NewsWhore
09-30-2010, 04:20 PM
The Fernandez administration will fund transport business unions with RD$1.3 billion if the proposal to subsidize them with RD$1 for every gallon of fuel consumed is implemented, as reported in Diario Libre. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce says that consumption of fuel was 1,297,482,705 gallons in 2009, and consumption is expected to be greater this year. Diario Libre carries commentary from several quarters, saying that similar subsidies to the sector have not resolved the transport problem and that it is unfair to penalize consumers.
In her editorial column in today's Diario Libre, Ines Aizpun writes that this appears to be a case of the Stockholm Syndrome.
She says that politicians use these private companies at their whim and at their convenience when an election is coming up. This involves agreements for support and threats of strikes, and the owners of the old cars end up getting a new fleet. "There is no way to justify this deal. The transport businessmen have abused users to the limit. They provide an undignified, expensive, uncomfortable and obsolete service. And the governments have been incapable of organizing public transport to not upset them. If that is not the Stockholm Syndrome, it really looks like it!"
The Stockholm Syndrome describes the behavior of kidnapped victims who, over time, become sympathetic to their captors. The name derives from a kidnapping incident in Sweden, when several kidnap victims actually resisted rescue attempts after six days of captivity, and afterwards refused to testify against their captors.
For more on this proposal, see www.diariolibre.com/noticias_det.php?id=262681&l=1 (http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias_det.php?id=262681&l=1)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)
In her editorial column in today's Diario Libre, Ines Aizpun writes that this appears to be a case of the Stockholm Syndrome.
She says that politicians use these private companies at their whim and at their convenience when an election is coming up. This involves agreements for support and threats of strikes, and the owners of the old cars end up getting a new fleet. "There is no way to justify this deal. The transport businessmen have abused users to the limit. They provide an undignified, expensive, uncomfortable and obsolete service. And the governments have been incapable of organizing public transport to not upset them. If that is not the Stockholm Syndrome, it really looks like it!"
The Stockholm Syndrome describes the behavior of kidnapped victims who, over time, become sympathetic to their captors. The name derives from a kidnapping incident in Sweden, when several kidnap victims actually resisted rescue attempts after six days of captivity, and afterwards refused to testify against their captors.
For more on this proposal, see www.diariolibre.com/noticias_det.php?id=262681&l=1 (http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias_det.php?id=262681&l=1)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)