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PM promises easier return for St. Lucians overseas
St. Lucians overseas have been promised improved conditions in the island's public services should they wish to return home. In a speech at the formal opening of the 9th Biennial Convention of the St. Lucia Overseas Association, prime minister Dr Kenny Anthony told the representatives of St. Lucians overseas that: "Many of you have rightly complained about the amount of time, energy and resources you waste, when you try to do business at home. Those of you who have returned home, or are thinking of returning home, have experienced disillusionment and disappointment as you come face to face with certain attitudes and approaches to service. You have been defeated by many unnecessary bureaucratic demands. I assure you that we are aware of these frustrating problems, and we are committed to bringing radical change to these areas". One of the intentions is to make the National Development Corporation (NDC) a "one-stop institution", The Tuesday Voice reports.
The PM also spoke of issues of national purpose and faithful love, saying: "We need St. Lucians today who love St. Lucia... Our national consciousness and sense of national purpose will be determined by our faithful love to our country". The Star cites this. The Tuesday Voice adds, quoting the PM, "We must not forget you as some unknown strangers in a far-off diaspora. But you must also not think of us as people at home lost in some time-warp of backwardness. We need each other if we are to create a relevant, meaningful and constructive spirit of St. Lucian nationalism. Our national consciousness must extend beyond our national boundaries to wherever our people live".
Finally, on the issue of the journalistic representation of St. Lucia now that local news is available globally, the PM had this to say: "Perhaps some of you came home expecting to find chaos, rampant crime, disorder, corrupt officials everywhere. Those expectations may well have been created by those who seem concerned to paint continually an unflattering portrait of St. Lucia today. One is forced to question the motives and agendas of those who would broadcast of a St. Lucia in which they can find nothing good. No government policy or activity is worth anything in their eyes. The real achievements of the government and people of St. Lucia are continually degraded. Many people overseas, St. Lucians and non-St. Lucians, are often presented with a picture of St. Lucia, its people and government that is distorted, untruthful and sometimes patently false. I invite you to make time to see for yourselves what the state of our nation is".
The Star, quoting the above statement by the PM, adds a critical note to the effect that "St. Lucians abroad do not depend to any large extent on what the local papers say. They get their news via letters and sometimes desperate phone calls from relatives and friends at home. From the horse's mouth, so to speak".
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Week of activities to mark Abolition of Slavery
The Declaration of the Abolition of Slavery, on the 1st of August 1834, is the pivotal point around which a number of activities are planned for this week. Tuesday, 1st August is a national holiday in St. Lucia and this year, the event will be marked foremost by the fact that full ownership of St. Lucia's historical landmark, Pigeon Island, is to be officially restored to the people of St. Lucia. A ceremony is planned for Tuesday, at 4 p.m when, in the presence of the governor-general, the prime minister and dozens of other dignitaries, two documents will be signed. The first of these officially transfers the 44-acre National Landmark from the Colonial Life Insurance Company of Trinidad & Tobago to the people of St. Lucia. The second does the same for the land immediately outside the Landmark, which currently belongs to the Commonwealth Development Corporation. Since 1983, the St. Lucia National Trust has leased the park at Pigeon Island operating it as a centre for education, research, recreation and nature/heritage tourism. It is also the main venue for the popular Jazz Festival. No changes are expected in the usage of the area.
On Wednesday, the Folk Research Centre (FRC) has scheduled a public lecture by education officer Travis Weekes, entitled 'St. Lucia's Folk Culture and the Struggles for Emancipation', which will be followed by cultural performances. All of this will take place on the grounds of the FRC, at Mount Pleasant, from 7pm. On Thursday night, the FRC continues its weekly folk party at Indies Nightclub. This week there will be a special performance in celebration of the anniversary of Emancipation.
Finally, the Aldet Centre-Saint Lucia has organised a Trans-Island Project 2000 for this Tuesday, whereby the people of St. Lucia and Martinique will be linked-up via simultaneous live video-conferencing and a radio and television links. Activities are set to take place simultaneously at the Castries Food Market and the Madiana in Schoelcher, from 10:00 am until 9:00 pm. Eighteen academics, five communicators and 31 cultural activists are scheduled to participate in a programme featuring discussions on the meaning of the abolition of slavery. All newspapers report on this week's anniversary programme.
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Nurses at VH and Golden Hope on two day sick-out
Nine nurses from the Golden Hope Mental Hospital staged a two day sick-out on Monday and Tuesday and were soon joined in their protests by colleagues from the nearby Victoria Hospital. The nurses were objecting to the allegedly poor and dangerous working conditions which nursing staff, particularly at Golden Hope, are subjected to. Last week, the kitchen staff at Victoria Hospital went on a wildcat strike in protest at the lack of ingredients and poor quality of food that they have to prepare for patients. The Star and Thursday Voice report this. Further nursing protests appear to be on the cards.
Direct cause for this week's strike was attributed to the suspension of three nurses - two female, one male - by Health minister Sarah Flood-Beaubrun, pending an investigation into cases of alleged physical abuse of patients at the mental institution. The three nurses were sent on 30 days' leave on July 10th for three separate incidents of alleged patient abuse. Their suspensions have since been prolonged for a further ten days.
Nurses at Golden Hope, backed by the Nurses Association, are clamouring for greater security at the mental hospital and for the establishment of an insurance scheme for nurses. Although a number of official representations have allegedly been made to bring these matters to the attention of the relevant minister, Sarah Flood-Beaubrun, the nurses claim that they have not received word from the minister. They also complain of "shoddy treatment" from the ministry of Health, reports The Mirror.
According to The Star, "The suspensions have infuriated nurses who say many of the incidents are triggered by patients who attack nurses. In a televised address last week, Mrs Paul, speaking for the Nurses Association, indicated a number of cases where nurses suffered serious injuries, none of which had elicited adequate response from the Ministry".
Also according to The Star, some months ago a female nurse was temporarily paralysed for several months after having been kicked by a patient. "She had to personally meet all her medical expenses", writes The Star.
Nurses at Golden Hope say they invite "a broad-based investigation into the operations and problems at Golden Hope", not only into the issue of alleged physical abuse of patients but also into the general living and working conditions at the hospital for patients and staff. At present, the 114 patients are forced to live in one room in the 84-year-old building, segregated only by gender. Although a special programme was started two years ago to collect funds for the upgrading of Golden Hope, apparently the main change to the physical structure of the building has been the addition of a beauty clinic (funded by the Cuban government to the tune of $30,000). The rationale behind this move - an initiative of minister Flood-Beaubrun - is that improved personal hygiene leads to improved self-esteem in patients.
The ministry of Health has set up a committee to investigate the allegations of patient abuse. The committee consists of hospital director Desmond Philip, principal nursing officer Suzannah Jolie, a police officer, a public servant and - following a meeting on Wednesday with minister of Labour Velon John - retired nurse Sister Lambert. But investigations into the actions of the three suspended nurses are yet to start. Minister Flood-Beaubrun on Wednesday defended her ministry's decision to suspend the three saying "a hospital was a place where injuries are supposed to be nursed, not inflicted". The Mirror reports this. According to the paper, the minister further described the nurses' sick-out as "inappropriate and poorly organised".
Meanwhile, the opposition United Workers Party has called for the resignation of Health minister Sarah Flood-Beaubrun because of what it calls "the rapidly deteriorating state of services at the island's main Victoria Hospital". According to UWP leader Dr Vaughan Lewis in the Wednesday Star, the hospital is "repeatedly being hit by shortages of basic medical supplies, necessary facilities for patients accommodation and the lack of adequate supplies of food to meet the needs of patients in recuperation". Therefore, says Lewis, "Prime Minister Anthony should introduce more effective leadership at the policy level, by immediately relieving the Health Minister of her portfolio, and make a fresh appointment to the Ministry".
Vaughan Lewis' criticism is supported by another from the UWP camp, Romanus Lansiquot, who writes in The Star that: "We do recognise that there were certain problems with Victoria Hospital in the past, but never during the UWP administration were things allowed to deteriorate so badly, causing hospital workers to publicly complain of shortages of food for patients".
But the UWP criticisms are countered by one Gregory Thomas, also in The Star, who pens a strong motion of support for Health minister Flood-Beaubrun, saying that she "did not make Victoria Hospital into what it is today. It is what it is today because of the three decades of neglect and inept policy management" under the UWP. Nobody could have expected her "to turn Hospital around in five short years" and, according to Thomas, "The fact remains that our health services in this country are no worse off than they were three years ago and in several departments, conditions have improved phenomenally".
Besides, asserts Thomas, St. Lucians expect too much. "The reality is that our people are watching ER and General Hospital on a daily basis and fantasise over the movie-type hospital settings where doctors and nurses are simply lining up to serve the needs of patients. We see nightly how people are wheeled into hospitals and how they receive world-class state of the art treatment. But we never see on ER when they are settling their bills. We never discover the cost to the patient of having an operation on demand or of staying for one week in a penthouse-like setting".
The Star reports having attempted to interview minister Flood-Beaubrun but the minister allegedly responded that she "would not be inclined to grant interviews" to that paper, stating that she had been misquoted and quoted out of context in the past.
Finally, both the Wednesday Star and The Mirror have published a letter from an Irish couple to a hotel owner in which they give high praise to the quality of service which they received at Victoria Hospital following a near-drowning whilst on holiday.
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Backpay 'magnanimously' donated to Belle Fashions workers
Some 340 former Belle Fashions workers are set to receive financial compensation to the tune of between "a few hundred" and $5,800 dollars each - money which is being given to them after St. Lucia Labour Party members of the House of Assembly "magnanimously" decided, as "a direct and personal contribution", "to commit the $528,350.33 due to them as retroactive payments, to aid these workers". So said prime minister Dr Kenny Anthony in a speech last Tuesday in the House of Assembly. The full text of the speech appears in The Voice, and The Star and Thursday Voice also pay attention to the topic. Belle Fashions workers found themselves in a conundrum after their employers left the country "in the dead of night in search of greener pastures where labour costs are cheaper than in St. Lucia", according to The Star.
The sudden closure of Belle Fashions was a heavy blow to the socio-economic situation in the Dennery district, especially since management of the garment factory neglected to pay severance entitlements. Despite a number of meetings between government ministers, representatives of the National Workers Union and Belle Fashions representatives, the factory management could neither be persuaded to return to St. Lucia, nor to settle its outstanding debts.
The SLP government came under heavy criticism earlier this year when it planned to grant itself a salary increase as well as substantial backpay dating back to its first month in office, in 1997. However, the government withdrew this plan after vehement public debate and opposition to the idea. This week, Rick Wayne during his DBS talkshow Talk! made the point that if the ministers have indeed decided not to take the backpay, then how can they now propose to "magnanimously" give this same money - taxpayers' money, incidentally - away to the Belle Fashions workers as "a direct and personal contribution"? Wayne further criticised Dr. Anthony's revelation that in the meetings with Belle Fashions management, only "moral suasion" was used to try and make Belle Fashions honour its debts.
The PM, during Tuesday's speech to the House of Assembly, implicitly acknowledged that legal action against Belle Fashions is not yet on the cards. According to The Voice, the PM said: "there are also those who know and will take advantage of the fact that we can hardly afford the cost of representation in international jurisdictions, so they will simply pull out and relocate without any real fear of pursuit, legal or otherwise".
The PM however did promise that his government "shall continue to pursue them [Belle Fashions] and explore all practical means of recovering some, if not all of the monies owed. We shall also tighten up on existing regulations to ensure non-recurrence of such situations".
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Hotelier breaks silence on tourist crime
This week, the manager of the Ladera Resort, Magnus Alnebeck, broached a sensitive subject for St. Lucia's media: the matter of crime against tourists. Following the robbing at gunpoint of two of the hotel's guests on the road to a scenic spot near Anse la Raye last Wednesday afternoon, Alnebeck this weekend in The Star suggests that perhaps St. Lucian hoteliers and the government ought to re-think the unwritten policy of keeping incidents involving tourists quiet in order to protect the island's fragile tourism industry.
Says Alnebeck in The Star: "Keeping quiet about these crimes seems to give the criminals the message that crimes like this are okay because they are not subject to intense police or public attentions. This has got to stop. It's time for St. Lucia to choose whether it wants tourists who spend all of their time in resorts behind chainlink fences, playing in the sand and enjoying only the resort restaurants, or if we want tourists who feel comfortable exploring and getting out into the local communities to the benefit of local businesses. The way things stand at the moment, hotels may not have a choice but to dissuade their guests from venturing outside the resort premises".
Inspector Albert Fregis, asked to comment, replied: "For our part, we would rather not highlight the incidences involving tourists". According to The Star, this week's robbery was the third such incidence in the last few months involving tourists on the same road in Anse la Raye.
Ironically, on Friday the Anse la Raye Village Council, Fishermen's Cooperative and the Anse la Raye Vendors Association launched a new initiative billed as 'Seafood Friday', which is an attempt to attract more tourists and local visitors to Anse la Raye.
In a separate article in the Wednesday Star, Michael Whittaker also calls for greater awareness of the direct link between what is euphemistically called 'visitor harrassment', and the money that flows – or is ceasing to flow - into the pockets of hoteliers, bar and restaurant owners, car rental companies, vendors, taxi drivers, tour-guides and others directly or indirectly dependent on a safe and enjoyable tourism industry.
[St. Lucia Online's news team invites comments and suggestions on the topic of the reporting of tourist-related crime. Write to info@slucia.com ]
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Desperate prison officers call for magistrates
With one thousand new cases having come before the courts during the past two months alone, and with still only three magistrates on the bench, the situation in St. Lucia's courthouses and prison is daily becoming more serious. A fortnight ago, a week of unrest erupted at the island's sole male prison, largely due to the fact that many inmates have been on remand for months and sometimes years, waiting for their cases to be heard, with no prospect of imminent improvement - despite repeated assurances by minister of Legal and Home Affairs Velon John that the shortage of magistrates has been virtually solved [search news archive]. The Crusader this week carries a page-long article under the headline 'Home Affairs Minister Accused of Perpetuating Prison Violence'. It starts as follows: "A call has been issued for the immediate resignation of the Home Affairs Minister Velon John. The call was made by a group of prison officers who have expressed their disgust at the manner in which the minister is handling the present prison situation". According to the prison officers - who requested anonymity - minister John "has been treating prison officers with a hands-off attitude" while on the other hand "treating the prisoners with a velvet glove approach". They claim that the minister is not interested in the welfare of either the prisoners or the officers. This, the prison officers claim, results in a situation where disgruntled prisoners resort to acts of violence against other inmates and officers. The Crusader writes: "The group of prison officers admitted that it is difficult for both prisoners and prison officers to survive in the prisons at present. Such a situation has resulted in a number of officers resorting to carrying weapons such as cutlasses hidden in their pants as a means of being prepared to defend themselves".
One officer allegedly told The Crusader: "The Minister has failed to deal with the corruption of prison staff that has in many instances inadvertently influenced the prisoners to riot by virtue of the many acts of indiscipline committed against them". Another officer is said to have added: "The law is the law and any form of infraction of the prison regulations by anyone calls for discipline but that is not the case at Her Majesty's Prisons". And a third added: "How can the minister expect us to work with a small prison staff of officers when no effort is being made to reduce the remand population by ensuring that the cases are speedily dealt with?" A fourth is quoted: "We would like a prison where all forms of indiscipline are dealt with in the prescribed manner, irrespective of who commits the act. There are prison regulations but their application is only for the select minority".
Finally, yet another officer reportedly lamented: "If the authorities would just ensure that the police do not leave prisoners languishing in the prisons, then the situation would be manageable but all we hear from the minister is talk and more talk, while persons are on the verge of killing each other".
The article in The Crusader ties in with a report in The Star, in which a court official is quoted as saying "It's chaos. I'm just turning away people" at the court house. The official had reportedly already turned away 32 cases due to be heard that day. "Where are the magistrates? Where are they?" Another court official reportedly told The Star: "Where are the magistrates Velon John keeps talking about? In all my years of doing this job, I have never, never seen anything like this. The system had completely broken down and I doubt it can recover". Last Tuesday, the courts were again closed.
But minister John has reportedly assured The Star that there is nothing wrong with the system. "What we need is optimum figures of eight [magistrates]. ... We already have three in the system, pretty soon we will have another three and now we have invoked the normal temporary magistrate system, which worked excellently several months ago".
Under the temporary magistrate system, practising lawyers voluntarily assume the job of magistrate to help reduce the backlog in cases. It has been widely discussed whether or not this solution introduces bias into the legal system [search news archive].
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Tourist Board nominated for major award
The St. Lucia Tourist Board has been nominated for the award for 'Caribbean's Leading Tourist and Convention Bureau in the year 2000' by the World Travel Awards. St. Lucia in general has also been nominated as 'the Caribbean's Leading Destination', and the 'World's Leading Honeymoon Destination'. The World Travel Awards are considered the 'Oscars' of the travel industry. In 1998, St. Lucia was awarded the title of 'World's Leading Honeymoon Destination'. St. Lucia's nomination is in itself considered quite an achievement, writes the Thursday Voice. The announcement will be made on the 9th September in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Tourism Director Hilary Modeste attributes his Bureau's nomination to "the hard work that has been done by the staff of the Board over the years".
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USAID donates US$5.1m for Hurricane Lenny repairs
St. Lucia is set to receive some US$1.5 million to pay for the reconstruction of damaged buildings and facilities in Gros Islet, Anse la Raye and Soufriere. The money is part of a larger sum - US$5.1 million - that is being donated by the United States government (USAID) to the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) under the Hurricane Lenny Agreement. Documents confirming this were signed last week Friday at the Bay Gardens Hotel, in St. Lucia. The USA already provided some US$100,000 in immediate relief assistance to the OECS area, following Hurricane Lenny, in November of last year. The Wednesday Star reports this.
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Two shot in separate armed robbery incidents
One alleged robber and one victim were shot in two separate robberies last week. The Mirror reports this. Last Sunday, just before midnight, a bus driver was hijacked by two masked gunmen at the Monchy junction and forced to drive to the far south end of Reduit beach. There, he was robbed of $1000 and subsequently shot. The victim nevertheless managed to drive to the Rodney Bay police station, from where he was sped to Victoria Hospital. The robbers have not yet been found.
In a separate incident near Coco Dan in Vieux Fort, also one evening last week, a busdriver and one passenger were held up by a gunman who had just boarded the vehicle. He robbed the two men of $160 in cash and a shirt, then shot the driver in his thigh and made off. While the driver was rushed to hospital, police officers approached a possible suspect in Derriere Morne. According to The Mirror, the man in question carried a firearm and ran away upon the officers' approach. The subsequent chase ended in a shoot-out during which the suspect was shot once in the abdomen and three times in the legs. Police reportedly recovered some money and the stolen shirt. The alleged culprit is currently in St. Jude's Hospital.
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Aubertin launches novel on Negmaron fighters
Michael Aubertin launches his new novel 'Neg Maron: Freedom Fighter' on Sunday evening at the National Cultural Centre, from 7:30 onwards. Described in The Mirror as "a muilti-media artist - songwriter, musician, storyteller, writer, arts administrator and father of three children who are nothing if not determined artists themselves", Aubertin decided to write this novel after he finished a thesis on 'Patterns of Gender Socialization', but realised that "people don't read dissertations". According to The Mirror, "The answer was to write a novel that captured the life of the times - the social and racial prejudices, the abuse of women and the apparent powerlessness of others to stop it". In 1992, Aubertin's work won the M&C Prose Award and now the book has been published. Jason Sifflet describes 'Neg Maron: Freedom Fighter', as follows: "Aubertin walks you into a world where your own history takes on [a] cinematic perspective and your ancestors are on the verge of attaining mythical proportions. British deserters, Negmaron soldiers and femmes fatales are woven into such an adventurous soap opera fiction, that it is extremely enjoyable in spite of the fact that it deals with the most serious social issues of our society. Like a well-researched 265-page, crowd-pleasing calypso".
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SLASPA officials: 'close GFL Charles airport'
In an article based entirely on undisclosed "well-placed sources at the St. Lucia Air and Sea Ports Authority", The Mirror's southern section this week claims that there is strong support among tourism and port officials to close down George F.L. Charles airport in Vigie, Castries, and maintain only Hewanorra International Airport. St. Lucia is one of only four English-speaking Caribbean countries that have international airports, but is the only one that in fact has two of these - and The Mirror's claim is that, according to those involved in running the island's airports, this is not cost-effective. Hewanorra Airport is a white elephant, maintains a SLASPA source. According to the paper, there were 11,512 aircraft movements at Hewanorra in 1999, compared to 30,812 at GFL Charles. Some 176,000 passengers disembarked at GFL Charles, compared to 182,000 at Hewanorra, and almost equal numbers boarded planes at both airports (182,000 each). At present, Hewanorra handles just 46 flights per week, mostly long-haul. Sundays see the most activity, with 11 scheduled flights, and Saturdays see 6 scheduled flights. "The airport is underutilized", claims one of the Mirror's sources. According to another, the only reason that GFL Charles continues to operate is because of pressure exerted on the government by businesspeople in the north. "If the government close the George Charles airport, people especially business owners in the north of the island will make noise. It's only votes keeping that airport in operation".
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NCB continues trend of increased profits
The National Commercial Bank (NCB) is continuing its trend of increased profits which started with its privatisation in July 1999. The unaudited half-yearly financial results for the first half of 2000 indicate a net income before tax of $7.6 million, as compared with $4.3m and $2.0m for comparable periods in 1999 and 1998. This means that net income before taxes for the period January - June 2000 has increased by 71% since June 1999, and by 280% since June 1998. According to a press release published in The Mirror and Voice, this continuing upward trend is attributed to improved asset and liability management, continuing control of administrative costs, improved portfolio quality, more aggressive loan recoveries, and more business.
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First Lady heads labour law reform task force
St. Lucia's First Lady, Dr Rose-Marie Antoine-Anthony, is the director of a task force whose job it is to draft a new labour code for St. Lucia. She represents the International Labour Organisation (ILO), whose involvement in the project was confirmed in October 1998. The task force comprises representatives from four sectors, namely the trade unions, the employers, the government and the ILO. Lawrence Poyotte and Lambert Charles represent the trade unions, Anthony McNamara and Andrew Piltie represent the employers, Veronica Cenac and Gregor Brathwaite represent government and Dr. Antoine-Anthony represents the ILO.
It is the job of the task force to review the existing labour legislation with a view to modernisation, consider all ILO conventions and provisions, consider comparative legislation, common-law and judicial decisions, and review existing custom and practice as it relates to the interpretation of labour legislation and principles of labour law.
On Monday, Labour minister Velon John, along with Dr. Rose-Marie Antoine-Anthony and several others, held a press conference to explain the task force's work to the media. It was revealed that community meetings will be held all around the island throughout August, where members of the public can air their views on labour laws. Topics to be discussed are trade union recognition, occupational health and safety, termination of employment, unfair dismissal, equal opportunities, free movement of skills, employment of children, employment of women, minimum wages, the powers of the Labour Department, and terms and conditions of work. Both The Star and The Crusader report on this.
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Calypsonians protest Roadmarch
Protus 'Educator' Auguste and Fitzroy 'Bingo' Leon are proposing to take the National Carnival Development Committee (NCDC) to court, claiming that the organisation has mishandled the results of the Road March competition. On Tuesday, Educator and Bingo sent a letter through their lawyer to the NCDC, asking that the announced results (according to which Rootsie was declared the Road March winner), be retracted, the score sheets made available to them, and no prize be presented to the announced winner. Educator and Bingo base their suspicions on their claim that the points on the judges' score sheets did not tally up to the required total. The NCDC, in a press release on Wednesday, however attempted to explain this by saying that the chief judge, Tedburt Theobalds, had neglected to hand in two score sheets in time. However, says the NCDC, even with these two sheets taken into account, the results remain unchanged, with Rootsie at number one, Invader second, and Educator and Bingo numbers three and four. The Star reports this.
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Evangelists drive Darling Rd residents nuts
At least 52 households in and around the Darling Road Housing Complex have put their signatures to a petition protesting the continuing presence of Dr. Vaughan and Jennifer Brown - the missionaries who have been holding a crusade in a large marquee in King George V Park since the 2nd of June. The situation has now escalated to the point where angry residents of one apartment are displaying a banner reading 'Pastor V. Brown and wife - Con Artists - Get The Hell Out - Too Much Noise'. The Voice reports this. Residents informed the newspaper that the evangelists have been holdings meetings twice a day, at 6:00 am and 6:30 pm, for fifty days now. At night, the meetings are supposed to finish at 9:30 pm, but according to residents, have sometimes lasted until 11:45 pm. The Voice reporter himself acknowledges that the evangelists' message "can be heard for miles around, thanks to a system which seems to throw out a million decibels of sound". And the noise is precisely what most bothers neighbouring households. "Imagine being woken up to that every morning and having to bear it every evening, at a volume so great that it drown out the radio and TV in the house. And now, since the appearance of the banner, the followers stop across the street after each session, raising their hands, dancing and chanting 'He ain't going nowhere'. Life around here has become a nightmare".
Residents collected a petition with 52 signatures and presented it to the City Council, but according to residents, this produced no results. In fact, Dr Brown's evangelical group's license - which originally ran from 2nd June until 28th June, was extended with the consent of the prime minister to the 31st of July. "We have nothing against religion, or religious meetings but enough is enough", say residents. But since they took action against the noise pollution in their homes, the evangelists appear to have "declared open warfare on us", says one Darling Road resident. "Now, they refer to us in their sermons as 'devil tenants'; they open their morning sessions for example with phrases like 'the sinners are still sleeping in their beds', and the like".
The Voice also reports that Dr Vaughan and his following had to cut short their stay in Antigua, before coming to St. Lucia ("having worn out their welcome") and are contemplating settling in St. Lucia to build a permanent ministry.
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Info on Court of Justice on internet
Persons interested in finding out more about the draft instruments which will eventually lead to the establishment of a Caribbean Court of Justice can access this information by visiting the website www.caricom.org, or by making a direct request to carisec3@caricom.org. The Voice reports this.
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Matthew Beaubrun receives Legion d'Honneur
St. Lucian Dr. Matthew Anthony Cox Beaubrun has been invested with the insignia of the highest honour that can be awarded to a civilian by the French government: the Legion d'Honneur - the equivalent of a British knighthood. The presentation took place during a ceremony at the French Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica, by French Ambassador Dr. Albert Salon.
Dr. Matthew Beaubrun has a distinguished and active career as a diplomat and ambassador to several Caribbean and Latin American states. He has resided for many years in Caracas, Venezuela and played a major role in the negotiations which led, in 1994, to the admission of France as an associate member of the Association of Caribbean States on behalf of her territories Martinique, Guadeloupe and Cayenne. Beaubrun has been awarded several other important distinctions, such as Jamaica's Order of Distinction (Commander), the Order of Merit from Chile, the Order of Merit and Grand Cross of Portugal, the Order of Simon Bolivar (First Class), of Venezuela. In November, he will be awarded the Order of San Carlos (First Class) by the government of Colombia. The Voice reports this.
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Banana price drops by 15 cents per pound
The price of bananas is once again tumbling, and from Friday 29th July banana farmers in the Windward Islands are to receive 15 cents per pound less for bananas sold to Geest, WIBDECO and Fyffes. The net market return is therefore dropping to about 43 cents per pound for the remainder of this year. Last year, this was 61 cents and the first half of this year saw prices of 58 cents per pound. This according to Tropical Quality Fruits Director Peter Serieux in an article in The Voice. "For the balance of this year the farmer is being asked by the Fyffes, Geest, WIBDECO group to accept 12 cents per pound to cover his transportation, labour and personal wages to maintain himself and his family. If we take the generally accepted yardstick of 50 box production per fortnight for a viable banana farmer, this translates to $420.00 per month (100 boxes x 35lbs x 12c).
According to Serieux, "Geest's way of dealing with the Windward farmers remains dishonest and exploitative - the farmers are robbed and TQF has reason to conclude that WIBDECO accommodates it". Serieux bitterly concludes that "Farmers remain banana producers only because of the absence of viable alternatives". The Voice is the only newspaper to mention the drop in the price of bananas.
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'Seafood Fridays' in Anse la Raye
The fishing village of Anse la Raye embarked last Friday on an activity dubbed 'Seafood Fridays', in an attempt to bring tourists and locals to the Anse la Raye waterfront to enjoy seafood and entertainment every Friday evening. 'Seafood Friday' is an intiative of the Anse la Raye Village Council, Fishermen's Cooperative and the Anse la Raye Vendors Association. It intends to promote Anse la Raye's heritage as a fishing village while at the same time strengthening ties between the fishing and tourism sectors in the area. The Thursday Voice and Crusader both report this.
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Air Caraibe reintroduced to St. Lucia
Combining Air Martinique, Air Guadeloupe, Air Sabre and Air Caraibe all in one, a newly introduced Air Caraibe was launched last Thursday during a short ceremony at the Alliance Francaise Pyramid at Pointe Seraphine. Whereas the previous Air Caraibe was just a charter airline, the new Air Caraibe has a fleet of 26 aircraft which provides daily scheduled flights to several Caribbean destinations, including Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, which is not yet utilised by local travel agents. With the merger, Air Caraibe has come under new management. The Star reports this.
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