Happy 42nd Independence Anniversary Saint Lucia
As all Saint Lucians and other interested persons celebrate our nation’s 42nd Independence Anniversary, let us all reflect on Saint Lucia’s existence as an independent nation. The challenges of the current COVID-19 predicament present a good time to reflect on the successes and failures of our nation since its independence from British control. As patriots, we should continue to constructively criticize, analyze, and assess issues being faced in Saint Lucia. The future for Saint Lucia will certainly rely on progressive thinking and strategy if we are to bounce back from the detrimental impacts of COVID-19. During this post let us review some interesting takes regarding Saint Lucia’s road to independence and its future.
Independence and Alternatives
Sir John Compton, “Father of Independence”, stated in an interview in 2005 that Independence as an individual nation was a last resort. “When I first thought of independence, I thought of independence within a Caribbean Federation. All the countries coming together and forming one nation. That is what I felt, that we would be Caribbean people. That we would be West Indians, not Saint Lucians and Bajans and Dominicans. That is how I thought when I was looking at independence. But one by one the countries dropped out. Jamaica went independent. Trinidad went independent. Barbados went independent. This dream fell and therefore we were left with no other choice. My thinking at that time was ‘together if we can, alone if we must.’ Hence, independence for Saint Lucia was a last resort. The last option, not the first.
There is so much to ponder about: what would Saint Lucia’s current situation been if our forefathers had made different choices. Some more specific questions and scenarios come to mind:
· How different would our trajectory and lives have been if we could have negotiated as one West Indian nation on the world stage?
· How much of Saint Lucia’s uniqueness would we have lost or perhaps gained if we were one West Indian nation?
· How would our responses have differed when major shocks such as COVID-19 or natural disasters occurred?
· What are the current prospects for Caribbean or even OECS integration in the next decade?
· Will the significant economic shocks that have resulted due to COVID-19 cause closer integration or will it result in even more in-fighting in the Caribbean over limited resources?
· Thinking further back, what would St. Lucia look like if it had been France, the final winner and not the United Kingdom in 1814.
Upcoming Challenges
Small island Developing States (SIDS), despite their individual distinctness, have a common set of social, economic, and environmental characteristics which puts them in a particularly difficult position to handle the COVID-19 pandemic and its ripple effects on their socio-economic welfare. Saint Lucia’s survival will depend on exploring innovative ways to handling these challenges.
One example is the UNDP Accelerator Lab in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean which encourages and promotes out-of-the-box thinking, experimentation and innovation in key sectors of the blue economy such as fisheries, waste management, renewable energy and responsible tourism. We need to see the continued development of such initiatives as this would be critical for our development. Why are there still no Enterprise projects in the blue economy in our Citizenship By Investment Programme? The Saint Lucian government will need to lead by example with economic diversification — work on long term policies for diversification away from Tourism.
Is Tourism a form of Neo Colonialism?
Neocolonialism is the practice of using economics, globalization, cultural imperialism and conditional aid to influence a country instead of the previous colonial methods of direct military control or indirect political control. Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister stated in an interview on BBC a few months ago that “more than 2/3’s of the money spent by a UK tourist visiting Saint Lucia is returned to the UK.” This obviously significantly reduces the impact of tourism to Saint Lucia particularly if we measure the strength of the industry by tourism spend.
As we celebrate our 42nd Independence Anniversary we should be reminded of Derek’s Walcott 1992 Nobel Prize Literature Speech “But in our tourist brochures the Caribbean is a blue pool into which the republic dangles the extended foot of Florida as inflated rubber islands bob and drinks with umbrellas float towards her on a raft. This is how the islands from the shame of necessity sell themselves; this is the seasonal erosion of their identity, that high-pitched repetition of the same images of service that cannot distinguish one island from the other, with a future of polluted marinas, land deals negotiated by ministers, and all of this conducted to the music of Happy Hour and the rictus of a smile. What is the earthly paradise for our visitors? Two weeks without rain and a mahogany tan, and, at sunset, local troubadours in straw hats and floral shirts beating “Yellow Bird” and “Banana Boat Song” to death.” Are we seeing the impact of the over-dependence on tourism that Derek Walcott warned us about almost thirty years ago?
In the past, Saint Lucia has relied heavily on preferential trade from Europe for sugar cane and bananas. Presently, Tourism makes up a significant portion of the GDP. We are not spared the fragilities of this tourism industry. Like the sugar-cane plantations, Saint Lucians do not own the main tourism investments and majority of the tourism spend is returned to the source markets of the UK, US and Canada. This further begs the question: Are we in Saint Lucia truly “independent”?
Recovery Prospects
As most global economies continue to reel from the detrimental economic impacts of COVID-19, Saint Lucia’s tourism sector has taken a major hit. Small island independent states such as Saint Lucia need appropriate policy responses to minimize the negative impacts of COVID-19. Short term employment such as building roads is just simply not enough. This paper provides a quantitative analysis of possible paths of SIDS on recovery from the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. The data suggests a slower recovery for many SIDS, including Saint Lucia, as compared to robust economies that are more diversified and therefore able to bounce back faster.
The magnitude of current COVID-19 crisis relative to previous shocks is unknown and uncertain at this time. The analysis suggested that, if income in advanced economies fell by 6 per cent in 2020 and bounced back in 2021, then growth of per capita income in SIDS may need about 4 to 5 years to be able to return to the projected path under the baseline scenario without the COVID-19 crisis. The actual speed and duration of recovery is likely to be even slower and longer, considering other factors, such as additional impacts from climate change and tourism dependence (HIA project is the largest ever capital project in Saint Lucia).
Vaccine Inequality
It was good to see the vaccination campaign finally begin in Saint Lucia on February 18th, thanks to a gracious donation from Barbados and Dominica of 3000 doses of Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine. The vaccine rollout and distribution and clear vaccine inequality is likely to cause further challenges for tourism dependent economies such as Saint Lucia. “As wealthy Westerners get vaccinated first and are convinced by flawed “win-win” narratives of relieving their “travel itch” and at the same time supporting struggling tourism enterprises, old and new forms of inequality will quickly get entrenched. In countries that will likely receive and distribute vaccines much later, a new form of “vaccine apartheid” is set to emerge. Privileged vaccinated tourists will feel safe enough to travel to these countries but will still pose a risk to local people, as vaccines are not known to prevent inoculated individuals from transmitting the virus. Unvaccinated local workers would be forced by financial need to take up exploitative jobs in the tourism sector to service foreigners and thus face the risk of contracting COVID-19, continuing to circulate the virus within working-class communities in the South.” How is the current administration planning to mitigate this significant concern given the hypocrisy in COVID-19 protocol enforcement?
As an independent nation, we have an exceedingly difficult next few years ahead of us. Our government needs to be one that would be able to help through these challenging times, and not saddle future generations with escalating debt.
Happy Independence Saint Lucians! Let us enjoy, savor the moment, and work together to combat the upcoming challenges that our great nation will need to overcome.
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