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Heritage Project wins prestigious ecotourism award

Two years into the programme and major international acclaim has been bestowed on St. Lucia's Heritage Tourism programme by winning the first prize in the Caribbean Ecotourism Competition - an initiative of Islands Magazine, the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) and American Airlines/American Eagle. The benefits of winning this prestigious award are a cheque for US$1,000, a commemorative plaque to be presented at the CTO conference in Barbados next month and, most importantly of all, a tremendous amount of goodwill.
Interest in the programme has reportedly quadrupled almost overnight and St. Lucia's Heritage Tourism programme is receiving further free advertising through the September/October issue of Islands Magazine. This leading tourism magazine now features a six-page article on St. Lucia including, what The Star describes as "a stunning cover photograph of the Petit Piton". [See Islands magazine]
Felix Finisterre, coordinator of the Heritage Tourism Programme in the ministry of Tourism, says he is delighted with the prize. According to The Star, Finisterre says he "hopes the award will assist in efforts to gain further funding for the Heritage Tourism Programme from donor agencies ... as a pro-poor tourism initiative". The core concerns of the Heritage Tourism programme are the promotion of community involvement, protection of natural resources, creation of opportunities for local businesses and workers and improvement of the national image. Islands Magazine describes the St. Lucian experience with ecotourism as one that is "redefining St. Lucia's tourism". The Star is the only newspaper to report on the programme being awarded the prestigious prize.

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Lorraine Williams pulls out of UWP challenge

Lorraine Williams has withdrawn her challenge for the leadership of the United Workers Party (UWP), saying she does not wish to be seen as "adding to the party's problems by contributing to a crippling leadership war". The UWP is holding its 3rd Annual Conference of Delegates this Sunday at the La Ressource community Centre in Dennery North, where officers will be nominated for the 2000/01 National Executive and the Board of Trustees. "It is expected that upon the conclusion of the day's business, the party membership will have a clear indication of what the face of the management team of the Party is likely to be, come Convention Day on October 15", states a UWP press release.
Williams' bowing out last Thursday comes at a crucial time. Interviewed for the HTS evening news on Friday night, Williams said she considers her withdrawal "a strategic move at this time", and she added words to the effect that: "If the delegates want me, they must let the Executive and the leadership of the party know, and they must say so loudly and clearly".
Williams acted as attorney general and minister of Gender Affairs under the previous UWP administration but was known for her critical attitude towards her party's leadership. Last Thursday she proved that this has not changed. According to The Voice, she told reporters: "I have said this before and I still maintain that there are still dead brains in the United Workers Party". Nevertheless, says Williams, she is "determined not to be a scapegoat for other people's failures. And so, with the deepest regret, I officially remove myself at this time from the picture. I wish Dr. Lewis all the best. If in the remaining time he can do for our party what he could not do before, more power to him. Good for the country. My doubts remain, of course. But I am prepared, in the best interests of our party, to take as gospel the words of both Mr Lansiquot and Mr Stephenson King, not to mention the party leader himself. They sound convinced that the party, under its present leadership, is ideally poised to win the next general elections. If the people also share that belief, who am I to say otherwise? ... If the party's supporters are truly satisfied with things as they are right now, well then the matter is out of my hands, if only for the moment. We will see how things go after this weekend". Both The Voice and The Star report on William's withdrawal.

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'Churches must act on child abuse intervention'

A total of 152 cases of child abuse reached the ministry of Health, Human Services, Family Affairs and Gender Relations in the year 1999 - 39 of which were cases of sexual abuse, 63 of physical abuse, 37 of neglect or abandonment and 13 of emotional abuse. This total, however, does not include the child abuse cases which are brought to the attention of the Crisis Centre, which also gets its share of reports throughout the year. Furthermore, writes the Thursday Voice, the reported cases "should in no way be looked on as representing the totality of the incidence of abuse in the country. They are but the very small tip of a very large iceberg". The paper goes on to state that: "Most incidents of verbal or psychological abuse are actually regarded as the norm in this country, and [as] the 'proper way of bringing up a child'. ... Only when a witnessing adult decides that matters have truly gotten out of hand - and that possibly, the child's very life seems to be in danger (and because of a multitude of factors, including a reticence for interfering in other people's affairs, or the trouble involved in obtaining transport in order to present oneself at the Human Services, Family Relations desk, this point is hardly ever reached), is there a possibility that some sort of a report may be made".
The Thursday Voice goes on to quote Clement Edward, a family case worker at the ministry, who emphasises the need for intervention and who calls on religious institutions to help play their part. Edward is quoted as saying: "Don't forget, an abused child, if not given the proper attention and care, grows up to become another component of an abusive society, whether in the role of abuser or victim. It is a vicious circle, which we must put our efforts into breaking at its inception. There are a lot of abused school children within our school system and in our church environment and I would like to appeal to our church administrators to help find some intervention for those children. Not only spiritual intervention - in other words, praying for the children - but also social intervention".

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Prohibition on collecting coral reinforced

The department of Fisheries has issued a reminder to warn divers and other members of the general public that to collect, sell, buy or possess any coral - whether hard or soft - is strictly prohibited in St. Lucia. The same goes for saltwater aquarium fish. The department calls on the public to report anyone with sea-water aquaria that are equipped with local corals and/or aquarium fish, saying that corals are now so scarce in St. Lucia that they must be fully protected. The only authorised saltwater aquarium containing corals and salt water fish is that at the Soufriere Marine Management Authority Office, which is used for educational and scientific purposes. The Thursday Voice reports this.

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Government invites budget proposals 2001/02

The government of St. Lucia has issued an invitation for proposals for inclusion in the 2001/2002 budget. Particularly welcome, says the government, are proposals in the fields of tourism, physical and infrastructural development, industrial and training development, privatization, public sector/private sector ventures, foreign investment and an area which is being defined as "minimization of the challenges of the underprivileged in our society". Nevertheless, proposals on other issues are also welcome. The Thursday Voice reports this. According to the paper, government has issued its invitation earlier than usual, "to permit more thorough review and analysis". Proposals must be submitted to the Chamber of Commerce by the 10th of October.

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Gov't joins public in outcry over LUCELEC rates

LUCELEC is taking its turn as the target of public ire this week, with St. Lucians crying out against the electricity company's allegedly high and, some say, unfairly established rates. To make matters worse, the public utility company is receiving little sympathy from the government - although some commentators hint at hypocrisy in minister of Public Works Calixte George's criticisms of LUCELEC, considering that the government is, after all, a considerable shareholder in the electricity company.
LUCELEC last Thursday held a press conference, partly in response to a government minister's comment that LUCELEC maintains "an ambiguous billing cycle and exorbitant fuel surcharge". In its release, LUCELEC states that it does not control the fuel surcharge, which was introduced in 1973 by an Act of Parliament in order to cushion the effects of changes in the price of diesel fuel on the international market. LUCELEC maintains that when prices go down, consumers are billed less per unit of electricity, and when prices go up, they are billed more. "The fuel surcharge, therefore, is an adjustment and is not an additional cost to the consumer, and it certainly has no directed effect on the company's profits", claims LUCELEC.
But many consumers are not convinced by that explanation. The editorial in the Thursday Voice summarises many consumers'  sentiments when it states: "[H]ow can it explain to a customer who has on his August bill $249.61 as total amount due. Of that total $85.43 is fuel surcharge. The $164.22 that is left goes to LUCELEC. If the fuel surcharge is not an additional cost to the customer, why then should this customer pay $249.61. That customer would in effect pay $164.22".
On the issue of minister George criticising the fuel surcharge, the editor comments: "If LUCELEC does not control the fuel surcharge, who does?" The paper proposes that if the fuel surcharge was introduced by an Act of Parliament, another Act of Parliament could undo it: "then do so and make everybody happy. One way or the other, Government ministers should stop criticizing LUCELEC's fuel surcharge".
Another sore point with customers has been the introduction of the use of estimates in establishing payable charges. Many people complain that the average monthly estimates are higher than what their meters record for that period. LUCELEC says it reads consumers' meters only once every other month to save money on the salaries for meter readers. However, the electricity company now says the system is being analysed and might be modified in the near future. The Mirror reports this. The Voice adds that a LUCELEC spokesman on Thursday revealed that the electricity company currently employs "a total of twelve meter readers islandwide". This leads Frank Girard, also in The Voice, to make the following observation: "LUCELEC has found it necessary to engage several electrical subcontractors to promptly connect and disconnect the electricity supply to the premises of consumers on a daily basis, throughout the island. Yet, LUCELEC cannot employ meter readers from a very wide pool of unemployed young people, in order to have more accurate readings of domestic electricity consumed by customers? This is farcical!"
According to The Voice, the ten-member Board of Directors at LUCELEC is appointed by the shareholders, "of which the government of St. Lucia along with other state-owned corporations own approximately fifty percent of the shares. The actual shareholders are: the UK-based Commonwealth Development Corporation with 44.8% shares; Castries City Council with 16.3% shares; the St. Lucia government with 12.4% shares, the National Insurance Scheme with 12.5% shares, and the remaining 14.0% shares are allotted to others".
A commission of inquiry that has been looking into the management of LUCELEC for the past five months announced this week that it will present its findings to prime minister Dr. Kenny Anthony on the 5th of October.

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Castries traffic situation to alter radically

The traffic situation in the city of Castries is likely to alter significantly before the end of the year - hopefully resulting in a situation where parking is easier and congestion of roads alleviated. So writes The Mirror, in a special feature on the expected effects of the opening of the Castries car park facility (adjacent to Government Buildings), and the opening up of the Inner Castries Relief Road, which is currently under construction. According to The Mirror, "Vehicular congestion is such that downtown Castries is clogged up with bumper-to-bumper traffic all through daylight, as the recondition[ed] car revolution brings vehicles on the roads at a rate far quicker than infrastructural expansion. But physical expansion is constrained by a cramped city centre, whose planners clearly underestimated future growth in population and commerce". The multi-storey Castries car park, which is due to open soon, will provide parking space for 325 vehicles. Minister for Public Works Calixte George, according to The Mirror, "admits that this is certainly not enough to solve the parking problem in the downtown area, but the facility would help in better managing the existing chaotic traffic situation". According to an article printed in both the Mirror and The Voice, a survey carried out in 1997 by NIPDEC revealed that there was immediate demand for 500 parking lots in the city.
In addition to the new car park facility, proposed traffic measures in Castries include the introduction of parking meters and the diversion of heavy traffic and southbound traffic via the Inner Castries Relief Road. When this road is opened, southbound traffic coming from the John Compton Highway will turn right into Jeremie Street, left into Manoel Street, and then onto a bypass being constructed across the Air and Sea Ports Authority terrain, and across a new bridge over the Castries River. From there, traffic can easily access the Millennium Highway. For this purpose, part of Manoel Street will be transformed into three lanes: two southbound and one to the north.
Meanwhile, the National Council for the Disabled, as part of its public awareness campaign, has called on the government to provide special parking spaces in the city for disabled people and ensure more widespread introduction of access ramps along sidewalks. This is reported in the Wednesday Star. The paper quotes a spokeswoman for the organisation, who laments: "Every time a child is denied an opportunity to go to school, that is exclusion. When a disabled mother has no health care, that is exclusion. Any time someone who has a disability cannot go out freely into the street, that is exclusion".
On Thursday's DBS talkshow Talk, the president of the National Council for the Disabled, Jeff 'Pele' Elva, stressed the need for more consideration for disabled persons when it comes to the traffic situation in Castries and elsewhere. It is almost impossible for a person in a wheelchair, said Elva, to enter for instance Mindoo Philip Park, the Marchand Grounds, any shop in Castries or the National Cultural Centre.

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Silt and garbage at Choc Bay delay hotel expansion

The 100-plus room, $40 million expansion of Sandals Halcyon at Choc Bay to the north of Castries has been on hold for more than a year and a half now, due to the inability of hotel managers, officials in the ministry of Planning, and private landowners to agree on a solution to stop the pollution and siltation of Choc Bay.
At the moment, the Choc River deposits such large amounts of garbage and silt into the Caribbean Sea at Choc that, in the words of Sandals Regional Manager George Joosten, "this is not the kind of environment that guests of the hotel would appreciate". The Mirror reports this. According to Joosten, it makes no sense for Sandals to start construction if the problems of pollution and siltation cannot first be solved. However, although there are methods which could be used to trap the silt in the Choc River higher up, such as the creation of artificial mangroves, the execution of such plans has so far been impeded by communication problems between Sandals management and staff at the ministry of Planning, and continuing skepticism among the private landowners who would be involved in such a mangrove project. Nevertheless, the communication problems between Sandals and the ministry appear to have improved and Sandals manager Joosten now seems confident that construction might start "within the next year". Christopher Corbin of the Sustainable Development Unit of the ministry of Planning, however, is reportedly "careful not to give any timetable for the possible implementation of the artificial wetlands system, saying that consultants are considering the matter". According to The Mirror, Sandals has promised to share the cost of the silt and debris control mechanisms with the government of St. Lucia.

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'The Factory' back with creative vengeance

The Factory Creative Arts Centre is back - and back with a creative vengeance if the the ambitious calendar of performances it intends to carry out during the month of October is anything to go by. The Factory - a group of young actors and performers - lost their home at Bisée last year when the National Development Corporation demanded back the empty factory shell where the group had been rehearsing and performing. However, they have since found a new makeshift theatre venue: this time at the upper deck of the Eagles Inn at Rodney Bay which, for the occasion, has been dubbed 'The Theatre Upstairs'. Two productions will be shown here from the 4th of October onwards. "The two plays will run on alternate weekends, beginning Wednesday, October 4 with 'La Chunga' and continuing through to Saturday and then again the following week for the whole of October", writes The Mirror.
The two pieces are 'La Chunga' and 'Mary could Dance' and are directed by Trinidadian/Irish/St. Lucian theatrical director Ellen O'Malley Camps. Members of the cast and crew are Gene Lawrence, Adrian Augier, Larry Bain, Juliana Prospere, Anthea Octave, Valerie Constantine, Janelle Jospeh, Gary Burthe, Lyndale James, Ron Christopher Osborne, Natalie La Porte, Eli Emmanuel, Michelle Alexander and Carleen Jules.

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Gov't withdraws land for new Dunnottar school

Mentally and physically challenged children in St. Lucia appear to be as far away as ever from getting a new and larger special centre to house the Dunnattor School, despite the fact that more than US$50,000 has already been raised by overseas volunteers to build a brand new Child Development Centre. This, according to the Wednesday Star, is the result of the withdrawal by government of a plot of land at Carielle Gardens which had allegedly been promised to the Dunnottar School by the previous UWP administration. The school's principal, Carolyn Archibald, is quoted as saying that: "We were told that we could not get the land because the residents of the area would like to build a community centre there. ... There is no way we can afford to purchase land but we would raise the money to build the centre if we could get the land". Although allegedly aware of the situation, the government has not offered the Dunnottar School an alternative.
As long ago as 1998, one of the persons involved in the care of St. Lucia's mentally and physically challenged children, said in an interview: "It is becoming increasingly frustrating. We have this money to spend on child developmental facilities and the Ministry of Health just does not seem to be interested at all".
Carolyn Archibald in Wednesday's Star also places the ball squarely in the government's court. "If this Administration was serious about the disabled they would be putting legislation in place to cater for children with disabilities. They would be working towards bringing special education more into the regular schools with children who suffer mild disabilities being integrated into these special schools. But for us here, we just need some assistance in getting the new school underway. ... The administration supports us with lip service, but we still have a long way to go".
The current home of the Dunnottar School cannot accommodate children in wheelchairs as there is no bathroom on the main floor. Neither are there any extra changing rooms, suitable flooring, or enough spacious class rooms. According to Archibald, the school this year has had to turn away students "who could easily fit into two classes if we had the space".

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Rochamel directors threatened by creditors

Two directors of the Rochamel Development Company have been receiving threats on their lives from certain creditors, reports The Crusader, and the paper claims that the alleged firebombing of a speedboat which allegedly belongs to one of the directors is also suspected to be part of the as yet unresolved debt issue. Rochamel Development Company, the company that was involved in the construction of the 300-room Hyatt Regency Hotel at Pigeon Island Causeway, made headlines in February and, again, in June of this year following reports about outstanding debts to local businesshouses. According to an article in The Crusader of the 24th of June: "The affected companies - over 80 in all - include a number of supermarkets, hardware retailers, building materials suppliers, trucking companies ... plus insurance companies, small hotels and at least one law firm". The newspaper alleged at the time that Rochamel's biggest creditor in the island was owed $1.5 million dollars, while other business people said they were owed sums ranging from $200 to $100,000.
This week, The Crusader reports that: "To date there has been no let up in the impasse and word is that among many of the creditors hope for a permanent end to their woes with the construction firm is fading as surely as is their self-control". The general manager of the Hyatt Regency, where at least one of the directors has allegedly been seeking refuge, confirmed to The Crusader that the Rochamel directors have indeed received threats from some of their creditors. "He claimed, however, that at present the two sides are holding discussions aimed at resolving the debts issue and that a breakthrough was imminent. As for the threats ..., he said they have now eased off and that things had 'quieted down'."

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SLHTA receives Cdn$209,000 from Canada

The St.Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association (SLHTA) stands to receive Cdn$209,000 from the Canadian government, which has allocated over one million EC dollars for the development of tourism projects in St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis and for the strengthening of financial services in the region. This was revealed on Wednesday by Melvin Edwards of the Caribbean Programme for Economic Competitiveness, which is based in St. Lucia. According to The voice, the Canadian funds will be used to improve the access of employees in the tourism industry to internationally accepted skills training.

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Sir Denis launches new court rules

Chief Justice Sir Denis Byron on Monday will launch the new civil procedures code, which introduces wide-ranging judicial reform in the nine countries of the Eastern Caribbean. Particularly, the new rules of court are meant to expedite the process by which cases are heard before the court by emphasising mediation and case management. The Star reports this. Sir Denis' address will be heard by simultaneous sittings in High Courts throughout the Eastern Caribbean thanks to a video and audio-web cast organised by Cable and Wireless. The special sitting on Monday also marks the opening of the new law term.

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US$102.5 million to fight HIV/AIDS in region

The World Bank and the government of the Netherlands have pledged a total of US$102.5 million in loans and support to the Caribbean to help fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic which threatens to ravage the region in years to come. Already, out of the 12 countries with the highest HIV prevalence, nine are located in the Caribbean/Americas region. These are: the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, the Bahamas, Barbados and Belize. Precise figures for St. Lucia are not available but it is generally understood that HIV/AIDS rates are high here also. An international conference on HIV/AIDS ended last Tuesday at the Sherbourne conference centre in Barbados. According to The Star - the only paper to report on the conference - the "over 180 delegates to the meeting agreed that it would take around $260 million per year if the region is to make a comprehensive and well-planned response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic which is threatening to derail its social and economic development". Already, the Latin American and Caribbean region has received over US$200 million in support from the World Bank to fight HIV and AIDS.

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