Nouvelle Nous by Leo Donnelly

West Indies Fall short at T/20

A packed house at the Beausejour Stadium deserved better than the dismal performance by the West Indies as they were knocked out of the World Twenty20 tournament with a crushing six-wicket defeat by Australia.
Hopes were high as the West Indies made it to the Super-8 with convincing wins against New Zealand, England and India.
Trouble began early when captain Chris Gayle fell with the second ball and the team flopped to 105 runs which their unbeaten opponents eased past in 16.2 overs, leaving Australia, England, pakistan and Sri Lanka to vie for the title. The locals stomped to 60 for 5 in 10 overs with little resistance from Ramaresh Sarwan tried to hold the innings together with 26 off 32 balls, while Shwanarine Chanderpaul scored 24. Local star Darren Sammy, who had performed admirable in the previous games, winning "Man-of -the-match" honors agsinst New Zealand, was gone on the first ball he faced.
Gail said that the lost was due to inconsistency in the teams performance.

Jazz ends with much fanfare

Jamaican Dancehall artiste Shaggy braught the curtains down on a somber
nineteenth season of St. Lucia Jazz to a packed audience at the Pigeon Island National Landmark, last Sunday.
The final weekend of Jazz began on Friday evening, which featured compas band T-Vice, groovy soca/R&B artist Teddyson John, and R&B star Ne-Yo. The latter turned the packed Pigeon Island into "Screem Center" as female fans just couldn't get enough of the R&B star. Security personnel had to increase their presence front stage where euphoric fans attempted to breach the security barrier.
Saturday evening, Claudia Edwards, local music mongol Ronald "Boo" Hinkson and Friends which featured Tempest, Jeff Lorber, Grammy Award winner Corinne Bailey Rae, and British Reggae group Steel Pulse offered a modest pre=climax to the season. Steel Pulse rocked the crowd that apparently had consious reggae nostalgia on their minds.
On Sunday Quito and the Edge from the British Virgin Islands opened the show with some reggae vibes, Carl Gustave, Dobert Gnahore, Esperanza Spalding followed by Men of Souls featuring Freddie Jackson, Phil Perry, Howard Hewitt, and Maxi Priest following them, with Shaggy capping off the 2010 edition of St. Lucia Jazz.
Tourism Minister, Senator Allen Chastanet said that this year's festival was a success despite the music festival having to compete with with World Cricket T20 taking place in the Caribbean. But to many die-hard Jazz fans this year's line up of artiste was of poor quality with very little true Jazz artistes. Many felt that the decline in bringing Jazz performers that the even should be re-named St. Lucia Music Festival. This year, many of the recruited Jazz performer decline the invitation to come to St. Lucia.Friday night had the biggest crowd in the history of the event. Ne-yo was included as a calculated on the heels of losing Toni Braxton. The inclusion worked out beautifully. Ne-yo put on a very good show and braught a very different audience - a very young audience

St. Lucia's opens it's first Casino in August

Way back in 1988 Prime Minister John Compton appeared to have initiated an agreement with an investor to open the first Casino in St. Lucia pending full ratification by his Cabinet. Compton did not or could not get the full support he wanted so that idea was shelved.
Since then there has been much discussions on the subject of a casino in St. Lucia as a boost to the Tourist Industry.
After years of heated debates between the political directorate, the churches and the other organization including independent members of the comminity, St Lucia is poised to open its first licensed facility in three momths. According to Maher Chreiki, the owner of the Bay Walk Mall in Rodney Bay, said that the Bay Walk Mall casino which will be located on the secong floor of the country's largest shopping mall is expected to open in August of this year.The Mall which was scheduled to open in December of last year has an expected opening in July. Chreiki is very optimistic of a mid-July opening, just before Carnival.

The Mall will comprise of a five storey car park, a supermarket, restaurants, offices, several stores of worls renowned brands, banks, luxury apartments on the top floor and more.The opening of the Mall will be a major significance given the debates which threatened to create deep divides between church and state over the past years. Today the political fractions seem to be on the same page regarding casinos in Saint Lucia. The changing economic landscape and Saint Lucia's economic survival on the tourist dollar seems to have provided a powerful argument for the gaming facilities.