In every nation’s life there comes a moment when its survival depends not on numbers, not on slogans, and not on power, but on memory, conscience, and courage. In Dominica, that moment has arrived again. And it summons what may rightly be called the remnant.
By remnant, we refer to those men and women value-engineered during the heady postwar years following universal adult suffrage in 1951, when Dominicans first gained the right to elect their own internal government. That period did not merely produce elections; it produced character. It forged a civic culture grounded in honesty, mutual accountability, discipline, and cooperative effort—koudmen—which made a small island governable, peaceful, and dignified.
It was the era that gave rise to competent, honest, and visionary leadership—figures such as , the businessman-statesman, and , the agriculturalist-reformer whose social vision reshaped education, labor, and rural development. These leaders emerged not by accident but from a society that believed—deeply—that honesty is the best policy and that birds of a feather flock together.
That Dominica had working citrus and banana industries. It had local factories producing juices, jellies, soaps, and even soft drinks. It had credit unions and cooperative societies built on trust, thrift, and neighborliness. People greeted one another with good morning, good afternoon, and good night—not as politeness alone, but as recognition of shared responsibility.
The remnant remembers the truancy officer Mr. Frank, patrolling the streets to ensure children were in school and not idling by the banks of the Roseau River or strolling the Botanic Gardens during class hours. The remnant remembers Mr. Solomon, the sanitary officer of the Roseau Town Board, inspecting yards so that no mounds of garbage invited rats or pools of stagnant water bred disease. The remnant remembers forest guards who patrolled rivers and rainforests, safeguarding the inheritance of generations unborn.
This was not authoritarianism. It was civic love—the quiet, disciplined care that keeps a society from unraveling.
The Fracture
Today, by painful contrast, many of those schooled in a weakened value system now inherit a Dominica marked by drugs in schools, gangs infiltrating communities, alcohol dulling moral judgment, and lawlessness running amok. Drive-by shootings. Criminal biker gangs. Environmental degradation. The erosion of trust. The corrosion of institutions. The Nature Island wounded by those sworn to protect it.
Even more troubling is that some of the remnant have made an unholy peace with vice and corruption on high. Fear has replaced fortitude. Silence has replaced truth-telling. Too many duck for cover as the small republic our parents labored to build slides toward moral and civic collapse—commandeered by foreign bandits and enablers who exercise command and control over a compromised state.
And so the question presses with prophetic force:
Remnant—what lies before you but the grave if you remain silent?
The Remnant as Moral and Spiritual Force
In Christian theology, the remnant is not the majority. It is the faithful few who hold fast to truth when society compromises itself. Throughout Scripture, the remnant preserves moral continuity, bears witness against injustice, and keeps hope alive for renewal. Its power lies not in dominance, but in authenticity, perseverance, and obedience to conscience.
So too in Dominican society.
The remnant’s role is to be a moral compass when values drift—upholding honesty, justice, stewardship, and dignity even when corruption appears normalized. It is to live counter-culturally, refusing to accept lawlessness as inevitable or moral decay as irreversible. It is to remind the nation—by word and deed—that Dominica was once governed by principle and can be again.
The remnant must bear witness—not merely through speeches, but through action: defending the rule of law, protecting the environment, mentoring youth, rebuilding cooperative institutions, and speaking truth to power without fear or favor. Like the early Christian communities, the remnant fuels renewal precisely because it refuses to surrender its soul.
A Call to Rise
Remnant of Dominica—be bold. Be brave. Do your duty.
Do not betray the country our parents left us. Do not surrender it to foreign profiteers or local collaborators who neither love this land nor respect its people. Rise up, you fallen fighters. Take your stance again. Throttle back fear. Remember who you are.
We are the remnant taught the value of courage, good manners, discipline, and civic duty. We are the inheritors of koudmen. We are the custodians of the forests, rivers, and moral architecture of this nation.
It is only by honest and industrious effort—anchored in truth, justice, and love—that Dominica will rise again.
Let us make a new dawn for Dominica. For ourselves. For our children. For generations unborn.
The remnant must not fail.
It is clearly apparent that a majority of commentators here have fired back at Mr. Christian with a salvo of “mind your business and stay in your lane” responses.
A careful analysis of the comments related to this article seem to suggest that Mr. Christian, an expat and current US resident, has somehow forfeited his inalienable right to opine on his country of birth.
My question is who granted those detractors the right to virtually strip Mr. Christian of the privilege to be concerned about the state of affairs in his homeland, especially in light of the incessant advocacy and promotional work he has done on behalf of Dominica and fellow Dominicans at home and offshore???
Some people when they don’t get what they wanted the grape immediately sour. Isn’t he the alleged one wanted to handle the CBI program?. Lord have mercy on them.
I wonder when is Mr. Christian going to give up his cherished US citizenship and return to Dominica to help implement the changes he talks about. If he is not willing to do that he should just shutup.
If Gabriel Christian wasn’t living in the current Trump America I would be inclined to take it all on board and think that it is a sincere message coming from the heart. Alas, mr Christian is projecting all these issues and values directly in relation to a Trump America which he is happy to live under but decries Dominica. If Trump has his way, Gabu and all other black and brown people, documented or not, would be kidnapped by masked ICE agents and disappeared either to concentration camps like Alligator Alcatraz or deported to unknown countries where human rights don’t exist. Mr Christian should also spare a thought for the victims and the families of Caribbean nationals murdered in their fishing boats in Caribbean waters, and high sea’s piracy and theft of Venezuela’s oil and other exports by the Trump administration . So mr Christian should start correcting America and not blindly point the fingers at Dominica. We the remnants love our Dominica. Can you say the same Gab?
After Joseph interpreted Pharoahs dream. Pharoah asked, “Where can we find a man, who so clearly knows how to manifest this thing?”. So I say where is Gaboo, who can get this done for us?
Too much talk… come back and face the struggle with us.