Drum Magazine Issue 4 | Page 74

72 Drum: Q & A Minister Pierre: Confident straighttalker with a love for the people. Photo courtesy of Saint Lucia Tourist Board. occupation that you need no qualification to enter… in Saint Lucia. So, the press now becomes an imposition of the personality, or the group, which owns it. You guys have a variety of press, left, right, centre, and whatever; you don’t have that problem. A private paradise: Saint Lucian owned Humming Bird Beach Resort. Photo © Newton U Brown Why do all the top jobs in big hotels seem to go to foreigners? For the simple reason that we entered the tourism industry late. We made our money in bananas, so the best brains did not go into tourism, that’s a fact. A hotel owner would prefer to hire a Saint Lucian because he pays him less, doesn’t have to give him a house, doesn’t have to bring his wife and children down; we’ve been late in the tourism industry. We are a banana people. Bananas made our money. When I was in school, I had the best brain but I would never go into tourism. I studied economics. My friends all studied physics and maths, we became historians, got degrees in science, studied English Literature, while some of the other guys did medicine. So what happened when the country entered the tourism industry is that the guys, all due respect to them, who didn’t pass exams, they all went into tourism. So there you have your answer. Now, there is a new generation of hotel managers emerging, bright young people who have studied hotel management and can pass exams. And further, in the hotel industry you must start from the bottom. The Green Parrot: 35 years of sustainable tourism. Does the government encourage foreign investors to empower local people through training and educational grants and bursaries? Of course we do. I’m a Pan-Africanist. I’m a fellow who really believes in black empowerment and the collective interests of our people but I will not tell you that this or that action is deliberate. I will tell you that there might be barriers put in the way, like the bar might have been a little higher sometimes, because in the tourist industry you basically serve white people.