2005 – Page 173

Writer-economist and former ambassador to the United States Bernardo Vega takes on the exporting of corruption in his Op-Ed piece in today’s El Caribe. Vega points out that for there to be corruption there has to be two parties: Those who offer the corruption and those who accept it. He says that in the Dominican …

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President Leonel Fernandez comes second in the ratings for regional presidential job performance for the first semester of 2005, according to a CID-Gallup Latin American poll. President Antonio Saca of El Salvador has the highest rating with 62% followed by Fernandez with 48%. Others in Central America are Abel Pacheco of Costa Rica with 40%, …

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Businessman Frank Rainieri, president of Grupo Punta Cana, asked the Ministry of Tourism to revise its proposal to impose a tax of US$5 on airfares of tickets purchased abroad as of August. Rainieri believes that the measure should be one of consensus. He said that between 2003 and 2004 Punta Cana airport alone generated more …

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In the National District (Santo Domingo city), the municipal government has identified 200,000 families that are vulnerable to flooding from rivers and creeks as well as possible landslides. According to the head of the Center for the Prevention and Assistance for Disasters (CEPREMID), Jose de los Santos Gil, the government will spend RD$2.9 million in …

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The United Nations Development Program 2005 Human Development Report says that education in the Dominican Republic is inefficient in spite of increased spending that has gone mostly into salaries, and proves that “greater spending does not provide better results in the system.” According to the UNDP, it takes 28 years of spending to produce a …

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Six days after an army sargeant confessed that he had murdered Joel Diaz Sarmiento and Yaniris Ruiz Sanchez and that deacon Meregildo Diaz y Diaz was the intellectual author of the crime, the Roman Catholic Church religious congregation, Terciarios Capuchinos announced the deacon would be expelled. Diaz y Diaz was director of the Centro de …

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With the Archbishop of Santo Domingo, Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez, calling for abortions to be classified as crimes under the Penal Code, and the director of the Caribbean’s largest maternity hospital, el Hospital de Maternidad Nuestra Senora de la Altagracia, asking that abortion not be legalized, the issue is once again on the …

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Tune in on Monday, 30 May at 9 pm to Telemicro (Channel 5 on Telecable) to watch three Dominicans vie for the Miss Universe title. Representing the DR is six-footer Renata Sone. But Italy is represented by DR-born Maria Teresa Francville, daughter of a Dominican mother and Italian father. This is Francville’s second time representing …

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Dominicans who can will be leaving the city for resort areas and provincial towns for the Roman Catholic Corpus Christi holiday long weekend. This year’s holiday coincides with Mother’s Day, celebrated this Sunday, 30 May in the DR. Many schools are giving their students Friday off, too. As is customary, DR1 staff will take off …

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President Leonel Fernandez called for more “ethics” from the business community yesterday, during an address to a group of politicians, business leaders and representatives of international institutions as part of the First Dominican Conference on Corporate Social and Entrepreneurial Responsibility: Sustainable Development and Competitive Strategy held at the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development. Fernandez …

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