Sailing

Set sail in St. Vincent and the Grenadines far from the tourist crowds

Daryl Richel
Freelance


It's Day 1 of our 11-day sailing adventure around this Caribbean country that comprises a group of islands located just west of Barbados. Our captain, Phil Hunt, my brother-in-law, is all smiles as he steers our chartered 46-foot sailboat through big waves.

I'm not having as much fun as Phil. The sun is warm on my shoulders as I bend over, staring into the beautiful blue water rushing along the smooth white hull. My breakfast has reappeared overboard, thanks to my first bout of seasickness.

All I can think of is how I'm going to cope with 10 more days of this living hell. Mariners say it's bad luck to start a sea voyage on a Friday ... it's a Friday.

Phil reassures me that this will be a long-remembered and spectacular holiday. The plan is to set sail every day (oh, please no) and head for islands ringed with white sand beaches, where we will snorkel with turtles, meet lots of friendly locals and eat great food. Sounds wonderful, except for the potential of spending my days coping with daily seasickness.

I want to have a good time here and so do the rest of my extended family (there are six of us). They all seem to be doing just fine in the boat's small cockpit. I bite my lip, pull up my bootstraps and do a little happy dance when, after a three-hour sail from St. Vincent, we arrive at our first island, Mustique.

Mustique is the quintessential Caribbean hideaway for the rich and famous. We drop anchor near what is reportedly Tommy Hilfiger's 100-foot yacht. Mick Jagger, Bryan Adams and Hilfiger have homes here.

As the sun is setting, we take our little zodiac to shore and the first thing I notice is the emptiness of the road. Every now and then a little golf cart putts by, but other than that, the street is deserted; it's just empty white sand beaches and palm trees.

Tonight we're eating at the Cotton House, an 18th-century cotton warehouse that has been painstakingly converted to a restaurant and hotel. The highlights of our gourmet meal include the fried seafood served in a brown paper bag and prosciutto sliced in the dinning room on a spotless, antique hand-cranked Italian meat slicer.

Although our first meal of the trip is in a high-end restaurant, most of the time we cook and eat on the boat. Life on a 46-foot sailboat may sound like a dream holiday, and for the most part it is. But there's work to be done, too.

When we're under sail, each of us has a job. Since I'm usually feeling a bit off during our crossings, my job is to cook for the family at anchor. Funny that the person with the most sensitive stomach is in charge of looking after everyone else's. The others are responsible for duties like closing hatches, managing lines and raising the anchor

Water is also a concern. We start the trip with 900 litres of fresh water and use it sparingly so we don't run out. Basically, each of us can use about 15 litres of water per day. In 10 days, I had one shower with soap -- on land, not on the boat.

Ten days and one shower might sound a bit scary, but we swim at least three or four times a day. After a swim, we stand on a dive platform on the stern of the boat and hose the saltwater off with a little fresh water. Very refreshing. I'm discovering that life on a sailboat is like camping with bed sheets and running water, except the campground never stops moving.

After our big night out at the Cotton House, we are all tucked into our private berths as the boat rocks back and forth. In the middle of the night, Phil and the rest of the family are suddenly all up yelling and screaming in the kitchen. Something is going very wrong. From the sounds of the calamity, it seems we've been boarded by a robber.

I jump up and discover the unwanted visitors are six or seven small bats flying wildly around the kitchen. The bats flew down the open companionway hatch and are feasting on bananas left on the counter. We clean up the banana shrapnel scattered over the highly varnished teak kitchen and try to get a couple more hours of sleep before we head off in the morning to our next island.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines is one of the few nations that doesn't have a military. You can see why as we arrive in Mayreau, a two-hour sail from Mustique. Mayreau defines the term "laid back" -- no police, 500 metres of paved road and about 300 residents.

The crossing to Mayreau is delightful so I'm starting to think my initial seasickness is behind me.

Tonight for supper we go to the Robert Righteous and 'de Youth Seafood Restaurant and Bar, a slap-dash eatery covered in hundreds of tattered posters of Mario Lemieux, the band Toto, Bob Marley and many more. Owner Robert Righteous has a booming voice and working-class hands.

Robert was born on Mayreau and worked on a shrimp boat for a few years: that explains the hands. He acquired the land to build the restaurant after he squatted on it until the government said he could just keep it.

As Robert works the room he says, "After five years of squatting, I told the government I was providing some work for the locals, so they sent a survey crew to look at the land and said I could keep it."

Robert and his kids ('de youth') run the restaurant. One of his boys is leaving the next morning to serve in the British military. There's a big party going on that has spilled into the street ... free beer and food for everyone!

The specialty of the house is rich and delicious conch fritters -- think escargot on steroids. Conch fritters are made from meat cut out of the huge conch shells found all over the Caribbean.

From Mayreau, we head to Union Island. The main city on Union is Clifton, from where we see car traffic for the first time since we left St. Vincent.

Many of the shops cater to foreign sailors looking to stock up on supplies. Frozen ricotta and mushroom metzaluna pasta, Camembert and calamata olives are available.

The most unusual restaurant and bar in the Grenadines is on a small fabricated "island" in Clifton Harbour, Union's main port. This is Happy Island and its owner and builder is Janti Ramaj.

"I built Happy Island," he says, leaning on his bar, "because I'm full of magic. I added lots of shells on top of a reef and then used cement to hold the whole thing together." He also added sand, planted some palm trees and built a little dwelling.

Happy Island is about the size of a four-car garage and it takes about 11 seconds to walk across, which means his project is probably the smallest land reclamation project in the world. Like Robert, he squatted on his Happy Island until the government said he could stay.

Janti smiles and says, "I have a good relationship with the government and I use solar power so I'm a model for sustainability."

Mass tourism would likely drive out small operators like Robert and Janti. Unlike almost every other country in the Caribbean, however, mass tourism is not king in the Grenadines. That's mostly because the islands are accessible only by smaller boats and aircraft; S.V.G. doesn't have an airport that can handle big jets, either.

As a result, small, locally owned hotels and restaurants abound, instead of the mega-resorts seen in places like Jamaica and Barbados. The Grenadines' most spectacular islands don't have a single hotel or restaurant.

The Tobago Cays is a national marine park made up of five small islands. The park's formula to preserve the area's coral reefs and marine life is simple: no development. Zero.

Once our anchor is firmly set in the soft white sand, we jump off the boat for our first snorkel in the cays. We're all hoping to catch a glimpse of a sea turtle and can't believe our luck when we see one on our first swim. A Hawksbill about the size of a stovetop is eating short blades of sea grass just three metres below us.

We thought how lucky we were to see a turtle the first time out, but discover that turtles are so common in the park it's almost impossible to go snorkelling and not see one.

On our last day we make a beeline from Bequia to St. Vincent. The boat is due back at the charter company by noon. S.V.G. and the West Indies region is famous for the trade winds that seem to never stop blowing (even at night!). That's why it's so popular with sailors.

The wind is blowing and I'm seasick again, this time even worse than 10 days ago. It's only the second time I'm seasick on the trip -- once at the start of the trip and now again at the end. Barfy bookends, but I'm happy to go through a little hell to get a lot of heaven ... and it's not a Friday.

IF YOU GO:

- Chartering a sailboat: Chartering a boat in S.V.G. costs around $3,500 per week. We used Barefoot Yacht Charters www.barefootyachts.com. If you don't know how to sail or don't have a friend or brother-in-law with an extensive sailing resume, you'll have to pay for a captain at $120 per day.

- Getting there: Air Canada flies to the Barbados via Toronto. From Barbados, the 45-minute flight to St. Vincent on a twin propeller Dash 8 that seats about 40 people is operated by LIAT Airlines and costs about $50 one-way. If you want an authentic meal while you wait for your flight to St. Vincent, you wouldn't find one at the airport. There's a funky rum shack right across the street from the airport that serves local specialties like macaroni pie and fried flying fish.

- Visas: Canadian citizens with valid passports are issued tourist visas at the St. Vincent airport.

- What not to wear: It is illegal to wear or import camouflage clothing in S.V.G. .

- Money: S.V.G. uses the Eastern Caribbean Dollar (EC) which is fixed to the U.S. dollar at a rate of $2.68 EC for one U.S. dollar. U.S. and Canadian dollars are also excepted at many businesses. Hotel and restaurant costs are about the same as in Canada.
© The Edmonton Journal 2008


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A Bit of Paradise

Land of the blessed
Grenadines holiday like being in a little bit of paradise
Posted By BY MEGHAN HURLEY, THE CANADIAN PRESS



As our small prop plane started to descend into St. Vincent, I was mesmerized by the turquoise glow of the Caribbean Sea and the endless stretch of black sand beaches along the coast of the island.

We landed before sunset on the island that used to be called Hairoun, which means land of the blessed. The name rings true with its towering volcano, genuine local people and separation from mass tourism.

The island's airport, located 160 kilometres west of Barbados, can't handle big jets. The appeal is that it's an off-the-beaten-path vacation spot.

The drive to the volcano along the windward coast to the countryside took us through banana and coconut plantations. We stopped along the way to pick soursop, breadfruit and guava that were growing in abundance.

After eating fresh guava and picking some other fruit, we arrived at the base of the volcano for a trek up to the top.

I certainly wasn't ready for the 2 1/2-hour steep hike in the suffocating humidity of a tropical rainforest.

To gauge your progress, the hike can be split into four quarters -- each with a distinctive landmark, such as large boulders or an opening in the trees.

I barely made it to the end of the first quarter before collapsing on a stair created out of bamboo. After some much needed water and mangoes, we to the next quarter.

As we hiked, I heard the crunch of bamboo leaves underneath my running shoes, the sound of trees scratching against each other and the eerie quiet of a place far away from civilization. We travelled through bamboo groves, rainforest and vegetation stunted by the altitude before reaching the top.

The hike seemed to last forever and was tougher than anything I've ever done. There were moments I just couldn't go on and had to sit on a rock trying to muster enough energy continue.

As soon as I turned around and saw the view, I realized that the sweat, pain and almost bursting into tears was worth it.

The view was absolutely breathtaking.

I sat on a rock munching on some Caribbean treats while peaking into the crater of the volcano several hundred feet below. A thick, mysterious fog covered the landing and made me feel as if I was in heaven.

The way down was less physically challenging, but more dangerous. I fell down the steep trail twice after slipping on loose rocks.

I was left with large scrapes along my left leg, but that was a small price to pay to be able to tell people I climbed a volcano.

The next day, I boarded the Bequia Express ferry in St. Vincent to visit the biggest of the Grenadine Islands, Bequia. St. Vincent and the Grenadines is made up of 32 islands with almost 110,000 people.

Curtis Ollivierre, who owns a local taxi company with his wife Sandra, showed me where to get good coffee on the island, where to buy sunblock and took me to some model boat shops.

Bequia, almost 15 kilometres south of St. Vincent, is known for its whaling traditions and boat-building shops.

Sargeant Brothers Model Boat Shop is a Bequian store operated by artisans who have perfected the craft of carving wooden replicas of whaling boats. Small pieces of the model boats can take days to make and bigger pieces can take as long as three weeks.

Sergeant Brothers welcomed me into their shop and showed me where the boats are made. Bequians say their island is the jewel of the Caribbean because of how the tourists easily fit in.

"It's because of the people. They're friendly and the atmosphere is completely different than the other islands," said Lawson Sargeant, a model boat builder who runs the Bequia Maritime Museum.

While walking along the beach, a man selling jewelry saw the large gashes on my leg from falling down the volcano the day before. He picked an aloe plant, cracked it open and told me to put the soothing liquid that oozed out on the scrapes.

After exploring small shops, vendors on the road and boat shops, I headed to the Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary.

A local man named Orton King took it upon himself 12 years ago to nurture turtles from the moment they are born. The turtles live in tanks at the sanctuary until they are around 36 centimetres long. That's when King releases the turtles back into the ocean.

Back on the mainland of St. Vincent the next day, I took a two-minute boat ride across to Young Island. I settled into a fenced-in private cottage surrounded by mango, almond, coffee and nutmeg trees on the 14-hectare private resort.

The cottage had an ocean-view terrace with a hammock, lawn chairs and steps leading down to the beach. A door in the bathroom led to an outdoor shower with an ocean view.

After checking in, I set sail on Young Island's own 13-metre yacht with Capt. George Kydd along the Leeward coast of St. Vincent.

Guests can charter a yacht for around $500, which includes food and drinks for up to four people for the day.

We stopped to eat lunch at Wallilabou Bay after a few hours on board admiring the view of the island from the Caribbean Sea. The restaurant was on the set where scenes from the Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Dead Man's Chest movies were filmed.

Cruising the islands doesn't have to stop with a tour of the coast of St. Vincent. On my last day in the Caribbean, I took a tiny plane ride from St. Vincent to Union Island where I boarded an 18-metre catamaran with Beresford Clifton as the captain.

Clifton described the routes he took us on and points of interest along the way. The first stop was Mayreau, the smallest of the inhabited Grenadines. It doesn't have an airport and has a population of around 250 people. The island has beautiful white sand beaches, swimming and snorkelling areas.

"There is a small resort on the island and to spend the night it's about $350 US," Clifton said as he pulled the boat up to the shore. After exploring the island, we got back on board for a lunch of Caribbean fish, chicken, rice and other treats that the chef cooked in the galley below the deck.

The next stop -the Tobago Cays. We docked and then walked to the other side of the island for swimming and snorkelling. The Tobago Cays are a cluster of five uninhabited islands surrounded by a horseshoe reef. Local boat vendors often drift to the islands selling handmade jewelry, food and many other delights.

Palm Island was the last stop on the Grenadine cruise. The island has been uninhabited by locals for many years and is now an all-inclusive resort with five white sand beaches. The perfect end to an all-day boat cruise was a dip in the ocean.

Five days in the Caribbean made me understand why the locals kept saying, "Why go to a resort in Mexico when you can come to paradise?"

- - -

Accommodations

Beachcombers is a cosy 31-room hotel with a beachfront restaurant. The nightly rates during peak season range from around $99 US for two people to $270 for penthouse suites, including a continental breakfast. www.beachcombershotel.com

In Bequia, the Friendship Bay Hotel is about 10 minutes from Port Elizabeth. Rates during peak season range from $290 a night for an ocean-view room to $775 for an executive suite. www.friendshipbay. vc.

Article ID# 1090882

Press Release - Buccament Bay

St Vincent and The Grenadines - Goes International
27 June 2008

St Vincent and the Grenadines is going international! Following a recent government press conference it has now being confirmed that work on the international airport has commenced following the delivery of the necessary heavy machinery and that it is anticipated that the new airport will open on time in 2011.

Dave Ames Marketing Director of Harlequin Property said, “Confirmation of the construction of the new international airport on St Vincent is the final piece in the jigsaw, in what has been a whirlwind rise to international awareness. Once an isolated chain of islands, St Vincent and the Grenadines are now one of the most talked about emerging markets to date and their presence within the Caribbean has undoubtedly been felt as they now start to rival their more well known and richer neighbours such as Barbados and Antigua.”

St Vincent and the Grenadines which used to be primarily recognised for its banana plantations has experienced a dramatic change of fortunes in recent years, with investors realising that this prime development land which is just 30 minutes flying time from Barbados and only 20 minutes from St Lucia offered extraordinary value for money. Now with a keen eye on tourism and the obvious financial rewards that are associated with increasing numbers of visitors the international airport will help springboard St Vincent and the Grenadines into a new era of prosperity, which shrewd international investors will also benefit from.

Harlequin Property is currently marketing their flagship development, Buccament Bay on St Vincent and the Grenadines. Situated on the West coast of the island just 15 minutes from the airport it offers a selection of studio, one and two bedroom apartments along with one and two bedroom cabanas and a selection of premier plantation houses set around a lagoon within its own private bay.

Each property comes fully furnished to the highest standards and facilities include swimming pools, gymnasium, full hotel facilities, spa, restaurants, bars, sports facilities, shops and water sports. In addition their will be a casino and a marina which will be home to a pirate ship (restaurant) which further highlights the fact that the blockbuster trilogy of Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed just a few miles away. (The pirate ship has been traditionally built in Indonesia and will shortly commence its maiden voyage).

Prices at Buccament bay start from just £120,000 and there is a 10% rental guarantee for two years followed by a 50% room share rate for the subsequent five years.

For more information, visit harlequinproperty.co.uk.

Garifuna Reunion

Reprinted from Caribbean Net News caribbeannetnews.com

Garifuna Coalition plans reunion in St Vincent
Published on Wednesday, June 25, 2008

NEW YORK, USA: The Garifuna Coalition USA, Inc. a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization is planning a Garifuna reunion in St Vincent and the Grenadines in 2009, as it celebrates Caribbean-American
Heritage Month and the contributions of Caribbean-Americans throughout the United States.

As descendants from shipwrecked slaves who sought refuge in mainland St Vincent, who intermarried with the Caribs and Arawaks, the Garifunas or Black Caribs, are part of the unique cultures and meltingpot of ethnicities that have their roots in the Caribbean. 211 years ago, everybody wondered if the Garifunas were going to survive as a people and live a long healthy life.

Two years after the paramount Garifuna Chief Joseph Chatoyer was killed on March 14, 1795, the Garifuna people were exiled from their native land of St Vincent to the island of Roatán, off the coast of Honduras from where they dispersed along the Atlantic coast of Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and Nicaragua.

However, 211 years later, not only have they survived but many have migrated to the United States and have become a vital part of New York City’s social and economic way of life for the past seven decades, while preserving their customs, cultural values and beliefs.

The Bronx is home to the largest Garifuna Community in the world, according to unofficial estimates, the Garifuna population exceeds 100,000, which is larger than the Garifuna population of Guatemala, Belize, Nicaragua and any of the 53 Garifuna communities located in Honduras.

While the US Garifuna Diaspora has maintained links and connections with the Central American countries, such has not been the case with St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Therefore, In an effort to reestablish the link with their homeland of StVincent and the Grenadines, the Board of Directors of the Garifuna Coalition met with Cosmus Cozier, Consulate General of St Vincent and the Grenadines in New York to discuss their plan for a Garifuna reunion in St Vincent and the Grenadines in 2009.

"We are proud to be part of Caribbean-American Heritage Month and celebrate and join in recognizing the Caribbean Americans whose determination and hard work have helped make the United States a better place, while we look forward to the Garifuna Reunification in St Vincent.” said Rejil Solis, President of the Garifuna Coalition.


See http://www.garifunacoalition.org/home

Heritage site: Kingstown Public Library

Contemporary engraving after a painting of Carib indians on St. Vincent by Brunias.
In the collection of the Kingstown Public Library

Cricket in America

As Father's Day arrives Sunday and it already feels like summer, I offer today a father-son column on the
old ballgame from an immigrant's point of view.

When I say the old ball game, I do not mean baseball. That is where the immigrant part comes in. I write
of the really old ballgame -- cricket.

On the evolutionary tree of sports, the bat-and-ball game of cricket was the ancient root from which
baseball sprung. If you do not believe in evolution, it's enough you should know that the Almighty created
cricket on the first day and baseball came after Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden using
baseball mitts to cover their nakedness.

As another sign of divine providence, cricket has been in the news lately here in the United States. Yes, it
is a miracle but it is true.

The first round of stories dealt with a new professional league in India that seeks, not for the first time, to
jazz up the old game with colorful uniforms, cheerleaders and a more snappy format.

Even in India, where millions adore cricket, there is a perception that the game could be a tad faster. The
playwright George Bernard Shaw once said of the game: "The English are not very spiritual people, so
they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity."

Americans are a spiritual people and do not need a sense of eternity because they have presidential
election campaigns that strain what little patience they are born with. But cricketers do require patience,
which explains why more Americans aren't toiling away under the summer sun dressed all in white.
Still, more cricketers are here than you might think -- thanks to increased immigration from old jewels of
the British Empire such as India and the West Indies. They are reviving what was once a flourishing
game in the United States.

A Pittsburgh Cricket Club was chartered in 1882. Back in the day, Pittsburgh gentlemen with muttonchop
facial hair and ladies with parasols sat in the bleachers, chanting: "Here we go cricketers, here we
go!" OK, I made that last part up.

Further confession and full disclosure: I am one of the group that met in a bar four years ago and founded
the Pittsburgh Cricket Association, which now plays in two locations, South Park and Franklin Park.
Locally, we play a shortened version of the game, which takes a mere four hours or so of exhilarating
action, except for the frequent pauses.

There are a number of clubs in the United States that can lay claim to ancient lineage. One of them is the
Staten Island Cricket Club in New York City, founded in 1872 with continuous play ever since.
This club was the focus of the second wave of media attention recently after one of its members, Joseph
O'Neill, an Irishman who was raised in the Netherlands and was educated at Cambridge University, wrote
a much-praised novel titled "Netherland" which amazingly references the Staten Island Cricket Club in
its exploration of the post-9/11 world.

In The New York Times last month, an article about the author was titled "Pen in One Hand, Cricket Bat
in the Other." Coincidentally, this also describes the story of my life as a Singapore-born, Australianreared
cricket lover educated at the University of Hard Knocks and trying to write with a cricket bat in
one hand.

As I write this column, bat in hand, I remember my old dad sitting on a hill overlooking the school
cricket field and watching me get out in various creative ways. Only once did I make him proud, when a
shaft of light descended from heaven, blinding the bowlers (pitchers) and allowing me to score run after
run, much to the amazement of my teammates.

Early in May, that shaft of light came back briefly in Philadelphia, once the center of America's cricket
universe. Pittsburgh was playing in the Philadelphia International Cricket Festival. It was the last day of
the four-day tournament and the Pittsburgh boys found themselves short a player.

I know a player, I said. My son, Jim, 25, was in Philadelphia for the weekend. He is an-all American boy
with no patience and little experience of cricket, but he takes after his mother in sporting prowess.
So it happened that Jim and I got to play together at the Germantown Cricket Club, a grand remnant of
American cricket's glory days in the 19th century. We were playing a British team, the Privateers, whose
members all looked straight out of "Masterpiece Theatre" and were frightfully good chaps.

The situation was desperate late in the game when I strode to the wicket to join Jim at bat (two batters are
on the field at the same time in cricket and alternate hitting the ball). The shaft of light appeared and we
batted together, defiant to the last.

I was so proud. A celestial choir of old mutton-chopped Pittsburghers chanted encouragement in the sky.
Father's Day had come early for me.


(Reg Henry is a columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. E-mail rhenry(at)post-gazette.com.)
Source URL: http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/8507

Children's Hospital

Walking for lives of children
Published on: 6/7/08.

Vincentian walking legend Earl 'Ole George' Daniel and his partner, Joel Butcher, are in Barbados.
The two, who will walk across Barbados today, are here to help raise EC$1 million for a Caribbean hospital to be built in St Vincent and the Grenadines. Several children stand to benefit from the institution at minimum cost to those unfortunate parents who may not be able to get the necessary treatment elsewhere.

Today's walk, under the theme Walking For Life – Let The Children Live, is the third leg of the million dollar walk organised by the Rotary Club of St Vincent South, in partnership with the Virginia-based International Hospital for Children (IHC).

Get on board

Barbadians are asked to come out, give generously and join the event, which starts in Oistins, moving along the South Coast onto Bridgetown, then onto the Spring Garden Highway, along University Roundabout, through Black Rock, Green Hill, Eagle Hall, Baxter's Road, back to Bridgetown, up to Collymore Rock, Sargeants Village, Vauxhall and ending at Sheraton Centre.

Bernard John, coordinator of the event, speaking at Cable & Wireless, Wildey, said the new hospital would ensure that much needed medical services would be available in the region, and would cater to children under 21 years of age.



Equipment funds

John said the funds raised would go towards the purchase of necessary equipment for the hospital.

The two walkers will also participate in a major walk, which involves them trekking for eight days straight from New York to Toronto between July 19-27, stopping only to change their shoes and for bathroom breaks.

Ole George said although he knew sleep deprivation could be hazardous to their health, they were willing to do the walk, as long as it could save a child's life. (CT)


From The Barbados Nation : http://www.nationnews.com/story/18495689248168.php

Sailing, Sailimg

Saturday » June 7 » 2008
 
Set sail in Caribbean paradise
 
Daryl Richel
For Canwest News Service

Saturday, June 07, 2008

It's Day one of our 11-day sailing adventure around this Caribbean country that comprises a group of islands located just west of Barbados. Our captain, Phil Hunt, my brother-in-law, is all smiles as he steers our chartered 14.3-metre sailboat through waves.
I'm not having as much fun as Phil. The sun is warm on my shoulders as I bend over, staring into the beautiful blue water rushing along. My breakfast has reappeared overboard, thanks to my first bout of seasickness.
All I can think of is how I'm going to cope with 10 more days of this living hell. Mariners say it's bad luck to start a sea voyage on a Friday . . . it's a Friday.
Phil reassures me that this will be a long-remembered and spectacular holiday. The plan is to set sail every day (oh, please no) and head for islands ringed with white sand beaches, where we will snorkel with turtles, meet lots of friendly locals and eat great food. Sounds wonderful, except for the potential of spending my days coping with daily seasickness.
I want to have a good time here and so do the rest of my extended family. They all seem to be doing just fine in the boat's small cockpit. I bite my lip, pull up my bootstraps and do a little happy dance when, after a three-hour sail from St. Vincent, we arrive at our first island, Mustique.
Mustique is the quintessential Caribbean hideaway for the rich and famous. We drop anchor near what is reportedly Tommy Hilfiger's 30.5-metre yacht. Mick Jagger, Bryan Adams and Hilfiger have homes here.
As the sun is setting, we take our Zodiac to shore and the first thing I notice is the emptiness. Every now and then a golf cart putts by, but other than that, the street is deserted; it's just empty white sand beaches and palm trees.
Tonight we're eating at the Cotton House, an 18th-century cotton warehouse that has been converted to a restaurant and hotel. The highlights of our gourmet meal include the fried seafood served in a brown paper bag and prosciutto sliced in the dinning room on a spotless, antique hand-cranked Italian meat slicer.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines is one of the few nations that doesn't have a military. You can see why as we arrive in Mayreau, a two-hour sail from Mustique. Mayreau defines the term "laid back" -- no police, 500 metres of paved road and about 300 residents.
The crossing to Mayreau is delightful, so I'm starting to think my initial seasickness is behind me.
Tonight for supper we go to the Robert Righteous and 'de Youth Seafood Restaurant and Bar, a slap-dash eatery covered in hundreds of tattered posters of Mario Lemieux, the band Toto, Bob Marley and many more. Owner Robert Righteous has a booming voice and working-class hands.
Robert was born on Mayreau and worked on a shrimp boat for a few years. He acquired the land to build the restaurant after he squatted on it until the government said he could keep it.
As Robert works the room he says, "After five years of squatting, I told the government I was providing some work for the locals, so they sent a survey crew to look at the land and said I could keep it."
The specialty of the house is rich and delicious conch fritters -- think escargot on steroids. Conch fritters are made from meat cut out of the huge conch shells found all over the Caribbean.
From Mayreau, we head to Union Island. The main city is Clifton, from where we see traffic for the first time since we left St. Vincent. Many of the shops cater to foreign sailors stocking up on supplies. Frozen ricotta and mushroom metzaluna pasta, Camembert and calamata olives are available.
The most unusual restaurant and bar in the Grenadines is on a small fabricated "island" in Clifton Harbour, Union's main port.
This is Happy Island and its owner is Janti Ramaj. "I built Happy Island," he says, leaning on his bar, "because I'm full of magic. I added lots of shells on top of a reef and then used cement to hold the whole thing together."
He also added sand, planted palm trees and built a little dwelling.
Happy Island is about the size of a four-car garage and it takes about 11 seconds to walk across, which means his project is probably the smallest land reclamation project in the world. Like Robert, he squatted on his Happy Island until the government said he could stay.
Mass tourism would likely drive out small operators like Robert and Janti. Unlike almost every other country in the Caribbean, however, mass tourism is not king in the Grenadines. That's mostly because the islands are accessible only by smaller boats and aircraft; S.V.G. doesn't have an airport that can handle big jets, either.
As a result, locally owned hotels and restaurants abound. The Grenadines' most spectacular islands don't have a single hotel or restaurant.
The Tobago Cays is a national marine park made up of five small islands. The park's formula to preserve the area's coral reefs and marine life is simple: no development. Zero.
Once our anchor is firmly set, we jump off the boat for our first snorkel in the cays. We're all hoping to catch a glimpse of a sea turtle and can't believe our luck when we see one on our first swim.
On our last day, we make a beeline from Bequia to St. Vincent. The boat is due back by noon. S.V.G. and the West Indies region is famous for the trade winds that seem to never stop blowing. The wind is blowing and I'm seasick again, this time even worse than 10 days ago. It's only the second time I'm seasick on the trip. But I'm happy to go through a little hell to get a lot of heaven . . . and it's not a Friday.
© The Calgary Herald 2008






Copyright © 2008 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.

Shake Keane

The Angel Horn (Brooklyn, 1997)

When I was born,
my father gave to me
an angelhorn
With wings of melody.
That angel placed her lips
upon my finger-tips
and I became, became
her secret name.

Her name grew strong,
Spread like a passion tree.
She named the song,
I played the melody.
And in the morning hour
I awoke to dream of her,
And all day long, day long,
I lived her song.

In boat and barge
where songs and seas are friends
our dreams grew large,
made love where dreaming ends.
And people placed her lips
upon our finger-tips
and friends became, became,
our secret name.

Now light is low,
new angels come and go.
The passion tree
Spreads dense as destiny.
And this old angelhorn
strives like the lifting dawn!
Love moves to claim,
to claim our secret name.



Shake Keane (1927-97) was born in St. Vincent
and died in Oslo, Norway at the beginning of
a Jazz tour. The book, "The Angel Horn" was
published in 2005. Copies are available
at Gaynes bookstore in Kingsown.

Real Pirates

'Pirates of the Caribbean' isn't always fiction

By CAROL J. WILLIAMS Los Angeles Times

CHATEAUBELAIR, St. Vincent and the Grenadines – When two men wielding cutlasses and a third brandishing a gun burst onto their yacht at 1:30 in the morning, Allison Botros and the seven other people aboard suddenly realized that "Pirates of the Caribbean" is not just a movie.

"Give us your money or we will kill you," Botros, a mother of three from Cleveland cruising with Swedish and American friends, recalled the robbers telling them during the 15-minute plundering of the 70-foot Sway, which was anchored in this pristine harbor shadowed by the Soufriere volcano and rimmed by swaying palms.



After shaking down the passengers for thousands of dollars in cash, watches, cameras and cell phones, the robbers ordered skipper Harald Krecker to motor out to sea or be hit with rocket-propelled grenades.

Five months after the Dec. 22 incident, the robbery victims have yet to receive a police report, the pirates remain at large and the sleek yachts that ply the teal waters of the Windward Islands have gone elsewhere, making a ghost town of scenic Chateaubelair.

Attacks on yachters across the Caribbean have marred the luxurious cruising life with increasing frequency as the number of vessels sailing the lush islands grows year to year, and with it the lure of the sailors' valuables to thieves and drug traffickers in the region.



At least three other attacks were reported in Chateaubelair in a two-week period in December, all involving three men, two long knives and a handgun.

"What is new in the last two to three years is an increase in the use of weapons," said Melodye Pompa, administrator of the Caribbean Safety and Security Net Web site, a sailing community endeavor that logs thefts, robberies and assaults committed against boaters. "It's becoming more violent. I've tracked that across the region we cover."



Most of the hundreds of incidents collected from 30 countries and territories over the last four years involve dinghy and outboard motor thefts or burglaries of boats while passengers were ashore. But guns and knives are being used more frequently, and dozens of incidents involving beatings and stabbings are among the crimes reported to the Web site, which compiles its statistics from charter operators, marinas, harbor masters and the victims.

No one on board the Sway was hurt, but the captain of another yacht, the Chiquita, which was attacked here the next night, suffered multiple cuts, including two head wounds that required stitches at a hospital in Kingstown, the island nation's capital.

"There are times when it's happening and you think it's not real," Botros said. "At one point one of them said, 'If you don't find your wallet, I'll kill you,' and I was so traumatized I forgot that I hadn't brought my wallet on the trip. I was saying, 'Oh my God, I can't find it! I've got to find it!' thinking about our kids at home."



Yachting visitors and the local suppliers who cater to them are the mainstays of many Caribbean island economies, including St. Vincent's. A week's charter of a luxury sailing vessel such as the Sway costs upward of $13,000 plus expenses, and mega-yachts, with their onboard swimming pools and helicopters, increasingly are dropping anchor and treasure at the idyllic harbors of the region.

The December crime wave here prompted some added vigilance by the coast guard and police, but specifics of the response were unclear. Representatives of the St. Vincent police did not return calls or e-mails after receiving a request for an interview on what they were doing to combat crime against yachts.



The attacks also galvanized the island's sailing businesses. Fearing for their livelihoods, yacht charterers and provisioners anted up funds for a patrol boat and published a list of do's and don'ts for prospective cruisers. Some felt that only put the dangers in black and white.

"If I got this, I would get on the next plane out of here and go home," Mary Barnard, managing director of Barefoot Yacht Charters, said of the brochure, which essentially advises sailors to stay locked up, on board and under guard at all times.

She produced a letter from a Canadian couple who had been customers for years, in which they said that their June 2006 assault and robbery by men armed with machetes had compelled them "to stop all cruising in your area."



At the Beach Front Restaurant & Bar on Chateaubelair harbor, waiter Felix Granderson said he thought it might be safer now because of stepped-up security but that it was difficult to tell because sailors no longer anchored here. He said the pirates were holed up in the towering mountains above the harbor.

"Everybody knows who's doing it. It's guys who don't want to work, from Fitz-Hughes," he said, referring to a remote village on the flanks of La Soufriere.

Even if arrests are made in crimes against yachters, the victims are seldom able to return to identify or testify against their attackers, said Chris Doyle, author of popular cruising guides for the Caribbean.

"The islands have a judicial system that dates back a bit and is very much in favor of the criminal when the victim does not stay around," he said, explaining why the yacht pillagers seldom are prosecuted.

Police in the islands tend to be in "react mode," Pompa said of the short-lived flurries of concern and investigation that follow incidents. But some islands have taken lessons from the bad publicity when it cuts into the tourism industry on which most of them are dependent.

"The police in the islands do make an effort, especially in response to really bad and well-publicized events, such as rape," says www.cruisingguides.com. But most of the crimes cast as piracy against yachters, they say, "are no more than the occasional stolen dinghy and break-in."

"Dominica, up until about eight years ago, had a terrible reputation, and it was deserved," she said of the island about 135 miles north of here where pirates preyed on visiting vessels. When sailors stopped anchoring there, the prime minister got the business community together to bankroll a patrol boat that has reduced onboard crimes drastically, she said.



Pirates who attacked a yacht in Rodney Bay in St. Lucia – about 60 miles north of here – two years ago severely beat the captain and raped his wife, causing the number of visits to drop by half, Pompa said she was told by local officials. The government deployed a port patrol boat, which "seems to be somewhat of a deterrent," Pompa said.

Crimes against boaters are down throughout St. Lucia this year, she said, and no recent incident has involved violence, according to Web logs at safetyandsecuritynet.com.

Others with long experience sailing the Caribbean contend that it isn't so much that crime has increased, but rather the volume of cruising traffic and the means of communicating the incidents.

"There's definitely a concern, but it's really hard to say if there is more crime against yachts than there ever was or if dissemination of the information is just better now," said Sally Erdle, editor of the Caribbean Compass, a monthly newspaper published in Bequia, another island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines popular with the sailing crowd.

"With the Internet, the yachts all e-mail reports of these incidents far and wide immediately, and also discuss them on yacht and ham radio nets."

The seaboard jungle drums also can generate multiple reports of a single incident, she noted, "turning it into a dozen in the minds of the public."

"Bad things come in waves," said author Doyle, whose cruisingguides.com

includes advisories about crime waves in places of real concern such as Venezuelan islands and Chateaubelair.

(Optional add end)



"If we have a trouble spot with those responsible still loose, we need to try and warn people," he said.

"The problem then becomes, how much does the warning generalize? For example, we have had a problem in Chateaubelair, but not Cumberland or Wallilabou a few miles to the south. How do we stop people becoming so paranoid they avoid the whole west coast?"

Disturbing as the robberies and other occasional violent incidents are, they remain exceptions, he said, recalling six incidents during the last season out of 1,000 moorings by charters in St. Lucia's Soufriere Marine Management Area.

"The police in the islands do make an effort, especially in response to really bad and well-publicized events, such as rape," he said. But most of the crimes cast as piracy against yachters, he said, "are no more than the occasional stolen dinghy and break-in."

A series in the Antigua Sun. Toward the end there are parts about St. Vincent




The [Caribbean] media in the 21st Century
Wednesday May 28 2008

by Hazra C. Medica


We, in the print media – and in the media on a whole – know that time changes. The public’s priorities too, we understand, also change.

Therefore, the one question a number of us, if not all of us, find ourselves ever concerned with is: “how do we remain at the top of our game?”

We are aware that we live in an age in which “mock news” more easily woos audiences than real news” – think The Colbert Report and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. We live in an age in which the consumer has become the broadcaster – “Broadcast yourself” – YouTube, the consumer media company invites users.

So how do we go about plotting our survival? How do we go about ensuring that the audience is made to feel that drastic things are bound to happen if they haven’t a copy of our newspapers, can’t listen to an episode of one of our programmes or watch our nightly news?

According to Sanka Price, Editor of Saturday Sun and Better Health, a monthly magazine at Nation Publishing, we strive to “remain relevant”.

We are in his neat cubicle at The Nation, in Barbados. He draws me an analogy. When video, came in, he tells me, many prophesied the death of the cinema. Initially, he remembers, people did “slack off” from the cinemas. But then the strange thing was, he recalls, after a short period of time, the cinema became even more popular than before.

The strength of the cinema, he tells me, lies in the appeal there is in going out, watching a movie and being with your fellow human beings that successfully rivals buying that same movie on video cassette (or DVD) even though you will own it for the rest of your life.

According to him, being relevant means recognising your market. Despite changes which might take place in the media in the Caribbean, it is our (the media) “remaining relevant” which is the one thing which will keep the people with us.

Remaining relevant, Price, a media worker of 26 years, notes is one of the “key things” every newspaper in the Caribbean has to face. According to him, the needs of the audience tend to change as do their priorities and when this happens the only way we in the media can remain on top of our “game” is to address these needs.

Price tells me about the strategies his paper has come up to remain “relevant”. He tells me that here at The Nation, what they are doing is getting more involved in what some are calling “citizen journalism.”

“So we get people to submit photographs – of accidents of anything odd and what not – and in one of the publications I do, the Saturday Sun we have Readers Photo of Week – that’s where people submit photographs and you have a whole slew of photographs to choose from.”

The response to Readers Photo of the Week has been rather positive, Price reveals, and every week he has a number of photographs to choose from.

“One of the things we also do is ask questions dealing with relationships,” he adds.

According to him, relationships are a “big deal”, particularly in an environment in which everything is fast paced and there is a lack of closeness whether that relationship is between a man and a woman or a mother and her child.

“We are having problems with relationships in general and that is why there’s this level of domestic violence and violence in general within society. So one of the things we are focussing on is having a forum where people talk about relationship and their feelings in relationship,” Price explained.

Readers can text or even e-mail The Nation; Price jokes that he never thought people could sit down to write such long texts as the ones he has been receiving.

“The point is people are responding- they want to get involved – they want to feel that interaction between us and them,” he stressed.

Of course, he accepts, discussing relationship issues “has nothing to do” with the issues the paper would normally look at, like say for instance, the economy, which is the “biggest deal” nowadays because of the rising prices.

“But there are factors that make up a total person and you know, there’s a concept that if your personal life is at least going good for you, you can weather any storm,” he explains.

In Price’s estimation, the media always has to think about its relevance since as long as “we” remain relevant then we will always have a large audience. Readers will always think about picking up a copy of our newspaper, or listening to our radio stations or watching our television stations.

“That’s what we try to do here with our different products. There are different aspects to each product that we sell here. And so although people will look at us just a paper selling seven days a week, Each paper, each day has a different character to it,” he explained.

“I can speak for the Saturday paper. The Saturday Sun, for example is light, comical, deals with relationships, and a little gossip – it also has its serious side. Monday’s paper might reflect more on health, the Wednesday more on family issues and there are of course the magazines which go along with it,” he added.

Price is not jesting when he labels each paper a “product”. There is The Daily Nation (published every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday), then there is The Midweek NATION (published every Wednesday) and The Weekend Nation (published on Fridays), The Saturday Sun (published every Saturday) and finally The Sunday Sun (published every Sunday)

With each “product”, Price explains, they at The Nation attempt to reach the average person out there: “We have to produce something that makes them want to go into their pockets and pull out their two dollars or one dollar every day,” he smiles.

It’s not only about ensuring that the audience is willing to go into their pockets on a daily basis for a copy of The Nation. It is also, as Price points out, about making people feel that they cannot live a day without doing so.

Price, who started working at The Nation on 15 Jan., 1989, has been with the media house for 19 of his 26 years in the media; prior to that he was a freelance writer. He has covered various events over the world including the 1993 aborted general elections in Nigeria and did a series of articles and photographs on life in that country and the work of Barbadian missionaries in South Africa and Malawi 2002. He has also covered the aftermath of the 1990 Jamaat al Muslimeem coup in Trinidad and the recapture of Winston Hall in St Vincent 1989.

The seasoned reporter and editor who has a number of Pan American Health Organisation Media Awards for Excellence in Health Journalism to his name holds that the old age definition of the role of the media as it concerns the unearthing of facts and informing the public on a vast array of issues still holds though it has been modified somewhat.

“Frankly if there is no press – there‘s no outlet for people to be able to understand what is really happening and put what is happening into context of what is happening in their own societies,” he affirms.

It is critical he says, for we in the press to keep trying to inform our brothers and sisters in the Caribbean about what is really going on. We in the press have to, he stresses, form a link between all the various papers and between all the various media houses.

“We have to be able to communicate between each others as professionals and then we will use that link to be able to communicate more effectively through our publics because CSME is around the corner,” he explains.

He tells of the current situation in the Caribbean in which if something happens, in say, Guyana, Suriname or the Bahamas or in the Easter Caribbean, journalists and media houses have to wait patiently for photographs- you don’t’ get them immediately- unless there is a “contact” who was “on the spot”.

The Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME), he notes, is going “to happen.” – it’s not a matter of if but when. We, (media workers and everyone else in the region) can no longer afford to continue operating as separate entities:

“We here in Barbados cannot continue operating as if Barbados is the biggest country in the world or in Jamaica as if she is the biggest country in the world and on her own. We are all, whether we like it or not, linked and interdependent,” he stressed.

“If something goes wrong with the Barbados economy, the Trinidadian economy will feel it. If something goes wrong with any of the OECS countries’ economy, the Trinidad & Tobago economy is going to feel it. I am saying Trinidad specifically- because they are the wealthiest country in the community – but their economy depends on how well we do,” he added.

In terms of developments which have affected us in the media the most, he points to the Internet as being one of the major influences in the way we cover news. He notes that the Internet is allowing the media to get the public more involved with what we are doing on a daily basis.

Thus, there are some media houses hosting blogs to which the audience can respond and some newspapers are also “looking at Internet television.” Price reveals that the Nation’s sister paper in Trinidad is doing “Internet television” in a major way.

“The Stabroek News, they have changed their Web site and also doing clips from interviews. This allows for interaction and that interaction is really necessary in terms of the longevity of the press,” he muses.

Media freedom – media responsibility

He does not mince words. He is the assistant manager and acting editor of St. Vincent’s SVG Broadcasting Corporation Ltd. (SVGBC). I ask him direct questions and he gives me direct answers.

“What passes for talk shows,” he tells me rather bluntly, “especially the politically driven talk shows, if we were in Jamaica or Barbados, a lot of those stations would get locked off the air.”

The media here, he explains to me, is rather young. Therefore, quite naturally, there are some challenges to face – and the broadcast media in St. Vincent & the Grenadines (SVG) still has some way to go

If one were to examine the radio stations, he tells me, one might find one or two trained individuals – but more likely than not, what one would also find is a lot of people with good voices but no formal training in broadcasting.

The broadcast media on the island, he reveals, is in a “transitional period” – there is a certain “looseness” in terms of standards and ethics.” There has been, he opines, since the deregulation of radio in the late 1990s, a “loose embracing of broadcast ethics and standards.”

He explains that with the late 1990s deregulation of radio came a number of “business ventures” seeking to exist in a sector that had traditional standards. But what these ventures brought was a “paucity” of trained personnel.

Consequently, he says, “there’s a lot here which would not make it anywhere else.” Whilst it is true, he opines, that they in SVG may compare themselves to countries which have a longer history of broadcasting and say “we know what we should do”, there is the fact that they are still in this “transitional period”.

Currently, there are some nine radio stations, one cable television company and one television station – a far cry from the fewer numbers of two decades ago. Growth in the broadcast media, he holds, has allowed people to “see” broadcasting as a field in which to seek employment. Things will get better, he is sure, they will just take “some time”.

Of the nine radio stations operating on the island, he says quite openly: “we have too many.” But it’s not just the number which poses the problem but the lack of policing – self or otherwise.

He knows his radio station has been guilty: “I mean even here at Hitz FM we play songs that are borderline. They would not be played in Jamaica, he told me.”

He explains the rather curious situation to me:

“You see for example, we have imported the dancehall culture, but the dancehall culture exists not in mainstream Jamaica. It exists in the clubs, and in the ghetto clubs, not in the mainstream clubs and certainly not on the air.”

He adds: “A lot of the music which we import and play on air here – we really shouldn’t if we were strictly adhering to broadcasting ethics. We have some cleaning up to do.”

The “fuzzy areas”, he holds, are being worked out. For instance, he notes, while the radio station he manages might decide not to play music that is “violence oriented” – no gun songs and the like – there might be a particular group which might complain about another set of songs. Like a women’s right group might complain about songs with strong sexual biases). Such is life in the broadcast media. But have you ever wondered about …

A typical day in the broadcast media:

He is the assistant manager and acting editor of St. Vincent’s SVG Broadcasting Corporation Ltd. (SVGBC). His name is Richard MacLeish.

So… you hear, read or see the final product on the radio or the television and you might offer up your assessment. Perhaps you think “this element” was simply brilliant whereas “that element” was simply not.

But have you ever wondered about all the work (from the ground up to management) that goes into “making a day” in the broadcast media? Have you ever pondered what a typical day might be like for the workers in TV or Radio Land?

For Richard MacLeish, a typical day at the management level is “madness”. He is in both TV and Radio Land – he is assistant manager and acting editor (as well as assistant editor) of St. Vincent’s SVG Broadcasting Corporation Ltd (SVGBC). SVGBC was formed in 1980, at least the “television part” of it was. The radio bit began around 1997.

At present, the privately owned SVGBC with a staff of about 40 workers (including part-timers) covers one television station (SVG TV – the national television station) and two radio stations – Ezee Radio (born 2006) and Hitz FM (born 1997). The fourth component of SVGBC (the Web site) still exists but hasn’t been updated for a while.

“I hit the ground running in the morning,” MacLeish tells me, “I go straight through until the evening making sure all our news products are complete. So there is not much time for anything else.”

According to MacLeish, the company has recently realised the need to brand the different entities (the radio stations and television station) as well as the corporate body separately and develop a mission and a vision which will drive the operations of each entity.

They are “winging it,” MacLeish tells me, “the overarching driver has been basically to inform, educate and entertain” the audience(s).

The content and target audience of each entity differs. Ezee Radio, he tells me, is a niche market: it’s all easy listening music – “more music let’s talk”. Ezee Radio targets the 25 and over age group. Ezee Radio has no talk shows.

Its predecessor, Hitz FM does: “On Sundays we have a two-hour talk show on social issues which does not necessarily fit our young people format but we still try to live true to our broadcasting ideals of contributing to society significantly,” MacLeish says.

Hitz FM targets the 15-35 age group and focusses more on urban Caribbean music – the so-called “young people music.” The television station, SVG TV, which is an affiliate of the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), CBS and CNN, offers a combination of local entertainment and satellite television. SVG TV depends heavily on foreign programming, though as MacLeish points, out, they have begun producing “more local content” to combat that. SVG TV targets a general audience.

As far as the radio stations go, there is no sort of “strict programming.” MacLeish reveals that whilst, for example, for Ezee Radio there might be different schedules for gospel, jazz, and so forth, it is left up to the announcers to determine what the show “would be.”

“We’re not programmed like other stations where you can actually tell who’s going to be a hit. With Hitz FM, we leave it up to the DJs and to some extent the audience to determine what is popular. We don’t use the jukebox method,” he declares rather proudly.

SVGBC, he tells me, is by no means the “new kid on the block.” The only company in SVG which is older than SVGBC is the national radio station which began as the Windward Islands Broadcasting Service (WIBS) and had been in operation for quite a while.

FM radio, MacLeish proudly informs me, began with SVGBC when Hitz FM (which is younger than SVG TV) was started – around the time when radio was deregulated.
In the media in the 21st Century - Part IIB
Wednesday May 28 2008


So … how does SVGBC – the not so new kid – keep its fingers on the pulse of the nation?

It’s quite simple really. According to MacLeish, the most effective form of marketing is viral marketing. SVG is a small society, it is therefore easy to pick up (on) trends.

“If people have complaints, we have the talk shows on the radio. We have probably the largest contingent of DJs who operate in dancehalls and clubs on weekly basis so they interact with public from a music point of view,” MacLeish muses.

“I think that’s reflective of what is played on the air, so we use that, we do some informal marketing – we pay attention to what people say and in the talk shows we hear what they want,” he adds.

The future – the media

So … we (Richard MacLeish and I) get to talking about the future of and in the media.

I ask him about the role of the media. For once, he falters. “That used to be an easy question to answer” he smiles, “but the media now, with technology, is so diverse.”

The consumers, he says thoughtfully, are now becoming broadcasters. The consumers, he adds, are determining what they want to hear, listen or see. And in the midst of all of this, he opines, the “traditional media” is being challenged to adjust to this changing landscape.

Information technology, he notes, has impacted on the way we in the media do what we do. It has, for example, made some things much easier – one could run a radio station from a computer!

If we in the media, stick to our traditional methods of “doing things”, he muses, we could very well be looking at a shortened existence. Media houses must not think that their roles have changed – we in the media are still charged with informing, entertaining and educating the populace in a responsible manner.

However, what we must realise is that the “mode of doing” what we have been charged over the decades to do is changing:

“Everyone’s going on the Internet now with live streaming or Web sites. I don’t think the role has changed, but the methods have changed significantly and we must respond to that.”

As far as standards and ethics go, he remembers when SVG-TV was the only private media entity. Then there was the deregulation of radio and the influx of several other radio stations.

“I believe, subject to correction, that the deregulation of the media was a precept to deregulating telecommunications in terms of mobile phones and the Internet. So you have to set the environment where competition could come in to deal with (the) monopoly that Cable & Wireless had,” he remembers.

The deregulation period was an OECS phenomenon – “we all started doing it about the same time,” he notes.

“I think in our haste, we as countries gave out the licences and freed up the market before we set specific standards to adhere to,” he adds.

The media, he explains, was pretty much self-policed with no “official” standards or policy existing prior to deregulation. He thinks that governments in the region are now grappling with either trying to enforce standards to guide the media or waiting for the media to grow to the point where it would be more responsible (police itself).

MacLeish remembers when a Vincentian association of journalists was vibrant up to the 1980s. It fell apart and a media workers association (of which he was an executive member) came into existence. He also remembers the resistance of the traditional journalists towards the DJs and announcers. It was felt that the latter were not as qualified and therefore it was felt “not on the same level”.

“Normally, these organisations are vibrant when there are issues against the workers. The Media Workers Association was vibrant when one or two people thought they weren’t treated fairly by their company, and after those issues were sorted out, that was it. It has been dormant since then,” he explains.

Association or no association, MacLeish remains optimistic about the face of the media in SVG in the future. He maintains that there are too many radio stations given the size of the island. He is not sure how it’s all going to pan out in the future; there must be strategic partnerships, he thinks.

MacLeish is hopeful: “At end of the day, the media will continue to keep society honest in terms of being there to basically convey the pictures, the songs and stories which reflect life as we know it. Hopefully, we will assume more of our role as educators and as influencers in terms of where we are going as a culture and people,”

Though he can’t say where the media is headed for the future, he is hopeful, that all involved will be sufficiently mature to embrace the traditional ideals of the media.


The roads leading into the Sandy Bay Community left me in awe for all the wrong reasons. The distance from the capital kept urging me: “retreat…retreat.”
It hadn’t struck home after my frantic calls to various mobile phone numbers failed.
And it still didn’t strike home when I kept thinking how isolated from the outside world the signs which read Garifuna Bakery and Garifuna Radio seemed to make the community.

I’d taken it for granted that “back home”, at least to the best of my knowledge, I could get reception from “any angle” I chose to “turn”. And … I’m not talking mobile phone …but radio.

We sat in the Learning Resource Centre which housed the radio station. It was strange to hear him say that prior to the founding of this media house, they were locked off to issues being aired on the national stations. I tried to understand what he meant when he said they had to rely on television stations from neighbouring islands since the local station was inaccessible to them in their location – “behind God’s back”.

He introduces himself as a reporter and announcer at Garifuna Radio. He is Owen Baptiste. He is Garifuna.

He hails from Sandy Bay on the northern side of St. Vincent & the Grenadines (SVG). Sandy Bay is known as a Garifuna community. Garifunas are what we would call the Carib or Kalinago people.

In SVG, if you ask about the Garifuna, Sandy Bay is the first place people tend to mention as being a “Garifuna Community.”

“Garifuna radio began on the 12 Jan., 2006. We officially went on air on 14 March 2006,” Baptiste recites for me.

“We are called Garifuna Radio because we are in the vicinity of the community known as the Kalinago – the indigenous community,” he does not wait to be prompted.

“One of our main aims for the radio station was to highlight issues which have been affecting us for a very long time,” he says.
Garifuna Radio, he tells me, started with seven employees who worked “free of charge”. Then the community, realising the workers had bills to pay just like everyone else began making contributions – the workers began receiving stipends. The community also readily became very active participants in the activities hosted by the radio station.

The community, Baptiste tells me, had realised the necessity of a community radio station as they felt cut off from the rest of Vincentian civilisation because of their location.

It was from a UNESCO initiative that the radio station was born.

“Garifuna Radio is the most listened to radio station here in the northern part. We are looking to transmit further into the wider Vincentian populace and also on the Internet but because of the barrier of the Internet service not being available where we are, this is why we’re not reaching out on the live streaming at this time,” he explains.

Garifuna Radio, Baptiste tells me, is “programmed” from 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., after which it goes “automated” and as a community radio station, “looks out” for everyone, young, old and middle aged.

Baptiste is not shy in identifying himself as a Garifuna. He attempts to bring me up to speed with the progress of the community. He tells me individuals living in the Garifuna Community are still moving on with their daily lives. The older folks still try, he reveals, to pass on some “tips” on how their ancestors used to live:

“Even though some persons might say ‘why you’re not doing like the Dominicans?’ Well, we think that we keep our culture alive. It’s not gone to the ground. We’re not supposed to be living the way we used to live before,” he reasons.

He tells me they were currently in the process of creating a heritage village in which individuals can catch sight of the ways of yesteryear.
He is solemn as he tells me that they come from a group of people who were scorned and labelled “cannibal”. He remembers that when there was a vacancy in any office or plant, the individual who was Garifuna was always rejected. Fortunately, he says, that is not happening now. That is all in the past:

“Vincentians have started to think ‘these people were the first to be here. They fought to be here.’ So people have started to respect the community of Sandy Bay – black sand beaches and rivers,” he beams.
The 28-year-old Baptiste has been with Garifuna Radio since its inception. Prior to that he worked within the hospitality industry and before that, he was a police officer for almost six years.

According to him, Garifuna Radio plays a great and vital role in reducing the isolation of the indigenous community. It broadcasts issues related to the community or bringing certain events to those who are stuck at home.
“The community relies on us to go out there and bring them information. We do community stories; do a lot of features in the community. Even in St. Lucia, they listen to us. We are looking into live streaming, then people will hear more about Garifuna Radio,” he beams.

The station established by UNESCO is now run through the government via a management board. It operates on 65 per cent local material though Baptiste points out, that they are currently looking at more local materials which might push the content up to close to 100 per cent.

“Maybe we could move up to, I wouldn’t say 100 per cent, because we need to play Caribbean music. Normally, we play some music out of Belize.

“Last year, we did a project on 'Let’s talk Garifuna' and brought in lecturers, and teachers from primary and pre-school. The children gravitated towards that,” he explains.

Though he does not speak the Garifuna tongue, he tells me how proud he is to be Garifuna.

He is happy that everyone in SVG, due largely to the media, is gaining a greater awareness about his people and their special place in history.
He looks away from me and into the distance behind me beaming: “I think everybody respects the culture we have. When they have national activities, we are the first ones they call to perform.”

Garifuna Forum

www.garifunaheritagefoundation.org
4TH ANNUAL GARIFUNA COMMUNITY FORUM NY 2008
MEDGAR EVERS COLLEGE, BROOKLYN, NY
SATURDAY, MAY 31, 2008 9:00 AM TO 3:30 PM
GENERAL PROGRAM

09:00 am Juventud Garifuna Band playing on stage to welcome participants
09:30 am Grand Opening Remarks
CHERYL L. NORALEZ, Founder & President of GAHFU, Inc.
RONY FIGUEROA, Co-Founder & VP
09:35 am Overview of the Day’s Activities & Presentation of Keynote Speakers
ISHA SUMNER, JERRY CASTRO & RONY FIGUEROA
09:40 am 1st Presentation: JERRY CASTRO, State Assembly Candidate 10 min.
09:50 am 2nd Presentation: PROFESSOR NUñEZ, Medgar Evers College 10 min.
10:00 am 3rd Presentation: DESTINY 2012 – DESTINO 2012 - 10 min.
FLAVIO ALVAREZ, Los Angeles, CA & LUIS CAYETANO, New York
10:10 am 1st Performance: Ervin Arzu, 10 min.
10:20 am 4th Presentation: DR. RICHARD GREEN, Medgar Evers College, CUNY 10 min.
Higher Education and Garifuna Youth
Q & A 10 min.
10:40 am Special Performance by Paula Castillo 15 min.

10:55 am 2nd Performance: Isha Sumner, Garifuna Actress 20 min.

11:15 am Special Performance by Guwie Possey 15 min.

11:30 am 5th Presentation: DR. MICHAEL STONE, Garifuna Scholar 20 min.
Q & Q 10 min.
11:50 am 7th Performance: United Garifuna Artists of Los Angeles
Jack Arzu – Georgette Lambey – Bootsy Rankin’ – Q – Guwie
& The Los Angeles All Star Band 30 min.

12:20 pm 6th Presentation: MELECIO GONZALEZ, Garifuna History – LA 10 min.
Q & A 10 min.

12:40 pm 4th Performance: James Lovell & The Afrigarifuna Youth Ensemble 30 min.

01:10 pm 7th Presentation: ROBERTO BORRERO, Taino Leader 10 min.
Taino Nation and Culture
Q & A 10 min.
01:30 pm 5th Performance: Tormenta Band 20 min.
01:50 pm 6th Performance: Hechun Garinagu Group 30 min.
Traditional Garifuna ensemble specializing in dance and Garifuna drumming.
02:20 pm 3rd Performance: Libaya Baba Cultural Drummers - LA 30 min.
03:00 pm Closing Remarks
Cheryl L. Noralez, Founder & President of GAHFU, Inc.
Rony Figueroa, Co-Founder & VP & Jerry Castro, Garifuna Coalition
Copyright GAHFU, Inc. All rights reserved.