2004 – Page 153

Bernardo Vega, the multifaceted intellectual, points out how several PRD ploys back-fired for the largest political party in the Dominican Republic. Vega points out how often short-term solutions go awry in long-term disasters, shooting the idea?s promoter instead of the political adversary. The first case, says Vega, was the constitutional reform. As written, the new …

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Coast guard and immigration authorities in the United States have arrested 6,430 Dominicans so far this year. This is a 116% increase over the figures for 2003. Apart from the 4,329 illegal travelers stopped and returned by the US Coast Guard, there were another 2,101 people stopped at various airports and frontier posts along the …

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According to the El Caribe, schools reopened today in Jimani, the small town devastated by a flash flood two weeks ago. Of the 14,000 students in the province of Independencia, there were 1,280 children registered in the two public schools in Jimani, but nobody knows how many will show up for classes. Local school district …

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President Hipolito Mejia met with the IMF officials, after which he told the press that the IMF is disposed to resume the agreement. He said, nevertheless, that the reactivation of the agreement is being left up to the incoming government, which takes office 16 August. President Mejia met at the Presidential Palace with Jose Fajgenbaum, …

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The news couldn?t be bleaker. The power companies want Dominicans who pay for their power service to pay more. Power service in the Dominican Republic is one of the most expensive in the Americas, with consumers billed even for the blackouts. A large sector of the population, including the government, does not pay for the …

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Juan de la Cruz writes in El Dia newspaper today on the legacy the Mejia administration will leave the Dominican Republic. He comments that although the country posted an 8% growth rate in 2000 and maintained an exchange rate of RD$16:US$1 in 2000, the DR is altogether another country only four years later. He comments …

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The flooding of of Jimani and the adjacent shantytowns could happen again, the director of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources told Hoy, El Nacional and El Dia reporters yesterday at a breakfast for executives at the media group. He said that what happened in Jimani was an extraordinary event, as floods had not occurred …

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The director of the Department for the Prevention of Corruption of the Mejia administration, Jesus Feliz Jimenez, admitted that he purchased 176 tareas (1 tarea = 629 meters) of State Sugar Council Lands at Km 22 of the Autopista Duarte at a price of RD$882,550. This translates to RD$5,000 per tarea, or about RD$8 per …

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President-elect Leonel Fernandez received the certificate from the Central Electoral Board (JCE) recognizing him as the Republic?s President-elect at a ceremony at the Hotel Jaragua Renaissance yesterday. ?We believe that plurality, diversity and tolerance are the principles of a democratic system, because we understand that democracy is not based solely on the holding of periodic …

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David Engels, the research director of the Auto-ID Labs of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, confirmed that the Dominican Republic would be the center for the strategic development for Latin America of new technology to replace bar codes on store items. The new Electronic Product Code System developed by Auto ID Labs operates on radio frequency …

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