The Nobel Laureate Festival Committee launches its annual Nobel Laureate Festival this weekend, January 9-31, under the theme Celebrating Excellence: Facing New Realities. Creating New Modalities. Coordinator Delia Dolor says the festival — now in its 29th year — is for the second year running under the restrictions of Covid-19 protocols. This year’s program includes The Sir Derek Walcott Memorial Lecture (on Tuesday, 18 January, Finance Administrative Centre, 7:30 p.m.) entitled “The Demand of Beauty”...

Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre says despite the country’s financial struggles in deep debt and the deadly effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Saint Lucians still have a chance to make 2022 a better year by grabbing new opportunities and making renewed efforts to create a new agenda for national social and economic transformation. In his first New year Address as Prime Minister under the theme ‘Our People and Nation Will Overcome’, Pierre said now that...

As the fallout continues following Nicaragua’s break of diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a Taiwanese legislator is accusing the island’s ex-ambassador of ‘treason’ and calling for his punishment by having his pension withheld. Details in the following January 3, 2022 news item from the Taiwan News newspaper in Taipei: ————————————————————————————— By Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A former lawmaker is accusing Taiwan’s ex-ambassador to Nicaragua of treason for quitting his post before...

The island nation struggles to keep the lights on but has inoculated 90% of the population with home-developed vaccines Article By:  Ed Augustin in Havana – For THE GUIARDIAN   General Máximo Gómez, a key figure in Cuba’s 19th-century wars of independence against Spain once said: “Cubans either don’t meet the mark – or go way past it.” A century and a half later, the aphorism rings true. This downtrodden island struggles to keep the lights on, but...

Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre says the most pressing national health crisis remains the COVID-19 pandemic and maintains that the Omicron and Delta variants, leading to a new (Fifth) wave, further confirms his deeply-held conviction that “The Scientific way to reduce the burden on health infrastructure and reduce death is by getting people vaccinated.” Noting the Omicron experience has reconfirmed that the increased hospitalizations being recorded globally still involve mainly unvaccinated people, the...

Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) member-states have started 2022 brimming with confidence after winning several categories of the coveted annual Caribbean Travel Awards 2022. “Defying the challenges of a global pandemic that dealt a devastating blow to the main revenue-generating industry for Eastern Caribbean countries,” says a statement from the OECS Secretariat, “member-states have had to strategically pivot” their tourism operations “to manoeuver a myriad of challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.” Thanks...

Saint Lucia started 2022 with a new COVID-19 wave – and a plea by the Chairman of the National COVID-19 Management Center for citizens to do more to show they love themselves, their family and friends. In his latest bulletin circulated online on December 28 entitled “The Fifth COVID Wave Has Begun”, Chairman Cletus Springer acknowledged that “all key indicators point to the start of a Fifth Wave of COVID-19 in Saint Lucia.” Not surprisingly,...

Saint Lucia’s leading newspaper is calling on Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre to be more decisive and to take the necessary actions to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, instead of pleading with citizens to be more responsible in taking care of themselves. The Voice of Saint Lucia, the island’s oldest newspaper, says the current challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic are so dire that the Prime Minister needs to revisit his confidence placed in Saint Lucians to...

Article from the Jamaica Observer: The seamlessness with which Mr Gordon “Butch” Stewart’s sprawling empire has continued to operate, evident most in the agility of his Sandals Resorts to navigate the challenges facing the tourism industry, remains testimony to the true mettle of the man, a year after his passing today. If the Caribbean had been jittery that his passing would have upended the region, what we have witnessed instead is stark proof of the...