A MOTHER'S NIGHTMARE

As I watched this bright young man being railroaded by his former colleague police officers, into the waiting police vehicle that would take him to the Bordelais Correctional Facility, my heart reached out to him and his mother.

HTS reported that Police Constable Dervin Wilson was sentenced to two years each for the possession of a controlled drug and possession with the intent to supply a controlled drug.

The two sentences will run concurrently, meaning that he will serve only two years in prison. Wilson was found guilty on May 7, 2013 and he was sentenced on Friday, June 14.

Wilson, who worked in the High Court (as an High Court orderly), was suspected of passing drugs to prison officers.

He was searched on the morning of July 31, 2012 outside the High Court while he was in full police uniform and a quantity of cannabis was found on his person.

It was a sad day for Choiseul - where the young man hails - and the RSLPF.

When I taught Derville Wilson a few years ago at the Choiseul Secondary School, I did not have the slightest clue the he would find himself in that ordeal. The consensus among all his teachers was that he was a model student and his report book during his 5 years of education at the school bears resounding testimony to that. His character and behaviour were spotless; and if I were ever to fill out an appraisal form for him, I would have rated him highly on all the criteria.

Hence, when I first heard he was charged for illegal drug possession whilst on duty, the news was simply unbelievable! How could that 'nice' boy of the quality of Derville who had appropriately decided to give his services to his country as a law enforcer ever be entangled in that type of quagmire? Theoretically, that was a "probability-zero" occurrence!

But they say hindsight is 20/20 and the fact is it did happen. He is now behind bars for 2 years. The damage has been done and it may be irreversible.

On reflection, I asked: Did Derville really know what he did? Did he do it on his own volition? What drove him to do it? Could there be powerful external network influences working behind the scenes that pounced on his rustic vulnerability? Perhaps, the authorities could consider working backwards into those possibilities and who knows - it might lead to the discovery of a goldmine of evidence and intelligence related to the local drug trade.

Derville’s Mom may not have 'closed her eyes' since he was first charged. The conviction and the prison sentence of her only son must be an unending nightmare to her.

But Gertrude is not alone! There are so many mothers who perhaps share her nightmare.

What's next for Derville? Your guess is as good as mine; but suffice it to say that history is replete with examples like him which may be instructive. If there are ex-inmates success stories, then they must be so small that they probably approach zero; and I'm sure the database which was started by the Division of Social Research at the Ministry of Social Transformation will bear me out, based the high incidence of un-employability and rejection of ex-convicts. Unlike many other developed countries, the prison stigma does not go away easily – if it does at all.

Hence, whereas a prison term may resolve a criminal problem, it may create a chain reaction of other problems - a lesson that many of our deviant young men will not learn and one that Derville despite being a law enforcer of reputable upbringing did not learn.

In conclusion, Derville earned what he deserved. He - especially being a police officer - should not have experimented with illegal drugs whether the intent was consumption or supply. He has destroyed his good name and in the process have left more blotches on the credibility of police force.

Kudos must go to the police force for a job well done, especially as the case involved one of their very own.

One assumes they will continue the good work and go out for the big guns, the heroes of drug underworld who brandish their ill-gotten boldly in our faces.

WELL DONE LIME

BY JASON EDGAR

TELECOMMUNICATION SPECIALIST

 

The buildup was perfect. The marketing team from LIME had done well. Unlike the Digicel rebranding event dubbed “Be Extraordinary”, which went by almost unnoticed, LIME was not about to make this an ordinary event.

The day had arrived and the climax was near. The event was MC’ed by the inimitable Mr. Pringles, at the JQ Mall, in the heart of Rodney Bay. Our passionate Groovy Soca King, Tennyson John, now also a LIME ambassador, was on standby to hype up the crowd. A total of 7 or more broadcast houses had been hired to cover the event (who said we had too many stations in the country!). Present were distinguished guests such as the ubiquitous President of the Senate, Claudius Francis, and a commissioner from the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NTRC), Roderick Cherry. Of noticeable absence was the ‘techy’ Minister of Technology, Dr. Jimmy Fletcher. At 10:32 and a half, the master of ceremonies invited on stage, none other than the Country Manager for LIME, Chris Williams, to announce, the “BIG ONE”, the event which would “shake up the Telecom landscape” forever in Saint Lucia.

Judging by online feedback from the social networks and one-on-one interactions with a few friends, most expected LIME to announce the immediate launch of 4G mobile technology during that Saturday morning event. Alas, that was not to be. An obviously disappointed customer, “ML”, wrote on the page Facebook of LIME, “that’s the BIG surprise?”. Like him, many appeared also disappointed. Could this be the reason the Minister decided to stay away?

Personally, I had predicted one of three outcomes, a reduction in mobile calling rates, an increase in broadband speed, or the introduction of 4G. It turned out to be the first option. Like its counterpart in Jamaica, LIME St. Lucia, announced a new flat rate, “ONE RATE”, for prepaid callers to other LIME, Digicel, Karib Kable and other customers in the Caribbean region – unlike Jamaica, though,  the new rate is not 3 cents US per minute(a 60% rate decrease) but rather 60 cents (approximately 23 cents USD) per minute.  This represents a decrease in the range of 13-24 percent for some destinations and an increase of 20% for calling other OECS countries (See Fig 1 below for more details). Jamaica’s flat rate also applies to calls made to the USA, Canada and the UK.

Not to be outdone by LIME, Digicel decided on the same Saturday morning to sell cellphones for only $10. Judging by video footage from HTS, this created a black-Friday type mad rush among customers, as they tried to squeeze through the door of one of the outlets downtown Castries to get a piece of the pie.

Unfortunately, postpaid customers like me, will not benefit from the announcement made by LIME yesterday. Nevertheless, this sort of competition among the providers is commendable. The regulators (NTRC/ECTEL), who seem to have gone asleep over the past few years must now rise; they need to analyze these ‘deals’ to ensure that they are clear(without any clandestine motives) and in the interest of consumers. They need to move quickly to ensure that the cross-network termination rates are reduced; they need to encourage the operators to implement Mobile Number Portability, MNP, which will allow customers to switch providers without switching numbers. What became of this exercise which was started some years ago?

 And may the liberalization of the telecom industry, fought so hard by our current Prime Minister, Dr Kenny D. Anthony, and his team 14 years ago continue to encourage this sought of healthy competition among the operators. Did somebody say 4G next?