DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. President Leonel Fernandez admitted that there is a shortfall in the application of the Millennium Objectives in the province of El Seibo, taken as the model for the fulfillment of this development project at the end of 2000 by the United Nations.
As he headed up the fourth Popular Dialogue that took place in this province yesterday afternoon, and after hearing the clamor of the people, the Chief Executive talked about the benefits of the plan but he pointed out that he recognized that in "the execution of this plan there has been a certain shortcoming."
He attributed this to "the difficulties that we have had to face in different places around the country in the middle of economic limitations." Nevertheless, he indicated that his government still has time to fulfill the goals of the Millennium Objectives.
El Seibo, taken as the pilot project for the implementation of this program in 2004, is the province with the second highest poverty index, after Elias Piña.
To change the poverty
President Fernandez said that the development of El Seibo is based on tourism, and he called upon the government officials that accompanied him to "change the image of poverty" in this province and for this he prioritized, among the dozens of proposals made by the people, the pavement of the streets, the repair of the highway, and the construction of a waste water treatment plant.
Among the immediate promises he announced the start of a plan to asphalt and repair of the highway between El Seibo and Miches as well as the completion of the Jina aqueduct whose cost is said to be between RD$7 or RD$8 million.
But the promise that drew the most applause from the crowd that gathered in the streets of the Ginandiana section of the city was the completion of the indoor sports facility, the Polideportivo of El Seibo, which-according to what the President said-will be inaugurated next July.
Nonetheless, the petitions, made by six spokespersons from dozens of community organizations, also asked for bridges, a sewer system that included three waste treatment plants as well as the repair of schools and several highways.
The magic realism of necessity
Is anything characterized this Popular Dialogue it was the dignified magic realism of the petitions. "We want to stop being a city of corn, because when it is rains, we are corn pudding, and when it is sunny, we are roasted corn meal," said Maria Isabel Rua to the President, as a way of painting a graphic image of the deplorable situation of the streets of Miches.
Meanwhile, a lady, standing on a chair, shouted in a very loud voice asking the President, "if you remember what you promised," to which he answered "we'll talk later." One group of country folk did not have the same luck, for no matter how much they waved their arms they could not get a word in.
Diario Libre
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