Articles of Interest about Dominica:

• Dominica Ranked Caribbean's Top Sustainable Island
• Aging Gracefully in Dominica
• Architectural Rehabiliation in Dominica
  

Dominica was officially ranked as the top sustainable island in the Caribbean and amongst the top ten in the world when National Geographic’s Centre for Sustainable Destinations surveyed conditions on 111 selected islands and archipelagos which survey appears in the November/December issue  of National Geographic Traveller.

The criteria used  to reach this conclusion were

• Environmental and ecological quality;
• Social and cultural integrity
• Conditions of historic buildings and archeological sites
• Aesthetic appeal
• Quality of tourism management
• Outlook for the future.

With a score of 77 Dominica tied as the  number one rated sustainable destination in the Caribbean . Dominica is known for its beautiful Morne Trois Piton National Park which is a World Heritage site and its Boiling Lake which is the second largest in the world.

Diet and lifestyle are clearly all-important but are there other factors at work here too: quality of life perhaps, the support of families, something in the genes even?

Dominica boasts a remarkable concentration of very old people in good health and they've begun to arouse the interest of medical science.

In recent years the best hotel in Roseau, Dominica's capital, has found itself hosting some rather unusual celebrations: birthday parties, often organised by a vast extended family, for yet another of the country's citizens reaching the age of 100.

A century and still batting

Violet Wilfreda Joseph had her 100th birthday party 8 years ago. She was born in the last year of the 19th century when British colonial rule in Dominica had another 79 years to run.

So how does it feel to wake up in the morning knowing you're 108 years old?

"Glad to see the day", she told me, without a moment's hesitation.

Her mobility is restricted but she has good eyesight and hearing, an astonishingly unwrinkled face and still lives in her own modest wooden home in the centre of Roseau.

Could she give me any clues as to how she's lived so long?

Elderly Dominicans credit a diet rich in food and vegetables for their longevity.

For years she's started the day with a glass of coconut water, a drop of gin and a banana, though since her 100th birthday her family has persuaded her to drop the gin.

Fish is her favourite form of protein, especially fish heads ("I like sucking the bones", she told me) and she's always enjoyed Dominica's rich diversity of tropical fruit and vegetables.

And another important clue perhaps, she shares her home with three generations of her extended family, including several children.

They always give her a kiss before they go to school. "They keep me young", she said.

According to the Dominica Council on Aging, a charity which keeps records of the centenarians, there are currently 22 on the island in a total population of around 65,000.

That's 3 times the average incidence of centenarians as in developed countries such as Britain and the United.

And these figures are supported with written documents; birth certificates from the British colonial era alongside (mostly Catholic) baptismal records.

Dr Noel Boaz, an American professor of anatomy at the Ross Medical School in Dominica, has been researching the centenarians for the past 6 years.

Diet and lifestyle

His findings so far suggest that the key to their longevity is diet and lifestyle, not genetics.

Dominica is a mountainous island with its interior cloaked in dense rainforest. Roads were few until well into the 1960s, so when today's elderly were young long distance walking on rough terrain was a necessity of everyday life, along with hard physical work.

And their diet would have included natural products from the forest, herbs and herbal medicines, as well as that rich diversity of cultivated fruit and vegetables, almost all of it grown in their own gardens.

102 year old Rudolph Edward Georges is living proof of the benefits.

When I went to visit him one sticky tropical evening I found him lying not in but on his bed in vest and shorts. He sat up to greet me, and then came the real surprise: his handshake. I hadn't expected such strength from a 102 year old man.

For fruit and vegetables, he told me, "everything I planted I ate and everything I ate I planted".

He also produced his own cocoa, had his own chickens, goats and a cow and did the work on his smallholding after the long trek back from his job on a tobacco plantation.

His Sunday special, as he called it, was a glass of strong beer mixed with milk, eggs and sugar, plus a dash of lime and nutmeg.

Unusually among Dominica's centenarians, he smoked like a chimney (his words) until he was seventy. But it can't have had much impact on his fitness - once when his family hid his cigarettes he walked 13 kilometres to get some more.

His ten children, who are all still alive, range in age from 82 to 40, and when he was 98 Mr Georges travelled alone to England to visit one of his sons.

...but will it last?

It's hard not to feel a surge of optimism in the presence of such people, but the story of Dominica's remarkable centenarians may not have an entirely happy ending.

Dr Boaz doesn't think the phenomenon will last more than another decade or so because the lifestyle of younger Dominicans is changing.

Two American-style fast-food restaurants have recently opened in Roseau. There are TVs in even the poorest households, car ownership has risen to one in four of the population and toiling on the land is a last choice job for the young.

The era the centenarians lived through where they benefited from modernity in the form of better medical care and improved public health, while living a pre-modern lifestyle is coming to an end.

The memories had come tumbling out in the hour I spent with Mr Georges and I heard later that he'd said of our meeting: "I appreciated that, because what I had forgotten I remember now."

I too had deeply appreciated meeting him because of the glimpse he'd given me of a way of life poor in the trappings of modernity but rich in wellbeing and human potential.

Article by Noel T. Boaz, Ph.D., M.D.,
Professor of Anatomy at Ross University School of Medicine, Portsmouth, Dominica.
Founder and President of the Integrative Centers for Science and Medicine in Ashland, Oregon.

Surely you’re aware of Harlem Plaza, or perhaps you’re not 100% “au courant”. At least you’ve heard of Bobby Fredericks, an active community Rasta man, previously of Cocoa Cottages and briefly of Gingerette Estate, both of which properties blossomed under his Midas touch.

His current project involves a historic property at the Southeast corner of Newtown Savannah, a property that Bobby had his eye on from childhood. As a boy growing up on the other side of the park and playing soccer with his friend, he caught inside glimpses when he had to retrieve stray balls over the fence. When the disgruntled old proprietor yelled at the youths, Bobby dreamed of the day when he would be owner instead! Fate prevailed and Bobby got his chance after selling Gingerette, a riverside estate in Layou valley.

Starting with the purchase of the corner property in the late Spring of 2006, he started clearing out rooms and the courtyard to reveal a sound structure with solid elements of traditional Dominican architecture: hurricane shutters, jalousie windows, and interior fretwork to name a few. The multiple hipped roof that has withstood numerous hurricanes including David, was constructed with wooden pegs instead of nails and remains strong to this day. In the back, he discovered a horse stable with a huge slate stone tub and of course the typical outdoor kitchen.

While he was working on this property, the opportunity came to purchase the neighbouring residence and lot. As happens in the process of a project, things change, and in this case, Bobby’s plan expanded and he conceived of how the two properties could be integrated into a single larger venue while maintaining their individual characters. A stone wall dividing the two lots was removed to create a large open atrium and the material was reused in another project. A side verandah was removed to allow for a continuous terrace that connects the buildings above the entry space. Shutters that needed to be removed were relocated as a ‘façade’ backdrop to the stage, a nice touch.
Wood and natural materials were used as much as possible. Notice the funky bamboo light fixtures and use of palm fronds for thatched cladding. New spaces and detailing were all done with sensitivity and creativity; one need not aim for true restoration as a museum piece. Certainly additional toilets had to be added.

By December, the place was almost ready, an incredibly quick turnaround time for a business venture of this kind. Worth noting, is that by doubling the purchase price with renovations, the property value has likely more than quadrupled in this short time frame. ‘Rehabilitation’ really can be a very economical approach!
And so, Harlem Plaza was opened in time for the 2007 Calypso season. (Christening the venue Harlem Plaza is a nod to the community name that followed on from the 1972 local Harlem Festival referring to the New York Globetrotters.) This complex quickly became Roseau’s coolest live music venue, hosting large crowds for the “Mas Camp Calypso Tent” as well as smaller audiences for intimate shows and jam sessions including the popular ‘Thirsty Thursdays’. Some believe that the Mas Camp might have died off at other locations, and certainly the camp enjoyed its best year ever in their new home.

The sense of community renewal is strong along with a celebration of what Newtown has contributed to Dominica in the areas of sports and music. Newtown has had its far share of sportsmen, calypsonians (Spider, Jude, Tablet) and other cultural workers (Pat Aaron, Kiki). Harlem Plaza is also able to help community groups host fundraising events by offering low rates for such a large and multi-purpose space. Certainly jobs were created with this venture as well as a future outlet for arts & crafts. Currently, the two busts watching over the entry were created by the old sculptor from next door. 
By making these traditional buildings accessible and enjoyable to the public, Bobby’s vision and creativity may have launched a Renaissance of Newtown. As soon as he developed this property, the building next door was renovated and the old cars dumped on the property were moved.

So while Newtown nights have come to life for many, others find delight by the light of day when the lovingly restored Creole architecture shines gold and red in the morning sun.

> Click here for details about this property.