I am from the island of St. Lucia, a former French and British colony (the two colonizers fought 14 times for the island with the British being the final victors). St. Lucia is approximately 238 square miles, made famous by our twin mountains (Gros and Petite Piton)and two Nobel Laureates( Sir Arthur Lewis and Derek Walcott); the former in the field of Economics and the latter in literature (the first black recipients in this fields).
Our main economic source until recently was the export of bananas. There was a change in trade agreements with Britain which was forced by USA to pay us less for bananas. Britain for a long time was buying bananas from Saint Lucia at a higher rate as part of an agreement between the island and the former colonizer. When these terms were changed, Saint Lucia could not compete in the free market and we now were selling to the British for pennies. Farmers who supported their families and our country through the sale of bananas suddenly were face with a severe decrease in income. Many people who had jobs that depended on the banana industry found themselves jobless and for the first time in history, St. Lucia started to feel an economic pinch.
This brings us to our current debate.
For years there have been proponents and opponents of what now seemed to have been the naïve choice of being dependent on one crop for our livelihood. Mono-agriculture has always been frowned upon especially if that one plant is hard on the soil (which the growing of bananas was).
Given our richness in agricultural and fishing resources it seemed that common sense would have dictated that delving into something else or diversifying all together would have shown foresight on the part of the current administrative political party, the United Workers Party who were the implementers of banana export.
Needless to say, St. Lucia (which, if I do say so myself) is one of the most beautiful islands in the world and probably the most economically stable and prosperous in the Caribbean is now being forced to depend heavily on tourism.
As a St. Lucian, I believe that I can firmly say this; tourism isn’t really our cup of tea.
While I think that I can say unequivocally that we are some of the most hospitable and generous West Indians one can find; we at the same time do not beg or kiss butts well; we are no nonsense people and will tell you off quickly.
Now it could very well be that we have not experienced starvation or desperation and that we are too proud. But the crux of the problem is that we like to create our own terms and decisions and do not like being backed into a corner. And if history can be our guide, most of the tourist driven economies are housed in countries which no longer can adhere to self determination. The price of opening ones borders for cash I guess.
So was this foreseeable neglect? Can we turn this decline around? And should we? As with every “developing” country there are serious cases of misuse and corruption. Land and tax breaks being offered to foreign businesses without the consent or knowledge of the people. And seemingly lots of back door deals with the Taiwanese or Chinese governments depending on what political party is in power.
Now, let me make this clear, St. Lucians are very involved in the political process. For example, I have a cousin who has an infamous radio show, ‘Juk Bwois’ who is always rubbing someone the wrong way because he caters to really the backbone of St. Lucia discussing hard and harsh low-down politics with the farmers and providers of the resources needed to run the country. His radio show is done in Kweyol (also called Patois) which is our dialect and which sadly is shunned upon when spoken. We have in St. Lucia two classes of people; people who speak Kweyol and people who don’t like people who speak Kweyol. The haters try to oppress us Kweyol speakers but have failed thus far and have only succeeded in looking stupid in the process since it was Kweyol that freed us from slavery.
But as always, I digress. Because of political activism and some cases cantankerousness from people like Juk Bwois, the local citizenry is kept abreast of happenings. The local citizenry tries to be active and vigilant in holding our politicians honest (marginally so).
That being said, the farmers still have no answers to the conundrum, more and more tourists are coming to Saint Lucia and the island is slowly becoming more commercial and changing to please the tourists who bring cash.
Is this for worse or for the better?
Melisa K.
