Dominica
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THE DIMINICA COAT OF ARMS
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_-_DMA_-_UNOCHA.svg) Location of Dominica within the continent of Central America and the Caribbean | |||
 Map of Dominica | |||
 Flag Description of Dominica:The national flag of Dominica is a green base that depicts a circular emblem of red color bearing a Sisserou parrot (Amazona Imperialis) that is perched on a twig and is encircled by ten green stars. The parrot in the emblem is the National bird of Dominica and also symbolizes the yearning for greater heights and aspirations. The Sisserou parrot is an endangered species in the island with only a few pairs left. It is also found in the coat of arms of the country; the coat of arms of Dominica was granted on July 21, 1961. The national ensign is placed on three vertical and horizontal stripes of yellow, black and white that form a cross. The cross represents the Trinity of Christianity, the official religion of the island. The yellow strip on the cross represents the bright sunshine that falls on the island and also represents the agricultural products of the land, mainly citrus and bananas. The color yellow can also refer to the first inhabitants of the island - the Carib and Arawak people. White symbolizes the noble aspirations of the people; the black color stands for the rich black fertile soil of the island. The ten green stars stand for the ten parishes that form the Commonwealth of Dominica. The red circular emblem is a symbol for social justice. The stars are also a symbol of hope and the ideals of peace and growth cherished by the Dominicans. The green field on the flag symbolizes the lush green forests, the natural beauty, and the rich vegetation of the island. Due to its picturesque landscapes the Commonwealth of Dominica has been nicknamed the "Nature Isle of the Caribbean." | |||
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Official name Commonwealth of Dominica
Form of government multiparty republic with one legislative house (House of Assembly [321])
Head of state President: Charles Angelo Savarin
Head of government Prime Minister: Roosevelt Skerrit
Capital Roseau
Official language English
Official religion none
Monetary unit Eastern Caribbean dollar (EC$)
Population (2013 est.) 71,700COLLAPSE
Total area (sq mi) 290
Total area (sq km) 751
Urban-rural population
- Urban: (2011) 67.1%
- Rural: (2011) 32.9%
Life expectancy at birth
- Male: (2012) 76.2 years
- Female: (2012) 79.3 years
Literacy: percentage of population age 15 and over literate
- Male: not available
- Female: not available
GNI per capita (U.S.$) (2013) 6,760
1Includes 21 elective seats, 9 appointees of the president, the speaker (elected from outside of the House of Assembly membership as of the 2005 elections), and the attorney general serving ex officio.
Background of Dominica
Dominica was the last of the Caribbean islands to be colonized by Europeans due chiefly to the fierce resistance of the native Caribs. France ceded possession to Great Britain in 1763, which made the island a colony in 1805. In 1980, two years after independence, Dominica's fortunes improved when a corrupt and tyrannical administration was replaced by that of Mary Eugenia CHARLES, the first female prime minister in the Caribbean, who remained in office for 15 years. Some 3,000 Carib Indians still living on Dominica are the only pre-Columbian population remaining in the eastern Caribbean.
Geography of Dominica
The Land
Relief, drainage, and soils
The island is of volcanic formation. Dominica has a number of active volcanoes, although eruptions are rare. Other signs of geothermal activity include fumaroles (volcanic vents) and hot springs. In the south, Boiling Lake lies 2,300 feet (700 metres) above sea level; its waters are often forced 3 feet (1 metre) above normal by the pressure of escaping gases. The island has rich alluvial and volcanic soils. There are numerous rivers, all of them unnavigable. A range of high forest-clad mountains runs north to south, broken in the centre by a plain drained by the Layou River, which flows to the west; the highest points are Mount Diablotins (4,747 feet [1,447 metres]) and Mount Trois Pitons (4,670 feet [1,424 metres]).
Climate
Dominica has a pleasant climate, particularly during the cooler months from December to March. Summer temperatures reach an average high of 90 °F (32 °C). Winter temperatures are not much lower, the average high being anywhere from 84 to 86 °F (29 to 30 °C). The dry season is from February to May, and the rainy season is from June to October, the most likely period for hurricanes (tropical cyclones). Rainfall varies, being especially heavy in the mountainous interior. Average annual coastal rainfall varies from about 60 inches (1,500 mm) to 145 inches (3,700 mm), but in the mountains average rainfall can reach 250 inches (6,350 mm).
Plant and animal life
Dominica is the most heavily forested island of the Lesser Antilles. The forest is the habitat of a considerable variety of birds and animals. Two parrots—the imperial parrot, or sisserou (Amazona imperialis), and the smaller red-necked parrot (Amazona arausiaca)—are found only in Dominica. There are many hummingbirds, of which the blue-headed (Cyanophaia bicolor) is native only to Dominica and the neighbouring island of Martinique. The large frog known as crapaud or mountain chicken (Leptodactylus fallax), one of four amphibian species on the island, was long an emblematic part of Dominica’s fauna (and a national dish), but it has become highly endangered because of a fungal disease.
Demography of Dominica
The People
The population is mainly of African descent, with some Europeans, Syrians, and Caribs. Dominica is the only island with a relatively large and distinctive group of Carib Indians, descendants of the people who inhabited the island before European colonization. Most of the remaining Caribs, a small number of whom are solely of Carib descent, live in the approximately 3,700-acre (1,500-hectare) Carib Territory in the east of the island and are among Dominica’s poorest residents. English is the official language, but a French patois is commonly spoken, and the original Carib language is evidenced in a number of place-names. The majority of the population is Roman Catholic, but there are also Methodists, Pentecostals, and Seventh-day Adventists. Dominica experienced out-migration throughout the 1970s, a trend that culminated with a massive exodus after Hurricane David in 1979. This wave continued in the 1980s but moderated in the 1990s. In 1992 the government initiated a controversial scheme to offer “economic citizenship” to investors from other countries.
Economy of Dominica
Dominica is one of the poorest of the Caribbean countries. Its economy is dependent upon agriculture, which is intermittently destroyed by hurricanes. Attempts to diversify have had some success, with a growing tourism industry and a small offshore financial sector.
- Agriculture, forestry, and fishing
Agriculture remains the most important sector of the economy, in terms of both employment and contribution to the gross national product. The main crops are bananas, citrus fruits, and coconuts. Bananas accounted for nearly half of Dominica’s export earnings in the 1980s, but in the late 20th and early 21st centuries the banana crops were devastated repeatedly by hurricanes. Production also fell in the 1990s in part as a result of a World Trade Organization ruling that the European Union had breached free-trade rules by offering Dominica and other former European colonies—notably, other eastern Caribbean banana-producing islands—preferential access to the European market. Cocoa, coffee, and vegetables are also produced. Dominica is self-sufficient in fruit and vegetables and exports foodstuffs to Guadeloupe. The forests have potential for marketable timber. The fishing industry was devastated by Hurricane David in 1979, when nearly all of the island’s fishing boats were destroyed, but, beginning in the 1990s, a new fishing port and market were built at Roseau (and subsequently repaired and renovated) with Japanese financial support.
- Resources
Pumice, a volcanic rock used chiefly for building purposes, is the most important commercial mineral. There are also deposits of clay and limestone. Extensive copper deposits in the northeast have been investigated for possible exploitation.
- Manufacturing, trade, and services
Most of the main products and exports are derived from the agricultural sector; they include copra, coconut oil, soap, bay oil, and fruit juices. Soap, derived from coconut oil, is an important export. There is a small garment-assembly sector. Wood products, including furniture, are produced from local timber. Portsmouth is the main boatbuilding centre. Imports include food, mineral fuels, and manufactured goods.
Tourism developed dramatically in the late 20th century despite the island’s poor transportation infrastructure and the relative lack of hotel facilities and good beaches. Approximately 80,000 “stay-over” tourists visit the island each year, while the ports of Prince Rupert Bay and Roseau serve more than 300,000 cruise-ship passengers on day visits annually. The island has sought to develop reserves of its unique flora and fauna to attract tourists and markets itself as the “nature island” of the Caribbean.
- Transportation
High rainfall and rugged terrain have impeded road building in Dominica. The first road across the island was not completed until 1956, and it was not until 1984 that a major road-rehabilitation project was launched to greatly improve accessibility. The main airport is Melville Hall, located at Marigot, on the northeast coast. A second airport is at Canefield, near Roseau. Larger vessels use the deepwater port at Woodbridge Bay near Roseau, but Portsmouth remains the major banana-shipping port.
Government and Society of Dominica
- Constitutional framework
The constitution adopted at independence provides for a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government. The legislative branch of government, called Parliament, consists of the president (ex officio) and a single-chamber House of Assembly. Of the 32 total house members, 21 are elected from constituent districts; 9, called senators, are presidential appointees; and 1, the speaker, is elected either from among members who do not belong to the cabinet or from outside the House of Assembly. The attorney general is also considered a member of the house. The president is elected by the legislature, and the prime minister is appointed by the president from among the elected members of the House of Assembly. The prime minister heads a cabinet chosen by the president from among members of the house, although no more than three cabinet members may be senators. Terms of office are for five years, and there is universal adult suffrage.
Dominica is a member of the Commonwealth, the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the Caribbean Community, and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). Dominica uses the Eastern Caribbean dollar (EC$), the common currency of the OECS.
- Health and welfare
There are several major hospitals. Local medical needs are handled by health centres throughout the island. Intestinal diseases, diabetes, anemia, tuberculosis, and sexually transmitted diseases constitute the major health problems of Dominica.
- Education
Primary education is compulsory and free in government-run schools. There are many secondary schools, a teacher-training college, a medical school, a nursing school, and a branch of the University of the West Indies. Literacy is estimated at nearly 90 percent.
Culture Life of Dominica
Carib material culture remains evident in the production and use of dugout canoes and intricate woven baskets. The Carib community underwent a cultural renaissance in the 1990s with the opening of a cultural centre in Roseau and increased tourist interest in Carib art and traditions. The government’s cultural agencies have encouraged the revival of slavery-era traditions, which had almost died out, including Afro-French dances, drama, music, and costumes. France remains an important cultural influence in Dominica because of its linguistic legacy and the proximity of Martinique and Guadeloupe, and Dominica’s French-influenced creole was revived in the 1980s and ’90s with the publication of a dictionary and other texts. Other legacies are the predominance of Roman Catholicism—unusual in a former British colony—and Dominica’s French-influenced cuisine, which features local fish and vegetables.
The Dominica Museum, in Roseau, features exhibits on the island’s natural history, economy, culture, and history. Dominica produced two well-known novelists in the 20th century, both of whom were Creole. Jean Rhys (1890–1979) was famous for Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), a broodingly atmospheric novel set on an island that is clearly Dominica. Her contemporary Phyllis Shand Allfrey (1908–86) became known for The Orchid House (1953), which tells of the physical and spiritual decadence of a white planter family in Dominica. As well as writing fiction, Allfrey was a politician, cofounding the Dominica Labour Party and serving as a minister in the West Indies Federation, and a poet, celebrating her island’s natural beauty in poems such as “The Child’s Return.”
History of Dominica
Before colonization the island was a stronghold of the Carib people who had migrated there from South America, driving out the earlier Arawak. It was named by Christopher Columbus, who sighted it on November 3, 1493, a Sunday (Latin: dies dominica, “the Lord’s day”).
- The French and British colonial period
The first colonists (1632) were French, but, with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), Great Britain and France agreed to treat the island as neutral ground and leave it to the Caribs. From that time until 1805, Dominica went back and forth between France and Britain. French planters continued to settle in Dominica until 1759, when the British captured the island. It was formally ceded to Britain in 1763. In 1778, French forces from Martinique captured Dominica. The British recaptured the island in 1783. The French, coming this time from Guadeloupe, failed to again retake the island in 1795. The French made a final assault on the island in 1805, and, although they burned the capital, Roseau, they were forced to withdraw.
At first administered as part of the Leeward Islands, in 1771 Dominica was made a separate colony. It was rejoined administratively to the Leewards in 1883 and remained thus until 1940, when it was transferred to the Windwards as a separate colony. In 1958 Dominica joined the West Indies Federation. After that organization was dissolved in 1962, discussions for alternative forms of federation took place. Those issues were settled when the British government passed the West Indies Act of 1967, which gave Dominica the status of association with the United Kingdom. Under the 1967 constitution the island became fully self-governing in internal affairs.
- Independence
On November 3, 1978, Dominica achieved full independence, with Patrick Roland John as its first prime minister. John’s government was implicated in a number of questionable dealings, including a scheme to lease land to a firm allegedly planning to supply petroleum illegally to South Africa, which was then under an international trade embargo because of its government’s apartheid policy. A cabinet crisis ensued, and in May 1979 Oliver Seraphine emerged as the new prime minister.
Hurricane David severely damaged the island in August 1979. The storm not only largely destroyed the banana crop, the island’s economic mainstay, but it also carried away most of the island’s topsoil and virtually wiped out the country’s agricultural base. The following year, Hurricane Allen set the economy back further.
The winner of the 1980 elections, Eugenia Charles, became the Caribbean’s first female prime minister. She had initially formed her party, the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP), to oppose legislation limiting freedom of the press. More conservative in her approach than either of her predecessors, she moved Dominica toward closer ties with Barbados. Her government faced several coup attempts in 1981, but these were perhaps less significant than the plight the country faced in attempting to recuperate from the two hurricanes. Under Charles’s administration, however, Dominica made marked advances toward recovery, with considerable decreases in unemployment and inflation. Her party was returned to power in 1985 and became more firmly entrenched in the 1986 elections.
In the 1990 elections the DFP narrowly won a majority over the Dominica United Workers’ Party (UWP) and the Labour Party of Dominica, a left-wing coalition formed in 1985 by the Dominica Labour Party (DLP) and two smaller left-of-centre parties. (Soon after the merger the new party resumed the use of the name Dominica Labour Party.) The DFP retained power until 1995, when Charles retired from public life. In elections that year, the UWP won a narrow victory, and its leader, Edison James, formed a new government.
In September 1995 Hurricane Luis destroyed nearly all of the island’s banana plantations. The crisis in the banana industry in the ensuing five years hurt the James administration’s popularity, and in January 2000 the DLP won 10 out of 21 seats in the House of Assembly, forming a coalition government with the DFP, which won two seats. The new prime minister was Roosevelt (“Rosie”) Douglas, who died of a heart attack after eight months in office and was succeeded by Pierre Charles, the DLP’s deputy leader and a former cabinet minister. The DLP retained its majority in a December 2000 by-election in which Douglas’s former parliamentary seat was won by his nephew, Ian Douglas.
Prime Minister Charles died in January 2004, and Roosevelt Skerrit succeeded him. Skerrit, at age 31, was at the time the world’s youngest head of government. Under his leadership Dominica increased its international alliances, joining the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (from 2009, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America) of Venezuelan Pres. Hugo Chávez in 2008 and, in 2011, an economic union with five other members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.
Nicholas Liverpool-President of Dominica
- Also known as
- Nicholas Joseph Orville Liverpool
- Born September 9, 1934, Dominica
Nicholas Liverpool, in full Nicholas Joseph Orville Liverpool (born Sept. 9, 1934, Dominica), Dominican lawyer and politician who served as president of Dominica (2003– ).
Educated in England, Liverpool graduated from the University of Hull in 1960 and was called to the bar the following year; he received a Ph.D. from the University of Sheffield in 1965. From the 1970s he held a wide variety of law-related positions both in Dominica and in other countries. He served as Dominica’s ambassador to the United States (1998–2001) and became a member of the governing board of UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) as well as a member of the Dominica National Commission for UNESCO (2002–03). Liverpool was widely published, having written many articles and books on law-related topics.
On Oct. 2, 2003, the Dominican parliament appointed Liverpool president of the country, a largely ceremonial position. In 2005 he initiated debate regarding reform of the Dominican constitution and the country’s parliamentary structure. Liverpool favoured an elected president who would serve as both head of state (the current role of president) and head of government (the current role of prime minister).
Bibliography of Dominican
Nicholas Liverpool (president of Dominica)
Liverpool, Nicholas president of Dominica in full Nicholas Joseph Orville Liverpool Sept. 9, 1934 Dominica Dominican lawyer and politician who served as president of Dominica (2003– ). Educated ...>>>Read oN<<<
Dominica in 2014
Dominica Area: 751 sq km (290 sq mi) Population (2014 est.): 72,000 Capital: Roseau Head of state: President Charles Savarin Head of government: Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit In July 2014 Prime ...>>>Read On<<<
Disclaimer
This is not the official site of this country. Most of the information in this site were taken from the U.S. Department of State, The Central Intelligence Agency, The United Nations, [1],[2], [3], [4], [5],[6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14],[15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24],[25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30],[31], [32], [33], [34], and the [35].
Other sources of information will be mentioned as they are posted.