Letters & Opinion

Letters & Opinion

The Inaccuracies of Santa Lucia

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Commission members John Peters, Gordon Charles and BrianLouisy.

MANY of us in our National Day readings would have read this quote: ā€œSaint Lucia was named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse by the French, the islandā€™s first European settlers, and the only country in the world named after a womanā€. I dare to say to you that this is inaccurate and part of a continued gross misrepresentation of our history, as the French came long after there was a record of a name given to our island. You would also have read that the oldest record of Saint Luciaā€™s name can be found in a Spanish Cedulla of 1511, where a place called Sancta Lucia is recorded as a Spanish Domain. Yet there is no historical document to support this claim. You would have read that there was a Vatican Globe of 1520 that depicted Sancta Lucia, and in my research I found it that to be also incorrect.

Letters & Opinion

Freedom of Information Act for St. Lucia?

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MOST States are moving towards enactment of a Freedom of Information Act as a push towards the transparency and accountability so vital to the life of our democracies. Does St Lucia need a Freedom of Information Act or is it that our cultural proclivity for roro surpasses that legislative need? There were two highly classified documents over the last two years which one would have thought would be held in tight guard. We found out during the last election campaign that the IMPACS report was leaked, despite the then Prime Ministerā€™s insistence that this is so highly confidential that it could not be relayed to the p

Letters & Opinion

Lessons from Britain – Exceptionalism And Failure

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Image of Ronald Sanders

The Brexit chickens are coming home to roost in a troubled British economy, however much British government ministers and other English nationalistic hopefuls are trying to suggest otherwise. It was a colossal mistake to hold the referendum. In the words of former Conservative Party Prime Minister, David Cameron, it ā€œunleashed the demonsā€. The decision of the referendum was an even greater mistake by the English voters who favoured leaving the European Union (EU).

Letters & Opinion, Sounding Off

Traffic Lights Mayhem

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Traffic lights illustration

TO the people in charge of traffic lights in the city, please circle the line that most appropriately describes your serious LACK of performance in the extremely busy and chaotic streets of Castries over the last few months: ā€œYou are part of a secret ploy to decrease the number of motorists, vehicles and pedestrians who traverse the streets daily by allowing crashes and collisions to take place.ā€

Letters & Opinion

Disasters And Our Economies

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Image of a natural disaster

THIS week I saw photos of the devastation in St Vincent due to heavy rains. This was the second event within two months, the first causing major flooding of the Airport Terminal. While Dominica is still recovering from Tropical Storm Erika, they also had to deal with more damage over the last 5 months. St Lucia also felt the effects of Tropical Storm Matthew this year. Over the last 25 years all of our OECS States have suffered damage due to natural events that if valued today and applied to their public debt would be now declared debt free.

Letters & Opinion

The Metaphysics of Corruption

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Image of Dr. Velon John

CORRUPTION is a perverse, universal and debilitating phenomenon that reflects in some measure the essential finitude of homo sapiens. It is an aberration that is in contradiction to the construct of perfection, and as such is a necessity in the very process of creation. Its aetiology reposes in the human condition that in itself is consequent and immanent to the process of ā€œbecomingā€ as opposed to ā€œbeingā€.

Letters & Opinion

Love, Sex and Horsehair

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Image of Aretha Franklin

OUR discussions today, and next week, are really only brief looks at some of the things which influence our understanding and acceptance of who we are. For those of us coming of age in the ā€™60s and ā€™70s, the main thing on everyoneā€™s minds then was colonialism and a rejection of the role which Britain had played in our lives. We were young, and we were rebels, because that is the job of youth: to challenge, and to question.

Letters & Opinion

A Matter of Faith

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HOW dedicated are you to the virtue of faith? It is our task to keep faith in our lives. Our faith of course, is in God, and so we need to have faith in our lifeā€™s mission. When we trust and have reliance on anything at all, this is part of our faith. When we show our faith to others, they begin to trust us faithfully, and so there is a lovely relationship that comes on.

Letters & Opinion

Donā€™t Cry for Fidel

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THERE always comes a time when, forced by circumstances, you must do what you would have preferred not to. Mourning Fidel Castro’s death in words is my challenge today. But it is one which also allows the opportunity to reflect on the 40 years since his words inspired those of us here to establish the first Saint Lucia-Cuba Friendship Association in the wake of the 1976 terrorist bombing of the Cubana Airline in Barbados.

Letters & Opinion

Oh Yes, Mr. Peters

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Commission members John Peters, Gordon Charles and BrianLouisy.

Dear John: In your column of November 19 you accuse me of journalistic mischief, indicating that I had suggested that you possessed insider information on the recent CDB Report. That implication however came from your article of October 1 in which you state ā€œIn fact my understanding is that the report went even further to advise that the analysis is showing that a reduction in VAT has a minimal multiplier effect, and thus will not improve the revenue of Government.ā€