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Featured article:
 Plan a
different Caribbean holiday on the nature island of Dominica
Caribbean
island holidays are a popular option, but often visitors are
disappointed by the whole package tour air of certain islands, with
their crowds of tourists. Dominica is a little different from most –
an unspoiled and lovely getaway. Dominica is the ideal place for lovers
of diving and those who love to explore out in nature... read more
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Dominica by Deb Andrews
There is an undeniable magic
about Dominica, it hovers in the universal sound of falling water, in the
misty green mountains and vowel-heavy Creole spoken on every village street.
Take care, this region of magic is inhabited by “jumbies”,
entities who are not known for their kindness to people.
We all
know that Dominica has one of the highest rainfall counts on planet
earth. That’s why its known as the Nature island, it doesn’t get that
green without some serious rain! And what other country not even forty
miles long and a quarter of that wide has a waterfall for every day of
the year? Summing it up, there are only two continuously boiling lakes in
the Americas, and they stay boiling because heavy rainfall never lets
them boil dry! Dominica’s lake is the largest of its kind.
So it
was a bit of risk when a Hollywood film production for the new
blockbuster movie Pirates of the Caribbean II decided to do most of the
outdoor on location shooting here in Dominica. What a coup this was for
Dominica, against such places as St. Vincent and St. Lucia. But this is
also the wettest island. Think about it, there was a real chance that it
would rain every day and instead of being here for two months, they would
be looking at four months eating heavily into the production budget. They
started filming around the island in late March and it went on though to
the end of May in Vielle Case and other northern areas of coastline and
in the south around Scotts Head.
In mid
June, walking down through the sloping streets of Roseau from a meeting
at the NDC which is at the top of the town on the edge of the Botanic
Gardens, with my brief case and power business outfit, it started to
rain. Huge black clouds brooded over the town moving westwards from the
Morne Trois mountains evacuating vast amounts of water.
The
streets went from sunny and dry to blurred concrete and drains that
turned into churning rivers of white water. The background sound of soca
and reggae was drowned by the hiss of rain and the gurgle of running
water. Everyone dived under the nearest shelter and waited. The rushing
clean streets were empty except for the steady movement of cars splashing
through the town.
In
less than five minutes it was gone, and as the rain swept away from the
town and out to sea, the narrow streets changed from depressed grey to
bright polychrome illuminated by the blurry sunlight. I was soaked
despite my umbrella, but at least it was after my meeting!
The
amazing thing is that it only started to rain on June 1st. Up until then
Dominica had a very unusual dry spell right from March through to the end
of May. On the first day of hurricane season it began to rain, and it
hasn’t stopped since then. Meanwhile the filming was very succesful,
the production team completed their on location filming and have all left
now and gone back to complete the film. The benefits to Dominica are
enormous and multi-levelled, and will continue to roll in for years.
A
group of us stood outside the beautiful old Mill Centre which houses the
offices of the Department of Culture in Canefield. We shook hands and
said goodbye in the sunshine, and then it began to rain. “Ah
rain,’ said my Dominican colleague smiling, “when the sun
shines and the rain falls at the same time, we say in Dominica, the
jumbies are getting married!”
Maybe
the jumbies arent so bad after all, they remained engaged till after the
Pirates of the Caribbean II finished filming!
June
25th
Antiguans
are feeling their freedom. After many years of a single family regime
ruling the nation, they revel in the freshness of a new government voted
in last year in March 2004. Everyone has something to say about where
Antigua is going and how they are getting there, and what they are going
to do when they arrive.
And of
course, speaking cricket, each Caribbean island hosting the World Cricket
Series of 2007 has arrived, and Antigua is one of them. Other islands not
included in the series can only bathe in the reflected glory. This event
has every Caribbean country just blazing with pride and excitement.
Kids
and adults alike play cricket throughout the ex-British island nations on
every street, village, beach and bare patch of ground, flat or sloping.
The names of great cricketing icons such as Vivian Richards, Dennis
Walcott and Clive Lloyd are much more familiar within the average
Caribbean home than Venus Williams or David Beckham.
In the
days when Cable and Wireless Ltd was a monopoly in the English speaking
West Indies, the company made a shrewd decision to sponsor cricket with a
big budget and strong campaign, branding telecommunications and cricket
inextricably to generations of kids. Today, the long awaited competition
has at last arrived and as we start to move away from Cable and Wireless,
the successful job they did with uniting telecommunications and cricket
has now been acquired by Digicel. A cool move on their part, and just
before the World Cricket makes it positively stellar! Lets hope their
cellphone services live up to the world class cricketers whose names they
promote.
So
cricket, which is normally around second on the chat list, is now
outclassing even politics in whichever country you are in. As we get
closer to 2007, it will become the only topic! In a local bus a Bajan
said to the Antiguan taxi driver, as we drove past the cricket stadium
outside St. Johns, “are you rebuilding your stadium where it is or
making a new one for 2007? We are building a new one.” “So are
we,” responded the Antiguan almost huffily, and launched into a
detailed monologue on the new cricket stadium about which he seemed to
know an awful lot. But everyone’s a cricket expert these days.
But
now I wonder whether cricket and national freedoms go together? A senior
government official told me “I am really quite scared of 2007 and
what its going to bring to us” she continued, “People here have
no idea of what’s going to happen, and we in government are quite
worried.”
You
see global sponsors such as Coca-Cola and others have already bought the
advertising rights to the cricket stadiums throughout the region, where
the major games are to be played. This means for example that you cannot
wear a t-shirt, drive a car, sell anything, carry a bag or a bottle, with
any commercial logo or picture on it, inside and outside within a
specific radius of the stadium, of your own choice. Only advertising for
the official sponsor will be allowed, whether you like the product or
not.
“Antiguans,”
she continued with concern, “aren’t used to that. They like their
freedoms!”
Real
Estate Investment In The Caribbean ~ Dominica, The "Nature"
Island
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