CHRISTMAS is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Throughout the years, many celebrations taken place for select occasions but mostly everyone enjoys this Christmas season. What is it that gives you that special Christmas feeling? People are lamenting that the time now goes by so quickly, and so there hardly seems time to enter into the true spirit of the season. Yet there is always the special element that really makes one feel that Christmas is here.
Impressions from DSH Protest
THE EDITOR: Having listened to Father Kevin Murray and Mrs. C. Wiltshire on television some evenings ago, I was taken …
Renwick – A Major Loss
The passing on of Chris Renwick remains a major loss to the business community and by extension to St. Lucia. I write today on my personal interaction over the last fifty years, based on the transportation of cement from both Trinidad and Colombia. Chris Renwick was recognised as the “cement king” of St. Lucia and single-handedly his organisation never failed St. Lucia in ensuring that cement as a valuable commodity was always available to consumers.
Verdict of the Gods
I wrote in a recent article that Saint Lucia may have to go through worse before it gets better. I think we are at the brinks of the worst with this Desert Star Holding proposed development. I am in no better favour of this DSH development as I am with this Sunset Bay Resort.
Stand Up to Crime, St. Lucia
LAW abiding Lucians, stand up! I am sick of this crime scourge that is beginning to strangle our beautiful nation…the same way they strangled Rose Anne Raymond! When are we as a people going to stop being doormats? When are we as a collective going to stop with all the talk and actually take action?
Outrage for Black Womanhood
After a lifetime in Caribbean and international politics, I thought the time had long since passed when I could be outraged by any event. But I was outraged last week and I continue to seethe over the fact that Pamela Ramsey Taylor, the director of a Clay County, West Virginia, non-profit who was removed from her post after she called Michelle Obama an “ape in heels” in a November Facebook post, will be re-instated in her job on December 23. What signal does this re-instatement send to Americans, black and white? Indeed, what statement does it make to the rest of the world?
2017 – Year of Opportunity
AS the reality of the 2016 general elections manifests itself, a mood of renewed confidence appears to be noticeable as investors from outside the region capitalize on the renewed business approach offered by the new administration. The most significant and realistic investment to date is Desert Star Holdings (DSH) under the direct supervision of Mr. Teo Ah Khing, an individual with the most remarkable track record on a world scale.
The Crisis of Facts
IF you believe that economics and politics should be based on evidence, then you should think again. In today’s political times, it no longer matters whether or not something is true, but whether it is believed by the right people. Across supposedly information-rich and enlightened Western democracies, it appears popular trust in expert opinion and established institutions has tumbled. But is it possible to live in a world of data but no facts?
Trump’s Antiguan Gambling Problem
PRESIDENT-ELECT Donald Trump is gambling that he can advance U.S. economic interests by cracking down on powerhouses like China for rigged trade practices, but he might be dealing with a tiny nation doing the same to the United States the first day he sits down in the Oval Office. The twin-island Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda is poised by year’s end — and well within its rights — to retaliate against the U.S. to the tune of $21 million a year by setting up an online market to rip off copyrights and other protected content if the two countries can’t settle a 12-year-old trade dispute over internet gambling.
‘Angels We Have Heard on High’ – For Pan
SOON it’ll be Christmas, and for some of us it will be a time of reflection on the birth of …
The Inaccuracies of Santa Lucia
MANY of us in our National Day readings would have read this quote: “Saint Lucia was named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse by the French, the island’s first European settlers, and the only country in the world named after a woman”. 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 Lucia’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.
Government Should Not Be Event Producers!!!
A press conference was aired in which the Prime Minister of St. Lucia announced that an alarming amount of $14 …
Freedom of Information Act for St. Lucia?
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 Minister’s insistence that this is so highly confidential that it could not be relayed to the p
The High Price of Style
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.
No Point Wringing Hands
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.
Lessons from Britain – Exceptionalism And Failure
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).
Partisan Insanity at the SRDF
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).
Transparency
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.
Viva la Revolucion!
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.
Traffic Lights Mayhem
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.”