Economics and Politics Progress Report by Ashfred Norris

In the initial stages of this project, I was quite unsure and didn’t fully comprehend what was required of me do to. However, Dr. Esprit never failed to let us know that where ever there is doubt never be hesitant to ask questions. Therefore in a matter of time I began to understand and familiarize myself with the project and was prepared to work on it. The first challenge that I encountered was structuring an appropriate set of questions which would challenge the theme- Caribbean Resistance and Reality.

As I mentioned earlier, from the epitome of the project my understanding was quite gloomy therefore my first set of questions weren’t suitable and relevant to the topic. After revising the questions, I then encountered another difficulty; sources. We were encouraged to gather and assemble as much primary sources as we could instead of secondary sources; however they were both quite difficult to come by. Nonetheless, I was able to trump this obstacle of allocating sources, by deciding to visit many different institutions and platforms such as: The National Archives and Documentation Center, The Public Library, and The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dloc). I anticipate that these historical centers may be useful to me as I would like to know how the people resisted economic and political forces before, and contrast it to how they are resisting now.

In regards to primary sources, I have decided to set up interviews and questionnaires mainly as my means of acquiring primary source Information. I have planned to set up interviews with different individuals such as The Labour Commissioner, Dr. Matthew Leblanc, and Dr. John Collin McIntyre; Minister for Planning, Economic Development and Investment. The individuals were selected simply because of their affiliation and direct involvement with the country’s government and affairs- economically and politically. Lastly, I also intend on having one-on-one discussions with every-day public servants and members of society in an attempt to understand their ideology and practices, and how they resist modern political and economic times.

In conclusion, I would say that the project is on a good path as I’ve been able to eliminate a lot of the difficulties with the help of my highly co-operative group members, as well as the co-operation of other individuals in regards to acquiring the answers to my questions.

Economics & Politics – Annotated Bibliography, Inquiry questions & DH Elements

INQUIRY QUESTIONS

Ashfred

1) How does politics or political decisions affect economics?
The relationship between politics and economics can be thought of as somewhat ‘influential’. Therefore, can the political decisions in a country consequently or automatically affect the economics of that country? Also, can the financial or economic standings of this country determine or limit the things that they can do and even the laws that they can pass?

2) How does the public react when the political and economic policies are not in their favor?
The government of a country is sometimes thought of as “the voice of the people”. However, why does this voice often take courses of action or make decisions that the people question and don’t believe that it’s justifiable? In recent times we’ve seen the government of Dominica agreed on giving the public servants 000% salary increase that a lot of the public sector workers were not pleased with. This question aims at examining the public’s behavior to decisions government makes which seems “unjust”.

3)How do we rightly judge economic and political decisions in our country?
The purpose of this is to teach or instruct people on how to look at political and economic situations in their country and judge it in a more informed way. From the point of views and perspectives of different people, what the government is currently doing can mean different things to each of them. Some may argue that the current trend of decision making by the government is working for them while others can beg to differ. Therefore, how do we know if our belief system or judgement is sound and accurate?

4) Are high import duties and taxes really necessary?
It is understood that a substantial amount of the country’s income and funds are obtained from the taxation and import duties placed on foreign products. However, we often hear price conscientious consumers complain that the prices and taxes placed on products are unreasonably high. This question aims at answering why this may be so, with the sub question – how do we really know that taxes are unreasonably high?

5) How does the minimum wage rate affect the working class?
Dominica’s minimum wage is said to be one of the lowest in the O.E.C.S at a rate of $4.05 per hour. This basically means that the income might as well be the lowest but, how do the people react to this? What type standard of living and quality of life do minimum wage workers endure? And also, how do they react to visiting another country in the O.E.C.S and discover that the workers there receive a higher income for the same job that the do in the home country? Does this initiate migration and brain-drain?

Breidy

1)How do people react to the increase of inflation and how those the government try to fix it?
This question will help the audience to see the behaviors of people to the increase in inflation rate as well as what the government those to fix it.

2) Is The evasion taxes a form of resistance. Why?
The audience will understand what are taxes and why people decide not to pay taxes.

3) What factor led to the stagnant pay off the Dominicans workers?
This question will allow the audience to see why the pay is so low.

4) Why did the population in Dominica start to decrease in 1995-2000?
They will have a greater understanding of major events that happened that affected the economy.

5) How those political behavior affect the country GDP?
This question will look at how government decision will decrease or increase GDP.

Noah

1.) Would Dominica be better of both economically and politically if it had remained a colony of Britain ?
Readers would be able to attain important information on the British effect on Dominica as well its progress and development over the years.

2.) How do citizens of Dominica resist the government’s regulatory legislations ?
The audience would be able to further understand the importance of government legislations’ and its role in regulating the economy; however a greater understanding of historical event which occurred as a result of certain legislations’.

3.) Are inefficient trade agreements stalling economic development, and if so how do people react ?
A greater understanding of trade agreements will be established and the audience will additionally see the consequences of inefficient trade agreement to the citizens of the country.

4.) How does human behavior and cultural practices affect policy-making ?
The audience will become well aware of the importance of culture and its impact on the economy and the political realm as they become more educated on the impact of policies in relation to human behavior.

5.) How has Dominican citizens resisted government tyranny in the past ?
The audience will learn more about political and economic crisis which occurred in the past and create an ideological understanding of the government’s and/or its opposition’s effect on the economy and political stability of the country.

DH Elements

Breidy
The digital element for the final project that we will like to produce will be a knowledge site. This will include a timeline at the entry page. As primary sources, I would include pictures of certain key figures, as well as text. I would also like to conduct interviews with different persons.The platform will be easy to use yet creative on its own way. The audience would be able to easily access information and use it for answering any research question.

Noah
This project will consist of one digital framework for the site. It will be based on the contents of a knowledge site powered and designed by a platform such as WordPress or Omeka. This was the most appropriate since the five questions would spark the interest of anyone who loves critical thinking, learning new information and economics and political perspectives. Individual who are seeking or have a degree in the study may find the contents of this site very informative and enlightening. Additionally, question like these are not widely targeted on the internet and through the commentary from the audience, I intend to further develop the information and sources while maintaining a certain level of interaction with them. I also would include an oral history segment from interviewed economist, politicians and if possible, scholars.

Ashfred
In my perspective, my project is one which will not be heavily curated or visualized, nonetheless, these features will be used in order to allow my audience to process the information in a way that’s appropriate or suitable for them. The basic elements that’ll be dominantly used are text, audio, and videos. Hence the reason why I have chosen that my section on the project will be a “semi-linear, customizable narrative that includes text, images, audio, and/or video”, with components of a timeline. This element allows me to display my project an essay, but not the normal traditional essay type questions. My aim with this project is that it’d be effective and effectually communicated to my audience, and I don’t believe the regular 1,000-1,500 word essays do that, as the people of today practice extensive instead of intensive reading. Therefore, the different features and elements will give them a variety of ways in which they can view and process the information.
In conclusion, the group has decided to incorporate a combination of a knowledge site, a timeline, and a semi-linear, customizable narrative site, as the elements we will pursue in our DH project.

Annotated Bibliography

Noah

1.) Honychurch, Lennox. The Dominica Story: A History of the Island. London: MacMillan Education, 1995. Print.
Mr. Honychurch, an honorary historian, and author in Dominica, carefully illustrated how the rhythm played in Dominica’s history as far back as the creation of the island. This book is his well respected and highly recommended when gathering information on historical events which had a significant impact on Dominica. It will be ideally satisfying to those who crave further interpretation of certain historical aspects of the island political and economic history.

2.) “Dominica’s History.” Dominica’s History. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2017.
This site brilliantly outlines all significant events between 1838 and 1938. It also accurately illustrates economical and political advancements within this time frame and contains vital details on Growth and development before and after independence.

3.) Site Designed and Built by hydrant (http://www.hydrant.co.uk).
“Dominica: Constitution and Politics.” Dominica: Constitution and politics The Commonwealth. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.
When an inquiry about the advantages and disadvantages of political decisions in the Dominica and the Caribbean this site is great at analyzing the decisions made be certain administrations.

4.) “Homepage.” Global Finance Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.
This site like accommodate for further reading and influence a greater understanding of the topic and the issues associated with them. This site presents a statistical representation of census data and critically analyses this data in their article.

5.) “Economic Online.” Economic Online Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.
This site presents and analyses data on different countries and then make logical decisions in addition to giving relative information from countries which had or are experiencing similar situations.
Breidy

Economics and politics contain large numbers of sources. To gather some of the primary information i will conduct interviews.

1.” Dominica.” Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cultures. Encyclopedia.com. (March 13, 2017).
This article covers the basic information of Dominica. It contains deep analysis on the country’s economic and political judicial system. It also contains information on important events that occurred in the past. This is useful to the project as the information has a lot of detail and depth, and can be used to look at Dominica’s judicial system.

2.”Inflation, GDP Deflator (annual %).” World Bank National Accounts Data, and OECD National Accounts Data, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2017.
This article will provide the inflation rate for different years. It clearly shows how the inflation rate increases and decreases, during those years. It makes it more evident to see that the inflation rate in 2015 was really low.

3.”Lennox Honychurch Article: Important Dates in Dominica’s History.” Lennox Honychurch, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2017.

The author of this article is providing information in a timeline form of the different event that occurred in the Dominican history. It gives the specific date of the formation of the Dominica Labour Party as well as the independence date.
4. “The Dominican Analysis of the Banana Industry.”. Dr. Emanuel Finn, 16 Aug. 2002. Web. 12 Mar. 2017

This analysis on the Banana Industry clearly shows the reader why the banana industry failed in Dominica. The writer gives factors that cause the industry to somewhat banish. These factors include; technology, migration, an exodus of banana farmers from the plantations, demographic trends, and capital investment, world political and economic dynamics. This will help to answer why the population was decreasing during 1995-2000.

5.” Law and the Rule of Law.” The Judicial Learning Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2017.
This article helps to understand what basically is law. It gives the reader an insight of laws and where they come from. This article assists me a lot in my research in relation to the aspect of the law.
Ashfred

Site Designed and Built by Hydrant (http://www.hydrant.co.uk). “Dominica.” Dominica | The Commonwealth. ComSec Access, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

This website entitled “The Commonwealth”, is comprised of information about all the fifty-two member countries of the commonwealth. I have decided to use it not only because Dominica is a member of the commonwealth, but also because the site contains information regarding the society, economy, constitution and politics of Dominica, as well as information about its history and travel. The site discussed areas in the economy such as the Gross Domestic Production Growth and inflation, and illustrated how the Real Growth in GDP decreased drastically from 2007 to 2011, and how the inflation rate was the lowest in 2009.

2. Sandra W. Meditz and Dennis M. Hanratty, editors. Caribbean Islands: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1987.

“Caribbean Islands: A Country Study”, is a book which contains information about the economies, governments and politics, education and more, of various Caribbean Countries. The information on Dominica is very detailed and comprehensive. Not only do I intend on using the information on the country’s micro economic view, banking and finance, foreign trade and balance of payments to answer the third question in my inquiry, but also to compare it with that of other Caribbean countries, and analyse whether the minimum-wage rate is low as a result of internal economic factors in Dominica, or is it because of universal economic problems.

3. Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica Web Portal. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

Whenever a law or policy is passed in a country, there will always be consequences. Some of them affect our social life, but how does some of these laws affect our economy? If a law is passed which increases the minimum wage rate does this mean that the quality of life or standard of living will increase likewise? This source will allow me to generate various laws and policies that were passed in Dominica, which will enable me to contrast and compare the changes that these laws caused in the economy.

4. Pettinger, Tejvan. “The Relationship between Economics and Politics.” Economics Help. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

In this article, the basic composition of economics and politics were examined. Pettinger analytical looked at the symbiotic relations between the two, and almost made it look like a ‘you can’t have one without the other’, type of situation. He also looked at topics such as: economics needs political support, who owns the economy?- politicians or economist, and lastly microeconomics- free of politics?

5. Staff, Investopedia. “Minimum Wage.” Investopedia. N.p., 29 July 2015. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

This article basically deals with the concept of minimum wage. Not only does it illustrate how minimum wage is determined or calculated, but also the many issues that arise in it and what determines its figure. The article also compared the minimum wage rate with that of various developed countries, and also discussed topics on: wage push inflation, the economics of minimum wage, justified wage and demand for labour. This source will indeed be used to bolster question five in my inquiry.