IN last week’s discussion, we looked back at the struggles which black people in the United States had undergone in the fight against segregation and discrimination, particularly during the Civil Rights period of the 1960s, and talked a little about the impact of those struggles on young persons growing up in the Caribbean at that time.
THE inexorable increase in crime in our society, witness the recent incidents of murder and brazen thefts, has left citizens wringing their hands in despair. Just listen to the radio call-in programmes, which whatever one thinks of them, provide the only available indicators of how citizens feel.
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 “unleashed the demons”. The decision of the referendum was an even greater mistake by the English voters who favoured leaving the European Union (EU).
ON Saturday 26th November 2016 an editorial titled “Good for Soufriere” and a news item “SRDF In Charge of Jetties” appeared in the Weekend Voice , both concerned with the Soufriere Regional Development Foundation (SRDF).
I HEAR the Leader of the opposition advising the Minister of Finance Dr.Ubaldus Raymond about being careful what he says about the problems at the Bank of St Lucia. I say to Mr. Pierre that as long as the Minister or anyone for that matter is speaking the truth they have nothing to fear.
I HAVE never been to Cuba and I do not know much of Fidel Castro but the little that I know I appreciate. The one think I know is that there is not one right way to rule the world. I am no big fan of America. I would quicker go to Cuba than America if given the option.
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: “You 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.”
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.
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 “becoming” as opposed to “being”.
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 ’60s and ’70s, the main thing on everyone’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.
IT is one of the countless famous quotes coined by William Shakespeare: “To thine own self be true” (Hamlet Act 1, Scene 111), the last piece of advice Polonius gives to his son Laertes, who is in a hurry to get on the next boat to Paris, where he’ll be safe from his father’s long-winded speeches.
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 life’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.
I have absolutely no problem waiting my turn in line as protocol dictates. However, I seriously have a problem when it seems that my time is frivolously squandered away by those to whom I as a customer depend on for service. Even worse is when I have a million things to do in a short space of time.
SOME people’s mentality is “anything for money”, a lot like the demagogy of politicians who would say anything to win an election. “Let’s make Saint Lucia great again.” “We will within the first hundred days in office, effect a reduction in VAT toward its eventual elimination.”
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.
As Barack Obama’s Presidency of the United States of America enters its final weeks, there are tens of millions of people in America and across the world who already feel a great sense of loss. That sense will be heightened even more on January 20 when he walks out the doors of the White House for the last time as President.
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 “In 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.”
PRINCE Harry’s visit to the Island this week is significant because it reminds us that this is the first ever official visit of a member of the Royal family of his generation to Saint Lucia. Given that the country is just one of the 16 Commonwealth Realms outside the United Kingdom where the Queen remains Head of State, it is welcome if a little overdue.
WHY does the sun rise in the east and set in the west? Perhaps, it’s because the global economy spins towards the east. Already we know that the Sun, the Moon, the planets and the stars all rise in the east and set in the west. As major economies have long tied their economic fortunes to the east, many more – especially emerging markets – are increasingly turning east where the sun rises, giving their backs to the west.
IN the 1950’s when St Lucia took the decision to move away from sugar and go into bananas, it was a strategic move that brought great fortune to our country. We became leaders in the OECS in the banana trade, and at one point we were producing over 127,000 tons for export. However in the early 1990’s the banana train derailed and we have been in economic turmoil since.