 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. The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court takes another step towards modernization with the e-litigation portal. The first synthetic plane field on island is nearing completion and quail heritage month at Fido Beach. The integrated electronic litigation system e-litigation is the next step forward in the increasingly sophisticated use of technology in the courts. The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court through the Office of the Chief Justice is implementing an e-litigation web portal within all courts in all the OECS member states and territories for the electronic management of cases. This new system replaces the judicial enforcement management system. The e-litigation solution is a web-based online application that will provide court users and stakeholders with access to assigned services anytime, anywhere and on any device including smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. ECSC's Chief Registrar Michelle John-Veebles explained that the courts have been anticipating the e-litigation portal for years now. We needed a platform with refined features which allowed electronic filing, electronic case management, electronic notifications, payments, docket or cause list preparation, designated judicial and attorney access and so many more e-capabilities. We needed an application which was custom made for our court, taking into consideration our peculiarities and needs while serving as a platform to improve the delivery of justice to the citizens of the OECS and to improve the operational efficiency of the courts, both at the appellate and original jurisdictions. The ECSC's Chief Justice, her ladyship Dame Janice Pereira, indicated that the ECSC wanted to find a solution that would leverage cutting edge communication and internet technology to better manage and improve inefficiencies. A number of assessments were carried out as well as examining various systems to decide which would work best in the favor of the court. But this is not just about us, the judges and other officers of the court. It is more about the significant benefits that it brings to the people whom the court serves across its nine state jurisdiction. I am keenly aware that not all of us embrace change with ease. Some of us may think ourselves too old, but change is really the only constant. And so, if we are truly to remain constant, we can only do so by embracing change. Crimson Logic, a Singaporean government-connected company with a proven record of accomplishment in creating websites for courts around the globe, was charged with the responsibility of creating and maintaining the illitigation portal. The portal was launched firstly in St. Glutia on Thursday 25 October 2018, with the other member states and territories to follow. The local football fraternity will soon bolstate off the art facilities as the first synthetic playing field is nearing completion. Here's Ryan O'Brien with the details. St. Glutia's first synthetic playing facilities are expected to be completely laid by Friday, with the FIFA-sponsored project in Granivier, Denver, now at an advanced stage. Misut Okutuko is supervising the placement of the surface. It starts with a base. A base is a well-drained base. As you know, we have a lot of rainfall over here. And to make this field playable all times during all the year long, you have a drainage system, which is a build-up, crushed stone sub-base. On top of it, we have a perforated carpet. Perforated means that it has small holes. It gets the water through, so we don't have any surface water afterwards. And now the carpet is laid down on the specifications of the FIFA. And now we're doing the infill. The infill is a material-crashed rubber. Actually, it's recycled car tire, which gives you the specifications for a natural grass field for the sliding resistance, stock absorption, ball roll and all those things. Now we are halfway on the infill process and expecting to be finished on Friday. Lyndon Cooper is president of the Saint Lucia Football Association and he is anxiously looking forward to the commissioning of the new facility. It's definitely going to be a venue for all national teams to train. And the plan is to actually have most likely both the semifinals and the finals of all our domestic competition. But we are actually trying to make it an international-sized venue in the long run. The government of Saint Lucia is currently in the process of establishing synthetic surfaces at certain venues on the island. Ricky Alexander is executive assistant to the minister responsible for youth development and sports. We are very excited and happy to see that similar to what the government is planning to do at various sporting facilities around the island, that you have the FIFA Gold Project on the way with the artificial turf, which is what we are hoping to do in some of the various sites and venues around. Minister Estefan, Minister for Youth Development and Sports has clearly indicated with support of the government as the lead minister for youth and sport development that the government is serious and focused on professionalizing sports. The Souffremini Stadium has been airmarked to be the next facility on island to have a synthetic surface. From the Department of Youth Development and Sports, I'm Ryan O'Brien. This is Nation Beat. Stay with us. Everyone is at risk for getting 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 called 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? The St. Lucia Bureau of Standards can help you. For more information, contact the St. Lucia Bureau of Standards at 456-0546 or email SLBS at 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. The National Emergency Management Organization, NEMO, is in the process of reviewing recommendations coming out of a two-day consultation on the revision of the legislation guiding disaster management in St. Lucia. There were a number of priority items coming out of the two-day consultation with stakeholders of the National Emergency Management Organization and other relevant agencies. One such item is the formation of a smaller committee. This committee will encompass key individuals referred to in the act. The committee is soon to be created with a view of tightening up recommendations made so as to, at the soonest, get the new act through the legislative process. Acting Deputy Director of NEMO, Maria Mada, highlighted some of the recommendations. One of the recommendations that most persons would be familiar with is that we are looking to establish a proper name for the Secretary at the office at Bezi. Most of us would refer to it as NEMO, but NEMO in itself is the umbrella body which makes up the whole process. So NEMO in itself involves education, fire, police, the Chamber of Commerce, Met Office and so on. But the office at Bezi is what supports the whole NEMO. It's the administrative link for NEMO. The suggested names include the NEMO Secretariat and the NEMO Coordinating Unit. However, no names have been finalized. Mada added that the progress made was not without its challenges. We can look at the definitions that are usually in the beginning of an act or a bill. What we notice is when we were going through the definitions is that the definitions that are aligned to the, to SIDIMA and another from another organization. So most times the definitions are not clear and that is something we have to see how best we can look at and put into the act. The committee is expected to be formed over the next couple of weeks. From the Government Information Service, I am General Norville. NUSHA has secured the ninth position globally and fourth originally in the recently released Henian Partners Global Citizenship Program Index. The annual report now in its fourth edition provides a systematic analysis and comprehensive benchmarking of the world's most important investment migration programs and has become the industry gold standard for this type of evaluation. The 12 countries were evaluated according to 10 indicators. Reputation, quality of life, a visa free or visa on arrival access, processing time and quality of processing, compliance, investment requirements, residence requirements, relocation flexibility, physical visit requirements and transparency. Each indicator had an equal weighting of 10, producing a total score out of 100 for each country. St. Lucia scored 57. St. Kitts and Nives and Grenada slid slightly down the ranking but they maintained strong scores of 61 and 59 ranking 7th and 8th respectively. Antigua and Barbuda is ranked 4th with a score of 64. Dominica is in 10th place. The programs were evaluated by a panel of independent experts including immigration and citizenship lawyers, economists, sovereign risk experts and academic researchers who took into account a broader range of factors pertaining to each program. On Sunday 28th October St. Lucia Square Hall Heritage celebrations will coincide with global festivities marking International Creole Day. As the weekend begins, activities here will heighten. However throughout the month of October, organisers have been registering success with the various events among them is the honouring of cultural icons more in this report. As part of St. Lucia's solar festival and Creole Heritage Month celebrations, the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Cultural Development Foundation, CDF and the Folk Research Centre, FRC, requested Creole activities to honour a musical legend from the Belvi community who has made inspiring contributions towards St. Lucia's musical cultural heritage. His name is Joseph Ramopolion. He was born on the 10th of July 1929 in the community of Belvi VA4. Encouraged by his father, Ramopolion began playing the violin when he was 15 years old under the guidance of his uncle Flood Polion. Flood Polion won the best violinist competition in St. Lucia twice and was recipient of the St. Lucia Medal of Merit Silver from the Governor-General of St. Lucia for the year 2000. Minister for Culture and Local Government, Sanitary Honourable Fortuna Belarus, stated that the Creole icon series gives St. Lucia's the opportunity to appreciate their iconic heroes. So for us Creole Heritage Month is a month where we really get to connect with our grassroots and we're really hoping that St. Lucia's to take advantage of this opportunity to continue to read, learn and understand the history, know who the heroes will in our society and what people have contributed. And I think as we move around the constituencies we see a lot of that happening with the various events that have happened. Senator Belarus also emphasised the need for the youth to be more involved in cultural events. The month of October has always been that month where we celebrate our Creole heritage and we want to encourage people to participate, citizens to participate and to give off themselves and listen and learn. Another important program that we do have is the schools celebrating the Lama Grit Festival. That's happening in an ecumenical service in the community of Grusely. You know, we've talked a lot about getting young people involved within the cultural activities of St. Lucia and Lama Grit has really been one of the programs that our young people have taken to because it happens during school time and then you have a captive audience and so we're quite happy with the response that we've seen from the schools. Creole Heritage Month will accumulate on October 28th with the celebration of Creole Day in designated communities marking the end of St. Lucia's Solarisama Festival. Reporting from the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Empowerment Development, Sports, Culture and the Local Government, I am Shavari Marius. That's a nation beat. Join us next time on NTN at 7.30pm with a repeat at 7.30am and on this station as we fill the person heart of our community. You can also catch up with us anytime on the St. Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I am Channel Novel.