Reginald Dumas is one of the newspaper columnists in this country who I make it my business to read regularly.
Mr Dumas is one of this country's most highly accomplished citizens–having graduated from Cambridge and having served as this country's high commissioner to Canada, India, Ethiopia, Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean and as ambassador to the US. He also served as the head of T&T's public service.
His commentaries are always well researched, and while I do not agree with all of his points, I value the fact that they come from deep reflection and experience.
It is as a result of the fact that I hold him in such high regard that I was so disturbed by his column on Saturday.
In it, Mr Dumas was critical of Prime Minister Patrick Manning's suggestion that T&T might "invest in quarrying facilities in Dominica and thereby give that country a new area for economic growth and development and job creation."
Mr Dumas noted that Dominica has a "very delicate eco-system and growing worry is being expressed over the environmental degradation of the island."
He went on to quote two reports that referred to the possible detrimental impact of quarrying on Dominica's "very delicate eco-system."
While concern about state of the Dominican environment is entirely laudable, one might have thought that someone with Mr Dumas' intellect would have been as concerned about the state of the Dominican economy and the Dominican people.
And, it seems to me, that if the Dominican people had any say in the matter they would be more likely to choose the Manning concept of "economic growth, development and job creation" over the Dumas concept of "growing worry over the environmental degradation of the island."
That's because while Dominica has a GDP per capita (purchasing power parity) of US$9,900, without a new source of national income and jobs, its short-term prospects are bleak, its medium-term prospects are bleak and its long-term prospects are bleak.
Here's what an Eastern Caribbean Central Bank document, titled "National Accounts Statistics 2008" had to say about Dominica in 2007.
n Manufacturing output declined by 3.8 per cent, mainly due to the closure of Refresh section of Dominica Coconut Products (DCP) in September 2007. This resulted in declines in production of dental cream and other refresh products of 31.5 per cent.
n Production of bananas, the main export crop rose by 1.9 per cent to 45,565 tonnes notwithstanding the adverse impact of Hurricane Dean on the banana industries in Dominica and St Vincent and the Grenadines. In Dominica value added in the banana sector fell by 5.2 per cent after registering growth of 2.4 per cent in 2006.
n Stay-over arrivals to the ECCU declined by 2.5 per cent to 1,058.5 million. Among the member countries, lower levels of stay-over visitors were recorded in Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis and St Lucia.
n The number of cruise ship passengers rose by 24.7 per cent to a record level of 2.3 million, influenced by the introduction of larger sized cruise vessels and the return of a major cruise line to the ECCU. Increases were recorded in all countries, for which cruise arrivals are reported, except Dominica.
While its performance in 2007 may have been affected by Hurricane Dean which caused damage equal to about 24 per cent of Dominica's GDP, the first words in the text of the September 2008 International Monetary Fund staff report on the island state: "Dominica is extremely vulnerable to exogenous shocks, and recent economic policy has been aimed at creating buffers against such events. The economy is susceptible to a variety of natural disasters, and is ranked 12th on the list of 111 countries on the Commonwealth Secretariat/World Bank's composite vulnerability index."
That vulnerability is underscored by the fact that the banana industry has no future in an island like Dominica because of the elimination of the preferences and the tariff protection for West Indian bananas by the European Union.
There are many who feel that Dominica, with its black sand beaches and deep forests and rivers, is the perfect eco-tourist destination. There are people who say the same thing about T&T. The issue is are there enough committed eco-investors willing to do for Dominica what Spanish capital did for the north coast of Jamaica?
And is Dominica ever likely to attract enough eco-tourists to be able to justify the billions that will need to be spent constructing a new airport, seaport and roads on the island?
It may be that loans and grants from the Government of China and the European Union would underwrite such expenditure. Such arrangements may have some impact on the island's debt-to-GDP ratio which is already in the vicinity of 100 per cent.
And it would indeed be interesting for Dominica to undertake this massive necessary infrastructural development without bothering to trouble its local aggregate resources. I'm sure there would be environmentalists who would encourage the importation of aggregate from Canada to build Dominica's infrastructure while leaving the island's lush tropical forests untouched–the better to be enjoyed by the future eco-tourists. That approach, however, may trouble the island's balance of payments–already in an unsatisfactory state.
With its high rate of unemployment and poverty, is there any reason why Dominica should not develop a modern quarry industry, with all the necessary environmental safeguards in place?
What the region needs is balanced and sustainable industries which add maximum value to the region's human and natural resources.
Finally, in his Saturday column, Mr Dumas stated that the Prime Minister "has for years been unsympathetic to the environmental movement."
This may be related to the fact that the environmental movement has developed ever-closer links to the country's opposition parties.
How does one account for the fact that on June 18, T&T's official parliamentary Opposition sent out a letter to the editor by Prof Kublalsingh, who is better known as an anti-smelter activist than as a UWI lecturer?
And how does one account for the fact that on June 16, a spokesman for the anti-smelter movement sent out an e-mail drawing the attention of her media contacts to the fact that Gayelle was broadcasting a an exclusive interview with Basdeo Panday three days after?
