Is a two island countries separated by 3 miles of water. It was the island but got a full eye of the hurricane. Hurricane. Her mouth was 375 miles wide when it arrived. There were 62 square miles and its smaller than washington, d. C. , so you could imagine dusting of 220 miles an hour as a category five hurricane plus. It devastated everything. At the end of the passage there wasnt a single building left standing that was structurally sound and all of them were dangerous to enter. The only reason we didnt have more than one fatality on the island is because people heeded the government forming and had gone into a shelter, which fortunately was Strong Enough to sustain them during the night. We lost one life, a small boy,s toddler who was in his guardians armguardians arms as running to the shelter having left her house too late because as you know, people like to remain until the last moment but the wind literally sucked the child out of her hands, tossed him into the air and the next morning unfortunately he was found dead. We were lucky that was the only fatality we had, but the island itself is now without electricity, no water, it is a rubble and cannot sustain human life, so for the first time in l over 300 years there isnt a single prominent president. Everybody had to be evacuated where they now either been taken in what they are in government shoulders of one kind or anoth another. We have a situation now where we are keeping the residence at great cost and difficult circumstances. What are you asking the United States for . We havent asked for the anything, frankly thats what happened in barbecue at a and tonight are happening in guadalupe with Hurricane Maria is an indication of Global Warming. They have become fierce, strong and much larger than theyve been in the past and they are a huge danger, but they are becoming so monstrously large because the sea around ther. Caribbean island are hotter than they used to be, so thats Global Warming. And as they com come along theyk up the heat from the sea, the moisture, they become bigger,. Stronger, larger and we are now the victims of office. It is a worry to us when you consider it considers not less than 1 in the atmosphere yet year after year we are the victims of it. It is worrying that we have to evacuate every Single Person because that suggests that we are seeing societies that have existed for a long time, their footprint is being obliterated. There is a danger of extinction if they continue in the matter which we have seen them this year. Im very worried this morning. I know theres been considerable damage but im not sure how much yet. The assessment of the damage t will take some time to know, but we have much stronger winds this morning at 7 00 we had sustained winds of 90 miles an hour and is stronger than the wind during the irma so i think this indicates the power of the hurricanes and whhurricanes andn danger and we must worry about them. So he host why was it so heavily impacted but so much less damage and they were how many miles about 30 . There are two good reasons. Antigua has some natural resilience to these high winds and the hurricane simply ruled over the country with nothing to stop it. The second reason is theyve had hurricanes now since 1987. The result is a great time weve had these hurricanes we have had to rebuild and we rebuild to Higher Standards and more resilient buildings, so that was the second reason why it wasnt as badly affected. But the third reason is that they went directly over and what they got was out of the hurricane. As we are getting right now exactly as i speak to you withf . Hurricane irma. Host where is the help coming from . I know your country has connections to great britain. Are they helping right now flex guest know, the two countries that have been the most prominent are venezuela which sent him a medical team of 30 people if it were not for them we wouldnt have been able to evacuate the people from barbecue t the other country is china. From what little they have theyve been very generous so these are the places we have seen help come from and they made a 100,000dollar donation to the red cross. We need more than has been delivered so far. And in this case we are looking at close to 300 million to put the island back into shape so that people can return and they can live a decent life. W if you have questions for the ambassador to the United States, here with us the next 25 minutes or so on the washington journalh if you were in th are in the ear central time zones and if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones robert is up first, go ahead. Re will they be able to reestablish on their island . Guest we are going to try to rebuild but its not going to be easy. E there is no electricity or water. We have a small airport which is now inoperable. We are looking at a cost ofour about 300 million. What is important to understand as our economy is a 1. 2 billion economy and therefore the cost of two to 300 million is more than 20 of our National Gross domestic product. We simply dont have that kind of money so we do need help from the International Community if we are to rebuild and to the Community Back on the homeland and it is critical that we do so because nowhere in the world should humanity accept that an entire community with an ancient civilization should beed completely extinguished. What are the main funds you can apply for, do you go to the un for this, the organization of american states . It is not equipped to provide money of this kind. There is a small fund i cant remember the exact term but they provided 20,000 that was it. At the United Nations as a possibility for relief but not the kind of money we are talking about. We have two the International Development bodies and i think we will have to put a conference against the plan and ask people to subscribe to it. When i see people blaming governments and big agencies. This is the only way that it can be done but here is the othermyu problem. Because my country is considered a middleincome country, we are not allowed to accessrom the concessional financing from International Financiallain. Institutions. Gu this is where it is on soft terms, the Repayment Period is longer, so we cant do that because we are a middleincome country so we have to go to borrow on commercial terms, high interest rates, shorterterm af. Repayments. The fact that the country is now highly indebted spending aboutys 80 of the Gross Domestic Product and the reason we are ir the dentist becaus deck is becae hurricanes coming year after year. We had to go to borrow commercially to build because we dont have access to the International Financial institutions often does. Per caa we have what they call a high per capita income but it is a skewered idea because we are a small economy we dont have enough Capital Formation we have to invite Foreign Investors to come into the Hotel Industry ane financial services. When those people come in they pay themselves very high wages and theres no relation. But when you take what they earn and divide it by the populations it seems as if it has a high income. They are bringing these earnings to the country so that is why it is a false criteria and one that disadvantages us and it means our countries will always be at a disadvantage of not being able to rebuild in the way that wemon should. A you mentioned the storms are coming year after year. The fact is one of your islands got devastated because there was nothing for protection. Orrow. This is not going to stop tomorrow i dont care if we dont use carbon emissions, period youre going to be suffering for many years. Islandn or we must get off these the sidelines and go somewhere else i hope that is and what she was saying and to see she is worried about us and ourselves. Global warming is a manmade i thing. Man starteman started and can s second, even if it were to stop tomorrow, the damage that has already been done is irreparable therefore we have to build our structures at the muc a much hir level of resilience van happened before. Unless we are able to resist that we are going to be knocked down year after year after year so the answer is how do we do something about Global Warming and at the same time in florida and in the caribbean at Higher Standards than we have in the past. s conversations about Climate Change how are they going with the trump administration. I think they recognize Climate Change exists and also that Global Warming exists that there are offices of the government. They have to carry out theolicy, governments policy regardless of how they feel about it or whatever the situation is. Os there is a great deal of sympathy for those people that thebutthey have a policy positio carry out. I think it is difficult to persuade people who suffer this. Good morning mike you were on with ambassador sanders from caller you as ask wheres te money coming from to help you and you made the point the countries were tied to great britain. Who is helping out the most, venezuela and china and then the moderator asks how about the United States do you make it 100,000. Some of us are tired of picking up your problems. What does it say the sun never t sets. What about all these former coloniecolonies wheres the monm england daca host ambassador sanders. Guest first it isnt a british colony we have been an independent nation since 1981. Britain is dealing with its colonies in the caribbean, and i understand this gentlemans concern. He thinks we have come asking to such thing. What he said to the one pla International Community is that. We are of one planet, one humanity. We have a responsibility, each of us to each other. Every mans death diminishes. I think if we all sit back and say thats your problem, not mine, toda today is maybe my prm and not yours but tomorrow it may be your problem and then you would expect other people to be helpful. Host cleveland ohio, good morning. Caller good morning, ambassador and thank you to cspan for taking my call. Heres my question. Are the islands that you are an ambassador for, do they allow multinational companies, corporations, companies and individuals to offshore their money so they dont have to pay taxes in their own country, and if that is true, you have come to the wrong people. They have robbed us by not giving their tax dollar and you have been a partaker of the evid deethatevil deed by allowing tho such a thing, and now you are going to the very countries that you have stolen all the tax dollars from and now you want a handout from us. And we say if you can rob us, then you can handle it on your own. Guest everything you said is completely inaccurate and i am delighted to be able to respond to it. We are required by law by the common reporting standards to report every person in our country with a bank account or Multinational Corporation to the country of origin which means any United States company or person who has a bank account or business in my country we report it to the irs and the irs knows who those people are. Further, on the matter of them avoiding taxes, that is impossible because of the system i just told you. We have extra territorially applied to report on the United States individuals businesses ts and countries so they can tax them. We tell them which ones are operating were held back in our country so i would rather disabuse you of that idea and thheconducted the pentagon. It requires us to live at the economic and social level. E, this planet that we all share is in danger but i hope that answers the question. Host are their private or religious organizations that have reached out in the images of destruction that we have seen . Guest many individuals have reached out to us. So some of them, wealthy people, some of them poor but we are moved by what weve seen. E resto with what has happened in the rest of the caribbean theh countries are in competition with each other for International Resources and thas is a problem. As of last night, one of the First Responders by giving 200,000 of their money. This is a poor country. Now they are devastated. I agree as i speak to you nowni about dominica because there will be landslides, water washing down into the valleys, all sorts of damage. People shouldnt treat this like it is a way to extract money from people that is an isnt whe are doing at all. We are trying to survive in a situation that we are disadvantaged and marginalized as small countries. Host time for a couple more calls. David, good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. I want to apologize for the donl previous callers. They dont share the vast thirity of the american opinion. I think youve answered my firs question. With regards to the Global Warming, people will say that its not real and i challenge them to go to their garage, closed the door and they will see if the Climate Changes and if there are truly toxic emissions. Host certainly not something we want to advocate ol television, but go ahead. Caller on a larger scale, you take the cars, the airplanes and obviously we are changing the climate. Thank you very much. Im grateful for that. N host thomas in dubuque iowa. Caller i have a question why not set up a caribbean uni union. I am pleased to tell you that we have such a fund. If they get together to put money into the fund at the end of the day it is a fund of theec people. That is a critical point you need to appreciate. What we do have a scheme we all attribute out of that for instance the damage that has been done we get 6 million dominica. Fullstop loo we gete same amount of money. If we are all poorer and come together at the end of the day we still have a fund ofuate inadequate resources that is why we have to look to the International Community. Ri even though my country isnt h rich, the United States has a balance and trade surplus every year with my country on over yea 250 million a. Its been almost 2 billion. Bil thats 2 billion have been sustained employment in manufacturing in the Unitedd States of america. It may not sound like a lot of money to do, but 2 billion to us is twice the size of our economy. Good morning, ambassador. We are working with some of that state and federal governments with new technology that is the lightest and strongest that our company has partnered on and we also have a backing with some private foundations. I am going to try to reach out to you. Yesterday i sent a communication to mr. Robert de niro to the publicists and this is going to replace the current aluminum skeleton techniques to where it is a lightweight. Of a hig guest building codes have to be at a higher standard than they are. We have to build more resilient structures recognizing Global Warming has already done damage and theres nothing we can do about it. It is irreparable. We have to make sure it doesnt get worse if the International Community in response to that. The other countries in the world they are on board through the arrangements made in paris at the last conference on Climate Change and so there will be movement on this. Is is to the only way we are going to deal with this is if we deal with it together