The Jako Columnists

Dr. Anderson Reynolds

Anderson Reynolds was born and raised in Vieux Fort, St. Lucia, where he resides. He holds a Ph.D. in Food and Resource Economics from the University of Florida. He is the author of several award-winning and national best-selling books and is one of St. Lucia’s most prominent and prolific authors. His books, blogs, lectures, and newspaper and magazine articles have established him as one of his country’s leading public intellectuals and a foremost authority on its socioeconomic history.

Peter Lansiquot

Peter Lansiquot is an economist and career diplomat. He served St. Lucia as deputy ambassador at the Embassy of Saint Lucia in Washington DC, USA; acting head of mission at the Embassy of Saint Lucia in Havana, Cuba; economist and diplomat at the CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown, Guyana. He is presently St. Lucia’s ambassador to Mexico, Venezuela, ALBA-TCP, Petrocaribe, and CELAC.

Modeste Downes

Ranked in the top ten of St. Lucia’s all-time best poets, Modeste Downes, has published three critically acclaimed collections of poetry—Phases (2005), Theatre of the Mind (2012), and A Lesson on Wings (2019). He was the winner of the 2004 George Odlum Award for Creative Artists; Phases, was the winner of the 2005 M&C Main Prize for literature; and Theatre of the Mind was the winner of the 2012 CDF Arts Award for poetry. His latest book, Jungle Democracy on Trial: The Politics of Covid, presents a commentary on the current state of politics in St. Lucia. The poet was born and raised in the Vieux Fort area and is among a small cohort of writers who are giving rise to a distinguished body of Vieux Fort literature that is among the best of what the island has to offer.

Dr. James Fletcher

James Fletcher holds a PhD in Crop Physiology from the University of Cambridge and is a former St. Lucia cabinet minister and a Chevening global changemakers scholar. He is the founder of the Caribbean Climate Justice Project, chairman of the Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CCREEE), and founder and managing director of the sustainable development consultancy, Soloricon. Dr. Fletcher is one of the authors of the Paris Agreement on climate change, the author of Governing in a Small Caribbean Island State and the editor of Where is the Justice? An Anthology of Caribbean Youth Perspectives on the Climate Crisis.

John Robert Lee

John Robert Lee is a St. Lucian poet, journalist, and librarian. He reviews literature and theatre for local, regional and international print and online journals. His poetry and short stories have been widely anthologised. His latest collection of poems includes IKONS: New and Selected Poems (Mahanaim Publishing 2024), Belmont Portfolio (2023), and Pierrot (2020), both published by Peepal Tree Press. Other notable publications include Saint Lucian Writers and Writing: An Author Index of Published Works (Papillote Press 2019); and Saint Lucian Literature and Theatre: an Anthology of Reviews (compiled and edited with Kendel Hippolyte, CDF 2006). A graduate of the University of the West Indies, Lee has taught literature, creative writing and library science for many years. He has also worked as a journalist in newspapers, radio and television. He lives in Saint Lucia.

Cletus Springer

Cletus Springer is a graduate of the University of the West Indies, Oxford Brooks University, and Aberdeen University. He served as an OAS director in the Department of Sustainability and as permanent secretary in the Ministry of Tourism as well as the Ministry of Planning. He is presently serving as the chair of the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) and the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College (SALCC), and as the Honorary Consul of Japan in Saint Lucia. He has authored three books, namely Partnerships for Sustainable Development in Small States (with John L. Roberts), Grass Street and Later Memories: a Biographical Sketch, and the novel Sugar Blues.