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President Leonel Fernandez returned from his weeklong visit to the United States yesterday. Fernandez traveled to the US to attend the 63rd United Nations General Assembly and made the most of his trip to hold meetings with several fellow heads of state.

He spent most of his time, however, on meetings with academia, and met with students and professors at New York University, Columbia University, Fordham University, Brown University and Harvard University. He also met with students from Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science and Engineering, for academically talented high school students. At Harvard in Boston he visited Kathleen McCartney, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, to prepare the way for next week’s visit by Dominican Education Minister Melanio Paredes who is due to sign an agreement for training Dominican teachers. In Boston he met with legendary Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz and visited the Schomburg [...]

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Prosecutor General Radhames Jimenez has announced an innovative nationwide project aimed at converting jail inmates into farmers or assembly operators. The farms and manufacturing operations project at the jails will be implemented in 36 jails across the country. Jimenez was in Salcedo to visit the pilot project at the Juana Nunez jail. Also present were Interior & Police Minister Franklin Almeyda, National Drugs Council president Mabel Feliz and several provincial governors.

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Anyone not benefiting from the Solidaridad welfare card program that was distributed to the poorest families in the DR will now have to pay full price for propane gas, the most commonly used cooking fuel in the DR. With the start of the “Bonogas” program that will grant a RD$228 monthly subsidy on propane purchases, came the removal of the subsidy for all other users. A report in Listin Diario highlights, nevertheless, the slow start to the Bonogas program. A 100lb tank of propane gas now costs RD$1,950, up from RD$1,730 prior to the elimination of the subsidy. The price of propane fluctuates and at present is at RD$77.93 a gallon. The RD$228 subsidy is enough to purchase almost three gallons of propane this week. The government has targeted 800,000 beneficiaries to receive the welfare subsidy.

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Deputy Pelegrin Castillo says that President Leonel Fernandez’s proposal to increase the number of deputies to 250 members is tantamount to annulling Congress. He said that the larger the Congress is, the less influence it has. The president of the Chamber of Deputies had proposed reducing the number of legislators to 120 members, down from the present 148. Congress in the DR has one of the highest legislator-to-voter ratios in the world. Castillo said that the proposal to increase the number to 250 did not come from within the Congress or from the work of the national group of advisors that made recommendations.

Castillo defended the role of Congress. He said that in these times of globalization, Congress has a role to play in monitoring government. He said that the commission of experts that drew up the constitutional reform proposal made several recommendations that were not taken into consideration [...]

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Central Electoral Board (JCE) officials who travel abroad enjoy greater per-diem allowances and spending money than United Nations officials. As reported in Diario Libre, a JCE judge who travels to Puerto Rico, for instance, will receive US$750 -US$800 daily spending money, plus an allocation for “pocket” expenses. This is more than a UN official will get for visiting Dubai or London, trips for which they are assigned US$411 and US$417.

For travel to Washington, D.C. the JCE authorizes US$800, for travel to Boston, US$1,000, in addition to “pocket” money. The UN rates are US$321 and US$304 respectively.

JCE Judge Aura Celeste Fernandez recently requested that a permanent, transparent and fair policy needed to be set for board members’ travel expenses. The proposal was submitted a year ago, but discarded, according to a report in Diario Libre.

Leading business organizations have been urging the government to cut its [...]

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The director of the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (Indotel) Jose Rafael Vargas says that his department and the Police will take drastic action against any business caught illegally activating stolen cell phones. Vargas said that his department and the Police would shut down these businesses. He said that all their equipment would be confiscated, and that they would be not flexibility in the measure, as reported in El Caribe. The law, nevertheless, only establishes penalties of three months to one year in jail and fines of 3 to 500 times the minimum wage.

Police spokesman Nelson Rosario told El Caribe that he was surprised that the problem still persisted, as denounced by Nilson Pichardo Peralta, president of the Association of Cell Phone Store Owners. Rosario said he thought it was a thing of the past. “That complaint is very important, you will see what will happen now,” he told El [...]

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Despite having the experience of two previous government terms, there is the generalized perception that President Leonel Fernandez’s administration fails to act when faced with multiple pressing problems. The situation is exacerbated by increased insecurity and growing pessimism, despite the optimistic outlook from the President and his economic team, who maintain that the DR will not be affected by the US financial crisis, as Osvaldo Santana writes in El Caribe.

Santana writes that the lack of action is explained in the recent history of the increase in spending in 2008, of RD$47.48 billion, or 38.5% increase compared to the previous year (January to 15 August). The increase in spending took place in an electoral year, he observes. He also points out that from January to August 15, 2007, the Fernandez administration spent RD$123.43 billion, but for the same period this year it has spent US$170.92 billion, according to the [...]

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Despite the optimism reflected in recent statements by President Leonel Fernandez during his trip to the US, government figures show that the Dominican economy is already hurting from the impact of the US financial crisis. President Fernandez forecast that the worst of the US crisis was over, and said that remittances were on the rise, not in decline. Furthermore, Fernandez said that on the contrary, the country was benefiting from an unusual flow of US dollars as Dominicans abroad bring their savings back home, fleeing from possible difficulties in US banks.

But the current issue of Clave newspaper says that while there was a 6.58% increase in remittances from January-June 2008, there has since been a pronounced trend towards a decline, according to Freddy Ortiz of the local association of remittance companies.

The report by Edwin Ruiz also focuses on the growing trade deficit between the US and [...]

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Former Agriculture Minister in the 2000-2004 PRD administration Eligio Jaquez predicts that former President Hipolito Mejia will be the party’s presidential candidate in 2012. He expresses his optimism that the constitutional reform proposal submitted by President Leonel Fernandez to Congress will make this possible. The Fernandez proposal allows for a President to run again for office after two consecutive terms by leaving a four-year stretch between seeking a new term.

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The story of Jean Carlos de Leon, who lives in the rural town of La Yautia in the province of Monte Plata, shows again that where there is a will, there is a way, as reported in Listin Diario. Who would believe that there could be a Wi-Fi Internet connection in that remote farming region? Jean Carlos de Leon is a second semester industrial engineering student at the UASD state university. Piecing together discarded parts, he was able to put together a computer using an old 2000 IBM at the house where he lives with his 80-year old grandmother, Dona Aurelia. When there is electricity, he can connect to the Internet free of charge thanks to his home-made connection consisting of an old aluminum pot, a cable and a piece of copper. The antenna is on top of a 40-meter tall coconut palm, and receives the Dominican Telecommunications Institute’s Broad [...]

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