Le nouveau site web du St Lucia National Trust

Le St Lucia National Trust a un nouveau site web qui reste à remplir. L'organisation a une nouvelle politique, est en train de définir son programme pour les 5 ans à venir et cherche à mieux communiquer sur ces activités. C'est la plus ancienne des institutions de patrimoine et environnement de St Lucie...

www.slunatrust.org/news.php

meet my friend Newton Aduaka filmaker

Newton Aduaka and Valérie Osouf are my friends. There are filmakers. They participate in Barbados Film festival a couple of years ago, I hope we can invite them to present their work in the Caribbean pretty soon.

I invite you to watch this video of Newton presenting his work and particularly the last one about Children Soldiers in Africa.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/newton_aduaka_tells_the_story_of_ezra.html

Bio of Newton Aduaka

Born in Eastern Nigeria, Newton Aduaka and his family moved to Lagos in 1970 at the end of the Biafran War. In 1985 he left for England to study engineering, but discovered cinema. He graduated from the London International Film School in 1990, and in 1997 established Granite Film Works. In 2001, Aduaka's debut feature film, Rage, became the first wholly independently financed film by a black filmmaker in the history of British cinema to be released nationwide. It opened to critical acclaim. He has made many short films as well.

Between 2005 and 2007, he co-wrote, directed and executive-produced Ezra, his first non-independently funded film, for Arte France. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at several film festivals, including FESPACO, Durban, Amiens and Balafon, and was an official selection at Sundance and Cannes.

A Barack obama Street in Martinique !

The French Caribbean island of Martinique has commemorated Barack Obama’s historic ascension to the presidency of the United States by naming a street in his honor. The newly dubbed Rue Obama extends from the heart of the picturesque city of Le Diamant, located along the island’s pristine southern coast, to the sea. Gilbert Eustache, Mayor of Le Diamant was very proud of the event Fittingly, the street measures 144 meters for the 44th President of the United States.

Obama Street

Muriel Wiltord, director for the Martinique Promotion Bureau/CMT USA, commented on the designation, stating: “Here in Martinique, as in other communities around the world that boast a predominantly African heritage, we are extremely proud and excited about President Obama’s victory. Our own Aimé Césaire was a crusader for Civil Rights in the Caribbean and Europe on a comparable level to great American leaders like Martin Luther King, so for us the victory is all the more sweet."

Interesting how the Caribbean people are vibrating to this election ! The First one is Martinique !

Martinique Carnaval Cancelled !

After some hesitation, the Maire of Fort de France Serge Letchimy cancelled the Carnival for security reasons. Most of the other towns cancelled already their Fetes.
This is a big discussion among cultural people and general public in Martinique: is Carnival must be maintained ? How to show solidarity to the mouvment ? If Carnival is played, how this will impact on the image of the Martinican population during a strike ?

Going/ not going ? The different band leaders have different position...

but Vaval is dead before his time !

General strike in Martinique and Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe is on general strike since the 20th of January. The committee in charge of the organisation of the strike is called the LPK, it includes all Unions, civil society NGO's. The island protest against the price of life which is 40 % more that in France even if transport cost is only 10% of it and colonial situation who gives in priority best jobs to French people... The island is closed, no food, no gas, no transport, no school !!!

French government sent more troups in the island and the Minister in charge of the FWI was playing a game, negociating in Guadeloupe and steping back on promesses in France.
Yesterday, a militant died, killed in a riot by a lost bullet.

Martinique join the strike the 5th February, and 20 000 persons were in the street. Since then the situation is the same, shortage of Gas, no school, no bank, no supermarket...
In the meanwhile, a french TV program on the economy of the FWI call "BEKE land" was broadcasted the 6th February, in which it is explain how the Beke - white descendants of aristocratic estate owners - are still the master of the islands. They are 1 % of the population and own 45 % of the land, most of the supermarket, and half of the commercial traffic coming to the island is dealed by them !
In this Tv program a Beke was proud to tell that in 400 years the bekes never mixed with negroes... in an apartheid system very well organised.
This gives more reasons for the strikers to continue and negociate with the French Government.

There are many online text, petition, articles and circualting email but I consider the "Manifeste pour les produits de première nécessité" of a Collectif of an internationlly recognized intellectuals (Ernest Breleur, Patrick Chamoiseau, Serge Domi, Gérard Delver, Edouard Glissant, Guillaume Pigeard de Gurbert, Olivier Portecop, Olivier Pulvar, Jean-Claude William) as the most powerful.
There is as well a call to boycott all the products sold by the Beke which provide a long list...

But more than a racial question, which is more evident in MArtinique than in Guadeloupe this is a political and economical question. FWI have an average of 30 % of unployment (France was between 5 and 10% these last years) many people are living under poverty level and young people are lost.

So let's see what happen after the allocution of the french president tonight, thursday 19 on the events.

et vive la Révolution !!

Découverte archéologique à Cas en Bas - St Lucie

Enfin des nouvelles directes sur les découvertes de Cas en Bas. Donc en effet, le Professeur Carine Hofman de l'Université de Leiden en Hollande est bien à St Lucie en visite privée. Le site est connu puisque fouillé il y a 30 ans pour seulement une petite partie et jamais de sépulture trouvée. A l'époque, il a été daté à 1200 ap JC. Sa famille a trouvé un ensemble de 30 sépultures apparentes découvertes par l'érosion.
Cette érosion est due en grande partie à la totale déforestation du projet Raffle à Cas en Bas et à la construction d'un hotel. Les écosystèmes sont fragiles, on le savait, mais chaque fois nous en avons la preuve, impuissants.

C'est un cas de sauvegarde urgente. Plusieurs ministres st Lucien sont venus voir et ont promis de couvrir le site avec de la terre en attendant que l'équipe revienne cet été pour une fouille minutieuse.

En attendant on espère que les voitures vont cesser de rouler sur le site... et que enfin une prise de conscience va se faire.

à bientot pour de nouvelles aventures archéologiques donc.

plus d'infos sur l'archéologie à St Lucie sur le site de l'université !
http://archaeology.leiden.edu/

St Lucia : A new archeological site discovered !

Exciting and fresh news from yesterday: recently a tourist was walking on the sea shore in the Cas en Bas area, when he came across a bone. He happened to be an archaeologist and to his trained eye this was no ordinary bone. He sent the bone for Carbon dating, and guess what? It is 1000 year old!

It seems that an archaeological team from Holland has arrived on the island and they have delimitated an area with a barrier tape (ah ah in front of Atlantic Ocean) and placed pegs wherever they have discovered bones, clay pots and other artefacts - this appears to cover a large area!

Well I am not surprised as Cas en Bas is a perfect cove... this whole coast is full of Amerindian sites - and nobody seems to care about this history. Worse! Bulldozers are creating golf courses, and more, all over St Lucia.

It is time for a serious look at the cost of what is called here development (townhouse, hotels and massive concretisation) despite the degradation caused to our heritage sites and the general environmental destruction. There seems to be a lack of common sense and values by everyone.

St Lucia urgently needs an effective policy on Heritage sites applied by a government which is not merely a real estate agent!

Help !!!!!!!!!


I will investigate further and soon give you some news about this new Amerindian site ....

Thanks to Dany for the info.

Googel ocean - le dernier continent en 3 D

Une bonne nouvelle pour la Caraibe ! après tout n'est pas la mer qui nous relie ?
en espérant que les 5% choisi le soit selon une logique mondiale !

selon Le Monde: "Google a présenté, lundi 2 février, une nouvelle version de Google Earth, son logiciel d'exploration virtuelle de l'Univers, qui permet désormais de voyager en trois dimensions dans les profondeurs des océans, observer le relief sous-marin et suivre la migration des espèces aquatiques. Il a fallu dix ans de collaboration avec plus de 80 organismes scientifiques et des dizaines d'ingénieurs de Google pour mettre au point Ocean.

Mais seule une petite partie des 5 % de la surface cartographiée des océans et des mers est disponible dans des images en haute résolution et détaillées. Pour cela, Google s'est associé avec l'US Navy, la NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), le National Geographic, la BBC, la Cousteau Society et une vingtaine de partenaires qui lui apportent des images satellites, des vidéos, des photographies, des données historiques, géologiques et météorologiques en temps réel."

http://www.justmagic.com/GM-GE.html