St. Lucia STAR

Digicel painted carnival 2010 red!

Nicole Mc Donald — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 22:22:29 +0000

Digicel, the Bigger, Better Network was proud to be Platinum sponsors of this year’s Saint Lucia Carnival festivities. Ranked among some of the best carnivals in the world, Digicel was geared up to create a Bigger, Better carnival experience and delivered this like no other. Capturing wonderful prizes with unforgettable experiences and performances, the bigger better network surely painted this year’s St Lucian carnival RED with great giveaways, wonderful music and exciting events.
Digicel was excited to be a part of this unique carnival experience for the third year. Ensuring that Digicel created its signature excitement and hype for this carnival season the bigger better network launched a variety of fantastic promotions that were a cut above the rest. At the main carnival events the Bigger better network had massive give a ways of handsets and credit to its valued customers. Having very talented persons be supported by the bigger better network, the colour red was hard to forget as many titles were won by many Digicel affiliated personnel.
Digicel sponsored the Red Unlimited Carnival Band, who took many bold, unprecedented steps that led them to win the King of the bands title, first runner up for Band of the year, Mas on the Move 2010, and capturing the coveted crown in the carnival queen pageant with their sponsored queen Ms Louise Victor. Digicel also celebrated more wins; Calypso King 2010, The Invader, Groovy Monarch Alpha and Caribbean Soca Monarch Ricky T were all products of the seasoned Digicel sponsored Take Over Tent. The highly anticipated Inter commercial Kaiso competition was won by a dynamic Digicel employee; Mr Ronald Francis aka Sir Francis and Miss Filamena Day ‘the reigning Miss Digicel’ captured first runner up in the prestigious Carnival Queen Pageant.
With innovative promotions like ‘Top up, Pay up, Jump Up’ customers were given the opportunity to win weekly prizes. The prizes also accumulate as the excitement of carnival drew near. Carnival costumes and ticket giveaways to all major shows were also a highlight for the season as loyal customers were treated by the Bigger, Better Network. Digicel further went to created an entertaining and exciting atmosphere at the main carnival events by giving away loads of handsets and credit to its valued customers.
Digicel St Lucia Marketing Manager, Kerchelle Jn Charles, said: “Support and sponsorship of local events, culture, music, education, and sport is just another way that Digicel gives back to the community to say thank you to its valued customers. Digicel is ready and vows to continue committing itself to this wonderful carnival festival for years to come.”

‘New media’ of lies, distortion and falsehood!

Nicholas Joseph — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 22:13:18 +0000

Was Shirley Sherrod a victim of the ‘new media’?

The hurried and unjust decision by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to dismiss a mid-level employee, Shirley Sherrod, for comments made during an NAACP speech is the most blatant example of a rush to judgment. Genuine democracy is sustained by truth and facts, not by the daily drumbeat of alleged news organizations whose anti-administration agenda is clear. It appears that the aim of the “new media” is by any means necessary to embarrass the Obama government and make it appear inept and not up to the job.
What is particularly disturbing and worrisome about this episode is the manner in which the USDA dealt with a respected and longstanding employee. To ask her to “pull off the road and send in her resignation via BlackBerry,” even before checking and verifying an allegation that she was engaged in making a racial remark is unconscionable. What happened to the notion of innocent until proven guilty? What has become of fair process? But that is just the tip of the iceberg.
The real tragedy here is how in the name of freedom of expression, the media can willingly participate as co-conspirators and within minutes destroy innocent lives. The debasing of our democracy is being made manifest by the fact that the so called “new media” is engaged in a systematic undermining of what used to be a noble profession, journalism. The twenty-four hour news cycle has become the most destructive aspect of good, decent and honorable journalism. Excellent reporting of news is based on the time tested process of accuracy and verification. There should be absolutely nothing wrong with taking the necessary time to check and double check a story, before it is broadcast and immortalized in print. The rush to meet the requirement of daily loops in a twenty-four hour cycle of news in a microwave environment is the single most dangerous aspect of this so called new media. In that glorified rush to be first, anyone with a fifty-cent camcorder now claims to be a journalist. Consequently, the poison poured into the system makes a mockery of democracy and freedom of speech and Constitution enshrined rights become a convenient excuse for mischief makers with outlandish and outrageous political agendas.
It is even more damning and outrageous for anyone to try to pass as journalism the willful distortion of information to serve mindless bigotry and racist agenda. Freedom of information is not a license for anyone to take a speech given by an individual and strategically edit it with the clear intent to fuel racial division and tension. For the “new media” there is no boundary of decency, fairness and truth. The conservative zealots with camcorders and cameras and access to YouTube have become the perpetrators of hate and have attempted from the day President Obama declared his intent to seek Whitehouse residency to ignite a race war. That so called “new media” is simply individuals who have taken off their Klan robes and are masquerading behind technological innovations to engage in public lynching of decent Americans.
The injustice visited upon Ms. Sherrod by a Conservative blogger ably assisted by the right-wing media empire of Fox News and their associates in the traditional media, glaringly demonstrated that this group of unconscionable mischief makers will stop at nothing in their crazed quest to achieve their destructive and misguided political objectives. They will engage in any atrocious act to push an agenda that is racially biased and out of sync with main stream American democratic values. The election of President Barack Obama, the first African-American to occupy the White House, may have taken racial harmony to a new plateau. It did not however take away the evil brewing within the souls of Jim Crow-type nostalgic conservative freaks and cliques, hell bent on perpetuating in America, the sick, putrid atmosphere, that tainted 1960s America.
It is not coincidental that this onslaught by the so called “new media” has been viciously implemented since Obama won the elections. There is a conscious decision by this rebel group to ferment racial tension in their vain and utterly ridiculous attempts to make the country ungovernable. The daily venomous attacks against a legitimately elected government are unparalleled in American history. If Hilary Clinton thought that there was a “vast right-wing conspiracy,” against her husband’s administration, then there must be diabolical and racist attack machine whose sole purpose in life is to disrupt the will of the American people. Never before has a President of the United States been referred to in such derogatory terms as being used in the media. On a daily basis the administration is dubbed “stupid,” “arrogant,” “Liar,” and many other terms too outlandish to print. Those nut-case conservatives’ goal is to so diminish the presidency that the first African-American President will appear to have been less effective than his Caucasian presidential predecessors.
Ms. Shirley Sherrod became just a utilized, victimized and discarded pawn, in the much bigger game of the racial and political undermining of the Obama administration. While Ms. Sherrod became a victim of the dirty media manipulation, distortion and gross abuse of freedom of expression which may very well be a criminal act, the bigger picture here is how much the right-wing media is being used as willing partners to sow disharmony and discord in our country.
The story of how a con man like Andrew Breitbart, with a history of doctoring information to suit his political mission, was allowed to pass off his criminality as legitimate news is cause for serious concern by the American people. Even more disturbing was the glowing story about him done by ABC’s Terry Moran for Nightline glorifying his tactics after Sherrod was fired. Not only are the democratic institutions under attack by political hacks they have succeeded in pulling the traditional media into this pit of falsehood and deliberate propaganda. The honorable profession of journalism has been short-circuited by the bandits of the right in the guise of “new media.”
This level of press manipulation and subjugation must be the wake up call to both the Obama administration and the American people. This is an era in which the media has allowed the noise from the right to dictate how news is covered. With the prime concern being just about ratings, profits and propaganda, the media is depositing the diatribe and poison as the real news. Consequently fact checking and verification of information is side stepped to be in step with the shouting from the right. Genuine and real news is now not what is true and factual but what is YouTube’s most ridiculous posting.
When the media turns away from being the conscience of the nation and is in league with the enemies of democracy, then freedom of expression becomes meaningless. But I hasten to admit that Former US President Thomas Jefferson was right when he said: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

The myth of sport as a crime stopper

Jerry George — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 22:10:31 +0000

The benefits of sport for personal health and wellbeing is widely known and accepted. Sports as a deterrent to crime? That’s another ball game, entirely. Mention reducing youth crime and invariable youth involvement in more sports is the preferred, ready-made solution. We talk about it so casually to the point of passionately believing that it is automatic. More sport mean less crime? Not so, say the experts. It’s a myth.
Research from the University of Illinois confirms that organized activity is important to youth. Significantly more important is that youth “participate because they truly enjoy the activity and take on a leadership role.” In other words while they want adult involvement, they want even more of adults who “inspire” and adults who “are confident in handing teens the reins.”
This article noted, too, there was a “tipping point”. This is when too much involvement in extra curricular activity “actually increases levels of risky behaviours and serious delinquency.” They say, more time spent away from watchful eyes of adults apparently, intensifies “the negative effect peer influences that students are exposed to.”
The best advice from researchers is that before we even begin to think of applying a bandage (sport) on the wound (crime), there first needs to be an analysis of the causes of youth crime. It means that we must open dialogue with our youth and this is something we fear doing.
Research from Duke University has identified a “cascading effect” of repeated negative incidents and behaviours as the foundation to deviant behaviour and which “could be traced back to children born with biological risks or into economically disadvantaged environments, both of which make consistent parenting a challenge.”
What the research further reveals is that there is more to just asking youth to suit up for basketball or soccer or netball as has been the case recently with a flurry of sporting events linked to crime reduction locally.
The Grass Street basketball court is perfect example of this wishful thinking: “if you build it, they will come” out to play and crime would be the farthest thing on their minds.
According to the experts, however, this is an unrealistically high expectation of using sport to make a difference. What it does expose though are the realities and challenges in politically neglected and economically deprived communities (as we say, ghettos).
The Grass Street court was opened with much pomp and ceremony. But there has not been a game to match the flair and flamboyance of area representative, Honourable Richard Frederick, on opening day. The only persons who have used the court consistently were toddlers from a neighbourhood preschool, which has since relocated. Now the white elephant court is used for anything but sports. The St Lucia Basketball Federation (SLBF) would have surely put the funds to more practical and productive use, for example, to launch its Kiddies Basketball tournament.
Remember some years ago, a court was also built in the CDC housing development with the same premise. Do we hear of any organized sports there? No!
And once again, the same brainpower behind the Grass Street court is being put into the revitalization of the court in the Gardens (George V Park). The only benefit for these communities is that it provides short-term employment for a chosen few.
What is being attempted harkens back to a time when the Gardens was used as a melting pot for the surrounding communities of Conway/Barnard Hill, Georgeville, New Village, La Pansee, Morne du Don, CDC, etc. The Gardens courts, then, were the great equalizer. We can even reach back further, when St Lucia’s first social worker/lifesaver, James Belgrave used boxing and steelband (sports and the arts) and the 3Rs to transform delinquents (then called “wharf rats”), into productive and respectable humans.
Yes, of course, there is merit in believing that sport (and arts), considered positive activity, will keep youth from the delinquent behaviours, considered negative activity, that lead to crime. The simplicity of all this is that if you fill a youth’s life with the positive, there will be little time to seek out and be involved with the negative. But that was about three to five decades ago. Much has changed: the people and the environment in these neighbourhoods, attitudes and expectations.
As psychologist Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy would attest, there are just too much worrying about too many hungry mouths to feed and too many bodies to clothe by too many parents with little prospect of gainful employment because they lack the skills for today’s job market. Unless Frederick can help satisfy these basic needs properly, he faces an unending crusade of motivating youth in these areas to come out to play, and that apparently is beyond any politician’s game of convenience and expediency.
The research says that sport by itself will do nothing but create good feelings, in the short term, but little else, in the long term. For sport to have a dent on crime, sport must be done in conjunction or in tandem with other social support programmes to makes a difference. So, by all means build courts, but bring satellite branches of NSDC, for example. Our police force, too, needs to establish a social presence there as well.
So we come back to the perspicacious and potent thinking of our own Sir Arthur Lewis who, decades ago, recognized that education—not money—holds the key. Education lessens the possibility of people being exploited; exploitation is always at the roots of conflict and violence.
The studies also say that sport as solutions to crime come in three broad categories: Sport as distraction—meaning that if youth are in sport, they cannot be in crime at the same time. Sport as behaviour therapy—the effects are based on teaching values such as team work, respect for others, etc, and Sport as a “hook”—sport as motivation to other positive pursuits. They have identified three types of programmes: primary (environmental) and secondary (targeting ‘at-risk’ youth) prevention and tertiary (rehabilitation) programmes.
There are untold dangers, the studies point out, in not knowing when to apply the right one appropriately. Researchers in this field warn against applying broad brush stroke or a ‘one-fits-all’ type solution to situations that are multifarious and which require layers of interventions at different levels.
I apologise because the research is mostly from the United States and that has it own limitations as to relevance to our local situation. We have absolutely no research on sport in St Lucia, and similarly with sketchy research on crime, the temptation is usually to impose anecdotal evidence as empirical. If perhaps the US research doesn’t apply here, it can allow us to rethink our notions. One bit of research that surprised me was from Northeastern University: the belief that sport prevented delinquency in boys. “The same activities affect young men and women differently,” they confirmed. Sports worked, however, for young women “whose risk for delinquent behaviour was reduced significantly if they took part in sports. Other activities, such as church and after-school community activities decreased the risk of delinquency for boy, but not so for girls.” But while these protected youth from delinquent behaviours “which includes fighting, carrying a weapon and violence, it did not protect them from risky behaviours such as drinking, smoking and drunk driving.”
Researchers found “no significant association between sporting activity and aggressive behaviour or team sport participation and delinquency and aggressive behaviour.” This has lead them to “reject the more simple versions of the hypothesis that sport has a deterrent impact on delinquent behaviour.”
As the “Ruff Guide to Sports and Youth Crime” at www.sportsdevelopment.info, website states: “Exclusion from sport is not the cause and by inference, inclusion in it cannot be the solution.”

Pert’s feeling the music of life!

Alisha Ally — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 22:07:00 +0000

Perseus Prospere, a part time deejay is optimistic about the future despite his health troubles.

He lived what many considered a normal life until he was about 23. Perseus Prospere, known as Pert to those close to him and Small Boy to everyone else, graduated from the Leon Hess Comprehensive School in 2001 where he played point guard for four out of his five years there. He went onto Sir Arthur Lewis and studied Business Administration at DTEMS. He worked for three months with NIS after his graduation and then moved into hospitality. He was a storekeeper for Club St Lucia for three and a half years. Pert loves sports cars, basketball, music and animals. He partied like a rock star from the age of 20. His first car was a Toyota Corolla then a Toyota Levin and then a Honda Civic. He drag raced, limed with his friends, smoked and drank. What many did not know is that this fun loving guy had been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at the age of seven.
Now at 26, Pert’s life has changed drastically. He sat with the STAR and told us his story.
“I guess when I reached 20, and I was working, I didn’t take care of myself as I should. Being a young man, I didn’t want to listen to my mom anymore. I wanted to do my own thing. I was eating and drinking all sorts of things I was not supposed to. Then it really started affecting me.”
Then came a day that would be the turning point in his life. “My eyes started giving me trouble on September 4, 2006. It was a normal day. I was coming home from work after a long weekend of partying. It was in the afternoon and my eye started itching. My mom is a nurse so when I got home I told her about it. She said it was probably some dust or something in my eye so I should put a cold compress on it and it would be fine. That was that. I went to bed. The next day was a Tuesday. It was my day off. I woke up and I just couldn’t see at all in my left eye. That was the scariest moment of my life. I just broke down. I didn’t know what was going on. No one was home. My mom was at work. I called her and said “Mom, I can’t see in my eye!” She said “How you mean you can’t see in your eye?” I explained to her what happened.”
Pert’s mom instructed him to get to the hospital. Upon arrival, about 10am, he headed straight for the eye care unit where he was diagnosed with Diabetic Retinopathy, that is, the blood vessels behind his eye ruptured and his entire eye was blanketed in blood. Emergency surgery was the only option.
Pert was back and forth between Caribbean islands getting laser surgery. The doctor in Barbados recommended a retina specialist in Trinidad because Pert’s condition was worsening. Due to the amount of laser surgery he was undergoing, his optical nerve was being damaged. Pert’s mom arranged for him to go to Cuba for his eye care and he stayed for three and a half weeks not making any progress. He returned home but he took a turn for the worst and had to head to Trinidad for an emergency open eye surgery on the left eye. Two months later he repeated the same procedure on the right one. His vision slowly decreased after that.
In 2008, Pert went for a general medical checkup and was diagnosed with Stage One of five kidney disease and was given medication. His depression worsened. He heard of a natural diet for diabetics and decided to give it a try but it only made the situation worse.
“My kidney failure jumped from Stage One to Stage Four. At that moment, the only option I had was dialysis. Being told that you need to be on dialysis for the rest of your life, I don’t think any young person wants to hear that. I went through a stage of denial, so did my parents. We repeated the blood tests several times at several different places but each time the results were worse than the previous.”
Pert began dialysis and the side effects were horrible. “I dealt with continuous vomiting, not eating for weeks because I could not hold anything down, really low blood pressure, difficulty breathing. Within two months, I lost 25 pounds. I contemplated and came close to taking my life. It was by chance a friend who I hadn’t seen in a while caught me just in time and helped me through.”
Through it all, Pert’s family has been his support. Seeing his condition deteriorating, the family decided to take him to New York.
Suddenly things started looking up.
“The day after I landed I got really sick and was admitted to the ICU at Belle Vue Hospital in Manhattan for a week and a half. I was in a state called DKA-Diabetic Ketoacidosis. The doctor changed all my medication. After ICU they put me onto a ward. It was nothing short of a miracle. I woke up the next day, I felt like a totally different person. The doctor was baffled. I discharged myself shortly after on a Monday. By Tuesday afternoon I was on a plane home. Two days later, I was on the beach jet skiing.
“My eye condition is more or less the same but my attitude has changed completely. Looking back, I can say that this has been the best three and a half years of my life. It has changed my view on life, my attitude, and it has made me appreciate the simple things in life we take for granted. When you hit rock bottom you appreciate what you had and then you know who your true friends are. A lot of people I thought would have been there for me left from the day I first fell sick.”
There has been an emotional and financial strain on the family but it has brought us all closer together.
“I’m coping really well now,” he told me. “Thinking positive and not dwelling too much on the negative has really helped me to get through this. I have my laptop and I have a couple of programs where it makes it easy for me; there’s a magnifier and an onscreen keyboard. I have my Ipod which is voice activated and it reads out my emails and text messages. I also DJ part-time. I used to play before but now that I am home and I’m not working I need something to occupy my time. If someone sees me, they would never believe I’m partially blind. I can only see through my right eye.”
It’s hard waking up and not being able to see. Just knowing the life you used to live before, and knowing you are missing out, is not easy.
Pert said, “It’s just a matter of time. I know I’ll get better.”

Kadeen wants a St Lucia without limits!

Kayra Williams — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:59:36 +0000

Photo by Rick Wayne Fashion by Cherry Ann Gaillard Jewelry by ROCX at Blue Coral Mall

Destined to be more than ordinary. These are the words 19-year-old Kadeen Chrys Servin lives by. This week Kadeen certainly is extraordinary in some trendy fabric designed by Cherry Ann Gaillard. In Kadeen’s world, life is just beginning, and she knows not the endless opportunities to come. She’s more than just a pretty face, and wishes people would look beyond the captivating brown eyes, and see the intelligent young woman, with strong beliefs who lies within.

STAR: What makes you stand out?
Kadeen: Apart from the obvious bright blonde hair I have taken a recent liking to, I’ve got confidence that comes naturally for me. Some people might find it surprising, I happen to be really shy. I stand out because I’m me and I stay true to who I am.

STAR: What are some things that you enjoy doing?
Kadeen: I always say ‘I’ll try anything once, and if I like it I’ll do it again.’ I strive on risk taking and doing things beyond my own limits. I love being artistic with food, trying new flavours, scents and textures. Anything creative and out of the box catches my eye quickly.

STAR: What is something most people don’t know about you?
Kadeen: I graduated
from the Castries Comprehensive Secondary School in 2007 from the Business Department. My talents vary from the art of cosmetology. I do my own hair, nails and make up. I’ve been told that I have very good vocals though I can’t seem to believe it as yet.

STAR: Have you modeled before?
Kadeen: I have gotten a few modeling opportunities, which I pushed aside due to the shyness I had. When I did finally give modeling a shot, it gave me the opportunity to be a different person, create a whole new personality, whether it may have been an overly confident woman or maybe even a loud and over the top rock star, the camera lens allowed endless possibilities.

STAR: Tell me us a bit about where you grew up?
Kadeen: Up to this present day, I reside in the community of Ciceron. My parents raised me very strictly but as the years went by they loosened their hand day by day. One thing I have been taught and have taken very seriously is to never let your environment or the situations around you influence your decisions or your future. Growing up I have seen many of my classmates fall victim to the usual teenage pregnancy, crime and lack of education which Ciceron has been known for. That has been my motivation from day one, to become more than ordinary.

What are some of the things that piss you off about St Lucia today?
Kadeen: That too many people believe that as a small Caribbean island there is a limitation to what our people can and cannot achieve. I believe that we have no limitations, and as a small Caribbean island we should strive harder for the seemingly impossible and not maintain the comfort status of having just a normal 9-5 job.

STAR: Is Kadeen Servin taken?
Kadeen: At the moment I am single. I find it particularly difficult to find a guy that tugs at my heart due to the one factor that I find to be common in most of the men here. They cannot seem to just be themselves. There is always a persona that comes before the actual person. When it comes to relationships, I believe attraction is very important but there has to be more than that.
The mistake many women and men make today is that they act upon every attraction they receive and sooner or later they notice there was nothing beyond the gorgeous face. I always seek that extra quality a guy possesses, something that separates him from the normal sweet talkers who say all the right things!

Another day, another damn delusion! By Rick Wayne

Rick Wayne — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:55:45 +0000

Do we know even half as much about Derek Walcott as we know about Paris Hilton and Rihanna? Does anyone care that we don’t?

It was Andy Warhol, the avant-garde filmmaker and pop painter, who in 1968—and without the smallest soupçon about the coming of the Internet—predicted that “in the future everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.”
Four decades later, from the comfort and presumed safety of our living room sofas, we can in real time enjoy breathtaking high-speed police chases along the Hollywood freeway, or court hearings, whether centered on the proclivities of Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton or O. J. Simpson. We can at the same exhilarating moment experience with millions of fellow voyeurs the world over the shock and titillations of wardrobe malfunctions that “accidentally” expose to our libidinous inclinations the most intimate secrets of Janet Jackson, Madonna and Britney Spears. Small wonder that we know more about the secret lives of such as Rihanna and American Idol’s Adam Lambert than we do about ourselves “as a people,” to borrow from our more intellectual culture vultures. But you say, dear reader, that I exaggerate. Then tell me, without peeking at Wikipedia, what is Derek Walcott’s middle name? About whom does his Mongoose poem speak?
See what I mean? You don’t know, right? If you experience embarrassment, fret not. All is not lost. Unlike scores I could name, you can still feel some discomfort at discovering how little you know about our world-renowned Nobel Laureate, the universally acknowledged greatest living English-language poet, whose genius is seriously celebrated in every country save that of his birth—and I don’t mean celebrated as carnival is celebrated.
But I digress. We were talking about Warhol’s fifteen minutes of fame. I cannot help wondering, when he made his prediction, what was uppermost in the mind of the artist: was he saying future fame would be deciduous, that the unending fame associated with such as Liz Taylor, the Beatles, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Hemmingway and James Baldwin would in the future give way to a fifteen-minute quickie kind of thrill? That every fifteen minutes or so Hollywood would dump a star in favor of a new supernova? If so, then how to explain Ms Taylor and the others earlier named, who endure despite the Kardashians and the Simpsons and Hugh Hefner’s evanescent troikas?
Or was Warhol referring only to our attention span? The evidence suggests we have lost our natural ability to concentrate, leaving it to others to determine where our focus must be. Consider the Dudas Coke matter that only a few weeks ago was as much fodder for CNN as it was “a hot button issue” for Newsspin. How many of us, despite all the political voodoo that accompanied the brouhaha, know where Coke is at this moment or what might be his current situation? Has he, is he likely to, cut a deal with the Feds that could see leading Jamaican politicians and businessmen in serious trouble? Did Dudas have connections with politicians in the other islands, including Saint Lucia, that could affect ordinary citizens?
And what about the list of unsolved killings in our country? Do we care that those responsible are at large and threatening our safety? Or were we always more interested in the political ramifications inherent in the government’s decision to change police chiefs? Where is Ausbert Regis? Is he still on sick leave? Is he drawing a salary paid out of the Consolidated Fund? Remember Laborde, Saint Lucia’s premier drummer deceased? Remember how we showered such agape love on his perforated naked corpse that our beleaguered cops dared not follow a trail that could lead to motives other than burglary? How quickly we seem to have forgotten Laborde’s “countless contributions to local culture!” So, again I ask: Do we care that killers and rapists and burglars are out there, altogether contemptuous of the police, waiting for the next defenseless citizen to walk by? Not by the evidence, not when there is “the scholarship thing” to rant and rave about this week! But that too will pass, the government might well be thinking, as so many earlier life-and-death, hot-button issues have passed—all having had their allotted fifteen minutes in the spotlight, if only nationally!

A HEAVY BLOW TO SPORTS JOURNALISM!

David pascal — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:34:30 +0000

Heavily bandaged Voice sports journalist Anthony Debeauville following his terrifying ordeal at the George Odlum Stadium.

During his address at Sunday’s official opening of the 2010 CBN WINLOT Inter schools Games at the George Odlum Stadium (GOS) in Vieux Fort, Minister of Sports, Lenard Montoute, referred to it as more than just a sports and fitness facility, but a temporary health facility accommodating patients following the fire at St Jude Hospital last year.
Quite aware that this unique situation has disrupted sporting events held there, Montoute focused on the positives. He said: “Though we do not expect any unfortunate incidents but should this occur, God for forbid, you have top medical facilities available to you right on hand.”
While Montoute’s comments were directed towards athletes competing there, he never imagined it would have any bearing on sports journalists who were out in full force that day. While several sports journalists were opposed to the GOS being used as a temporary medical facility, they may now have a change of heart, given the fact that a colleague required swift medical attention after being assaulted by another in the same profession.
Voice Sports Reporter, Anthony Debeauville, sustained a gash on the top of his forehead and has a fractured right ear drum, after being struck more than once by his attacker who is well known media sports journalist and maintains a website covering sports associated with the Ministry of Social Transformation Youth and Sports and other local and regional events.
During the incident which occurred a short distance away from the track, the individual in question had to be restrained against the wall by an official with the Department of Youth & Sports.
Debeauville who replaced his assailant after he was let go from the Voice, recalled Sunday’s horrific incident in a front page headline in Tuesday’s Voice ‘Bloody Sunday at Stadium.’
The incident occurred at about 2:55pm just before a group of sports journalists which included Debeauville, the man accused of assaulting him, yours truly (Star Publishing), Reginald Andrew (Mirror Newspaper) and Brian McDonald (Radio St Lucia) who travelled to the GOS in the same vehicle, were about to return to Castries.
Needless to say, the driver was one short on the return trip. His passenger involved in the incident was asked to leave the GOS.
Giving his account of what happened, Debeauville who bled profusely during the vicious attack, insisted it was unprovoked and not called for. He mentioned that a difference of opinion after a St Lucian beat a Grenadian in a 100 metre race that afternoon precipitated the incident.
Meanwhile the man who is accused in the incident has been reprimanded and dismissed from any further duties with the Ministry of Social Transformation, Youth and Sports. An email bearing his name states: “It is with deep regret that I herby inform you that the Ministry of Social Transformation, Youth and Sports wishes to terminate any ties we have with you and sports caribe with immediate effect.Your actions at the George Odlum Stadium on Sunday July 25 2010 during the 2010 Windward Islands Official Opening ceremony and Athletics Championship, cannot be condoned and necessitates the termination of your services and collaborations in all forms with and to us.”
The email goes on to list six requirements: “You are not welcome at any youth and sporting activity under the auspices of the Ministry of Social Transformation, Youth and Sports.
Debeauville made a report to the Vieux Fort Police after a 45-minute operation and plans to file criminal charges. The STAR has learnt that the alleged attacker surrendered to police yesterday and is being questioned.

JJ hits a gold mine!

Jason Sifflet — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:27:49 +0000

Caribbean Cocktails located in the Castries Market!

Did the minister in charge of planning, development control and the city council really set out to shaft Robby Skeete when he decided to give a prime city location to one of his best friends?
The initial story by Robby Skeete published in the Wednesday STAR generated a ton of controversy and feedback about the ill-effects of nepotism. Planning Minister Richard Frederick has since spoken about the issue, stating that the decision not to give Skeete ownership of a café in the city’s market was above board.
The STAR also spoke to the proprietor of the new business that has recently opened on the corner of the Castries Market, at the exact location where Robby Skeete says he invested thousands of dollars. Gerard Felix aka ‘JJ’ is perhaps the only local kitchen boy who is more famous and successful than Robby Skeete himself. He built himself a unique restaurant, bar and guest house at Marigot and his success drew people in from all across the West Coast for years before it was swallowed up by Discovery Bay. Frederick, it must be noted, was one of the more famous local regulars at JJ’s Paradise before it was sold. JJ read Robby’s story but seems blissfully unaware that all that back and forth was involved in trying to get the empty spot in the Castries Market where the unemployed and dispossessed gathered from morning to evening. In fact, he wants no part of Robby Skeete’s trouble with the minister who holds the portfolios of planning development and the city council.
“I don’t want to comment on that at all,” he told the STAR recently as the venue bustled with workers and customers around him.
According to JJ, everything about his new business initiative is on the up and up and his motives for taking the dirty corner of the Castries Market and turning into the St Lucian version of a Mediterranean courtyard are completely altruistic.
“What do I want to achieve? To come into the city and bring light and life to the city. The city needs life. You can see the city being dead. I’m a man I traveled already around the world and every place I go, even the Virgin Islands, you can city life. And there is no city life in St Lucia.”
JJ says, quite rightly, that when Lucians lime, they have to leave Castries and go to Gros Islet, Anse la Raye, Dennery or some other rural district. Castries, over the last 30 years, lost its playfulness and became a place to work in daylight and leave before sundown.
“Nothing happens in Castries,” JJ said. “So I said if I got the opportunity to come to the city and bring life back to the place, I would. And what I did brought a lot of life to the city. You can see for yourself.”
It’s all well and good, but surely JJ can admit that it looks bad when someone else has been trying to get the same location for years and the minister’s longtime friend gets it instead. Perhaps JJ could explain how he became aware that the spot was available.
“For years I pass there and I see the place is stagnant,” he said, after a brief pause. “I saw the opportunity to get it and I took it.”
Yes, but it looks, to some people, like the good minister is bequeathing the city to his best friends and generals, doesn’t it?
“I don’t know nothing about that. I don’t think it’s because I am close personal friends with the minister I got that place. But in business, sometimes, people have to deal with who they know can succeed. Business is not made for everybody. Some people just have the knack to turn things to gold. That place has been stagnant. I took it, I created employment. That’s my commitment to the city.”
—J Sifflet

When your life is on the line . . .

Kayle Lewis — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:21:59 +0000

The fight for gay rights goes on, with arguments from the morality police that have no basis or logic.

Is there a cause that you would die for? Is there an issue that you feel so passionately about that you would publicly, and without reservation, speak out for? Do people know about this passion, this cause? Are you lending your voice for changes you wish to see? If we wish to see change, we must speak. If we wish to break the silence on an issue or find the solution to a vexing problem, we must find an avenue to speak, for how else can we bring about the change we wish to see? When you drop a pebble in water, it creates ripples. That pebble represents your passionate voice. But in speaking for our passion or cause, we have to be cognizant of the fact that we will not be embraced immediately. In speaking for our cause we have to ensure that there are no damaging skeletons in our closet which will lead to the casting of doubt when we open our mouths.
Teachers would agree that reiteration is important for in doing so, the students will be reminded of the principles and concepts to be grasped. Again, I decided to write from the closet about male homosexuality as I felt that there was a need to bring about certain awareness about the lifestyle—particularly as it relates to the closeted gay man. I decided to write about this issue because it is personal to me, after all I am a gay man, with full acceptance.
In following the reactions on the STAR website, which continues to be varied, I have pondered, should I stay on course with my writings as planned? Or should I zoom in and respond to some of the broad-based comments? I have made my decision. Upon close examination of the debate, I have noticed that a vast number of the arguments raised point to morality/Christianity. As a closeted gay man, I am familiar with this aspect of the discussion. Truth be told, I am intimately familiar with it for I was once in the church and not just in the church, I was at a very high position. In fact, at the onset of my struggle with my attraction to the same sex, I was fully involved in the church.
As a closeted gay man, I have to shake my head in utter amazement, that so many Christians today are simply “playing church”. You see, the church can be likened unto a fisherman’s net: when a fisherman pulls in his net, within it can be found all types of fishes; as a matter of fact, some fish within the net may not be sold for they may not be sale worthy. From within my closet, I have observed that some Christians are only Christians when they put on their best to go in the sanctuary on their chosen day of worship but during the week, some of them are the most miserable and uncooperative employees, while yet still others make their spouses’ and children’s lives a living hell. Wow! I wonder if we were living in the days of Ananias and Saphiyra, when judgments were swift, how many would have been brave enough to stand in the pulpit and lead out in worship in any form. Within the church, you will find the good, the bad and the ugly. As a matter of fact, it is quite amply put; the wheat and the tears shall grow together until the day of harvest.
I think that it is high time that we see more messages of love, hope, peace, unity, forgiveness and restoration being pronounced from pulpits rather than messages of hell and condemnation.
I find that for too many, religion is the perfect cloak, the perfect shield. For when you are hidden under the banner of Christianity, you are almost above board—almost. I welcome the day when I will see many Christians being living sermons rather than preaching them. After all, anyone, anyone can expound scripturally like an angel.
As a closeted gay man, during my early struggles with my attraction to the same sex, I sought help, not from within the church because (though not assumptive by nature) I was fully aware of the righteous condemnation lines that such counsel would have entailed, so I opted rather to visit a psychologist in another Island. After a few sessions, I decided to discontinue my visits, because I accepted that this was the way I am—that for me it was innate.
I know that there are those who are going to be critical of this pronouncement and who would advance the view that homosexuality is a learned behavior, while others will, of course, stick to their conviction crying “sinful!” Being gay can, in fact, be innate while on the other hand, there are others who make it a choice. That choice can be a means to an end—money—while for others; the choice may be for additional pleasure and experimentation. Can a leopard change his spots? As a closeted gay man, I have followed countless discussions and read many articles which sought to answer the question as to whether or not a gay man can be made straight. For me, if your inclination is innate, trying to achieve that result may just turn out to be a time-consuming and fruitless effort. I had a lover who once said to me that our last encounter was the last for him, as he was done with the lifestyle. Done with the lifestyle? I believe that while a person’s intentions of wanting to become “straight” might become important to them for whatever reason(s), such a process may just end up making them totally frustrated and go back to their old ways. Getting a gay man to become straight cannot be likened to kicking drug addiction or some other bad habits for we must accept the fact that sexual desires are the most powerful. Was sexual desire not so powerful that a biblical king had another man’s wife placed at the front of the battle field so that he could be killed in order for him to have the man’s wife? Is that not frightening power? If your feelings are innate, they are innate and no number of programmes or therapies will change that. Trying to get a gay man to become “straight” may have to involve the emotional support of a spouse, family or lover (female), and how many would be as open as to embrace and not morally condemn? If a gay man feels that he would like to change his ways; if he is successful that success will depend on him.
These are my words from my closet. They are based on my experiences combined with interactions and observations; written so as to uncover a social issue which needs to be examined and discussed in an objective, rational, loving, understanding, forgiving, open minded and practical manner. These are the words from my closet—the gay man’s closet.

Aiasha off to China!

Kayra Williams — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:55:33 +0000

Miss St Lucia World Aiasha Gustave will compete in China come October. (Photo by Rick Wayne)

Aiasha Tierra Rebecca Gustave is not an unfamiliar face. Particularly if you’re an avid reader of the SHE Caribbean magazine. In that case you’d have likely seen her gracing the pages of the magazine in fashion by some of the most highly regarded designers in the region. Aiasha Gustave first started modeling for SHE at the age of 14. Since then she’s been on photo shoots with the likes of models such as Barbadian Leah Marville, Jamaican Sedene Blake and Crystal Cunningham, to name a few. The 17-year-old graduate of the International School of St Lucia recently appeared in the St Lucian segment of Centric TV’s Splash travel as an upcoming model/singer. It was only a matter of time before Aiasha made an even bigger splash.
Sunday, July 25th found the past student of the International School, St Lucia onstage at the Miss St Lucia World pageant rendering Beyonce’s, ‘Why Don’t You Love Me,’ during the talent segment, after a short, cleverly delivered skit accompanied by some serious eye candy. Gustave, sponsored by Jalousie, had the audience captivated from start to finish with her striking beauty, confidence and natural persona onstage. Her talent was along the theme of one line, “If you don’t love and respect yourself first, how can you expect anyone else to?”
Aiasha was the youngest contestant for the night, and the girl most in the audience felt would steal the crown. At the end of the night, the judges for the show, held at the Indies Night Club agreed wholeheartedly. She would do St Lucia proud.
“When they called my name my heart dropped,” Aiasha told the STAR. It was such a moment. When they called the first runner up Tahnee Hippolyte my heart was racing. This was my first pageant. I went into the competition to get a feel of the stage and to see how well I’d do. I thought all the girls were talented, it was a tough competition. I didn’t really expect to win. I also won the prizes for Miss Congeniality and Best Interview.”
When asked how she felt about representing St Lucia at the Miss World Pageant in China come October 30, Aiasha was lost for words. Win or lose she felt the experience would mean more than anything in the world. Initially, Aiasha said one of the reasons she’d decided to compete was because she believed the experience could open many windows of opportunity in the future. Aiasha felt St Lucia was unrepresented in a meaningful way on the international market, and that was the reason she wanted to be Miss St Lucia World. With the title, she hoped to be an ambassador, “sharing the rich culture, livelihood and beautiful, humble people of the island” to others worldwide. And what a beautiful ambassador she is! Move over Defoe!
“I will do my best to represent all the positive aspects of St Lucia and I would be more than honoured to share with the world my amazingly beautiful home.”