The “Que se dice” column joins in the ruckus over the contract that ceded the Santo Domingo seashore to a private company for 99 years. The column’s author jibes the contract revealed by the El Dia newspaper as being very similar to the old colonial tactic of giving bangles for gold, much akin to the famous US$24 dollar deal that got the Dutch the island of Manhattan. The columnist says that all it takes is a glance at the contract that cedes the rights to build an artificial island for the tourist industry in front of Santo Domingo to be reminded that today, some 500 plus hears later, we are still exchanging gold nuggets for shiny bangles.
As an example, this is sufficient, but there is more, a lot more to be looked at, especially with regards to the obligations that fall to the Dominican State – and thinking about the tax reform proposals that are very slowly being cooked up at the Presidential Palace.
The contract stipulates that the Dominican state has the obligation to: “Establish the fiscal conditions that will facilitate the execution of the project, its development and administration with an acceptable level of profitability.”
The contract in question, published, in its entirety in the El Dia, should be sent to Congress for consideration, but, already, the members of the opposition have expressed their rejection, because, among other things, it is dealing with a “stupidity” that only exists in the minds of some of the government’s officials. We’ll have to wait, says the writer, nonetheless, in order to know the final determination of this generous contract that has made us remember those shiny bangles with which, according to the legend, the avaricious conquerors dazzled our unwary aborigines.