One of the most impactful calypsos of all time was the 2012 calypso written by the masterful songwriter Pat Aaron and sang by the Vigilante. –“Everything is upside down, everything inside out, everything back to front.” As we continue to read about the abattoir woes , questions regarding the coffee plant , the Morocco Hotel, Layou Hotel and recently the missing apartments keep popping up. Ironically the song “Everything is upside down “ was written and produced prior to the coffee plant, Morocco Hotel, the abattoir and the missing apartment woes yet Pat was already highlighting “Upside downess.” If things were not upside down in 2012, then Pat Aaron may have been prophesizing in 2012 because it is quite evident that the government seem to be working back to front, inside out and “douvant derrier”.
“If I didn’t know better I
would swear is voodoo working in Dominica”- I have been trying to figure out
what went wrong with the coffee plant. At least Ian Douglas told us that the
reason the Morocco Hotel is moribund is that the Moroccans went back to figure
out whether a Caribbean or an Arabic architectural finish is most appropriate
for the Morocco hotel. I can’t wait to hear what Ian has to offer about the
nonfunctional coffee plant in his constituency.
While we wait for Ian to
make us laugh, here is what we have found out about the coffee plant. The late
president Hugo Chavez on his last visit to Dominica in June, 2009, promised
that his government would provide Dominica with a modern coffee processing
plant. Construction of the coffee plant facility began in July of 2013. The facility
was completed in July of 2014. In fact, in February of 2014, the PM promised
that the coffee plant would be “grinding and packaging coffee for export to the
Caribbean and South America.” So far the only grinding taking place is that of
a grinding halt of the coffee plant and the continuous packaging of lies.
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| One year old coffee bags at One Mile coffee plant |
In 2014 Prime Minister Skerrit also declared that the
ministry of agriculture had distributed more than 6,000 coffee seedlings to
farmers in order to supplement the coffee plant operation. We went on the
ground to follow up on these coffee plants only to find out that the farmers
never received any coffee seedlings, and so in spite of the rotten coffee beans
inside of the facility, there is no reliable supply from the few coffee trees
on the island. The largest coffee holding is owned by prominent farmer Mr.
Louis and we know that Mr. Louis has a slim chance of doing business with a
vindictive and oppressive Roosevelt Skerrit government.
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| One year old coffee bags at One Mile coffee plant |
The people of
Dominica and in particular the people of Portsmouth should be concerned about
the “coffee jobs” that were promised but more importantly the people must
demand answers on the storage and or whereabouts of the 2 tons of coffee beans
as we will see later that the improper storage of coffee beans could be
dangerous to our health and environment.
We are also
aware that the government established the VENIDOM group to manage and operate
the coffee plant. In addition a plane was chattered to fly 20 Dominicans into
Venezuela for hands on training in coffee processing. Today these VENIDOM
trainees are impatiently waiting in vain – very much like the 300 Morocco Hotel
trainees who have been waiting for 48 months for the employment that was
promised.
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| One year old coffee bags at One Mile coffee plant |
The
Potential Health and Environmental Disaster At The Coffee Plant
Multiple Studies and extensive research have concluded that,
mycotoxins are very much associated with coffee beans. Mycotoxins are toxic chemical
products produced by molds which grow on agricultural crops. Mycotoxins thrive
on high moisture content, high relative humidity, and warm temperatures. Exposure to mycotoxins is mainly through ingestion,
dermal, and respiratory passages.
There are over 300 known
mycotoxins however there are two types most associated with Coffee: Ochratoxin
A, commonly known as OTA and Aflatoxin B1 which is declared as a carcinogen
and is said to be very harmful in large doses. Exposure to these mycotoxins in indoor
environments has been linked to a number of adverse health effects to include,
asthma, dermatitis, pneumonitis. Generally, mycotoxins have shown severe
economic impacts through loss of agricultural products and to include loss of
human and animal life.
Raw coffee stored for long periods in warehouses develop
high levels of Ochratoxin ,OTA, thus the reason coffee producers don’t like
holding large quantities of raw coffee. Coffee stored in particularly warm and
humid environments
with poor ventilation will develop mould and fungus with microbiological
and biochemical processes. At this juncture it is important to note the coffee plant in
Portsmouth was built to process coffee – it is not a storage facility.
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| Close up look of rotting Coffee Beans with mold and fungus |
The
attached photos of the Portsmouth coffee plant now the storage site for the
imported coffee beans show a seemingly abandoned facility which is being over
taken by shrubs and bushes. We have found out that it is very important that a
coffee storage facility should be kept free of vegetation and garbage. An
active pest control system should also be in place. Just like Roosevelt Skerrit
did after the “Goatville “ article, we
expect that a few guys will be cutting down the bushes at the facility within
the next few days. I sincerely hope that the health and harzmat authorities do
some air quality testing at the site before allowing workers to get in and
around the coffee plant facility.
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| Entrance to shuttered One Mile coffee plant |
Now that we have declared what we know, we would like to
ask PM Skerrit and his “cabinot” the following questions. How do you intend to
dispose of the mycotoxin infested coffee beans? Will PM Skerrit and his
“cabinot” purchase coffee beans for the next 5 years in order to keep the
coffee factory operational? When will the farmers receive the 60,000 coffee
plants or will these plants be delivered together with the farmers boat that
was promised 8 years ago? If Roosevelt Skerrit can’t successfully commission a
coffee factory that was handed to him by Hugo Chavez, God knows what will
happen when he buys DCP.
In the interim the people of Dominica and particularly
the people of Portsmouth, must first be honest with themselves in order to
recognize that under the Roosevelt Skerrit led government everything is truly
upside down and everything is back to front.
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