To them, world economics is non-existent and everything starts and ends in Saint Lucia. They are, sadly, the victims of insular eyesight and having been in darkness so long, fear the light.
But, dear readers, history exposes the most modest inconsistencies.
Before Sir John’s hiatus from elective politics, he sat with the Courier for an exclusive interview about Saint Lucia’s economic landscape following the end of the preferential trade with Britain. At the end of the interview, Compton stressed the importance of getting with the times. In his own estimation, bananas - and agriculture - had to evolve.
INTERVIEWER: Would you accept the view that St Lucia is at a kind of crossroads - that with bananas no longer dominant in the economic equation, new strategic choices now have to be made?
COMPTON: Yes. We will always have people in agriculture because we have the resources and the land is fertile. But there is a limit. That means we have to look towards tourism…That means we need to be able to repair a refrigerator when it goes wrong and do all the other things that need to be done in a service industry. So we have to start educating our people for that.
For the late UWP leader, banana farmers had to also become farmers of different crops in order to meet evolving demands.
COMPTON: And we have to look at meshing it all together. If you are a farmer, you should be asking what the hotels need. If bananas are out, what can they be replaced with? And you can't go back to the old slash and bum techniques either. We need to introduce appropriate technologies so that people can make a living on small areas of land. These are the kinds of challenges that we need to tackle.
Saint Lucia still continues to export bananas some 30 years after the termination of the preferential trade agreement, although not to the UK. Farmers, as envisioned by the former PM, do sell their produce to the different hotels.
UWP in 2023 has either shifted gears or lost focus entirely. My money is on the latter, but that’s just me. Instead of listening to their father, they repeat the utterances of their current leader - whose personal philosophy seems to be “first thought, best thought”.
The Opposition is without a rudder or suitable port to dock. They are seemingly against economic diversification and would support a return to an agriculture-based economy. Or, by their past actions, support a tourism model which alienates Saint Lucians altogether. Or, maybe a mixture of both options? No one knows, not even their leadership!
As for the bananas, Looshans were going utterly bananas when the PM urged the country to “eat more fig”. After Tropical Storm Bret wiped out close to 80% of bananas, Bob Marley’s prophecy came true. We did, in fact, miss the water only when the well ran dry. As the crop continues returning to its typical numbers, I remain trying to figure out how to bake a green fig pie as necessity mothers this latest culinary invention!
OPINION PIECE
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