I am still enthusing about geothermal energy because of its excellent safety record and the considerable revenue it will raise for numerous projects in the country.

As the government must know through its own research, Iceland is the leading exporter of geothermal expertise to the rest of the world. The nation's engineers, geologists and financiers work on projects anywhere there are incentives (as in Germany, which has a feed-in tariff on geothermal of 20 cents per kilowatt-hour) or easily-tapped reservoirs of underground heat (as in the Philippines). I read that Iceland is involved in the Dominican geothermal project and since the Icelanders are a highly ethical people that is excellent news.

Still on the subject of ethical strategies leading to economic growth, I think Dominicans might be interested in the 'China Miracle' which most see as the answer to the US fight on poverty among other places (please see: www.rt.com/op-edge/328095-china-poverty-us-media).

In 2001 the World Bank published a report in which it wrote that 400 million fewer Chinese were living in poverty than in 1981. The World Bank concluded that Chinese poverty had been reduced because of agrarian reforms and decreased taxation on farmers; public spending from local and provincial rather than central government; and macroeconomic stability by avoiding inflation. The report also found no clear evidence that China's openness to external trade contributed to poverty reduction. What China has achieved is phenomenal and Dominica could learn a lot from the Chinese especially as the island has seen zero annual growth for 22 years.

I hope this email will be useful and please can Dominicans have updates on the geothermal project accompanied by the latest pictures instead of the rust bucket spewing steam that has been shown on Channels 5 & 7 for the last two years.

JJ