Dominican Republic

Coordinates: 19°00′N 70°40′W / 19.000°N 70.667°W / 19.000; -70.667

The Dominican Republic (ⁱ/dəˌmɪnᵻkən rᵻˈpʌblɪk/; Spanish: República Dominicana [reˈpuβlika ðominiˈkana]) is a country on the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western three-eighths of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands, along with Saint Martin, that are shared by two countries. Both by area and population the Dominican Republic is the second-largest Caribbean nation (after Cuba), with 48,445 square kilometres (18,705 sq mi) and nearly 10 million people, one million of whom live in the capital city Santo Domingo.

Dominica

Coordinates: 15°25′N 61°20′W / 15.417°N 61.333°W / 15.417; -61.333

Dominica (/ˌdɒmɪˈniːkə/ DOM-i-NEE-kə;French: Dominique; Island Carib: Wai‘tu kubuli), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its area is 750 square kilometres (290 sq mi) and the highest point is Morne Diablotins, at 1,447 metres (4,747 ft) elevation. The population was 72,301 at the 2014 census. The capital is Roseau, located on the leeward side of the island.

The island was originally inhabited by the Kalinago/Arawak and later colonised by the Europeans, predominately by the French, who arrived at the island on Sunday, 3 November 1493 ("Sunday" = "Domenica" in Italian). Great Britain took it over in 1763 after the Seven Years' War and gradually established English as the official language. The island republic gained independence in 1978.

Its name is pronounced with emphasis on the third syllable, related to its former Dominique. Dominica has been nicknamed the "Nature Isle of the Caribbean" for its unspoiled natural beauty. It is the youngest island in the Lesser Antilles, still being formed by geothermal-volcanic activity, as evidenced by the world's second-largest hot spring, Boiling Lake. The island has lush mountainous rainforests, and is the home of many rare plants, animals, and bird species. There are xeric areas in some of the western coastal regions, but heavy rainfall occurs inland. The Sisserou parrot (also known as the imperial amazon), is found only on Dominica and is the island's national bird and features on the national flag. Dominica's economy depends on tourism and agriculture.

Republic

A republic (from Latin: res publica) is a sovereign state or country which is organised with a form of government in which power resides in elected individuals representing the citizen body and government leaders exercise power according to the rule of law. In modern times, the definition of a republic is commonly limited to a government which excludes a monarch. Currently, 147 of the world's 206 sovereign states use the word "republic" as part of their official names; not all of these are republics in the sense of having elected governments, nor do all nations with elected governments use the word "republic" in their names.

Both modern and ancient republics vary widely in their ideology and composition. In the classical and medieval period of Europe, many states were fashioned on the Roman Republic, which referred to the governance of the city of Rome, between it having kings and emperors. The Italian medieval and Renaissance political tradition, today referred to as "civic humanism", is sometimes considered to derive directly from Roman republicans such as Sallust and Tacitus. However, Greek-influenced Roman authors, such as Polybius and Cicero, sometimes also used the term as a translation for the Greek politeia which could mean regime generally, but could also be applied to certain specific types of regime which did not exactly correspond to that of the Roman Republic. Republics were not equated with classical democracies such as Athens, but had a democratic aspect.

DJ Paul Elstak

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DJ Paul Elstak (real name: Paul Roger Elstak; born 14 January 1966 in The Hague) is a Dutch hardcore/gabber and happy hardcore DJ and record producer. He used to use his full name to create happy hardcore and DJ Paul for hardcore gabber, but when he started Offensive Records in 2001, he started using both names for gabber.

Biography

In 1987, his career as a DJ started when he was hired as a Struppier at Rotterdam Discothèque Bluetiek-Inn. Here he played with the Dutch House music pioneer Peter Slaghuis. Around this time he also hooked up with Rob Fabrie and Richard van Naamen to form Holy Noise, with whom he released a string of releases at the Hithouse record label (owned by Slaghuis). In 1991 Holy Noise had their biggest success with their release "James Brown is Still Alive". This release was a reply to the popular house record "James Brown is Dead" by L.A. Style.

In 1992 Elstak created his own record label, Rotterdam Records (under the flag of Mid-Town records) to release hardcore and Rotterdam Tekno. The first release on this label was a Holy Noise release under the guise of De Euromasters, releasing Amsterdam Waar Lech Dat Dan? (Translated; Amsterdam where is that?). This record was an implicit complaint about the Dutch media paying most attention to Amsterdam and not to Rotterdam. In 1995 he released the first DJ Paul Elstak single, "Life Is Like a Dance". After this record, a few commercial releases followed. "Rainbow in the Sky" was the most successful of these. Several of his singles reached the Dutch Top 40 in the mid-1990s. After two years, Elstak decided to leave the commercial dance scene and devote his time releasing gabber. In 2001 he left Mid-Town and Rotterdam Records to start a new record label at Rige Entertainment, called Offensive Records. To this day Paul still releases hardcore on this imprint in his own typical style.

Boca Chica

Boca Chica is a municipality (municipio) of the Santo Domingo province in the Dominican Republic. Within the municipality there is one municipal district (distritos municipal): La Caleta. As of the 2012 census it had 123,510 inhabitants, 70,184 living in the city itself and 53,326 in its rural districts (Secciones).

Boca Chica has a popular beach with the same name, located about 30 kilometers east of Santo Domingo de Guzmán in the south shore of the island of Hispaniola.

History

Boca Chica was originally developed by Juan Bautista Vicini Burgos, who established sugar plantations there in the early twentieth century. Vicini was very fond of the place but the golden era of Boca Chica was in the 1950s, when dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo ordered the construction of a modern hotel named "Hotel Hamaca", which subsequently became something of an icon. The hotel got all the more famous because it was there that Trujillo granted asylum to Fulgencio Batista after the Cuban Revolution. The Hamaca was closed almost immediately after Trujillo was killed in May 1961, and it remained closed and abandoned for more than twenty years. It was reopened in the early 1990s.