Progress in the DR

[NALs]

According to a recent finding by Latinobarométro, 60% of families in Latin America claim they have seen an improvement of their family economy in the last 10 years.

More interesting the improvement of the country. 50% of Dominicans see the DR improving. That makes the DR the second country with the most people seeing improvements in Latin America. El Salvador is the only Latin American country that people think is doing better. In Latin America as a whole 28% of people think things are improving.

 

[NALs]

Other findings:

- 61% of Latin America’s upper class is not worried that an un democratic leader rise to power (ie. dictator) as long the problems of the country are attended to.

- 48% of Latin Americans see themselves as part of the middle class.

- 92% have a cellphone.
- 69% have access to the internet.
- 35% have their own car.

- Latin Americans prefer to strengthen the relationship with the USA than with China.

Casi 60% de los latinoamericanos dicen que han progresado en los últimos 10 años

El informe Latinobarómetro 2024 también muestra que los nuevos presidentes han proporcionado un impulso a la democracia

www.larepublica.co

 

[johne]

Other findings:

- 61% of Latin America’s upper class is not worried that an un democratic leader rise to power (ie. dictator) as long the problems of the country are attended

lol at statistics since they are usually just one half of a story. Is it possible that this stat leaves out: Because 100% on the undemocratic leaders leaders are in the 61% of the LAs upper class?

 

[windeguy]

Of course the DR improved under Luis.
Look what it had before that.

 

[malko]

I am surprised that only 50% see the improvement over the last 10 years, though I may be reading that chart wrong.

In my neck of the woods, it seems that over the course of 10 years, we have finally joined the 21st century. 😃

24h luz, more internet providers, administrative stuff can be done online, garbage pick-up, more and more places accept debit/credit cards, etc etc.

 

[NALs]

I am surprised that only 50% see the improvement over the last 10 years, though I may be reading that chart wrong.

In my neck of the woods, it seems that over the course of 10 years, we have finally joined the 21st century. 😃

24h luz, more internet providers, administrative stuff can be done online, garbage pick-up, more and more places accept debit/credit cards, etc etc.

Considering Dominicans are negative about the DR almost by default (and this is regardless if the DR is improving or not), 50% is actually good. Much of the reason is politics. Many Dominicans have a problem recognizing an improvement if it happens under the watch of a president/political party different from what they support. In fact, there are many Dominicans that don’t like to hear anything positive of the DR, but get glad when the news is negative.

Dominican pessimism is one of the drivers of emigration and why many Dominicans want to leave the DR even when they actually don’t have a need to do that. Always use Costa Rica as an example since they are a developing country too, but Costa Ricans don’t believe in mass emigration from there, even aMont the poor ones.

 

[drstock]

I am surprised that only 50% see the improvement over the last 10 years, though I may be reading that chart wrong.

In my neck of the woods, it seems that over the course of 10 years, we have finally joined the 21st century. 😃

24h luz, more internet providers, administrative stuff can be done online, garbage pick-up, more and more places accept debit/credit cards, etc etc.

You are lucky where you live. Where I live there are still the usual power outages and the garbage truck come every few weeks, leaving the rats to party as they wish.

 

[Aguaita29]

You are lucky where you live. Where I live there are still the usual power outages and the garbage truck come every few weeks, leaving the rats to party as they wish.

In my hometown we got 24/7 electricity under the last PLD term. People had forgotten about inverters and generators. After Luis took office, power outages came back, along with increased energy bills.

 

[CristoRey]

I would say the overall standard of living has improved during the last ten years but they still have a long way to go when it comes to internet, electricity, water, roads and schools.

If only they could find a way to stop the Chinese from dumping so much cheap garbage into this country.

 

[bob saunders]

I would say the overall standard of living has improved during the last ten years but they still have a long way to go when it comes to internet, electricity, water, roads and schools.

If only they could find a way to stop the Chinese from dumping so much cheap garbage into this country.

Many roads are vastly improved, as well is internet access and quality. Water- they've done very little, same with electrical. Here in Jarabacoa power is on most of thew time and garbage pickup is reliable.

 

[CristoRey]

Many roads are vastly improved, as well is internet access and quality. Water- they've done very little, same with electrical. Here in Jarabacoa power is on most of thew time and garbage pickup is reliable.

Same can be said for area of Santiago I live/ spend most of time.

 

[malko]

I would say the overall standard of living has improved during the last ten years but they still have a long way to go when it comes to internet, electricity, water, roads and schools.

If only they could find a way to stop the Chinese from dumping so much cheap garbage into this country.

10 years ago, give or take, the kids went to school either in the morning or in the afternoon. And they weren't fed.

Now, they have full school days ( 0800 to 1500 ) and get breakfast and lunch, free of charge. Which is huuuge for the "poor" folk ----- of which there are a lot .

Is it perfect ? Far from it. However I still call it an improvement.

Again, around my parts.

 

[JD Jones]

Same can be said for area of Santiago I live/ spend most of time.

Improvements to water supplies have been greatly improved for many who before, had no water at all. I've posted many of the projects here over the last two years.

Electrical still has some big obstacles to over come.

 

[windeguy]

Improvements to water supplies have been greatly improved for many who before, had no water at all. I've posted many of the projects here over the last two years.

Electrical still has some big obstacles to over come.

Not on the north coast. It is getting worse.

 

[windeguy]

And now there was an article about penalizing areas where there is electricity theft, by turning off the power for hours at a time. Idiots.

It is ridiculous. When I arrived here low level circuits were on less than 12 hours a day because we were on a Class D lowest priority highest theft circuit.

So what people did was get inverters and batteries. The thieves actually ended up using more "free" power to charge and discharge those batteries because energy is lost in those processes at about 30% or so depending upon battery condition and the inverter charger used.

This cost the payers even more because they had to have the additional inverter/battery systems for backup and they used more electricity than they would if power were on all of the time. Those going over 700 kWh were paying outrages amounts. The people stealing power still didn't end up paying anything for the electricity, but they would need battery inverter systems and just kept stealing power.

Then they tried to set up a government organization to stop the theft and they would be run out of the barios.

Eventually they forced most people to get meters installed and pay "something". Obviously even that silliness did not work and
now they are going back to punishing areas with blackouts where theft is at certain percentages.

What needs to be done is get rid of the EDE's and have companies that will cut off customers for theft.
Don't pay for what you use? You lose connection.

The people running the power distribution system are morons.

 

[El Hijo de Manolo]

The people running the power distribution system are morons.

Corrupt actors is more like it. What you perceive as stupidity and incompetence is ultimately corruption. You must know this.

 

[josh2203]

And now there was an article about penalizing areas where there is electricity theft, by turning off the power for hours at a time. Idiots.

It is ridiculous. When I arrived here low level circuits were on less than 12 hours a day because we were on a Class D lowest priority highest theft circuit.

Having seen quite a few times how the electrical wires in campos or in not-so-good-barrios are organized and how the houses are attached to those wires, I don't see how would it even be achieved that everyone would pay for their luz. I mean, I doubt it's even possible to track sometimes what wire goes to which meter to which house? Comparing to the obviously organized way of electrical wiring on the street and then entering to the houses in EU for example, that's simply not possible in the DR barrios, so I would really like to understand what are even the planned steps to stop theft and illegal connections permanently. I don't see that happening, but I hope I'm wrong... Yes, on residenciales that's easy, but on campos and barrios, I don't see it...

 

[windeguy]

Corrupt actors is more like it. What you perceive as stupidity and incompetence is ultimately corruption. You must know this.

The only way the corrupt actors at Edenorte could be in play is they are accepting bribes from those getting free electricity.
Now they want to turn off the power for hours at a time in areas where they have theft? How is that not moronic?

I do know personally there were corrupt managers that were trying to collect 100K USD from our community so they would provided us with 24/7 power.
They said we needed new poles because the existing ones were not good if the power was on all the time. . I told them just leave the light farking on. I wanted to reach across the desk and...

I deal with Edenorte all the time. It is a mixture of stupidity, ignorance and corruption.

 

[windeguy]

Having seen quite a few times how the electrical wires in campos or in not-so-good-barrios are organized and how the houses are attached to those wires, I don't see how would it even be achieved that everyone would pay for their luz. I mean, I doubt it's even possible to track sometimes what wire goes to which meter to which house? Comparing to the obviously organized way of electrical wiring on the street and then entering to the houses in EU for example, that's simply not possible in the DR barrios, so I would really like to understand what are even the planned steps to stop theft and illegal connections permanently. I don't see that happening, but I hope I'm wrong... Yes, on residenciales that's easy, but on campos and barrios, I don't see it...

So in those areas they will just turn power off to punish theft. Yeah , that makes a whole lot of sense.
Because the theft was allowed for so long, it obviously still happens and the government run EDEs are the reason.

Doesn't mean that cannot be changed. People need to all pay for what they use. Getting the EDE's out and for profit companies in charge of distribution would force people to pay or not get power. This is feeling like Deja Vu all over again.

 

[El Hijo de Manolo]

The only way the corrupt actors at Edenorte could be in play is they are accepting bribes from those getting free electricity.
Now they want to turn off the power for hours at a time in areas where they have theft? How is that not moronic?

I do know personally there were corrupt managers that were trying to collect 100K USD from our community so they would provided us with 24/7 power.
They said we needed new poles because the existing ones were not good if the power was on all the time. . I told them just leave the light farking on. I wanted to reach across the desk and...

I deal with Edenorte all the time. It is a mixture of stupidity, ignorance and corruption.

Customer service in DR, no matter what industry, is run by incompetent, low IQ teams and individuals. I would say the Edes’ operations are mostly run by corrupt actors vs this stupidity model you advocate. I have never seen anything but intentional defrauding of the general customer base, whether it’s a contractor hustle issue, billing scams, or any grid outages. I would say many times perceived incompetence i.e when a poll collapses, antiquated transformers and other equipment or just leaving customers in the dark for unexplained countless hours or days, is pure corruption. All intentional. No one does the “build sh— to break model” better than the power company. How much “stupidity” results in overtime or double time for corrupt contractors? Almost none. The stupid folks are up front on the phones. The IT systems are antiquated and they can’t even maintain a website. But this is by design. If all the systems managing the data and customer information made sense and worked, then they wouldn’t be able to get away with 1/8th of what they do.