 Welcome to Nation Beat. I am General Novel bringing you this brief on the pulse of our nation and highlights around the heart of St. Lucia. An historic agreement on criminal matters between the governments of St. Lucia and the French Republic to come into effect by year end. Junior achievers are recognized for their innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. Primary school students are sensitized on their rights as consumers and the Barbano Secondary School to undergo a transformation. There is a new addition to the arsenal of St. Lucia's criminal justice system as the island formalizes agreements with the French Republic. The historic agreements facilitate mutual assistance in criminal matters between the government of the French Republic and the government of St. Lucia. An extradition convention between the two governments also forms part of the legal instruments which were exchanged Wednesday 10th October 2018. Alicia Ali has the details on the agreements which come into effect the 1st December 2018. Though the official documents were signed on September 30, the ceremony for the exchange of the instruments of approval was done in the conference room of the Department of External Affairs. Ambassador in the Embassy of France to the OECS, His Excellency Philip Ardanez says the Convention on Mutual Assistance under the extradition convention between the government of the French Republic and the government of St. Lucia represents a new era in fighting crime. I think there is no borders for criminality, there is no borders for terrorism, so we need to fight criminality and terrorism with no borders. And this is very difficult to do because each country has its proper rules and its proper sovereignty. So we were working together at St. Lucia and France for many years and we decided in 2015 to have a common agreement on common legal assistance and on extradition. Minister with responsibility for external affairs, the Honourable Sarah Flood Bobra, celebrated this momentous occasion, noting that law enforcement agencies are getting the support that is needed. This is really historic and I dare say something that should have been done a long time ago. Bearing in mind the world we live in, the extent to which there are no borders really, the terrorism that is abound and the need for countries to collaborate in fighting terrorism and indeed crime. And this is all the more important when we consider our close proximity for example to Martinique and how much there is such a free flow of traffic between our countries and certainly we know what we have to face in terms of drugs and crime generally. Director of Public Prosecutions, Lazarian Green, notes that this will make the process in his office smoother. I do believe it's a very long time coming as we previously used the backing of warrants acts, etc. to deal with getting on the assistance that's necessary but with this endeavour we would have a smooth transition into what is necessary to fight international crime, terrorism, etc. Both the mutual assistance and the extradition convention will come into force in December 2018. From the Government Information Service, I am Jacquelyn Pomp. The Republic of China Taiwan was praised for its support to developing nations by St Lucia's Prime Minister, the Honourable Alan Sharsney during an official visit to Taipei. Prime Minister Sharsney also expressed that St Lucia and Taiwan face similar challenges on the world stage and the two countries must continue to stand together. The Prime Minister and the delegation arrived in Taiwan on October 6 to take part in activities marking Taiwan's 107th National Day or Double 10 D. During remarks at the military parade, Prime Minister Sharsney congratulated the government and people of Taiwan and reaffirmed St Lucia's commitment to Taiwan. Discussions between officials of the two states included continued cooperation in the areas of technology, agriculture, trade and assistance in the area of infrastructure, with financing for the redevelopment of the Hironora International Airport, and road rehabilitation. President Tsai Ling Wen for her part noted that the two nations have strong and cordial bilateral ties and expressed her desire to visit St Lucia soon to personally witness its beauty. President Tsai also stated that her government will actively encourage top Taiwanese manufacturers to invest in infrastructure in St Lucia to help its development and elevate the partnership. Outstanding achievers, partners and stakeholders of the Junior Achievement Programme were recognized Wednesday for their contribution to youth development. Here's Anisia Antoine. Junior Achievement St Lucia is a professional program which focuses on the three pillars of success, namely entrepreneurship, financial literacy and work readiness. The organization hosted its annual award ceremony to recognize students for their hard work and outstanding performance in the Junior Achievement Programme 2017-2018. The ceremony was held at the Golden Palm Events Centre under the patronage of Dimple at Luizi. Kurt Hosam is the chairman of the Junior Achievement St Lucia Board. Thanks to the passionate delegation of more than 350 volunteers, work readiness, financial literacy and entrepreneurship programs were delivered free of charge to over 4,000 youths. I believe that deserves a round of applause. The inspirational individuals committed their time, energy and expertise to deliver JAA programs in approximately 230 classrooms across St Lucia in order to shape today's young minds and reshape tomorrow's workforce. Certificates of participation were awarded to students who took part in the elementary and middle school programs and entrepreneurship week. The Natural Touch Company of the Babono Secondary School was awarded Company of the Year and the Quaring Secondary School received the Patrons Award for Innovation, Creativity and Originality. Zena Hadid emerged the national achiever of the year. We decided to create a paperless classroom. Now we adopted the idea of room classroom, which is an app created by Google that allows teachers to set assignments and feedback at every place. So we used that and in order for us to really start up that paperless classroom, we decided to provide Wi-Fi services. Now, although the majority of our school was not able to access the Wi-Fi, we did receive a lot of positive feedback and we managed to exceed the rate of 94 by 1. Junior Achievement St Lucia has been contributing to the success of students for the past 22 years, influencing over 45,000 students nationwide. This year's guest speaker, a past junior achiever and CEO slash co-founder of EcoCarib, Dinelle Florius, encouraged the students to pay attention to climate change and preserve in our planet for generations to come. As a business person, your goal is to always be selling and what you want to do and what you want to achieve is all a matter of the programming that you put into your mind. Whatever you think of that you want to be, you can achieve it. One of the critical words that I live by as well in the critical principles is faith. Faith in God, faith in his direction in my life and faith in myself. You cannot just depend on others around you to believe in your dream. It's your dream, turn to it, it's your dream, work towards it. The first event to be held by Junior Achievement St Lucia for the year 2018-2019 will be the JA's Data Pet. From the Government Information Service, I am Anise Antoine reporting. The Consumer Affairs Division educates primary school students on their rights as consumers. The Department of Commerce, International Trade, Investment, Enterprise Development and Consumer Affairs is continuing efforts in sensitizing students on the role of the Consumer Affairs Division, the rights and responsibilities of consumers and the need for consumer protection in St Lucia. A number of primary schools around the island have been selected to participate in the Ministry's Outreach Program. Consumer Affairs Division's Information Officer, Marilisha Williams-Gavey explains why engagements like these are important to students of this age group. The importance of consumer education at an early age cannot be overemphasized. When we at the Consumer Affairs Division engage children at that level, the primary school level, it is important because we want to lay the groundwork for a nation of more discerning consumers. We want to equip these little consumers with the intellectual building blocks necessary for spending and saving wisely. Many times when we think of consumers, we think of the adults. But do you know that when we go out to shop, children are not passive bystanders? Children nowadays have taken a substantial place in families and have a major influence on parental buying decisions. Williams-Gavey says the protection of children's consumer rights is a major priority for the Consumer Affairs Division. In fact, children have become a very important consumer group and they are seen as a primary market. And so we at the Consumer Affairs Division find it extremely important to engage our children from a very early age to teach them about their rights and responsibilities as consumers, how to protect themselves in the marketplace and of course how to budget and save. A prolific writer once said, we worry about what a child will become tomorrow. Yet we forget that he is someone today. And so we at the Consumer Affairs Department, we know that while they are students today, they are also very influential consumers. And so we are doing all we can now to guide them on the right path. The program runs from October 9 to October 51, 2018 and is aimed at students of grades 4, 5 and 6. From the Department of Commerce, International Trade, Investment, Enterprise Development and Consumer Affairs, I am Marvin St. Louis reporting. This is Nation Beat when we come back the Barbano Secondary School undergoes a transformation. Everyone is at risk forgetting a foodborne illness. While most foodborne illness cases are mild and go unreported, long-term health complications and even deaths can occur from a foodborne illness. Foodborne illnesses are caused by contamination of food at any stage of preparation. If you are a food handler involved in home-based food production, meat, fish, chicken or a big shop, as a food vendor, how you prepare food can put your customers at risk. Do you know the risks and how to avoid them? For more information, contact the St. Lucia Bureau of Standards at 456-0546 or email slbs.candw.lc or visit the website at www.slbs.org.lc. St. Lucia Bureau of Standards, making quality and standards our way of life. Welcome back. Small Island developing states like St. Lucia continue to fall victim to the effects of climate change. The Caribbean region since the global phenomenon has witnessed an increase in major hurricanes. The government of St. Lucia has since highlighted its intentions to ensure all steps are taken to increase resilience, mitigation and adaptation. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Infrastructure, Iva Daniel, referencing the construction of the Denry polyclinic highlighted that steps will be taken to address such issues. Right now we have the issue of climate change. We have the issue of the frequency of seismic events. And so the consultant, having conducted his review, his structural review is saying that hey, we need to make some modification to this. And I'm not saying this to you from his perspective because I need to say it. I'm saying it to you as my client that you need to do something about this and look at it very closely. I must say to you that it was escalated to the level of the World Bank. The engineer at the World Bank took a look at it and felt that the advice provided to us by the consultant required what's strong enough to warrant us taking a step back, reflecting and to decide whether we would come to the people of St. Lucia and say, hey, we have a delay in time. We have to trade off time on this project. We won't compromise quality. We won't compromise the delivery and the costs, but we have to trade off the time. The chosen sign for the polyclinic is Wajili Denry. The polyclinic will provide a wider range of services than what obtains at the Denry hospital. The permanent secretary indicated that while the decision to redesign the plan will set the project back, it is imperative that the necessary steps be taken to ensure the longevity of the country's asset. So people of St. Lucia, we say to you that we are now at the point where we need to redesign. We need to slow down. We need to redesign. All of this project will not be able to move forward because we would have a contractor on site who would be unable to proceed. And if we were to proceed with it some years down the line, we would encounter a lot of issues of a technical nature on this project. Meanwhile, officials with the Banana Productivity Improvement Project, BPIP, are advocating that farmers implement simple resilience methods to guard against future severe weather events. A recent talk in Lucia's farmlands following tropical storm Kirk revealed that the majority of the damages sustained were due to high wind speeds. Kurt Severin, project manager for the BPIP, observed that farmers with windbreak sustained fewer damages. It is a very interesting case. What we notice is that, for example, in those areas where you had barriers, trees, mango trees and so on, the impact was a little less. So as we move forward and we try to build resilience to climate change, it is one of the things we have been advocating. It is one of the things we have been preaching. We will emphasize it even more now that farmers, because under the global gap, you are supposed to have barriers and so on, windbreaks and so on. So we will be re-emphasizing it as we move forward in an effort to build resilience for down the road. Severin explained that while most trees snapped under the weight of the fruit, others toppled, which is a cause for concern. The majority was snapping, and it speaks again to the whole question of the productivity level. The bunches are heavier, and even though they were propped, what they did was they snapped. So the majority, I would say, between 60-70% of the crop, the damage was due to snapping. The remainder, I would say, toppled. And you're right, we know for a fact that we did a survey this year of nematodes, a nematode survey. And we discovered that there are high levels of nematode infestation across the country. So we are, under this group, we have taken steps to actually try and ameliorate the situation. Under the Banana Productivity Improvement Project, critical inputs like oils and the fungicides that control black cicatocca are readily supplied. Severin says it may be necessary to also consider nematocides and herbicides in order to sustain the health of tree roots. The Barbano Secondary School is celebrating the accomplishment of a major initiative that will help to transform the school's appearance. Chris Satney reports. The Barbano Secondary School prides itself in challenging students in order to unlock their potential within, as the school's motto suggests. The painting of a mural was determined as a great initiative that would not only enhance the environment of the school but also involve many students and the wider community as well. Now completed, the mural is located on several different sections of the school's perimeter wall and its main entrance, portraying the accomplishments of the school in many areas. The school principal Terence Fenelow is very pleased with the project and suggests the new mural will boost morale of both students and teachers and take them to even greater accomplishments. It has really served to liven up the environment, so to speak. The teachers when they came in, when they reported for duty at the end of August were all elated because this greatly enhanced the teaching of the environment. The school received the much technical support from artist Nazja Simeon who says he was more than encouraged to assist because of the enthusiasm of the students. He encourages more schools to take on projects of this nature. This mural really brings out the spirit of the school and it's something that the outdoor gallery has been doing for a long time here in St. Lucia. I would just like to thank all the kids who took part and also to encourage the community out there to keep donating paints because this was all community service and the children really came out and did a good job. I'm very proud to be part of this initiative. On the mural we have clubs which are present at the school and sporting activities which helps bring out the spirit of the school. This project was also done to uplift the environment of the school. But that's not all for the students as they look forward to extending the mural to other parts of the school. Teacher of the Barbano Secondary School, Junior Dili says students are ready to take on more projects that will help to make their school beautiful. What we're asking is for some more stakeholders to come on board as this is just phase one of what we're doing and we have two more aspects of it to do as well. The paintings were initiated by the team members of the Beckwick International Leadership Development with the support of Joanna Husbands of the Department of Sustainable Development who is also a former teacher of the school. From the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development, I am Chris Satney reporting. The island experienced a total electrical system shutdown at approximately 9.04 am on Wednesday October 10. The St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited informed that the power outage was caused by a major internal fault at the Curly Sack Power Station. The fault initially tripped three of the generators and then the remaining engines resulting in a total system shutdown. After the fault zone was isolated, appropriate checks and inspections commenced and the process of restoring the system was initiated. Power restoration started around 10.28 am and was done gradually across the network. That's Nation Beat. Join us next time as we fill the pulse and heart of our community. You can also catch up with us anytime on the St. Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I am Janelle Norville.