Taking the Proposal for Maintaining Peaceful Dominica to the Public for Review and Assistance

CHICAGO, IL: In
response to the July 31st 2011 murder of an Irishman, Joe Costello,
and the criminal injuries of Americans Rick and
Alicia Davison at Pagua Bay Guest House in Marigot, Dominica, the Peaceful Dominica Initiative ( a
working committee of the Peaceful World
Movement) has received several inquiries about its involvement in an action
plan for maintaining a more peaceful Dominica.
Most of the inquiries have been about the status of the proposal
that Dr. St. Jean (through his Chicago based company Quality of Life Solutions,
Inc.) presented to the current Dominica Cabinet on April 14th 2011.
During that presentation, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit offered to provide
Dr. St. Jean and his team with an update after the Easter season of 2011.
The request for that proposal was initiated by Prime Minister
Skerrit during early January 2011 through Canadian based crime victim
specialist, Athenia Benjamin, asking that she and Dr. St. Jean prepare and
submit with expedience a proposal to address issues of crime and violence in
Dominica. The proposal was written by Dr. St. Jean with assistance from Ms.
Benjamin, sociologist L. Daisy Henderson, and a few other reviewers. It was
then submitted to Prime Minister Skerrit on February 8th 2011, and
as indicated above, was brought before Cabinet on April 14th 2011.
On August 3rd 2011, Prime Minister Skerrit provided Ms.
Benjamin and Dr. St. Jean with an update indicating that, “The government at
present or the foreseeable future cannot afford the rates. We have however been
in touch with the OAS to see if they can assist with some limited funds to
implement an aspect of the proposal.”
We interpret this update to mean that Cabinet has reviewed the
proposal and accepted the substantive plan within it, but is not able to fund
it without external assistance. Thus, considering the urgency with
which we believe an agenda to maintain and improve peaceful Dominica should be
undertaken, we have decided to assist the Government and peoples of Dominica to
locate the necessary resources and support to allow the items of the Proposal
to be implemented to the fullest possible extent.
To
this end, we have decided to post the Proposal here in its entirety so that
persons who are interested in supporting our endeavor can have full access to
the information and respond to us accordingly.
We
imagine that the Government and peoples of Dominica will welcome our web
posting of the Proposal since this move is intended to allow as many people as
possible to access the action plan, have collective memory of its logics and
recommendations, and assist us in our efforts at implementation to the fullest
possible extent.
We
wish to remind our readers that our effort is not aimed simply at implementing
a program (which is usually time specific). Rather, we seek to activate a Peaceful
Dominica Initiative to positively influence the needed cultural, social,
economic, psychological, spiritual, and other dimensions of our society for the
immediate, midrange, and long-term sustenance of peaceful Dominica.
To
this end, we invite you to review
the proposal
at www.peacefulworldmovement.org
and provide us with your comments, questions, and support. Please respond to us
through e-mail at peacefuldominica@peacefulworldmovement.org or by telephone
at 716-603-0992.
Please
visit our website again soon for another document which outlines our
prioritized action plan derived from the Proposal.
We
hope that this Peaceful Dominica Initiative can be successful at uniting
Dominica nationals of all walks of life, affiliations, and persuasions for this
urgent common purpose. Let’s not wait for the next major criminal catastrophe
to strike us directly, or “close to home” before becoming as proactive as this
Proposal asks of us.
The
life you save, the child that you save, may well be your own.
Prepared
by Working Committee of the Peaceful Dominica Initiative August 11th
2011

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