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Quotes:
"As one who has worked in the Ministry of Finance, I can attest to the fact that usually when reports from institutions like the ECCB, IMF, World Bank etc. are published, their conclusions are based on information coming out of the Government itself".
Letter to editor on the Government Information Service's press release, last week, stating that an ECCB report revealed that St. Lucia's economy is "in good health" (The Mirror, 9th March).
"Alfred Harding is also a main subject under the section on 'Torture and other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment".
US State Department report on Human Rights in St. Lucia (The Mirror, 9th March).
"Justice Singh rejected Judge Hariprashad's finding that Harding endured pain and suffering as a result of being placed in the mechanical restraints for 10 months, 15 days, 10 hours and 45 minutes. ... Harding failed to prove that he suffered physical injuries, intolerable pain or suffering inflicted on him physically or mentally. Justice Singh disagreed with Trial Judge Hariprashad- Charles when she opined that 'this shackling of the applicant for such a lengthy period must have traumatized him and he must have suffered psychologically'. Justice Singh noted that there was absolutely no evidence to support such an opinion".
Thursday Voice on last week's High Court ruling that Alfred Harding's case against the state of St. Lucia was 'misconceived' [see last week's news]. Harding's lawyer will appeal this ruling via the Privy Council (8th March).
"You have to understand that the police training course is 24 weeks long", said Police Press Officer Sgt. James. "And most trainees are between 18 and 22 years old. You can't beat 18 years out of a guy in 24 weeks".
The Mirror on the relatively high incidence of young police officers assaulting members of the public (9th March).
"By adulthood it is no surprise that many women, by virtue of incessant brainwashing, really define their self worth along the traditional context of being some man's woman or some man's Child mother or some man's Jabal".
Thursday Voice editorial (8th March).
"It must also be pointed out that the last of the Compton's children was born in the general maternity ward of the hospital because no beds were available at the Baron wing on the day of her delivery. This is precisely the sort of behaviour we expect from our leaders".
One Caribbean on Janice Compton who allegedly delivered all five of her children at Victoria Hospital without specially refurbished quarters - an accusation now being levelled at minister of Health Sarah Flood-Beaubrun, who is due to deliver her baby anytime soon (10th March).
"If our health system were half as good as it should have been, every woman who went to the hospital would have had clean, safe, decent surroundings in which to have her baby. It would... it should... have been the norm. Then we would not be wasting all this time and energy discussing the subject".
The Voice editorial (10th March).
"Meanwhile, sources close to the hospital told the STAR that come Mrs Flood- Beaubrun's delivery day all medical operations will be cancelled just in case the new mother needs a Caesarian. Perhaps this is just another new service to be extended to all expectant mothers admitted to Victoria Hospital?"
The Star (10th March).
"You misspelled Babonneau you idiot".
Letter to Denis Dabreo (One Caribbean, 10th March).
"I'm not too sure what you mean when you say women's rights, but the way some people treat the women is not right".
Member of the public asked if he thinks women's rights are sufficiently recognised in St. Lucia (One Caribbean, 10th March).
"Recently my son witnessed a speeding car run over a young dog on the road. The driver cared not enough to slow down let alone stop to see if he could help. My son lifted the dog to the side of the road where it died. He found this upsetting enough, but was completely outraged by the young man sitting on the side of the road who was laughing his head off as if he had just witnessed the greatest joke!"
Animal Corner (The Mirror, 9th March).
"In the interest of justice I am going to tell the Chief Justice on Saturday when I see him that the Assizes should run all year long. Murder cases and the like in other islands take just two to three days, here it takes three to four weeks".
Frustrated Madam Justice Suzie d'Auvergne (The Star, 10th March).
"I shouted for help. A police officer put his head through the bars and suggested the prisoners continue beating me".
Pastry chef Calixtus Hippolyte who was detained in a cell at Central Police station and beaten by fellow- prisoners after a policeman thought he had stolen $1 worth of peanuts off a vendor's tray - despite the vendor telling the policeman that Hippolyte had in fact paid (The Star, 10th March).
"Augusto Pinochet refuses to bow to the authority of the Chilean courts; John Compton refuses to accept being told by a police constable that he can't park anywhere he wants to in the city. It's a bitter pill to swallow".
PM's press secretary Earl Bousquet (The Star, 10th March).
"I mean, to imagine St. Lucia's Prime Minister having to reassure himself in public that 'I am the Prime Minister', paints a pitiful and pathetic picture of where we are at present as a nation. You mean after four years at the helm, Kenny Anthony is still not sure that he is the Prime Minister of St. Lucia? Then my God, if this is the case of an auto pilot government, I will pray to the Lord to lend a hand".
Therold Prudent (The Star, 10th March).
"But what worries me most about this is the closeness to the incident at the Cathedral at the end of last year. Bear in mind folks that December 31st had heightened significance as the end of the Millennium, also remember that the young men involved had expressed a deliberate intention to do what they did, remember what they wore? Now go back to chapters 15 and 16 in Revelation: 'and the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure white - and the temple was filled with smoke - and no man was able to enter into the temple till the seven plagues and the seven angels were fulfilled'. So you see when the press secretary says that the man knows and understand the words he uses, a cold shiver runs down my spine".
Lawson Caldron on PM Dr Kenny Anthony's promise on the Market Steps that the next election will be an "Armageddon" (The Star, 10th March).
"So I have had to be throwing urine around the house, to counteract the smell and effect of what she is doing".
Castries woman accusing a neighbour of throwing water used to wash a snake around her house, which she claims is a form of obeah aggravating her allergies and making her ill (The Voice, 10th March).
"Meanwhile, in an HTS interview from outside the courtroom, [C.J.] said he 'did what any average person would have done in the circumstances'.
Suspended police officer C.J. who stands accused of maiming two teenage boys who had entered a bar in Bois d'Orange at night. One boy's hand was cut off with a cutlass, the other was cut on his leg (The Star, 10th March).
"In twenty years of alternate dieting and bingeing, gaining and losing twenty pounds five or six times each year, I gained and lost at least 2,000 pounds".
Woman describing her struggle with gender ideals and fashion stereotypes (The Voice, 10th March).
"More passengers from Jamaica were arrested at US airports on smuggling charges than passengers from any other place, according to the US Customs Service. ... The US Embassy estimated that smuggling could have resulted in foreign exchange flows of $200 million to $300 million annually and rivaled the Bahama's banking industry".
The Star on US State Department report on smuggling in the Caribbean (The Star, 10th March). |
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Jamaican rasta lawyer takes on Cathedral case
A Jamaican lawyer who used to practise law in St. Lucia "several years ago", Miguel Lorne, has taken on the defense in the pending court case against Kim John and Francis Phillip - the two men accused of killing religious sister Theresa Egan, injuring several others and causing fire in the nightmarish attack on the Castries Cathedral on New Year's Eve. The Mirror reports that Lorne, himself a Rastafarian, has been retained to defend the two men. Following the attack, John and Phillip identified themselves as Rastafarians and told investigators that they acted on a command given by Jah (God) to "burn" worshippers in the Cathedral because of "corruption" in the church. Following the attack, Rastafarian leaders in St. Lucia expressed shock and outrage at the men's actions, and denied that the two could be Rastafarians.
Lawyer Miguel Lorne says he has spoken with the two accused and has also verbally informed the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions of his intention to defend the two. The Mirror quotes Lorne as saying: "I am appealing to St. Lucians not to judge on what they have heard. In this case don't let frivolous thinking run wild, instead let's sit down and with a clear conscience look into the matter. ... The two accused are entitled to proper legal representation. This is what we intend to facilitate. We see it as part of our responsibilities to assist in that particular case".
In another paragraph, The Mirror reporter quotes Lorne as saying: "It is necessary that the person who represents the accused knows history very well. The Catholic Church will be on trial in this case. ... We (rastafarians) have taken up the crosses of the accused. What the rastafarians have done, the church should be doing. It is our belief that the church for many years has reneged on its duties".
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US State Dept: increased drug smuggling in region
"Drug trafficking and the crimes that derive from it - money laundering, drug use, political influence buying, violent crime and intimidation - threaten the stability of the small independent countries of the eastern Caribbean". So writes the United States State Department in its yearly report on the illegal trade, which was released last week. Although not the most important island in the Caribbean when it comes to the illegal trade in drugs, St. Lucia has reportedly seen increased cocaine shipments over the past year, along with Grenada. Topping the list when it comes to suspicious activities, are Jamaica - described as "a new main hub", and the Dominican Republic, which is reportedly the "command and control centre" of many operations in the region, without actually itself seeing much, relatively speaking, in terms of drug smuggling. "In the Eastern Caribbean, some island nations have been infiltrated by Colombian drug traffickers, who have contracted local criminal gangs, the State Department found".
Besides concluding that the stability of small nation states in the Eastern-Caribbean - of which St. Lucia is one - is being threatened, the US State Department report also maintains that "the offshore industries that thrive in many of the small island nations are key to the laundering of drug traffickers' cash". This is reported in The Wednesday Star.
This remark, in particular, could hurt governments and those involved in offshore finance in the region. In June of last year, the Financial Stability Forum (FSF), a Washington-based forum which is an arm of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation in Development, rated St. Lucia's budding international financial services industry as being of a category three standard, deeming it "among the most poorly structured". Antigua and Barbuda were similarly rated. At the time, the Eastern Caribbean nations responded sharply to the report, with St. Lucia's minister Philip J. Pierre calling it an "attack" on efforts in the Caribbean region to attain a level of economic independence. According to The Mirror of June 9th, "Pierre said ... that there were forces that really wanted the Caribbean islands to remain out of the financial services sector purely for economic reasons".
In general, the State Department report found that "across, the Caribbean, governments co-operated more with the United States than previously, but legislation was still in need of reform, the report said. Particularly criticised was action taken against small players while kingpins carried on unscathed".
In St. Lucia, a woman from the British Virgin Islands was found guilty last week of the illegal possession of drugs. She was fined $25,000 for possession of 16 kilos of cocaine. According to her lawyer, she has since paid the fine and left the island.
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C&W recommits to St. Lucia but lays off staff
Cable & Wireless (C&W) has recommitted itself to continuing operations in St. Lucia and the rest of the Eastern Caribbean, despite imminent liberalisation of the telecommunications sector - but some reduction in staff numbers has been announced for St. Lucia, with assurances that C&W will be offering "attractive early retirement and redundancy packages and training assistance". The general manager for C&W in St. Lucia, Donald Austin, made this announcement. After negotiations between the government of St. Lucia and C&W failed to establish clear guidelines for a liberalised telecommunications environment, and following reportedly insulting remarks made by the then-chairman of ECTEL, minister Calixte George of St. Lucia, C&W announced that it intended to pull out of St. Lucia as of March 31st: the date on which its monopolistic licenses expired. Intervention by other participants in the Eastern Caribbean Telecommunication Authority - and under a new chairman - however managed to steer negotiations back on course, with positive outcome.
Representatives of C&W and ECTEL last week agreed on a phased transition period of 12 to 18 months for full liberalisation. To be liberalised as of April 1st 2001 will be domestic mobile, internet, customer premise equipment and the licensing of VSATs for call centre and data entry operations. Agreement in principle was reached on the issue of rate re-balancing. A further sharing of cost data will take place, "so that tariffs will more closely reflect the costs of providing these services", said Austin. Thirdly, C&W and ECTEL agreed on the formation of work groups, which will further examine outstanding issues.
The laying off of some of its staff is necessary, says Austin, for the company to remain competitive in what will clearly become a more aggressive market. All newspapers carry reports on C&W recommitment to St. Lucia and the wider region within a liberalised telecoms environment. The Star specifically reports on C&W's decision to lay off 250 workers in Barbados in an attempt to "streamline" its operations. By merging its various activities, C&W Barbados, which employs a total of 1,138 people, will in future only have need of 888 staff members.
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Return of the hoax bomb scare
The phenomenon of evacuated buildings and blocked-off roads returned to Castries this week, with what the Thursday Voice described as "The Return of the Bomb Scare Phone Calls". In October and November of last year, proceedings at several schools and businesses were disrupted after hoax announcements that a bomb had been planted on the premises. Despite attempts by the police and C&W to catch the perpetrator(s), no arrests were made. For some time, it seemed that the bomb scare craze had died a natural death - but Tuesday morning saw a revival of the practise, with an anonymous person calling A.F. Valmont & Co. to say that a bomb would go off on the premises later that morning. The police acted swiftly and blocked off the entire area between William Peter Boulevard and Jeremie Street and evacuated all buildings on both sides of Laborie Street, including the offices of the Treasury and Parliament, the Government Printery and the entire Valmont Complex. No bomb was found, however, and by 2:00 pm, traffic was once more allowed to flow through the streets of Castries.
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Lucelec launches website and takes credit cards
A new website was launched this week by the St.Lucia Electricity Service (Lucelec), providing information about the company, the history of electricity generation in St. Lucia, news and events at Lucelec, tips on safe, efficient and conservative use of electricity. Local firm ISIS-APtech with Canadian consultants Royal Steward Associates have worked on the sixteen-page site for several months and although it is not yet entirely interactive, the site allows visitors to find out more about the electicity bill, browse through investor information (including Lucelec's annual reports) and find data on the company's technical operations. In the future, Lucelec would like to enable its customers to pay their bills and perform other transactions online as well. The site can be visited at www.lucelec.com. The Star, Voice, Mirror and One Caribbean all report this.
Meanwhile, Lucelec will also introduce credit card payments (MasterCard and Visa) at its Sans Soucis office as of this week, while Barclays Bank customers will be able to use the bank's debit card to pay their bills at Sans Soucis. According to a press release, Lucelec hopes to introduce credit card payment at its Vieux Fort office by mid-year as well.
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Peace Corps leads way in HIV/AIDS awareness
Peace Corps volunteers and officials of the ministry of Health are working on a new HIV/AIDS programme which is the first of its kind in the Caribbean, targetting employees in their workplace and trying to raise awareness of the lethal disease and its potentially devastating social and economic effects. Two Peace Corps volunteers started work on the development of HIV/AIDS pilot programs in November of last year, and three more Peace Corps officers are expected to join the program in July of this year. According to an article in the Thursday Voice, "With more than 400,000 reported cases, the Caribbean's HIV prevalence rate ranks second only to that of sub-Saharan Africa - where the epidemic has reached devastating proportions". The United States Peace Corps recently allocated additional funding to HIV/AIDS projects. Some of the aims of the Peace Corps project in St. Lucia are to provide basic education on the disease, to assist businesses that wish to establish condom distribution programs, and draft policies regarding the rights of workers affected by HIV/AIDS. Early this year, the Peace Corps initiated plans "to ensure that all patients receiving HIV tests in St. Lucia will have access to pre and post-test counselling". Peace Corps volunteers will spend time to train the staff at the various clinics for Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD clinics) on the island in counselling techniques. They will also be providing support services to HIV/AIDS patients and their families.
According to the Thursday Voice, "future plans in the realm of HIV/AIDS education include establishing community-based awareness programs and launching an islandwide publicity campaign". For more information on the Peace Corps' HIV/AIDS program in St. Lucia, contact rattmk@candw.lc
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Women's Day: focus on abuse but no shelter yet
In the St. Lucian print media this week, the celebration of International Women's Day mostly boils down to decrying the physical, sexual and mental abuse of women around the world in general, and St. Lucia specifically. Rape, battering, incest, domestic violence, discrimination, poverty, the terror of fashion notions, eating disorders and the stress of combining work, children and marriage all take center stage in articles in the Thursday Voice and The Star.
The Star quotes from a report by Amnesty International, which has found that "For many women, their home is a place of terror". The report goes on to quote figures from the World Bank, which state that "Violence in the home is truly universal. ... [A]t least 20% of women have been physically or sexually assaulted. Official reports in the US say a woman is battered ever 15 seconds and 700,000 are raped each year. In India more than 40% of married women reported being kicked, slapped or sexually abused for reasons such as their husbands' dissatisfaction with their cooking or cleaning, jealousy or other motives".
Although reliable statistics are unavailable for St. Lucia, articles in the Thursday Voice indicate that violence against women is certainly prevalent in St. Lucia as well - with several women being physically and sexually abused from childhood. The Voice column 'Heart to Heart with Teens', for instance, carries a letter from a 19-year-old girl who reports having been severely beaten by both her father and brother. "On numerous occasions my father has threatened to kill me", the alleged victim writes.
The Star, quoting from the Amnesty International report, concludes that: "It is high time that governments recognise that violence in the home and community is not a private matter, but involves state responsibility. International standards clearly lay down that states have a duty to ensure that no one is subjected to torture or ill-treatment anywhere or by anyone. If states neglect this responsibility, they share the responsibility for the suffering they have failed to prevent".
St. Lucia does not yet have an official shelter for victims of domestic abuse. In August of last year, the minister responsible for Health and Women's Affairs, Sarah Flood-Beaubrun, announced at a large international meeting on intervention of domestic violence, that the government had already spent some $800,000 on a building to act as such a shelter. "Building works are going on", said the minister at the time, but she could not give a time limit for completion of these work. However, "a functioning shelter" should be operational before long, she promised seven months ago.
The shelter, when completed, will be able "to accommodate at least five families", minister Flood-Beaubrun said at the time.
Ione Erlinger-Forde, the now retired director of the poverty-stricken Crisis Centre who lobbied for a shelter for battered women and children for some eleven years, at the time declined to comment on the minister's announcement of the long-promised shelter. Earlier last year, minister Flood-Beaubrun stirred up controversy when she cancelled a project supported by the British government to donate a shelter for victims of domestic abuse to St. Lucia [search news archives].
Incidentally, the ministry's slogan for this year's celebration of International Women's Day is 'Improving women's mental health: a key to increased productivity'.
None of this week's crop of newspapers mentions whether any progress has been made in establishing a shelter for victims of domestic violence in St. Lucia. The Thursday Voice, however, urges women and girls who are victims of mental abuse, battering or incest to call the department of Human Services at telephone number 452-4545 for help.
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Forestry opens new rainforest trail and cabins
With the opening, later this month, of a new hiking trail and eco-lodge (a log cabin) at La Porte in Quilesse, the Forestry department in the ministry of Agriculture will be opening up the longest rainforest trail to date in St. Lucia. The Thursday Voice reports this. The new trail starts at the Barre de l'Isle and joins the Quilesse Trail, some ten miles to the south. From there, hikers can either camp and spend the night in one of the four existing log cabins, or else hike on: westwards to Soufriere via the Edmund Forest Trail, or eastwards to Micoud via the Quilesse Trail. The new trail passes through pristine rainforest and offers "the most breathtaking views" of forest, hills, valleys and mountains. According to the department of Forestry, the new hiking trail offers a wider range of biodiversity than any other existing trail in St. Lucia. The new trail was developed in response to requests from both locals and visitors for "rustic camping experiences within the rainforest". The department prides itself on demonstrating the sustainable use of what is a sensitive natural resource, thus adding to the variety of the national tourism product. "There is nothing that compares with the experience of the rainforest at night", states a spokesman. "The lights of the fireflies and the sound of the insects and frogs that form the night orchestra are just some of the delights".
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Low quality of bananas endangers Waitrose contract
The battle against leafspot infestation in St. Lucia's banana fields remains an uphill one and although at the end of this month, a joint venture owned by the four banana companies will take over the aerial and ground spraying from the government, the Waitrose Supermarket chain in the United Kingdom has complained that the quality of bananas coming from St. Lucia has been falling dangerously.
The Thursday Voice reports that Waitrose has issued "a warning shot across the bows of our ocean-crossing fruit-laden ships, letting the [Windward] islands know that substantial improvement has to be recorded in the quality of the fruit, if we desire to retain their custom. So far, the huge supermarket chain continues to support the WIBDECO-supplied fruit, but warns that the present state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely".
Dr Erroll Reid of WIBDECO, in an article in The Mirror, admits that the quality of fruit has been slipping. Pest control, according to The Mirror, was "one of several political footballs being used in the fight to separate the St. Lucia Banana Corporation from WIBDECO in early 2000. Most banana officials agree that Yellow Sigatoka [leaf spot disease] only grew completely out of control when SLBC cut its aerial spraying programme as well as its input service programme. Since then, banana companies have been struggling for a solution. Government answered their appeal by taking temporary respsonsibility from November to March. But the Government's programme does not come close to tackling the problems the new pest management company must deal with".
Dr Reid of WIBDECO, as well as Tropical Quality Fruit Company's Peter Serieux, are somber about the future. Dr Reid told The Mirror: "It has been a difficult winter and we don't have the consistency that the customers want. We don't have an image as a reliable source. Prices actually increased in Week 3 by 50 pence a box, and we anticipate getting better prices back to the industry. But we're fighting uphill to get quality back to a reasonable level".
Peter Serieux of TQFC reckons St. Lucia's volume of banana exports is likely to fall to an all-time low: under 65,000 tons. "It's already too late to stop the downward trend that will take us into later this year. The best remedy now might be to do a massive cutback and replanting of the infested fields".
Meanwhile, press secretary to prime minister Dr Kenny Anthony, Earl Bousquet, writes in the Wednesday Star: "The Windward Islands banana marketing company WIBDECO, also had good news this past week, indicating the banana industry in the islands had fared better in 2000 than in 1999. CEO Bernard Cornibert said last year the islands registered a 7% increase in production over the previous year, with St. Lucian continuing to lead the way in production".
Examination of the WIBDECO figures that Bousquet refers to show that although production increased, the value of banana exports actually fell markedly. In fact, WIBDECO reported that the value of banana exports from St. Lucia in the year 2000 were the lowest for the entire past decade, totalling just EC$82.2 million - despite the fact that by weight, banana exports rose. In 1999, St. Lucia exported 65,231 tonnes; in 2000 this rose to 70,281 tonnes. The value of these exports dropped however, from $176.8 million in 1999 to $160.6 million in 2000.
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Abattoir for meat; fish landings increase
The slaughtering of animals in St. Lucia is expected to undergo marked improvement with the establishment of a national abattoir on the island - a move recently undertaken by the ministry of Agriculture. According to an article in The Voice, the abattoir will improve the monitoring and control of the slaughtering of animals, and result in better quality local meat production and, eventually, in increased consumption of locally produced meat. According to minister Cassius Elias, the establishment of a national abattoir will be accompanied by encouragement of roadside butchers to improve their meat shops. "We are also hoping to provide a training regime where we can train them how to cut the meat into proper portions instead of mutilating the meat and giving consumers so much bone in the process". The Voice adds that a site for the abattoir has not yet been disclosed.
Meanwhile, the ministry also issued a press release stating that the fisheries sector "continues to demonstrate significant growth and development." Figures released by the ministry reveal that in the year 2000, St. Lucian fishermen landed 1,860.10 tons of fish, which is an 8.5 % increase over 1999. "The estimated ex-vessel value of the fish landed in 2000 is $22,687,569.41".
Catches of tuna and snappers increased by respectively 46 and 50%. The most fish was brought on shore in Vieux Fort (487.9 tons), followed by Dennery (295.6 tons), Choiseul (238.2 tons), Gros Islet (143.3 tons) and Castries (124.2 tons).
The most commonly caught species of fish is dolphin fish (555 tons, or 29.8% of the total catch), followed by tuna (473.4 tons, or 25.4%). The ministry attributes the increased productivity in the fisheries sector to the increased use of fiberglass reinforced pirogues, the young fishermen's training programme, increased storage capacity at the Vieux Fort Fisheries Complex, and introduction of long-line fishing.
This week, the vending of fish in Vieux Fort will finally be moved down to the new Japanese-built Fisheries Complex, which was officially opened last year but took several more months to be brought to a state of readiness.
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Selwyn Vincent succeeds Lawrence Laurent
Parliamentary Commissioner Lawrence Laurent was succeeded this week by Selwyn Vincent, who has been appointed to serve for the next three years in that position. Vincent served as Labour Commissioner from 1986 to 1998, and since then has acted as a part-time consultant in the field of industrial relations (1998-1999). Vincent will be officially installed in his post by Governor General Dame Pearlette Louisy, next Thursday. Press releases to this effect appear in The Voice, Mirror and One Caribbean. None of the newspapers mention Vincent's predecessor, Lawrence Laurent. One of the last times Laurent made headlines was in mid-December last year, when she convened a meeting to commemorate International Human Rights Day. At that meeting, Governor-General Dame Louisy, minister of Foreign Affairs George Odlum and Loyola Devaux of the St. Lucia Save the Children Fund remarked on the alleged fact that St. Lucia is no longer the hospitable, welcoming, racially tolerant society that it used to pride itself on. Around the same time, Laurent joined the executive board of the Crisis Centre as treasurer.
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Channel 4 films 'Place in the Sun' in St. Lucia
"The production crew of 'A Place in the Sun', a record-breaking Channel-4 TV series, was on location in the south of St. Lucia this week. The TV series follows genuine househunters seeking to buy their dream home, and each programme features a specific country, covering not only the search for a home, but also highlighting the natural beauty and cultural attractions of the locaitons. It is now Channel 4's most popular series, with over 2 million viewers eagerly awaiting the next instalment which features St. Lucia and will be aired on British TV in April. This week's quest brought the TV crew to 'Castles in Paradise', a luxury villa resort development located at Savannes Bay, near Vieux Fort, and the brainchild of developer Bonnie Zephirin. The resort was only one of four St. Lucian properties selected by the programme-makers for inclusion in the series, after recommendation by Terra Firma Online Real Estate ( www.slucia.com/terra), located at The Reef restaurant in Vieux Fort.
Supporting footage was shot in and around Vieux Fort, with special emphasis placed on the beautiful Anse de Sable beach which will provide the backdrop for the overall introduction to the programme. The Star reports this.
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