The parliamentary representative for the Portsmouth Constituency Ian Douglas believes that the Kempinski Hotels will help revive the once buoyant economy in the North.
Hurricane Maria, coupled with the pull out of Ross University School of Medicine, put economic activity in Portsmouth on a downward spiral.
Douglas told Dominicanewsonline that the loss of Ross has caused dislocations economically especially with landlords and restaurant owners but he is convinced that things are about to change.
“Kempinski opened up last week and a number of persons who were associated with Ross either through direct employment or provisions of services, have found employment with the new hotel,” he said.
Douglas also reminded our newsroom that the new hotel is only one of three that will be opened within the next three years.
He recalled that Portsmouth received a major blow when Geest left but the economy bounced back.
“We lost Geest (bananas) in the 1980’s or thereabout and Ross came in and we bounced back. So, we are confident that we will survive this. We are moving on,” he said.
Meantime Douglas said plans are already underway to replace Ross University.
“There is another university we are looking at. The investors have already taken possession of the campus. Government has already transferred the property to the investors who are here to set up the school,” he said.
The new school will be called the Dominica Medical Sciences University. The investor is British and of Indian descent.
If Christopher Columbus visit DA today for sure he would recognize Portsmouth
Where are the guest for this hotel coming from? Should they not have a proper airport first ?
All the best to Kempinski, for the sake of the people of Dominica, Portsmouth especially.
Poor fella.
Ian! To try to do this to Portsmouth people again? How long are we going to be fooled? How many years have we been promised a pie in the sky?
How many time have they disrespected you? How many times have they planned to replace you, but for your last name? And now you are telling this to Possie people who have suffered so much at the hands of the Dominica Labour Party that we loved and so diligently supported? How long, from Sunday Island Port Authority, to today do you think we are going to be blind followers looking for a pie in the sky, and consuming your promises? What happened after your last victory, you gave us a celebration in Mang, and we saw your backs sides!!!! …… you disappeared and we became invisible to you and the party, as usual, until you tried to give the Chinese the land in Glandvilla. You attacked Skeritt, but put the most vociferous advocate in town council then killed the people’s protest, until now> You Darn scammer. Get out, beaches, get out!!
ian what about the Ross workers your all told in the meeting that you all give so much hope And told them you all would get back to them i like to know when you all going to keep that promise
But in the video i say of the Hotel, more than half the staff are not Dominicans. And those who are Dominicans are not in any high position.
Well there you go. They knew all along they would give just a few cleaning jobs to Dominicans. The good jobs all go to foreigners. You all should know by now how Skerrit and his ministers operate.
Omg . Where are the staff from ? This is madness
Says the man who told u s Ross was coming back
I am of the opinion that this little boy named Ian is under the influence of something, because he is hallucinating.
DNO i would really like to know what happened to my comment. i was the first person who commented on this article
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The joke is on the people of Portsmouth and we will see just how foolish and tribal they are when they elect Ian again.
Do you know anything about Sun Tzu? He said when you capture enemies, integrate them in your societies in order to prevent descent amongst their ranks. If Possie people are depressed, or we are under some hypnosis, this is not the way to heal people who have been under hypnosis for such a long time.
While the development of Dominica must be decentralized and taken away from the Roseau bourgeoise who have always demand and dictated that development of Dominica belongs only in Roseau, the reason Tony Astaphan so dislikes, Mr. Linton because he will never be able to control him. But so too must the protests be also decentralized to make Dominicans know we are all invited; so too must the protests be brought to every Labour stronghold in the country. Then and only then will we believe we are going to be a united as a country, and we are part of the coming change, which will move equitably towards the development of the country, and not just Roseau, because it has never worked!!
I will only believe Ian if he shave his mouth-stash ,
According to peter st jean, skerrit is not a Dam…, he is an a..
Ian that is the Dam…. !
seriously?
you must think all Dominicans toojoo soo
no ribbon cutting ceremony?
i can see de significance…..mr zampoli was good to give us Dominicans a heads up on de corruption involved in de Kempinski Hotel entire operations scheme
Yes indeed those who are only criticizing, have U looked back at the history of the country? Naysayers have U really looked back. Thanks Ian for reminding me. Indeed we had Geest at one time & many more. I remember the ERI’s, The Red Stores, the Clock shop, the Campbell’s store, La Paz hotel & the many others that are no more. Hats off to the J Astaphan’s; The HHV Whitchurch who have survived.
Question – was it the PM who caused all the businesses, past to be gone? We live in a forever changing world now I see the likes of you criticizing everything instead of giving thanks & furthermore blatantly blaming one man because of hatred. Do you look closely at some of the things done under his watch? No the cloud of hatred is over your eyes. Also remember we are passing through too. Stop wasting your energy on hatred & look at what u can do for your country (not criticising, not strife, not demonstrations, not walk out, not preaching hatred) so your name will b in DA’s…
Sorry, your comment is irrelevant!!!
Rubbish; how are they going to do that?
That thing that they are building in Portsmouth, cannot in anyway take the place of Ross University School of Medicine.
In order for your fantasy to materialize, they would have to be in a position to employ all the people who lost their jobs when you and Roosevelt chase Ross to Barbados.
What about the people left owing the Bank money they borrowed to build apartments to accommodate the students?
Will Kempinski attract as many tourist to their hotel that when it is filled and overflowing they will have to rent the apartments left empty to accommodate their guests?
What happen to the law suite you told the landlords you were filing against Ross so that they can pay for all the apartment buildings left standing empty after Ross departure?
You are grabbing onto a straw floating down an overflowing raging river!
Last week you hung on to the dead dream of geothermal energy; this week your false hope is Kempinski!
Makes no sense Ian,so all these people built homes t rent to students,will have to go and work @this hotel.and how many of these rooms will be filled yearly?You guys have no idea on economy.smdh!!!!!
lol you said Val ferry would revive it as well. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Shaking my head. One hotel cannot change Portsmouth Ian and to compare a hotel to Ross University is profoundly asinine.
If Fort Young and any other hotel in Dominica had been operating at full capacity there would be some optimism. At this point we have to be pragmatic.
This makes no sense. the hotel is going to provide housing for its customers, food & most if not all of the services which the community provided for Ross university. so i would love to know how a self reliant place like that is going to boos the economy? are they going to be buying there stuff from supermarkets and shop in the community? will they send their customers to be housed outside of their compound? I do not get how these educated people expect these things to actually make sense when they are said.
“Kempinski Hotels will help revive the once buoyant economy in the North.” With what? A few empty hotel rooms? You have no capacity, no economy of scale air access, no share of the Caribbean stay over tourism market, and coming in new and small with major established competitors and players in the field! Look at the other 5 star hotels in the Caribbean and see the jumbo jets from Europe, North America and the rest of the world bringing in thousands of tourists everyday! Everyday! And Barbados economy still almost went bust with all those hotels in Barbados closing down and laying off workers over the past five years! Dreamers, wake up the Agricultural sector, this is Dominica’s strength! We once needed to diversify the economy from being too dependant on Agriculture. Now we have killed Agriculture and need to diversify the economy from tourism dependency expectancy! You guys need a lesson in basic economics. Five years later we shall see the Portsmouth economy without Ross! Dream…
So loosing over a thousand jobs and gaining 25 is a good deal and start of a revival in Portsmouth economy? You see that’s the problem of that labour lot and in particular Douglas. Mathematics is not their strong point but lies, deceit and theft are…
We will believe when we see it. We have been told tall stories about the acquisition of Ross University campus by another body for the longest while but have not seen or heard any boots on the ground.
Contrary to your calculations Mr Douglas, Ross was already in Dominica before Geest left. Additionally, replacing one industry for another does not sound like growth but instead stagnation. Is this what we are all about? Inquiring minds need to know!!!
How is it said again? “Clutching at straws”. Yeah that’s it!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Yes Yes Yes, and I’m sure Possie people believe that.
Mr Douglas, as a friend of yours, please tell us how can a hotel and/or Dominica School Of Medicine replace the 2000+ tenants Ross had living here?
Is this school accredited and where? Where will there students come from? How many are going to start initially?
I honestly don’t blame you for the Ross debacle, but stop trying to cover up.
It’s like you guys breaking our legs and expect us to be grateful for the crutches you providing for us to walk.
When I think of the fallen and disgraceful state of Ian Douglas, here is the passage that comes to mind, proverbs 31:4-8
4 Kings and leaders
should not get drunk
or even want to drink.
5 Drinking makes you forget your responsibilities,
and you mistreat the poor.
6 Beer and wine are only
for the dying or for those
who have lost all hope.
7Let them drink and forget how poor and miserable they feel.
Akah poor Ian the toilet paper of Skerrit
@ The Evangelist In reading your comment, here is the passage that comes to mind. Matthew 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.
If we do not have viable and meaningful contributions, why do we have to go to personal attacks. Dominica belongs to us all and we all have a part to play in her development. No Government can and will be the be all and end all. We the People, have the power. Instead we come here and criticize about everything, red, blue, green, whatever colour, let us collectively come up with ideas and solutions. My two cents.
One Love Dominicans #OLD
But thou are not smart nou Righteous. You named yourself Righteous? That means you judged yourself already. @ Righteous tell me one thing I said above that was judgemental? If I judged by quoting a passage then the indirectly you are saying that the author of this book and passage was judgemental.
Quote the Holy scripture and label someone excrement cleaner in the same post … Hypocrisy shows no bounds here but is not at all surprising given the source. Keep reading though and you will come to the loving thy neighbor part. I will be more than willing to join hearts and hands with you and Ian to develop Mother Waitukubuli when you are really ready
Revive? It’s been dead then?
Terry Baron is his name? Ian please do dominica a favor and quit before its too late. Most children i know who had a successful parent continues that trwnd for most part. The Douglas legacy in Portsmouth is stained and destroyed. History will not be nice
Boy Portsmouth people should take care of you for helping Skerrit take their bread and butter from them and replaced it with crumbs. You talking about chasing out a big damn bird in the hand for two little birds with no feathers in the bush somewhere in a nest man. What you, Skerrit and Reggie did to us in Portsmouth and Dominica is unbelievable and unheard of. If the Prime minister of either Barbados, Antigua, Jamaica, Trinidad, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & Grenada did to their people and caused Ross to flee from their country, trust me that PM and government would go together with Ross! But in Dominica and Possie they even allow you guys to campaign? Boy I don’t know which devil and which witch that urinated over Dominicans and Portsmouth people but man whoever did it sure didn’t miss their target because we acting like we under a bad influence. Now on the eve of an election you talking your crap about three hotels and British and Indian University. Lord help us
According to Roosevelt Skerrit, “Dominica is not a real country” because I can assure you in a real country every single candidate of the DLP would be voted out and Ian Douglas would not even get his deposit back. But this is Dominica and the town in question is Portsmouth. I mean which employer or company that rewards their employee for failure? If Ian had balls he would fire himself from the Skerrit party for causing Ross to leave Dominica. Ian you know damn well that Ross did not go because of Maria. You know damn well that Skerrit pushed Ross out. Look, Ross was the baby and legacy of your father Mike and uncle Rosie. I was in the protest that fought to bring and keep Ross in Portsmouth. Ross survived David in in 1979 and grew from strength to strength under Euginia, Eddison, Rosie and Pierro but couldn’t vanished under Skerrit! That’s the fact be Ian. You Skerrit and Reggie caused over 500 direct and indirect jobs to go and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now you talking…
I normally pass comments like this straight.. but had to stop at the “Skerrit pushed Ross out” oft repeated lie which I can tell you will, on continued repeated repetition lose the UWP more and more credibility. Why? … No one in the blue ranks can explain to me why 1 year before Maria , the university completes a $30 million investment in an environment that they are so disgusted with. I am supposed to believe that in the short time (12 months) the company went from being happy to invest $30 million to having to leave a successful campus and abandon its huge asset here .. and the worst hurricane in recorded history visiting our shores had NOTHING to do with it. When you can explain that plausibly come back here and tell me who has balls .. Because I know who I saw putting shoulders to the wheel on September 19th 2017.. and it probably was not you.
“…Douglas said plans are already underway to replace Ross University”
woooosh!
Yeah…Right…
Don’t believe anything these ministers say. They are not known for their veracity. In fact, truth is not part of their lexicon. People want specifics about the replacement for ROSS, stop the vagueness. It’s near impossible to replace a business entity that was responsible for 33% of your GDP. Under this corrupt regime, every sector of the economy has gone awry. Agriculture, agro processing, light manufacturing, fishing, tourism, to name a few, are just barely breathing, so gravely ill. Dominica was once famous for its sportsmen, agricultural produce, many scholars, thriving business sector, brotherliness now it’s a country in perpetual crises. Skerrit and his apologists have now made it a mendicant country. China, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba have become our benefactors. Dominica has to settle for last place among OECS territories because of the wanton corruption and ineptitude of a fraudulent government. Time For Them To Be Thrown Out.
Ian, Ian, boy you realllllly guttsy garcon. Over 15 years u in porssie as pal rep and not one thing you did for the north.. Ross should have been your fight to ensure the Pm answer for their leaving Dominica. You now coming with your foolish talk bout hotel,, .. Bro a hotel will boost up economy? You think is a billion folks coming to hotel just so? After you guys destroy Dominica by selling passports n so much negative stuff going on, you really think people gonna come Dominica n spend money.. They prefer Barbados, Grenada, Antigua, St lucia n the other islands cause air access n many other things to make them spend money.
You know what, you guys have deep pockets, so talk crap to win election.. Only in Dominica you all can pass as leaders n politicians.. What a place of shame.. Other islands always laughing at Dominicans cause you all are clowns..
After, you all went on TV cried to the world Dominica has fallen, well indeed the country is sinking daily. Wicked DLP. Set of liars.
This guy has the gall to mention Ross in his tomfoolery..Ian under whose leadership did Ross leave Dominica?You are shameless like an alcoholic!
We you have been fooling yourself for a long time..It was once geothermal, then Val Ferry, now Kempinski..Dominica will only make progress when you all good for nothings exit office..
No planting of evidence in Lintons place by foreign criminals shall work..Instead it will backfire and boomerang in the faces of those responsible…
Whey is di money?
Whey is di money?
Whey is di money?