Letters & Opinion

Are Choiseulians That Hungry?

Image of Kensley Peter Charlemange
Image of Kensley Peter Charlemange
Independent Eye by Kensley Peter Charlemange

WHERE some see a goldmine, others see a disaster. Greed drives us to sell the skins on our flesh for a quick buck don’t mind if it leaves our inner tissues exposed. Obviously, Choiseulians did not treasure the treasure they had in Sab Richard, which a lot of people spell Sabwisha. But you must fault us because we do not know our history and, sadly, we do not care to find out.

Sab Richard is on a bay called Portalase. Has anyone cared to find out where that came from and how that bay is all connected to our indigenous ancestry? Do we even care that these lands were stolen from us by invading conquest and human injustices and now we want to set up a plantation without chains by the sea.

Do we even care that Sab Richard, pronounced in French phonograph after the original proprietor of that expanse of land has one of the few natural amphitheatre in the world?

Well something attracted an investor to Choiseul but we want to destroy its very allure. The time to stop building hotels on our beaches has come. In fact, it was a declaration made in one of the final budgets presentations by Dr. Kenny Anthony. So how Sab Richard and DSH happened is beyond me.

The Saint Lucia Labour Party did a disservice to Choiseul when it sold its priced possession to foreigners without consulting with the people. That this administration would continue this misfortune is crucifixion.

Certainly, the character of Choiseulians has changed. We have become like the rest, dependent on government; we have de-robed ourselves of communal pride. The plantation owners came and robbed us of our best resources and we are about to let them do it again in the age of neocolonialism.

They (government) give our best resources to foreigners and we call it development. They get our prime lands, cheap cheap, cheap and now we cannot afford a square footage — not on the peanuts, the crumbs they serve us as jobs (just over broke).

Are Choiseuluans that hungry? Maybe we are but that is where they want us so they can keep us in enslavement. To lose Sab Richard is a travesty. It’s like we have no connection to the things that are ours. You have a beach that your people use for several social engagements and you just give it away for menial jobs. Sab Richard beach turned into a hotel “development” is an unforgivable atrocity and our visionless leaders need to face the guillotine.

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