Is There a Captain on Board

The leader of the opposition now has the opportunity to unify his party and use that momentum to gather the people behind a new vision for St Lucia. After the last election the ruling United Workers Party and their leader Sir John Compton were given a mandate by the people. Prime Minister Compton and his party were expected to govern, however the unfortunate and untimely passing away of Sir John changed everything.Providing that the leader of the opposition and his party can project a unified front, then they can tap into St Lucian’s desire for change.

The opposition have not portrayed a strong unified front over the last few years, that may benefit them in the long run. Because they did not muster up much opposition to the ruling party, the ruling party have had the opportunity to govern the ship of State with minimal interference. As a matter of fact the ruling party have spent resources and time trying, for want of a better term, "shedding light on the opposition’s leader activities during his time in office". St Lucian's have weighed and measured both parties and it is left to the people to deliver the verdict, on their abilities to govern.

When the St Lucia Labour Party found themselves facing a United Workers Party leadership change, they could have easily used the situation as an excuse to force another election. The opposition could have said that the people deserve an opportunity to vote in a Prime minister of their choice, since the New Prime Minister was not voted in as leader of the country. As time has passed and prudently, no real effort was made to replace the ruling party, the overall outcome has made it favorable for the opposition to now contest the ruling party.

The leader of the opposition has been prudent in his actions or rather lack of, over the last few years. He has not forced the issue of another election. The situation is commendable, as we are experiencing a recession and it would have cost the State money and would have engaged our political leaders in campaigning, when they could have otherwise been involved in public service work, on behalf of the citizens.

I now look forward to this election cycle, specifically the narrative associated to it. Hopefully there will be a healthy robust debate on issues affecting the citizens. With so many pertinent issues such as,a spike in the crime rate, youth violence, unemployment in a recessionary cycle, VAT, and leadership,it should be a lively debate.

Hopefully also we have constructive debates centered on the ruling party's achievements during their time in office. I also am interested in learning the opposition expressed vision and mandate as it pertains to these few broad topics. Law and Order, Employment and Economic Development and Good Governance, Accountability and Transparency.

On our little island, we have learned to coexist and live with each other peacefully. We have even managed to thrive creating a language and nurturing two Nobel laureates. We are a resilient people and we continue to prove it. We continue to strive for a better tomorrow everyday that we live. We can make St Lucia better and we should accept no less.

Socialism or Socialy Concious Capitalism

Twentieth-century British economist John Maynard Keynes proposed a theory in the hopes of finding a balance between interference and non-interference in the free market system. Oftentimes governments talk about helping small and big business cope with economic downturn. More often than not however households are left to whether economic recessions on their own, while business are helped by the government. The average citizen is left to worry about their own household expenses. They are left to figure out how they are going to pay for their children’s school expenses, healthcare and keeping them young engaged in constructive after school activities. Governments should, rather than focusing investment on business, channel their investment towards households.

Governments usually try to keep away from spending on public programs opting rather to privatise. Governments are usually kinder to businesses than households in that they are more prone to provide subsidies and tax breaks to businesses instead of households. During recessionary times in order to increase output or stimulate their economies governments may inject moneys into the economy. The phrase “Stimulus package” simply means that governments are injecting monies into their economies in the hopes of getting it to grow faster and bigger. Businesses are the ones that usually receive the help, but these funds should be channelled towards providing health care, government sponsored education and robust youth programs.

Providing health care for citizens would mean that citizens would have to be taxed to receive it. There can also be partnerships between the public and private sectors to provide health care to citizens. Business can pay some of the premiums for their workers, the government can subsidises some and the worker will pays the rest. Such policies would ultimately benefit both the public and the private sector because having a healthy society means a healthy work force, one that is stable and productive. While providing public health care to every citizen may require a considerable amount of investment and expertise and is a long term goal, government will ultimately reaps the long-lasting rewards that comes with having a healthy society.

Guarantying education for citizens, up to the level of college or university is a policy that would be a wise investment for a government. A system that provides government guaranteed students’ loans would benefit the society. An educated society is a step towards ensuring sustainable development. The funds invested in educating the citizens of a society would be recouped. Through international banking graduates can repay their loans from any country. And apart from the monetary benefit that will be received, the country will also gain, when their citizens acquire skills and expertise from a more developed country.

Youth programs are especially important because programs that invest in the youth helps to develop adults that contribute to society. Instead of spending monies on treating addictions, incarcerations, juvenile detentions, homelessness, vagrancy, alcoholism, obesity and such problems, it is better to prevent them. It is more efficient, effective and ultimately more beneficial for governments to spend tax payers’ money on programs that help households shape upstanding productive citizens. Or it can be spent on rehabilitation programs. Governments should invest in sports, the arts and entertainment. In general invest heavily in programs that will keep youth gainfully occupied.

Rather than spending monies on households through social programs, most government policies direct government spending towards helping business. During recessions many businesses, private companies and certain industries may be helped out to avoid failure. You would expect that they would pass on the same generosity to households, but the usually do not. This is what happened with some banks in America after getting monies from the government. They took the monies, saved themselves from bankruptcy and did not pass on any financial relief to the American home owner.

Governments find it difficult to justify spending on social programs but if they are willing to spend to ensure business and commercial establishments’ thrive, they should be willing to spend to ensure that households survive. Business and civil society derive their human resources from households, the labour force and the tax payers are the young people of today. The next generation of entrepreneurs, all come from households. Investments that are made to ensure that society generates healthy and productive citizens generate exponentially better returns than spending monies on fixing the problems.

Oftentimes governments talk about helping small and big business cope with economic downturns and more often than not households are left to whether these same economic recessions on their own. There should be more spending on social programs, especially those aimed at preventing future social ills. Spending on education, addiction prevention, health care, housing, and youth programs are prudent investments by governments. Investing in the citizens today will reduce the prospects that governments will ultimately have to pay more tomorrow. One can either prevent negative consequences or deal with them after they have occurred.

Gun Man Town

I said that I would make a concerted effort to focus on more positively oriented topics this year, but when you think that it cannot get any worse it appears that the other shoe has dropped, what’s next one may be tempted to ask. It is disconcerting reading news of an attack on a police officer in Marchand and the tragic incident resulting in the death of young Miss La Corbiniere further accentuates the need for a real concerted effort to bolster Law and Order within the State.
Previously I expressed the idea that the overall atmosphere in St Lucia was one of a ship astray with no concerted direction or focus. I also expressed trepidations that we were spiralling into a state of anarchy; I can admit in hindsight that I may have been overzealous. I may have also been premature in my diagnoses thinking that we had hit bottom and things could not get any worse. Making the allusion to anarchy may have may have been a little harsh but at the time it appeared that St Lucia was experiencing a crime spurt. One can only hope and pray that the rash of incidents that have occurred at the start of this year’s cycle are only anomalies and are hopefully not harbingers of far worse to come.
The current powers that be have expressed concerns and have formulated a plan to attack, the spike in crime rate. I believe that there is an expressed intent to reducing the crime rate by 50%, this objective should be lauded. We all, every one of us should play our part in ensuring that we contribute to the reduction of any and all unlawful and criminal activity in St Lucia. Whatever we can do to aid in the protection and perpetuation of out great State is our obligation.
When it comes to the expressed plan to reduce the crime rate what would have been refreshing however that was an actual plan of action was unveiled instead of semantics with numbers, a plan not just outlining intentions but actual strategies and barometers to measure the success of these objectives. In my opinion I am an advocate a more community base approach to policing, in my opinion these were very effective approaches previously utilized, as I can clearly remember how policing more community oriented in the not too distant past was.
The rash of incidents that are being reported as the year begins is quite saddening and what is even more alarming is the fact that young people are engaging in violence to solve their disputes. It is alarming that criminals are attacking the foundation of law and order in the State. The proof however is in the pudding and what is left to be seen is what the responses to these issues are.
The death of Miss La Corbiniere should bring with it changes that help make emergency services better. How to we bolster our patient air transport services, do we introduce mobile response units, must we train emergency medical response units to not only be in ambulance and also be based within communities.
The young lady who allegedly committed the crime, while justice needs to be served we must also look into the prospect of saving a life, it is tragic enough that we have senselessly lost one young promising life, we must see that we ensure we mitigate any chance of recidivism after rehabilitation for this young lady.
The response of the law enforcement establishment will be noteworthy and thoroughly scrutinized in many ways. It should be the objective of the law enforcement establishment to make it clear that the rule of law exits within the State, it is by no means however a carte blanche to engage in heavy handedness by the police. Which in this case can only serve to breed a culture of hate and resentment towards the law and perpetuate a circle or retaliatory incidents?

Mon Repos Youth and Sports A Model Community

As the year came to an end in St Lucia, we saw a mental hospital and a forensic lab made available for the benefit of St Lucians. These were positive strides for all St Lucians as both these facilities are note worthy additions in the pursuit of continuous development. It is my goal to start of the year on a positive note and to highlight more of the positive while also attempting to nurture dreams of a more utopian future.
Mental illness is a serious affliction and unfortunately traditionally in our society like in many others a negative stigma is attached to victims. Hopefully the advent of the mental hospital is a stride towards treating people with mental disease as a victim and not a pariah on society. Such negativity towards the mentally ill must be purged from our society. The forensic lab is an important tool in law enforcement’s arsenal, which will enable our justice system to function more effectively and allow for the more effective hunting down, apprehension and bringing to justice of criminals.
Two thousand and nine is over and in it we saw a year in which the real effect of the global economic down turn were felt by most. It was also the year that households began to pay attention to their purses and everyone looked to see what their governments were doing about this unwanted misfortune. Now that we are into this New Year, having gone through economic boot camp in 2009 we are better trained and prepared for the economic instability.
As 2010 gets out of the blocks I have held unto the overwhelming sense of community, charity, togetherness and the sense of pride that has been disseminated and which continues to emanate through the Mon Repos youth and sports online community. The strength of the people of, Malgratoute, La Pointe, Praslin, Lumbard, Mon Repos and Praslin is inspiring in it’s resilience.
Through a strong sense of community the area has continued to flourish. The people of Micoud North continue to prove that we are the stewards of our own destinies. It appears that historically while they do not partake in political vacillation for favours nor have they received bountiful favours for their loyalty. The internal community strength has allowed us as individuals and as a community to continue to exemplify progressiveness. A model of success that can be held as a beacon for the whole of St Lucia, the Caribbean and the wider world.
The Grass roots organization that is the Mon Repos Youth and Sports Organization finds its strength in the dynamism of its founders, its organizers, it’s sports men and women, fans , community members and the volunteers who have and continue to contribute their time and money.
Of course special mention must be made of Nicholas Jn Baptiste for his vision, dedication and sacrifice to his community. Along the way many have contributed and made their mark on this organization but as it stands today the website is a medium that binds a community together, a community which spans many Diasporas, ages and interests.
So for this year let us continue to dream big and resolve to continue striving for our goals. Let us remember that those who have traveled this road before us have left us with countless examples of what is possible with dedication. They have shown us how to hustle, struggle and come out victorious. How by our own sweat we can and shall advance. We are the stewards of our own destinies. We are the descendants of survivors who have forged ahead and created our utopia in paradise.
Let us continue to represent our selves and community and continue to reach for the stars.