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A sustainable rural livelihood can be defined as follows:
\n\u201cA livelihood comprises of the capabilities, assets and activities required for a means of living. A livelihood is sustainable and can cope and recover from stress and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, and provide sustainable livelihood opportunities for the next generation\u2026\u201d (Robert Chambers & Gordon Conway)<\/p>\n
If there is one piece of God\u2019s earth that has all the resources for sustainable livelihoods, it must surely be Dominica. Yet instead of getting on with the job we run around in circles and struggle to make ends meet. Could it be that we need to rethink the way we go about making a living?<\/p>\n
Our perception of employment is modelled on other countries, rather than on our own assets and capabilities. The same goes for our lifestyle. It is no good hankering after a way of life and a way of working that is insupportable for our 72,000 population and incompatible to our 290 square mile island home.<\/p>\n
What I have in mind goes beyond cottage industry and beyond making craft items for visitors. The products would be essential for everyday living and manufactured to meet local and regional demand. It could be something as simple as an environmentally friendly egg carton. At the other end of the scale, I have on the drawing board a vehicle specifically designed for tropical environments and island terrine. Unlike the current crop of SUV\u2019s it has no fancy devices. But it does have good looks, ground clearance, stability, easy maintenance and low fuel consumption. Moreover, it could be assembled from component parts right here in Dominica. Sorry, I\u2019m dyslexic and my brain can\u2019t think the same as a normal person.<\/p>\n
Regardless of my flights of fancy, the basis of manufacturing must relate to our abundant resources: resources that the rest of the world would give an arm and a leg for. A significant percentage of what we import could be produced locally from our own raw materials and with a surplus to export. And this is not limited to agriculture, although exporting rather than importing fruit juice would be a good start. With innovative and creative thinking we have the wherewithal to make paper and paper products (thus eliminating plastic and polystyrene) and building materials that are not totally reliant on imported cement and steel. In a recent edition of the Sun newspaper Henry Shillingford makes a valid case for cultivating hemp to these ends.
\nWhatever your take on cannabis, he deserves credit for offering a Dominica alternative to imported petrocasas houses. Bamboo, banana stems and sugarcane bagasse are equally adaptable.<\/p>\n
To create a livelihood we do not need large factories or industrial estates. Environmentally friendly small scale units, village to village, would be more efficient and better suited to our nature island image. Neither do we need High-Tec machinery but we do need high quality. Given a team of skilled mechanical engineers the equipment can be designed, built and maintained on island. A few years ago I designed for DEXIA a machine for washing dasheen. It worked entirely by gravity and water pressure: no electricity and no moving parts. As you might guess, it was cast aside in favour of an imported \u201cState of the Art\u201d energy consuming device.<\/p>\n
I am not advocating that we return to the dark ages. As an engineer I embrace technology and as an artist, I believe that all work should be creative and pleasurable. The internet enables information to be shared world-wide and offers un-tapped potential for working from the home environment.<\/p>\n
My approach to developing livelihoods would reap benefits beyond material advantages. Skills would be developed along with job satisfaction and pride of accomplishment. Keeping the workplace within easy reach of home (walking distance for many, rather than a one-hour La Plaine to Roseau bus ride) would have benefits in terms of health and wellbeing. Moreover, Dominicans would be working for their own improvement, rather than to the advantage of an overseas conglomerate.<\/p>\n
In my earlier commentaries I highlighted how we can build differently using our own resources rather than imported materials. Plastic, steel rebar, cement and galvanize are not home grown whereas hardwood, bamboo, stone, sand, clay and lime mortar are available in abundance. A building, and by extension a lifestyle, that may be fitting for Florida or Dubai, is not necessarily fitting for Dominicans living in Dominica. And by keeping a vernacular identity we enhance Dominica as a visitor destination.<\/p>\n
Dominican is blest with the raw materials for sustainable livelihoods, in other words jobs. What we desperately need is the creative vision and skill to use these resources to our best advantage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sustainable rural livelihood can be defined as follows: \u201cA livelihood comprises of the capabilities, assets and activities required for a means of living. A livelihood is sustainable and can cope and recover from stress and shocks, maintain or enhance…","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":184519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n