Hello Dominica:
The Audio Version
In my hopes and dreams you are supposed to be well… Unfortunately, in reality, I know you are not… and I trust that as difficult as it may be, you have also come to that realization
Next week Tuesday you will celebrate your 31st birthday and I am writing this letter not so much to congratulate you for making it to another yearly milestone, but to encourage you to reflect on your life and where it is going.
I look at you these days… the gleam is gone from your eyes… the confident glide has left your stride and your voice no longer exudes the assurance of good Christian living. I remember the days when you scoffed at wrong-doing… you admonished your friends – don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal… today, liars, cheats and thieves find comfort in your silence.
And so I ask, how did you fall into these unfortunate choices that have set your life on a path of certain destruction?
We still talk about you as been beautiful, healthy, cheerful, sweet, fair and wonderfully blessed with gifts so rich and rare… And yet Dominica, in the leadership of your relatively young life, you have fallen into bad company and you need to pause, take stock and decide on a new path that will secure your wellness, happiness, progress and prosperity
Do you realize how much more blessed you are than your neighbours – rivers, valleys, hills and mountains… your 300 square mile island paradise in the Caribbean Sea, is as close to nature in its purest form as you will find on this side of heaven. Your lush green gift of nature’s beauty offers the world a tropical haven of peace, tranquility and wellness at a time of increasing tensions arising from on-going global economic and political crises. The world needs you Dominica… you only need to understand, appreciate and accept your importance to the integrity of its civilization
You have healthy land to feed your nation and the entire region. Your renewable energy resources are abundant – geothermal, wind, solar, hydro – they guarantee your economic independence in this time of turmoil in global financial affairs… Your magnificently green country yearns for the support of a green economy, but you drag your feet on these initiatives… you scorn your own renewable energy experts in favour of gift bearing misfits from the outside. You argue with your patriots advocating nationalization of indigenous resources in the utterly corrupt interest of placing your valuable renewable energy resources in foreign hands
Through all of this Dominica, you lie in wait for citizens to let down their guard so that you can open the back door for the establishment of an oil refinery. Why? How will that grave danger to our nature island environment genuinely serve the national interest?
Right now Dominica, you are being influenced to squander your health in search of wealth, you are being advised to scheme and misbehave… but later when you squander wealth in search of health all you will ever get is a grave… You beg to boast about ill-gotten things you own… You will die Dominica, and then you will get a stone.
Roosevelt Skerrit was your age, 31, when you gave him the privilege of leading you into the future… Do you have any regrets? What do you say to yourself now about that unfortunate decision? He has done very well for himself amassing millions of dollars in hard cash and physical assets on a government minister’s salary…We asked him to tell us how he was able to do that… but he is keeping it a secret. And in your stone cold silence you are helping him to do that.
How much is your silence worth? How much have you sold it for? 10, 20, 30 pieces of silver? Largesse from Chavez? A Chinese shoe from Hsiu with Chen money? A housing revolution? Land for a Marina? A deal to make another Money God? A clinic painted red? A lilac house? A villa in Guillet?
Oh my… in your stone cold silence, you may have been bought and sold many times over… do you even know who owns you?
Your young leader has been responsible for scandal after scandal that has shamed your name to the rest of the world – land transfer tax evasion, unaccounted property, economic citizenship fraud, diplomatic passport fraud, garbage bin fraud, fertilizer fraud, questionable undercover business interests… We ask questions… we call him to account… he either lies or says nothing… and in your stone cold silence, you condone his behaviour.
In a wide variety of ways he leads his colleagues in the abuse the public office for their private gain… there was a time when you called that corruption… there was a time when you condemned it to hell… today you defend it, you make excuses for it, you embrace it, you smile with it, you jump into bed with it
When did you forget that the upholder is worse than the thief? Are you telling me Dominica no one ever told you si y pa ni soutiweh y pa ni voleh?
With all these personal get rich quick adventures for Skerrit’s Million Dollar Club, while the nation is transformed into a shameless community of beggars, what example are you setting for your people of tomorrow – your children of today?
How do you hope to deal with rising crime – the murders, the rapes, the robberies – when the real criminals – those you allow to rape and plunder your treasury and suffocate the hopes and dreams of youth, violate the laws with impunity and get away with it? When did you become a promoter of double standards?
Where is your moral majority… your church leadership? Where are your leaders of civil society… your captains of industry? Where are the people you pay to protect you – the president, the parliament, the courts, the DPP, the Police, the Director of Audit, the Permanent Secretaries? Listen Dominica, listen… do you hear the sound of silence as it roots for the corruption in government to deliver more and more benefits to the chosen few? Are you able to count the silent voices?
Tell me again about the rebels that you somehow expect to become honourables… those who stock pile their millions on the back of poor people’s misery
Passa Work Dominica, passa twavaye…
The pain in my chest I am told is just stress… the stress of wanting to give you the earth and everything that’s in it… in the vain hope that one day, in recognition of the fact that you are all that we have, you will eventually do justice to our worthwhile dreams and aspirations.
Happy Birthday Dominica
The dry bread and water is on me.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Well written it says it all, what is sad though is the silence the fear it is like a cancer that creeps up and infects you even while you sleep and unless you do something radical Dominica will be a none entity in the commiunity of nations, this government is a disgrace a criminal disgrace, and while you permit this this criminal behaviour then you are on a hiding to nothing, and deserve it those in power get rich and those without power get poorer and poorer you will be asking the international communities for red cross parcels very soon wait and see.jeremy
The Economist Intelligence Unit, a respected think tank, says economic conditions in the Caribbean may deteriorate further before they improve.
It's outlined a bleak but not unfamiliar list of economic indicators in the region.
Tourism performance is weak, remittances are not picking up, consumers are borrowing and spending less, unemployment is rising and government budget deficits are widening.
Given these dynamics, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) estimates recessions in 2009 in all countries in the English-speaking Caribbean with the exception of Dominica.
That's because Dominica has a relatively low reliance on tourism and is enjoying a construction boom thanks to fiscal stimulus measures funded mainly by donor aid.
In 2010, the EIU says growth will remain negative in some countries and even in those that begin to recover expansion will be very weak.
REALLY GUYS! HOW HONEST ARE YOU…THEN I'LL POST IT ON YOUR WEBSITE,THEN YOU POST IT HONESTLY.