Things in the News

Things in the news
Selling Point Seraphine
If it is really true that the Government of St Lucia is trying to court a buyer to sell point Seraphine then that would be one of the biggest blunders an administration can make. Point Seraphine is like a national asset and should remain in St Lucian control. If the government wants to lease the shopping facilities to a management company that might be a viable option but selling the facilities makes absolutely no sense.
IMF Loans
It is also in the news that the Government of St Lucia has secured loans from the IMF. The international Monetary Fund was set up to help countries secure loans for development initiatives. We would like to know the interest rate on these loans, what are these monies earmarked for and what are the expected rate of return on the investment. Usually the lender has to secure such document before approving the loans so the Government should have that at the ready.
We are experiencing a global recession and it is not unusual that economies are seeking monetary funding and loans to help offset the impact of the down turn in the global economy and by extension ad verse effects being felt in their domestic economies. Yes I do believe that developed countries have made provisions for making monies available to struggling developing countries, Canada recently announced that it will increase its funding.
But please let us know the exact amount of the loan? Under what conditions are these loans being given? What are the rules attached to them? What will they be used for and is there an oversight committee to oversee the distribution of the funds? I am in agreement of seeking funding when necessary but there should be complete transparency, and accountability. We do not want any lost funds through patronage, cronyism and ill fated projects.

Police Force and Excessive Force

There is an ongoing debate in Canada about the safe use of Tasers in Canada. Since the death of death of a Polish Immigrant Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver airport in 2007, the has been commissioned reports into the safe use of such devices and recently Rretired justice Thomas Braidwood of Canada in a report ,gave 19 recommendations on the use of Tasers and other conducted energy weapons by police in B.C, in order to prevent such unwanted deaths. There are also proponents who say that thees devicies are not safe.
While the debate is centered on the purported safer approach that these weapons afford to police officers, however it has also exposed what seems to be overindulgence in the use of such weapons, which results in bodily harm and even death to some victims’ The point being while The St Lucian government may want to look into the use of Tasers as a safer alternative to firearms, they must be wary of the change to Tasers as this will usher in a whole new set of conditions that the use of firearms does not entail. I already envision officers assuming that they will only incapacitate an assailant or even someone causing a minor disturbance as in the case of MR Dziekansk and going willy nilly on that individual.
The government should first and foremost ensure that all officers are properly trained in the use of force and its escalation. Then there might be a possibility of incorporating the use of Tasers if and only if they have been sufficiently proven to be safe for use on the public. There should be strict protocol and a set structure on the use of force by officers before any Tasers are incorporated into the force as a crime fighting tool.

Polictical Leadership

Political Leadership
What constitutes great leadership? Words such as management, control, guidance and direction are all synonymous with leadership skills. A leader therefore should exude and encompass all these qualities. St Lucia has always produced great citizens who have demanded great leadership. The history of St Lucian politics is replete with examples where its people have demanded and fought for good and fair representation. It has always seemed that we have chosen the best leaders for the times; after all it is the people who dictate who their leaders should be.
We need leaders with vision, leaders who have definite objectives and goals for our great country, we need proactive and not reactive leadership. Our elected officials must be willing and able to listen to the needs and desires of the people in an open and transparent maqnner, with genuine conviction and concern. We must learn from the lessons of the past and prepare for the future today and in so doing we must instate leaders who are willing to embrace the inevitability of change. A great leader has to have the strength and guidance not only to accept change but also to initiate change. Change is happening all around us and at a rate faster than ever before(global phenomenon).
It is refreshing when there are new ideas and new ways of doing things. Leadership should not be stagnant and our leaders should be wholly and fully incorporating the young crop of talented individuals into the polictical arena. This will help ensure and promote social polictical and economical dynaminism. It is tiring to see the same old repetitive modus operandi, which in itself is not progressive and innovative. Our present leaders and politicians should be ushering in new blood into the parties and training and mentoring new leadership. It is all good and well when we choose the best from the present crop of policticians, but are we preparing our next generation of leaders to take the helm. I think not.
It would be inspiring to see our people embrace new political personalities and let go of the old (Papa) syndrome. The syndrome of electing people based on their family names, patronage and cronyism. In many cases these elected officials are not politically apt and it is especially criminal when people who are more politically astute are being bypassed.
I hesitate to give my opinion as to who among the present crop of politicians in St Lucia would make a good leader, it is however obvious who has leadership qualities and who is lacking, just check the records. We need a leader who can manage the affairs of the island, manage the parliamentarians and manage the business of his party. That leader must also be able to firmly take control of any given situation as he or she is expected to give guidance. And last but most importantly that leader must have a vision for the island. A set of inspirational proposals that he or she is willing to preach and support whole heartedly and even stick his political neck out if needs be. Our leader to be has to have a vision of where the country stands and what he and his fellow Politician’s can and will do to advance the prospects of their beloved nation.

Tourism Dollars

St Lucia Tourism promotional endeavours.
　
I read about the promotional endeavours of the SLHTA and I agree with the General Secretary of the St Lucia Civil Association, Mr David Demacque, that we should question the ST Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association joint marketing plan. Granted that a large multinational company like Sandals with its own travel and promotions agencies would have the existing infrastructure in place to undertake an effective promotional drive, however who are we kidding , do we actually believe that the investment will be spent to promote St Lucia rather than the resorts interests primarily. In general a private company should be and most probably is firstly and fore- mostly interested in their share holders vested interest. I am sure that from a business standpoint that the company is interested in its bottom line first and foremost and promoting St Lucia is and will be secondary.
An investment of $700. 000 dollars if it were geared towards hiring individual Promotional Agents, could potentially hire 15 employees, paid between $45 and 50,000 dollars annually. These employees would be solely dedicated to the promotion of the island in general year round. They would be based in major metropolitan areas in the US and Europe. I presume that the returns on such an investment would far outweigh investing in a private company. Don’t get me wrong I am familiar with and I do see the merits in public private partnerships, however I think that this is an ill fated investment. Unless the company utilizes its infrastructure and the money to hire personnel, who are geared towards promoting the Island in particular.
We are in a global economic down turn and luxury spending are usually the first to be curtailed or cut off outright, from household expenditures. It is known that when there is a decrease in disposable income the first thing to be cut off is luxury spending. An increase in Travel and Tourism will be mirrored by an up-turn in the global economy. Hypothetically speaking if in the next fiscal year there is an increase in tourism dollars coming into St Lucia and that also coincides with a global economical upturn then credit should not be attributed to the promotional investment.

St Lucia Tourism promotional endeavours.
　
I read about the promotional endeavours of the SLHTA and I agree with the General Secretary of the St Lucia Civil Association, Mr David Demacque, that we should question the ST Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association joint marketing plan. Granted that a large multinational company like Sandals with its own travel and promotions agencies would have the existing infrastructure in place to undertake an effective promotional drive, however who are we kidding , do we actually believe that the investment will be spent to promote St Lucia rather than the resorts interests primarily. In general a private company should be and most probably is firstly and fore- mostly interested in their share holders vested interest. I am sure that from a business standpoint that the company is interested in its bottom line first and foremost and promoting St Lucia is and will be secondary.
An investment of $700. 000 dollars if it were geared towards hiring individual Promotional Agents, could potentially hire 15 employees, paid between $45 and 50,000 dollars annually. These employees would be solely dedicated to the promotion of the island in general year round. They would be based in major metropolitan areas in the US and Europe. I presume that the returns on such an investment would far outweigh investing in a private company. Don’t get me wrong I am familiar with and I do see the merits in public private partnerships, however I think that this is an ill fated investment. Unless the company utilizes its infrastructure and the money to hire personnel, who are geared towards promoting the Island in particular.
We are in a global economic down turn and luxury spending are usually the first to be curtailed or cut off outright, from household expenditures. It is known that when there is a decrease in disposable income the first thing to be cut off is luxury spending. An increase in Travel and Tourism will be mirrored by an up-turn in the global economy. Hypothetically speaking if in the next fiscal year there is an increase in tourism dollars coming into St Lucia and that also coincides with a global economical upturn then credit should not be attributed to the promotional investment.

Increasing Criminal activity by Youth

Youth and Crime
Youth and crime is a broad topic to discuss however I will attempt to spark a discussion based on the aspect that dissatisfaction, disenfranchisement and unemployment in youth, may be a cause for an increase in criminal activity amount youths. There is never a broad all encompassing reason, why young people may engage in criminal activity. But studies have proven that there are situations that contribute to the proliferation of criminal behaviour, such as unemployment., disenfranchisement , detachment and dissatisfaction.
We have all heard it said that (idle hands makes devils work). And it is true that statistically speaking, with increasing unemployment comes an increase in crime rates. Recently I listened to a sociologist making a point that the proliferation of violent crime by young people in a major Canadian city may be due to a number of factors one of which being a feeling of societal detachment.
Sociologists have conducted numerous studies on criminal behaviour. (Merton et al) and some deduce that oftentimes people become dissatisfied with society. There may be feelings of not fitting in or a feeling of no general societal responsibility. (Tthe I don’t care attitude ). If some young people feel that society is not working in their favour they may retaliate and direct their energy to doing things which is anti-social. Take for example someone with no job, no prospect for employment and a feeling that there is no prospect for advancement in society. That person might feel disenfranchised and decide to rail against the system, or any and everything.
Imagine for example a vandalized public structure, one may wonder the reasons behind that, but it belies someone who feels that that structure is of no service to he or she so they are not loosing anything by defacing or destroying it. If however one felt invested or attached to that structure then it probably would not be seen as inconsequential to them and they may not attempt to destroy it. I am not saying that is the only reason but I am only sighting an example.
Buju Banton the reggae singer says in one of his songs (Full up of education and cyan own a payroll.) this statement exemplifies a situation that may breed frustration in young people. Which could lead to criminal behaviour. In St Lucia and every other society in the world for example we advance through competition , it is a merit based society, you advance through your efforts, or what a Rastafarian might call the (Rat Race). Unless cronyism, is the order of the day, but that’s a topic for another day.
In the case of gang related crime, I would assume it is either turf related, in which case it would also be about the sale of narcotics and therefore the problem would be a drug problem. Or on the other hand it would be for protection. In the case of protection I see no reason for someone needing protection unless they were already involved in a gang.
In my opinion gang related crime if there is any in St Lucia is based on cultural imitation. However on a note of cultural phenomenon, African men brought to the Americas as slaves were systematically striped of their manhood. Considering the fact that it appears that many young black men appear to have an innate need to prove their manhood. It seems that in many instances young Black men get involved in altercations strictly in an effort to prove that they are manly. This phenomenon may stem from slavery where black men were systematically stripped of their man hood. It was common for slave owners to choose the biggest, strongest most virile and aggressive Black man and try to debase him in the presence of all the other slaves, in an effort to exemplify to the slaves that not even the strongest of them could stand up to the master. This was done to instil fear in them all.
Small Island States such as St Lucia have no mineral based natural resource and our people are our biggest resource, along with sand ,sea and sun. It is important therefore to invest in education, in order to nature our human resource. One of the enduring legacies of the late great Prime minister Sir John Compton was that he substantially invested in education and he appeared to have made education policy priority.
Everyone is looking for a job weather it is at home or abroad and with the globalization phenomenon, labour traverses across borders as fluidly as capital. Some Economist may sight that it is a good thing that there is Brain drain in countries like St Lucia. Since there are not enough jobs at home those who are able to secure paying jobs abroad should do so. By doing so unemployment is reduced in their countries of origin, not to mention skill transference and other such benefits.
Finally there is a policy of repatriation of criminals to their countries of origin by many countries. On returning to the countries of origin these criminal elements tend to ply the only trade they know. The Caribbean is also a major transhipment point for drugs and guns and that attracts criminal activity.
So let us sum up an increase in criminal behaviour may be cause by many reasons including Unemployment, disenfranchisement, detachment , criminal influence and others
So a proliferation of criminal behaviour among youth may mean many things.

Taiwan vs China

Debating weather St Lucia should align itself to China or recognize Taiwan as an independent State is one that holds considerable merit . There are good reasons supporting both persuasion however after it is all said and done we would be fool hardy not to show considerable respect to the emerging juggernaut that is China.

I will first say that St Lucia should be commended for its stance of recognizing Taiwan and in so doing throwing its support behind a small island state like we are. Having previously done so under the late Sir John Compton’s regime. By recognizing Tiawan the tiny Island of St Lucia has done what many far greater countries would not dare do, that is to stand in opposition of such a powerful nation as China.

If one were to put things into perspective we can deduce that the geo- political situation at the time dictated that the prudent or even astute political move was to align with Taiwan . Sir John Compton and the UWPs aligned with Taiwan because it was the best move at the time because St Lucia being under the sphere of influence of the United States was almost obligated to support the type of policies that Americans would have approved of weather overtly or tacitly.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the official end of the cold war ,international trade with china is no longer marred with overtures of communist alignment and since there is no threat of communism infiltrating these small island States The US and its allies have reduced those funds geared to keep those states in their good graces or from quote unquote falling to communism. As a matter of fact Chinas biggest trading partner is the USA.

More importantly when we weigh the present international funding situation we realize that China is picking up the slack and helping fund development projects where the western nations have slacked off. Not only that the stringent rules that were placed on countries as perquisites for funding development projects by the IDB and such Organizations would have never enabled the west Indian island for example to invest in sports stadiums however China was more than willing to fund such projects .

It would be most prudent right now to be aligned with The emerging tiger that is China as it is fast becoming an economic powerhouse posting impressive economic growth (GDP) over the last decade.

So let us see where are we today , we would like to exemplify a country which stands for international rights and justice and side with the Taiwanese in which case we would recognise their claims of an autonomous State. The benefits that can be attained from being in China good graces however far outweighs the ideal of recognizing Tiawan as a State. It is obvious to Developed and many Developing countries are benefiting from trading with China. Most Developed countries make painstakingly sure that they remain in Chinas good graces and maintain a preferred trading partner status with China. Suffice to say apart from being a manufacturing juggernaut, China has over one billion people an therefore is a market rife with potential customers.

It is a worthy cause to recognize Taiwan but at what cost.

Please post your comments and let us have a healthy debate weather you support my point of view or not, we should have a healthy discourse.