[eropiereetuekm]

Damn, I need to pay mOre attention.

O&C, you need help.

SHALENA

I was an impetuous little 20 something child. I am ashamed of that past and I ask forgiveness here to all regarding that. Poor Nals can not offer anything else but to attack my character. My posts are too powerful and substantive that he sees it fit to attack my person any chance he gets. I made mistakes here in the past. I acknowledge that. It was wrong and I am sorry for that. Like I said in another post where Nails seeks to impune my person because he feels so bitter so many her agree not with the negativity of my posts but the truth of them. I stated the reasons for that.

I ask forgiveness to you personally Shalena. Can you see to it within your heart of hearts to forgive me for that blatant and disgusting behavior? If you can I'd appreciate that. If you can't I understand that also. In our younger years some of us act out without thinking and in my case I got high off the emotional ride I got while riling up myself and others here. I am a mature early 30 something man who I believe has made a 180 on these boards.

At this point in my life and as taught by any core class at the uni-level (human growth and development), it was stage in my development. I am no longer that brash, rash and impulsive child I was. The point is that time will either change us for the better or for the worse. I feel time has changed me for the better. I remember Robert stating how running these boards is like herding schizophrenic cats. Way before that, I realized that I no longer wanted to be one of those schizo-cats anymore. He just stated it analogically.

My posts are not negative but factual. There are serious problems within the DR and no amount of ad-hominems directed at me will change that. The DR is not advancing as Pick and Nails would lead us to believe. Agora Malls and all are just a cover-up to the true problems facing the DR. The DR has a deeply ingrained prejudice towards the poor to the point that many like Pick and Nails will falsely portray the DR as a thriving economic power which it patently is not.

It behaves much the way I used to behave as an impetuous child who seeks emotional gratification over substantive change. It behaves much the way Pick and Nails behave when their prized toy-the DR- is attacked. They lash back. We three are the product of that Dominican upbringing. It takes a global perspective to change that mentality and a good ole American or European educational system to break that mold. Given that there are virtues within the DR so it isn't an absolute I am stating here.

Pick makes comparisons to the US of A which I don't refute most of the time. It is a fact that used clothing is big business within the US. The problem is that there is NOT a concerted effort by retailers to ban their sales. Such a move would provide evidence that they are in a depressed state. Small business as stated by ONEC president Ramos? will be destroyed if used clothing is allowed to continue. That's the first proof. The second is that the quantity of used clothing that has entered the DR market is also proof that poverty is increasing and not decreasing.

It is a patent lie to state that poverty levels are being reduced. If such were the case used clothing would not have increased ten fold in a mere 6 years. I don't need to hear from some official agency telling me how poverty rates have decreased. They have an agenda much like the US FED and the US govt has an agenda to present pieces of the economic pie which present them favorably and others which do not are placed in the back burner. The US govt redefines economic data when said data presents the US economy dis-favorably.

The point is we do not deny this regarding the US but folks like Pick and Nails do regarding the DR. They want us to believe what you yourself do not believe that the DR is some thriving nation which it isn't. The DR business environment is not a fair playing field. Open up a small business and see what happens. You'll come back and post on your problems. Ask Robert on this board about personal friends not getting paid for METRO work and Pick continuing to insist that isn't so. It's just too much baloney and many of us here like CC, myself and others call them out on that.

This is the real DR. A DR which if not supported externally would cease to exist. Here are three reasons among many which prove the point. Decide for yourself based on the merits of the post. The DR will collapse into the Caribbean Sea if remittances were removed. The decrease in dollars would detonate the exchange rate pushing the peso over the cliff. As it stands the peso is at 2.7 u.s. cents when just 30 years ago it was at par.

The free gasoline that Chavez gives the DR is another way by which the DR escapes the Devil's grip. It is free because when you have a 2 billion bill for not paying because it as accrued over time that's free gas coming your way. They don't have the dollars so they pay in food which said quota they can not even meet. Their debt bubble consumes 50% of the budget. The DR is a ticking time-bomb waiting to explode.