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05th
January 2010
Guardians All
We
are on the threshold of a new year and
after going through what President Obama
of the United States of America continually
labelled, “the worst financial crisis
since the Great Depression” (and
make no mistake, we felt its negative
effects in more ways than most of us truly
comprehend, what with American citizens
feeling the pinch and therefore cutting
back on luxuries such as Caribbean vacations),
we believe we are looking at what can
only be perceived as “better days
ahead”.
St. Lucia no longer looks to the cultivation
of bananas as its main means of survival
– or prosperity. Tourism is the
watchword, the means by which we shall
sink or swim in the year(s) ahead.
Unlike the good old days of the “green
gold” however, there is no preferential
treatment to protect us. We cannot fill
boxes with stones or “macamboo”,
get paid by the pound and get away with
the fraud when it is only discovered on
the other side of the Atlantic, without
retribution. Not any more.
Today, we have to supply the genuine article,
to be assessed and graded by the customer
first hand, at the source … and
not only must it be the real McCoy, it
has to be first grade, top quality –
for we no longer are competing with products
coming from Chiquita or Dole, only from
a couple of Latin American countries,
we are in keen competition with what is
being offered by every other existing
country in every corner of the world.
What is notable, is that in the banana
years, the government of the day made
every effort to sustain, protect and assist
the industry, to the extent that it provided
access to a constant supply of inputs;
put field officers at the beck and call
of farmers who needed advice and assistance;
oversaw the operations of the industry’s
association; ensured that spraying of
everyone’s banana field took place,
in order to avoid the onset of disease
… in short, did everything in its
power to guarantee that the industry would
not collapse under our feet through some
fault – albeit unwillingly –
of ours.
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Today, our main industry,
the tourism industry is a much more fragile
product than bananas ever was … and
one slip, one false step by just a few –
or even one – of us could bring it crashing
down around our ears. Yet, unlike the authorities
of old, our present-day governments seem to
have taken the attitude that its protection
is almost entirely unnecessary (not quite
entirely: there is evidence that the officials
of the Tourism Ministry are working assiduously
at trying to sustain and improve our product
… but other Ministries, who are called
upon to protect the visitors who come to our
shores, to shield them from harassment, violent
attacks, robberies, muggings and even murder,
seem almost to be turning a blind eye).
On this very page, there is a letter to the
Editor, complaining about the unpleasant excesses
taking place in the Rodney Bay area, one of
our most-frequented tourist havens …
and the obvious laxity of the Planning, Zoning
and Security ministries when it comes to ensuring
that the commodity we sell to all our foreign
customers is of the highest quality.
Tourism is not only the business of a chosen
few – hoteliers, restaurateurs, taxi
and transport drivers. Its effects, good or
bad, are and will be felt by all of us …
and it is therefore our business, all of us,
to protect it as strongly as we can, with
every fibre of our being – our future
and our children’s futures depend on
it.
Unlike the banana industry, if the tourism
industry is destroyed, there will be nothing
for us to fall back on, or look forward to.
It is up to us all to recognize this reality
and in consequence become fervent guardians
to protect its fragility.
You cannot begin to conceive how catastrophic
our lives in St. Lucia would be without it.
Discuss
Story
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