THURSDAY, APRIL 01,
2021
VOLUME 115, No.13 www.thevincentian.com
A Copyright concern Page 2
Vincie women in focus Page 6
EC$1.50
Biting Letters Page 9
Soufrière news Pages 14&15
Cross-country Road Page 28
Timothy Hazelwood, Superintendent of Prisons might just have excluded a certain number of persons from his report on how many persons are awaiting trial.
POLICE ADMITS TO LOSING CRITICAL RECORDS
Defence Attorney Kay Bacchus-Baptiste alluded other anomalies, i.e. strange things, about the evidence that is supposed to inform the case.
was being tried at the Criminal Assizes for the murder of Dexter CORPORAL ANDY JAMES, the Rodney, who was shot in the investigator in the murder case of 36- stomach and arm just outside the year-old Denzil Sam of Ottley Hall, plant shop of Head of the Cannabis claims that he lost all his notes in Revival Committee (CRC) Junior relation to the matter. ‘Spirit’ Cottle, around midday on Up to press time Tuesday, Sam October 1, 2015. Stories by HAYDN HUGGINS
Denzil Sam claimed the man he is accused of killing was his friend. Continued on Page 3.
63 AWAITING TRIAL: JUDGE WORRIED JUSTICE BRIAN COTTLE has expressed concern about the number of persons at Her Majesty’s Prisons awaiting trials. During his prison report at the closing ceremony of the Criminal Assizes on Tuesday, Superintendent of Prisons, Timothy Hazelwood, disclosed that there were 63 persons -60 males and three females - behind bars awaiting trials. But according to Justice Cottle, 63 persons represent a significant proportion of our productive citizenship. With the government’s ability to manage the crisis wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic and the availability of a vaccine to ward of the coronavirus, Justice Cottle is looking forward to some degree of relaxation in the protocols, so that there would be an increase in the hearings at the High Court. Defence lawyer Kay Bacchus-Baptiste, in delivering remarks, said she was in favour of virtual hearings, but Justice Cottle seemed to have preferred the face to face hearing which continue to work effectively witness the restrictions imposed by COVID-19 protocols. In relations to the 63 persons awaiting trials at Her Majesty’s Prisons, BacchusBaptiste said it was not a complete picture of the reality as there are several other persons out on bail who are awaiting trials. This, she informed, will carry up significantly the number reported by the prison boss.
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2. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021 . THE VINCENTIAN
Arts
A copyright concern LANCE CHAPMAN, known in the creative industry as ‘Da Vinci’ is calling for a common approach to the issue of Copyrights adherence in the region. He is the SVG Director of the Eastern Caribbean Collective Organisation for Music Rights Inc. (ECCO), headquartered in St Lucia. Da Vinci was responding to a suggestion by Dr Erica Smith, Chief Executive Officer of the Barbadian Collective management Organisation, the Copyright Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Inc. (COSCAP), that the period for protection of copyright works be extended beyond the present 50-year mark that obtains in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. The number is 95 years in Jamaica and 75 years in European countries. Smith zoomed in on the matter as it concerned the works of the Barbadian born singer Jackie Opel who died March 9, 1970. Smith is worried that Opel’s collection of work will be opened to unfettered use by others, thereby removing all legal rights to his work by heirs and relatives. Da Vinci cited the issue as a legitimate Dr. Erica Smith, Chief Executive Officer COSCAP, Barbados, raised the concern on the 50th anniversary of Jackie Opel death.
concern and called for a common approach to the issue. Also secretary of the Association of Music Professionals, a Vincentian based entity, Da Vinci wants to see the regional governments adopt a common stance on the Copyright issue. Extension in the period of protection is not the only bone of contention for Da Vinci. Music usage on radio, other media forms including online platforms, is of interest to Da Vinci. He noted the digital age and endorsed: “Online is where everything is going.” Payment for calypsonians on live appearances is another area of contention for Da Vinci and he noted that payment of royalties to calypsonians is denied by many promotors. Besides the extension beyond the 50 years after the artistes’ death, Under the existing Copyright Law in Barbados, Jackie there are calls for Opel’s (pictured) heirs and measures to help artists during their relatives will no longer be entitled to collect royalties lifetime. (WKA) for his work.
Lance Chapman, Director of ECCO, wants a commonality among Caribbean countries with respect to the period an artiste’s right to royalties extend.
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News 3 MOE launch GoCybersmart Campaign
the above end, the Ministry will utilize a COMING ON THE HEELS OF number of STUDENTS receiving outlets/platforms, e.g. tablets to facilitate www.svgcdu.org — the students’ access to online Curriculum Unit’s education, the Ministry of website where a veritable Education here in St. storehouse of educational Vincent and the materials may be Grenadines launched its accessed; Facebook — GoCyberSmart campaign SVG Education Media on March 16, 2021. Unit and Instagram — The promotion which SVG Edu Media Unit will see activities and NTRC running from March to GetSafeOnline at June, 2021, is intended https://www.getsafeonlin to ensure the safety of e.vc/. students, teachers and Nanton-James said parents as they access that the Ministry of programmes and Education will be information across the engaged in media worldwide web (internet). activities during the According to campaign. Coordinator of the “We are basically campaign, Mrs. Marla using media activities to Nanton-James, towards by GLORIAH…
spread the awareness,” she said. “We have activities planned for radio, television and activities geared towards social media. Alongside that, we have also prepared a manual/publication that gives simple information and we are reminding the principals, as was outlined in a communique which was sent to schools, that the information is to be creatively used and integrated into teaching and learning.” The principal expectation, she elaborated, is that the information about online safety could be disseminated to students
Marla Nanton-James (Mrs.) – Coordinator of the GoCyberSmart campaign expects the information would be disseminated to students in a creative and exciting manner.
in exciting and creative ways by teachers, who are prepared to craft their own activity form the varied resources on the media outlets where the information will be stored. Once this campaign is taken on board by all stakeholders and students learn how to ‘GoCyberSmart’, the atmosphere for learning will be well enhanced, the Ministry anticipates.
Chemotherapy infusion pumps donated by GLORIAH… AT THIS PIVOTAL TIME in the delivery of healthcare here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, especially where the chronic noncommunicable disease of cancer is concerned, six infusion pumps used for the delivery of chemotherapy as part of the patient’s medical management, were handed over to the Modern Medical and Diagnostic Centre in Georgetown, on Thursday 25th March. This donation, which is set to advance the work of the Medical Centre, was made through the Consulate of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in Toronto, and was procured through the instrumentation of Consul General Fitzgerald Huggins, in collaboration with St. Vincent and the Grenadines Disaster Relief Initiative Platform (SVG-DRIP). The equipment was handed over by Senator Hon. Keisal Peters, Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, and others at the
The presentation party (Left to Right): Idinga Miller, Dr. Aimee Taylor, Senator Keisal Peters, Sr. Agatha Stay. (Credit: NBC Radio Facebook Page) presentation were Ms. Idinga Miller, Deputy Hospital Administrator; Dr. Aimee Taylor, Oncologist; and Sis. Agatha Stay, Departmental Manager. According to Senator Peters, the equipment was valued at US $4,896.00. In Ms. Miller extending heartfelt thanks to Counsul
THE VINCENTIAN. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021. 3.
General Fitz Huggins and SVGDRIP, Ms. Miller stressed the importance of the machines to chemotherapy treatment as they will allow the treatment to be administered in a more efficient and effective manner. She acknowledged also that the treatment they will provide could be an interventions that could prolong the life of persons suffering from cancer.
Police admits to losing critical records Continued from Frontpage. Rodney was taken to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital where he was warded for about three weeks and discharged. He as re-admitted to the hospital around April or May 2016, and died on July 14, 2016. Sam was originally charged with attempted murder but after Rodney died, that charge was substituted for that of murder. Under cross-examination by Sam’s attorney Kay Bacchus-Baptiste on Monday, Corporal James admitted to the Court that he had lost all his notes, which contained everything he did during the investigations which spanned a period of about nine months. The notes included a statement James said he took from Rodney before he died. James was asked about the first statement he said he (James) made. He told the Court that it should be on the case file. However, Bacchus-Baptiste said she looked at the case file, and the only statement she saw from James was the one he made in August 2016. The one purportedly made before was not there. However, Prosecutor Rose-Ann Richardson indicated that the first statement from James was not meant for the file, as it was a report James had made to his superiors. Speaking with THE VINCENTIAN shortly after the adjournment on Monday, Bacchus-Baptiste said that never before in her 25 years of trials, had she heard of a criminal matter in which the Prosecution lost so many critical records. But Bacchus-Baptiste added that there are other things which are strange about this trial. She noted that hospital Administrator Grace Walters testified that she could not trace any record of Dr. Alisha Melissa Bonadie having dealt with Rodney at the hospital, yet Dr. Bonadie is on record as saying she witnessed the statement Rodney gave to the police before he died. The Prosecution rested its case on Tuesday, and is relying on the statement Rodney is alleged to have given to the police before he died, in which he said Sam shot him. Sam, in his evidence from the dock, denied that he shot Rodney, saying that Rodney was his friend. He accused the police of beating him when they arrested him in 2016. He also accused them of not informing him of his rights before doing the first electronic interview with him, and that they told him to say something to save himself.
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4. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021 . THE VINCENTIAN
News
St. Lucia firms up plans to assist SVG
Velda Joseph, Director of NEMO, St. Lucia, reported on the meeting called to discuss plans for the possible acceptance of Vincentian evacuees.
ST. LUCIA HAS MOVED TO FLESH OUT its response to assisting with the relocation of persons from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, should there be an explosive eruption of La Soufriere volcano. According to a release from Ms. Velda Joseph, Director of St. Lucia’s National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO), that country’s disaster officials held an emergency virtual meeting on Saturday, to review the situation in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Noting that seismic activity had heightened and the experts continued
to warn about probability of an explosive eruption, the meeting discussed and agreed upon a response plan. The meeting was reported to have identified shelters to be used by the evacuees, who will arrive at the GFL Airport, for those travelling by air, and at the Rodney Bay Berth, for those arriving by sea. Persons arriving in St. Lucia will be subject to COVID-19 screening and COVID-19 Shelter Protocols will be in place. The meeting also addressed the
response plan to the needs of residents in the district of Dennery in St. Lucia, which, experts say, could be affected by ash and polluted air, depending on the direction of the wind. St. Lucia joins with other OECS member territories in committing assistance to St. Vincent, with Grenada expressing a willingness, in collaboration with St George’s University, to make available up to
Increase in scholarships awarded THE GOVERNMENT of St Vincent and the Grenadines has awarded a record number of National Scholarships for the 2019/2020 academic year. Fifty-eight (58) graduates of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Community College have received full or partial scholarships, which will fund their university studies in a wide range of academic disciplines. The 2019/2020 total represents an increase of eleven (11) over the previous year’s total number of scholarships and awards. Among the 58 awards, a total of seventeen (17) National Scholarships, tenable for five (5) years, have been awarded, while twelve (12) persons are recipients of three-year Exhibition Awards
and another three (3) individuals are recipients of Special Awards. In addition, twenty (26) Bursaries/Partial Scholarships have been awarded, each with a value of twenty thousand dollars annually for a period of three (3) years. Three (3) graduate of the Division of Teacher Education have also been granted a threeyear Developmental/Special Award in the area of Education for their commendable performance in the Associate Degree in Teaching — Primary Education. Based solely on the
age limit of twenty-one (21) years applied to the National and Exhibition Awards, they could not qualify under the aforementioned categories. Of particular significance is the fact that graduates of Associate Degree programmes at all divisions of the Community College, including the Divisions of Teacher and Nursing Education, and Technical/Vocational Studies are eligible for awards under the National Scholarship Programme. (Source: MOE)
2,000 beds on the campus, should an eruption of the volcano create the need for Vincentians to evacuate.
Nine new cases ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES recorded a total of nine new positive cases OF covid-19 on Tuesday March 30, 2021. Eight (8) cases were from one hundred and forty-nine (149) samples collected and tested on Monday, March 29th, 2021, giving a positivity rate of 5.4%. One (1) case is from some of the samples collected and tested on Tuesday, March 30. Five (5) of these cases are contacts of known COVID-19 positive cases and four (4) are persons with symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 seeking care. No new recoveries were reported, leaving the number of total recoveries at fifteen hundred and eighty-seven (1587). One hundred and fifty-one (151) cases remain active and ten (10) persons with COVID-19 have died. One thousand, seven hundred and forty-eight (1748) cases of COVID-19 have been reported in St. Vincent and the Grenadines since March 2020. The public is urged to continue to use masks, sanitize, physically distance and get vaccinated to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. (Source: MOH)
V Vincentian Nurse celebrated
THE VINCENTIAN. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021. 5.
People/Diaspora
whether or not I was mistaken with my recollection of the McGill nursing faculty while we were at school. My colleague could not recall having any Black nursing lecturers or clinical instructors while pursuing their nursing studies at McGill. Given that so many Why did you choose to become a Blacks have been in the nurse? What is your proudest achievement nursing profession for so in nursing? many years, it begs the As a child, I was always fascinated question as to why more with the body and how it worked. And My proudest achievement in of us have not reached growing up in a Caribbean household, nursing is having the opportunity to the professional heights I was taught the value of community teach for McGill as a nursing clinical to be able to share our and the importance of taking care of instructor. As a nursing student at knowledge and expertise. your neighbour. My love for physiology McGill, I never had a Black nursing This is why and the satisfaction I get from being in professor or clinical instructor. I am a representation in the midst of my community drew me human of diverse origins (African, healthcare is crucial, for to nursing as a profession. East Indian, European and Aboriginal how can our society avoid to name a few) and I think this or eliminate incidences of What is your current role? heritage gives me an ability to discrimination in positively interact with individuals healthcare if our Nursing has given me many from various ethnic backgrounds. This healthcare professionals personally satisfying opportunities. was missing in my training as there are not taught in an Currently I work in three different were no role models with whom I could inclusive environment? nursing roles. I work at the Jewish closely identify. In fact, I had to reach It is encouraging that the Ingram General Hospital as an orthopedic out to one of my colleagues to ask School of Nursing at McGill University nurse in the orthopedic day clinic has made efforts for Black History Month to showcase the experiences and voices of black nurses in the McGill community. My hope for the IN HONOUR of Black History Month, February, 2021, the Ingram School of Nursing (ISoN), McGill University, Montreal, Canada, celebrated some of the inspiring Black nurses, leaders, educators, researchers and students across the McGill Nursing Community. One of those so celebrated was Vincentian Tenkarra Punnett, the following is an interview with Tenkarra to mark the occasion.
where we see pre-operative, traumafracture and post-operative patients. In this role I can use my administrative ability in a manner that is not just confined to paperwork. I also work on the orthopedic unit as a bedside nurse. Most recently, because of the pandemic, I started telenursing. This helps me channel my passion for working intimately with the human body while still connecting with the people in my community.
Canadian-Vincentian woman highlighted
Monique Huggins-Neehall, who was born in Canada to Vincentian parents Edson and Jennifer Huggins. The following is taken from the Facebook page of the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women (facebook.com/OCTEVAW). “Mrs. Monique Huggins-Neehall OCT is an activist, educator, volunteer, ally, step-parent, partner and proud VincentianCanadian. Monique has played a supporting role in opening the YouthLink (YL) Youth Transitional Housing & Shelter Program, as the Community Engagement and Client Programming Specialist. Monique brings expertise, compassion and excitement to the work and volunteering that she does, and the diverse community that she serves. In her current YL position, “Aunty Monique” ensures that no major life event goes uncelebrated, facilitates and supports antioppressive programming, and works with youth to encourage selfawareness, healing, resilience and collaborations via connecting with youths and planning/working through their goals. Monique is empathetic, funny and Monique Huggins-Neehall, volunteer, anti-racist/oppressive. From being an social activist and much more. engaged member of YL’s Anti-Black Racism Committee, to building TO MARK Black History Month, meaningful relationships with those February 2021, the Ottawa Coalition around her, she brings positive change to End Violence Against Women, to the many lives that she touches. Canada, highlighted/acknowledged the Because of her hard work and work of a number of women in the determination there is no doubt she Province. will be successful with both her Among those so acknowledged was personal and professional goals.”
Tenkara Punnett, BNI alumna future is that McGill employs more people of diverse backgrounds to teach the next generation of nurses. (Source: www.mcgill.ca/ISoN)
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6. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021 . THE VINCENTIAN
Regional
LIAT pilots are Ârotten elements,Ê says Browne
TEN FORMER PILOTS with the fraught-filled once regional airline LIAT have joined together to file a class-action suit against the government of Antigua and Barbuda. The constitutional motion was filed recently in the High Court in St John’s, Antigua, by Captain Neil Cave of Barbados. This action was met by the harshest of references by Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne, who took to his radio station to brand the pilots as “rotten elements,” and blame them for the demise of the airline. “You see those very pilots, especially those in Barbados, I’m told that they are some rotten elements, and one of the reasons why LIAT collapsed is not so much because of COVID you know, it’s because of the
behaviour of them rotten elements within LIAT,” Browne said Saturday on local radio. Browne added, “So, after those rotten elements done mash up the company, they coming to make trouble again. But as they saying goes, ‘they better wet their hands and wait for us because we coming hard.” However, the ten pilots declared in a counter-response that they weren’t going to “be bullied into backing down” in the face of Browne’s recent outburst and his previous threat to end all support for LIAT if “pilots and those who represent them” continue to frustrate his efforts to rescue the collapsed carrier. The Antigua and Barbuda leader described the litigation as “very
unfortunate,” adding that if LIAT 1974 Ltd goes into liquidation, at best the former pilots would get about five per cent of what is owed to them. LIAT is said to owe up to EC$90 million in severance pay to its former employees. The constitutional motion against the government is challenging the constitutionality of the recently amended Companies Act which prohibits anyone from suing the Antigua and Barbuda government over any claims against LIAT. The claimants, who have named the Attorney General as the only defendant, also want the court to order that they be awarded costs and/or other relief the court may deem just. But Browne was in a
fighting mood in his you and literally response to the suit taking the warning, “You know the government to saying ‘want all get court? It makes no none?’ Let them go ahead sense.” (Caribbean because they may end up News Service) getting nothing, or little. How do you Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda resolve an issue by who is leading an effort to salvage LIAT, has warned the berating a former pilots of the regional airline that they could find government that themselves getting nothing or very little at the end of the is trying to assist day. (Photo Credit: Times Caribbean Online)
Cash for some ex-LIAT employees Insurance Scheme through EX-EMPLOYEES of the the Severance Payments fraught-filled regional Fund to make payments to airline LIAT, who are those individuals.” resident in Barbados, whether Barbadian or He went on to say, otherwise, can now look perhaps for the first time for forward to receiving some public consumption: “What ‘cash in their hands’. is little known though, is Barbados’ Attorney that the management of General Dale Marshall, LIAT under administration speaking during that has refused to cooperate country’s Estimates Debate with those employees…the to the country’s Parliament Barbados’ Attorney Barbados-based employees, last week Tuesday, who paid in…so money General Dale announced that even came out of their pay Marshall as he though Barbados “was not cheques every month and presented his legally obligated to pay they are entitled to get it government’s plan those workers severance, it back. The LIAT to make ex-gratia was out of a sense of administrator refused to payments to some humanity and care that the cooperate, to stop them from Mia Mottley administration ex-employees of getting back their money.” LIAT. will be ready with the Those ex-LIAT workers details of the payout within who chose to be employed days,” Barbados Today reported. by Antigua but who will now benefit Marshalled explained that there from Barbados’ assistance, are said to were two sets of Barbadian LIAT be primarily pilots and some flight workers who were terminated by the attendants. Antigua-based airline: those employed The Attorney general was hopeful by LIAT in Barbados, primarily that his government would be in a Barbadians; and those residing in Barbados but who chose to be employed position within the next few days, to say what ex-gratia (voluntary) in Antigua rather than Barbados. The first category paid contributions assistance will be forthcoming to the non-Barbadians resident in Barbados, into the Barbados National Insurance Scheme (NIS) here and LIAT also paid and who paid their dues to the Antigua contributions into the NIS here on their government. “We are working out what we can behalf. and will give to them on an ex-gratia Marshall made known, according to Barbados Today, that, “There is a legal basis,” Marshall told the Barbados obligation on the part of the National Parliament. (Source: Barbados Today)
THE VINCENTIAN. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021. 7.
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8. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021. THE VINCENTIAN
Views The National Newspaper of St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Managing Editor: Desiree Richards Editor: Cyprian Neehall Telephone: 784-456-1123 Fax: 784-451-2129 Website: www.thevincentian.com Email: vinpub@thevincentian.com Mailing Address: The Vincentian Publishing Co. Ltd., P.O. Box 592, Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Editorial
Fallout from PM Browne’s outburst ARE WE TO ASSUME that Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, self-proclaimed saviour of LIAT (1974) Ltd., has free reign over all tangible assets of the airline and also those human beings who have been left in limbo since its demise? Are we to assume that the Prime Ministers Dr. Ralph Gonsalves and Ms. Mia Mottley — St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados respectively — have been fed a dose of ‘dumb’ on all matters related to the airline, e.g. financial, industrial, and other to which LIAT Shareholders, Directors and Management had put their ‘John Hancocks’? Credit Mr. Browne for his ‘guts’ in staying the course and committing to resurrect some semblance of the airline. This is to his country’s benefit, which by the fact that LIAT (1974) Ltd. was (is) headquartered there, has the most to gain should whatever morphs as an airline (as improbable as it sounds) can operate in the black. That PM Browne could resort to referencing the former pilots of LIAT as ’rotten elements’, openly accuse them of causing the airline’s demise, and not be rebuked, is enough to tell us those governments who pumped our money (like our National Insurance in the case of SVG), without due consultation into a free-falling LIAT, that they want nothing to do with the fallout of the airline, that they all knew was heading for immensely threatening thunder clouds anyway. And it appears that PM Browne has retained his umbrage with Barbados for, a few years back, having been a pivotal part of a ‘plot’ to decentralize the administrative and operational headquarters of LIAT, with Barbados becoming a major cog in the decentralisation. Readers will recall that PM Browne wielded enough influence even back then, to have the then CEO of LIAT, David Evans, removed from office even though officially it was reported that Evans had “willingly’ tendered his
resignation. Mr. Browne’s peeve with Barbados could well have resurfaced given that country’s readiness to respond (in cash) to the needs of disenfranchised pilots and flight attendants who reside in Barbados but were officially hired by LIAT, Antigua. What a slap in the face this must be for PM Browne who is facing a class action suit by former pilots, and who had been trying to convince Antiguan employees of LIAT (1974) Ltd., to accept severance pay, etc. in bonds and land among other tangibles. And Barbados’ commitment to the pilots and attendants must also run cuttingly across Dr. Gonsalves gait, for it was he who openly and apathetically declared that ‘he’ was not legally obligated to LIAT workers. Mr. Browne’s recent ‘rotten outburst’ is yet another demonstration of a CARICOM leader who feels that elevation to the highest political tier, accords the right to be insulting, demeaning to Caribbean workers. Not for the first time, also, CARICOM heads have remained silent in the face of a colleague’s ‘abuse’. Their silence is tantamount to support of this dastardly behavior by one of their own, clearing reneging on their obligation as elected officials to protect the interest and integrity of the ‘masses’, come what may. PM Browne knew what he was getting himself into when he assumed responsibility to refloat the airline. He knew the extent of its indebtedness to the 600 or so employees, inclusive of station staff, pilots, flight attendants, aircraft mechanics, etc. For PM Browne to come now and take his frustrations out on the pilots and point accusing fingers at other former shareholders amount to an affront to decency and fair play. For his colleagues to remain dumb in the face of his recent outburst is to sink deeper and deeper into a cesspool of irresponsibility.
Ah feel fuh Dr. Ken by Otto Sam So unlike the case of Blazer who AH FEEL FUH DR. KEN BY OTTO SAM edited (THE VINCENTIAN December 13th 2002) “Unity” published by “I FEEL EXTREMELY SORRY for Dr. the break-away MNU, of which he, Blazer, ‘Ken’, NDP’s Chief propagandist and was Deputy Leader. “Tommy Tucker Specialist”. Everyone Blazer, before his appointment as ULP remembers Dr. John as one of the longest Chairman of the “independent PSC”, went serving chairman of the Public Service and on to serve Ralph as a Junior in his legal Police Service Commissions, position which chambers, and twice contested national may have earned him plenty money elections on behalf of the MNU, led by Dr. monthly. Easy money, milk and honey. Nuff Gonsalves. gravy. In regard to my length of service of which Obviously missing the sweetness and much has been made, I was the chairman apparently being huffed by De Comrade, for fifteen years (15) 1986-2001. Blazer is the Dr is acting like a peeved old man who now approaching 15 years 2001-2015, and has missed the milk and honey. His continuing. So what is the big point? apparent bitterness at being excluded from Otto mentioned my coming off to a big De Comrade’s infamous “Together now” “monthly stipend”. Actually, I worked for which he depended on for retaining the two the princely sum of $400.00 a month, raised chairmanships, has seen him acting like a to $900.00 then $1350.00 after my 6th two senile old fellow. How else do you year appointment. It had climbed to characterise an alleged “intelligent” guy $1850.00 monthly by 1998 when the calling for the Prime Minister to contest in “powerful” Opposition ULP nearly brought East Kingstown? Parliament to a halt, over its boisterous Although Ken Begged De Comrade to behaviour in clamouring that the keep him as one of the nation’s orphans like Chairman’s pay should be scaled back to his friends Burns, his pleas fell on deaf $1350.00. ears, he was smartly huffed. At no time during fifteen years did I Today this chap, whose profession hardly reach the monthly figure of $2000.00 which ever earned him a living, has neither a paled in comparison with other OECS clientele nor a political free cheque states. I wonder what Blazer’s pay packet is (handout). So sad! Feel for the gentle man like today. The $400.00 start-up salary was because his life depends on it. operational during Cato’s time when the Comrade, please, have some compassion Chairman, lawyer Christe Norris, reaped a on Ken. He is a brilliant writer whose goodly sum from other Government twenty years with the Vincentian is a good business, including the solicitorship of the contribution. His law Chambers is usually NCB! empty and he has no political appointment In regard to my leaving the post, Otto (as Chairman) and he gets no easy has it all deliberately wrong. During the government jobs. How do you expect him to campaigning for the 1998 elections, Dr. survive? That’s why he is so angry! Don’t Gonsalves had dragged my name through you know that he is a Tommy Tucker by the mud. When a snap election was called, I profession? After all, he had begged to stay said publicly that I would resign if the ULP on as Chairman of the PSC in the spirit of won, which they did, and immediately I together now. Poor chaps! His life depends submitted my resignation based on on it. principle. I really feel for him, because he is so I received pay up to the day in the month bitter. I’m afraid that he is blowing his fuse that my resignation took effect, not a single or simply getting senile. Comrade please cent as a gratuity for 15 years work! give him a bread and butter.” What seemed to hurt Otto especially was my suggestion that Ralph should tackle My Response East Kingstown to prove how weak he said Arnhim was. I was serious. Other leaders I should have rebutted this letter 15 had done similar feats to prove a point. years ago before its poison had had time to Joshua left North Windward in the care of seep into the body politic, but better late his wife Ivy and removed Charles from than never. Central Windward. Even Vincent Beache Firstly, I was referred to as “KenDP” had left his strong-hold of North Central according to the baptismal rites of my Windward to help Ralph win the seat and, nephew, Mike Browne, as editor of in turn, took away South Windward from “Justice”. In fact I have never been a cardBurton Williams. Talk about leadership! carrying member of the NDP nor engaged Ralph had better wheel and come again in any of its councils. with aplomb. (This was published in THE VINCENTIAN Friday 30th April, 2015.)
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THE VINCENTIAN. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021. 9.
Letters
Fix the road. ItÊs your duty
ABOUT TWO or so weeks ago, ManAbout-Town asked about that piece of road that overlooks the Grenadines Wharf and the Quarry area. It is that piece of road that begins at the crossword to go onto Cane Garden or to go back down Long Wall and into Kingstown. The piece of road runs into Cane Garden for about 200 metres or more. That piece of road must have the most holes for any stretch of road in St. Vincent. (I am not certain about the state of the roads in the Grenadines, though I hear that roads in Bequia are deplorable.) The road does not even allow you to dodge one hole to get away from another. There are just too many holes and not far
apart from each other. I would go as far as to say there are more holes that asphalt surface. To use it, vehicles have to literally slow down to a pace that doesn’t even register on their speedometers. It is deplorable and I am certain that those of us who still drive motor cars and not those fancy SUVs have to suffer the most. I mean, if the Prime Minister or anyone of his Ministers use that road (and I have not seen them on that road for quite some time), they will not feel a thing in their fancy vehicles so they might wonder what Man-About-Town and I are making such a fuss about. It seems that we simple tax payer who choose to live in Cane Garden
must suffer because somebody in authority have the attitude, ‘Oh, let them suffer, they have money’. You will be surprised, Mr. Editor, to know how widespread this attitude is among people in general. What a shame that with all the boast the PM and others make about how we are a respected nation on the world scene, how we are member of the UN Security Council, but we can’t fix a road that is used by all and sundry. It’s a real shame. Are we who live in Cane Garden and surrounding areas being penalized for some election sin? Time for Ralph and Julian and all the other ULP wigs to stop the
biasness and attend to that road. Maybe we should do like people in other countries and block the road. Must we always have to suffer then take action before something that should be an ongoing responsibility is attended to? Shame on us!! Please, attend to that piece of road. Cane Garden Taxpayer PS: Someone just called to ask me if I noticed that the minibuses have stopped using the Cane Garden ‘bypass’. It must be because of that piece of road the caller said. CGTp
‘On a Screen’ When the reversed option makes more sense
MR. EDITOR, Just like how the drive to abstain from sex as a means of preventing the spread of AIDS could have had the effect of creating a generation of people who would have become afraid of sex altogether, this computer world in which we live and operate is leading us down a sort of similar path. That path is all about keeping to yourself; not interacting with people; keeping us glued to a computer screen Think about what is happening right now in our world: people are working from home, ‘on a screen’; children are going to school ‘on a screen’; all kind of meetings are being held ‘on a screen’; press conferences are conducted ‘on a screen’; you can pay your telephone, cable and I am not sure what else ‘on a screen’; people are even doing all their banking ‘on a screen’; more and more people are shopping ‘on a screen’; some people are even going to church ‘on a screen’; entertainment needs — music, sport, movies — can be had ‘’on a screen’. The rate we are going at, the next think they will tell us is that we can procreate ‘on a screen’. This stay at home, ‘on a screen’ lifestyle is leading the next generation down a road that makes them believe that is the new normal; that they don’t have to socialize or even go outside; they must remain at home fixed to a screen. We stand a good chance of not developing rounded individuals, just ‘screen-focused’ ones who don’t think fresh air and sunshine really matter in their lives. I agree the computer technology is here to stay and will be with us for generations to come, but that doesn’t mean that we have to become slaves to it. And as I see it, the persons involved in dispensing eye glasses will enjoy this lifestyle. I wonder: Is this another trap by the developed world to keep us in their grip? Charles, Edinboro
I PAID MY VINLEC bill last week and noticed the highly talked about 10% discount on the unit charges. Great, I said to myself; I am finally getting something back. Then it struck me the many times last week I had heard the discussion about the 1% increase in the CSC tax on imported goods. I heard the opposition spinning it as a 20% increase; I heard the Minister of Finance defending is as not being callous, wicked or unconscionable; then I heard the PM justifying it as monies to pay dues to various regional and international organizations. I, myself, a few weeks ago wrote about why I think it was unfair and unjustified due to current stress on the economic, brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. I labeled it a regressive tax disproportionately affecting the working poor in our country. Now here we go again with this VINLEC and CWSA 10% discount on the unit charges. I heard the PM calling on these quasi-government operations to offer said 10% discount a few week ago. In fact, his call out seemed like an attempt to embarrass the Board of Directors or Manager into doing it. Well it’s done Mr. PM - you successfully forced these
institutions to give away my money to all, and sundry. As a rate payer I must say these funds are not yours to give away. So like the good old saying goes, “no good deed goes unpunished” or in this case unnoticed. Now my take on the 10% utility bill discount is that it is also regressive by its construct. So let’s play the numbers game again. Let’s say the average electricity consumption is 200 units, the cost for these units will be about $100.00 thus putting your discount at $10.00. The more you use, the more discount you receive which on the surface seems fair and just, until you look at who needs it more and what the $10 discount means to the working poor compared to someone in the middle class who may receive between $20-25 in discount. The person likely receiving the $10 discount is a part of the working poor making between $10-15 thousand dollars a year, while the other person is most likely in the upper/middle class receiving a salary of greater than fifty thousand dollars per year. So this time, the 10% discount means less to those people on the upper end of the user scale. This is a time
when a straight dollar discussion for another amount would have the day! greater benefit to a largest number of people Horatio in need of help. I offer this suggestion for the next time you are going to give away some of My Money: think about the greater good to the greatest amount of * Why do people before you choose fishers from the “Easy Button”. After the Grenadines have all, $10 to the cart-man to bring their catch or the fisher-folks means to the mainland for much more to them than inspection? $25 to senior civil * Why can’t servants. This time an provision be made to do this in the across the board $15 Grenadines? credit would have cost * Did this procedure the companies about the cause an exporter of same amount of money seafood to miss his and the benefits would airlift date? be more far reaching as a * Is a certain helping hand or an businessman economic stimulus. offering medical cannabis cultivators By the way, if these EC$50.00 per lb. for utilities could afford a their produce after 10% discount in the rates that same today it seems to suggest businessman that maybe the rates are promised US$50.00 at least 10% too high. A per lb.? * Who is going to look into this dastardly act, Dr. Thomas and the Medical Cannabis Authority, Junior ‘Spirit’ Cottle and the Cannabis Revival Committee or some Minister of Government? * Are medical cannabis cultivators, because of this shoddy treatment, turning back to ‘illegal’ export of the herb?
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10. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021. THE VINCENTIAN
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Twenty years of sterling leadership and good governance
Part 2
Introduction THE CELEBRATION of the Unity Labour Party continues this week as we continue to examine some of the most popular policies of this people-centred government over the last 20 years. There can be no denying that what this country has achieved over the years of governance under this great party can only be described as magnificent. The leadership of the ULP remains resolute in its dedication and commitment to the people of this country, to ensure that we keep lifting SVG higher.
very year the ULP took office, and included creating additional space by building wooden structures. A few short years later, when the government was ready to implement universal access to secondary education, these very wooden structures provided the space needed to accommodate the additional students. These were students who didn’t pass the Common Entrance Exam, but were however being given access to secondary school education. Schools such as Thomas Saunders Secondary, West St. Housing George Secondary, George Stephens Secondary and the Sandy Bay Prior to the ULP taking office, home Secondary School are examples of ownership was something that was schools started as a result of universal generally beyond the reach of the to secondary education. working class. The reality was that even access The Government has upgraded for families where two members were Technical Centres across the country employed in the public sector, it was and the St. Vincent and the Grenadines difficult to get a mortgage for two College now offers a wide reasons, the low salaries earned and the Community range of programmes including locally onerous requirement of the deposit from developed associate degree programs as the lending institutions. This meant as franchised programs in that workers in the public sector either well partnership with other institutions. The owned homes close to retirement, or of Technical and Vocational their homes took years to build, as they Division Education continues to offer more would normally be dependent on help courses through improved facilities, from members in the community who including their Hospitality Institute at assisted with the construction on Diamond and their state of the art weekends. department. To address this very undesirable and automotive As of 2020, the number of unsatisfactory situation that crippled scholarships, exhibition awards and this country’s hard-working public bursaries given by the government to servants, like teachers, nurses and facilitate university studies was 58, this police officers, the government had a is up from 47 the year before. When one plan. The state-owned bank, the that by 2001, the NDP gave a National Commercial Bank would begin considers maximum of 4 national scholarships, offering one hundred percent (100%) the true extent of the emphasis placed mortgages to qualified public sector on support for our students’ university workers to construct their first home. education can be fully appreciated. This policy removed the need to raise numbers do not include the the ten percent (10%) deposit previously These who get assistance towards required, allowing many who would not hundreds their education through the Public have been able to come up with that Service Commission or the National deposit, to now apply. Authority. It must be The campaign promise of the ULP to Lotteries highlighted that the government construct 500 low and middle income through its proactive foreign policy has homes was the other housing initiative negotiated scholarships for our that began in the ULP’s first term. The also students who have gained university Housing and Land Development degrees at institutions in Austria, Corporation set about constructing Azerbaijan, Cuba, Mexico, Morocco, houses in Peter’s Hope, Clare Valley, Russia, Taiwan, Turkey and Venezuela. Diamond and San Souci. For many the full implementation of the public sector workers, this was a double With government’s policy on education, the blessing, as they were now able to performances of our students access 100% mortgage to purchase their improved at CPEA, CSEC, at the Community low or middle income house. It must and the results from also be mentioned that the government College across the globe, all attest also constructed “no income houses” for universities to a very successful education individuals with very specific circumstances, who didn’t pay for those revolution. homes and are allowed to live rent free Conclusion until death. Today because of this policy, It’s is obvious that this article in 2 hundreds of homes have been parts could not cover all the policies of constructed, or purchased by public ULP administration over the last 20 officials who remain grateful to the ULP the years in office. Many more projects that for making home ownership possible. emanated from policies of this government have not been mentioned, Education to the disappointment of many. Some of these include, climate change For many Vincentians, this adaptation and mitigation where we represents the single most significant to build climate resilient policy implemented by the Unity Labour continue improvements in Party, as it has and continues to impact infrastructure; healthcare, constructing polyclinics, the lives of tens of thousands. Almost renovating and upgrading clinics and every family has been positively centres; expanding MCMH and impacted by this policy that was able to health the construction of the Modern Medical deliver, compulsory primary education, and Diagnostic Centre in Georgetown; universal secondary education, stateinfrastructure development, repairing funded early learning childhood roads and reconstructing bridges across education, expanded post-secondary this country after disasters and of education that includes teacher course the largest capital project ever training, nursing education and undertaken in this country, the Argyle technical vocational education. This International Airport. It cannot be country is also on track to achieve the denied that the stellar leadership target of one university graduate per provided by the ULP over the last 20 household on aggregate by 2030, years is worthy of celebration, but we because of the education revolution. will not become complacent. We will The process began with the “To strive, to seek, to find, and immediate renovation of all schools the continue not to yield.”
Tax increase during COVID-19 pandemic (Excerpts of Dr. Friday’s Press Conference) ONCE MORE, the government has increased taxes on the Vincentian people. This time it is in the form of an increase in the Customs Service Charge (CSC). The CSC has been increased from 5% to 6% i.e. a 20% hike in the CSC. The CSC is a tax paid on all goods imported into the country. St. Vincent and the Grenadines is a small open economy. We import most of what we consume. Therefore, the CSC is included in the price of most of the things that we buy and use in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. So, its effect is very broad. Furthermore, the CSC increase will affect VAT as well. That is to say, the amount of money the government will collect on each VAT item will increase. This is because VAT is charged on the goods after the value of those goods has been raised by the higher CSC. What does this mean for us? By raising the CSC from 5% to 6%, the price of most goods we buy in the store or bring into the country for ourselves will go up. In fact, some prices have already gone up. People have noticed it. We will pay more for almost everything we use, including foodstuff: e.g. cooking oil, corned beef, chicken and other meats, salt, rice, sugar, macaroni, juices, ketchup, seasonings, detergents, soap, shampoo, school supplies, clothing and shoes, and everything else that we get at the grocery stores and clothing stores. We will pay more for hardware goods: lumber, cement, galvanize, bathroom fittings, nails, screws, paint, etc. We will pay more for other household goods: pots and pans, cloth, linoleum for your floor, light bulbs, plates, spoons, and heavy appliances such as stoves, fridges and microwave ovens will cost more. And we will pay more for motor vehicles of all kinds. The bigger the purchase, the more money the government will collect, and the more you the consumer/taxpayer will notice the increase.
How much will Government collect? The government expects to collect $8 million directly from the increase in the CSC. This estimate does not include the additional amounts the government will also get from VAT (i.e. after VAT is charged on goods whose value has been increased by the higher CSC). In other words, the increase is expected to earn the same amount, or more than the government earned additionally when it raised VAT from 15% to 16%, five years ago. So, this is not a small thing. The Minister and others in the government would like us to believe it is a small thing. It amounts to a very significant tax increase that will affect everyone - rich and poor, employed and unemployed directly. Every time we buy something in the store, or someone sends something for you from overseas, you will be paying the tax.
What is this money to be used for? The money is not to be used for spending on things here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It is not raised from all of us to help those suffering more from COVID economic fallout. It is to be used to pay various regional organizations to help them to cover their operating expenses. The
Minister of Finance sought to explain it in his Budget Address. The following organizations were mentioned in the Budget Address and provided for in 2021 Estimates: Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), ($113,000); Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), ($60,000); Regional Security System (RSS), ($2M); Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), ($255.7K); CARICOM Implementing Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS), ($278,450); Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology, ($250,000); Caribbean Meteorological Services, ($40,610); Seismic Research Centre, ($400,000); Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority ($900,000) and the OECS ($3.18m). CARICOM (1.16m) and the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court ($2.2m) were also added later. We do not question the important roles that these regional bodies play for St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Caribbean. But, we must question, why now a tax increase for them? Why must the government impose a special tax on the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines to pay these organizations at this difficult time? This question is important not only because of the special times we are in as a result of the COVID- 19 pandemic, but also because the government imposed a similar tax in 2015 for the same reasons that should have paid all of these organizations already. The 2015 Estimates provided the following sums for these organizations: Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) (Not mentioned); Pan-American; Health Organization (PAHO), $115,000.00; Regional Security System (RSS, $1,800,000.00; Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), $100,000.00; CARICOM Implementing Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) (Not mentioned); Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology, $155,000.00; Caribbean Meteorological Services, $87,000.00; Seismic Research Centre, $190,000.00; Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority, $485,000.00; OECS, $2,500,000.00; CARICOM, $654,000.00 and the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, $2,100,000.00, a total of $8,186,000.00. Over the years, the government came to Parliament, especially in the Estimates it presented, and set out the amount of money needed to pay each of these regional organizations. Parliament approved it. What did they do with that money? The government obviously spent on other things and now they are coming to the people to ask for more money through raising the CSC, again. The people of this country are going through hell right now! We are going through a period of great economic pain and great uncertainty brought about by the mismanagement of the economy by this government, and there is uncertainty about what the immediate future holds. We were put in this position by bad financial management, which was made a lot worse by the COVID 19 Pandemic and the way the government has mishandled it. The current outbreak of COVID- 19 with the reluctant acknowledgment by the government of community spread, has clearly set us back even more.
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THE VINCENTIAN. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021. 11.
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Do you believe in Easter?
(First published in the April 5, 2012 issue of THE VINCENTIAN newspaper “THE GREAT EASTER TRUTH is not that we are to live newly after death — that is not the great thing — but that we are to be new here and now by the power of the resurrection; not so much that we are to live forever as that we are to, and may, live nobly now because we are to live forever.” - Phillips Brooks (1835–1893) US Episcopal minister, sermon at Lincoln's funeral, wrote the Christmas carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem” It is truly amazing how quickly technology is advancing and how these progressions, in turn, influence our lives. I was reading the Daily Bread Devotional several months ago when I came across a most interesting story that was written by David C. McCasland. He described two brothers who, in the 1980s, were experimenting with a computer programme and discovered some unique ways in manipulating images. Many computer software companies thought that these youngsters, John and Thomas Knoll, were crazy since, until this time, photographers were unaware of the possibility of using computers to edit photographic images; John and Thomas were “pioneering beyond the known photography world”. The brothers initially called their programme “Display”. Over time, the name evolved to “Imaginator”. They eventually settled for the name that we now know as “Photoshop®”. This software is presently used around the world as amateurs at home and professionals in business seek to enhance the outcome of their “photographic expeditions”. Through this technology it is possible to correct almost every imaginable flaw that is made by “photo-takers”. However, it should be noted that many of the early users of the software considered the invention “too good to be true” when they heard that the software had the capability of correcting the multitude of photographic errors. The New Testament describes the scene on that first Easter morning as the women who carried spices to anoint Jesus’ body found the tomb empty (see Matthew 28). The angels who met them there stated, “He is not here: for he is risen as he said.” (Matthew 28:6). This historic moment is also captured in the New Testament book of Luke 24. And in Luke 24:11 we read that when the women told this to the disciples, “Their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them”. Although our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had foretold His faithful followers that He will be raised on the third day (see Matthew 16:21, 17:2223, 20:17-19), when it actually happened their initial response appeared to be saying “too good to be true”. Today, two thousand years later, there are still some who question whether the evidence could have been
manipulated. Is it possible that His followers could have rolled away the stone while the soldiers who were guarding the tomb were asleep? Could they have paid the soldiers to lie? What do you truly believe? No, this is not the time to put this question on a back burner “for a more convenient season”. This Easter Season is as good a time as any to examine what you truly believe about this all-important aspect of history. This is truly a question to answer. As you ponder, let me share a story about an eleven-year-old boy named Philip, a Down’s syndrome child who was in a Sunday School class with eight other children: Easter Sunday the teacher brought an empty plastic egg for each child. They were instructed to go out of the church building onto the grounds and put into the egg something that would remind them of the meaning of Easter. All returned joyfully. As each egg was opened there were exclamations of delight at a butterfly, a piece of stick, a flower, a blade of grass. Then the last egg was opened. It was Philip’s, and it was empty! Some of the children made fun of Philip. “But, teacher,” he said, “teacher, the tomb was empty.” A newspaper article announcing Philip’s death a few months later noted that at the conclusion of the funeral eight children marched forward and put a large empty egg on the small casket. On it was a banner that said, “The tomb was empty.” And while I do not subscribe to Easter eggs, Easter bunnies, and the like, the preceding story is shared to introduce my belief in that first Easter (even as you continue to ponder yours). Like Philip in the story, I am convinced that Jesus, my Lord and Saviour, died for my sins (and the rest of the world) and that He arose “with a mighty victory over His foes”. I believe that His resurrection is a fact of history; not a myth. I am convinced that Jesus conquered death and that, because I believe that He lives, “I will see tomorrow”. The resurrection of Jesus Christ, the great Easter truth, enables sinful beings like me to have a life-changing experience that allows for a “newness of life” on this side of the grave and the privilege of spending eternity with Him; His resurrection enables us to live nobly now (even though we will slip up from time to time) and to live forever in His presence; through faith in Jesus Christ and His resurrection we can have this hope in the now and the here-after. What do you believe? What does Easter mean to you? Send comments, criticisms & suggestions to julesferdinand@gmail.com
Cable and Wireless and Digicel have a case to answer WE ARE BETWEEN A ROCK and a hard place. There is no way to turn for relief. The service offered by Cable and Wireless (FLOW) and Digicel is horribly, inadequate and inefficient. We are forced to contend with a case of 6 of one, half a dozen of the next. We must find a solution. Plain Talk had long hoped that the government, through the Attorney General, would take these companies to court to seek redress on behalf of our people and country. But alas, this seems unlikely. Camillo Gonsalves, the Minister of Telecommunications is on record as saying that nothing can be done based on these companies’ current contractual arrangements. A ‘remedy’ floated was for us to refuse to renew the contracts until better and improved service is offered. We do not think this is enough. We do not believe that there can be no redress with institutions that act improperly in a country of laws. As the Indian senior counsel famously said, ‘The law may be an ass sometimes, but judges should not allow themselves to be led by an ass. They must find solutions to serious problems.’ For more than a century, Cable and Wireless has reaped a handsome reward from its operations. Digicel stormed into this market about 20 years ago and has sucked gluttonously on our every dollar. When Cable and Wireless had a monopoly, calls to Europe and North America were more than $5 per minute. Today, the fee per calls is substantially lower but is still relatively high compared to those in neighbouring Barbados and Trinidad. Vincentians cherish the lower fees. Wi-Fi has dramatically assisted with communications, but the complaints are mounting. These companies continue to swipe credit off people’s phones with no redress. They claim to offer 4G service at high rates and never delivers. Sometimes calls made to the phones do not register. Other times calls are made but never received. Calls frequently drop, adversely disrupting personal and business communications. The internet service is terrible, and the companies’ total communications packages have gotten palpably worse, even as they claim to have spent money to upgrade. The only thing that is being upgraded is the amount of money both companies continue to make annually. Both companies maintain brutally exploitative and abusive relations with Vincentians. Years ago, Digicel made $4 million ($48 million annually) in phone card sales per month through one outlet. Cable and Wireless make comparable profits. And we know this because they have remained in the market rather than fold. Yet these companies pay pennies on the dollar to street vendors selling credit. These big companies are not transparent. They do everything possible to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Since the ULP government attained power, it collected more than $20 million in taxes from Cable and Wireless after
forensic audits of its tax returns. Digicel was compelled to turn over millions after audits of its returns. These are profitable business entities. Why are they allowed to get away with robbery in broad daylight? The National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRC) has ample proof of the misdeeds of these companies. Yet, it refuses to act. It is time that citizens join together to demand better, cheaper and more efficient service. I speak from the personal experience saying that both Digicel and Cable and Wireless have scant regard for Vincentians. For 13 years, I was a Digicel customer. I paid my bill promptly and in full. Yet not a month went by without complaints. In 2017 I had had enough of the abuse and switched. I switched not because I thought Cable and Wireless offered better service. I switched to show Digicel I was unprepared to continue sucking up its abuse. Cable and Wireless is equally abusive and exploitative. Firstly, neither of these companies engage in full disclosure. Cable and Wireless locked me into a 2-year contract without saying so. I found out following my complaint to the Country Manager about shortcomings in his service. I was introduced to a plan I found attractive and accepted the offer. I subsequently found out that Cable and Wireless reneged on the offer because it claimed I was on contract for a higher postpaid monthly fee. No one ever mentioned the contract terms–no one called to explain why the agreement could not be honoured. Cable and Wireless charges about $75 for data per month. I noticed that I could not communicate unless I were in a Wi-Fi zone. I took up the matter with the company to find out that, ‘Yes, your observation is correct. There is a problem with the phone.’ I was inconvenienced and robbed without notice. The exploitation and abuse are unending. Recently, a salesperson from Cable and Wireless called with an offer to double the internet speed for a fee. I agreed to the increased costs, yet the internet continuously drops with no improvement in service. My experience is not unique. And it matters not whether your service provider is Cable and Wireless or Digicel. So what do we do? Plain Talk is absolutely sure that both companies, Cable and Wireless and Digicel, have a case to answer. Let’s see how they respond to a claim charging deceit, intentional and fraudulent misrepresentation. We have nothing to lose and a whole lot to gain. This Plain Talk piece with minor changes first appeared on December 21, 2018. There has been no change for the better. Things have gotten much worse. Send comments, criticisms & suggestions to jomosanga@gmail.com
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12. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021. THE VINCENTIAN
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SVG: No prosperity without sustainable sources of revenue WARRANT OFFICER Ivan Bertie O’Neal BSc (Hons), MSc, MBA, Leader of SVG Green Party, very strongly contends that the lack of revenue creation is our greatest weakness in SVG. SVG will never achieve prosperity without sustainable sources of revenue, but instead will only become poorer. After 20 years in power, the ULP regime has failed to create sustainable sources of revenue for our country. Not much money from abroad flows into our economy. The ULP regime has been wasteful with public finances by focusing on tourism, building a big jail in North Leeward and building the Argyle airport. None of these create sustainable sources of revenue. In fact, they probably cost more to run and maintain than anything they may earn. Warrant Officer Ivan Bertie O’Neal, who has a BSc (Hons) degree in Accounting and Finance and Economics from Oxford Brookes University, England, says that our country loses hundreds of millions of dollars a year, because we import so much. About 200 million dollars is lost to imported food and hundreds of millions more are lost because pretty much nothing is manufactured here in SVG. Our country’s policy makers urgently need to invest in economic variables that offer a high rate of return and sustainable sources of revenue. Our country needs a strong manufacturing sector and a strong service sector. SVG needs a more knowledge-based economy, and for that, we need our own university. Former Singapore Prime Minister,
Lee Kuan Yew, was a graduate of Cambridge University, England. After Singapore’s independence, as prime minister he focused on a fiscal policy of sustainable sources of revenue and providing free, high-quality education from pre-school to Singapore’s own universities. The benefits and success of this policy of sustainable sources of revenue transformed Singapore from poverty and destitution into a World Bank success story. Focusing on having an educated population and a knowledge-based economy has led to Singapore now having one of the highest standards of living in the world. Tourism was never a variable in Singapore’s rapid economic rise to prosperity, as Lee Kuan Yew realised
that tourism cannot produce a high rate of return or create sustainable sources of revenue. In April 2015, at a meeting with CARICOM leaders, former President of the USA, Barack Obama, repeated SVG Green Party’s university message. He said, “If you look at some of the most successful countries in the world, they are actually pretty small countries like Singapore — for example. On paper, it looks like they have no assets and yet, if you go to Singapore, it has one of the highest standards of living in the world. What it is that Singapore did that might be replicable? One of the most important things they did is that they made a massive investment in their people and, if you have got a highly skilled [and] highly educated workforce — if
you set up rules of law and governance that are transparent and non-corrupt, then you can attract actually a lot of service industries… .” The problem in SVG is that we have a highly ‘dotish’ government that wants to use tourism as the foundation of the SVG economy, rather than education. For that reason, our country has no sustainable sources of net revenue and is very poor. SVG will never achieve prosperity without sustainable sources of revenue and a change of government.
⁄die I must, but not from the COVID vaccine!!! IT IS LAUGHABLE how some ‘intelligent’ persons are swayed if not misled by the current pro vaccine propaganda … so it is left to conclude that the propaganda machine, well oiled, is effective. It has captured the imagination of even our learned leaders, why, because they ‘fraid’ to die! … isn’t that’s why you want the vaccination? When the world news announced at the end of 2019 that a deadly virus was spreading, (ushering the ‘new
norm’ of social distancing and associated protocols), what became the daily norm thereafter was news and scenes of dead bodies in Europe, USA and elsewhere — pictures of death, deaths and more deaths, leaving the world in a state of shock, psychological shock, and stress. Shock is trauma or injury of the mind, and when your mind is injured, it invariably affects other body functions. The constant bombarding from the news media has subtly brainwashed most of our ‘intelligentsia’ into believing that the vaccine is the best way to prevent death, because that is what the virus is capable of doing, has done and will continue to do……. especially if you don’t take the jab. No government or vaccine manufacturer is currently LIABLE, despite the fact that trillions of dollars are made by the vaccine makers (note I did not state pharmaceutical companies). Vaccines are normally tested on mice and other animals to see what the reaction is in both the short and long term. In this case you are dealing with virulent DNA or segments of DNA, which isn’t quite an exact science when you are trying to edit genes at micro millimeter ranges. Although CRISPR (lustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) has been around for the last decade or so, that science has not yet been perfected. The technology has its usefulness, but to some cold-hearted scientists, the human trials are the best way to fast track the findings, at the expense of human ‘guinea pigs’. I guess some lab mice are breathing lil’ longer.
Because the scene of COVID death is so overwhelming, many people are afraid to die, and the vaccine is one of the ways to avoid death. While the vaccine may not prevent you from contracting future COVID variants, some medics pushing for the vaccine state that it will lessen the effects of future infections. There is no guarantee that the current vaccine will be effective against new or other strains. So the risks far outweigh the benefits at this time. The second reason why some persons took the vaccine is purely to allow them to travel without restrictions; I smile when I heard that justification. I go no further, so the majority of persons either is afraid to die or just want to be able to travel. There is undisputable scientific proof that our lemon grass, ‘aka’ fever grass that grows wild in SVG, can destroy the corona group of viruses. Most persons 40 years or older would remember that when you had a bad cold or flu, some hot lemon grass tea, sometimes with a half of lime, would be given to the sick child or person, following which you would literally ‘sweat it out’. In a day or two you were up and going again. The Good Book states that the ‘herbs and the leaves thereof are for the healing of the nations’ and most modern medicines have herbal origins. Why ‘strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel’, I ask my fellow Vincentians. In closing, when my children asked me if I was taking the jab, I laughingly responded, “… die I must but not from that vaccine!”
Why do people really want the
Donald De Riggs
vaccine?
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THE VINCENTIAN. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021. 13.
Diaspora
Vincy loses bid for Hempstead Trustee
“Transparency for Hempstead”, mustering only 138 votes, the lowest among nine Trustee candidates. According to preliminary results, published in Newsday, a Long Island-based newspaper, Kevin Boone received the Rosanne Small-Morgan was unsuccessful in her most votes — 2,008; Clariona Griffith, 1,911; bid to become a Charles Renfroe Hempstead Trustee but (incumbent), 1,241; has abandoned her advocacy work on Laquana King, 1,120; behalf of the Jennifer C. Bonilla, disadvantaged. 635; Thern Shivers, 547; Sherina Lucas, 183; and Noah by NELSON A. KING Burroughs, 178. naking@verizon.net Despite her heavy US CORRESPONDENT defeat, Small-Morgan — who also works in the VINCENTIAN Rosanne utility industry, where “Rosie” Small-Morgan, a she manages Nassau senior advocate for the elderly, blind, disabled and County and the Rockaways in Queens — underserved population, sought to put a positive lost her fervent, maiden spin on the outcome. bid as an independent “It was a hard and candidate for the office of Trustee in the Incorporated uphill battle to run as an independent woman Village of Hempstead, candidate in a village Nassau County, Long that deeply is Island, New York. There are four Trustees in entrenched by party the Incorporated Village of lines,” she told THE VINCENTIAN. Hempstead that has a “However, I had the population of about opportunity to meet so 55,000 residents, many of my fellow according to the United residents, share my States Census. vision for us all and With a heavy make invaluable concentration of connections. Caribbean Americans, “One thing that I Hempstead is will do, after a brief predominantly African rest, is to develop my American (Blacks) and other Rosanne SmallLatinos. There is also a Morgan page on small population of Facebook to become a whites and Asians. portal of services for Small-Morgan, 51 — the residents of who moved with her Hempstead,” she added. family to Hempstead in “Any information, October 1994 after resources or guidance I residing in Queens can give, I will willingly Village, Queens, New share. York — is a wife and a “Even though the “proud mother of two results didn’t go my gifted children,” one of way, I am very much whom has autism. committed to be an Small-Morgan, who advocate for the migrated from St. underserved Vincent and the Grenadines in 1988, was population,” she said. Small-Morgan said, reportedly the first however, that she “will Caribbean-born woman be back” but was to seek the office of unsure in what Trustee in the capacity. Incorporated Village of “But it is my quest to Hempstead. make a positive impact She said she ran and contribution within “proudly” under her my community,” she party’s name,
said, thanking “the many this experience. people who called, “It is very encouraging donated, encouraged and to hear from so many supported me through people since the election
who have been asking me, ‘what’s next?’” she added. “As I stated before, I will be back;
that is a promise. I would also like to thank my campaign for their very hard work as well.”
KCCU DONATES WATER TANKS TO SCHOOLS The Kingstown Co-operative Credit Union Limited (KCCU LTD) highly prioritizes the health, safety and well-being of our members and our nation, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. As a consequence of the recent imminent threat posed by natural phenomena, particularly the potential explosive volcanic eruption as well as yearly hurricane challenges, we have embarked on an initiative to assist with national preparedness.
4 out of the 14 water tanks being donated.
The membership of KCCU LTD has donated fourteen (14), one thousand (1000) gallon water tanks to various schools around Saint Vincent and the Grenadines that have been identified as disaster shelters and are without adequate water storage facilities. This initiative was made possible with the involvement, partnership and approval of the Ministry of Education. Moreover, BRAGSA will assist with the implementation and installation works. KCCU LTD takes this opportunity to urge our members and all Vincentians to take the necessary steps towards individual and household preparedness. We also wish safety and good health to everyone during this Easter weekend.
CEO- Clement Lynch and Minister of Education- Hon. Curtis King sealing the partnership with a hand shake. Both parties sufficiently sanitized before conducting this handshake.
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14. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021 . THE VINCENTIAN
Soufrière Focus
La Soufrière: What stage are we at now? get new energy and renewed vigor from fresh magma coming into the system.”
The new dome (left) was, according to the latest measurements, 3000ft. long, 800 ft. wide and 350 ft. high, and continues to grow and emit magna and gases.
The current state
Professor Richard Robertson, Head of THE UWI SRC monitoring team, emphasized that La Soufrière has given a lot of indications about what it wants to do. Professor Robertson noted that one of the monitoring team’s job is to look for changes and there was a change, he said, which caused heightened states of alert. “Exactly what the change will result in, it’s still early days to say ……but the options are that you could have ongoing dome growth,… or some sort of explosive activity.” He, however, went on to explain that “the thing that is going to move it from effusive to explosive is how much energy you get; and you can
As for the current state of the volcano, a NEMO bulletin of 27th March stated the following: “The period of elevated volcano-tectonic (VT) earthquakes which began on 23 March 2021 stopped on March 26, 2021. Since then, the only seismic activity being recorded are small low frequency events associated with the growth of the dome. These kinds of events were dominant before March 23, 2021. Their rate of occurrence does not appear to have changed as a result of the volcano-tectonic earthquake swarm. “The new dome continues to grow towards the Leeward and Windward sides of the volcano, with the most active gas emissions being at the top of the new dome, as well as the contact areas between the preexisting 1979 and 2020/21 domes.” Even as the alert level remains at Orange and no evacuation order or notice has been issued, NEMO continues to encourage residents, especially persons living in communities close to the volcano, to be prepared in the event that it becomes necessary to evacuate at short notice.
could do something………it’s feeling it. People would have been wondering: Is this really now time to shake the ground WHEN ON MARCH 23 the and telling us ‘Yes, I really erupting or are we just National Emergency want to do something!’” tricking them? I think the Management Organisation His judgement was that earthquakes tell them what (NEMO) announced that a 45based on these indications we have been telling them: minute swarm of low-frequency that it is actually an erupting that regardless of something seismic events had occurred happens in the short or volcano,” he said in preface. that very morning, and that this medium term, it should not be “It will have different was followed up later in the phases in its eruption and one a surprise. afternoon by a series of volcano- of the options was always that tectonic earthquakes that Monitoring changes it could go into an explosive reached down to an approximate phase. Whether or not it will 3.1 km below the surface of the result in something volcano, to the average listener explosive is all indications were that the something to keep volcano was stepping up its a close eye on, he activity. continued. ACCORDING TO MICHELLE Emergency Operation Centre, Even without panicking, FORBES, Director of the Old Montrose, and an audience Vincentians across the nation Volcano giving National Emergency of over eighty persons from key had begun to wonder if that indications Management Organisation agencies all of which have a activity was heralding in an role to play in the event of an explosive eruption. When asked by a (NEMO), “We have done a significant amount of work over evacuation, including managing It truly is difficult for caller to hazard a the last few months … looking at people who will have to be volcano scientists to nail down guess as to how transportation, evacuation evacuated from volcano hazard a volcano’s schedule as per close we currently procedures, and nailing that zones. dates and times when it is are to an explosive down.” The simulation exercise was going to erupt. However, eruption, Professor She reported that work has rolled out as planned and after Soufriere Monitoring Unit Robertson chidingly been coordinated with the team leader Professor Richard replied, “We are the March 23 confirmation of Ministry of Transportation and Robertson, speaking on NBC’s closer now than we heightened seismic activity at Works, BRAGSA, and the Police, the volcano. Face to Face programme on were yesterday!” along with other key agencies, to 26th March, gave information He, however, “It was good in exposing Michelle Forbes, Director of ensure that plans are up to a pertinent to understanding went on to say, persons to all the what-if NEMO, assessed the exercise as a stage where, when executed, they scenarios, worse-case scenarios, how a volcano works and how “This volcano has successful one. can flow smoothly. persons should prepare for any given us a lot of and also to get in their minds One stage of these plans was eventuality. indication of what the role of each agency,” Ms. we continue to improve what we He explained that the way it wants to do. You the simulation/table-top exercise Forbes told listeners of the NBC’s have,” she added. to test the readiness of the La Soufriere has been had ongoing Face to Face programme on The Director needed little erupting, persons may have eruptive activity for stakeholders to respond to an Monday, 29th March. convincing that the aims of explosive eruption. been lulled into thinking that close to three “We have been practicing for having persons concerned become The exercise was conducted that is how it would [always] months, so if we years, we practiced for Trade familiar with our national virtually on Thursday, 25th erupt. didn’t know that it Winds but we’re in the real systems in the real-life situation, “It would quietly ooze stuff could do something, March. It involved a number of situation now. It was good… and was met. at the top and we’re not it’s telling us that it persons in-house at NEMO’s Stories by GLORIAH…
NEMO conducts simulation exercise
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THE VINCENTIAN. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021. 15.
Soufrière Focus
Responding to the threat of La Soufriere
by SHERON GARRAWAY “I’M SCARED, but I know God going protect we..,” was 13-year-old Owia resident Kev Baptiste’s response when questioned about his thoughts on a possible explosive eruption of La Soufriere volcano in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. He was sitting in a chair in their yard at home (Monday 29th March) engrossed in a video game on his phone, never taking is eyes from the screen, but answered all the questions put to him. His mother Desiree thought her son was being disrespectful, but the interviewer calmed her with an explanation that Kev was more than likely relying on his phone as a sort of coping mechanism, i.e. a distract from the reality that la Soufriere was threatening to erupt. With eyes still pinned to his race car game Kev confessed, “I know I have to stay close and stay safe and move when we have to.” In another conversation, this time with Jemma Nero who described herself as a grandparent, we learned, “It (last eruption — 1979)
happened when I was a little girl. I tell him (grandson) we going wrap two piece of stuff and go with them. He never experienced it, so I try to calm him down and tell him not to think about it.” Jemma continued, “Everybody just have to watch and see because we feeling tremors. Some people say they not thinking about it and some taking it on. We have to meet at the Owia Fishing Complex and then we going to a shelter. It will not be like our own home, but I don’t want to be separated from my children.” Jemma, who was just returning from a swim with her five-year-old grandson, said she too has been feeling “a little earthquake every now and then.” Nero said, “I ain’t feel no different because I experienced it already in 1979 but this time, I don’t know how it will be. I have children and grandchildren and I worry for the young ones.. dem younger ones. I heard we will be going to a shelter in Calder, but we have to wait and see.” The heightened
Jemma Nero had been through the 1979 eruption but admitted she didn’t quite know what to expect this time around. activity at the over 4000 feet La Sourfriere volcano in has highlighted concerns as to how this country will cope. With close to 20,000 of the 110thousand population living in the red zone area, the concerns over evacuation are not being slighted. The National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) continues to do its part to ensure that necessary logistics are handled. NEMO is stretched as it, along with the Ministry of Health, having to respond simultaneously to a dengue fever
Desiree Baptiste (inset) though her son Kev Baptiste was being rude by not putting his phone aside. outbreak and the coronavirus pandemic. As it stands, though, NEMO and all other Government Ministries/Departments and agencies, are guided in their responses by the UNICEF, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), which addresses the potential loss in lives, health status, livelihoods, assets and services, as a result of a natural hazard. The DRR, a systematic approach, provides guidelines for
identifying, assessing and reducing that risk, with the aim being to minimize vulnerabilities and disaster risks throughout a society, in order to avoid (prevent) or to limit (mitigate and prepare for) the adverse impacts of natural hazards, and facilitate sustainable development.. Mitigating and preparing for a disaster, as the one that La Soufriere threatens, is essential as disasters
negatively impact children’s and women’s rights, disproportionately affects poor countries, erode development gains and set back progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, MDG’s. All the support that can be availed to NEMO and organisations of similar intent, will go a long way in mitigating and preparing for the impact of a volcanic eruption.
Hazards from an explosive eruption
The objects expelled during the 1979 eruption of La Soufriere landed on this river bed on the Leeward side of mainland St. Vincent. by GLORIAH… WHENEVER VOLCANOS erupt explosively, there are certain hazards that could be expected to occur as a
result. Professor Richard Robertson, team leader of the Soufriere Monitoring Unit, gave an indication of such occurrences when he spoke on The
University of the West Indies’ La Soufriere Today programme of 30th March. Examining hazard possibilities both off and on the island he began with looking at impact on neighbouring islands. “In terms of neighbouring islands,” he stated, “the main hazard would be ash fall.” He explained that explosive eruptions basically break magma apart, fragmenting it into small pieces that are pushed into the atmosphere. These then get driven by the wind to wider areas than the volcano itself. “So, ash fallout in areas outside of St. Vincent and well as inside of St. Vincent mainly in the northern parts, could impact wider areas: Barbados, St. Lucia … and by extension, it will affect aviation traffic. That’s one of the main hazards in terms of areas off of the volcano, off the island.” Similarly, he discussed the possible hazard of pyroclastic flows on the island itself. “In terms of the island itself, there are these things that we call pyroclastic flows, or you could just
call them gravity flows,” he divulged, “what happens is that instead of the material being pushed up into the atmosphere, it collapses back on the volcano and it goes down the mountainside; probably into the valleys. It moves very fast. It’s very hot. It’s a mixture of rock and gas and various pieces of lava.” These pyroclastic flows, he was adamant, “are the most dangerous thing with volcanos like ours and that is why we have to move people off the mountain because they could potentially affect surrounding valleys on the volcano itself.” And as the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) continues with its drive to inform, and educating, and train here needed, at this time however, it makes it clear that the volcano is not undergoing an explosive eruption; no evacuation order or notice has been given and the alert level remains at Orange. Persons are asked to desist from visiting the volcano.
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16. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021 . THE VINCENTIAN
Court
Justice Cottle highlights role of the media JUSTICE Brian Cottle has stressed the key role the media has to play in the Court process, especially during this period of the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant restrictions. The Judge made the
point at the closing ceremony of the Criminal Assizes on Tuesday. Cottle said that while the Court sought to limit the public attendance at hearings to ensure physical distancing, it
does not mean that the public must not be informed about what is happening in the Courts, and the media is relied upon to make this happen. He said that though
the Court took steps to mitigate the risks of the pandemic, all stakeholders, including the Jury, the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Court staff, police, and
the media must be commended for their respective roles in making the Assizes a success, despite the risks of the pandemic. Director of Public Prosecutions Justice Brian Cottle recognized (DPP) Sejilla the media for its role in reporting Mcdowall and the court proceedings, especially defence lawyer during this COVID-19 period of Kay Bacchusrestrictions. Baptiste also thanked and play in the Court commended all those process. involved in making the Justice Odel Adams, Assizes a success. now deceased, did so Justice Cottle is not several years ago, and he the first Judge to point was instrumental in out the key role media having a media box practitioners, especially installed at the High those in the print media, Court.
King’s matter might trigger a twist WHEN POLITICAL and social activist Luzette King returns to the Serious Offences Court on April 27, there could be a sharp twist in the proceedings. On King’s return to that Court on Monday, March 29, attorney Ronnia DurhamBalcome, one of the lawyers representing King who is facing Immigration and Luzette King’s matter Customs relate before the court could charges, disclosed that take an interesting turn. the defence is expected to make an application before the Court. Balcome did not say what the application was but THE VINCENTIAN was reliably informed that the defence is expected to ask Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne to recuse herself from hearing the matter. The case was called on Monday, but Balcome informed the Court that attorney Kay BacchusBaptiste, another member of the defence team, was engaged in the High Court, before Justice Brian Cottle, and would be there for a few days. As a result, the matter was adjourned to April 27. The other members of the defence team are Mai Eustace and Guevera Leacock. King is charged with entering the state by air on January 30 and not presenting herself in person to the nearest immigration officer. Continued on Page 27.
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THE VINCENTIAN. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021. 17.
News
Taiwan donates to Ministry of Agriculture THE MINISTRY of Agriculture here is in a better position to assist farmers with their cultivation especially, having received a sizeable donation of equipment from the Government of the republic of China (Taiwan). On March 26, Resident Taiwanese Ambassador to St. Vincent and the Grenadines H.E. Calvin Ho handed over 133 pieces of equipment to the Minister of Agriculture Saboto Caesar. The donation included tillers, spraying machines, compost fermentation machines, computers, printers, office equipment and more, and was made under the “Farmers’ Organizations Strengthening and Improving Fruit and Vegetable Production Technology Project”, which was launched in 2015 and completed in 2018. During that period, the Project contributed to the strengthening of the administration operation of nine Vincentian Farmers’ Cooperatives, improved the cultivation techniques used in 8 kinds of vegetable, and increased the volume of agricultural commodities produced in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines by over 20%. This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the
H.E. Calvin Ho and Agriculture Minister Saboto Caesar at the handover of the equipment. Republic of China (Taiwan) and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Over the years, the cooperation in agriculture has been one of the pillars that demonstrate the solidarity between the countries. The Government and the people of the Republic of China (Taiwan) are committed to deepening and broadening its cooperation with the Government and people of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in the years to come.
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22. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021. THE VINCENTIAN
Advice
Vaccine causes separation Dear George, IF SOMEONE had told me that my relationship would end over a vaccine, I would tell them they are crazy. Now I have egg all over my face as my boyfriend and I have chosen to go our separate ways, all because of one stupid vaccine argument. I made a decision to get the COVID19 vaccine but my boyfriend did not. Then he tells me he is not going to marry anyone who is vaccinated because he is not sure what would happen to them later on down the road. To counter that I told him I did not want to be with anyone who is not vaccinated; that my man/husband should be healthy and protected against this dreaded virus. We could not come to a reasonable compromise so we ended going apart. Now, I am wondering if I did the right thing; whether or not I should have given him some slack. But he is so hard-headed and wants to have things his way. We have not spoken to each other in
a while. It is what it is.
Checked out Dear Checked out, For relationships to flourish and survive there must be compromise. Taking the vaccine or not is a personal decision. The decision to take the vaccine or not should be respected equally and should not be the deal breaker to a flourishing relationship. Having said that, it is important for two people who love each other, to have the same goal and be on the same pathway to that goal. Maybe some quiet time away from each other is what is needed for each of you to understand that imposing on each other’s will is not the way to build a relationship.
George
A family affair have no eyes for another I do not think you are and certainly would not ready for a serious be distracted by the relationship and until I FELL IN LOVE with lustful desires of a you are, do not take on this beautiful girl. the role of a heart Everything was OK until mother, who should be breaker. she introduced me, in an dignified and principled online connection to her enough not to attempt to George mother who lives in New derail her daughter’s York. I could not believe relationship. she was my girlfriend’s mother; she was young and hipped. It didn’t take long for my girlfriend’s mother to Dear George, come on to me and ask me to be her side IT IS SO HARD to find a trustworthy woman in kick. She made me St. Vincent. promise not to say I met this girl three months after breaking up anything to her with my girlfriend who had cheated on me. My daughter. new girl promised never to break my heart. She Things got even more moved in with me and things have got to the point complicated a few days where we are talking marriage. ago when my girlfriend’s It so happened that one day she forgot her cousin confessed to me phone at the house. I decided to take it for her at that she was in love with her work place. She takes care of an elderly me and couldn’t see man. herself living without George, when I ‘surprised’ her, I caught her me. I fell for her too. doing things with this man that she absolutely I am now convinced refused to do with me. I had no idea that she and that a man can love as this man have been lovers and he was paying her many women as he likes. to spend time with him. My problem, however, is To this day she has never apologized to me and that I do not know who as far as I know she is still ‘working’ with this to finally settle man. with. Your thoughts I am back in the singles line hoping and please. praying to find a good and honest woman.
Dear George,
Can’t find an honest woman
Undecided
Fooled
Dear Undecided,
Dear Fooled,
You cannot go around accepting to love from everyone who professes to love you. You need to learn the meaning and importance of commitment, love and devotion. Loving someone will call for your undivided attention and devotion to that person. You will
I am sure there are good and honest women in St. Vincent but you just have to change your mindset of the standards you are looking for in a woman. It is good that you found out early what you did about your girlfriend, so you can make the necessary changes without wasting more of your precious time and life with someone who feeds on the idea that the shadow is better than the bone.
George
Leisure
ARIES (Mar. 21- April 20) Don't let your health suffer because of abuse. It won't take much to upset your lover. Hide your cards and learn to say no. Find a way to consolidate. TAURUS (Apr. 21- May 21) You should make special plans for you and your lover. Outings with relatives or good friends will provide you with stimulating conversation. Opportunities for romance will flourish through travel. You can come up with future trends in creative fields. GEMINI (May 22-June 21) You need to be careful not to make promises that you can't fulfill. Get back down to earth and to basics. Difficulties with your mate may lead to estrangement. Implement your ideas into your projects at work.
LIBRA (Sept. 24 -Oct. 23) You could come into extra cash. Avoid confrontations with coworkers who aren't pulling their weight. Catch up on overdue paperwork. You can solidify your relationship if you plan a special evening with your mate. SCORPIO (Oct. 24 - Nov. 22) You'll find it easy to meet new people. You could lose money or precious belongings if you aren't careful. Business trips will be more productive than trying to fight the red tape facing you. You might have a problem juggling your time. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23 -Dec. 21) Financial gains can be made through wise investments. You need to fulfill your needs and pre sent your talents. Your diplomatic nature will help you in straightening out unsavory situations.
CANCER (June 22-July 22) Try to compromise rather than having an all out battle. Don't hold back; go with the flow and take a bit of a chance. Family members will not be happy with the amount of time you are spending away from home.
CAPRICORN (Dec 22.- Jan. 20) Remember; talk to them, not at them. Be careful when dealing with loved ones. Try not to argue about trivial matters. Don't let the moods of those you live with get you down.
LEO (July 23-Aug 22) You will easily capture the interest of those you talk to. This could be the cause of a dispute that may result in estrangement. Take some time to change your house around. Help elders get their personal papers in order.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 21.- Feb. 19) Pleasure trips should be on your agenda. Opportunities for romance may develop through dealing with groups that have a purpose. Try to be considerate in your personal obligations. Travel should open doors that lead to exciting new adventures.
VIRGO (Aug. 23 -Sept. 23) Be sure to take care of the needs of your immediate loved ones first. Be innovative. Be fair, not colorful. You can meet potential new mates, but make sure that they aren't already committed to someone else.
PISCES (Feb. 20-Mar. 20) You may need help with your financial situation. New romantic relationships will develop through group activity related to sports events. Ferret out information that will hold them responsible.
ACROSS 1. Absorb sunlight 5. Pesky insects 9. Winged hunter 12. Pakistan neighbor 13. Foal-bearing critter 14. “Holy cow!” 15. Teen skin woe 16. Covering 17. Straggle (behind) 18. Bed linens 20. Wild cats 22. Hula necklace 23. Family lad 24. Index marker 27. Unspecified quantity 29. Spoke incoherently 33, Declare confidently 35. Icky stuff 37. Ocean swell 38. Hysterical fear 40. Vase relative 42. Wallet bill 43. Barking pet 45. Excavated 47. Extreme 50. Give power to 54. “Diamonds _ Forever” 55. Raise (children) 57. Intense ardor 58. Martini liquor 59. Tennis player Arthur 60. Auditory organs 61. Matching pair 62. Soft metal 63. Jazzman Ellington DOWN 1. Partiality 2. Curved entrance 3. Levelheaded 4. Assume a
humble pose 5. Humorous 6. Short sleep 7. Pony gaits 8. Prom attendee 9. Eye amorously 10. Sport (hats) 11. Lower limbs 19. Afternoon meal 21. Chew (away) 24. Knock gently 25. Enchanting Gardner 26. Patriot Franklin 28. “_ never can tell” 30. Enormous tub 31. Genesis figure 32. Snug room
34. Travel via bus 36. Commanded 39. Horse pen 41. Catholic sister 44. Farm birds 46. Stared fixedly 47. Wilts
LAST WEEK’s SOLUTION
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THE VINCENTIAN. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021. 23.
48. Pennsylvania city 49. Duct outlet 51. Male admirer 52. Wee songbird 53. Otherwise 56. “Found it!”
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24. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021 . THE VINCENTIAN
Welcome breaks her Triple Jump record MIKEISHA WELCOME established a new St Vincent and the Grenadines Women’s Outdoor Triple Jump record, when she leapt to 13.57 metres, and a second place, at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, USA, last Saturday. In the process, Welcome, who attends the University of Oklahoma, broke her own record, a 13.15 metres jump that earned her a bronze medal in her debut outing for St Vincent and the Grenadines, at the Pan Am Under-20 Championships in Costa Rica, in 2019. Meanwhile, another Vincentian, Kemroy Cupid, who is enrolled at the Bethel College in Kansas, USA, broke his school records in the Men’s 100m and 200m while participating in last weekend’s Jinks Invite Track Meet. Cupid ran 10.61
Dayshaun Joseph (left) and Deajaun Collis (right) are now under the guidance of coach Michael Ollivierre (centre).
Mainland training for Union Island athletes Kemroy Cupid seconds in the 100 metres and 21.47 seconds in the 200 metres. Cupid holds the St Vincent and the Grenadines Indoor 60m record, 6.73 seconds, recorded in February of this year. Right: Mikeisha Welcome
Maloney in world-leading 4x400m run VINCENTIAN SHAFIQUA MALONEY teamed up with her University of Arkansas Razorback colleagues - Paris Peoples, Rosey Effiong and Kethlin Campbell - to take gold in the Sanya RichardsRoss Women’s 4x400 meters, in a world-leading time 3:26.63 and the third fastest ever by an Arkansas relay team. The feat was accomplished at last Saturday’s 93rd Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, held at the Mike A. Myers Stadium, Texas. Maloney put the victory away with a 50.58 anchor split, after Peoples ran the first leg, Campbell the second leg and Burks-Magee the third leg. A report said that “smooth baton passing made the difference and enabled the Razorbacks to win by a comfortable margin over Texas (3:28.10) and LSU (3:32.28), who each had issues with the baton in the exchange zone.”
Earlier Maloney ran a personal best in her pet 400m when she finished 2nd behind her Razorback teammate, Peoples. Maloney clocked 51.72 seconds and Peoples finished in 51.67 seconds. The time by Shafiqua Maloney is pictured anchoring her Peoples is the Arkansas University team to victory with a worldcurrent leading time, in the 4x400m relay at last Saturday’s outdoor 93rd Texas Relays. collegiate leading time, Burke-Magee producing their with Maloney ranked second. On career best times to rank them 5the outdoor 2021 world list, they 7-12 respectively in the UA all rank fourth and sixth. In fact, Arkansas finished 1-2-5 times list. in the 400 meters, with the trio of I.B.A.ALLEN Peoples, Shafiqua and Morgan
DAYSHAUN JOSEPH and Deajaun Collis, two track athletes of the Union Island Secondary School, are now pursuing their training on mainland St. Vincent. Through the efforts of Javiel Saxon, who currently trains a number of athletes in Union Island, the young men are now under the guidance of Michael Ollivierre, Head Coach of It DAT. The athletes anticipate that training on the mainland St Vincent, especially with coach Michael Ollivierre, would give them the wherewithal to compete with the top athletes in the nation. Joseph was happy for the opportunity. “I come up to St Vincent to training because my love for the sports has prompted me to seek out coach Michael Ollivierre, as I see him as the best coach.” While he described training in Union Island as good, Joseph admitted, “We don’t have a lot of people to train with and the park is not in the best condition, but we make it work whenever we use it.” The 100 and 200 meters specialist relished the first experience running on the Track and Field Facility at Diamond, despite being beaten by faster athletes. “The first experience was good but the other athletes were much better than I. I am looking to compete better as I would be focusing more on my speed and endurance in training,” Joseph said. His ambition is to compete in other countries and he recognizes “the need to put in the work to excel.” Collis, a specialist 200 and 400 meters athletes, is also looking forward to the training especially after competing for the first time on the surface at the Diamond Facility. “I came up to train with Michael Ollivierre because I want to excel in the sport and reach as far as the Olympics. I believe it will take lots of hard work to get there and I must stay dedicated to training.” He is confident that his dedication and focus will pay off. I.B.A.ALLEN
V Butler reflects on umpiring
THE VINCENTIAN. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021. 25.
Sports
DEIGHTON BUTLER, former West Indies seamer and the only Vincentian senior umpire on the Cricket West Indies panel, is relishing every opportunity in his new career and always looking to improve. Butler, one of the umpires who officiated in the recently concluded CWI Super50, and the only one from the Windward Islands, told THE VINCENTIAN, “My goal is always to be the best and represent St Vincent and the
Grenadines and the region with distinction every time I get an opportunity.” He added, “I am happy to be able to give back to the game after my playing days. This year’s Super50 was a shorter one due to the ongoing pandemic which was difficult at times, so you had to make the adjustments and find ways to stay motivated.” Motivation came, he said, through room exercises, spending more
time studying the playing conditions, laws, calculations and TV umpiring training. Butler, though, disclosed that the thing he took away most from the Super50 experience was, “…the opportunity to do much more TV umpiring training with Peter Nero (umpires coach) and David Levins (Australian umpires coach).” And as he encourages more to get involved in officiating, he believes
Bailey extends stay on COPACIÊs Executive
Bailey, who is the ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES’ President of the St Trevor Bailey was reVincent and the elected as one of four Grenadines Olympic Zonal Vice-Presidents of Committee, from 1987 to the Congress of the Pan the present time, American Cycling disclosed that overall, in Federation (COPACI). his capacity as President Bailey’s re-election of the CCC, he took place at a virtual endeavours to foster the Congress held by the integration of cycling into organisation on 19th public policies. March. At the helm of the His re-election means CCC for the past 15 that Bailey stays as the years, Bailey noted that man responsible for the the CCC’s 29 members Caribbean Zone of must embrace COPACI, a post he has cooperation. held since 2003. “We must work Involved in Cycling for together, share and the past 49 years, Bailey develop genuine said that his new Trevor Bailey cooperation, in order to mandate will see him empower themselves to implementing three broad goals, which inform his become actors of their destiny, both Strategic Plan: Cycling for All; Talent locally and internationally,” Bailey Identification and Performance; indicated. Educate and Train to Succeed. Apart from Bailey, the other ViceSpeaking to THE VINCENTIAN Presidents elected were Pierre last Sunday, Bailey said that the plan Laflamme of Canada, who is in charge is part of his Manifesto, which saw of the North Zone; Gabriel Ovido him retaining the presidency of the Curuchet of Argentina - South Zone; Caribbean Cycling Confederation and Jader Antonio Grijalva of (CCC) last year. Nicaragua- the Central Zone. Jose “We are working in close Manuel Pelaez Rodriquez of Cuba is collaboration with the UCI (Union the President. Cycliste Internationale, the world At the Congress, five members governing body of cycling) to carry out were elected on the Management projects that would contribute to the Committee and four on the UCI development of cycling in the Management Committee. Two of the Caribbean, therefore, the CCC must elected members are from the strengthen its position with the English-speaking Caribbean. various stakeholders in the countries Sharon Lowe of Antigua and in order to support the development of Barbuda is a member of the cycling in society, and the Management Committee, while Cyril implementation of cycling education Mangal of St Lucia is part of the UCI policies,” Bailey informed. Management Committee.
preparation is very important. “The key to staying focus on the field and remain calm under pressure depends on how well you are prepared for the job: knowledge of the Laws; playing conditions and being able to interpret them correctly,” he advised, adding that physical preparation was also important to aid with concentration and agility. Butler highlighted that his background as a player and coach also helped him on the field, to understand certain situations that required critical decisions. He also cited that having a good relationship with the players is also important. “Communication is a vital part of umpiring, one must be clear and precise. There are always different accents involved so it’s important
that you take your time to be attentive. The non-verbal communication on the field with your colleague is also important, especially in trying to get every decision correct..,” Butler detailed. All in all, Butler believes selfconfidence is among the most vital ingredient of umpiring but regardless of how confident one is in himself, any good umpire would take time after a game to review his performance, through soliciting feedback from players, coaches and colleagues (umpires), about what could have been done better as you prepare for the next opportunity. He also wants to encourage past players to
Deigton Butler is relishing his new role (umpiring) on the cricket field. get involved in cricket umpiring. “It can be a rewarding career and experience,” he assessed. I.B.A.ALLEN
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26. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021 . THE VINCENTIAN
Sports
Kick it off
THE VINCENTIAN FOOTBALLERS move to Guatemala June 4 and round off their bid for a spot to Qatar when they face Cuba here June 8. They rebounded from a five nil drubbing to host Curacao, last week Thursday, with three goals against British Virgin Islands last Tuesday. One team from each of six groups advances to the second round. Curacao and Guatemala both on six points head the standings. Cuba and British Virgin Islands are yet to get a point. Antigua and Barbuda, four points and El Salvador with an equal number, top Group A. Grenada holds the third spot with three points. Montserrat on two points is in fourth position. The US Virgin Islands lost both matches. Montserrat continues to shock teams and their points came from draws against El Salvador and Antigua and Barbuda. They play Virgin Islands June 2 and Grenada June 8. Canada top Group B with six points, powered by a better goal difference over Surinam also on six points. Bermuda three points are in third place. But Aruba and Cayman Islands are yet to tally. Dominican Republic top Group D with six points by reason of goals difference over Panama same on points. The Panamanians overcame Barbados in a one/nil battle. Dominica equalised in the 81st minute against Panama, only to see their dreams of a draw shattered by an 86th minute second goal. Barbados three points are third in this Group with Anguilla like Dominica still to get a point. Group E features Nicaragua, Belize, Haiti, and Turks and Caicos Islands. St. Lucia opted out of the qualifiers to the dismay of their players. St. Kitts/Nevis, six points heads Group F. Trinidad and Tobago is second with four points. Guyana has three points, while Puerto Rico’s point comes from their draw with Trinidad and Tobago. Bahamas zero, completes this slot. With Puerto Rico secured their single point in a dramatic equaliser with Trinidad and Tobago. Bahamas, the other team in Group F is yet to get a point. Questions have swirled after the results of the SVG Curacao game. They centre on the rationale behind changes in the squad which had all but qualified us for the Gold Cup. The questions also surround disclosure of statements attributed to persons in the developmental process of the squad. But the World Cup qualification exercise is ongoing, and there is the leg of the Gold Cup to complete. Those associated with the football fraternity ought to keep a lid on their pronouncements or have some sense of diplomacy about their relations.
Simon heads Road Tennis Committee CONRAD SIMON, a former national basketball player and executive member of the SVG Basketball Federation, is availing his skills and experience to advancing the sport of Road Tennis here. Last Saturday at a meeting held at the Arnos Vale Sporting Complex, Simon was elected President of a five-person Executive Committee, to serve the SVG Road Tennis Association for the next four years. He has as his team: Sharon Peters (Vice President); Winston Snagg (Treasurer); Annette Joseph (Secretary) and Sean Stanley (Public Relations Officer). Speaking to the VINCENTIAN after his election, Simon said he embraced the appointment with enthusiasm and is looking forward to serve.
“I have served in several positions on the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Basketball Federation and it will be a privilege and honour to share by experience with the Road Tennis Association for the 4-year term limit according to the constitution. “As a relatively new sport, we’re hoping to work in collaboration with the Sports Department, the National Sports Council and the National Olympic Committee, to establish the sport in the communities and the schools. Already the sport is being played in the communities of Chester, Villa, Arnos Vale, Layou and Bequia.” Simon went on to recognise the sport not only as another avenue for physical exercise, but as one that offers an opportunity to play for financial rewards locally
The Road Tennis Executive Committee (L-R): Sharon Peters, Sean Stanley, Winston Snagg (Treasurer), Conrod Simon (President) and Annette Joseph. and internationally. Saturday’s meeting to He alluded to persons acknowledge the “who play for money in extensive work to date, Barbados, where the that the Sports sport was founded,” and Department and those “who live by the especially Bevan Burgin sport not only in have put in towards Barbados but also in the establishing Road Tennis USA.” in the state. The Executive used the occasion of last I.B.A.ALLEN
SVGFF concludes Finance Reporting Workshops AFFILIATES of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation (SVGFF) have completed a series of training in Financial Reporting, which would have sharpened their basic skills in Book-Keeping, Budgeting and Cash Flow Management. The final of the six workshops took place last Saturday in Georgetown, and First VicePresident of the SVGFF- Otashie Spring, who has the responsibility for finance, expressed satisfaction with the turn out. “Overall, I would say that over the six sessions we had a turn out of about 85 % of the affiliates… ,” Spring related. “We were able touch on the basics and we are pleased from the feedback and questioning that the message and intent were achieved,” he added. Reflecting on the objective of the workshops, Spring said, “Basically, we just want to impress on the affiliates about the need to practice accountability… We receive monies from FIFA and give it to the affiliates… So, there must be the chain, the affiliates account to us and we account FIFA.” Spring revealed that part of the workshops involved presenting a template.. “a sample of how we
want them to account for funds given to them,” which is a strict condition of the ongoing financial, material and administrative assistance handed out to affiliates. All of this, Spring said, is part of the re-culturing of the sport in St Vincent and the Grenadines. The SVGFF First Vice — President also lauded the efforts of main facilitator- Cerlian Russell All clubs which participated in the 2019/2020 National Club
Participants in one of the series of Workshops which First Vice- President of the SVGFF- Otashie Spring (inset) assessed as having met their objectives. Championships received an assistance from the SVGFF Premier Division clubs received $20,000, in tranches of $5,000 and $15,000, and First Division clubs secured $10,000. Additionally, all affiliated clubs of the SVGFF received $7,000 as part of a FIFA COVID Relief package, while Football Leagues got $10,000. Affiliates are in line for a second drawn down on the FIFA COVID Relief Package.
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THE VINCENTIAN. THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2021. 27.
Classifieds
King’s matter might trigger a twist anything that is liable to be forfeited, detained, She is also charged seized or removed, by not with, upon arrival on presenting herself to the January 30 at the Argyle Customs officer on duty International Airport at the Airport. (AIA) in St. Vincent and King is additionally the Grenadines, charged with upon prevented the carrying arrival at the Airport in out of a search for Continued from Page 16.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines on January 30, failed to declare anything contained in her baggage, or anything carried on her or produce her baggage for examination by the Customs Officer on duty
SIS. ANITA THERESA CHARLES Paradise Seventh-Day Adventist Church Vermont, St. Vincent & the Grenadines Internment: Penniston Cemetery LYNDA PHILLIPS a.ka. Lynda Hunte Saturday, 20th March, 2021 Cathedral of the Assumption Kingstown Viewing: 10:00 a.m. Service: 11:00 a.m. Interment: Kingstown Cemetery
at the Airport. King has pleaded not guilty to all three charges. She made her original Court appearance during a virtual hearing before the Chief Magistrate earlier this year.
FITZROY BALLANTYNE
QUIERIEL TOUSSAINT
Thursday, 25th March, 2021 New Testament Church of God Lowmans Hill Viewing: 10:00 a.m. Service: 11:00 a.m. Interment: Lowmans Hill Cemetery
Thursday, 2nd March, 2021 Wesleyan Holiness Church Campden Park Viewing: 10:00 a.m. Service: 11:00 a.m. Interment: Lowmans LD Cemetery DUDY CORNILOUS ABERDEEN Saturday, 20th March, 2021 Church of God of Prophecy Victoria Village Viewing: 10:00 a.m. Service: 11:00 a.m. Interment: St. Joseph Cemetery Stubbs
DEVIN LERON SIMON Saturday, 20th March, 2021 Church of Christ, Brighton Viewing: 10:00 a.m. Service: 11:00 a.m. Interment: Brighton Cemetery
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THURSDAY, APRIL 01,
2021
VOLUME 115, No.13 www.thevincentian.com
EC$1.50
PORT PROJECT SET FOR APRIL LAUNCH Rose Place, located at the western end of the ACTIVITY as it relates to the construction Kingstown Bay, is of the modern cargo port at Rose Place, described as a fishing Kingstown, is expected to pick up community. It provided, beginning in the middle of April, this before the advent of after a launch of the project in the said containerized cargo, the month. greater percentage of According to Senator Julian stevedores/longshoremen Francis, Minister of Urban for the Kingstown Port. Development, Energy, Airports, Those persons so Seaports, Grenadines Affairs and affected will be relocated Local Government, as he spoke on to Lowmans Bay, radio on March 28, the project is beginning later this year. expected to be launched by the middle According to Francis, of April 2021. four duplexes were already complete “We are at the stage where the and contractors were starting priority is the relocation of those construction on some of the other persons living in Rose Place,” Francis houses. said. “So, they are progressing nicely,” Stories by DAYLE DA SILVA
The modern cargo port, to include the lower portion of the Kingstown Bay, is expected to bring significant changes to Kingstown. Francis said, although he admitted that he thought that construction work could have progressed at a faster pace. The minister in charge of sea and airports added that the project manager was already on the ground, and that there was already a site office in place on Bay Street, in close proximity to the construction site. “And I see things picking up after the launch in the middle of April,” he said. In his 2021 Budget Presentation in January, Finance Minister Camillo Houses under construction at Lowmans Bay will be assigned to families who will be relocated from Rose Hall.
Gonsalves said that physical works on the site were expected to begin later this year. The 2021 Budget also provided for the construction of 47 homes to facilitate the relocation of families affected. A sum of EC$41.1 million was allocated to advance the Port Redevelopment Project Gonsalves said. The project is being funded by a USD110 million loan from CDB; a GBP25. 6 million (about USD32 million) grant from the CDBadministered United Kingdom Infrastructure Fund, and a USD43 million contribution from the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
CROSS-COUNTRY ROAD: ALWAYS CHALLENGING
BUILDING the cross-country road was always going to be a challenge. So said former Minister of Transport and Works and General Secretary of the Unity Labour Party (ULP) Senator Julian Francis, as he reflected on the project. He made the observation last Sunday while speaking on WE FM, as part of celebrations, albeit low keyed, to mark the 20th Anniversary of the ULP’s being elected to office. The ULP had included in its manifesto for the 2001 general elections, plans to construct a crosscountry road linking the Windward and Leeward sides of mainland St. Vincent. The project was then
estimated to cost $26 million. Work on the project got underway in 2005, but the project never materialized. According to Senator Francis, work had actually begun on both sides of the island, at points designated by the plans. where as the plans had designated. But while Francis reiterated that the project was always going to be a challenging one, he pointed to other restraining external forces which had negatively impacted on the realization of the cross-country road. One such restraint was the 2009 financial meltdown and additionally, funds had to be directed to the Arnos
Vale Playing Filed to fulfil a commitment to ensure renovations to accommodate the Cricket World Cup (2007). The Taiwanese had given their commitment to the project, Francis said, through the donation of quantities of money in either loans or grants. These funds, the Senator admitted, were diverted to other projects, “and we never got back around to it.” Although the project has since been shelved, Francis is comforted by what he said were two new roads which today serve the residents of Rose Hall (Leeward) and North Central Windward.
Published by The VINCENTIAN Publishing Co. Ltd, St. Vincent and the Grenadines;
General Secretary of the ULP Senator Julian Francis gave some insight into why the cross-country road project was shelved and has not reappeared as one of his party’s projects.
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