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View Full Version : The mote in thy brother's eye



NewsWhore
02-07-2008, 04:30 PM
Education Minister Alejandrina German's response to enquiries by TV and radio investigative reporter Nuria Piera into a Jarabacoa villa that is under construction and that allegedly belongs to the minister has spurred controversy. When asked for her response to the revelation, German told journalists that the claim that she was building a summer vacation mansion worth millions in Jarabacoa was "garbage". Nuria Piera filmed vehicles using Ministry of Education license plates entering the construction site.
Claudio Acosta, in today's 'Que se dice' column in Hoy comments that it is unfortunate that Alejandrina German, who has earned a reputation for lashing out with words but who is also a politician known for being well-versed in matters of government, is not capable of understanding that on this occasion she did not have the right to get out of the problem with a sharp remark. Acosta said that this time she was obliged to provide an explanation to the country and to the citizens whose taxes pay her salary and the privileges she enjoys, even if just to deny what was disclosed in the report or giving believable reasons about how she obtained the funds to build it. He writes: "To just skirt around the issue by evading it or with the usual disqualifications that our politicians have us accustomed to when these are absolutely pertinent criticisms is not only an arrogant and awkward way of admitting to not having valid arguments to respond to the well known journalists, but it also implies a denial of the right to criticize our politicians and their censurable practice of taking advantage of their time in government to acquire wealth overnight or to acquire luxury items, as is the case of the consistent attacks that the government and the PLD are directing at engineer Miguel Vargas Maldonado, the PRD presidential candidate. Unfortunately, like it or not, Alejandrina German is a government official and her obligation is to be accountable and to provide explanations about what she does or doesn't do, especially when there are doubts about the correct management of the resources she has been entrusted with. "Or might the government and PLD members believe that they can continue criticizing the speck of dust in the other's eye, while ignoring or claiming to ignore, the enormous plank encrusted in their own?"

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