All this house cleaning? It's not spring. I smell a rat; Or, maybe it's a dead dog in a corner somewhere. Be it what it may, something is in the air. So much commotion can only cause an upheaval. Cause=Effect. Keep your eye on the ball. These career military officers are mostly used to giving orders, and that's all.

Dominican Republic please recognize Abhazia and S.Osethia :D

Last one out of the barracks please turn out the light

GC: The average Dominican never turns off the light, they depend on their local CDE to do it for them...

Touche

Lol.
Maybe if the Dominican reconize Abhazia and S.Osethia the russians will give us a few migs and we won't have to buy those stupid toucans.
But then it will be the cold war all over, especially how tensions are high right now.

God forbid the Russians would play the Dominican card

Quisqueyansoy----
Until the Dominican Republic has an Educational System that produces EDUCATED graduates, the DR is barking up a dead tree.
The educational background of the average Dominican Citizen simply doesn't qualify him/her for any degree of technological knowhow to fill the job equirements of maintaining highly technical products.
If the system were really viable, one would see many compoanies which RE-MANUFACTURE electric motors, alternators, gasolene and diesel engines,refrigeration units and the myriad of other technical products. What you have instead, is a series of "Cottage Industries" which produce inferior quality products for which the public pays through the nose for shoddy workmanship.
None of theso-called "technicians" EVER clean up the mess they leave after botching the installations they attempt.

TB

Can anyone help me with this math?

RD GNP Growth 5.5%
Less: RD Annual Inflation (12.0)%

Equals Real Growth -6.5%

What does all this mean is exordinary inflation as merchants reap benefits from DR-CAFTA but price gouge and refuse to pass on savings to the Dominican society. The average Dominican family gets screwed and is worse off this year than before!

While politicans, military, police & DNCD practice back-scratching, move drugs and profit at the rest of societies expense.

TexasBill, 29 Aug 2008 10:40 AM
From: Dominican Republic
Until the Dominican Republic has an Educational System that produces EDUCATED graduates, the DR is barking up a dead tree.
The educational background of the average Dominican Citizen simply doesn't qualify him/her for any degree of technological knowhow to fill the job equirements of maintaining highly technical products.
Now, now, TejasBill. No need to get potty mouth with the noble poor DR's you meet at the airport, or in the tourist resorts, or souvenir shops you visited. You'd be suprised if you were to meet some of the educated class. And I'm not talking about the landed ariistocracy; No, the avarage Dominican that when he graduates from high school (Bachillerato), surpasses most American Community College Associate Degree graduates. Forget about the ones that proceed to higher education at UASD or UNPHU. Why do Americans come to study medicine in DR? You're in the wrong alley, barking bum data, dog! Ask around.

why arsenio asks do Americans come here to study medicine .....the same reason they go to Grenada and Mexico .....They could not get into an American medical school

Arsenio;

You're talking to the wrong guy with your comment, old son. I live here in the DR and am merely repeating what I have observed firsthand over the past 8 YEARS of close observation. I don't hang out with the tourist crowd, at the airport, nor am I getting "potty mouthed" over the so-called "EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS of your so-called GRADUATES from "high school".
I would ask if you are aware that the average Dominican graduate has a very hard time reading at better than the 3rd grade level, stutters along, can't spell worth a good G** Damn and hasn't the foggiest idea about what country is where. One has even told me that the DR was a peninsula for crying out loud. Another "techscool grad tried to tell me that both housewires were POSITIVE. How about them apples. Maybe YOU should come down here and do a short study about the system yourself, and get the sleep outa' your eyes. When a subject is taught from a 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick PAMPHLET, SOMETHING IS wrong.

TB

As to your assertion that a Dominican graduating from high school in the DR surpasses the qualifications of an Associate Graduate in the States, you're doing nothing but blowing wind up my tailpipe and not at a very high velocity at that.
You need to get a job writing FICTION because that's what your comment amounts to.
These kids down here spend their time on the internet writing messages to each other on Yahoo Messenger, Windows Messenger and looking up music sites. Seldom do they use the computer for anything else, because they don't know how to spell the search.

TB

Arsenio Alembert jr:
I believe TB said technical schools not academic school if i understood him right. True on what you said about the BACHILLERATO and higher learning but that does not make them technicians
the way we apply the word. The DR needs more vocational and tech.schools . They can not afford
the equipment and even if they did it will desapear the same way the armament industry did in San Cristobal shortly after Trujillo got killed . I do agree on every thing TB said because it is the truth. No sooner a General gets appointed he thinks he is the owner of the establishment.
I would say get rid of the generals in the police force and have civilian ranks acordingly from the
law department which DR has plenty of.
As far as the MIGS as Quisqueyanosoy implies ,would be ideal if the technicians were available.
I still insist on reducing the size of DR armed forces to 3 Brigades instead of 6 and get rid of the
rank of ADMIRAL when the DR navy does not have enogh ships.

Thelmo;
You need only ONE Admiral COMMANDING the entire fleet of ships the DR owns andoperates. You need only ONE Commander for each ship to act as Captain, with a Lt.. S.r Grade as Exec. An ensign as Department heads and Chief Petty Officer to run the Crew. I these ranks are trained properly, you'll have a "tight ship" capable of functioning as a weapon of deterrence in most situations. A military force doesn't require high ranking officers and men to be effective, mere;y those who are dedicated to their DUTY.
I think your assesment of 3 Brigades is about right; One for the Eastern third, One for the Central and One for the West. That would cover the terrain to be defended very nicely. But, like the rest of the government, these forces have become BLOATED and INEFFICIENT At one time there was One General for every 400 men, and that included all the other officers of lower rank. As a result, NO ONE had a real job nor was assigned specific responsibilities.

TB

TB;
You are right again : Don't you think a general for every 400 men is over doing it? when all it calls for is a First LT as a co. comander. I know why they are doing so ,(retirement pension) and all the perks added to it that us in the US don't have. They should all have a taste of what war is all about like (deployment in Irak & Afganistan) in exchange for US citizenship. This way will give them something to brag about if they live thru it. They had a batallion size contingent before, under Spain while Spain had the troops there. Those vets should be put on frontier patrol since the terrain in Haiti is very much as that of Irak..
Am glad you see it my way as far as the reduction of infantry personnel from 6 to 3 brigades and the diference in savings apply it to vocational schooling which they don't have. Once they become technicians (hands on) they could hold multiple jobs there as well as here,rather than becoming
public assistance beneficiary in the USA.

Thelmo Et Al;

The biggest problem, by and large, with both Dominican students AND their teachers, is that they DON'T STUDY and DON'T KNOW HOW to study. The teachers view their jobs with disdain andas being "beneath them" in their estimation. They go to classes for 3-6 weeks andread through the "pamphlet' they are to "teach" from without having the background knowledge and understanding the subject material requires. Then they read from the "pamphlet" and expect the student to grasp what they're supposed to be teaching them. The instructors do not give out any homework because they are convinced that the student will copy someone else's as their own, or have their parents do it for them. These instructors holdan average of ONE parent/teacher conference per school year and that is all about how hard the teacher works, not about the student's progress nor how to improve, even if thestudent is failing.
Nuff Said, I think.

TexasBill

TB:
I see what you are saying and understand it,since my son is a school teacher at Ft Lee HS and holds a bachelorette plus 2 masters and 33 extra credits ,passed the supervisor's test three months ago passed the PRINCIPAL test, but principal jobs besides been political position are hard to get.
I do concur with what you are saying about DR HS teachers now.Over here they have to have at least one master or post graduate degree in NYC as well as in NJ . In DR the education system has deteriorated to the point the teachers don't know anything any more. This is due to lack of pay as well as political appointees.
What you are refering to the panflets is also true, It started in 1950 under Balaguer as minister of education, pushed by Trujillo who had just bought a books binding factory and had to sell books, At the mid year in January all books that we used for generation past were no longer the standard and were obsolite,pamflets in replaced them, 23 of us flunked 6th grade out of 25..

Written by: TexasBill, 29 Aug 2008 8:44 PM
From: Dominican Republic
Arsenio;

You're talking to the wrong guy with your comment, old son. I live here in the DR and am merely repeating what I have observed firsthand over the past 8 YEARS ....
I would ask if you are aware that the average Dominican graduate has a very hard time reading at better than the 3rd grade level, stutters along, can't spell worth a good G** Damn and hasn't the foggiest idea about what country is where.

Again_Vulgarity is your forte, and your contempt for our race is not only detestable, it's baffling! Apparently, you have a sick need for staying there (wallowing), or you're a sucker for punishment. If you're so disgusted; What's stopping you from returning to your trailer park in Little Rock? Bubba? So, 8 years in the country gives you the right to insult the average Dominican?
What will you do when you've been there 40 years? Assault them? What nerve you got?

Arsenio;

Evidently, you are so embroiled in defending an inadequate education system, you don't see the forest for the trees/
Read Thelmo's post just above yours, and I think you'll see that I am justified in lambasting that system here.
FYI, my own boys attend school here and I am speaking from intimate experience with my "disgusting" remarks. It's just that I believe in calling a "spade a spade, and neither a bloody shovel nor a spoon".
I have no "sick need" to do other than express my intense displeasure for a system that is denegrating to the total population.
Since I'm not a "Bubba" I don't live in a "trailer park" in Little Rock; Instead, I live in a nice 3-BR house in Pradero del Norte in Santiago.
As to having "Nerve", that I have plenty of, but I don't have "contempt" for your race, just what you indulgently put up with and accept without any protest or demand for something better.
TB

Aresenio;

I might add a little caveat to the above, just to set you know my heart is in the right place.

Since you have gotten so indignant over my observations, emphasized by a bit of "vulgarity (sorry, mea culpa), I would suggest that you attend some of the "classes" conducted in both the private and in the Public school system. I sincerely believe that you would change your "tune" very rapidly and become as indignant as I do.
I am NOT speaking of the "silver-spoon-in-the-mouth elites" that you are. Those are the ones you so fervently refer to, I am certain. I am speaking about the poor kids in the Campos, in the slums of Santiago and elsewhere who haven't the means, beyond the purchase price of their "textbooks" (and sometimes not even that).to acquire a "leg up" in their scholastic endeavors. To me, it is a wonder that the system has as many to graduate as it does, Thee certainly isn't any incentive to do so, but that is another story alltogether, isn't it?
TB

Not to worry Tex, Arsenio thinks they are running Johns Hopkins Med school of the Caribbean here.....misplaced baseball pride I think....Thank God they do have a decent enough med school though....largest offshore American accredited after Mexico and Grenada

FYI:
If you had an inkling of where you were standing, you'd understand. Yet, you outsiders insist on interpreting the DR through your pre-conceived north american deluded distorted rose colored glasses.

The DR, is a country where what really makes a difference in your standard of living is possessing a profession: The traditional have been Doctor (Medico), Lawyer (Licensiado), and Ingenero (architect/Engineer). In the 70's with the heyday of La Reforma Agraria, "Agronomos" became popular. Yet, being a skilled laborer, a technician doesn't amount to much. A technical trade will technically leave you in the dumps. To become reasonably comfortable, and provide for a family with all the amenities, one needs to acquire a professional degree. There aren't any GM's here, or Ford Motor Company's here. To earn you need to study, no trades will do.
So, continue to measure the natives with your misconceived notions; Can you smell the Mangu? You're not in Kansas anymore, Toto!

Arsenio I may still be learning about all thing dominican and I do love your country...I also know that Barcelo hotels and Barcelo rum are two different families one Spanish the other Dominican ....correct me if I am wrong

Texas Longhorn,

DR doesn't need your melo-drama, save it for the Yellow rose. The Brazeros, and migrant workers who pick cotton and lettuce in Tejas could use your simpathy, pardner. Remember the Alamo, and let us worry about Santiago...Comprende, hombre?
I wish I could buy you a Southwest Airline ticket to San Antonio, or Laredo, or El Paso, so you can go back to you heaven in the desert. Where the bull and buffalo roam. And get back to the white progressive lands you long for. Adios, mean hombre! When you get back give my regards to Cesar Chavez, and los muchachos de la raza.

Arsenio;

To begin with, I AM taking my family with me back to the "land where the buffalo and bulls roam", so by this time next year, we will be in the San Antonio, Texas area, back among the Malls, the Supermarkets, the First Class Hospitals, the 24/7 electricity service, 24/7 potable water, and proper sewage disposal plants. Back where, when one buys an automobile, the guarantee is a written contract, backed by an agency with TRAINED mechanics and an inventory of parts on site and immediately available.
Where, if one is violating the traffic laws by weaving, speeding, or otherwise violating the principles of safe driving, the local police will cite that person, REGARDLES OF WHO HE IS.
Where, if one wantsa Government job, he must qualify for that job through competative testing, then wait for an opening, not be pushed in ahead of a more qualfied applicant because he happens to be thebrother-in-law of a Representative or Senator.

If I seem to be too critical of your society, it is because I think your people are ultimately capable ofmaking it better if only you would concentrate on doing so instead of continuing the same Status Quo you have had for the past 500++ years.
Arsenio, I do admire your patriotism andvehement support of our people, but you do ned toopen your eyes to the delinquencies of that society and seek way to improve it in ALL arenas of living.
While I agree with you that theacquition of a higher degree in tehprofessional endeavors arevery important, both socially and economically, don't ever forget those who labor with their hands and provide the physical support of that elite society of professionals. Without their support in maintaining and manufacturing of the tools used by that elite society, one would have a primitive society as a whole.
You and others must learn to look outward in order to make theprogress you all want for your country.
Just my arrogant 2 pesos worth.

TB

This must've been your first time outside the rancho. Try and visit Honduras, or maybe Guatemala. Things aren't as orderly as you have become used to in the Lone Star.
Just remember your history: B4 1849, Mejico offered all the German and American squatters, homesteaders, and profiteers, a piece of land to set up their homes;
When the Mejicanos woke-up a few years later, the invited squatters had proclaimed indepedence from Mejico and declared the territory the Republic of Tejas. They even flew their new flag. Give them an inch, they took the whole enchilada. I bet they didn't teach you that at Fort Hood Elementary? Or, at Sam Houston High School? Your neat orderly world wasn't achieved by playing fair. Many Indigenous peoples were slaughtered and displaced by the whim of the European land grabbers. So, don't play church mouse. My question is, where do you guys get off knowing so much about what's good for someone else. Walk a mile in my shoes, just don't wear them out.

I know you said "before 1849", but the "immigrants" which settled first in Texas came from many diferent States, such : Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennesee, Georgia, and there were even a few from New York and Ohio. My own people came from Alabama ansettled around San Felipe and Washington-on-the-Brazos with Stephen F. Austin's bunch.
It didn't take long for the Mexican Governent, under Santa Ana toabrogate every promise theyhad made to those settlers, either. And when Austin went to Mexico City totry andnegotiate the differences, he was jailed for his trouble.
Maybe you should read a bit of History instead of trying to twist everything around and re-write it thorough ommission of ALL the facts.
It wasn't until after the MASSACRE GOLIAD, which was carried out by the Mexiacn Army over the disagreement of a small cannon used in defence against Indian attacks that the disgruntled settlers rose up in defianceand declared their independence.

"Give them an inch" bedamned, since that inch was NEVER GIVEN in the first place.
The problem with people like you is that you view the history of the world through the wrong end of the binoculars, and those are all smoked up.
I thought we might be able to reach some sort of understanding over our differences of opinion and our different interpretations of events and first hand observations, but I cansee now that you are in the same Machismo mode as josean and Belial.
Too bad,so sad, you're bad.

TB

TB arsenio bailed out of the DR to live in the USA with all its advantages a long time ago...he just likes to wallow in nostalgia from his rocking chair on the Grassy Knoll..TB if the Alamo had a back door San Antonio would still be in Mexico...when you get back send Arsenio a postcard from the Alamo saying " Having a great time wish you were there"

No have a nice time in GALVEZ-ton! Bring your generator from STGO. you'll need it in Tejas, mean hombre. Vaya con Dios!

AA;
You are not only hopelessly deficient in knowledge, but equally so in the absolute squalor your fellow Dominicans live in and on top of that, you don't appear to have a bit of empathy (look that word up) nor understanding of the everyday plight facing your fellow Dominicans.
You have the EXACT SAME ATITUDE of the Elites who, in fact, fun this country.
The Dominican Republic is a Feudalistic masquerading as a Democracy, no matter what other terms one may give it.
Politically and Socially, the DR is still in the DARK AGES, by your own indictment when trying to expain the social differences in education and the reason why there are no Tech Schools.
The untapped resevoir of labor in the DR could be very easily put to use by opening up Technical Education. Upon that sequence of events, the Manufacturing jobs would follow, thereby raising the standard of living for everyone.
You really need to change glasses, old son.

TexasBill

Politically and Socially, the DR is still in the DARK AGES, by your own indictment when trying to expain the social differences in education and the reason why there are no Tech Schools.

Get out now and shut your trap....Jed Clampett
Go back to your Hatfields and McCoys feudin'!
An aryan like you has no business in a po' country, so stop with the condescending, and patronizing. The lowly dirt po' are better than you, since they know where they come from unlike you, Cabbage Patch cowboy wannabe technical popular mechanics reject. Get a life and stop involving yourself someone else's affairs. Get to steppin', Beauregard!
*FYI: I'm past 50 years old; You old rebel-ruffian-renegade- Dixie-crat Lil' Abner. George Wallace and David Duke are waiting for you in the lone star state.
You need a check up, from the neck up! Fort Hood Hospital is waiting!
Way down beyond the Swanee River..............I knows you miss "the doo-dar days".....
The Cotton fields of Tejas are calling.

AA;
Until your last post, I had begun to think maybe you had a bit of understanding about the problems facing you country. It is very obvious though that you haven't the foggiest idea about those problems from the way you have conducted yourself and your posts. You have been so intent on "putting me in my place" that you have totally disregarded the point of the original discussion.
You can call me whatever name that suits you, but in the final analysis it isn't my "condescending, and patronizing, aryan persona" that is the problem. The problem lies with people like YOU that accept mediocrity on a daily basis from your gov't your educators and your fellow elitists. Yes, you are an elitist, whether you admit it or not. Go back and look at your own posts. Then when you can't rationalize the problem away, you fall back to the oldest defence known to man; that of resorting to "name-calling". Sorry, pal, but "sticks and stones can break my bones, but names can never harm me.".
TB

Vamooos back to your Rancho Desperado, pronto east of Pecos bandito! Your mustang is waiting for you to lasso him at the Rodeo!

Keep you $20 words and share them with Billy Bob at Dallas-Fort Worth Int.! My, my, my, you've
learnt so much watching CNN.

You're lost outside of the dude ranch,.............. dude.

Stop with the free advice.....Here's a tip for you: Don't plant corn in winter.
Beam me up scotty, This Klingon isn't worth talking to.

By the way (Nosybodies listen up) I've been to the Alamo. I went there in 1975, when I attended boot camp at Lackland AFB. San Antonio, is part of Mejico; If I can remember, 75% of the people I saw there were tex-mex, mi amigo! Nice town! Muy chula!

Did you see Pee Wees bicycle in the basement?

Yeah, AA, I went to Ft. Sam Houston for processing into the USAAC in 1944 myself. then went on to Keesler Field, Miss. for Basic Training.
got discharged in 1946 and went to the U. of Houston until re-entering the USAF in 1951. Went through Pilot School and retired in 1970.
So, you see, old son, I've been down the same road as you. Maybe a little further, because I grew up during the Great Depression and that was no bed of roses.
So, you say I don't know anything about "po' folks"?? I could write you a book about "po' folks" anhow hard it is lift oneself out of the squalor and debillitating society of that scenario. So, you see, I do know something about how much an education means andwhat it can do if one applies themselves to getting one. It takes a lot of hours of study, but I don't think you know anything about that, do you? You seem to believe that because my last name isn't Hispanic that I don't have any empathy for the people here. You're totally wrong in that assumption.

I'm married to a Dominican LADY who has three children whom I have adopted. The people are from the Campo just outside of Bonao. Do you know enough about the Geography of the DR to know where that is? Or, are you like the guy in Manzanillo that insisted the Dr was a Peninsula because he read it a DR "textbook".
Throughout this whole discussion, you have broadcast your ignorance through the use of invectives and outright slanderous remarks toward me personaly and totally without foundation,
If you really want to get into a pi$$ing contest, then you'd better find someone else, because I have the vocabulary to drown you to the point that you will never surface for air again.
So, maybe you'd better "log it out" while you can.
And, BTW, I have lost any respect that I might have had for you in the begining because of your out and out stupidity and lack of common sense.

Hasta la Bye-Bye, baby.

I wont be answering anymore of you baby-ish whining.

TB

what a small world ..... you Zoomies are crazy.....TB I knew you were a mustang....good for you