and uninterested in working. Soon we realized, he was drunk. I found his hidden drinks behind the bar. He was serving 3 drinks and drinking one from under the bar. Within 2 hours of the party, he was already drunk and wobbly. We had to tell him to stop this act or take a walk out the door. Of course, he denied "no fue yo".
So there you have a typical example: you give them work and the first thing they do is screw up. You think he will be offered to serve in any other party or recommended to other people to have him working in their private parties?
This is just one example.
AZB

that's bullcr*p. not too long ago the dr had an 80% poverty rate and the middle class is growing and it is now becoming the standard in the dr (at least in cities) to send kids to college since alot of them are now free. the onyl way i could see the dr regressing is if we have an open border and legalize haitians, otherwise the dominican population in the dr is prospering but i can't say the same for the haitian invaders. in a few generations most dominicans will probably be of middle income

some of the old people are lazy and too busy drinking or hanging out with their friends at el colmado, but dominicans kids are definitely starting to become interested in getting an education and going to college. almost all of my siblings and cousins go even the poorer ones
 

PeaceNik

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Resources, resources

Whatever.

"Resources" include human innovation also.

Human innovation implies good education among other things, all of which imply structures or institutions, which require a body (political system, government ) to devise them. Right? Wrong? or just whatever?


And generally "resources" in one specific geography tend to be limited. The more people exist to be supported by those finite resources, the less each person benefits from those resources.

Efficient infrastructures can be RESOURCES MULTIPLIERS. If the infrastructure is poor the amount of resources available versus how many people there is irrelevant. No?

The reason "sanctions" work as a means of behavior modification is ~because~ they recognize specific resources are limited. Forbidding oil into Saudi Arabia or coal into West Virginia does not accomplish any BM.

Just one of many ways to define 'Sanctions'. You can also prevent Saudi Arabia from selling its oil, from refining it by denying expertise, parts etc...But the simple point is that Saudi Arabia may have the largest reserve of oil possible, without the structures to exploit it and the will to utilize the revenues for the good of the Saudi citizenry the size of the reserve makes no difference whatsoever in the life of the ordinary citizen. Which connects with the original point of resource development and distribution.


And ASIA is the largest continent on earth.
.

I meant to say Africa is the 2nd largest continent. I stand corrected.
 

cobraboy

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Human innovation implies good education among other things, all of which imply structures or institutions, which require a body (political system, government ) to devise them. Right? Wrong? or just whatever?
Chicken and egg. A given geography has to have resources enough to afford an edumacational system.

Pn said:
Efficient infrastructures can be RESOURCES MULTIPLIERS. If the infrastructure is poor the amount of resources available versus how many people there is irrelevant. No?
:confused:

We must have gone to different schools.

PN said:
Just one of many ways to define 'Sanctions'. You can also prevent Saudi Arabia from selling its oil, from refining it by denying expertise, parts etc...But the simple point is that Saudi Arabia may have the largest reserve of oil possible, without the structures to exploit it and the will to utilize the revenues for the good of the Saudi citizenry the size of the reserve makes no difference whatsoever in the life of the ordinary citizen. Which connects with the original point of resource development and distribution.
Whatever.:rolleyes:

Fact is the Dominican Republic has a per capita GDP around US$8000 a year. That's not enough to do a lot of fancy dancing with infrastructure and edumacational systems. There is gubmint corruption, yes. The UN puts that number around US$120,000,000 a year, less than US$20 a year per person. You could slash the useless caudillos off the gubmint payroll and that number ~might~ rise to US$50 a year pp.

You could parachute the Danish system into the DR and there still would be a lack of resources to exploit that system.

PN said:
I meant to say Africa is the 2nd largest continent. I stand corrected.
Whatever.

But things in the DR could be worse. There are roughly 10,000,000 people here competing for limited resources. The 1,500,000 or so Dominicans living elsewhere could all come back...and there'd be more folks chasing the same level of resources.

Folks who preach all the DR needs is better "systems" and edumacation are naive at best regarding how economics work. Frankly, the DR has plenty of edumacated people. In fact one of the problems we have here is underemployment of the edumacated class...
 

donP

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send kids to college since alot of them are now free.

Could you please name a few?

IMO, most Dominican colleges are run like businesses, very few have educational goals in mind.
And I have never heard of any Dominican business offer free services.
Well, there may be a handful of church institutions...

donP
 

Acira

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Peculiar you say this, because Belgium is a 1st World country in Western Europe, although it has no resources. Apparently ALL of Belgium wealth comes from economic interests in former African colonies.

You have it all wrong my man. The Belgian monarchie and some in their closest company did profit in that particular time from their colony but thats it and that "richness" stayed and still remains in that particular establishment.
Belgium being a 1ste world country now has nothing to do with that, that comes from innovative companies, very well educated and creative scientists and a very specialized industry with some unique assests nowhere found in the world and thats THE primary export product which allows Belgium to stay on top.

I pick this up again because I was out of Internet for a few day's due to maintenance works on the tower here in Jarabacoa but wanted to react one time on you but I will say no further and are certainly not going into a debate with you on your other quotes towards me which are quite ridiculess.
 

Acira

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The topic is: 57% of dominicans are living in poverty.
So I will tell you why some people will never leave the poverty behind.
I was in a birthday party in santiago in a well-to-do lawyer's house. It was a party given in her huge apartment, about 25-30 people. In addition to her family doing their part, they had 2 well-dressed waiters serving food and drinks to the guests. The waiters were father-son team. The son was active and working like a machine. On the other hand, the dad was slow and uninterested in working. Soon we realized, he was drunk. I found his hidden drinks behind the bar. He was serving 3 drinks and drinking one from under the bar. Within 2 hours of the party, he was already drunk and wobbly. We had to tell him to stop this act or take a walk out the door. Of course, he denied "no fue yo".
So there you have a typical example: you give them work and the first thing they do is screw up. You think he will be offered to serve in any other party or recommended to other people to have him working in their private parties?
This is just one example.
AZB

This is a comparison going where? I had to take on staff and employees several times when working in Belgium for several companies. Do you think its all that different? For one example, out of 30 candidates screened first out of a lot more by the HR department, we redraw 10, 6 showed up for the final interview of which 3 almost immediately said or you could tell by the interview they were not really interested or engaged enough. 2 were hired of which one just didn't bother to show up again after a month with no notice at all. The other we had to let go after his test period. And the money was good.
It takes time and a lot of effort from someone who want to hire descent staff but eventually you find the right people.
 

DRob

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We must have gone to different schools.

You very well may have. Peacenik is correct in that infrastructure does serve as a form of efficiency multiplier. The richest gold mine in the world has little value if you lack the knowledge and means to extract, refine, transport and market the ore.

That requires an educated, motivated work force. Japan and Belgium are two of the most natural resource-poor countries in the world, yet their economies are comparatively solid. That's because they invested in their people, and subsequently became world leaders in industry, technology and finance.

There's no reason the same thing couldn't happen in DR. Education, via the G.I. Bill, largely created the American middle class. Dominicans - and most other people - could do wonders with education and opportunity.

As for AZB's comments, well, it's little more than a window into the heart of an elitist. He could have just as easily talked about the son's (i.e. "new generation's") hard work ethic, but no, he just found it easier to disparage poor folks again, which once more says a lot more about his quality (or lack of therein) than anything else.
 
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cobraboy

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You very well may have. Peacenik is correct in that infrastructure does serve as a form of efficiency multiplier. The richest gold mine in the world has little value if you lack the knowledge and means to extract, refine, transport and market the ore.
Of course. But "infrastructure" takes time...and money. It is a "developed" resource, not a "natural" resource. Big difference and one that cannot be minimized.

RDob said:
That requires an educated, motivated work force. Japan and Belgium are two of the most natural resource-poor countries in the world, yet their economies are comparatively solid. That's because they invested in their people, and subsequently became world leaders in industry, technology and finance.
Both Japan and Belgium have been civilized for thousands of years with highly evolved economic cultures. They approach "self-actualization" on the Maslow scale and have per capita GDP among the highest in the world. There is little comparison to the DR.

DRob said:
There's no reason the same thing couldn't happen in DR.
Maybe in 500 years the DR will look like today's Belgium or Japan.

DRob said:
As for AZB's comments, well, it's little more than a window into the heart of an elitist. He could have just as easily talked about the son's (i.e. "new generation's") hard work ethic, but no, he just found it easier to disparage poor folks again, which once more says a lot more about his quality (or lack of therein) than anything else.
So what? His style rubs some folks the wrong way. However, his substance is hard to argue.

Some facts can't be spun in a PC manner.
 
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I personally do not believe that ABC posts the same story in every thread. It probably just seems that way.

If one cuts and pastes a few nouns (lawyer, doctor, business person, etc), a few more adjectives (well to do, influential, wealthy, well-known, etc), and a couple verbs (but keep them simple and non-nuanced), then it is obvious just how much work ABC actually puts into his seemingly redundant and self-serving posts.

All very informative and constructive stuff. He da man!
 
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