By: Precious Mills

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Friday 29^th March 2019)-It took over fifteen (15) minutes of on-the-spot snorkelling lessons but that was part of the plan as a group of eco-friendly enthusiasts assembled at Timothy Beach in Frigate Bay over the past weekend as part of an ongoing Environmental Sustainability and Conservation Leadership Training experience being conducted in St. Kitts-Nevis.

For over an hour, the group which consisted of over 10 individuals including Environmental Science students from the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC) and marine conservation officers explored the water world. 

This reporter was part of the outing also.

Fishes and other sea creatures spotted included damsel, grunt, parrot fish, butterfly and sea urchins as well as corals like the brain and finger as well as the fire coral which snorkellers were advised to stay away from since it gives a harmful sting.

Watersports company, Beach Addiction St.Kitts-Nevis, provided snorkelling gear that day.

Lead facilitator of the Leadership Training Luis Cruz, a Ross University professor and Researcher of Human Behaviour in positive ways concerning conservation and environmental sustainability, informed this reporter that during a second workshop by way of a round table discussion held on Wednesday 6^th March, while sharing experiences, it was discovered that when it comes to swimming and snorkelling “the majority (of panelists) have never done it.”

As a result, the snorkelling outing was put together.

“Experience is what shapes our decisions later on. What we experience especially emotional and very positive, it gets engrained in the nervous system and that can help us to make better decisions along the way so this is how this all came about,” Cruz commented.

He continued: “I think today went outstanding. I saw so many smiles after the beginning when people were a little apprehensive and somewhat scared. The water was a little cold at first but just the sun and the feel of the water and looking underneath [the sea), it’s a whole new world, and once we open our minds to that world, it’s like ‘I’m ready to go for it’.”

A stakeholders engagement session, scheduled for Thursday 11^th April, is expected to see a tour of The Narrows with a snorkelling stop at Shitten’s Bay which Cruz said will be an “appreciative inquiry” type of activity.

 “We are engaging a lot of stakeholders throughout the island from hotels to businesses, developers, people from the government, and what they are going to be doing is asking questions…,” he said.

As gathered, conservation likes and dislikes relative to St. Kitts-Nevis will also be discussed.

“The idea is to keep a very positive environment to figure out what it is that we all value because when we find common goals and common values, it is really easy to set up programmes and planning for other projects to  tackle those things we have in common,,” Cruz added.

Here is what others had to say about last weekend’s snorkelling activity.

Marine Conservation Officer Locksley Edwards

“It was a learning experience for them (first time snorkellers) and a good opportunity for me to be in the water and teach them as well so all in all I think it was a success; today ended pretty well. I think this adds to the green (environment) awareness because most of the team members are youths who didn’t know that so much stuff existed so it adds to the awareness that they can now move out into the community and be more aware of the fact that what we do on land because once you do a lot of pollution –like garbage- whether the hotels and restaurants etc; whatever we do on land always ends up in the ocean so now we have more ecofriendly people and awareness within our youth especially to move forward in life as we  go about dealing with climate changes . Once, the youths are more into green awareness, ecofriendly way of thinking then we can have a better community, better country and better world overall.”

Project Coordinator- Conservation and Environmental Sustainability (Contractor) at Ross University – Sheryl Bass 

 “This was my first go at snorkelling; I’ve tried swimming but snorkelling was the first time. I thought it was awesome. It look a little getting used to the breathing rhythm but with the help of really, really good support such as Locksley and Luis and Catalina (Luis’ wife), it became a breeze. I truly enjoyed the experience, and this is something that I’d like to do many times. It is a relaxing experience and more of us as Kittitians need to try the water much more and enjoy what we have right around us.”

Owner and Senior National Instructor of Beach Addiction St.Kitts-Nevis Nicholas Dupre

“It was great. You could see for a lot of people it was their first time but hopefully this experience has opened up a world for them so that they could come and explore and see what else is out there. The ocean is our playground and is right at our doorsteps so we should all…..explore it. I think it’s really important [to have these outings] because when you’re snorkelling and you see all the plastic and other stuff also when we’re sailing in the water, we see plastic that are blowing off of the Strip and into the water and it has an effect on the sea life so it’s good to know what we’re trying to protect.”

By: Precious Mills

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Friday 15^th March 2019)-Language learning and cultural exposure through music is a focus of the Alliance Française de St.Kitts and Nevis in its growing French singing competition and overall involvement in the community.

Such was highlighted on Wednesday 13^th March, during the second annual press conference held at the institute’s premises located in Greenlands, Basseterre. The media briefing was held on the day that registration opened in preparation of finals to take place in May.

This time around for the competition, there will be a two separate finalists for both islands with the grand prizes of one return trip to Guadeloupe ( St.Kitts) and one return trip to Martinique (Nevis) for one person for the duration of one week with a host family.

Last year, Zareef Dias of the Verchilds High School on St.Kitts won a trip to Paris, France, and he is scheduled to travel come next month (April) at the convenience of his availability.

Last month (Tuesday 19^th to Saturday 23^rd   February), Alliance Française de St.Kitts and Nevis partnered with the College St. John Perse in Les Abymes in Guadeloupe for a student exchange programme to that French-speaking Caribbean island (Guadeloupe) for a period of five (5) days.

When quizzed about why music has been chosen in promoting the language to the public and students, Event Coordinator of the song competition Ophélie Beuscart had this to say whilst touching on the recent overseas trip: “The first day the students were a bit shy. They tried to communicate a little bit but it was difficult and that’s normal for the first day and the second day they all sang together and that’s the thing actually because that’s cultural thing; everybody likes music. Music is something universal so when people meet around an art-because it’s (music) is an art- I think it can be really interesting and it can be a really good motivation for the students.”

She also talked about the French culture as being “about something different and French is into that and that’s important that they get their motivation from that.”

Director of the Alliance Française de St.Kitts and Nevis Marine Moncaut, chimed in saying: “Yeah, music about breaking the language barrier. So they were singing ‘Hello Hello Hello’ [Hello by Kes] and afterwards they were singing some other songs, and in the trip they were a bit shy and we tried to encourage them and one of the way they were trying to be in contact was to share music so they were listening to some music…and they were trying to exchange through that. I guess it’s one social aspect out of the rest but yes music is talking; if the language is not talking, the music is doing the talking.

Speaking about the top competition prizes this year, she commented: “ As much as it might not look as shiny as the Eiffel Tower [in Paris], it is a very important point that we want to show is that collaboration and friendships, and you can discover many things around the common and Martinique and Guadeloupe are there, and when we started to organise this school exchange group in Guadeloupe  we saw the behaviour of our students; they really discovered a country  which is Caribbean with a different language so Caribbean enough to feel comfortable  -not completely lost- and French to learn to be immerse in a different  language atmospheres.”

Moncaut highlighted the importance of students being immerse into that French speaking atmosphere for conversational grooming “so that they get to oblige themselves to be in a position of speaking because that is what we are lacking a bit here…”

A school tour, organised by the Alliance Française, which kicked off on 13th March is expected to run until 29th March within the schools.

Individual participants of the High School students from all public and private educational institutions are welcomed to register at a cost of EC$10.

Other dates will see the collection of applications 1st – 5th April, pre-selections/eliminations: 15th – 28th April, as well as final concerts in St. Kitts and Nevis on 4th and 3rd May, respectively.

As disclosed by the organisers, a list of thirty (30) famous French songs have been selected to be judged based on a set of criteria including difficulty of the song, rhythm and French pronunciation.

By: Precious Mills 

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Friday 8th March 2019)-Across the island, monkeys continue to give farmers a tough time and more so at a growing pace according to information revealed at the annual review and planning meeting put on by the Department of Agriculture, held on Tuesday 5th March at the St.Kitts Marriott Hotel.

Director of Agriculture Melvin James told that “monkeys and wild pigs is a persistent problem.”

Specifically, in relation to the monkey situation, he commented that “it is more than we can handle” whilst giving an insight into plans to address the ongoing issue which is affecting crops.

At present, there is no numerical information to back the animals’ (both monkeys and pigs) destruction to the agricultural sector.

“So we find that we have not collected any data in the past so I can’t tell you exactly how much damage we have or how much crop loss has taken place because of pigs and monkeys but that is something that we need to do and that is something that we’re going to be doing this year because the number of animals have intensified, the amount of damage have intensified and I believe that is one of the factors too that is affecting our overall yields so we need to do that…,” James remarked.

He informed that his department has a GEF/FAO [Global Environment Facility/ Food and Agriculture Organisation)-sponsored programme “which looks at invasive species and in particular monkeys and how they are impacting us,” James stated.

“We’re mostly focusing on how they are impacting crops; how they destroy the watermelons, how they eat the pumpkin and so on,” he added.

James shared that the monkeys are destroying the natural environment of the island pertaining to certain plants and species of birds.

“They are also destroying the natural environment. There are certain birds that their numbers have gone done because the monkeys are eating the eggs and young. There are certain plants…that you cannot find as easily in the forest because the monkeys are eating them and as it were destroying the numbers because there are too many. Trees like breadfruit and breadnut; those kind of trees in the forest, the monkeys are killing them because they are stripping them, and so it’s not just agriculture that they are damaging. So, this study is going to look overall as to the impacts that they’re having but of course with all of that we cannot address our problem if we don’t cull; we have to bring down the numbers.” 

He continued: “They are more than we can [handle]; Whether it’s a 100,000 or 40,000, we may not be exactly certain [but] what we’re certain of is it is more than we can handle and we need to bring the numbers down so we will continue our ways of trapping and culling so that when we produce something it can actually reach on our plates; it can reach on our table.”  

 The Agriculture Department official told individuals to contact the Ministry of Environment too when making complaints about monkeys.

“One of the things I want to plant in our minds. Yes, I agree with you to call the Department of Agriculture and ask what we’re doing about monkeys [but] I think you should also call the Ministry of Environment. I think you are giving them an easy time; you’re taking them off the hook. Monkeys come into our farms but where do they live, where do they belong? They live mostly in the natural environment- in the ghauts, in the forest which is a factor of the environment and sustainable development,” James said.

“I think just like us, they have a responsibility to seek to manage. Let us broaden the debate. As we talk about what’s happening, we also need to engage them. Nonetheless, we continue to do our part in trying to manage these animals,” he remarked.

Minister of Agriculture Eugene Hamilton while focusing on the need for efficient work expressed: “I heard about some uncertainties about the real damages from monkeys, what the real damage is from pigs…it tells me that we have gaps to fill because we ought to be closer to the real figure of loss… if we know that it is a problem area in agriculture.”