Empty Calories & Male Curiosity, #14

Travelogue #1: St. Lucia, Battleground of Empire

QUICK HITTERS:

1. Thanks so much to everyone that’s been reading each week. Glad you seem to be enjoying it - I appreciate the comments!

2. A while back I recommended the podcast The Telepathy Tapes by Ky Dickens and was lucky enough to interview her briefly (here). Earlier this week Joe Rogan had her on his podcast (here). So, for those keeping score:

   Henny = 1

   Rogan = 0

3. This week’s book recommendation is What The Tide Leaves Behind, by Malcolm McDowell Woods. The amount of serendipity it took to bring me to this book is truly astounding. It culminated in my finding out shortly after purchasing it that not only did the author live very near where I live, but that he was actually doing an event the very next day!! Anyway, the book is outstanding. If you’ve never visited Ireland before it will make you want to. And if you have already visited, it will make you want to return.

   

   Darla would only cooperate if I scratched her butt. Also, in the first pic you can see where Maverick has already nibbled a little of the bottom right corner of the book.

4. The SilentPunt Podcast returns next week. Tell us what to talk about….

5. EXTRA POINT #2 came out earlier this week. If you want to learn about why there are so many fakakta generations these days you can check it out here.

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   (A note about reading below: If you read this in your email the footnotes are difficult to navigate. If you read it at Substack.com or in the app they are super easy. Just put your cursor over the footnote number and it pops up on your screen.)

GOING DEEP:

Travelogue #1: St. Lucia, Battleground of Empire

You know you are a history nerd when you spend five days in the Caribbean, in a bungalow literally on the water, and the thing that intrigues you the most is a sign about wifi. 

I saw these all over the island and wondered what they were about.

But first, some background:

St. Lucia gained its independence from the UK in 1979. It had been part of the British Empire since 1663 when they arrived and proceeded to empire the sh*t out of the place¹. Between the years 1663 and 1814 control of the island swung back and forth between France and England. 

Because of this fact it was often referred to as the “Helen of the West”.²

St. Lucia is the red dot.

As you can see from the map above, St. Lucia sits directly to the north of South America. Because of its location it had the ability to protect colonies both on the northern coast of South America as well as others further into the Caribbean.

This location made it a super valuable piece of land for strategic purposes. Hence the struggle for its ownership between France and England.

It rains pretty much every day in St. Lucia. But it is like Florida rain, unpredictable and usually short in duration.

The picture above is from our room during our stay. The two humps you see in the distance are actually one body of land called Pigeon Island. It is no longer an island as developers connected it with the mainland years ago.

At the top of the peak on the left is Fort Rodney. Built in the 1770s by British Admiral George Rodney, it changed hands several times between the Brits and the French. The US Navy also used it as a communication station during World War II.

It was turned into a park in 1979. We were able to hike all around the old fort and US station. Very cool.

First pic is me at the top of the fort. Not an easy climb for a dude afraid of heights. My wife acted as my comfort animal.

Now, back to the wifi sign:

In 1984, five years after St. Lucia gained their independence, they created diplomatic ties with Taiwan. As with most other sovereign nations, they had to pick their allegiance: China or Taiwan³. In 1997 after a change in St. Lucian leadership the country switched its diplomatic allegiance to China. Then, with another change ten years later, they switched back to Taiwan. (Helen of the West all over again)

In recent years this ping-ponging has played out in several other Caribeean countries. Apparently China is making a concerted effort try to overtake diplomatic ties in the countries where Taiwan still has them. There are only about 10 or so left on the planet. 

Kim took this picture and I love it. #GoonieVibes

As with pretty much anything, these diplomatic ties boil down to one thing: money. That’s where the wifi signs come in. Taiwan has made significant investments in St. Lucia, one of which is providing a lot of wifi throughout the country.

During the ten years China held a relationship with St. Lucia they did the same thing. The only stadium on the island was built by the Chinese during that time and now sits in a state of disrepair. If interested you can read more about the Taiwan-China struggle for power here.

We drove past the stadium several times and it looks worse from the outside. Almost like a ruin.

On the first night of our trip we were awoken by the sounds of fireworks. Lots of fireworks. Unbeknownst to us, we had arrived on St. Lucia’s Independence day.

At the time I was just annoyed to be awoken after a long day of traveling. Looking back, I feel like the fireworks were the universe’s way of telling me to pay attention.

The saying goes that every person has a story.

Apparently so does every place.

______

Until next time friends.

I can feel my knees shaking just looking at this picture.

***Please let me know in the comments what you thought of this piece. We love to travel and I’m curious to see if anyone enjoyed this as it was a bit of a departure for me writing-wise. Thanks!

1. I.E. destroy the indigenous population as well as its culture.

2. After Helen of Troy for those wondering.

3. Long story, but neither recognizes the other as a nation….so other nations typically only have a diplomatic relationship with one or the other.