At his party’s big rally in Castries on Tuesday evening, St Lucia Labour Party leader, Kenny Anthony, publicly linked Senator Ausbert d’Auvergne with men convicted in the US for money laundering, fraud and drug-trafficking.

One might be forgiven for thinking Tuesday evening’s event on the steps of the Castries market was a last-lap carnival jump-up.  Calypso music blared from massive speakers, while scores of suspiciously high characters pranced and danced.  The smell of barbecue chicken filled the air and the red-shirted folk vigorously hugged like long-lost friends getting re-acquainted. 

Heineken Green Synergy is back. The summer time DJ competition which has been the talk of the town on the entertainment calendar since it was introduced here in 2004, saw the 2007 media launch taking place on Thursday July 19 at Spinners, Union.

Who will be the next Digicel Rising Star? Well, 10 persons from St Lucia are in with a chance to become the next Digicel Rising Star following auditions on the weekend at the National Cultural Centre. Some 120 persons turned up for auditions on Saturday with forty chosen to face judges Nicole David, Luther Francois and Rick Wayne on Sunday.

Another 3-year-old is the latest reported victim of sexual abuse. According to her mother—a 22-year-old who was, by her own account, physically and verbally abused by her common-law husband—the child had demonstrated how her father abused her.

From the opening bell, Mary Rackliffe’s  relationship with Sylvester JnBaptiste, alias Chakka was doomed. According to her brother Anderson James, 25, Mary had already produced two children––a girl now aged 12 and a boy now nine years old––when she and Chakka crossed paths. Kenneth Joseph, the father of Mary’s two children, was then––as now––doing prison time for house-breaking.

It is indeed quite disturbing to see the signs appearing at the entrance to Pigeon Island Causeway. They seem to be inciting St Lucians to take action against those developing the tourism sector on this island.The signs say “No Re-Colonisation!” and “Lucians! Stand up for your Home. The Beach is mine. I can bathe anytime.”

For two weeks St Lucia Electricity Service Workers—represented by the Seamen Workers Union—pounded the pavement, placards held high, in strike action in order to make it clear to the company’s management that they meant business. Although their numbers dwindled during the last week the strike had caused LUCELEC to bend to some of the wishes of the employees, but only after a government ordered tribunal. But there are still some issues that the Union and LUCELEC are not able to agree on.

It was reported in at least one newspaper that at a meeting on the William Peter Boulevard last September outgoing president of the National Council on Public Transportation and now Communications and Works Minister, Guy Joseph had made the following statements: “ . . . In 1997, Claudius Francis promised to shut down the country for two weeks prior to elections and told me that I was the only person who could make it happen . . .”

A 57-year-old man puts pen to paper: “Doubtless you are wondering what has happened to me.  Well, perhaps the letterhead speaks for itself.  The one thing I feared most about my job has come to pass––there was 216 kilos of cocaine hidden in a specially-manufactured compartment in the stern.  So here I am––frustrated, angry and very bitter.”

Chess is one of those past times that enable students to have fun while at the same time enhancing their intellectual abilities. Despite that the student turn-out for the chess competition sponsored by EC Global held at the St Joseph’s Convent was less than flattering. It’s highly unlikely that the chess fanatics who’d come to compete even noticed or cared. They were much to engrossed in the games they were playing.

They marched and protested demonstrating solidarity and purpose. They stood firmly for what they believed they deserved. On Tuesday, all 83 of the striking Lucelec workers returned to work after three weeks of protest. Several attempts were made by unions, government ministers and company executives to resolve the dispute but the outcome of the tribunal will not be released until Friday.

The St Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association held a consultation with security managers on Tuesday at the Auberge Seraphine. The consultation was organized in order to arrive at a consensus on the actions necessary to ensure the compliance of the Security Sector to the Private Security Act which was passed in the House of Assembly recently and to take proactive steps to improve the management of security in the tourism industry through the implementation of an integrated security strategy.

Imagine what it would be like to be able to acquire a loan for $2000 in a short space of two hours. St Lucians don’t have to imagine it anymore because an initiative by a non-banking financial company, Fast Cash is soon to make it a reality. The company held their official launching ceremony at the Sandals Grande Hotel on Thursday evening.

A forecasted tropical depression; overcast skies; an advertised carnival queen show in an open-air venue were all the ingredients needed for a disastrous night.  And that’s exactly what the obviously shortsighted (sorry folks) organizers of the Vieux Fort carnival queen show got when pageant lovers, family and supporters of the contestants turned up at The Pheonix entertainment centre on Saturday evening.

Head of the agricultural technical mission to St Lucia, Dr Yih-Shiow Chang is presently on island. He arrived here on Wednesday, and on Thursday paid a courtesy call to Agriculture Minister Ezechiel Joseph. Joseph said it is very important that Chang is on island because the ministry needed to start its agricultural programs.

Ailing prime minister of St Lucia Sir John Compton is slowly but surely recovering and eager to get back into office. But for the time-being, said his wife Lady Janice, he is taking it one day at a time. In the first public comments since the octogenarian politician took ill during a routine medical check in New York, Lady Janice said that the part of the brain that was affected by the series of strokes affected his locomotion––balance and movement.

Super J Supermarkets has agreed to sponsor the Pan Exodus Steel Orchestra for yet another year.  The supermarket chain presented the group with a cheque for $25,000 dollars this week. The money will help facilitate the group’s participation in the upcoming 2007 Panorama competition. The Super J Pan Exodus Steel Orchestra, as they’ve become known, have fallen short of winning in previous outings but hopes are high for a better showing in this year’s contest.

On Tuesday July 3, the graduating class of the Entrepot Secondary School wore their uniforms for the last time. The school held their much anticipated graduation ceremony at the National Cultural Center. The five years spent at the school had flown by faster than any would have expected.

The community of Piat, Grande Riviere will never be the same. Since the murder of resident Marcia Philbert-Jules last week neighbors have been uneasy about the usually peaceful area. Philbert-Jules was found last Monday in her bathroom with several stab wounds. Police investigators had described her homicide as a robbery gone wrong and have arrested and charged a 15-year-old boy from the same area. Four other young men were also arrested but later released.

I extend my apologies in advance for sounding like a broken record when it comes to issues with the NCC as a location for calypso shows, but here goes: It was hours after I had left for home after the Power Soca, that I had to return to the National Cultural Center for the semi-final round of the calypso competition.

One of the many persons who knew Marcia Philbert-Jules well is Speaker of the House Sarah Flood-Beaubrun. The two had worked alongside each other for almost six years. Flood-Beaubrun told the STAR that throughout that time she had a good opportunity to access Marcia and could tell exactly what kind of person she was.

St Lucia has joined its Latin American and Caribbean counterparts in calling for the indigenous cinema and audiovisual sector to be recognized as significant contributors to the preservation and promotion of Caribbean culture and economic development. The island was represented by a two-member delegation (Bernard Fanis of Visual Domain Limited and Katherine Atkinson, a member of the Culture Sub-commission of the Saint Lucia National Commission for UNESCO) at the 5th International Congress on Culture and Development in Havana, Cuba from June 11–14.

Local Engineer, Mr Sean Matthew recently became the first Saint Lucian to achieve the status of Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (UK). The Fellow Grade is the highest elected grade of membership within the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE).