Questions About Dominica

Janice, Jay and Ellen overlooking Dominica

ROSEAU, DOMINICA - You have to love a country where the political opposition posts question-mark road signs along major thoroughfares.

This is one of the things we noticed on a tour of this island, an independent nation of 71,000 people tucked between the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Eastern Caribbean, that was the second stop on our week-long cruise. The island isn’t well known in the U.S. because it lacks an international airport and white sandy beaches. The craggy isle is best known for its rainforest.

The signs are remnants of last fall’s apparently bitter political campaign where the incumbent prime minister, a good friend of Venezuelan leader and American irritant Hugo Chavez, won re-election to a second term. I say apparently bitter because according to a news summary in the local paper, the opposition accused Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit of handing out diplomatic appointments in exchange for cash and banning them from the local radio station.

In fact, in December the publisher of the paper reproached Skerrit for “corruption in government to an extent never seen.” In response, Skerrit accused his political opposition of hacking into his email account. He also said he had nothing to do with him getting French citizenship, which seemed to disqualify him from holding the prime minister post. He blamed his parents.

Sounds like a good news town.

The tour of the island was exciting in part because the roads are narrow, twisting and hilly and it’s hard to get used to the custom of driving on the left-hand side of the road.

It’s unclear whether we should have worried about crime. Our tour guide insisted that it’s not much of a problem and pointed out that local policemen don’t carry guns.

That was offset to some degree by a perusal of the newspaper’s news summary, which listed several murders among the year’s highlights.

In addition, it was also unsettling to read that when a 15-year-old girl was crowned “Miss Dominica Teen Queen” in February, some members of the audience started throwing bottles and food boxes at her.

At any rate, we made our escape and are now on our way to Grenanda, which has not been invaded by the U.S. since the Reagan administration.