Hooray

By Soufriere contibutor
Imagine derek is back again! So long there is some development going on between the pitons derek ka lavay fashay. We need to let st lucians know that them boys ain't for we! Dalsan opposed the malgooshie construction at beau estate a few years ago when he was in opposition?now he welcomes freedom bay. Where is flavia cherry and the others who came tosoufriere to demonstrate against the construction? Where are they now? Where is the piton management area? Where are the voices they left everything for derek. Mwen tou jour sav say boug sala pa vlay whe ayen fet ent soufriere ek choiseul ou pay que mwen. Jim fletcher should stand up and confront derek.

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Hey Gillo, please receive my first article for your blog for the year. Please do not publish my name.

"STEP" scams uncovered.

Scams and more scams are being brought to the fore by the frustrated "en rouges" as they continue to fight among themselves for positions and contracts. Reliable info reaching this blog speaks to a new form of scam employed by the very persons who supervise, manage and select workers for "STEP" and the other forms of employments offered.
According to a disgruntled insider, " Garson, you en know wah happenin these days. The supervisors making two money. If you dere friend they making de people give you a job and when you get your pay you have to give them a cut." This is nothing new to this blog since in a previous post mention has been made of this form of corruption.
This blog carried out some investigations and found out from a worker who had been part of the scam and he revealed that he was offered a job on that premise and was only given a mere $300 for two weeks of grass cutting work. His supervisor he says did all the transactions - getting him the job, collecting the pay check, and cashing it in his presence.
Preferential treatment continues to be granted to children of supporters of "de party." Three or four jobs were created just before the Xmas season for girls of strong labour bent parents. In this community, the primary school, and three elderly persons were the targets. What is grossly unfair about the selection of the elderlies is that labour supporters were selected, while an elderly lady (lives alone) and who has been labelled a Uwp supporter was left out. And mind you, she is the eldest and confined to bed. Where is the justice?
Affirmative action by this administration continues to kill and divide a community. What is intriguing now is the fact that even in the "en rouge's" own camp division and back biting seems to be the order of the day.
Actually in the Roblot Community a bomb with a short fuse may soon explode as the labour hacks are at each other's throat.
The next "step" program may very well be the match to ignite the fuse to the bomb.
Filmed at 11.

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UWP's Angel

You know, it has become almost routine for people of the country to lay back and take things as they come. One can remember all the agitation and rumbling, the frequent tra la la on news spin, the merciless condeming of the uwp in waterholes by the labour hacks, come today, you are not hearing not even our own even our own people? Angel Brouet. Who to my mind is a dynamic woman, speaks out against what she sees as wrong and unfair to Lucians. Speaking and asking about Gryenberg is our duty. Up to this point in time many Lucians are oblivious about the circumstances surrounding the deal. That went down. Now we are faced with a lawsuit.
Angel is a frequent contributor to facebook and this post wants to highlight her latest post which reads:
."I WILL ALWAYS SPEAK MY MIND...AT THE END OF THE DAY WHO VEX LOSE...THE PRIME MINISTER HOLDS THIS COUNTRY AT RANSOM...9000 CIVIL SERVANT...ALL INCLUDED...A COUNTRY OF 170,000 PLUS...4 THE SAKE OF 9000 U THREATENING 2 PUT V.A.T. ON ELECTRICITY AND WATER...TAKE THIS AND THAT...WHEN U WERE THE ONE WHO WENT WRONG...U SHOULD HAVE COMPLETED NEGOTIATIONS BEFORE U IMPLEMENTED V.A.T...AND NOBODY SEE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT...THEN HE WANT ME...ANGEL BROUET 2 SHUT UP ABOUT GRYNBERG...I JUST STARTING ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT GRYNBERG PRIME MINISTER...SO..­.DO WHAT U MUST 2 SHUT ME UP!!!!!"
Source of story: http://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10200285259113929&id=1227106846&refid=7&_ft_=qid.5831806174567276319%3Amf_story_key.1177052073077698956

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A NEW WAY FORWARD FOR ST LUCIA

By LPM Leader Therold Prudent.

My fellow Saint Lucians,

Permit me to wish you a prosperous new year on behalf of the Lucian People's Movement (LPM).
The year that has just concluded was not spent without much social frustration and economic hardships. The Saint Lucia that we once knew or had envisioned would emerge ever since our founding as an independent state in 1979 has not materialized.
However, while it is true that our country is not heading in the right direction, this does not mean that all is lost. It is within this context that I wish to deliver my address to you today and to help define a better future that is based on less partisanship and a commonsense approach to national consciousness.
It is with a renewed sense of commitment to broadening the base of the LPM that we continue this very difficult fight. We hope to offer all of our citizens the kind of government that is truly embracing and respectful of your rights to openly disagree with the policies of your government without fear of victimization or fear that your dissenting voices maybe interpreted as being anti-government, consequently leading to a systematic denial of opportunities for employment and social mistreatment. We in the LPM continue in this very difficult fight to one day present ourselves as a worthy alternative to 60 years of political dominance by both the Saint Lucia Labour Party and the United Workers Party.
As citizens of Saint Lucia , it is true that we all should have the fundamental right to contribute ideas towards national development equally and to be afforded the opportunity to participate openly in the management of our country. However, the reality of what has been in existence in Saint Lucia over the last 60 years does not paint an encouraging picture of a country that is serious about respecting the rights of all of its people.
In elections after election, we have yearned for real change. However, in each of these elections, we are stuck with the same old cycle of government in this country. Therefore, as one government is elected and another is democratically ousted, the jobs that become available are quickly filled by a select group of cronies of the incoming government while the economic status of a vast number of Saint Lucians remains uncertain. With each election, no real change is realized.
For years, we have lived in a society where most of us refuse to question the actions of our government or even to allow ourselves for once to be at odds with our party. The party, in our view, becomes more important and even greater than the general interest of the country. Even more sadly, it often supersedes our internal and personal struggles to rid ourselves of a life of abject poverty. In this regard, we have become accepting of the fact that the party that we have worked so hard to elect to office can do no wrong. Additionally, we accept that the political appointees whom they have selected to fill the new positions upon assuming government are qualified and are committed and knowledgeable enough to go out in the world to attract the kind of investments that Saint Lucia needs so badly to redeem it from the yoke of poverty.
Sadly, most of these persons turn out to be square pegs in round holds. For the majority, the only real qualification they had was not having a job during the years that their party was out of office, having come from an influential family, or having a very close association to the elected members of that government or a particular party. In other words, our system of political patronage does not take into account whether the interest of the country will be served.
This is no way to run a country, especially one that is bursting at its seams with record high unemployment, social degradation, and a very youthful population that seems uncertain of their future or their place within our Saint Lucian society. Time is no longer on our side. If after 34 years of independence, we still have not been able to lay the proper foundation for economic independence and prosperity for our people, this alone should be an indicator of how much time we have wasted on governments and political organizations whose only agenda is becoming the national employment agency for only a few.
They borrow large sums of money to create temporary jobs, which in a few weeks will become non-existent to those who were lucky enough to have them in the first place. They ignore the fact that what Saint Lucia truly needs is an infusion of local and foreign investments, as well as a qualified governmental workforce with the ability to go out into the world to attract investments. They fail to lay simultaneously a progressive foundation to afford real opportunities for entrepreneurial Saint Lucians to start their own business without bureaucratic red tape. The moment for embracing a path towards economic sustainability is quickly passing us by.
We recognize the personal frustration of many of our people, and this was clearly demonstrated during our recently concluded National Consultation Tour in December. Saint Lucia needs a better way forward, and the LPM must do its part in transforming Saint Lucian society. We must ensure that our movement becomes a vehicle for a new day, where an entire nation, rich and poor, young and old, flambeau et Etoile alike, can overlook petty political differences to work together to advance their collective national interests.
This year, the LPM is determined to establish a recognizable presence throughout the length and breadth of Saint Lucia. From the official opening of our National Headquarters in Gros Islet to the establishment of numerous constituency branches and the offering of numerous training programs and assistance to Saint Lucians who are interested in blazing the path to self-sustainability, we are determined to prove that a political organization in opposition does not always have to be in power to do the best it can for the people of our country. Therefore, we invite you to become a part of something new, a new way of thinking. We hope you will join us in a political movement whose guiding principle is to advance your interests, not its own or that of its inner circles.
Within the LPM, you will find full acceptance and the opportunity to suggest new ideas. You have the opportunity to become part of the change that you have envisioned for your country. I pray that God will bless this beautiful island of ours and grant us a prosperous New Year.

Thank you!

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IMPACT OF PROPOSED SALARY INCREASES

During his address to the nation last night on the present negotiations between government and the unions, the PM made these statements to let Lucians know what the impact will be if government grants the unions a 15% salary increase.
( The full text of this address can be read by clicking on the link below)
"The current proposal by the Trade Union Federation for a wage settlement will increase the Government wage bill by about $55 million annually for every year in the future. The back pay associated with this proposal would cost about $40 million, leading to a worsening of the current deficit of close to $100 million for this financial year. It also means that for every ensuing year, Government would have to borrow an extra $55 million just to meet the increase. This is clearly a path that a responsible government should not take.
Even with the offers on the table from the Government Negotiating Team of a lump sum payment, which is equivalent to a one-off three percent increase, Government would still have to borrow an extra $10 million just to pay wages.
We still have the chance to avoid going to the IMF but this will involve some very tough decisions. It will involve rebalancing our expenditure and taking steps to ensure that we borrow only for high-return capital projects. These are the realities that face us. That is why I urge that we need - all of us - to sacrifice collectively.

If we agree on a wage settlement higher than what our country can afford then we would have to immediately reduce or eliminate a number of programmes to fund this new expenditure. The subsidy on petroleum would have to be reviewed and we may have to move to a full pass-through mechanism where fuel prices increase every time the price of oil goes up on the world market. The Government subsidies on rice, sugar and flour would have to be reviewed. VAT would have to be imposed on water and electricity and a range of other items that are now VAT-exempt or zero-rated.
We would also have to revisit the size and configuration of the Public Service to see where we can obtain the savings required to finance the salary increases that are being requested. These are the steps that Government would have to consider in attempting to guide the country away from the looming fiscal crisis. In fact, even without the impact of the union-proposed wage increases, there is still a need to cut back on a number of activities because we simply cannot continue to borrow at the rate of the past three years.
I wish to state categorically that our Government does not want to reduce spending on education, health services, national security or social safety nets to assist the poor and vulnerable in order to pay higher wages to Public Officers. Neither do we wish to reduce the size of the Public Service and increase the pool of unemployed people in our country at this time."
http://www.stlucia.gov.lc/press-release/address-nation-current-financial-situation-and-wage-negotiations-public-sector-hon-dr

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Prime Minister to Address the Nation on Wage Negotiations | Government of Saint Lucia

Prime Minister and Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs, Hon. Dr. Kenny D. Anthony will address the nation on Sunday, January 06, 2013. The address will focus on the economic challenges facing Saint Lucia and the ongoing wage negotiations with public service unions.
According to the Prime Minister,
"The issue of wage negotiations is not solely a matter between the Government and the Public Sector Unions. It involves the Government, the unions and the entire country. It is vital that all sectors of our society and economy understand the nature of the problems confronting us because there will be consequences for all citizens. For this reason, I will lay out the full facts; review the performance of the economy, and the implications of any wage settlement for the future prospects of our economy."
The address will be delivered on all television networks at 8.00p.m
Source: http://www.stlucia.gov.lc/press-release/prime-minister-address-nation-wage-negotiations

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