I wrote in a recent article that Saint Lucia may have to go through worse before it gets better. I think we are at the brinks of the worst with this Desert Star Holding proposed development. I am in no better favour of this DSH development as I am with this Sunset Bay Resort.
I also stated recently that for a functional, vibrant and true democracy that legal stipulation of having to apply for permission to an authority to hold a protest must be done away with.
On Tuesday an anti DSH protest was held outside of Parliament. It is one of many protests to come and I welcome them. I hope it grows and keeps building momentum until the Prime Minister and those investors know that Saint Lucia is not up for sale. We need to send the message to our politicians that they are not in charge of this country, we are. They are the servants not our masters.
This DSH deal is no less than Kenny Anthony selling the seabed to Grynberg. Lots of secrecy. It is being reasoned that these developers have no money. They are using this CIP to make mileage and a mint on the heads of the people of Saint Lucia. We are spinning top in mud. Leasing land at a $1 an acre for 99 years. Remember Pigeon Island? I have been against CIP from the beginning and probably a cessation of our membership from CARICOM and the OECS maybe our only salvation. When this CIP was first signed was there not some provision protecting us from those CIP citizens from our brother nations?
I had some discussion with some of the protestors because I was getting the sense that this was politicized. Then again, what in Saint Lucia is not? Politicized or not saving our nation is paramount. That a priest would get involved in the movement says a lot. This reminds me of a play written by the late Cornell Charles, Verdict of the Gods, in which there is some proposed touristic development in a seaside rural community that would have caused the displacement of an entire community. Tensions grew and there was much opposition. There were several town hall meetings, only in this scenario the priest was working on the side of the government. The plans were abandoned when an earthquake and volcanic action sent by the gods disrupted things.
We need the opposition to continue and I do not want to stay on the sidelines and watch things happen. Saint Lucians have a lot of mouth and are prepared to stand for nothing. So I applaud all those who were part of the protest yesterday. When the next one comes around, count me in. If the British and the French could have fought fourteen times for this land, there must be something worth preserving. Will it take the gods. It does not have to.
Its so sad so many don’t your point of view. It would be refreshing for a government that promised so much to the point of shedding tears in on national tv now appear to be working against the very people its heart ached for. The tears are still running down your cheeks and already you too have lost your the soft spot you had for them. All politicians are the same old piece of work. People have to take the future of the country in their own hands if they want to achieve anything meaningful. The time is now!
Soft spot? What are you talking of?
But we stand. The time is now. Past overdue!
At some point leading to the last elections I think I saw Chastanet being or pretending to be emotional when relating the plight of a View Fort mother who had financial trouble sending her children to school. This is the context in which I used the phrase soft spot.
I get you.