Archive for August, 2019
Tropical Storm Dorian is moving west onto Caribbean waters. The National Hurricane Center does not has it with hurricane status when it crosses by Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic by its eastern coast. Stormy weather is expected as of Thursday, 29 August 2019 on the island. The National Meteorological Office (Onamet) is calling for all to closely monitor the storm as it moves west.
This is a time to complete pre-hurricane preparations. Reports on DR1 Weather & Beyond Forum’s “2019 Hurricane Season” thread indicate that this could be an intense September and October for the Dominican Republic. Preparations for a major storm should be underway. End of August and September is the peak time for hurricanes in the Caribbean.
Source: DR1, Noaa
Aug 26, 2019
Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York’s fourth-year fashion student Yelayny Placencia is the designer of the contemporary look for Anna, the iconic female character of “Frozen.” The design is intended for use in the Disney Broadway show.
Placencia is from the Dominican Republic and was one of ten students from the FIT that were chosen by the fashion school to present sketches to Disney on Broadway with new looks for 10 Disney heroines and characters. Disney on Broadway had asked the FIT to hold a competition among a select group of 100 students and choose the ten best proposals.
The student designers were asked for the new looks for Nala and Rafiki of “The Lion King”, Jane of “Tarzan,” Elsa and Anna of “Frozen,” Jasmine of “Aladdin”, Belle of “Beauty and the Beast”, Katherine of “Newsies”, Ariel of “The Little Mermaid” and Mary Poppins of “Mary Poppins.”
The contest is part of the 25th year celebrations of Disney stage productions and the 75th anniversary of the FIT.
Other winners of the contest are Marianna Gonzalez, Eunhye Jo, Ashna Moogi, Yelayny Placencia, Ruby SeoHee Shin, Annette Stone, Paige Walker, Georgianna Wells, Baoqing Yu and Sooyoung Yun.
The Fashion Institute of Technology is just three kilometers from the Broadway theater area.
From 19 September through 6 October 2019, the creations will be on view at the school’s Art & Design gallery in the Pomerantz Art and Design Center.
The WWD website reports that attendance of the shows could be up if the designs become a reality. “Chances are the Broadway productions of such shows as “Frozen” and “The Lion King,” could get a lift in attendance or perhaps a few more collegiate ticket purchases, as a result of the tie-up,” says the website. It explains that local theatergoers and tourists alike had bolstered Broadway show attendance to 14.77 million for the 2018-19 season compared to 13.79 the previous year, citing data from the Broadway League.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
Aug 26, 2019
An investigation in the Boston Globe newspaper reveals that the spokesman for the National Police in the Dominican Republic, Colonel Frank Felix Duran Mejia has been on the payroll of Major League Baseball for over a decade. Indeed he is one of three high-ranking Dominican law enforcement officials employed as MLB resident security agents.
The revelation is new even in the Dominican Republic. It adds to the local and international skepticism around the Dominican police and attorney general conclusions on the shooting against Red Sox retired baseball player David Ortiz in a bar in eastern Santo Domingo. The Police concluded it was a case of mistaken identity and that the bullets were aimed at Sixto David Fernández instead over a family grudge with his cousin Victor Hugo Gómez Vásquez.
The Boston Globe reports:
“The arrangement, at least to the few who have known of it, raises questions about Duran’s loyalties at a time when the police’s shifting accounts of the near-fatal June 9 shooting of Ortiz have been met with widespread skepticism. And security specialists who have worked in the Dominican Republic said the close ties with MLB inevitably raise questions about the objectivity of police officials.”
The Boston Globe is also reporting that the ballplayer has hired a former police chief of Boston to look into findings of the Dominican police regarding the shooting.
The La Cuestion radio talk show on Friday, 23 August shares an audio by Victor Hugo Gomez Vásquez, whom the Dominican police accused of the murder, and who says that investigations should be carried out into the main source of income of his cousin, Sixto David Fernández Vásquez.
Source: DR1, BostonGlobe
Aug 26, 2019
Hundreds of public school teachers took off Thursday, 22 August 2019 to march to the Ministry of Education and present demands. The president of the Dominican Public School Teachers Guild (ADP), Xiomara Guante said the teachers demand a recall of the Public School Teacher Assessment 2019. The teachers also want fewer teaching hours and a review of the content of the extended day programs. Also demanded is better maintenance works at schools.
The march began at Av. 27 de Febrero and the teachers walked south to the Ministry of Education on Av. Máximo Gómez.
In 2018 the Ministry carried out assessments to choose teachers for director positions by merit. The ADP rejected this. This year, the Ministry of Education required public school teachers to take a standardized test to assess their competencies for the jobs. Most teachers failed. The ADP now objects to the test. An editorial in Diario Libre criticizes the ADP position while it praises recent actions of the Ministry of Education to base promotions and hiring on merit.
School began nationwide in the Dominican Republic on Monday, 19 August 2019.
Source: DR1, Eldia
Aug 26, 2019
Three months ago, an action group consisting of businessmen and politicians field a petition to the Sosúa city council to install a welcome man sized colored lettering sign at the entrance to Sosua township.
The action group then also reported that businesses and individuals were willing to fully fund the project. So the financing side of the project cannot be an obstacle. The spokesperson for this action group said that a large number of cities in the Dominican Republic have already installed such signs. There is still a response to be received from the city council. Wilfredo Olivences (Willy el Chamo) is one of the driving forces behind this project. Willy is a mayor candidate for the 2020 elections.
Source: Sosua News
Aug 26, 2019
The 23rd Dominican Republic Jazz Festival, presented by FEDUJAZZ and the Ministry of Tourism hosts Jazz Legends at free concerts on the north coast and Punta Cana recognizing music, culture and the arts. Celebrating a rich history spanning over two decades, the Dominican Republic Jazz Festival welcomes internationally acclaimed artists every year.
Each year’s Festival is centered on a musical theme. Marco Pignataro, the Dominican Republic Jazz Festival’s Artistic Adviser, and Executive Director of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute shared that the 2019 Festival will be a celebratory tribute to jazz in Latin America.
Festival Date, Show Location, Featured Artists
Saturday, August 30 & 31, 2019 – Cap Cana, Los Establos
Friday, October 25, 2019 – Santiago, Centro Leon
Saturday, October 26, 2019 – Puerto Plata, Plaza de la Independencia
Friday, November 1, 2018 – Sosúa, Playa Alicia
Saturday, November 2, 2019– Cabarete, Cabarete Beach
Sunday, November 3, 2019 – Cabarete, Cabarete Beach
Jazz Festival Summer Edition in Cap Cana
Setting a historical precedent, 2018 marked the first year a Dominican Republic Jazz Festival took place in Punta Cana. This magnificent representation of the festival was enjoyed with award-winning exponents of the jazz genre in Cap Cana for the first time. The Summer Edition will be held this year on August 30 & 31, 2019.
The Summer Edition of the XXIII Dominican Republic Jazz Festival celebrates a “Tribute to Jazz in Latin America” featuring Chucho Valdés, El Canario and Walter Smith III with Berklee Global Jazz Institute.
Pre-Festival activities will include educational music workshops for local students on August 30th, and a pre-concert jam at the Cap Cana Marina on August 31st at 7:00 p.m. The main event will be held at the elegant Cap Cana Stables on the evenings of August 30 & 31, 2019.
More about the Festival & Foundation
All Dominican Republic Jazz Festival shows are free and open to the public, with VIP tickets and priority seating available for purchase. Proceeds of VIP ticket sales benefit FEDUJAZZ, the music education foundation of the Dominican Republic Jazz Festival. FEDUJAZZ provides free music education for the youth of the Dominican Republic. Currently, there are one hundred students attending free music classes at the foundation’s center in Cabarete. Hundreds of schoolchildren from the North Coast of the Dominican Republic also attend educational music workshops with the renowned musicians performing at the jazz festival each year.
Maria Elena Gratereaux, President of the FEDUJAZZ board, thanks the public and the FEDUJAZZ team for making this free event a reality, saying, “The Dominican Republic Jazz Festival is created by many who believe in the importance of the cultural and artistic contribution to our country; and at the same time it helps us to fulfill the objectives of the foundation of bringing music education to local children. These children have the opportunity to live musically all their lives, and here they are imbued with responsibility, love, peace, honesty, teamwork and respect for the environment.”
For official photos, please click here. Higher resolution photos are available as needed. Contact FEDUJAZZ for more details at 809-571-9350, info@drjazzfestival.org
MEDIA CONTACT:
Dominican Republic Jazz Festival
press@fedujazz.org | drjazzfestival.com
PUERTO PLATA.- All the rivers and streams of this Atlantic province remain dry due to the prolonged drought and the constant aggression against the natural resources that continue to be carried out, before the indifferent gaze of the authorities.
The great drainage presented by the aquifer sources of this jurisdiction is due to the lack of rain, in addition to the indiscriminate logging and the extraction of materials for the construction.
In the channel of the Bajabonico river that supplies drinking water to almost all the towns in the western part of this province, only the stones are observed since there continue to operate granaries that extract tons of aggregates for construction every day.
It is specified that the water table has practically disappeared on the perimeter of the west coast of Puerto Plata, from Maimon to Luperón, since even the wells are dry creating an uncertain situation for agricultural activities.
The residents in all the communities located in that area, lament that for more than 17 months, there are no rains that supply water to rivers, streams and ferris wheels, as was usual at various times of the year.
Similarly, several complaints from El Ore Bross Strait municipal districts in Luperón and Río Grande in Altamira, realize that heavy machinery is killing centenary trees in that area, under the pretext of channeling the rivers.
While the aquatic sources of Puerto Plata are about to disappear, it is criticized that the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, do not act against those who prey on forests and continue to extract materials from the same riverbed.
Source: Puerto Plata Digital
Aug 16, 2019
The Dominican Republic ranks fourth among countries in the Central American and Caribbean region in terms of being subjected to the most cyber attacks, according to a recent Microsoft Report. The report on cyber security in the region by Microsoft placed the Dominican Republic as a high risk for malware threats.
The technology company released data from the Security Intelligence (SIR) report to local media. The document represents the analysis of more than 6.5 billion threat signals received daily by Microsoft’s cloud computing system during the January-June 2019 period.
Data from this document assures that malware attacks decreased by 67% in Central America and the Caribbean. However, the rate of malware encounters in the region is 28% higher than the global average; this is reflected in the crypto-mint sector, where the creation of malware for digital coin mining is 40% higher than the global average.
The Dominican Republic ranks fourth with 5.96% of malware-type cyber attacks, only behind Nicaragua (7.88%), Honduras (6.18%) and Guatemala (6.15%). The countries in the region with the lowest rate of cyber attacks of this type are Puerto Rico (2.21%), Trinidad & Tobago (3.12%) and Costa Rica (3.28%).
Federico Muller, modern workplace solutions manager at Microsoft, attributes the high risk in the Dominican Republic to the low digital education of the population. Primarily, the Dominican community is prey to phishing, in which attackers disguise the virus in an email with misleading advertising.
Overall the malware encounter rate in Central America and the Caribbean is 28 % higher than the global average.
Microsoft recommends everyone step up their security practices that apply both to individuals and companies to minimize chances of success of a cyber attack.
Users can use tools such as antivirus, dual-factor authentication, and make backups in the cloud to prevent data loss.
Source: DR1
Aug 16, 2019
46% of the drivers randomly stopped at the first breathalyzer checkpoint tested positive for the presence of alcohol. Agents assigned to the Alcoholimetry Unit of the Traffic Safety and Land Transport Agency (Digesett) carried out the screening tests on Monday, 12 August 2019.
In total, 65 drivers were evaluated, with 30 having traces of alcohol. Thirty-five tested negative.
Of the 30 drivers testing positive for alcohol, 17 resulted with a degree higher than the legal limit allowed by Law 63-17, which is 0.25 mgr/l in the exhaled air. 13 drivers gave levels below the legally established in that second test, so they were released.
Of the 17 drivers who exceeded the legal limit of alcohol allowed, five managed to lower their alcohol level after the waiting hours established by the transit law, and 12 were able to leave with relatives and / or relatives who were responsible for taking them to their final destination, since they did not reach the lower alcohol level, as established in Paragraph I of Article 259 of Law 63-17.
Of those who tested positive, 22 were men and eight were women. Among those who remained under observation until the levels of alcohol in their bodies dropped, 13 were men and four were women.
Article 259 of Law 63-17 states that “alcoholmeter tests shall be carried out on drivers and pedestrians who must exhale into the instrument, with the purpose of detecting the presence of alcohol in their breath to determine the degree consumed. The law establishes that when the breathalyzer test is positive, the Digesett agent may keep the driver under surveillance for up to four hours. However, the driver may leave immediately if a family member or related person takes responsibility for delivering the person to his or her destination.
The recent operation aimed to educate the public about the harmful effects of driving while intoxicated. No fines were applied.
“Drivers of vehicles are prohibited from drinking alcoholic beverages while driving on public roads, or from driving while intoxicated. Persons who violate this provision will be punished with a fine equivalent to five (5) to ten (10) minimum wages of the prevailing in the centralized public sector and the reduction of the points of the license determined by the regulation, without prejudice to the provisions relating to the suspension and cancellation of the driver’s license”, as established in Article 256 of Law 63-17.
Source: DR1, Hoy
Aug 16, 2019
The minimum wage increase passed by the National Salaries Committee goes into effect on 15 August 2019. It will benefit employees from the non-sectorized private sectors. Sectorized workers of the export free zone and hotel sector have a different wage scheme. Likewise, while the law is specific that this is an increase in the minimum wage, it is a frequent practice for companies to increase wages of workers that make more than the minimum wage.
The new minimum salary levels for companies worth more than RD$4,000,000 goes from RD$15,447.60 to RD$17,610. Those worth more than RD$2,000,000 but less than RD$4,000,000 go from RD$10,620 per month to RD$12,107 and those less than RD$2,000,000 go to RD$10,730.
Daily agricultural workers will now earn RD$400 a day for a ten-hour day and security guards will now earn RD$15,000 per month.
The hotel and free zone sectors have yet to announce any wage increases.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
Aug 16, 2019
