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RETAINING WALLS WITH TYRES

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By pure coincidence I read an article on the Government of St Lucia’s website which spoke of efforts of the SSDF to teach local tradesmen in the construction of retaining walls using scrap tyres. I found it heartening and disheartening, heartening because of its novelty and disheartening because the SSDF never saw it fit to engage the local Association of Professional Engineers in this project. Engineers from the Conseil Generale of Martinique in collaboration with the Saint Lucia Social Development Fund (SSDF) held presentations for tradesmen that demonstrated how to use scrap tires for slope reinforcement.. The Report said that SSDF Director Joachim Henry applauded the initiative and commented as follows: “Today the engineers will demonstrate to workers from the community how to attach the tires to construct a retaining wall. The French are interested in our approach and our...

MENTAL SLAVERY – THE MYTH

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Slavery can be defined as involuntary servitude to a dominating influence. When one therefore describes the present state of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora as being in mental slavery, the phrase has no meaning. It is a poor choice of words that has caused more destruction to our people. Marcus Garvey was wrong, Bob Marley was more wrong and all those who have repeated these unfortunate words have done more destruction to the advancement of our people. I refuse to accept that as we are approaching two centuries since Emancipation, as a people with a rich history of resistance and perseverance towards the most hideous crime ever committed by one race over another, that I am left in any form of mental slavery. Those who wish to embrace these words must read the history of the Brigands Wars. Mental slavery is a myth that has been perpetuated for far too long. One writer has concluded that...

THE SILVER ECONOMY

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In response to one of my articles, Mr. Francis Leonce was spurred to write a brilliant two part series on the agricultural sector. While I have known Mr. Leonce for many years on a casual basis, we never sat down for any length of time to speak. Some weeks ago this unforgettable moment occurred, and we sat for over an hour speaking at a Rituals Café. He recounted his experiences in the agricultural sector over the decades and left me totally stunned that such high quality research work was pursued in St Lucia and someone with such wealth of knowledge was not being used. Mr. Leone presented me with a gift at that meeting, which was a research paper entitled: THE EFFECT OF LOCAL CLIMATE AND SOILS FACTORS ON IRISH POTATO YIELDS IN ST LUCIA.  The document was based on research he did in 1966 to 1967 on looking at reducing the importation of Irish potato. Just the thought that almost 50...

POLITICAL ETHNICITY ?

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On Tuesday night I listened to a live stream of a political event in Trinidad, where the People’s National Movement was presenting twelve ( 12 ) candidates in the town of Arima. It was of interest to me, as it was in this famous town I was born. With elections within the next 6 weeks, the political temperature has been rising and undoubtedly the rhetoric has also soared. The United National Congress launched a campaign called ‘NORowley’ which is in essence a calculated smear campaign against the political leader of the PNM. I then wondered whether this political tribalism would ever end. With that thought, came an instantaneous mental response as to why was that term coined and used to describe Caribbean Politics, and it dawned on me that the descriptive word was rooted in racism. Whenever we hear ‘tribe’, the first thing that comes to mind is an African who is a cannibal, running...

POLITICAL ETHNICITY?

By in Print

On Tuesday night I listened to a live stream of a political event in Trinidad, where the People’s National Movement was presenting twelve ( 12 ) candidates in the town of Arima. It was of interest to me, as it was in this famous town I was born. With elections within the next 6 weeks, the political temperature has been rising and undoubtedly the rhetoric has also soared. The United National Congress launched a campaign called ‘NORowley’ which is in essence a calculated smear campaign against the political leader of the PNM. I then wondered whether this political tribalism would ever end. With that thought, came an instantaneous mental response as to why was that term coined and used to describe Caribbean Politics, and it dawned on me that the descriptive word was rooted in racism. Whenever we hear ‘tribe’, the first thing that comes to mind is an African who is a cannibal, running...

WASCO – ADHOSIM OR TRUISM PART 3

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Although I intended to do a two part series, the second shutdown of the John Compton Dam and the reasons proffered left me in utter bewilderment. WASCO has been aware of the growing siltation of the Dam for the last 21 years and only within the last four years has attempted to deal with the situation. WASCO has also been aware of the extremely poor condition of the raw water line for more than 10 years and has however to date not sought an approach to deal with this. For those who are unaware of the operation required to supply water to the North of the island, the following is a very simplistic explanation. When rain falls in the upper catchment of the Millet area, the runoff is collected within the dam. In essence they have blocked a valley and allowed this runoff to collect behind this structure. This raw water storage is then transferred to the Ciceron Water Treatment Facility...

WAS THE SPEAKER RIGHT?

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The recent incident in the House between Hon. Guy Joseph and the Speaker caught my attention in relation to the very interesting issue of Contract Law. The sub-plot should not be lost on the engineering fraternity as the Speaker placed his legal hat on and started a very interesting discourse on liability under the Civil Code. The legal prowess of Peter Foster is well known, and thus his comment in response to the Member of the House was based on his understanding of the Civil Code Article 1558. All contractors in Saint Lucia are of the opinion that the issuance of the Final Certificate after the Defect Liability/Notification Period relieves the contractor from all further liability of defects. In the specific matter, Hon. Guy Joseph was making the point that the recently awarded contract had an unusual clause that removed the defects notification period. It is important to clarify the...

WASCO – ADHOCISM OR TRUISM – PART 2

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At the conclusion of Part 1, the proposal outlined in the Budget Address 205-2006 were presented. The Minister of Finance went on further to expand on how this new strategy can be implemented and the following statement was made: ‘’Honourable Members will recall the debate and passage of the new Water & Sewerage Act, which will provide the platform for the quality of service and the protection and management of the resource base to attract private sector investment. In pursuit of this latter objective, the Government has decided to pursue a public-private sector partnership for WASCO that will permit the Government to remain on the Board of Directors as the protector of the public interest, but will also allow for the divestment of the majority shares of WASCO. We have chosen this option for the following three main reasons: Our experience with the privatization of LUCELEC; Current...

HARD HEARTS

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There was a time when Jesus asked his disciples – Is your heart still hardened? I have read this so many times and have asked myself whether I have a hard heart also. So I began to search the meaning of this phrase – hard heart. The Greek word used here is from the root word ‘poros’ from which we get the English word ‘porous’. The Greek word was used to describe a type of porous rock. A porous rock holds nothing, everything goes through it. Jesus was thus saying to his disciples – Is your heart still porous? Eyes and cannot see?, Ears and you cannot hear? It was never about a heart of stone or a heart of flesh, because the word translated as flesh has the root word ‘ basar’ meaning fresh, rosy, full of joy, cheerful. Jesus was saying that we cannot continue to have porous hearts that allow the showers of heaven to leak out, but...

WASCO – ADHOCISM OR TRUISM – PART 1

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With WASCO’s announcement of the closure of the John Compton Dam and the resultant water shortage on Wednesday and Thursday, I pondered as to how we have reached this stage. Since 1994 after the passage of Tropical Storm Debbie, there were concerns on the siltation of the dam, some 20 years later we are still speaking about desilting. In my search to find this elusive truth, I decided to research the last nineteen budget speeches from 1997 to 2015, an onerous task indeed, but the thirst for the truth kept me going. Part 1 looks at the first nine years. The journey started in November 4th 1997 in the Supplementary Budget Address where the following was stated by the Minister of Finance: ‘’Having reviewed the situation, Government has decided to transform WASA into a corporate entity to enable it to become an effective self-financing business.. A new company will be registered under the...

MALCOLM LITTLE – MALCOLM X

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When Louise Norton left Grenada as a young girl, she would have never thought that one day a son of hers will be so well known, 50 yrs after his death. The Caribbean has given many great leaders to the USA from Alexander Hamilton from Nevis to Malcolm X of Grenadian parentage. Both shaped the birth and rebirth of that great nation.

THE COLLAPSE OF CARICOM

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It is said that history provides a window of insight to the present. Our experiment at regional integration through the organization named CARICOM, has in the minds of most citizens of the Caribbean been a failure. Heads of Government meet yearly, decisions are taken, commitments are given, and promises are broken. CARICOM is broken, and the earlier we accept that fact and begin a process of renewal, the better it will be for the Caribbean. I began to look at our first experiment called the West Indies Federation, to observe the historical issues related to its collapse. This creation of the Federation was driven more by the UK Government as against a rising of regional integration fervor among the West Indian populace. As it was for emancipation, it was a money matter. Coming out of World War 2, the British colonies of the Caribbean were now being seen as a financial burden, and thus...

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Due to the uncertainties in the properties of materials, there is a factor of safety that is attached in the design process, similarly when you are not sure of the material composition of an individual, you must also apply that factor of safety in the design of the relationship.

John Peters

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May the chords of purpose holding the future of Saint Lucia never go slack but forever be held taut by our hope in God.

John Peters

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There will always be giants that want to occupy the best places that God has for you. These giants use their size to intimidate you, to bring fear and cause you to see yourself as a grasshopper. Look behind you and you will see a Giant God before a small ant.

John Peters