Is the U.S. not handing out enough charity at home & abroad?...If Dominica is anywhere near Haiti's condition, that's galling. Ironically, I'd think dive tourism, or most any tourism, would bring some desperately needed funds into the country.
If I remember correctly from another thread, some of that driving you do in Dominica can be rather frightening for your passenger (narrow roads high up, not your driving)? Worth mentioning that it might be 'too rich for my blood' (risky) for some folks. Richard.
Americans often talk about how much money we hand out in foreign aid, and when you see the total annual figure it seems like an enormous amount, but we a very rich county. When you look at foreign aid as a percentage of our Gross National Income then you will see that we are rather stingy. I got the list below on Wikipedia and in 2013 the US ranked 22nd for foreign aid as a percentage of our GNI, and far below the UN target of 0.7%. I didn't verify these figures but the source given was the UN.
I am not eager to see my taxes increase, but at least I now recognize that we are not such a generous country as we'd like to think.
I have never visited Haiti but in Dominica, although it was clear that it is a poor country, I wasn't as acutely aware of the poverty as I have been in some other places, like Honduras. I am surprised to read that it is almost as poor as Haiti, but maybe I didn't visit enough locations to see it with my own eyes.
Regarding your question about driving in Dominica, I am not an adventurous driver but my husband loves a challenge. When we are in a country that drives on the left side of bad roads - that just adds to the fun for him - and I go along with him "riding shotgun"!
But we didn't rent a car during our visit to Dominica, even my daredevil husband wasn't eager to drive those roads! You travel high in the forest/jungle on narrow twisty, rough roads and often find yourself at the edge of a narrow hairpin turn with a big drop off right next to you - and no fence. But at least there is very little traffic!
I remember the driver telling us that they don't have many accidents but when they do, you have to leave the cars (and presumably the bodies?) where they fell because there is no way to get them out.
Official development assistance by country as a percentage of Gross National Income in 2013; the UN target is 0.7%
- United Arab Emirates – 1.25%
- Norway – 1.07%
- Sweden – 1.02%
- Luxembourg – 1.00%
- Denmark – 0.85%
- United Kingdom – 0.72%
- Netherlands – 0.67%
- Finland – 0.55%
- Switzerland – 0.47%
- Belgium – 0.45%
- Ireland – 0.45%
- Turkey – 0.42%
- France – 0.41%
- Germany – 0.38%
- Australia – 0.34%
- Austria – 0.28%
- Canada – 0.27%
- New Zealand – 0.26%
- Iceland – 0.26%
- Japan – 0.23%
- Portugal – 0.23%
- United States – 0.19%
- Spain – 0.16%
- Italy – 0.16%
- South Korea – 0.13%
- Slovenia – 0.13%
- Estonia – 0.13%
- Greece – 0.13%
- Czech Republic – 0.11%
- Hungary – 0.10%
- Poland – 0.10%
- Slovak Republic – 0.09%
- Latvia – 0.08%
- Israel – 0.07%
- Russia – 0.03%