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Volume No. 1 Issue No. 92 - Monday March 05, 2007
Dominica Venezuela the Environment and Oil Refinery
By Gabriel Christian


I write this out of a sincere desire that we work together and not divide the house. In recent days much press coverage and time has been spent discussing the proposed oil refinery to be built with the help of Venezuela.

The issue of Bird Island has also come up. Some fear that a refinery will destroy Dominica's environment. In some quarters, there has even been some hostility directed at President Chavez and the ALBA.

Unfortunately some of the discussion have become downright divisive, where it is not part of our cultural tendency to poke fun at serious matters: as in the post carnival 2007 flu (called Chavez by some) that have consigned many to their beds.

I have concerns that such division among us could, and might, frustrate our best hopes and efforts.

Our mission now, is what it has always been: building a just society, while protecting the best of our natural bounty. How do we go about that process?

How can we succeed? Do we make progress where we take to the airwaves to unceasingly castigate government or Chavez, when we will not even sit down and discuss development options and build the teams necessary to make it work?

While we will advertise our displeasure in US and other foreign media, without putting the same effort into boosting our tourism? Is our tourism anemic because of Chavez or a proposed oil refinery, or because of our lack of sustained focus on development and investment?

When the copper mining effort came up, we opposed it as rightly we should have. Its threat went to the heart of our national parks; would denude our steep lands of trees and could have led to the death of our fragile rivers.

A refinery would be a coastal affair, and not require destruction of trees, or sedimentation of rivers in our national parks.

And that it would immediately address our energy needs. We currently have the most expensive electricity rates in the Caribbean and the oil complex would immediately address a problem of national concern, in a manner the copper mine could not have.

Some of our brothers who now attack the oil refinery concept were ministers in the recent past. None had the wisdom or perseverance to conduct themselves in a manner necessary to build teams and so persuade people to the justness of whatever cause they sought.

Both either resigned, or got sidelined, due to attitudinal defects which prevented success of whatever philosophy they espouse.

While well-meaning utterances in favor of protecting our rivers, sea and land are heard, we must garner the cooperative spirit with which to make that protection a reality.

However, a seemingly hostile and overly critical manner of approach has damaged such efforts. Who is to blame for that? Chavez?

The proposed oil refinery? Prime Minister Skerrit? I believe it is time to do what Calypso King Hunter once said: Look deep within.

Look at Haiti. The lack of development and poverty compelled people on our sister island to decimate their tree cover for fuel. Now desperate for survival, many Haitians now take refuge in Dominica.

It is clear that economic backwardness is inimical to the protection of the natural environment. Is that what we desire for Dominica?

It is clear that economic development is a prerequisite for environmental protection; it is for that reason the environmental protection movement has currency in more advanced societies.

So let us advance our country to obtain the funds necessary to preserve our homeland's best attributes. That way we will not forever remain dependent on grants from foreign benefactors to help us protect what is ours.

Let us raise our own funding through economic development and innovation. In that vein, we should salute Venezuela's assistance to our country and not allow ourselves to attack Chavez and so - blindly - do the bidding of others.

We are nationalists and pro environment. However, I believe we will make progress and protect our country where we work collaboratively, never allowing the differences among us to count for more than our unity of purpose.

We are all personally committed to our homeland and have worked in the distant past, and more recently, to advance an environmental protection agenda.

I trust we can work together to build a new environmental consciousness that is not sectarian, scornful, and divisive or always brimming with the threat of boycotts and injunctions.

This is a time to build Dominica and develop jobs for our people. Comrade Chavez, and the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) is one such platform to advance our national interest, away from the old neocolonial model.

It is ironic that some so-called leaders of the "Left" now find themselves - objectively- as opponents of the ALBA where they focus their anger at Comrade Chavez and Venezuela. Whose interests are they serving?

Bird Island
In the 1970s we raised the issue of Bird Island, as the nationalist we are. However, we should be resolved to manage that issue in a manner which fosters cooperation not conflict.

Over almost thirty years of independence there has never been a clash, or blood shed, between Dominica and Venezuela over the issue.

Never has our economic progress been hindered by that issue. No investor or boat owner ever abandoned a project over the issue. Today, people who never once had a concern over the issue can be heard taking to the airwaves. Why?

Only enemies of our rise would spur bad relations with Venezuela over Bird Island. To have that issue be a wedge between our people would be to send our leaders and people on a fool�s errand.

The Oil Refinery:
For those who are unaware, oil is as natural as the sulphur springs. It springs forth from the bowels of the earth. Refining oil is the base for plastics and modern chemical industry without which there is no 21st Century civilization to speak of.

We now graduate students who have no option but to migrate. With an oil industry we can produce textiles, fertilizer, synthetic cotton, fuels, hair products, medicines, etc.

Today, due to better practices, oil refineries co-exist next to residential areas, without any undue impact beyond that which exist with exhaust fumes from regular vehicular traffic.

While our focus must be on renewable energy, an industrial sector which promotes knowledge of applied chemistry and engineering are also key to our future survival and success.

If we were to one day discover fossil fuel, such a knowledge base would minimize our dependence on expatriate advice.

In addition, the business spin-offs from such refining are innumerable and only circumscribed by the limits of our imagination and native wisdom.

Further this is the time to come to the table with our skill sets and obtain the assistance of Dominican Diaspora engineers who have worked in the oil industry in Antigua, the USVI, Houston and Saudi Arabia to ensure we get the best deal.

Simply to attack the idea of an oil refinery is myopia at its worst. It is as if one were to attack a Nuclear reactor for Dominica, simply because of its pitfalls.

Science exists to be explored and mastered, and isolation from the promise of science is no option. Rather, we must engage science and use it to our advantage, ever being mindful and careful to tamper its negatives.

That we are the Nature Island, does not mean we should park our cars and walk; or go back to the horse and buggy. Perhaps a more serious and purposeful move would be to ensure we recycle the current oil we now discard into our rivers and sea.

That is a current problem - not a future one. A refinery would address that recycling problem, allow us cheaper fuel, open the way for more investment in the economy, and halt the flight of our young people to other lands.

So let us be positive and engage the government, with our best ideas. It is too late in the day for us to be perceived as obstructionist and "talkers" when there is work to be done.

Where the government is not responsive, then let us come together on a private sector basis to explore recycling, and other pro environment initiatives best we can.

Renewable Energy
Our support for an oil refinery, should not deter us from developing our geothermal, wind, solar, hydro and other renewable energy resources. That self reliant energy option, in line with our affection for Mother Earth, should be our sustained strategic focus and one does not cancel out the other.

The ALBA
During the colonial period all the countries were tied to the colonial master states and viciously exploited. We were not masters in our own land. The ALBA is a nationalist initiative centered on people of our region working together to develop technology, new and more equitable trade, amassing investment capital, all the while being attentive to social justice.

Five hundred years of prior economic practice has left us a region where our technology base is weak, a psychology of dependence is crippling, and we lack control of our economic future.

Further, we have class schisms which compel millions of people from our region to migrate due to the failure of regional societies to offer equality of opportunity. While Dominica is a better country today, we still have some of the inadequacies common to our region.

The ALBA seeks cooperation for the survival of our nations, based on mutual respect not foreign diktat.

The ALBA does not replace the OECS or CARICOM. Instead, it complements the self-reliance and economic development thrust of those regional organizations.

The ALBA is not anti-US as its social responsibility ethic has already seen relations with less fortunate Native Americans, African Americans, working class Americans and others who benefit from affordable fuel courtesy of CITGO the Venezuelan firm which owns 14,000 gas stations and 9 oil refineries in the US.

So while some sectors condemn Venezuela and Chavez, they have no problems being the beneficiaries of that country's wealth and investment.

Why then should we? Let us be clear: Venezuela, under Chavez, is our friend and ally in these times.

So let us continue to work together for a better Dominica. Remember, colonialism existed as long as divide and rule were allowed to exist. Let us bury divide and rule once and for all.

Comments about this article? Email:
editor@
thedominican.net
Telephone:
1-703-861-9411
Fax:
1-202-589-7937

Volume No. 1 Issue No. 94
Chavez visits Dominica
History of Zouk
Carnival Fire
My wayward friend
The greenest island



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