The other side of the Saint Lucian postcard

Hello Julien,

Thank you for asking.

THE GOOD part about SLU is that it is a free, democratic English-speaking country. Many countries of the world would like to be as advanced as St. Lucia.

It is the best of the OECS' nine island nations.  Lots of tourists, expats, returnee St. Lucians who come back home for retirement and lots of locals travelling overseas for school and business change this island continually.
Many nationalities live and work here: many of them from the islands, others from Europe, North America and Far East.  Lots of Chinese are now settled in St. Lucia, and there is even 1 (one) Jewish lady who made St. Lucia her home ...

A St. Lucian can travel to several island countries visa free, live and work there.  It's a mini European Zone.

The Internet killed everybody who did not adapt to computer usage from 1995 on, mostly from 2000 on, and the 2008 recession pushed 35 out of every 100 businesses over the cliff, not only here but also throughout the insular Caribbean.  This is good because of the positive changes caused by re-shifting the business mosaic.

Tourism (air and sea cruise) and subsistence agriculture are the main income earners.  The island has been on the yachting circuits for decades now with maritime jobs expanding.

I arrived here in 1991 and now there are many positive differences compared to those years.

I daresay St. Lucia is now like USA was in 1700's: plenty of opportunities minus the Wild West stories.

I posted more info about this island at this forum which I am sure can give the curious potential expat enough info for him to have an idea and to ask good questions.
Most expats coming down here have contract jobs solved through official channels, and there are many retiree expats who come the same way.
As you see this forum area is sleepy, but this does not mean the island is sleepy anymore compared to how it was 20, 30 or 50 years ago.

The island is beautiful and has a wide variety of fruits and vegetables which cannot be found in Europe.
Local Creole cuisine is finger-licking good.

The great thing about islands is that there is ample room for progress.  What can someone do new in New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Tokyo? Well here there are many things to do, and many things have been done already.

When I was making my re-location plans in 1990 back in Europe, no such forum like yours for me to read about the island existed …

THE BAD? The back of the postcard?

Well, big changes in social structure like mentioned above inevitably bring new irregularities and adjustments everybody has to make in a hurry.  No good comes without old habits getting demolished and tides being turned.

There is nothing as bad in SLU as to scare anybody a lot.  What happens here is the same with what happens more or less everywhere, plus the island life which is (a bit) different from mainland country.

There many Americans flocking to these shores (more than before!) as if somebody threw hot water on them and they quickly jumped out of USA.  I personally wish to see more quality expats arriving here, not just job seekers or retirees.

I think internationally famed writers, painters and the likes can make a really beautiful addition to the local social fabric, and it's bad that I don't see them coming in high enough numbers.

Now with satisfactory wireless, cable, 4G and ADSL Internet service readily available there is nothing to complain about.  Maybe satellite telephony and Internet which is slow in coming? …

CONCLUSION

St. Lucia is for those who love it.  Other places are for those who love them.
Life goes on.  A rainy day follows a sunny day and that's sad (?), a sunny day follows a rainy day and that's positively good.
If you get used to little, you will not lose the capacity to be happy with the big thing when it comes.

Island life.  Everybody is free to come and see.