Our Future: Bridging the Agp Between Dominicans at Home and Abroad

OUR FUTURE - BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN DOMINICANS AT HOME AND ABROAD

FRANCIS JOSEPH

National Director - CHILDFUND CARIBBEAN (Dominica & St. Vincent)

His Excellency Dr. Nicholas J Liverpool and Mrs. Liverpool....invited guests, leaders of all political parties, guests, friends..........

I feel honoured to have been asked to be the guest speaker at this important event.

The term "Our Future" demonstrates that we own our future, manage our future and are in full control of our future.

After three decades of political independence and global economic dominance on Dominican politics and development, we Dominicans are still threatened with economic challenges towards economic independence, face environmental degradation and still after Chaguaramas we are without a clear regional identity and vision towards some level of Caribbean political and economical unity.

The European countries have achieved this through the European Union and we as a nation are benefiting as a result from the EU funds. It tells us really that if we put our resources together we are able to achieve a lot, and interestingly the EU has adopted principles, standards and regulations and that if any member operates outside these standards they can be pulled up or penalized by the EU parliament. That tells me that this is a level of discipline and standard well embedded into their operating laws to best govern all member countries.

The closest we have to the EU is CARICOM AND OECS and do we have this level of governance here within the Caribbean or should we still be debating how far we go as a political or economic grouping? Or are we too comfortable waving our own small island flags while we still contemplate on the gaps that can take us to some level of real economic union and development. Our dear Caribbean politicians continue to visit countries and institutions making attractive promising speeches of what must be done, but they sometimes forget that they are the elected ones.

The Campaign for Dominica's Future is the strategy centered for every progressive movement since independence in 1978. We quickly shifted our allegiance from what has been referred to as colonial UK to that of US imperialism, back to neo colonialism, onto IMF-----ism, China-----ism and Chavez----ism. The question is have we as a people lost our purpose somewhere down the road to own, dictate and manage our own future and destiny to what I refer to as ROOTS.......meaning "Rely On Ourselves To Survive".

The world has been talking of conservation and Green economy now for years and the EU has introduced strong policies for years now for all member countries to apply, comply and implement and today we still joke and laugh about Green economy. That should be a major subject matter for our education system from ECD Nursery - Pre School to primary school, through to secondary and tertiary education. We are green we are surrounded by the eco-systems, the trees, birds, rare species, rivers, mountains, valley etc, we have it all, that is living green. And there is a reason why we open the season for hunting crabs, manicou, etc and why we protect our turtles.

Increasingly over the years in major supermarkets in London the section for organic produce has increased. One may have their doubts about organic grown products, but the fact is some countries are making much out of it, and even if we do not wish to view it as alternative lifestyle to healthy eating, we can begin to view it as opportunities for markets and business for us, our farmers.

Maybe we still do not know how to market and sell Dominica. When some of our policy makers laugh at and dismiss new initiatives rather than welcome it and chose to refer it to the past we seriously have a problem in understanding how to relate to changing economic demands on the global market or how we are comfortable playing musical chairs in our parliaments.

Just remember many years gone by we drank our bush tea by picking the bush from our backyard gardens, fresh, healthy, no chemical and some of us were ashamed to be seen doing so when overseas visitors came to our homes. We had reserved in a cupboard, a tin or package of processed coffee, English tea or chocolate drink. Today, the world calls it Herbal tea and it is big business, but we have been in this business long before. Our bush tea/herbal business is still struggling.

The goal is to forge the enduring progressive mind necessary to achieve the ultimate of shared prosperity and opportunities that our country Dominica is meant to be.

To attain our ultimate goal, we, all those who live here or in the Diaspora must help lead a compelling progressive agenda that addresses the kitchen-table issues working families face. Deprivation, exclusion and vulnerability are the faces of poverty which impede on our people on a daily basis and according to government`s chief social development planner, who addressed ChildFund Caribbean rebranding two weeks ago says that, "there are pockets of it (poverty) everywhere in Dominica".

We regularly convene and educate progressive thinkers, organizers and community advocates so our voices will be coordinated, cogent and potent towards some level of economic and sustainable development. And we attempt to sow new seeds towards national campaigns on the critical issues that will redefine Dominica's independence, purpose and direction for generations to come. But if these efforts (like this one) are not well co-ordinated for some reason we will remain lost and tangled in local partisan politics, unclear of our role in national and regional institutions, as we continue to talk of unity but defend strongly our little island flag and we behave as if the world owes us something.

Therefore bridging the gap between Dominicans at home and abroad is essential and important in today`s world of schemes and things if we are to Rely on ourselves to Survive (ROOTS). Let us adopt the ROOTS mentality. Today our banana industry quota is subsidized by the same country who took us to the WTO to get rid of our preferential treatment to sell our bananas to the UK on the pretext of unfair trading practices versus our long standing "preferential treatment". Yesterdays enemies or competitors become friendly or accommodating partners for the matter of convenience and opportunity. The question is where do we stand as a country -as a people in this global scheme of things?

We, the Windward Islands, with a dying industry today are unable to fill the banana boat like yesteryear to take our bananas