 and welcome to the National Television Network from the media field, also known as the sub in castries. I am Pan Satinsons and I am joined by Norbert Williams, attache to the Prime Minister, who will chase expertise, particularly on the parade having served in the Ural Senate. And the 10th person of the Independent Committee, Senate President Mrs. Janine Giordi-Marcantai, again with her team, has put on an impressive programme starting with the Independent Gospel Concert, the Mr. and Mrs. Independent Pension and the legacy calypso show, best of St. Lucia concert, to name just a few. Welcome, Norbert. How do you see the celebration? Well, thank you very much, Prime Minister. Now is the time and the parade has just started behind us and as you can hear, the orders being shouted out to be different between the two. Get themselves lined up, the right dress, as many of you have heard before. This year we have a little surprise, well not quite because they've been in the news, but we have a contingent of St. Lucia's, who are active members of the British Army, 21 of them who've come down to celebrate with us and their on parade today. We're at the sub plane field as Prime Minister indicated earlier, VG Field, as many of you know it. And today, right now, the temperature in castries and at VG Field is 75 degrees, going up to a high of 84, a few clouds in the sky and it's a perfect day for a parade. I'm not even expecting it and Prime Minister looks as cool as a cucumber. Yesterday there was a cool breeze blowing and let's hope that it remains this way on, for the remaining of the ceremony here. Well, let's hope so. I think it will. But just to keep you informed a bit on what's happening here, we have a number of platoons here, two male, female police officers, women police officers, we have the Special Services Unit, we have the Marine Police Unit, we have the Reserves, the Fire Service, the Cadet Corps, we have the St. Lucia Fire Brigade, Fire Service, we have the St. Lucia British servicemen who are down here to celebrate with us, and John's Ambulance, EMS personnel, we have the Girl Guides, and that's about it with the volunteer organizations. Prime Minister, anything you want to say? Well, in a while with the arrival of the Governor General and the Prime Minister who will take on the military parade as it's customary every year, that should happen momentarily as we are with the millennials. Nobody here, what is supposed to be happening? Well, the general order of things is that the parade march is on to the parade square for 15 minutes depending on what the agenda is for that day, but usually 15 minutes before the arrival of the Governor General and the Prime Minister. Parade, so the parade square as it's referred to, or the field there, and we have a color party, and the color party are the flag bearers for a number of the contingents here today. What we should do now is to allow the viewers to take in the action of course. Present arms, and we have the color party who are now going to march out to their position on the parade square. Okay, welcome back here to the sub folks. We've been letting you see the actions as they unfold there in real time. We've just noticed the arrival of Acting Commissioner of Police, Milton Daisy, and he's now walked over to take the salute from the parade commander. One observation is that the ceremony now is the commands amplified. You can actually hear clearly that microphones are attached to the commander or the commanders of the various platoons and so on given the commands so it can be heard quite clearly now as opposed to... Well that is a change that began last year or maybe once or twice before because the thinking was to get the audience or the viewers outside of St. Lucia and in St. Lucia as well and the persons here attending the parade to be able to hear the commands more clearly and be a bit more involved and informed about what was going on. May I add that the public is always fascinated by this form of ceremony. People are curious and they love a parade. Well it's always said all over the world Primus that everybody loves a parade and you have a parade passing by, marching down the road, whether it's rehearsals or any other time, any music band and people stop. There's something about rhythm and particularly over here in the Caribbean there's a little aside here the music on a parade. Usually when soldiers went out to battle back in the day they were tired, they were battle weary and they needed something to give them a little pep in their step. So that's where the band comes in and it rallies the troops and you have certain trumpet calls to attack and to retreat and to move forward and to execute different maneuvers on the battlefield and on the road and that's what has been taken advantage of all along and that works fine for the officers, the men and the women here who have been standing in the sun for maybe an hour, maybe almost two hours and they need something to keep them a little alive. I can recall last year that the parade was quite impressive. They had opened up this year the same little flight but already they look very... Spiffy, Spiffy. Well with all the effort, with all the effort that has gone into preparing those uniforms, those white tunics that the police officers wear and the other uniforms from the other units, it takes time. If you send it to the laundry that's fine but many people iron their own uniforms still and it does take time to shine those boots. And I remember my days shining boots they usually do about one hour on each side and many people think that's a little crazy but it gives you an opportunity to contemplate life, you know? I'm sure it does. Airport and you can see some of the aircrafts landing and taking off. That's correct. We have the parade now standing at ease which means that somebody will be arriving in a while and there's nothing much going on here so like they say hurry up and wait on the parade so everybody's here waiting on the dignitaries to arrive and those will be the prime minister and the governor-general. What's the trick with him? Hopefully by the time this ceremony happens the stern would be at the capacity. One of the things we notice here, Primus, is that the number of the British officers on parade, they have beards and that's something which is not allowed here in the police force in St. Lucia. That's correct. You see that in Canada as well but in the U.S. you hardly find anyone being allowed to wear a beard but I figure someone like you would know a little more about that because in your days in the Australian Army you did wear a beard, didn't you? For some reason they did. I'm looking over here to the center of the front half of the parade and we can see the Marine police units decked out in the white tunics and white pants and they look absolutely sailor-ish, as you say, matlow, as they say. Interesting that you mentioned matlow, I think perhaps it's time to let our queer viewers have an idea of what is happening here. We see what I'm wearing. I don't know but I think they... My prime was totally... I guess I'll fuzzling. Fuzzling, fuzzling. Not too many clouds in the sky. It's a perfect day for a parade and it's also a perfect day for the beach and the beach is not too far away from here. I think that this recommendation, although it has to be made re-invigorated, especially as the youth hold it, that now we've got back to the attention position, we will next be arrived. Escorted to the parade. The parade is under the command of acting commissioner George, or ACC, George Nicolae. The prime minister will take his place at the podium, take the salute. It is now in his position, the governor general. And just for a quick rundown here, we have a second in charge of the parade, the ACC, Sylvia, Daisy, and this. According to the information that I've gotten, will be her last independent parade, and she'll be used by her shortly. We've seen, remember there was a police force or something like 33 or 60. The one platoon, which is the male police officer, is headed by, or the commander of that unit, is superintendent of police Mashama Seale. The next police male platoon is headed by acting superintendent of police Fitzroy Bale. Following that are the women police officers, and the officer in charge there is ASB Red Sensor, followed closely by the special services unit, and the officer in charge is acting here, the Elvis Thomas. The parade is now at the stand-easy position. A little more relaxed than stand-at-easy, so you can really get your speculation going, because it seems like there'll be just a little bit of a waste, so you don't need to be that tense, waiting for the next dignitary who is going to arrive and that person will be the governor here. A very light breeze blowing across the town, and you can hear... It doesn't really get into, it slowly blows up. Prime Minister, you remember when you were a little boy, the boom, boom, boom, A.A. I understand you used to run after that police officer, just like every young boy in the city and around. That's right. You also missed the sound, the falsetto, there's something captivating about the drum, and it affects particularly on us black people. Naturally. Naturally. And we see now the arrival of the Lucian Governor-General, the Emmanuel Neville Snatch, he's accompanied by the Commissioner of Police, and he aid the camp, the Curtis Seal, who was also the drum major, and followed in my footsteps. Royal standard has now been unfurled, as the flag signifies the arrival of the attendants of the Governor-General, and he will take this salute. Send him to the podium. Neville Snatch, the Supreme Governor-General, he's accompanied by the Commissioner of Police. The parade commander now is marching to the Governor-General, he will report the state of the parade, the number of units and men and women who are here today to celebrate San Lucia's 41st Independence Anniversary. Good morning to you, Your Excellency. Welcome to the military parade in observance of our nation's 41st Independence Anniversary Celebration. I am Assistant Commissioner of Police George Nicholas the Kamanin Officer. The parade consists of 15 platoons all at the open order, ready and awaited during inspections. I invite you to inspect the parade. As you heard, the parade commander has now invited the Governor-General, Sir Emmanuel Neville Snatch, to inspect the parade now at the open order, which means that there is a two-piece distance between the racks. So primus as we can see here. How does it happen? Does he engage them in conversation? Well, it all depends on the person taking the parade or inspecting the parade. The Governor-General is one who usually engages the troops and if you notice an exceptional uniform or some other aspect of an officer or a person attending the parade, he would make a comment, you know, especially to the young ones. I am quite certain that the Governor-General will stop and make a few comments Well, they can if the Governor-General speaks to you, it's expected that you can respond. Nevertheless, I believe that the Governor-General will definitely stop at the solution, visiting solution British officers who are here to celebrate independence with us. I think it's a special... Well, today is the ceremonial new for me. Everybody looks really spiffy and sharp. That's based on something we should... Well, of course, the Governor-General is wearing or is showing off his signature afro, his silver afro hair, which is quite his signature. You can tell him anywhere in the crowd. It's obvious. The Governor-General passed and then the Commissioner-Police wanted to pass this flag. And then the police passed. And then the police resolved. But the Prime Minister had to speak to the police officer for a long time and passed this resolution. And then he passed the Port Authority Police. He passed the front-rank power. The Governor-General has now... Oh, that's fantastic. Well, if you're seeing that now, the Governor-General has now inspected the first half of the parade, the front half of the parade, the front-rank, and is now heading for the ray of the front half of the parade. And then he will begin to inspect the second half of the ray half of the parade, which starts off with the St. Lucia Fire Service and the British Soldiers, the EMS personnel, St. John's Ambulance Girl Guides. And in the background, you can hear the inspection music by the Royal St. Lucia Police Force. As I stated earlier, a little music always helps put a little pep in your step and not make you realize or not let you realize how far you're walking. At least so the Governor-General is moving on. And especially to those of you just joining us here for St. Lucia's 41st Anniversary of Independence Military Parade on the sub, all of you around St. Lucia in the diaspora and around the world who are tuning in. We are at the VG playing field, the sub, and we are witnessing today the Military Parade for St. Lucia's 41st Anniversary of Independence. Well, the Governor-General is sprightly stepping today. He's almost another member of the parade. They just need to give him a rifle and he'll be fine. So I think I can take this opportunity now quickly and I'll go over it again. But the British, St. Lucia's British Soldiers, that contingent is headed by WO2, Bovril St. Marie. And the second in command is colour sergeant, Lovelka D. And the 21 officers there in the St. Lucia's from the British Army have put in time in ranging from 4 to 20 years. Are the troops preparing for the march pass at this time? Well, there will be a march pass shortly. The band, the band will troop. The parade is put at the east position. The band will troop. They'll march pass the Governor-General. When they get to the eastern end of the field near the roadway, they will about turn on to themselves each rank, will do a double right wheel and march in through the approaching ranks and return. And they will kick off in slow time, slow march. And of course a favourite to all St. Lucia's, is the army. And of course primers, you can see over here the drum major taking control of the entire parade and now the march pass with the mace across his chest here. Reminds me of my days as the drum major. I think you think I was the best guy out there tooling that baton of the mace as it's officially called. I believe it may have been about 3 or 4 years. A number of locations, if you recall, independence parades have been held here on the south. They've been held at the Mendo Phillip Park. They've been held in the city on Bridge Street as well. VGA airport. Oh, I may be a little confused there. I think the arrival of British royalty sometime ago. I think it was at midnight. If I remember correctly, because I was the drum major. By the impressive display by the police. The police band doing some fancy drill themselves. The police band in perfect timing with the music and that's where you see hard training and long training. The bass drum is what controls the movement and double beat on the bass drum and the lead up to the final beat on the drum and the band came to a complete halt. The drum major would be an instrumentalist as well. Would he? Well, not necessarily, but the most important factor for a drum major is to have timing. You must have impeccable timing. You must know the music that's being played. Well, I was not a member of the police band but because of my cadet background and I was a master drillsman. You must have that timing because everything is controlled by the music and the drum major. The drum major is who controls. You may not know what it means but that means going up and making different movements of the indicates to the bass and to the bass drummer and to the rest of the band. What exactly is coming next and what they need to do? Well, last year we had a contingent of police officers who were doing the fancy drill. This year it looks like the police band is the other ones who are doing the fancy stuff here for us. Well, he's following in my footsteps. I give him a few tips sometimes. I say you've got to step things up, you know? So he's taken that advice. And we can see a smile on the Governor General's face. He likes his action and the music is catchy. Yocapale. So all Saint Lucians know this one. It's very popular. It looks like the drum major in the center of it all is trying to revive himself and with a few taps to the heart and looks like he's come alive to the music. But it looks easy primers but tolling that mace takes a lot and we can hear the reaction of the crowd in the background to the movements of the drum major. Those are military movements. Military movements. It's meant to disorient the enemy while you attack. See, it's called subterfusion deception. Perfect timing. Perfect timing by the Royal Saint Lucia Police Band. He's going to raise that baton, as you will see. Back at the original location. He's going to raise that baton as you will see. He tells them get ready and when he gives that double shake it comes down. There you go. Have a look folks. It's going up. There you go. The bass drum reacted immediately to that and he pulled that baton center in front and the music stopped. And if you're just joining us again we have the parade commander taking his baton calling the parade. The attention position. Armed units. Soldiers. The right in threes. Right turn and now the commander of the color party will give the order for the color party to now change position. Right turn. They will take up their positions so that they can march past as well with the rest of the parade. The parade is now facing in the western direction and they will come around and march past in slow and in quick time. And of course the parade commander is A.C.P. George Nicolae. The parade will march past in slow and in quick time at six paces interval, number one detachment leader. If you heard that order from the parade commander that the parade will march past in slow and in quick time at six paces interval which means that each platoon should be six paces from the one in front and the parade march past right now is led by the police band and followed by the police detachment. In charge of the parade here today is A.C.P. George Nicolae. Second in charge is A.C.P. Sylvia Desir, assistant commissioner of Sylvia Desir and this will be her last parade after 34, 35 years of service in the Royal St. Lucia Police Force. She will be going on retirement. The officer in charge of the first platoon is superintendent of police Mashama Seely. Is the first platoon a contingent of male police officers. Second contingent is headed by acting superintendent of police Fitzroy Bailey and that is the second contingent of police officers. And following closely be lined the male police officers always a pleasure for the crowds gathered over here are the women police officers and they're headed by acting ASP Lesenter Desir Dolor with the FMK-3 submachine guns 45 degrees across the chest and perfectly lined up there. Absolutely wonderful. And following the women police officers is the special services unit decked out in the camouflage digital greens and the SSU is headed by ASP Elvis Thomas who's shining in the sunshine here at the Saab VG playing field. Following closely behind the special services unit is the color party and the color party has flag poles with the flag of St. Lucia the standard of the Royal St. Lucia Police Force and of the represented contingent. And following closely behind the flag party is the marine police unit decked out all in white with the M16 rifles and behind the marine unit is the special reserve police and they're headed by ASP Dudley another contingent which is the St. Lucia Ports Police and following closely close behind we have Baudelaire Correctional Facility officers and following Baudelaire Correctional Facility are the members of the St. Lucia Cadet Corps with the 303 rifles which reminds me of my days as a cadet officer and the officer in charge of the St. Lucia Cadet Corps is Lieutenant Herbert and the second in command is WO2 Danson Acti and coming close behind following the cadets are the St. Lucia Fire Service officers and following the fire service is the contingent of St. Lucia British soldiers who have traveled to St. Lucia to commemorate our 41st anniversary of independence and they are led by WO2 Bovril Saint-Marie and the second in command is color sergeant Lovel Cadet and between them they are varying years of service from four years to 20 years in the British Army and during their stay here they arrived a few days ago they've been involved in a number of community activities they've met with the Governor General and a number of other government ministers and they're doing a lot of charitable work here in St. Lucia commendable for our men who have traveled and returned to St. Lucia It is the same that we visited here my country called that ever happened before it's a great gesture We see St. John's ambulance, the girl guy the EMS personnel and it's always nice to see our young boys and girls taking part in our independence celebrations and being involved in these organizations and we see the women police officers here now breaking from a slow time into quick time absolutely perfectly right now and now the parade will break from the approaching platoons will break from slow march as they pass the band which is now on the airport side and they will break into quick time and begin the second march past in quick time and of course the same order as before the two male police platoons followed by the women police officers and followed closely by the special services unit and look at these arms swinging there with the women police officers special services unit in unison as they approach the Governor General for the eyes right and they're followed by the color party police headed by the Dean George ASP and the Dean George and the cadet corps cadet platoon here now turning and coming up for their turn at the salute to the Governor General white gloves, black pants with a yellow stripe 303 rifles those things are heavy primers they must in charge of the cadets the commander lieutenant Hubert and second in command W. O. Danson Acty followed closely by the Saint Lucia fire service and coming behind the Saint Lucia fire service following is the Saint Lucia contingent of British soldiers brown uniforms and black shine shoes in any parade the same obtains and it doesn't matter different military groups differently or what do you mean exactly the format of the parade well you have different countries of different traditions and different you know changes to suit their own environment but in general the whole intention is to have the troops or your personnel on whatever occasion it is whether it's a graduation or particularly if it's an independence celebration to march past the governor, the president, the prime minister to show the manpower what they have available to defend and to deal with law and order in the country usually in a training school or police school environment or in the military this gives the commanders an opportunity to see the effectiveness of the training that the men have received as far as their coordination in their drills as far as the uniforms and the general demeanor of the troops of the men so decisions can be made as to whether to inject more funding to have better training or longer training to improve the conditions in the classrooms in the facilities so it can be viewed from many different eyes and perspectives well this year primus it looks like the French didn't make it for our independence parade but I think a nice substitution has been the 21 St. Louisian British servicemen who have made it for our independence that is correct primus and that is quite exemplary and it shows that our St. Louisians still continue to contribute to what's happening in St. Louisia and that St. Louisians in the diaspora are not removed and lost as it may have been possible in the old days with less technology, with less communications with no social media it's easier now to get information about what's happening back home or happening to our loved ones in other countries and to coordinate efforts such as this the platoons have now taken up the original positions on the parade square they will give the governor general another salute and there will be a chair of parliament and people of St. Louisia it will be dressed again which is where the right marker of the parade makes sure that everybody is lined up oddly and neat for the salute and in the background on the VG beach we can see the common things going ever so slightly in the breeze and the temperature has gone up just a little bit well actually about 8 degrees earlier when we began it's now 82 degrees something you didn't observe earlier on a flock of pigeons they were curious they were moving around observing well 14 paces to the front and the entire parade will halt 14 paces from the original positions and everybody has halted in unison royals have now removed headrests for the three chairs three chairs to the government and people of St. Louisia to celebrate our nation's 41st independent anniversary hey Bob hey Bob is to replace headrests they are given a few seconds to get that in order and everybody will be snapped to attend now after quite a number of minutes the governor general will now take his place in the official in his official vehicle the governor general is now accompanied by his wife and they will be proceeding to the governor general's official vehicle the band is also taking position at the head of the parade where they initially started everything off and as the governor general is about to leave if you have a camera on the flag you will notice that royal standard the flag which signifies the presence of the governor general will now be lowered the prime minister now will be taken to the minister will now be heading to the podium to take the salute and the march past and the governor general now makes his exit in the official vehicle this is prime minister Alan Shastney's fourth independence parade his fourth as prime minister the drum major has raised the mace it's at a 45 degree across in his raised arm the commander has given the quick march order second in command ACP Sylvia Daisy her final parade independence parade before she goes on retirement after thirty four thirty five years of service in the royals in Lucia police force and the platoons are now marching past the prime minister and here come the women police the FMK3 submachine guns 45 degrees across the chest swinging those arms three abreast followed closely there by the special services unit followed by the color party and the marine police unit and closely by the special reserve police then Saint Lucia ports police bodily correctional facility they're followed by the platoon of the Saint Lucia cadet corps and behind the cadets will be coming up with the second half of the parade and that is the Saint Lucia fire service platoon the Saint Lucia British soldiers platoon emergency services personnel gold guides Saint John's ambulance and the Red Cross marching past on her final parade before retirement after thirty four thirty five years of active service in the royals in Lucia police force the ceremony continues as indicated in the prime minister will deliver address at the luncheon at the financial center at about 11 am there's also some other activities to take place later today at the national independence day parade at the vigil on about this is supposed to take place at about 1.30 in the p.m and the prime minister's ball at the grand pavilion at the park it's been quite an impressive ceremony well absolutely folks and welcome again to those of you who may be just joining us at the end of this broadcast or who have been with us throughout the morning for this 41st independence anniversary military parade here at the sub playing field in castries we've watched the salutes and the march pass by the varying contingents here today special welcome to those of you in the diaspora and around the world who are looking in at what's happening in Saint Lucia today for our 41st anniversary of independence as primers had indicated just a moment ago we have a number of continuing activities from here at the financial center just a few yards away maybe a hundred yards or so the prime minister will deliver his 41st independence anniversary address to the nation there'll be a luncheon as well and this afternoon there will be the independence march or parade of business groups and other uniform groups and the motocross and the cars and everything else here in Saint Lucia a number of floats, beauty pageants contestants and you name it everything will be on display this afternoon on the John Compton highway down past the San Susi area and I recommend you bring the kids so they could have a look at what's happening in Saint Lucia and what's happening today for our 41st independence anniversary okay Norbert and so this is the end of our broadcast we thank you for viewing we again wish everyone to continue to join the NPM for more life broadcast of our independence activities so on behalf of the national and Norbert William happy independence everyone thank you for viewing