My article addresses several issues. First it exposes some politically loaded gimmicks used by Tony Astaphan to advance a notoriously outrageous defense of the government's policy without attention to intellectual rigor and the promise of ethical leadership that the Dominica Labour Party (DLP) stood for. Second, it focuses on two core issues (namely ownership of one's natural resource s and meritocracy) which Tony appeared to distort or to conveniently misconstrue. He also resorted to an astonishingly callous tactic of attempting to undermine my father's leadership legacy. This prostitution of my dad's (late Prime Minister, Rosie Douglas) reputation, I cannot let go unchallenged. Third, I offer a prominent case review to show how the Skeritt regime has consistently deflated the local talents, thus ultimately dis-empowering Dominicans. And finally, I offer a values-based way forward for the DLP in light of our nation's soon to be realized 30th anniversary of independence and one that correlates with the values that my dad and others worked so hard to preserve, promote and enacted in their vision of progress for the people of Dominica.

Tony, I find it rather amusing that you would think that ownership of one's natural resources is "parochial." Indeed this is a persuasive posture to adopt, if you are excited about taking advantage of persons who are spiritually, physically and mentally challenged. From the onset, let me state categorically, I am in complete support of foreign investment. And, I see nothing wrong in developing our resources in partnership with foreigners. In fact without foreign investment a poor country like ours would be unable to develop. Let me also make it very clear that when I say foreign, I am not referring to our Caricom brothers and sisters. The issue here is not anti-foreign investment but having complete control of our natural resources.

The proposal of Clean Energy Corporation (CEC) was to develop geothermal energy in Dominica and to have the company owned by the government and people of Dominica. There is nothing parochial about Dominicans wanting to own their natural resources. No, Tony this is not narrow minded point of view. If the Dominican Government is presented with 2 projects of equal value, the local party should be given preference. Sustainable development demands that an intelligent government empowers its people with wealth creating opportunities for generations to come.

Let's face it. While the West preaches a doctrine of trade liberalization and free trade to the developing world it maintains agricultural subsidies and industrial tariff. These nations know that local ownership of natural resources is vital to economic growth and national interest. It makes no sense for the Dominican Government to go to Venezuela to beg for cheap oil (via the PetroCaribe Agreement) and then turn around and sell off their interest in a geothermal project to a foreign entity. The Venezuelan Government under the leadership of President Hugo Chavez is able to assist the Caribbean countries, because, it has complete ownership of its Oil and Natural Gas. If a foreign entity had control of Venezuela's Oil industry, Mr. Chavez would not be able to assist us nor advance a transformative social advancement program for his people.

The Director General of the O.E.C.S, Dr. Len Ismael makes this point aptly:

"At the end of the day, the sobering and singular truth remains the fact that these tiny

specks in the Caribbean Sea, are the only rocks which we have; their natural resources have a fundamental role to play in providing for the hopes and dreams of the people of this region, and in their basic rights as citizens, forever. We have an ethical and moral responsibility to ensure that the fruits of development which we see around us redound to the benefit of every man, woman and child in the OECS first and foremost". History will judge us as the generation which "sold out" if we fail to do so".

The notion of meritocracy is problematic. It has multiple definitions. In some instances, it is often used as a disguise for practice of political manipulation. In others, it is used as conduit to provide protective covering for, and preferential option to, national and local talents. For example, When the Asiatic regions were building their economies. For them meritocracy was providing their markets the protection required for global competition and their people a free zone space for talent development. Do you see any meritocracy operating in the WTO agreements or in European agreements with the Caribbean? First World Countries have no qualms about protecting their national interests and the interests of their business sectors.

The real issue is that rarely when matters of meritocracy are advanced, Dominicans are not given priority or any weighty consideration. The results remain the same: Under Skerritt, Dominicans are sidelined and are relegated to second class citizenry status. Preference is almost always given to foreigners, not necessarily the most talented or most meritorious, but those who are capable of assisting these greedy leaders in advancing personal wealth at the expense of national well being. This is unethical and must stop!

Don't you dare Tony, muddy my father's reputation with crude forms of draconian behaviors. Dad stood for transparency, integrity in public office, and he lived that out in his personal life and public service. Let's not pretend that your defense of the government does not yield financial rewards that often blind your capacity to be objective and accountable. Somehow your mentioning of hard facts are always sanitized from social, economic and political realities within which these facts operate. Clearly there is a "puppet master" implication here.

The deeper issue here is the severing of political practices from the founding values of the Dominica Labour Party (DLP). This is the Crux of the matter. And, what is happening in Dominica is an expression of the abandonment of founding values and principles of the DLP. This DLP administration is not a reflection of my father or his values, "instead they are routine inheritors of a name without substance".

The current administration wanton disregard for the talents and gifts of the Dominican people is legendary. Chief among them, but not alone is the Waitikubuli National Trail. For those of you who are not familiar with Dominica's history, Waitkubuli is the Arawak name for Dominica; it means "tall is her body". Former Attorney General, Bernard Wiltshire was the chief architect of this project. The idea of having a trail (i.e. walking that went around the island from Grandbay in the south to Capuchin in the north) was coined by Mr. Wiltshire. The objective of the Trail was to create revenue for Dominica's tourism industry.

The trail would go around the island and visitors would be able to visit tourist attractions along the path of the trail, for example, The Boiling Lake, Emerald Pool etc. No doubt, there would be entertainment, restaurants and other economic activities along the trail that would bring in much needed revenue to Dominica's tourism industry. I recall as far back as 1995, when, I was a law student in the U.K.; Mr. Wiltshire and a group of Dominicans founded the group the Waitikubuli Ecological Foundation (WEF). At the time, I was invited to join, but I was struggling with first year law studies, so I was unable to participate due to time constraint, but I cheered from the sideline.

When, my father formed the government in 2000, Mr. Wiltshire was invited to join the government and given the post of Attorney General. While in Dominica, Mr. Wiltshire continued his work with WEF. He used his personal funds to conduct studies in order to see if this project was feasible. Thanks to his vision and leadership WEF was able to secure the funding for the project from the European Union. At that stage the project was turned over to the government. WEF along with other organizations tendered a contract, but their bid did not succeed. Not because of merit, but, the current administration did not like the idea of giving the contract to WEF and Mr. Wiltshire, since, he had left the DLP and had become a vocal critique of the government. The contract was instead given to a foreign entity and some cronies of the current administration - how shameful! A case of "deja vu" as can be seen by similar treatment that CEC received when bidding for the geothermal project in the south of the island.

Her is another project taken from a local organization. I call for this contract to be reviewed and Bernard Wiltshire appointed manager of The Waitikubuli National Trail project. That is the least the government can do to show appreciation and gratitude for Bernard's hard work, so that other Dominicans will follow his example of commitment to national service.

Ambassador David Hsiu

Judging from Tony Astaphan's account, Rosie Douglas knew David Hsiu very well. There is nothing strange about that. As a leading political figure, Rosie obviously became a target for the likes of Hsiu who pride himself on turning political connections into lucrative passport and other government facilitated schemes. In fact, Mr. Hsiu makes a living of befriending politicians around the world. It was alleged that he even tried to curry favour with a former U.S. president, so it is not a Prime Minister of a small Caricom that he would not try to befriend.

Unlike, the present leader of the DLP, Prime Minister, Rosie Douglas was a very astute man and he saw right through David Hsiu, that is why he did not allow him to serve as ambassador in the government that he headed for nine months before his death. But within two months of taking over as Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit switched diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China and appointed Hsiu as his ambassador to Beijing. I simply invite readers to google this man's name (on the internet) and learn about his history. Also, I am submitting an article re: David Hsiu and his litigation against the government of Dominica which is currently before a British Virgin Islands (BVI) court.

30 Years Independence Celebration - "Reunion 2008"

While I would like to join my fellow compatriots in November, at the big 2008 birthday party celebration of independence, it seems that there is nothing much to celebrate by way of achievement for the nation. After 30 years as an independent nation, we find that our country has not made much progress. We are placed at the bottom of the barrel competing with Haiti for last place in the Caribbean; this is not a good place to be. What's worse is that there is very little hope for progress under this current leadership. The Skeritt administration has established a pattern of behavior that treats our people with contempt. If we start by changing course, our country will have much to celebrate and much more to honor. We won't be able to build our country, if the government continue to devalue, we the people of this beautiful island.

To Celebrate our Independence Honorably, the Government should do the following:

1) An independent enquiry into to the granting of the contract to West Indies Power Company Ltd. Such a body should comprise of members of civic organizations, for example: the clergy, Bar Association, Tourism Association etc. We can't have persons who are on the payroll of the government like Mr. Tony Astaphan a member of this body, because he will not be objective. Naturally, his loyalty will be to his paymaster, the Government of Dominica. In order for this body to be impartial, it must comprise of person(s) who are independent of the government.

2) We want the full terms of the contract to be made public and the contract rescinded, so that priority be given to CEC and 100% ownership to the people and government of Dominica. No, Tony, we will not be waiting for other opportunities in the future. Since, this is our country; we demand first consideration now, not second.

3) A complete evaluation into the way we appoint person(s) to diplomatic post, so that in future we avoid the likes of Dr. King and David Hsiu from destroying the good name of our nation.

4) The government should chose person(s) of good character to represent our country at the ambassadorial level. And these individuals should bring added value to the government's developmental vision. The Chinese are very resourceful and enterprising people as can be seen by their country's enormous economic success, surely, the government can find a better person than Mr. Hsiu for that post.

The way forward for Dominica

For all my friends in the DLP (both inside and outside government), please do not take this as a personal attack on you or the party. I was raised in the DLP and I love this party very much; I am just disappointed with the direction that it has taken under this current leadership. In the spirit of my late father, Prime Minister, Rosie Douglas and (such great DLP stalwarts as, late Prime Minister, Pierre Charles, late Leader of the DLP, Hon. Michael Anthony Douglas, late Premier, Edward Oliver Leblanc etc), who worked hard and sacrifice to build this party; I feel compel to speak up and address these issues that are affecting the party and nation in a negative way.

It is clear to me that this government strategy for economic growth is unsustainable. All is not lost though; there is still hope for Dominica, if we embark on a new course. We need to deliver good and transparent government to our people. We need to utilize our natural resources to build our country. We need to create industries. And we need to inspire our people's confidence so that they become our greatest wealth. These are the things that will help develop our country and create a sustainable economy, thus, removing us from the beggars list. We can only achieve these objectives, if we start by having complete control of our natural resources. And empower our people (including Caricom nationals) to help build our country.

I am open to continue an enlightening conversation that builds and sustain the promise and goodwill of our people. And, I welcome serious debates and discussions on the implications of the issues I have raised, for regional development.

I am not interested in engaging further, empty rants. It is time for us to get serious as West Indians and devise credible solutions to our regional challenges, in a mature and sensible way. We may start by asking: What kind of Caribbean would we like to build in the 21st and beyond?

Debbie A. Douglas