A date has been set for actual construction work and commissioning of a new Dominica State College.
President of the college Donald Peters said Wednesday that project work will kick off in March this year and will be delivered in August 2012.
Dominica sealed off an agreement in 2009 for a loan of US$40 million from China for the construction of four projects. Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has disclosed that the construction of a new Dominica State College is among those projects.
It will include a state-of-the-art library, an auditorium with a 500-seat capacity and the construction of bigger and more equipped labs.
Peters said some preliminary work in preparation for the project has gotten off the ground.
Dominica is widely hailed as the “Nature Island of the Caribbean” and listed by National Geographic as one of the “20 Best Trips in 2011” (http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/best-trips-2011-photos/), and rightly so I think, It’s instructive to understand that both of these designations are based on Dominica’s uniqueness as something other than a “tourist trap.” Although a healthy tourist industry can be beneficial, most tourists to Dominica come to her BECAUSE OF her natural beauty, not in spite of it. They don’t want beach-swallowing, multi-story hotels that impinge on the natural beauty of Dominica. It’s Dominica’s breathtaking mountains, lush forests, vast and beautiful waters, seclusion and simplicity of life that are the attraction. After all, white, sandy beaches with expansive hotels, mega-yachts, over-priced housing and everything else that is “modern society” can be found elsewhere…easily.
Beyond that, Dominica has the increasing potential, I think, to become energy-independent via geo-thermal, solar-, wind- and wave-power generation and more, though such a situation would likely be decades down the road. Nonetheless, such energy independence would hail Dominica as a forward-thinking and innovative country that could, in some ways, demonstrate her peoples’ creativity and “can do” attitude, providing leadership to the rest of the world. It would also, I think, confirm that Dominicans not only embrace their country for what she is but also see and will work towards her potential in this regard.
Further, what if Dominica was able to completely wean herself off of oil? What would that mean to Dominicans? How would that help their finances, what with having to borrow less? And what about Dominica becoming less dependent on other nations’ “generosity”? Taking that a step further, what if the technologies which Dominica employs as an energy-independent country could be exported? Would this not bring money into Dominica and her people?
It pains me to think that Dominica’s beauty and allure would be cannibalized by multi-national corporations and political leadership whose only interest is their own. Dominica is a wealthy country, in terms of both her people and her intrinsic (natural) beauty. The world needs Dominica just as she is: naturally beautiful, lush and a treasure.
I beg the people of Dominica to carefully consider what Dominica means to them and what value she has to the rest of the world and themselves, both now and well into the future.
As has been rightly said before, the borrower is servant to the lender. Is this really what Dominicans want?
The level of negativity in this country is frightening. People seem hell bent on seeing this country remaining stagnant. For the sake of politics, it is amazing how so many people would prefer see this country degenerate into a piece of wasteland, as long as they get their pound of political flesh. For these people any thing to do with development and advancement is not an option. i despair for the future of this nation.
SO WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO DO ABOUT THE RUBBISH SMELL.
IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY THIS COLLEGE OR THE RUBBISH DUMP WOULD HAVE BEEN CLOSED DOWN ALREADY.
INSTEAD WE ARE GOING TO INVEST MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO POISON THE PEOPLE’S CHILDREN JUST A BIT MORE.
I HOPE THOSE CHILDREN WILL BE ABLE TO HAVE CHILDREN OF THEIR OWN OR WILL BE ABLE TO LIVE A LONG AND HEALTHY LIFE AFTER GRADUATION.
HOW CAN YOU BUILD A COLLEGE IN A RUBBISH DUMP
HOW CAN YOU HAVE A GOAL TWO PROJECT STATE OF THE ART FOOTBALL FIELD IN A RUBBISH DUMP
I IMAGIN THAT SOON THE NEW COLLEGE MOTTO WILL BE: ” LEARNING ID HARZADOUS TO YOU HEALTH,” OR “LEARN AT YOUR OWN RISK.”
Hope we can have an accredited bachelor program now
There goes PM sing for his super again or is it pay back time for him having facilitated Skerro to enter college in the US he facilated the switch in his colleage.
Skero staters but was teaching and english at that he reminds me of instuments of the UWP who hashe’ english.
some of this money must be put aside to settle DSC debts……lecturers have not been paid their mileage since September 2010…..
Why are lecturers getting mileage???…Do they get paid for driving to their place of employment???
We are grateful for the new state of the art college but i do hope DSC will be able to pay its lecturers. Since September 2009 DSC has not been able to pay its lecturers their mileage to go the schools to supervise its teacher trainees.
I echo the financial concerns of both Anonymous and Ex College Student. What happens when Dominicans are unable to repay the loan? What will China want in return? After all, they don’t need the money. What’s in it for them?
This situation reminds me of John Perkins’ book “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.” The idea Mr. Perkins puts forward is that countries are convinced to take on debt (unsustainable, though not necessarily obvious at the time the loan is made) for this and that project. The money is used, at least in part, to enrich the “connected” of the debtor nation (political and/or business leadership), ravage whatever natural resources the debtor country has (which, in the case of Dominica, is a lot, even without oil) and bring the debtor country to a point where it is co-opted by the “corporatocracy” for it’s own benefit and not that of either the debtor country or its people.
I pray that Dominica is not falling prey to such a scenario.
A person after my own heart. One who has read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.?” Scary stuff ain’t stuff, but if you think America is bad, wait until the China effect hits us!! This is not going to be pretty.. Clue Tibet!!! Time will tell, Guess what, we will not be able to give back the 30 pieces of silver!!! And we duh even know what’s in the MOU! Jesus Christ help us!
TRUELY SAID SANITIZER
IT IS AMAZING HOW UNINFORMED MOST DOMINICANS ARE ABOUT WORLD AFFAIRS.
THEY DO NOT KNOW ABOUT THE CHINESE AND THEY ARE DRUNK ON FREENESSISM
BUT EVERYTHING HAS A PRICE. WHILE IT MAY SEEM SLEEP AT FIRST (AS ALL DEVILD ARE), CHINA IS THE WORST THING TO HAPPEN TO OUR BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY, TO OUR BEAUTIFUL ROCK.
THE CHINESE ARE INVADERS WITHOUT GUNS… AND THE SKERRIT GOD IS RICHER FOR IT.
New structure will be located below the existing structure, above the road to Yam Piece.
Put a hog in a palace it remains a pig – Mighty Sparrow. Hope the treatment of the new structure does not follow what we have now at DSC!
Would really like to know where this project is going to be.
Hope is not in that same stinking place.
Edication is good but what next. Hope they are thinking of providing gainful employment for these young bring minds when they leave school. Its all well and good to edicate them but…..What Next???
so they should also start thinking of job creation so that we can retain some of our bring minds. Lets stop producing intellectuals for export.
The future is ours to embrace. Edication is our best weapon but….We need good paying Jobs too…
And please Mr or Ms Journalist give us the location for this new project….
A loan at what rate? We and those loans! When will we ever know how much we really owe china and Venezuela? And at what costs those loans come to us?
I am so concerned about the sustainability of our resources and the protection (from predatory countries) of our resources, and even more fearful that we might be signing away our rights to our very land and resources.
Water is (FOR A FACT) going to be one of the world’s scarcest and most valuable commodities (MAD MAX was not a fantasy after all), something we have in abundance. Other countries know this, it is going to be like oil, rare and everyone will want to get control of the main sources.
I hope when the time comes, we don’t find out that these resources no longer belong to us, that they were traded to other countries for loans or part of agreements. It has happened before, in many countries, so not impossible at all. I wish we could get the assurance from our governments, those now and those to come, that our water will NEVER be given away.
There are some countries where it is illegal to collect rain water, because the powers that be want you to spend you dollar to buy their water. Will we get to there, how can we guarantee that we don’t?
Similar with electricity, illegal to own generators that are not licensed, illegal to generate your own electricity using solar, hydro or wind energy without approval from Domlec and you must have a licneses? (FEEL FREE TO CORRETC ME IF I AM WRONG, but in early 2000 when I built my home that’s how it was. HUH? Why should that be? We should be encouraged to move away from fossil fuels and harvest what comes freely and widely available with a low (no carbon footprint) and minimal impact to our environment. Our government should be embracing more economical way to ease the dependence on these fuels by putting in place more aggressive and attractive incentives for new home owners, existing home owners to engage in the use of alternative energy.
AT the same time, we need to PROTECT our rivers, the Planning/Building divisions need to get on board and building codes need to be written into law to directly address the protection of the rivers.
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I agree with you my friend. The public must continue to demand the MOU between Dominica and China. It is our fundamental right to now! I am really concerned as to what these countries want in return. Nothing is for free in this materialistic/secularistic world today. Everything comes at a cost, the question is at what cost?
I hope when Dominicans open their eyes it wouldn’t be too late!
Hey….. EX College stud,
our eyes are open…….. BUT we just need a little LASIK SURGERY so we can see better!!!
We are thinking well here! This is a well-needed project. The location was not revealed though! I sure hope that it far surpasses the one tht is in use right now and that the shortcomings of it have been taken into consideration when conctructing the new. Good luck!
I hope that part of the project is to also fence and secure the new college, Too often we sign for half-projects!!
Where will this college be located????????????????? this is basic information that should be given.