Latest Post(s)

In part I of this post, I mentioned how colonialism and imperialism have no doubt affected the growth of the Dominican Republic. However, I also proposed that those reasons alone do not tell the whole story. It’s been a long time since Spanish conquistadors and pirates plundered the Caribbean and 40 years since the last foreign military interference on Dominican soil. So, at the end of the day there must be other more immediate reasons for the country’s state of perpetual development. While there are likely many factors that contribute to our struggle, I propose that the current crisis in public education, rampant corruption, and an inability to prioritize is what’s killing the country. And, as I stated before, this cannot go on forever. Today’s post will focus on education and over the next day or two we’ll tackle corruption and priorities. Each of these issues are sure to generate discussion and thus deserve to be unpacked separately. I look forward to your comments and criticism.

Currently only 1 in 10 Dominicans graduate from high school. That means that 90% of the population lacks the basic educational skills needed to advance (or maintain) Dominican society, much less compete in an increasingly globalized world. Worse, it means that all of our professionals (doctors, lawyers, educators, politicians, etc.) come from a pool that only represents 10% of the country’s human capital. To make matters worse, those lucky enough to be in that “top 10%” graduate from the public school system which, according to a recent study of 15 Latin American countries (DR1 Daily News 8/1/08), is in a state of crisis (in addition to overall poor quality and funding, the average student only receives 2.5 hours of instruction per day under horrendous conditions.)

In 2006, President Leonel Fernandez’s PLD won a majority of both houses of the Dominican congress (Chamber of Deputies and Sendaores.) The first order of business? These new functionarios were given “courses on etiquette aimed at helping them to learn how to behave at public and private functions, table manners, and to dress correctly for every occasion” (Diario libre 9/1/06.) This did not inspire confidence in anyone who was paying attention. How can we expect the men and women of our government to have the intellectual maturity, wisdom, and education to fix the complex educational, economic, and institutional problems of a struggling country when they must first be taught how to eat with utensils? The acquision of basic manners typically comes before any real education and not vice-versa. Although, I must admit, when I was 12 years old I waited in line directly behind Tip O’Neil as he fed himself raw seafood from a buffet using only his hands (true story.)

The U.S. has plenty of leaders who are not worth their weight in fool’s gold, but I’d venture to say that the majority have studied and worked in their fields of endeavor. In addition, there are legions of public service schools where, for better or worse, many of our future bureaucrats are bred. In addition to the crisis around primary and secondary level education, the Dominican Republic lacks these higher-learning institutions and, as a result, we end up with ambassadors who know nothing about diplomacy, ministers who know nothing about their particular ministries, and tens of thousands of others who fill unnecessary government jobs for no other reason other than their party affiliation. This reality should scare the hell out of anyone who cares about the country.

Those in the “bottom 90%” (non-high school graduates) are literally being left in the dust and have almost no hope of ever bettering their situations. Worse yet is the realization that even if we woke up tomorrow with a perfect educational system it woud likely take several generations before tangible progress would be realized. Thus, we are looking at millions and millions of people for whom there is very little hope and a country which will more than likely be left further and further behind.

I’ll leave you with a quote from economist Robert Kaplan.

“Only in a society where most people can read, that has a sizable middle class that pays taxes, and reasonable institutions manned by literate bureaucrats, where people do not have to worry about being killed or attacked by their neighbors, will democracy unleash all that is best in a society. Only then will democracy lead to more transparency, more honesty, higher growth rates.”

I look forward to reading your comments.

It’s been a rough few days at TheCandidacy.com headquarters in the Dominican Republic. A tropical depression dumped a significant amount of rain on the Capital and, you guessed it, caused problems with electricity and internet services. Read more »

Randall's Rants

In part I of this post, I mentioned how colonialism and imperialism have no doubt affected the growth of the Dominican Republic. However, I also proposed that those reasons alone do not tell the whole story. It’s been a long time since Spanish conquistadors and pirates plundered the Caribbean and 40 years since the last foreign military interference on Dominican soil. So, at the end of the day there must be other more immediate reasons for the country’s state of perpetual development. While there are likely many factors that contribute to our struggle, I propose that the current crisis in public education, rampant corruption, and an inability to prioritize is what’s killing the country. And, as I stated before, this cannot go on forever. Today’s post will focus on education and over the next day or two we’ll tackle corruption and priorities. Each of these issues are sure to generate discussion and thus deserve to be unpacked separately. I look forward to your comments and criticism.

Currently only 1 in 10 Dominicans graduate from high school. That means that 90% of the population lacks the basic educational skills needed to advance (or maintain) Dominican society, much less compete in an increasingly globalized world. Worse, it means that all of our professionals (doctors, lawyers, educators, politicians, etc.) come from a pool that only represents 10% of the country’s human capital. To make matters worse, those lucky enough to be in that “top 10%” graduate from the public school system which, according to a recent study of 15 Latin American countries (DR1 Daily News 8/1/08), is in a state of crisis (in addition to overall poor quality and funding, the average student only receives 2.5 hours of instruction per day under horrendous conditions.)

In 2006, President Leonel Fernandez’s PLD won a majority of both houses of the Dominican congress (Chamber of Deputies and Sendaores.) The first order of business? These new functionarios were given “courses on etiquette aimed at helping them to learn how to behave at public and private functions, table manners, and to dress correctly for every occasion” (Diario libre 9/1/06.) This did not inspire confidence in anyone who was paying attention. How can we expect the men and women of our government to have the intellectual maturity, wisdom, and education to fix the complex educational, economic, and institutional problems of a struggling country when they must first be taught how to eat with utensils? The acquision of basic manners typically comes before any real education and not vice-versa. Although, I must admit, when I was 12 years old I waited in line directly behind Tip O’Neil as he fed himself raw seafood from a buffet using only his hands (true story.)

The U.S. has plenty of leaders who are not worth their weight in fool’s gold, but I’d venture to say that the majority have studied and worked in their fields of endeavor. In addition, there are legions of public service schools where, for better or worse, many of our future bureaucrats are bred. In addition to the crisis around primary and secondary level education, the Dominican Republic lacks these higher-learning institutions and, as a result, we end up with ambassadors who know nothing about diplomacy, ministers who know nothing about their particular ministries, and tens of thousands of others who fill unnecessary government jobs for no other reason other than their party affiliation. This reality should scare the hell out of anyone who cares about the country.

Those in the “bottom 90%” (non-high school graduates) are literally being left in the dust and have almost no hope of ever bettering their situations. Worse yet is the realization that even if we woke up tomorrow with a perfect educational system it woud likely take several generations before tangible progress would be realized. Thus, we are looking at millions and millions of people for whom there is very little hope and a country which will more than likely be left further and further behind.

I’ll leave you with a quote from economist Robert Kaplan.

“Only in a society where most people can read, that has a sizable middle class that pays taxes, and reasonable institutions manned by literate bureaucrats, where people do not have to worry about being killed or attacked by their neighbors, will democracy unleash all that is best in a society. Only then will democracy lead to more transparency, more honesty, higher growth rates.”

I look forward to reading your comments.

Primaries

The media is all about Obama right now. He appears to have Hillary Clinton on the ropes. This is good for Democrats. As I said before, he is the only Democrat that can win in the general election. If Hillary gets the nomination (which she won’t), she loses the general election. Obama will get a lot of swing-voters. He won Iowa and will win New Hampshire tomorrow. This is significant.

First, he’s black and is winning (assuming I am right about tomorrow) in the whitest of white states - Iowa and New Hampshire. That means that truckloads of white people are voting for him. It may sound like I’m stating the obvious, but we are seeing the fruits of labor from decades of civil rights struggles. A black president is upon us. However, the real beauty of the story is that the race issue is secondary. This guy is popular because of who he is. He’s young, energetic, confident and thoughtful. That’s his appeal. The color of his skin seems to be an afterthought and that is true progress. People are drawn to him because he is a strong candidate. Not because he is a strong black candidate.

It is also significant because he is going toe-to-toe with one of the most powerful campaign machines ever. Obama, and to some extent Huckabee if he can hang in there (unlikely), are proof that anything can happen. This sends a good message to entrenched politicians and their political parties - don’t get too comfortable.

Issues

Some of you may remember Randall’s post on the Separation of Church and State from a few months back. While surfing around today I came across the following press release titled:

South Carolina plans license plate for Christians

Read more »