2001 – Page 104

Orchestra director Amaury Sanchez and singer/performer Frank Ceara have joined forces to present “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” at the National Theater this summer. In this story, the magical flutist rids the town of Hamelin of its pesky rats by hypnotizing them. The greedy mayor and townspeople are taught a lesson when the flutist removes …

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The Czech Virtuosi Orchestra, a medium-sized orchestra composed of the winners of the National Music Award of Czechoslovakia, will perform in Santo Domingo and Santiago this month. Performances are scheduled for Monday, 25 June at the National Theater and Tuesday, 26 June at the Santiago Teatro Cibao. The guest conductor is James Brooks Bruzzese, director …

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President Hipolito Mejia has cancelled the scheduled 20% increase in electricity billing. The increase was supposed to begin on 1 July and affect power consumers using more than RD$1500 a month. The increase was the main reason behind the day of national protest, called by a group of unions known as Coordinadora de Organizaciones Populares …

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Government departments and institutions have until Monday, 25 June, to pay their power bills. The Superintendent of Electricity Jose Ovalles has authorized power distributors Edenorte, Edesur and Edeeste to cut service to the government departments that are in arrears. The distributors say the government owes RD$260 million for April and May. Decree 400-01 of 20 …

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The world’s largest electricity barge will arrive in August. Edwin Croes, economic and financial advisor to the Dominican Electricity Corporation (CDE), predicts that it will reduce the cost of producing power in the DR by 50%. The 150 megawatt floating barge was purchased by Ege Haina at a cost of US$140 million and will arrive …

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Santo Domingo awoke today as if it was Sunday. Those who didn’t have to go to work, didn’t. The protest day hardly affected private schools, as most have already closed for the year. OMSA buses announced free service in Santo Domingo and Santiago. Several taxi unions said they would take the day off. Supermarkets, banks …

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A member of the Monetary Board, economist Eduardo Garcia Michel, says what is at stake with the sovereign bonds is the economic model for years to come. In his Siglo 21 think tank article, he warns that if the country goes ahead with the Sovereign Bonds and other foreign loans it will have chosen a …

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Listin Diario reports that the World Bank and the Interamerican Development Bank have approved loans for US$700 million to the Dominican Republic. The country has not been able to use this money so far because the government has not come forth with the matching funds and other contractual conditions required by the financial institutions. Instead, …

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Increasingly, drug traffickers are recruiting children to peddle their wares and carry out errands, in spite of protection awarded to children under the law. Attorney General for Espaillat province, Juan Alberto Mendez, said in Hoy newspaper that children are also being used to peddle free drugs to their friends in northcentral Moca schools to get …

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The Junta Central Electoral has delivered to the three leading political parties a proposal to create 33 electoral districts. It also proposes to elect aldermen in the municipal elections and deputies during the 2002 election. For the first time, Dominican voters will be able to vote for proposed candidates and not for whom the party …

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