Will the new generation of St Lucians tolerate family barbecues? | The Star

In 1995, Pat Brown, St. Lucia’s most respected structural engineer and a treasured contributor to The Star, wrote: In 1972, the then Prime Minister was obsessed with the idea of ​​turning Rodney Bay into a mosquito-free zone. Moses Matalon (a Jamaican known for conceiving the reclamation of Kingston’s waterfront and as a “visionary in finding solutions for the housing and construction industries”) was initially brought in to create a channel from the sea to the swamp. His contract was extended to build a causeway at Pigeon Island. The result was a serious ecological disaster, with St. Lucia losing several beaches and our beloved jack fish. Matalon then built an asphalt road from Cap Estate to Castries. Within a few months, at least seven motorists were killed speeding on the poorly designed road.

The road had no superelevation and no tangent curves. Showy drivers soon discovered they couldn’t negotiate the curves at high speeds, and paid with their lives. The lanes were limited to 22 feet instead of the required 24 feet. The road was built without shoulders. Subsequent asphalt paving raised the road surface nearly eight inches above the shoulders, leading to more accidents, some fatal. Today, 22-foot lanes are no longer adequate for traffic, and taxpayers have spent $3 million so far to build shoulders and widen the lanes from Cap to La Clery Church, a little over seven miles. A similar effort on the five-and-a-half-mile stretch from Choc to Cap would cost $1 million, several times the original cost of building the road 22 years ago.

The Star’s speculation that the government may announce an early general election seems to have come as a surprise to many. While it is true that our fragile political environment has been sustained by the unwillingness (inability?) of the elected opposition to exploit the increasingly frequent issues of unrest, it is hard to accept that an electoral machine beset by mental fatigue, capable of electing some Saint Lucians to the ruling party six times in a row with astonishing efficiency, will continue to do so indefinitely. How long can the electorate be beguiled by cheap rum, stale scones and fried chicken? How many more times will the drunks and disorderly, hypnotized by Shabba Ranks and other imports, allow themselves to be taken to the polls to vote for candidates they do not know, let alone their abilities. One hopes that the new generation will soon reject the transparent electoral gimmicks and demand that our political parties elect candidates who can at least think and read!

Do we dare expect to see election candidates in the near future who are more concerned with alleviating the suffering of the people than obtaining ministerial posts about which they know nothing? Do we dare expect the descendants of college-educated, barely literate but successful banana farmers to be less tolerant of the insults their parents suffered from greedy, indifferent and arrogant politicians in their best interests? Will we continue to condone political piracy and allow once-mighty opposition forces to suck up to those they once called the devil incarnate for their own personal gain?

Will we continue to tolerate the government and statutory bodies being above the law? Government ministers shrug off important media issues with impunity? The most disturbing allegations go uninvestigated. Ministers openly involved in private business, making life harder for the average local entrepreneur. The media, except those that are overtly supportive of the government, are under siege. Some outlets have been forced to close. Dictatorship is imminent.

Meanwhile, we watch helplessly as our national disaster unfolds. But there is hope. And that hope lies in the new generation. I cannot believe that educated, young, healthy Saint Lucian men and women will be content to suffer what their predecessors have endured in silence for years out of fear of victimization. I firmly believe that change is coming.

Notes to Editors: A year after the previous article appeared in The Star, a thirty-something Kenny Anthony returned home to take over the Saint Lucia Labour Party, where Julian Hunt had recently resigned in a huff as leader. Anthony had stayed out of local politics for years while studying at the University of the West Indies and the University of Birmingham. Soon after graduation, regional governments vied to profit from his widely acclaimed acumen. George Odlum, himself a well-known product of British higher education, called him “the best of our best”. On May 23, 1997, it was Saint Lucia’s turn to reclaim its precious talent. They handed Kenny Anthony an unprecedented electoral victory: 16 of the 17 seats in Parliament. At last, a bright, charismatic, articulate and telegenic young native son had been appointed to steer the ship of the nation. Pat Brown’s dream had come true. At this point, I was reminded of the following quote from Aesop’s Fables: “Be careful what you wish for, or it may come true.” I also wonder what Pat Brown might have written on this saint’s stone about life today.