NewsWhore
07-31-2006, 03:10 PM
Educator Ramon Flores blasts the Fernandez government for giving just lip service to the generally agreed priority of education. In an article in Saturday's Hoy newspaper on what governments consider to be their priorities, Flores looks into the track record of Dominican governments and all the borrowing that has taken place over recent years. He is very critical of all the borrowing that took place during the Hipolito Mejia government, but then points out that the one that replaced it has just done more of the same. "Now nothing is carried out in this country without borrowing," he writes. "And after six years of playing the game of irresponsible borrowing, the political and economic stability of this country depends to a certain measure on the government's capacity to take out more foreign loans, domestic confidence in the Central Bank bonds and the kindness of President Chavez, who is lending to the country so it can buy petroleum," he writes.
Flores is very critical of the Fernandez administration's decision to go ahead with the Santo Domingo Metro for which he says the government has not been able to present neither studies, designs nor the budget, the total of the subsidies that will have to be granted, nor the additional debt that this project will mean for the country. Furthermore, he criticizes the fact that the government has not been able to define the basic infrastructure works that have been postponed or will be paralyzed in order to concentrate the state's resources on a project that was never presented to public debate.
Flores recalls how the late President Joaquin Balaguer achieved what he calls the feat of reducing public spending on education to less than 1% of the country's Gross Domestic Product. And how Mejia took funds from the Ministry of Education budget to finance purchases for the military, leaving the DR on a par with Haiti as the lowest spender on education.
But he is most critical of President Fernandez, because, he writes, he is the President now. He says that when putting numbers to what had to be done, he came up with an almost magical solution. "To the development of institutions, education and basic infrastructure, which is a mandate of reason, he would dedicate his best speeches. And he would concentrate the resources, among other things, on financing the subsidies and construction of a metro that would transport happy citizens through the corners of this new Tropical Paris."
Flores says that his advisors tell him that what the education sector needs is better management, so that they can stretch the 2% of Gross Domestic Product that is at present allotted to education, so different from the 5-8% that Korea, Taiwan and Singapore were visionaries to disburse for education.
He is also critical of what he perceives as the President's new priority of reforming the Constitution. "Now, energized by his party's electoral success, President Fernandez proclaims that he will devote his best efforts to carry out his great dream as a young boy in Villa Juana, the democratic revolution."
http://www.hoy.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=83620
Link To Original Article (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#8)
Flores is very critical of the Fernandez administration's decision to go ahead with the Santo Domingo Metro for which he says the government has not been able to present neither studies, designs nor the budget, the total of the subsidies that will have to be granted, nor the additional debt that this project will mean for the country. Furthermore, he criticizes the fact that the government has not been able to define the basic infrastructure works that have been postponed or will be paralyzed in order to concentrate the state's resources on a project that was never presented to public debate.
Flores recalls how the late President Joaquin Balaguer achieved what he calls the feat of reducing public spending on education to less than 1% of the country's Gross Domestic Product. And how Mejia took funds from the Ministry of Education budget to finance purchases for the military, leaving the DR on a par with Haiti as the lowest spender on education.
But he is most critical of President Fernandez, because, he writes, he is the President now. He says that when putting numbers to what had to be done, he came up with an almost magical solution. "To the development of institutions, education and basic infrastructure, which is a mandate of reason, he would dedicate his best speeches. And he would concentrate the resources, among other things, on financing the subsidies and construction of a metro that would transport happy citizens through the corners of this new Tropical Paris."
Flores says that his advisors tell him that what the education sector needs is better management, so that they can stretch the 2% of Gross Domestic Product that is at present allotted to education, so different from the 5-8% that Korea, Taiwan and Singapore were visionaries to disburse for education.
He is also critical of what he perceives as the President's new priority of reforming the Constitution. "Now, energized by his party's electoral success, President Fernandez proclaims that he will devote his best efforts to carry out his great dream as a young boy in Villa Juana, the democratic revolution."
http://www.hoy.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=83620
Link To Original Article (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#8)