The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago recently had their elections, which as I predicted resulted in a change of Prime Minister. The election rhetoric has once more raised the issue of the ethics of democratic deceit and about our democracies in the Caribbean. On August 31st 1962 as the new independent country of Trinidad and Tobago was being addressed by their Prime Minister, a most interesting statement was given. Williams speaking about democracy said: “The first responsibility that devolves upon you is the protection and promotion of your democracy. Democracy means more, much more, than the right to vote and one vote for every man and every woman of the prescribed age. Democracy means recognition of the rights of others.” Democracy means equality of opportunity for all in education, in the public service, and in private employment–I repeat, and in private...

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...

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...

This week I met a good friend of mine, Kerde Severin, whom I had not seen for quite some time. We bumped into each other at the Fruit and Vegetable section of the supermarket and the conversation started on our agricultural sector. Kerde was looking for some fruits and I also was desirous of having a healthy lunch. I recounted to him my frustration in getting local fruits and vegetables at the supermarket. There are times when the only tomatoes on the shelves are imported, and the only watermelon is imported, and the only pineapples are imported, and the only pumpkin is imported and there are no cucumbers and peppers. I have great difficulty buying a slice of imported watermelon, and the few times I have done so out of pure desperation to eat a fruit that I enjoy, have left me with such guilt that the sensation on the taste buds dissipates with the internal turmoil. I shared with him...

In my days at primary school, I was introduced to the word – tautology. The word has stuck with me ever since. The word is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as – ‘saying the same thing twice over in different words’. I am leaning to accept that we have a phenomenon called ‘budgetary tautology’ in Saint Lucia. If you were to read the Budget Addresses over the last 20 years, you will be surprised to see the series of repetitions contained in these presentations. This phenomenon speaks to the disjointed way we have pursued development and the need for a coherent and comprehensive approach going forward. We have been developing our country in ‘silos of budgetary cycles’, with one budget not being linked to the other. So you would hear the Minister of Finance speak of the plans of a Ministry in a Budget Address in one year and the objectives were not achieved in that year and then the...

Every day, new words are introduced into our vocabulary as technology and new thought emerges. I wish to introduce a new term – ‘Abaxial Thinking’, which I am copyrighting at this point. I will define abaxial thinking as generating thought processes away from the norm. It is saying for example that the price of fuel should go up when the general thinking is that it should go down. While the conversations have been focused on the reduction of the price of fuel and its possible impact on the economy, I would wish to posit that an abaxial thought would be that the price of fuel should in fact be increased at this time. Governments have seen the importation of vehicles as a source of revenue. In St. Lucia the final cost of an imported vehicle is almost the equivalent of the cost of the vehicle CIF into St Lucia. There is almost 100% add on to the cost of the vehicle. When someone goes to...

Recently, Bank of Nova Scotia announced that they will be shutting down 120 branches largely in Mexico and the Caribbean in a bid to save CAN $ 120 million annually. In the Caribbean, the plan is to close 35 branches out of the 200 branches and sever 1,500 full time employees. This represents a shrinkage of about 17.5 %, a significant retreat from the Caribbean. It should be noted that this is not the first time, this has happened in St Lucia. There is an interesting quote in Sir George F. L. Charles’ book – The History of the Labour Movement in St Lucia 1945 – 1974 in which he says: “ The Banana industry was in the pinnacle of this momentum and the sunlight of hope was to be seen on the faces of large and small farmers, merchants, civil servants, teachers, fishermen, market vendors, speculators and workers…. The Royal Bank of Canada which closed its doors to St Lucia during the years...

The politicians of the Caribbean have created a fascinating imagery of the International Monetary Fund as the organizational embodiment of Satan, the great serpent hiding in the dark to bite small island states. The reason in part for this portrayal is wrapped into whether the IMF is seen as a lending institution or an adjustment institution. When weak leadership and governance produces results that require the IMF to function as an adjustment institution then the blame sharing, the characterization becomes more pronounced. The IMF has a membership of 188 members of which all the OECS states are part of. The core activities of the IMF are as follows: The IMF supports its membership by providing policy advice to governments and central banks based on analysis of economic trends and cross-country experiences; research, statistics, forecasts, and analysis based on tracking of global,...

In the field of physics and astronomy there is a principle called escape velocity. Escape velocity is the speed that an object needs to be traveling to break free of a planet’s gravitational pull. An object leaving the surface of Earth needs to be going 7 miles per second, or nearly 25,000 miles per hour to leave without falling back to the surface. Economists have also embraced the term to describe the need for an economy to grow at a sufficiently fast rate to escape a recession and to return to a long run rate of economic growth. In carrying the analogy further, the escape velocity will change depending on the size of the planet. The smaller the planet the lower will be the escape velocity. However it is not so, small island states somehow need higher growth rates to escape a recession and to have a long run rate of economic growth. The ECCB has suggested a rate of around 7% for St....