Friends of the big super powers

I’ve often wondered if we are using our connections with people in high places to our advantage. When I say our advantage I am thinking of the country as a whole and not just us as individuals or our immediate friends and families.

Let’s just think for one moment of one of our major resources, WATER. To what extent are we marketing that resource to our advantage and to the benefit of Dominica? Why can’t we sell some billions of gallons of water to countries without to improve our economic position? What is stopping us from doing that? Well if the world is not ready for our product are we positioning ourselves for that time when it will come knocking at our doors? Is our WATER company allowed the leverage to pursue that very important matter of national interest? Or are the bureaucrats playing cricket with this?

Then we have our tourism product. How long is it going to take us to realize that missed opportunities never return? Why is it taking so long for us to realize that we are indeed sitting on a gold mine or should I dare say several gold mines that only require some good sensible structure and management to become a success? If we could only tap into one state or county within those massive countries there could be a vast array of consequential benefits. Maybe we have the wrong motives for setting up our so-called bilateral arrangements or our vision is maybe lacking profundity and spirituality. In fact I am one of those who strongly believe in leadership that exude the type of vision that can be appreciated intellectually, emotionally and spiritually.

We may also wish to consider our artisans within that context. Yes they attend regional shows but have we taken a country approach to present our skills to other regions where they are widely treasured. Our indigenous people for example who are so endowed require a national effort at letting the world know and see what is available here.

We need to move fast here in Dominica and establish our position within the region and the world. What is it that we are good at? What is our forte? Have we taken the time to perfect our craft, our offerings, our gifting to place us within that bracket where people would come looking for us. True enough we are losing ground in many ways. Our professionals are departing in droves. What are we doing to stem that flow? Smallness whether economical or geographical is not an excuse. We have many examples of small states like ours that have refused to allow their size to determine their worth. Let us take a page from them and implement some changes quickly.