Saint Lucia
The small island nation of Saint Lucia lies between the eastern side of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. One of the Windward Islands, which are on the southern end of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north of the even smaller island nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and south of the somewhat bigger French outpost of Martinique. Compared in shape to a mango or a teardrop, Saint Lucia is dominated by a mountainous landscape.
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| National motto: The Land, The People, The Light | ||||
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| Official language | English | |||
| Capital | Castries | |||
| Head of State | Queen Elizabeth II | |||
| Governor-General | Dame Pearlette Louisy | |||
| Prime Minister | Dr. Kenny Anthony | |||
| Area - Total - % water |
Ranked 176th 620 km² 1,6% | |||
| Population - Total (2002) - Density |
Ranked 175th 160,145 260/km² | |||
| Independence - Date |
From the UK February 22, 1979 | |||
| Currency | East Caribbean dollar | |||
| Time zone | UTC -4 | |||
| National anthem | Sons and Daughters of Saint Lucia | |||
| Internet TLD | .lc | |||
| Calling Code | 1-758 | |||
Geography
The volcanic nature of Saint Lucia accounts for its being more mountainous than most of its neighbors as well as being arguably more beautiful, an opinion held by an ample number of tourists. The mountain chain runs north to south, with the highest point being Morne Gimie at nearly 1000m. The most imposing landmarks on the island are the twin-peaked pyramidal cones called the Pitons, also on the island’s west side and memorialized in the two triangular shapes at the center of the national flag. In the vicinity is the old town of Soufrière, which boasts one of the world’s few drive-in volcanos.
Saint Lucia’s mountains remain largely forested, and the interior has well-preserved rain forests. A third of the population lives in Castries, the capital. The country has an area similar to that of Chicago but a population (157,000) akin to that of suburban Aurora, Illinois. Martinique is about 40 km away across the Saint Lucia Channel while Saint Vincent sits 35 km distant across the Saint Vincent Channel. Both are visible from Saint Lucia on clear days.
Hurricanes pounding in from the east have been an enduring threat to the island over the centuries, along with the landslides sometimes caused by the cyclones. The storms hit Saint Lucia directly about every 20 years on the average; the last major one was Hurricane Allen, which caused mainly economic damage and went on to slam the Houston area. But usually the winds are calm and bring a cooling effect to the tropical temperatures. There is a rainy season from June through November, but the level of precipitation is not emphatically different from the rest of the year.
History
Arawak tribes settled on Saint Lucia around 200 C.E. but were forcefully replaced by another Amerindian group, the Caribs, about six centuries later. The starchy foods they cultivated are still a staple of the local diet.
The discovery of the island by Columbus at the beginning of the 16th century is believed doubtful by modern historians, but other Spanish explorers did make landfall in subsequent voyages of discovery. The prevalent theory for the derivation of the island’s name is that a band of French sailors, shipwrecked early in the 16th century on its shores, named it for Saint Lucy, a 3rd-century Sicilian martyr. Within a few decades several countries, as well as pirates acting on their own, made brief attempts at settlement, beginning with the Dutch in 1600. The Caribs’ fierce resistance resulted in the abandonment of some attempts, but the most significant conflict was between the British and the French, who from 1650 to 1815 caused the island to change hands 14 times.
Even when the British took over, though, French settlers tended to stay, which is reflected in the common, but unofficial, language of the island being a French patois. The Caribs were in time battered by Western diseases and dwindled away. Slavery was introduced in the 1760s by putting Africans to work first in small cotton and tobacco holdings. Later sugar cane became the predominant crop worked on large plantations. Before slavery was completely abolished in 1838, there was significant political unrest caused by escaped slaves taking refuge in the mountains but wreaking havoc on the settlements.
The Treaty of Paris put Saint Lucia in British hands to stay, initially as its own crown colony. Soon after slavery’s end, East Indians were brought as indentured servants to work in the sugar and other industries. Their descendants still constitute a small portion of the national population. From 1871 to 1958, Saint Lucia was part of the Windward Islands colony, which located its capital at first in Barbados and later in Grenada. For the next four years it belonged to the West Indies Federation, which attempted to unite ten island groupings as far west as Jamaica with a capital in Trinidad. The federation fell apart from internal bickering over substantial differences.
Complete independence came in 1979. Four years later Saint Lucia joined the U.S. and some of its island neighbors in the invasion of Grenada to liberate it from Marxist rulers. In 1994 the country also sent a military contingent to Haiti to join the Americans in restoring that nation’s ousted, democratically elected leader.
Saint Lucia inherited the parliamentary system from the United Kingdom. Executive power is in the hands of a prime minister. Democracy has been stably maintained since before independence.
Economy
Main article: Economy of Saint Lucia
The recent changes in the European Union import preference regime and the increased competition from Latin American bananas have made economic diversification increasingly important in Saint Lucia. The island nation has been able to attract foreign business and investment, especially in its offshore banking and tourism industries, which is the island's main source of revenue. The manufacturing sector is the most diverse in the Eastern Caribbean area, and the government is trying to revitalise the banana industry. Despite negative growth in 2001, economic fundamentals remain solid, and GDP growth should recover in the future.
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of Saint Lucia
The small population of Saint Lucia is mostly black or of mixed descent; just 1% are of European origin, with an Indo-Caribbean minority of some 3%. The official language of the country is English, but a patois based mainly on French is also spoken. The majority of the population are Roman Catholics (ca. 90%); the rest are Anglicans (3%) or other Protestants (7%).
St. Lucia boasts the highest ratio in the world for number of Nobel laureates produced with respect to the total population of the nation. Two winners have come from St. Lucia - Sir Arthur Lewis won the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel ("Nobel Prize in Economics") in 1979, and Derek Walcott received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992.
Culture
Main article: Culture of Saint Lucia
- Derek Walcott
- Music of Saint Lucia
- Saint Lucia Jazz Festival
Miscellaneous topics
- Communications in Saint Lucia
- Foreign relations of Saint Lucia
- List of cities in Saint Lucia
- Military of Saint Lucia
- Transportation in Saint Lucia
- Category:Saint Lucian Wikipedians
External links
- Official Website of the Government of Saint Lucia
- Portal of the Saint Lucia Tourist Board
- Saint Lucia - Simply Beautiful
- National anthem
- St. Lucia Vacation Guide
Saint Lucia still supports the institution known as "family land" (té fami). This is a tenure and transfer practice that exists outside the legal system, although it is partially supported by the old French legal system (the Napoleonic Code) which is still extant. Briefly, the principles of the system are these: land is held not individually, but communally by family members; transfer, when one dies intestate, is in undivided parcel to all descendants; sale is proscribed, that is, land is retained by the family; rights in land are inherited without legal division. Family land exists alongside individual tenure and land transfers are often accomplished through wills.
Manufacturing:export processing plants producing garments, electronics assembly, paper products, and leather goods.
disparities between rich and poor are extreme
Interest in literature and its production continues to be significant
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