Short answers, pulled from the story.
Dominica is an island country in the Caribbean, part of the Windward Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles. Its closest neighbours are the French overseas departments of Guadeloupe to the northwest and Martinique to the south-southeast. The capital, Roseau, sits on the western side of the island.
Dominica is nicknamed the Nature Island of the Caribbean for its lush mountainous rainforests and varied flora and fauna. It is the youngest island in the Lesser Antilles and is still being formed by geothermal-volcanic activity, including the world's second-largest hot spring, Boiling Lake. The island also holds 365 rivers.
Dominica gained independence as a republic on the 3rd of November 1978, led by Prime Minister Patrick John. It had earlier been an associated state of the United Kingdom from 1967 and a province of the short-lived West Indies Federation in 1958.
The sisserou parrot, also known as the imperial amazon, is Dominica's national bird and is found only on Dominica. It is critically endangered and featured on the national flag, making Dominica one of two sovereign nations whose official flag features the color purple.
Dominica offers economic citizenship in exchange for an investment, waiving the normal requirement of seven years of legal residence. The required contribution for a main applicant starts at US$100,000 through the Economic Diversification Fund, or a US$200,000 minimum real estate investment since 2014. The program is valued at 16% of the government's total revenue.
Category 5 Hurricane Maria struck Dominica on the 18th of September 2017, with early estimates suggesting 90% of buildings had been destroyed. The losses came to approximately US$930 million, or 226% of GDP, and most people were left homeless. The UK, France, and the Netherlands set up shipping and air lifts to take aid to the island.
The Kalinago are Dominica's pre-colonial Indigenous inhabitants, and Dominica is the only eastern Caribbean island that still has a population of pre-Columbian native Kalinago. More than 3,000 Kalinago remain, living in eight villages on the east coast on a territory granted by the British Crown in 1903, where they elect their own chief.