FRIDAY JULY
10, 2020
VOLUME 114, No.28
Tid-Bits about LIAT Page 3
by KENVILLE HORNE PRIME MINISTER, Ralph Gonsalves said that he will not be getting into an exchange of words with any other prime minister in the region, over the liquidation of LIAT. Speaking on radio last Sunday, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said that he has received many calls from media in the region, asking him to comment on what other prime ministers have said in relation to the issue, but he made it clear, “I’m not getting involved in that. That is a side show theatre,” adding that his intent was on solving the issue at hand; that of regional air transport. On Saturday 27th, July, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister, Gaston Browne announced the intent to liquidate LIAT. Browne also indicated his desire is see a new entity established using the name LIAT. “Back in 1974 when LIAT was collapsed, my understanding is that it took a day to start the operation of a new entity,” he said. “It may be a little more difficult to get it done within 24 hours and I do understand that there are a number of stakeholders that we have to satisfy, especially creditors and I believe that we could do a work out with the various creditors and to literally get some arrangement in which they can accept that we are not conveniently closing LIAT 1974 Ltd.,” Browne said at the time referred. However, Prime Minister,
Ralph Gonsalves, speaking on radio the day after Browne’s comment, indicated his desire to use the service of local air carrier One Caribbean and SVG Air for regional travel. However, Browne, in an open letter posted on Friday 3rd July on the official Facebook page of the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, advocated for a restructuring of the company so as to save the regional carrier. He stated that for the states to walk away from their liabilities is
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Vincies and travel to the UK Page 6
CCJ ruling on Guyana Page 7
morally reprehensible and perhaps illegal. “The possibility of legal action to stop the liquidation and protect the interest of creditors should not be ruled out. The state has an obligation to protect, not hide behind legal arguments and exploit vulnerable creditors.”
EC$1.50
SVBLA clears the air Page 13
Findlay remembers Weekes Page 23
Dr. Ralph Gonsalves is adamant that he will not be drawn into any side show that develop as a result of the crisis in which LIAT currently finds itself. Indications are that One Caribbean could begin regional flights by this Sunday (July 12).
Continued on Page 3.
Caribbean Airlines (CAL) has five ART 72-600 aircraft deployed in the inter-regional market.
2. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020 . THE VINCENTIAN
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lHE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. 3.
News 3 staff in Antigua given deadline
Prime Minister Gaston Browne, who is opposed to liquidating the airline and is leaning towards establishing a new entity, is reported to have held talks with the Antigua and Barbuda Workers Union (ABWU), representative for the workers. That union’s general Secretary, David Massiah, did not disclose the details of that meeting. He told the state-owned ABS radio and television that he would not wish to divulge the details of the discussions, since the airline’s operations are diverse and involve various departments across the region. But Prime Minister Browne posted on his Facebook page, a report Prime Minister Gaston Browne is leading Antigua and Barbuda quoting his Chief of Staff, Max Hurst, indicating that towards establishing a ‘new LIAT workers have been LIAT’. (Credit: caribdirect) asked to agree to a 50 per cent cut in severance ANTIGUA-BASED WORKERS with payments. the cash-strapped regional Hurst is quoted as saying airline, LIAT, had until today, that while a 30 per cent cut Friday 19th July, to agree to was proposed, Prime Minister proposals by made by the Browne indicated that this government consequent upon may not be sufficient and that indication of the imminent the government is proposing in liquidation of LIAT (1974) Ltd. a 50 per cent cut. (Source: Antigua and Barbuda’s
Gonsalves not in any LIAT side show Continued from Front Page. The Vincentian Prime Minister, however, repeated that his emphasis is to make sure that air travel is secure in the region. He disclosed that several carriers have expressed interest in taking up routes, including InterCaribbean, an airline carrier based in Turks and Caicos, Trinidad-based, Caribbean Airlines (CAL), and local airlines One Caribbean and SVG Air. “Before COVID, months before COVID, I had spoken with the principals of InterCaribbean and since then we have spoken with CAL. The chairman, Mr Ronnie Mohammed has called me… I’ve been in touch with them before and they have sent me a document which includes… which shows that what they have at the moment. They can do 80 per cent of LIAT’s pre-COVID network,” Gonsalves said on Sunday. Gonsalves also recognised Prime Minister Browne’s efforts to save LIAT and said that what was being done in terms of looking at alternative air transport, is in no way meant to oppose what anyone else wants to do.
CMC)
Dominica to invest in a ‘new LIAT’ Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has given a firm commitment to invest in LIAT 2020 Limited, the ‘new LIAT being spearheaded by Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne. PM Skerrit was responding to a letter he received from PM Browne, suggesting a replacement for LIAT 1974 Limited which is expected to be liquidated, and in which he stated that he was prepared to move ahead with the creation of the new LIAT if his fellow colleagues do not wish to pursue that option. “I have heard from my dear friend Roosevelt Skerrit from Dominica…In fact he says Dominica is prepared to invest in (new) LIAT if that’s the route we decide to go. This is a position that we welcome. So I can say that Skerrit and I would have held private discussions and he has assured me that on the basis there is a ‘new LIAT’ that Dominica will invest,” Browne said on Saturday, adding, “He said to me you can count on Dominica 100 percent.” (Source: Dominica News Online
LIAT workers in Grenada to get gov’t assistance LIAT workers in Grenada
Dr. Keith Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada, has already identified how he will, in the short term, assist LIAT workers in Grenada. (Credit: St. Lucia Online News) who, like workers at all the other LIAT stations have not received salary since March, will be added to the list of persons benefitting from the Covid-19 economic stimulus package provided by government. This is the assurance given by Prime Minister Dr, Keith Mitchell to the workers and their trade union representatives, following a meeting held last week. The workers’ anxiety was triggered when news broke about the possible liquidation of the airline because of its growing financial problems. According to NOW Grenada, Dr. Mitchell said, “Members of Cabinet are of
Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has committed his government to invest in the ‘new LIAT’. (Credit: heavy.com) the opinion that we have a moral responsibility to assist workers during this difficult time. It is not their fault that they are suddenly and unceremoniously relieved of jobs after years of dedicated service and sacrifice. We have, therefore, committed to ensuring that they benefit from the economic stimulus package… .” And with respect to the more compelling issue of severance pay, etc. for LIAT workers once the airline is liquidated, Dr. Mitchell said, “Government cannot commit to honouring all of LIAT’s commitment to workers, but we can certainly engage in discussion with the staff and the union to determine how we can help.” (Source: NOW Grenada)
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4. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020 . THE VINCENTIAN
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Medical ganja process underway Stories by HAYDN HUGGINS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER (CEO) of the Medicinal Cannabis Authority (MCA) Dr. Jerrol Thompson has identified this country’s fertile soil, water, and sunshine, along with the experience of its traditional marijuana cultivators, as major strategic advantages in the establishment of a modern Medicinal Marijuana Industry here. Speaking with THE VINCENTIAN on Tuesday, Thompson explained that this soil which is called Molic Andersol, is
volcanic and highly fertile, and occupies less than ten percent of the earth’s crust, only in ten countries. Thompson said that the process has begun with a number of things already being put in place, including green housing, processing of plants and training. The Cannabis Cultivation Amnesty Act which was passed in 2018, was triggered in March this year. It will run for one year in the first instance. The Medicinal Cannabis Industry Act which was also passed
in 2018, has been fully proclaimed. Thompson explained that this law was proclaimed in parts, and the last part which deals with patient’s access, was proclaimed this year. The other Dr. Jerrol parts which Thompson established the Authority, and allowed it to issue licenses, was proclaimed last year.
Speedy committal for security officer THE SPEED, accuracy and preparedness of the Investigator, Constable Edmond Ollivierre of the Major Crime Unit (MCU), may have been key for the Preliminary Inquiry (P.I) of security officer Vandyke King, being heard in such a timely manner. King was committed to stand trial on Tuesday, following a paper committal procedure, for the murder of his once common-law-wife McKeisha Gumbs, 26, of Park Hill, who was stabbed several times in the neck at Park Hill on March 7 this year. Senior Prosecutor Adolphus Delpleche, King’s lawyer Ronald Marks, and Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne reviewed the evidence, and concluded that a prima facie case was made out for the 33-year-old former police officer, who was employed at the Argyle International Airport as a security officer up to the time of his arrest. Following the committal, the Senior Prosecutor lauded the Investigator, for the excellent job in
putting together the case file. “Even the statements he took, the way they are structured. He must be commended for an excellent job,” the Prosecutor said. The Chief Magistrate and King’s lawyer agreed. However, speaking with THE VINCENTIAN later, Delpleche said that Ollivierre not only did an excellent job in putting together the Vandyke file, but the time he took to have it ready, King is also commendable. He took about four months. Delpleche noted that because of Ollivierre’s speed, accuracy and preparedness, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) did not have to make any recommendations for further investigation.
Victory for ganja farmers PRESIDENT of the Cannabis Revival Committee (CRC), Junior ‘Spirit’ Cottle has hailed the recent decision of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in a major marijuana case, as a historic victory for traditional marijuana cultivators. The matter involved 51-year-old Thurstan Pompey of Troumaca who was charged with possession of 58 pounds of marijuana with intent to supply. After Pompey’s several appearances at the Serious Offences Court since April last year, Senior Prosecutor Adolphus Delpleche, acting on instructions from the DPP last week Thursday, told the Court that the Prosecution was discontinuing the matter. Pompey was represented by attorney Carlos James. The Prosecution is not required to give the Court any reason for discontinuing a matter. However, speaking with THE VINCENTIAN this week, Cottle who is also a Laison Officer with the Medicinal Cannabis Authority (MCA), explained that the development was the result of the coordinated efforts of the Government, MCA, CRC and the DPP’s Office, and took place within the framework of the Cannabis Cultivation Amnesty law which was passed in 2018 and triggered in March this year to facilitate the
establishment of a Modern Medicinal Marijuana Industry. Cottle pointed out that the CRC played a significant role in the process leading to the charge being discontinued against Pompey who is also a traditional cultivator, and member of the CRC. When the charge was brought against Pompey in April last year, he was already in the process of transitioning from illegal to legal cultivation, and he subsequently applied for and was granted a license to cultivate medicinal marijuana. Cottle said there are other cases of this nature before the Court, but assured that the CRC is working towards having them discontinued, and he’s confident that they would be successful. Cottle pointed out that the recent discontinuation of Pompey’s case reinforces the need for traditional cultivators who are not yet registered with the Medicinal Cannabis Authority to do so, as the Cannabis Revival Committee has no guarantee that the result would be the same if they are not registered. According to him registration is an indication that you are showing interest in transitioning from illegal to legal cultivation. But the CRC Chief hastened to add, “That is not to say that the CRC will not take up their matter because we are all traditional
Former AG still seeking justice JUST OVER a year after a Nissan car belonging to former Attorney General (AG) Carlyle Dougan Q.C. was destroyed by fire at Rivishi, the veteran lawyer is still seeking justice. Dougan, a former Magistrate and DPP here, told THE VINCENTIAN that following the incident in April last year, he reported the matter at the Calliaqua Police Station, and identified five suspects Carlyle Dougan Q.C. to the police, but to date nobody has been charged. He said the vehicle was used by his wife Elma who died in 2015, and was parked in front of his second house located below his main house where he lives with his assistant. He said had it not been for the quick action of his assistant, after they had spotted the blaze around 2am, the fire would have destroyed the second house. Dougan, a retiree, now in his 80s, said that he is still traumatized, and continues to have nightmares as a result of the incident. According to him, persons living in the surrounding areas have accused his dogs of killing their sheep and goats, and he believes the fire was set in retaliation. But the retired attorney denied that his dogs killed anybody’s sheep or goats, and said it was eventually revealed that hungry stray dogs were the culprits. When contacted on Tuesday, Commissioner of Police Colin John said Dougan spoke to him about a week ago in relation to the fire, and he (John) referred him to Superintendent Trevor Bailey, who is in-charge of the division in which Dougan lives. Speaking with this publication on Wednesday, Superintendent Bailey said that to date there was no evidence to charge anyone with the fire, but investigations are ongoing.
Lawyer thanks DPPÊs Office (L-R): Junior ‘Spirit’ Cottle, Thurstan Pompey and attorney Carlos James. cultivators, and those who are not yet registered may very well have a justifiable reason for not doing so”. Cottle said that he had heard comments in some circles that the recent development is not a victory for traditional cultivators. But the CRC Chief expressed the view that such persons would not see the significance because “they never had their livelihood eradicated, or their crops robbed by pirate. They never experienced being tricked, or not being paid by unscrupulous middle men who credit their produce only to come back with Nancy stories. They never lost their loved ones at sea because of the risks of trafficking. They do not know the pain, so to them it is no victory”. According to Cottle, “The transition from the illegal to legal industry will bring about a significant dent to all this”. The charge against Pompey had reportedly stemmed from a police raid of his home at Chateaubelair where he resides with his family.
ATTORNEY Carlos James has expressed gratitude to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for giving serious consideration to the case of 51-year-old Thurstan Pompey of Troumaca. James said that to his mind, the Public Interest Test was applied to this case. James was speaking to THE VINCENTIAN last week Thursday shortly after the DPP had discontinued a charge against Pompey for possession of 58 pounds of marijuana with intent to supply. As a result, Pompey left the Serious Offences Court a free man. James pointed out that it was the first case in which someone in transition from illegal to legal cultivation, had a marijuana case of this nature discontinued by the DPP’s Office. Pompey is a member of the Cannabis Revival Committee (CRE), and is now the holder of a licence to cultivate Medicinal Marijuana, having had his application approved by the Medicinal Cannabis Authority (MCA). The charge, which was brought against Pompey in April last year, who was at the time still in the process of regularizing his operation within the legal framework, was discontinued about four months after the triggering of the Cannabis Cultivation Amnesty Act, which was passed in 2018. “This is in my view a historic precedent which has set open the flood gates for cases of a similar nature”, James said.
V Vincy activist speaks on racial discrimination
THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. 5.
Diaspora
Douglas ‘Doug King’ Howard – social and political activist. (Photo courtesy Douglas Howard) by NELSON A. KING naking@verizon.net US CORRESPONDENT AMID MASS PROTESTS against police brutality and discrimination in the wake of the killing a George Floyd, an African American, by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Douglas Howard, a long-standing Vincentian community activist in Brooklyn, New York, has been speaking about his personal experiences with racial discrimination. Howard, an Edinboro, Kingstown native otherwise known as ‘Doug King’ Howard’, heads the Brooklynbased, non-political Vincentian group Vincy Liberators, U.S.A. Inc. He told THE
VINCENTIAN that his first encounter with racism in the US occurred in March 1981 in Mobile, Alabama, nearly two years after he migrated to the US from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. At the time, the Hayse brothers had hung Michael McDonald for having a relationship with their sister, and Howard said, “The people with whom I was living with at the time were so worried about me walking from the movie theater to home at night. His second experience took place on a Sunday afternoon in August 1981, when he was travelling from Orange, Texas to Cameron, Louisiana. “I pulled into a gas station in Hackberry, Louisiana; a car pulled out from the gas station, and I pulled in,” he said. “I pulled up to the pump to get gas, and the attendant told me there was no gas. “I asked: ‘What you mean there is no gas? You just sold the gas to the driver of the car that was right here’.” Howard added. “His response was, ‘We don’t service niggers’.” Shocked, Howard started his car and drove off. It was then that he decided to move back to New York City. “The South was becoming too much because of my skin color,” he said.
Racism in New York
So, he returned to New York in 1983 only to discover that racial discrimination was “10 times worse than in the South.” As a delivery truck driver for 12 years, he said he had to deal with a lot of glass ceiling racism. “I found out the police were 10 times worse in East New York (Brooklyn), where I lived, than those people in Hackberry, Louisiana,” Howard said. Thinking that racism would be less in the construction, he sought employment in that industry in September 1994. “I became a member of Local Union 731 only to find out what racism is really about,” he said. “You have to work 10 times as hard as a white man just to break even.” For about 27 years, Howard said he became “the No.1 watermain and hydrant installer in New York City,” and was only offered a foreman job twice, which he refused. “I remember the days when I was laid off in the winter months only to see some white boys who couldn’t even read a tape measure working through those winter months,” he said. “I’ve seen black women discriminated against when the supervisors refused to bring a decent bathroom for them to use. “I’ve seen them hire black guys only to lay them off and replace them with white boys,
Racism, of which Howard spoke, evoked recent mass protests across the U.S.A.
who just came out of high school or college and couldn’t find a job,” Howard added. “These black men have children in college, high school, (and have) mortgages to pay, families to feed, only to be replaced by white boys living at home with their parents, while the black brother is collecting unemployment, no medical insurance from the union for their families and walking to different construction sites day and night seeking employment.” “Nothing has changed,” Howard insists, “the only thing is, now, they are being caught on camera.”
Grenadines. The teachers’ action left a huge indentation on his psyche. “I witnessed some of the ‘most wicked’ situations; and, from that day I decided to leave St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” he said. Four years after migrating to the US, Howard said he became involved in social activities with Randall Robinson and his Washington, D.C.-based group, TransAfrica, who were in the vanguard of the fight to free Nelson Mandela and end South Africa’s system of racial segregation - Apartheid. Later, he joined the United African Leaving home Movement, led by “Attorney-at-War” Alton Howard was 16 years Maddox and civil rights old when teachers struck activist the Rev. Al in September 1975, in St. Sharpton. Vincent and the
Howard said he also “got involved in the (Fr. Jean-Bertrand) Aristide situation in Haiti, the reelection of (former US President) Bill Clinton, and then police brutality over the years — from Elenore Bumpus to Amadou Diallo, to Abner Louima and many others.” Howard left the Brooklyn-based St. Vincent and the Grenadines Progressive Organization of New York (SPOONY), the New York arm of the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, serving as a former President, to form non-profit Vincy Liberators but, in his own words, he “is still very vocal on the political issues here in the US and in SVG (St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”
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6. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. THE VINCENTIAN
News
Vincies travelling to the UK must isolate ST .VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES (SVG) has been included in the list of countries that have been approved for non-essential travel by their nationals. Despite the good news, all persons travelling from SVG to the UK have been advised that they self-isolate for 14 days once they arrive in the UK. But this decision has left many persons baffled, given SVG’s status of zero active cases of COVID-19. H.E. Steve Moore, Resident British Commissioner, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said that the situation is one which has completely baffled him, given the situation here on the ground with no active cases or deaths. Moore told THE VINCENTIANS that as far as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is concerned, it is no longer unsafe for individuals from the UK to travel to SVG, which is excellent news and something for which they have been pushing. The High Commissioner said the decision about the UK’s travel recommendation was made by a committee comprising representatives of the Border Force, Public Health England and the Department for Transport. “The decision, as I understand it, was made by Public Health England,; they recommended to this committee, different things, which resulted in SVG’s exclusion from the quarantine exemption. It is something which we don’t understand, which we are actively and aggressively chasing with London, all day Friday, over the weekend and this morning as well, just to better understand why that decision was taken, because from where we sit and the information we have, it just doesn’t make sense,” said Moore. The Resident Commissioner said that he and his colleagues in Barbados and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London are actively following up to try to understand the rationale for such a decision, with the aim that if there was a misunderstanding then hopefully, it can be addressed as soon
H.E. Steve Moore, Resident British Commissioner, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, is not giving up trying to understand the rationale, if not influence a change in, the recent regulation. as possible. “There is a list of criteria that Public Health England looks at including the incidences of COVID-19, the number of deaths, the incidences per 100,000. Certainly in terms of incidences and deaths, there is absolutely no reason at all for the decision,” said Moore. He noted that in terms of incidences of COVID-19 per population, there are fewer people and more cases in Antigua for example, yet, that country has been included in the ‘travel corridor’. “It has to be Public Health England, their own criteria, which they have applied, which we just don’t understand and on what basis they have taken that decision, so that is the area we are sort of targeting,” explained Moore. Among the other CARICOM countries that have been excluded from the UK ‘travel corridor’ are Belize, Guyana, Haiti and Suriname. (KH)
V CCJ revokes Guyana Court of Appeal decision
THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. 7.
News
THE CARIBBEAN COURT OF JUSTICE (CCJ) on Wednesday threw out a controversial Guyana Court of Appeal decision that inserted the word valid, into the consideration of votes for the election of a President. President of the Court Justice Adrian Saunders said in a unanimous decision, that the decision of the Court of Appeal was null and void and of no effect. The court also said that the June 23 report of the Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield, of cutting over 115,000 votes, is invalid and of no effect. The judgement delivery was made in relation to a matter involving Mohammed Ifraan Ali et al versus
Eslyn David et al. The CCJ’s ruling today is seen as clearing the way for GECOM Chair Justice Claudette Singh to immediately move for the declaration of the recount result, which shows that the opposition PPP/C has won the election. Justice Saunders was scathing in his concern that the election process has gone on for too long. He said it is now left to the Guyana Elections Commission to secure the report from the CEO that it instructed on June 16th that he deliver based on the recount of votes. He said that matters raised by counsel for Edlyn David and Joseph Harmon fall within the jurisdiction of
Venezuela celebrates 209 years SOME 209 YEARS have elapsed since the founding of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, but the struggle against outside forces continue today. In the assessment of Francisco Perez Santana, Head of the Venezuelan Mission here in St Vincent and the Grenadines, now was the time for countries of Latin America and the Caribbean to unite as one entity, in the fight against worldwide injustices and the violation of human rights. Santana made the comment while addressing a ceremony to mark Venezuela’s independence, held at the Venezuela Embassy, Kingstown, last Sunday, July 5. The unification of Latin America and the Caribbean was the vision of Simon Bolivar, considered the father of Venezuela. However, the integration process has been stalled by intervention from the United States, said Santana. Yet, according to Santana, “Venezuela has been at the fore for the fight for independence and the upliftment of the welfare of its people, to overthrow colonialism Right: A section of those who tuned out to show solidarity with Venezuela.
and to set the country on a path of its own homegrown development.” According to Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, whose address on the occasion came via a recorded message, since the 21st Century, Venezuela has sought to ensure that its people live in a peaceful, democratic society, ‘and have evolved a society of greater equality ensuring that the poor and hardworking people,” said Gonsalves. In its external policies, Gonsalves said that Venezuela has done well, in particular, its policies with regard to the region with the establishment of Petrocaribe and Alba. But the country has suffered for its principles in resisting imperialism, Gonsalves declared. Nevertheless, Venezuela remains a beacon of hope and remains as a guide and, according to Gonsalves, it was for this reason that the people and government of Venezuela
Francisco Perez Santana, Head of the Venezuelan Mission here in St Vincent and the Grenadines, addressing last Sunday’s ceremony. deserved (their) solidarity from the people and government of St Vincent and the Grenadines. The activity was also addressed by H.E Andreas Wickham, Ambassador for SVG in Venezuela, and Marlon Joseph representing VENVIFA. (DD)
the High Court and an election petition. Justice Saunders said the court could not be oblivious to all that has transpired in Guyana since December, 2018 — when the motion of noconfidence was passed against the APNU+AFC government. He noted that four months after the March 2nd elections, there has been no result and that the country has been without a Parliament for more than a year. No one, he said, could be satisfied with this state of affairs. On behalf of the five-member panel he said, “Now the law must run its course.” Meanwhile, in his first reaction to the CCJ’s ruling, caretaker President David Granger insisted that there was widespread fraud in the March 2nd general elections, but agreed that the matter will now have to be finally decided by GECOM. Observers said that Granger’s stance put pressure on the GECOM Chair who has already said that the recount result (as conducted by the
Justice Adrian Saunders, President of the CCJ, delivered the Court’s ruling. CARICOM team) is what shall be declared. The recount awarded victory to the opposition PPP/C. (Source: Stabroek News, Jamaica Observer)
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8. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. 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
LIAT is no more. What next? IT WOULD BE A PITY if the method we employ to put LIAT (1974) Ltd. to bed was one of throwing all that was left of the everlastingly cash strapped airline up in the air, and letting the debris drop wherever and in whosoever backyard. A pity yes, but that’s just how it seems to be panning out: LIAT is to be liquidated, so it’s Gaston, Ralph, Roosevelt and Mia for himself/herself. Prime Minister Browne of Antigua and Barbuda, with the most to lose in the fallout, called for a new entity to be established to replace LIAT (1974) Ltd., but with the name LIAT retained. He has the support of fellow shareholder Prime Minister Skerrit of Dominica, and the conditional support of Prime Minister of St. Lucia Allen Chastanet, once considered the antithesis of LIAT. Then there is Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who would like us to believe that there are six airlines taxiing to fill the ‘space in the air’ created by LIAT’s termination. And that leaves Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados. She is yet to articulate a definitive position. Her hints and leanings have led observers to conclude that she would accept the ‘assurance’ of Dr. Ralph Gonsalves. Whatever the response to the LIAT fallout, there are a few ‘certainties’ that have to be addressed if any airline, airlines or combination of airlines step up to fill the intra-connectivity needs of the region’s people. In fact, these ‘certainties’ are not new; they have, in no small measure, contributed to the everlasting challenges that an everlastingly cash strapped LIAT encountered. The first of these ‘certainties’ is the cost of intra-regional travel. Why in is the cost for half an hour flight, sometimes less, in the vicinity of US350 to US500 for a return ticket? That compares favourably to what an Antiguan might pay to fly to Miami. Should we expect
that Antiguan to be so committed to regionalism as to opt for travel to some Caribbean destination, when an enticing opportunity presents itself for travel further afield? Why is intra-regional travel so costly? Because governments enforce heavyweight taxes on air travel making it difficult (impossible?) for airlines to reduce air fares. And then there is the issue of regional governments’ direct influence on the operations of airlines. Expect governments (politicians) to be motivated by what matters politically on the ground in their respective territories, and not on what might the most effective decision in the interest of the economic viability of an airline. Note LIAT’s hesitancy in removing all non-performing routes from its scheduled. Was that a result of ‘political influence’? Yes, the question of the loss of jobs, compensation for displaced workers, LIAT’s other debts, etc., must run profusely through the veins of the Prime Ministers affected in the main. But whatever obtains postliquidation must not be characterized by the same level of direct involvement by regional governments in the operation of whatever airline, combinations of airlines might arise. And Government Heads must see wisdom and common sense in removing those heavyweight taxes and see the potentially greater return when the hotel rooms are regularly occupied by regional visitors. And while we are on the question of what might replace LIAT or fill the void occasioned by its demise, there can be no real move towards anything close to a unified response without the integral involvement of CAL. CAL is the only regional airline that has the capacity to serve the region and in the process ensure not only intraregional connectivity, but also connection of the region to the rest of the world.
Blowing hot and cold values of constitutionalism, free and fair elections, “TOGETHER NOW” and “the representative government, Politics of Inclusion” have entrenched individual rights been sprung upon the country and freedoms, an independent without notice. judiciary, decency in political life, and a Just as well, as both related concepts participatory political culture. The ULP have a hollow ring in the lift of action to abhors a political partisanship which the contrary which speak louder than degenerates into coarseness, political words. tribalism, political violence, a knee-jerk In any event, until the last elections, Dr. vilification of political opponents, and an Gonsalves espoused a policy of rigid party avoidance of a rational discussion on the lines that collaboration as taught by Boyea relevant issues. and Stalky John who were virtually weeded On the issue of ‘cooperation with the out the ULP for those transgressions. government’ the ULP ‘s stance is simple, So it did come as a surprise to note Dr. sensible and straightforward: Where Gonsalves’ offer of the Olive Branch and necessary and desirable in the national invitation to treat Arnhim Eustace. interest, we will provide routine In turn ULPites have shed a crocodile parliamentary cooperation on certain bills, tear in feigned disappointment that the motions and the like, but we will not offer new Leader of the Opposition, while or provide cooperation with the refusing to act to make the country government, outside of parliament or its “ungovernable” is prepared to perform only mechanisms, on matters involving policythe traditional role of the Opposition - “to execution or executive formulation of keep the Government on its toes:” no more, policy, which are properly the province of no less. the government in its executive capacity But let us read for ourselves how Dr. ‘Save and Except’ where there is a situation Gonsalves viewed the two Party system of genuine national emergency (for about one and a half years ago. example, a state of war, a fascistic threat to democracy or a natural disaster cause by (A reprint of Partisanship and Nonforces such as a volcanic eruption, cooperation by Dr. Ralph Gonsalves) hurricane, or earthquake). Those who for their own reasons caricature or position as The issue ‘non-cooperation’ on all questions, on all occasions and under every circumstances “Over the past few months there has are mistaken or worse. The ULP is been a lot of shallow thinking, naivety and thoughtful and consistent in its approach even political innocence expressed or shown as the parliamentary opposition. We oppose on the twin-issues of political partisanship where necessary and desirable; we propose and cooperation between the government alternative policies and progrmmes (which and the opposition. The advocates of nonincludes the making of timely partisanship and cooperation advance their representations); we expose errors and thesis as follows: Political partisanship is wrong-doings by the government; and we wrecking the country so there is a need for seek to depose the government through all close cooperation between the NDP lawful, constitutional means. government and the ULP opposition at the levels of policy-formulation and policyPolitical partisanship: The engine of execution. democracy Reprinted from 4th May, 2001
ULP’s stance
The intellectually-bankrupt and politically-tired NDP regime is The Unity Labour Party rejects this understandably in quest of a political lifethesis, its underlying premises or line. So, they trot out the self-serving assumptions, its analysis and its doctrine of “unity” whilst disuniting the prescription. The ULP holds the views that people with their very policies; the NDP there is nothing inherently wrong with trumpets the call for “cooperation” whilst political partisanship. Indeed, we see it as ruling essentially in the old commandist an essential, practical pre-requisite for the fashion, and that party, without a tinge of maintenance and enlargement of freedom shame, seeks to wrap itself in the flag of and democracy and for the sustenance of “national pride” and “patriotism” whilst it good governance. The political partisanship sells out this country’s patrimony and to which the ULP adheres is one which is citizenship to disreputable foreigners. Their mature, rational, reflective, free of political antics will not fool us in the ULP for we abuse and political victimization, tolerant know that that so-called “patriotism” is the and committed to the core consensual last refuge of scoundrels.
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lHE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. 9.
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ÂBlack Lives donÊt MatterÊ
THE WORLD have seen the outrageous manner in which police in the USA abuse and even murder black people. One such murder resulted into still ongoing nationwide mass protest for justice and equality for black Americans. But President Donald Trump’s response to the situation sends a clear message to the world that black lives don’t matter under his administration. The matter is far from being dealt with. In reality, the matter is a global matter. The oppression of blacks, driven by white oppression in the USA, not different from the oppression of blacks throughout the world, since this oppression is piloted by policies. Take for example the ULP regime here in SVG. It gives blind support to the Mustique Act no.48 of 2002, which, simply put, allows for blacks to pay tax while whites don’t. No justice, no peace!! But there has never been peace for black people. Black people have been abused, belittled, enslaved from start to the present. What is new and ridiculous is that blacks continue to vote for such policies of the ULP. So the policies of the ULP keep a lock on black ability and so they — Vincentians - flee to the USA seeking a better life, but are met by the harsh reality of white oppression. Vincentians must realize white America per se is not the enemy, it is the policies, just like the policies back home. What can black Americans expect from policies that are designed to keep them in check? Amazingly, the black nations of the world have not pressed the USA to resolve the situation that has erupted under the banner of Black Lives Matter. Vincentians need to fix what is a ULP mess by voting Ralph out of office. Kadmiel McFee
TAIWAN or CHINA? WE CURRENTLY have diplomatic relations with TAIWAN. However, there is talk about replacing TAIWAN with CHINA. Should we replace TAIWAN with CHINA? Taiwan is a democratic country, while CHINA is a one party, Communist state where there is no opposition. Taiwan may not be a perfect state, but human rights and democracy are alive and well. CHINA suppresses human rights and lacks democratic rights, though, it is amongst the richest countries of the world. The major reason why any country would develop diplomatic relations with another is for economic gain/advancement.
Isaiah gave us an eyeopening view of the Messiah’ location of leadership. “Of the increase of His government and peace, there shall be no end upon the throne of David… and to establish it with judgement and justice,” Isa. Sect. 9 Subsect. 7. The angel Gabriel confirmed this prophecy to Mary “…..thou shall conceive….. and bring forth a son….and He shall be great….. the son of the highest: And the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David. And He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His Kingdom there shall be no end,”
employ Chinese workers and to purchase materials from CHINA. If this trend continues, CHINA would own a large ‘chunks of assets’ in the world, should recipient countries (and some have already) default on their loan repayment. Come to think of it, what would happen to those students studying in TAIWAN, should we shift relations from TAIWAN to CHINA? Whatever decision we might make in the future regarding a choice between TAIWAI and CHINA, we would have to live with the consequences of that decision. The future of this country is in our hands and not in the hands of
the politicians. We should be the ones to run things and not the politicians. Kennard King
Clearing land poses a danger ABOUT TWO weeks ago, your paper carried a back page story about the clearing of a certain piece of land on the outskirts of Sion Hill. You article, as I
GodÊs leadership GOD LEADERSHIP is democratic in nature! “Come let us make man” Gen. 1:26. There we see God calling the community together to inform them of His plan. He explained to them how He was going to make man, “in His own image and likeness.” Why was man made? To have dominion over planet earth. This is found in Gen. Sect. 1 Subsect. 26. The first man on earth was a black man, and he was given dominion to govern this planet, earth. King David reminded us of that plan. “The heaven is the Lord’s, but the earth have He given to the children of men,” Ps. 115:16. The Prophet
Ideology does not matter much in this case. We have benefited from our relationship with TAIWAN, whether it be through scholarships or assistance for constructing buildings. Assistance comes in the form of grants or soft loans in many instances. There is no ownership by TAIWAN of the buildings for which it provides assistance, and that assistance is spent here in SVG for materials and labour. CHINA has lent and continues to lend billions of dollars to many countries across the globe, including the mighty USA. As far as loans for construction are concerned, a great part of that money is used to
Lk. 22:31-33. Everything about God and man is political ..... government… Kingdom. The Prince of Peace said that He did not come to do away with the law. But that the law must be dominated by the spirit of the law. (Matt. 5:17) As a people whose Constitution is founded on the supremacy of God, it is important, especially today, to distinguish between genuine leadership and demagoguery. A demagogue may inspire people, but his/her motives are impure and his/her expectations unrealistic. It is wise to be a little skeptical when assessing a political leader for this upcoming general election. For God’s leadership check Luke sect. 22 subsect. 24-30. Make the right choice and all of us, with God in us, will revolutionize Hairouna. Christian Democrat More Letters on Page 23
understood it, sought to highlight the danger that was posed with having that piece of land cleared. For that I must compliment you and share the sentiments of the house owner and motorist to whom the article referred. My problem is always with us as a people. We would know something is about to happen, but we
will wait until it happens, to make a whole set of noise about it and blame all sorts of people. There is also the thing is this country about ‘you get things done because of who you know’. Does the owner of this piece of land have such good relations with the authorities that they turn a blind eye to what
is going on and the danger it poses? I tell you, Mr. Editor, the more things change, the more they remain the same. In the meantime, it would be good to revisit the area to see what has transpired since your report. Ossie
I support the Government I LIVE in a constituency represented by the opposition New Democratic Party. While I admit that there could have been a lot more done by the government in the constituency, I am not one to judge the performance of a government based on what it has done in each constituency, but on what it has done for the country as a whole and therefore, benefits the population, not just some. It is that I find myself supporting the present government, i.e. the Unity Labour Party government. I have to be honest and say that regardless of what noise the opposition makes about how the government should spend this and account for that as far as the COVID-19 stimulus money is concerned, I must commend the government for the manner in which it went about dealing with the spread of the coronavirus. As I write this there are no active cases of COVID-19 in SVG, and of the 29 cases reported, no one died. Now, if that is not worthy of praise, I don’t know what is. The government marshalled all the health and related forces around a
strategic plan and that plan worked, so let us give praise where and when it is due. And let us heed the call by the government to continue to adhere to the COVID-19 protocols that the health experts have come up with. That includes social distancing. And while I am on the point of social distancing, let me make a special appeal to the young people — those who live day in day out for a party — to heed the call. You never know what can happen when you congregate in large crowds like the ones we have at those soca fetes. To the government, I say, keep on doing what you are doing, since most of what you are doing benefits the whole country. And, Mr. Editor, I request that you withhold my real name and let this letter be signed, ‘A government supporter’, with no reference to the constituency in which I live and vote. I don’t think I can stand the ridicule I will get if the NDP supporters found that it was I who wrote this. Thanks. ‘A government supporter’
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10. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. THE VINCENTIAN
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We Shall Not be Ignoble! Citizenship Is Not For Sale!!
Introduction AS A SMALL developing nation with many challenges to our growth, development and survival, any government of this country must be creative in its pursuit of these goals and so not destroy this nation under the guise of building it. The virtual absence of minerals and the like from which to generate revenue for the state, dictates that the government must secure by taxes and other levies the finances to cover necessary expenditures. These spending are real as they are needed, for here we are talking of paying the cost of supporting material well-being from quality education to healthcare, and from job creation to physical infrastructural development which all part of ensuring what we in the ULP call decent citizenship. And when one recalls that our small islands are the most vulnerable to exogenous shocks, and natural disasters that can devastate islands in a matter of hours, the acute need for state revenues becomes most apparent. The ULP has demonstrated a many-sided approach to generating these revenues including through efficacious use of our instruments of sovereignty and independence. In this regard we continue to form new partnerships while strengthening existing ones as part of our development thrust that ensures decent citizenship. The ULP’s development path is one of further ennobling of people and civilization, hence the selling of our passports, which in essence in the prostituting the highest office of this nation, namely that of citizen, is repugnant to us.
swiftly, and by 2007, we had machinereadable passports, the world standard. The registry was modernised and issues electronic birth certificates. In 2014, this country became the region’s first to issue epassports, the ultimate in international standard today. One key result of these improvement to the SVG passport, is that it is now regarded as a very secure document. This coupled with the improved reputation of SVG globally, -the result of the great work of our Prime Minister, and other Ministers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs including our distinguished diplomats- has lead to Vincentian passports holders being granted visa exemptions to the Schengen zone and other countries. Holding an SVG passport now equals hassle-free travel in many parts of the world. Securing hassle-free migration of our people is part of this government’s philosophy of ensuring decent citizenship. It is ignoble, prostitution of our sovereignty, belittling of our civilization, the cheapening of our people’s birthright, a serious threat to the national security, and the dollarization of this nation’s decency to even entertain the disgraceful notion of selling our passports. It matters not the name -CBI, CIP- this ignoble process is called; it is plain and simple, the selling of our patrimony, of our citizenship, putting a price tag on the highest office in the land. The ULP gives the solemn commitment that this WILL NEVER happen once we are entrusted with the governance of the land.
Rebuilding our Country’s Documents Conclusion and Reputation When the ULP came to office in 2001, SVG’s reputation was in tatters. We were on a number of international “black lists.” Further, the country’s passport was treated as very suspect in quite a few ports of entry around the world, as it had no sophistication whatsoever in terms of security features, and therefore could be very easily altered by anyone so criminally inclined. Simply put, the SVG passport could have been easily forged. And, passports were being issued by SVG overseas offices, and this presented particular problems including the departure from protocols and procedures for issuance. This ULP government brought this latter practice to an immediate halt, requiring that all passports be issued from the relevant office in Kingstown. The birth certificate, used as the basic document in the application for a passport, was hand written and fraught with problems resulting from the same from registration to issuance. This government with its philosophy of further ennobling our people and civilization, of which decent citizenship is a part, set about ensuring integrity of our documents testifying to the same. It moved
The lazy approach to governance that characterises the opposition NDP is evident in the fact that they see the selling of Vincentian citizenship as a corner stone of the same. Virtually every plan they put forward depends on this sell for its financing. This government knows that this is NOT the path to securing our sustainable development. Indeed, our development is much more than raising revenues, as important as that is. The points is, being Vincentian is noble in and of itself. You don’t sell your nobility! Consequently, we shall guard the integrity and honour that the office of citizen of this land carries. We shall NEVER sell our passports. Continue to protect the integrity of our passport that this government worked hard to restore to something of pride, something of value, something respected globally. But make no mistake, the sale of our passport will feature prominently in the upcoming general elections. Your decision at the polls will determine whether we desecrate our national document through its reckless sale, or we maintain this stance that “We Shall Not be Ignoble! Our Citizenship Is Not For Sale!
Sports – A pillar of national development EXPERTS HAVE all agreed that youths who play sports have higher self-esteem, stronger connections with their schools, better peer relationships, and fewer behavioral problems. The discipline and training needed to participate in sports will help to develop successful adults. Athletes learn the importance of teamwork and to follow leadership. The New Democratic Party (NDP) has recognized this fact and will work relentlessly to ensure that sports has a place of prominence on the development agenda. We are cognizant of the benefits of sports to the economy of St. Vincent and Grenadines and the society in general. In an online article on the Importance of Sports for Economy, the writer opined, “Today, sport emerges as an important component of socioeconomic development of a country. The active participation in sports improves community health and productivity, reduces medical expenses, imbibes discipline in character, generates great leaders, and enhances social cohesion. The execution of a mega sporting event helps in developing infrastructure, generates employment, secure inflow of foreign capital, generates players and athletes, and thus contributes significantly to the economic development of a country.” Our mission is to facilitate the emergence of a culture of sports through the elevation of sports as a significant pillar of national development in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. We appreciate the importance of sports to our youth, athletes, our people and our country, and we further recognize that early achievements in sports as a means for our young people to achieve higher education and better livelihoods. The youths of St. Vincent and the Grenadines will benefit immensely from our impressive sports programme, to include a diversified scholarship portfolio that will open opportunities for college and university education. And most importantly, we will ensure that meaningful employment is created for these youths after they have completed their studies. During the former NDP administration, St. Vincent and the Grenadines had established itself as a force to be reckoned with in sports. We were regionally and world rated in football and in netball. We produced West Indies cricketers. We were sending track and field athletes in increasing numbers on athletic scholarships and to international competitions. However, over the past nineteen years, our standing has declined drastically, as a result of neglect and lack of a proper vision for sports development. This is seen in the steady deterioration of playing facilities across the length and breadth of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the diminished interest in various organized sporting events. The NDP will implement a number of policies and programmes that will aid in the development of sports. We will reorganize the National Sport Council and review the National Sports Policy. The National Sport Council has become something of a political football much to the detriment of the national sport development process. In addition, the National Sport Council has been narrowly focused on cricket in recent
years. The National Sports Council will convene a special committee to redesign and redevelop the organization and diversify its focus, and the NDP will ensure that the National Sport Council is managed by appropriately qualified personnel who will lead and work in the interest of all stakeholders. The NDP will also develop a framework for upgrading and managing sports facilities at constituency and community levels. The NDP will implement a Service, Opportunity and Support (SOS) framework, which will ensure that sporting facilities are upgraded to accommodate the respective sporting disciplines. Community Sport Councils must be developed and sustained, to take ownership of the maintenance of the established facilities and supporting the programmes for physical activity and sport in their respective communities. In addition, we will develop at least one playing field in each constituency to the extent that it can accommodate competition at the regionally level. These facilities will be fully lit and will have stands and changing facilities. Where appropriate, particularly in areas where grass does not grow properly, playing surfaces will be converted to artificial surfaces. Some of the other areas of development that the NDP will focus on include: the construction of a national indoor sports complex, floored so as to accommodate sports such as basketball, volleyball, netball, tennis and squash; implementation of a structure that ensures a proper foundation for the development of elite athletes. The plan will also provide an effective system of sports medicine; establish an institution that caters for athletes who have displayed the capacity to excel in their respective sporting disciplines; provide schooling within this institution; provide appropriate coaches to facilitate the enhancement of the athletes at the institution and develop a strong research and development component of this institution to a much higher level at the competitive arena. The NDP will construct a National Aquatic Centre to attract national, regional and international competitions, and to grow the sports locally. And on that score, the NDP congratulates the Swimming Association for the tremendous job it has been doing. Also, Sports will form part of the curricula within the schools from the primary level. Students will be taught sports as a discipline, and skilled personnel will be employed to teach physical education. The Unity Labour Party government has failed miserably in developing sports in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The NDP is committed to the development of sports and young people. The youths of this country can rest assured that there is a brighter future for them with the NDP. As Dr. Friday said: The NDP is about creating a brighter future for the youths of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. A future of lasting change, where dreams and aspirations are real. The NDP will make SVG work for all the youths.
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THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. 11.
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The Power of Restraint (Pt 2)
Systemic racism is the problem
“I cannot trust a man to control others if he cannot control himself.” Robert E. Lee (1807-1870) - American Confederate general best known as a commander of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil which it is often masked, we can War. muster up the power of restraint. We IT IS QUITE POSSIBLE that some readers choose. We do not have to embrace would have taken offence at this writer’s the thoughts of envy and greed. We use of a quotation from General Robert do not have to accept the challenge to hurt those who may have done us E. Lee to introduce this essay. General wrong. We do not have to entertain Lee was opposed to the abolition of slavery. He fought valiantly against the the thought to make wrong look right. We are bigger and better than that. Union Army during the American Civil We possess the power of restraint. War (1861-1865) as they, the Union It is probably fitting to contemplate Army, strove for the freedom of blacks in the personal and communal that country. He was considered a destruction that may occur when the gifted strategist and an accomplished lack of control is evident. We observe leader during the Civil War. There is wisdom in many of the thoughts that he it in homes where individuals shared in relation to leadership and self- withhold their expressions of love and care because they may have been control. Even as his statues are being wronged. We see it in workplaces removed from prominent locations where co-workers supress their speech through the United States of America, we should not lose sight of his words of because a colleague may have done or said something that hurt their wisdom. The same can be said in feelings. It is also evident in church relation to other leaders who at times assemblies (of all places) where displayed ‘unhealthy and caustic misunderstandings are sometimes (too prejudices’. Individuals like Woodrow often) allowed to fester. Closer review Wilson (1856-1924), 28th President of of these situations may reveal that the United States of America (1913some insignificant event may have 1921); Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), resulted in the unfortunate rifts that and Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) readily come to mind. Each of these, in too often plague and sour their own way, displayed behaviours and relationships. These, like little sparks of fire, leave emotional destruction shared utterances that revealed some along their path. degree of colour prejudice. However, Discussions on the power of even with their improprieties, we must restrain ourselves from ‘throwing out the restraints must also include commentary in relation to those in baby with the bathwater’. We can society who have been vested with disapprove of some of their actions but must avoid generalizations that lead us power (authority); leaders in business, government, the church, and society. to also disregard the good that they Such individuals often need to be would have done and/or the words of wisdom that they shared. They were not reminded that their privileged position requires them to develop the ‘all bad’. self-discipline that enables them to Last week’s article (‘The Power of act with restraint; to control how they Restraint’) revolved around several everyday situations that invited us to use their power. This is especially so when they perceive that someone has embrace the power of restraint. It wronged them. They often know that provided descriptions of some circumstances that may easily create they have the power to exact revenge; to inflict physical, financial, and/or and sustain frustration and anger. emotional pain. However, it takes The real life scenarios reminded us that these situations may confront us strength of character to resist the urge to gain what is perceived to be more often than we may desire. ‘that pound of flesh’. Exacting However, the scenarios described do vengeance is often a sign of weakness; have value even as they remind us not strength/power. As Marcus that we could practice restraint and Aurelius (121 AD-180 AD), the great not let such challenges and problems Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher get the better of us. We will not reminds us, ‘The best revenge is to be always be able to control the persons unlike him who caused the injury.’ and situations that confront us. But Seeking to hurt those who are we can control our thoughts, our perceived to hurt us makes us no actions, and our reactions. We need better than they are. It debases us not respond with bitterness. That whenever we enter the inviting inner control is of paramount quicksand of vengeance — especially importance. when it is within our powers to exact It is useful for us to reflect on the it. However, when we reject the lure fact that temptations will entice us to get even we readily discover that daily. This is a matter of fact. As the power of restraint has enabled us long as there is life there will be to enter the realm of the greatest situations that will invite us to conquerors of all time. By conquering compromise our principles. This is a self we conquer the world. Selftrue for the politician as it is for the restrain enables each of us to enter priest. It is equally true for the student and the teacher, the employer that realm of greatness. And with it and the employee … and the list goes we can experience a sense of calm, on. None of us will be immune to the peace, and joy. temptations to do wrong, to do evil, to Send comments, criticisms & sin. However, we all have the power suggestions to of choice. Regardless of the julesferdinand@gmail.com temptation, and the ‘innocence’ with
‘Self-reflection is welcome. But until we undo the structures that hold up antiblackness across the world, injustice will persist.’ Momtaza Mehri THESE ARE NEW and hopeful times. So much has happened in the two months since George Floyd was murdered. Just like the Me-too Movement forced people to move beyond their complicity and inaction, the Black Lives Matter Movement is having a similar effect. Who would have believed that at the beginning of the year, people would be discussing the origins of the police force and demanding that it be defunded? Who would have thought that millions of people in the USA and across the world would be protesting, demonstrating, toppling statues and monuments celebrating racists and conquistadores, as well as criticizing governments and big corporations for their racist, white supremacist attitudes? Most of us believe now, but none of this is enough to change the ingrained white supremacist culture that pervades our lives. Top Hollywood stars have taken to the airways committing themselves to stand against hate. They take responsibility for their own previous silence on police brutality. World-class university such as Harvard and Princeton, as well as corporations like Lloyds of London and Google, have all engaged in an undignified scramble to address track records of anti-blackness. Black Lives Matter is having a rupturing effect on our culture. Black Lives Matter is changing how we think about personal complicity. Yet, there is a long way to hoe. We are still trapped within a reductive framework: privilege. Anti-racist reading lists, teach-ins and resources are popular. People are forced to interrogate the source of their privilege. However, the problem with “privilege-checking” is that it focuses our efforts away from the profound questions that Black Lives Matter raises, and on to simpler, individualistic solutions to racism. The American scholar Peggy McIntosh defined white privilege as everything from the ability to freely criticize one’s government and its policies without being branded a cultural outsider, to being able to easily find bandages matching one’s own skin shade. While the understanding of white privilege is welcomed, such an understanding runs the risk of camouflaging systemic inequality and so reduce the problem to one of individual actors and their willingness to acknowledge their privilege. Checking your privilege then becomes a kind of public self-shaming which focuses on the repentantly privileged, while neatly obscuring how intrinsic, endemic and pervasive antiblack racism is to the world. Why seriously challenge unequal resource distribution when all you need to do is renounce the privilege that gives you access to the very resources hoarded at the expense of others? Once you denounce white privilege, there is little need to address an inconvenient truth, which is the immense economic order that spans the globe and has historically needed a black underclass, both domestically and overseas, to survive. Cedric Robinson popularized the term racial capitalism with its roots in apartheid-era South Africa, as a way of
understanding capitalism’s processes of exploiting who it racializes and racializing who it exploits. This is more clearly demonstrated through the genocide and dispossession of indigenous peoples from their lands, the transatlantic slave trade, slavery and the colonial enterprise. The exploitative Capitalist system is closely connected to racism directed at black people and this lives on through neocolonialism, which compounds black suffering across Africa. We need only look at the subservient governments and rulers in much of the developing world, the serious ecological damage done by multinational corporations, the predatory practices of international lending agencies, and Euro-American military intervention. We see these patterns in the assassination of anti-colonial African revolutionaries by ex-colonial powers and suppression of grassroots social movements that further entrenched economic dispossession. Today, we see staggering class divides within many African nations widen, as elites benefit from their lucrative alliances with this neocolonial order. Another problem with privilege theory is that it makes it harder to recognise the tensions and contradictions existing among the racialized. The protests in the US provided examples of black elected figures pacifying their desperate constituents, who instinctively know that the problem is much larger than the white officer choking the life out of a black man. For some, a lack of privilege has fatal consequences. For others, it offers platforms, speaking gigs and career opportunities. Racism is much more than hostility towards those without privilege. It is a process that creates a frightening vulnerability to premature death depending on which racial group one belongs. Look at who is dying most from police violence or from the coronavirus. Look to see who lives in poverty, is unemployed and goes to the worst schools. The ability to live each day without being caught in the punitive crosshairs of race and class is not a privilege. It is power! The mainstreaming of antiracist discourse is causing many people to question their own position in the world. This is a welcomed development, but we cannot and must not stop at self-reflection. Unlearning personal prejudices should coincide with undoing the structures, logics and economic arrangements that perpetuate global anti-blackness. Being courageous enough to reimagine the world as we know it will only deepen our genuine solidarity with those who are currently struggling to survive it. Instead of timidly admitting to our various privileges, let’s ask ourselves what a world where all black life matters everywhere would look like — and accept nothing else. A new and better world is possible and necessary. Now is the time for us to recommit to fight to ensure it comes into being. Our very lives depend on it. Send comments, criticisms & suggestions to jomosanga@gmail.com
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12. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020 . THE VINCENTIAN
Views
Warrant Officer Ivan O’Neal supports PM Gaston IT WAS REPORTED in THE VINCENTIAN newspaper of 3rd July 2020, that Antigua and Barbuda PM Gaston Browne – in relation to LIAT - declared that if no other options are agreed upon, his country may look at operating its own airline; and he took his umbrage even further by announcing that Antigua and Barbuda may have to consider opting out of the OECS and CARICOM. Warrant Officer Ivan O’Neal BSc (Hons), MSc, MBA, Leader of SVG Green Party, strongly supports the idea of opting out of the OECS and CARICOM, and believes that SVG should give that idea serious consideration. There is no net benefit for SVG being a member of the OECS and CARICOM. The OECS countries are some of the most indebted countries in the world. The OECS dollar is substantially overvalued, and in the process chokes the economies and export opportunities of the OECS countries. It is the same Ministers of Finance, whose gross incompetence has choked the economies of the OECS, who are the people on the Monetary Council of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, which is the highest decision-making authority of that Bank. They oversee themselves .. a clear case of donkeys supervising donkeys. No wonder why OECS countries are economically weak. Warrant Officer Ivan O’Neal lived in Singapore from 1963 to 1965 and had a first-hand, eye witness experience of when Singapore broke away from the Malaysia Federation in August 1965, to become an independent economic and sovereign
value of our money. The fact that Gonsalves killed the NCB shows that the OECS Central Bank is a failure and of no use to the people of SVG. countries lie in this list? state. Singapore then forged ahead In April 2015, the OECS Monetary SVG urgently needs to leave the with its own economic plans and OECS and create its own central bank Council ‘decided to extend the became a global economic success timetable to reduce our debt to GDP and its own currency to stimulate story. Now, Singapore has one of the economic growth. A central bank could ratio to 60% from 2020 to 2030’. This highest standards of living in the alone shows that OECS leaders are undertake the responsibility of world and one of the lowest incompetent when it comes to finance economic growth and stabilising the unemployment rates in the world. and economics. The OECS was formed in 1981 and SVG economy. Without economic The assumption that countries in growth, we are simply burying our not one science and technology university has been built for the young head in the sand, relying on the OECS the Eastern Caribbean should group together to achieve prosperity is obsession with tourism as the engine people of the OECS. OECS countries rubbish. After over 35 years of just dig a hole to fill a hole - borrowing of OECS economies. grouping together as the OECS, we There is no good reason why our large sums of money to pay off public are beyond any doubt much worse off. debt and increasing public debt in the country should remain in the lazy This is a joke, says Mr Ivan O’Neal tourism club of the OECS, nor as a process. member of the sleeping OECS Central who has a BSc (Hons) degree in CARICOM has been a failure. Bank. With our own central bank, we Accounting and Finance and CARICOM’s focus has been tourism Economics, from Oxford Brookes and incarceration of young people, and could assist entrepreneurs with University, England. that is why Caribbean countries have forward financial planning and offer SVG needs to exit the OECS and credit facilities for investment in high levels of national debt, CARICOM now. PM Gaston Browne’s innovation and research. Our own unemployment and crime. idea of opting out of OECS and central bank would set interest rates Over the past 40 years, successive to keep inflation low and preserve the CARICOM is the way forward. governments in CARICOM have sought to deal with crime by building more and bigger jails, and failed to see that high-quality education is the way to reduce crime. For example, in its first five years of independence from England, Singapore built three high-quality universities. In contrast, after 34 years of independence from England, the incompetent ULP regime built a massive jail and not a university, in IF ON THE ADVICE of management even continue to wear LIAT logoed SVG. This example is illustrative of uniforms, but would now be paid by shareholders of LIAT take the CARICOM countries’ incompetence. your local treasury and worst , the unprecedented step to take the Countries with more highly workers’ union may not be recognized company into bankruptcy because the educated people per capita are more as a bargaining unit. Everyone will business model failed, I cannot help prosperous than countries with poorly have to reapply for a new job with the but wonder what will happen to the educated people. For example, same company, under new workers. Singapore is number one in the world management. When a government defaults on a for most millionaire households per Somebody please say it isn’t so!! I loan, it is usually a different scenario capita, with 170,000 millionaire would be happy if I am wrong. From from most other businesses. Usually, households. Where do CARICOM my experience dealing with the lenders require the governments to put the “full faith and credit” of the government debt, this is what I expect to happen. I think we should be participating borrowers of the loan. looking at a different business model, This means that the lenders are one based on our inter-island traveling assured of full payment on the loans because the borrower is committing to needs. I agree that regional air raise taxes and fees to cover the loan. transportation is not going to be an enterprise that earns double-digit I would not be surprised if this is the rates of return on our investment. case with the LIAT loans. So, this This does not mean that we should means that LIAT is not going continue to subsidize inter island anywhere soon, and maybe that is travel without regard for the cost. why we are beginning to hear the There will be time for us to revisit discussion about the need to acknowledge the fact that regional air the model and come up with one that transportation will never make money, has specific performance measures and designated actions or triggers and the best we can expect is a points. We must discuss alternatives breakeven operation. to government ownership in what can So what can we expect? The be a successful private venture. I workers at LIAT will be the ultimate strongly believe that government losers; they will be asked to settle for exists to do the things that the private a reduced pension plan and unpaid sector cannot do effectively and leave (accumulated sick and vacation efficiently. Sometimes some industries leave). And yes, these terms will be are better served and services are dictated by the airline lenders. better delivered as public/private Governments will do their best to get partnerships. Maybe the current LIAT the most favorable deals from the situation is one. lenders, but don’t expect much However, all of that is for later; it is compassion from the bankers. They now time of us to be putting all our will insist that staff be reduced and energy into a successful dissolution of fees normally paid to the local the operations and taking care of the governments for landing rights be diverted to them. Fuel flow fee will be workers, some who have given service for more than forty years of their reduced or eliminated, and baggage adult lives. Put the workers first. handlers at the airports will become local airport workers and not employees of the airlines. They might Horatio Skeete
Taking LIAT into bankruptcy?
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THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. 13.
News
Stakeholders Update:
Understanding and Overcoming the Hurdles Together
THE ST. VINCENT BUILDING & LOAN ASSOCIATION (SVBLA) is a Building Society that is owned entirely by its members, who are all private individuals and in a few cases, local organisations. In 2013, the membership of the SVBLA voted unanimously to adopt a Recapitalization Plan recommended by the regulators at the August 29th Annual General Meeting. This Plan, the SVBLA acknowledges, was not a popular one, but was a necessary strategy to protect our depositors’ investments and the longevity of the Association. The Recapitalization Plan guaranteed that ALL depositors, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, had access to 90% of all their investments at the Association, in addition to interest at rates of 3% to 3.5%. The Association retained, as part of the Recapitalization, a maximum of 10% of the total of each depositor’s savings, which were placed as Permanent Shares. The Recapitalization Plan was a one-time transaction and since 2013, the Association has not transferred any other funds from depositors’ accounts to Permanent Shares. The Association empathizes with its members, however, it is not currently able to facilitate the redemption of Permanent Shares. As a membership organisation, any changes to Permanent Shares and their structure, including but not limited to, the redemption of said Shares, must be voted upon as was previously done by the membership and sanctioned by our regulator. The Association has benefited thousands of persons throughout its 79 years of operations and with the continued support of its membership and the public will continue to forge ahead. Unlike other financial
institutions that encountered similar challenges, the Association was able to recover and has committed to paying dividends on these Permanent Shares, which commenced in 2017. The Association has and will continue to pay dividends based on profitability. The Association is stable, with profits of $1.7 million and $2.3 million recognised in 2018 and 2017 respectively. In 2013, the Association had an accumulated deficit of $15.7 million which has been improved by $20.67 million to an accumulated surplus of $4.97 million as at December 31, 2018. At the time of intervention by the regulators, the non-performing loan portfolio stood at $81 million. As at the end of 2018, this had been reduced by 29% to $57.2 million. We have also consistently exceeded the regulatory requirements regarding liquidity. These gains are being returned to members through dividends on Permanent Shares. The Association has managed to protect members’ deposits and maintain the overall sustainability of the institution, through its recovery efforts and the implementation of a robust corporate governance structure. The St. Vincent Building & Loan Association remains steadfast and is working with purpose towards the realization of the common good for all stakeholders. We continue to build on our Mission: To provide the best financial solutions distinguished by product innovation, sustainable earnings and community partnerships. We are committed to building lives one step at a time. (Source: Press Release — St. Vincent Building & Loan Association)
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14. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. THE VINCENTIAN
People
Fireman expected to make full recovery
VINCENTIAN soca bard Delroy ‘Fireman’ Hooper is expected to make a full recovery, following a vehicular accident in which he was the driver/sole passenger. Reports are that on Friday July 3, as Fireman was en route, from Georgetown where he resided, to a much anticipated virtual showdown between himself and Skinny Fabulous, his car overturned at about 5:45 p.m. along the Windward Highway in the Gorse area. Delroy ‘Fireman’ Hooper sustained nonHe sustained injuries and threatening injuries and is said to be on a path was transported first to the to full recovery. (Facebook Photo) smart hospital in Georgetown and then later to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, after it became apparent that specialist care would be needed to attend to his injuries. Island Network’s Herric Horne, Fireman’s manager of longstanding reported, “He was travelling to do an event for Flow but when he got to the Gorse area there was some debris in the road. You know that area have some banks that normally come down in the road, when he approached it was too soon for him to take away from it so that’s what caused the car to flip”. The car driven by ‘Fireman’ ended up on its Fireman won the Soca Monarch title for the 10th time roof. (Facebook Photo) in 2018, with his ‘Amen’ rendition, and was ‘awarded a new car sustained extensive injuries saying that those reports were not quite valued at $40,000, compliments Coreas and Hazells Inc.,’ according to accurate, though the vehicle was badly damaged. THE VINCENTIAN NEWSPAPER. Horne, in a separate interview, This, according to Horne, was the concurred and said that the vehicle same car that spiraled out of control had to be towed away from the last week Friday, a day before Fireman would have been expected to accident site. He also disclosed, “Three of his defend his Soca Monarch title if fingers on his right hand were broken Vincymas 2020 was held as originally so they transferred him to the Milton advertised. Cato Memorial because there is where Close family friend and publicist they have the bone specialist”. Jean Johnny-Findlay told the media So they looked at him this morning that the veteran performer was [July 4, 2020] and well, he’s able to ‘hospitalized since the accident,’ with move the fingers that were broken so damages to his right hand. we?re taking that as a good sign. “He never lost consciousness,” They’re in a cast, he’s doing alright Johnny-Findlay confirmed, adding now. that though he was being held for The prognosis is that no adverse further observations, Fireman, as developments are anticipated as always, was ‘in good spirits.’ Fireman Hooper begins his down the Johnny-Findlay addressed earlier path to recovery. reports which claimed that Fireman jp.schwmon.vincy@gmail.com
THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. 15.
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16. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020 . THE VINCENTIAN
Arts
ECGC PRISPAF winners recognised INDIVIDUALS AND SCHOOLS who stood out at the 2020 ECGC Primary Schools Performing Arts Festival (PRIAPAF) were recognised at an Awards Ceremony, held last Monday at the Methodist Church Hall.
Individuals Seaca John, from the Paget Farm Government
was crowned Prince of PRISPAF, propelled to royalty by having been declared the Most Promising Male performer. He entertained the ceremony with a rap/dance hall styled rendition, in which he lamented his “poor life inna the Ghetto.” Fair Hall Primary School’s Jefaun Duncan,
Akaylee Small, Female Baby of PRISPAF accepting her prize.
crowned the Festival’s Best Female Vocalist, also entertained the gathering with her rendition of the song, ‘You are beautiful’. She was acclaimed the Princess of PRISPAF/ Andrew Browne from the Stephanie Browne Government School was named Best Male Vocalist. Ennabelle McMaster from Windsor Primary
Jaydon Dabreo, Male Baby of PRISPAF gets his reward.
received the Best Instrumental Solo award. The Most Promising Junior Male was Tye Williams from Spring Village Methodist. Akaylee Small, originally from Seaca John, Prince of the North PRISPAF doing his rap/dance Leeward hall number. village of Troumaca but School, following on a now residing in Bequia, was declared Female Baby traditional area of of PRISPAF, while Jaydon strength, walked away with Best Dabreo from Pamelus Choral Speech and Burke Primary took the Best Drama/Skit Male category. awards, and one of the school’s individual Schools performers, Gabrielle Jefaun Duncan, Princess of PRISPAF, rendering the song Arrington, was The Touruma ‘You are beautiful’. adjudged the Most Government Scholl took Promising Junior the place of pride when they copped the PRISPAF Female. The Lowmans Leeward The Best Instrumental School of the Year Award. Anglican School won the Group came from the That school also provided best Prepared School the Most Promising Senior Kingstown Primary School award, and the Bequia Female in Jaida Andrews and the Best Choir Anglican Primary School accolade went to the and also took the Best received the award for Georgetown Government Dance Duet award. Best Programme. (WKA) School. South Rivers Methodist
Schools Drama Festival:
‘We need all the schools’ MARTIN QUASHIE, Coordinator of the ECGC Primary Schools Performing Arts Festival (PRISPAF) is not satisfied that some schools are still opting out of the event. He made his feelings known last Tuesday at a revised Martin Quashie, Coawards ordinator of ceremony staged PRISPAF, wants to at the see all schools Kingstown participating in the Methodist festival. Church Hall. “We need all the schools,” Quashie declared and recognised that there was latent talent in the primary schools which must be exposed and nurtured. Towards that end, he is appealing to the Ministry of Education to ensure full participation. “I want all the children to perform.
We have to get our children involved at an early age,” Quashie proclaimed, adding in a stern tone of voice, “If I had my way, all the schools would be performing.” The Primary Schools Performing Arts Festival began in 2006. Quashie’s tutelage. Fifty-seven (57) schools Teachers recognized for, their contribution to PRISPAF (L-R) participated in this Hyacinth Edwards, Juanita Adams, Roslyn Johnny, Ingrid Lavia year’s edition. and Brian DaBreo. Missing is Devon Child. Mrs. Rachel Haslam, Marketing Performing Arts serve as an Haslam highlighted her company’s Manager at the incentive to healthy living, attachment to sports, but for her, the ECGC, brand named in that they help with linkage with the Performing Arts sponsor of the physical and mental provided an opportunity that afforded Rachel Haslam, Marketing Festival, was stability. the “most valuable advertising dollar.” saddened that this Manager at the ECGC, She sees PRISPAF as Six teachers were honoured for their year’s presentation described her company giving youngsters a contribution to the Festival: Hyacinth ceremony was reduced support of PRISPAF as a chance to display their Edwards - Layou Government; Juanita to one day because of dollar well spent. talent at an early age, Adams - Pamelus Burke Government; the COVID-19 and encouraged them to Roslyn Johnny - South Rivers Methodist; outbreak. grab the opportunity since, they can go Ingrid Lavia - Owia Government, Brian Notwithstanding, She was thankful for on to use the Performing Arts as a DaBreo - Colonaire Government, and the opportunity to reward students for means of making a livelihood. Devon Child — Sandy Bay Primary. their performances. (WKA) In any case, it will make you a “wellAs far as Haslam is concerned, the rounded individual.’ Haslam said.
THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. 17.
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18. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020 . THE VINCENTIAN
News
Trainees at a previous Starlift Graduation Ceremony.
ÂHeroÊ to open music school
KINGSLEY ‘Hero’ Roberts, the man responsible for coordinating and conducting the annual training programme of the Starlift Steel Orchestra for almost four decades, is taking another step upwards. Roberts confirmed recently that having developed many teaching techniques over the years, he which will offer tutoring in both the practical and theoretical rudiments of music. Kingsley ‘Hero’ Roberts is “A music school realizing a lifelong dream. has always been my ambition and I am moving ahead with its establishment,” Roberts related. The experienced Roberts, a member of the Starlift band for 46 years, noted that over the years, he has been able to develop training techniques that have resulted in participants of the Starlift Training Programme grasping the art in a short space of time. “I pay a lot (of attention) to the basics, such as holding the sticks properly, rolling , striking the notes, phrasing of the notes and sharing of the hands, so much so that from the training programme, many of those who graduate are ready for the next Junior Panorama,” Roberts pointed out. Starlift Steel Orchestra, for which Roberts has arranged, boasts the record for the most panorama wins here in St Vincent and the Grenadines. In total, he has arranged for sixteen steel bands in various panorama competitions, and he believes it is time to show another dimension of his musical acumen. Whatever path he chooses for himself, Roberts stressed that the Annual Starlift Training Programme will continue. In fact, he will again serve as the lead trainer when the 2020 edition of the programme gets going next Monday, July 13, at the Starlift Steel Orchestra’s base at Old Montrose. It is expected to conclude in late August. The programme will cater to 60 persons, and will be conducted on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with two sessions each day: from 4 pm to 5pm and from 5pm to 6pm. Roberts assured that all training sessions will unfold in adherence to the protocols regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, as laid down by the Ministry of Health.
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THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. 19.
Arts
Avenue Dancers: Bridget passes the torch younger generation to take her forward,” Bridget said. Shani has worked along with the Avenue Dancers over the past 7 Shani Sargeant will be years while her daughter the new Managing Amaris Director. trained with Bridget since she was 6 years old. Having carefully studied with Bridget over the years, she will assume the position of Managing Director of the dance group. Lateefa is no stranger to the stage or the world of dance. She boasts a title as Miss GHS Heritage and Miss National Heritage, and placed 4th at the Haynes Smith Talented Teen Pageant using dance as her talent. She will serve as Creative Director of the group, focusing on choreography. Both women expressed their delight to lead the Avenue Dancers in 2020 and beyond, with Shani saying, Bridget ‘Aunty Bridgie’ John will “Bridget’s contribution to the dance is remain as General Manager of the St. Vincent is unparalleled and it is an Avenue Dancers. honour to continue and build on her already amazing legacy!” FOR OVER 30 YEARS, since 1987, Lateefa added, “Dance is my passion Bridget John of Paul’s Avenue has led the and I feel grateful and privileged to be Avenue Dancers. entrusted with such a tremendous ‘Auntie Bridgie’, as she is opportunity. I will not let Bridget affectionately called, over that period, down.” has poured with love, passion and Bridget will still remain as General dedication into training hundreds of Manager of the group but she girls and young women from all over reiterated that the day to day St. Vincent and the Grenadines. management will belong to Shani and She is certainly a gem of the Paul’s Lateefa. Avenue community and indeed, the “I wish the girls the very best- I island of St. Vincent. know that my baby is in safe hands, On July 1st 2020, Bridget quietly she said. passed the baton of running the day to day operations of her beloved Avenue Tour to UK postponed Dancers to two young and vibrant women — Shani Sargeant and Lateefa For over a year, the Avenue Noel. Dancers had been raising money to “For a few years, I have thought travel to the United Kingdom to about the day when I will give up the showcase their talents and enjoy a cultural experience. day to day running of the Avenue With the success of those efforts Dancers- the group is like a baby that behind them, air travel tickets were I have cared for and nurtured, bought and a team of 18 parents and watched grow and thrive. She has encountered highs and lows, setbacks children were due to travel in early and opposition but she has triumphed August. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the much anticipated trip had to be and is stronger than before. It is now time for me to step back and allow the postponed to next year.
The Avenue Dancers takes this opportunity to assure its donors and sponsors that all funds contributed will go towards next year’s trip, and that fundraising ventures will continue once social distancing measures are relaxed.
Lateefa Noel – the new Creative Director.
V Cooperatives collaborate 20. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020 . THE VINCENTIAN
Business
THE IDEA OF PEOPLE working together is not lost on a group of entities here. A step in this direction was taken on Saturday 4th July with the launch of a Farmers Market, at Riverbank Gardens, Stoney Ground, in capital city Kingstown. The Market is a collaborative effort involving the Alternative Holistic and Organic Cooperative Society Ltd
represented by Conley Rose, the Goodwill Fisherman’s Cooperative led by Andre Liverpool, and the North Windward Cannabis Cooperative with Newton George as its General Secretary. The event coincided with observation of a ‘Day of Cooperatives’, marked universally on July 4. Rose looked at the response as
Right: Conley Rose (left) and Newton George behind one of the displays at the farmers Market.
“appreciative.” He is looking forward to working along with other groups. “The objective,” he said, “is to raise awareness of the need for unity and cooperation among cooperatives in
striving to build a better world, especially during the economic recovery period of the post COVID-19 pandemic.” Liverpool stressed the importance of collaboration, since, as he said, “it enhances the ability to progress. And he encouraged the consumption of organic foods, the use of natural herbs, bush and roots, with the use of fish and other marine resources to add value to the food
chain. Research into medical marijuana did not escape the focus of the day’s activity. This is expected to have even more focus when the North Windward Cannabis Cooperative stages Emancipation Day commemoration activities in that area, August 1. (WKA)
Andre Liverpool of the Goodwill Fisherman’s Cooperative spoke to the value of collaboration.
Insurance is a safety net THE CURRENT PANDEMIC has reminded everyone about the importance of having a financial cushion with which to navigate unexpected circumstances. Though most of the countries in the Eastern Caribbean and Belize appeared to have navigated the first phase of covid-19 relatively unscathed, people are still wary of the financial implications, as each country continues to manage risk even while attempting to resume to a level of normalcy. Donald Austin, the Chief Executive Officer of Sagicor Life (Eastern Caribbean Inc.), (SLECI), in commenting on financial uncertainty during these times, had this to say, “Periods of uncertainty and of financial difficulty are tough, but, like
everything in our lives, they come and then we adapt to the changes. The key to getting through them is to use the lessons of this difficult period to learn and to plan for the next one by looking at one’s needs and risks going forward.” Mr. Austin, who oversees Sagicor Life’s Eastern Caribbean and Belize operations continued, “Times like these remind us that insurance products serve the purpose to help persons cushion themselves and their families for challenges that may come along in the future. So, each building block of an insurance plan is to ensure that the impact on one’s life is greatly reduced.” Mr. Austin emphasized further that “We only appreciate
Donald Austin, Chief Executive Officer for Sagicor Life (Eastern Caribbean) Inc. safety nets when we may need one. No one wants to hit the ground without some kind of cushion, and insurance is a safety net that holds an individual up in so many different ways that it makes sense to have it as part of your financial and risk mitigation plans.”
THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. 21.
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22. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. THE VINCENTIAN
Service Clubs
Rotary Club installs new Board
Ms. Annette Mark, newly installed President of the Rotary Club of St. Vincent celebrated. THE ROTARY CLUB of St. Vincent celebrated the end of another Rotary year and installed a new Rotary Board, with a cocktail reception at the Grenadine House, Saturday June 27th 2020. Reuben John, President of the outgoing Board, addressing the gathering, highlighted some of the Club’s projects implemented in spite of challenges faced by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Among these were: the Young Employees Socialisation Programme in August 2019; the donation of a stove to the Our Lady of Guadalupe Home after the Home and its contents were destroyed by fire; donation of over 2000 masks to private and public sector entities in May 2020, start of a Wheelchair Donation and At-Risk Boys Mentorship projects which are to be completed in 2021. The new Board that commenced its tenure July 1, 2020 under the theme ‘Rotary Opens Opportunities’, comprises: President Ms Annette Mark, Executive Director of Invest SVG; Immediate Past President - Reuben John, Partner at BDO SVG; Vice President Alicia Kirby; Treasure Brian Glasgow, Manager of KPMG SVG; Secreta Daniel Campbell, Civil Engineer and Consultant; Sargeant-AtArms - Joe Sheridan of The Insurance Brokers, and President Elect Janelle Allen, HR & Education Consultant.
Other Directors who will serve on the Board for the new Rotary year include Sir Errol Allen, Ms Dawnette Calliste, Mrs Sherry-Ann Evans, Mr Earl Tash, and Dr Francois Truchot. President Mark anticipates a year with a positive difference, and is looking forward to incorporating many dynamic initiatives in the life and service of the Club. Apart from the drive to increase visibility and share understanding of Rotary in St Vincent and the Grenadines, and strengthen the membership, the Club will focus on creating and identifying opportunities to impact lives through the use of technology, especially amid this COVID-19 pandemic. The Club brought the curtains down on the 2019-2020 year with the induction of its newest member, Kirk DaSilva Jr., son of Past President Kirk DaSilva. (Prepared by Janelle Allen, Director for Public Image.)
Toastmasters get new Area Director TOASTMASTER organization in St. Vincent and the Grenadines has a new Area Director. She is Ms. Xelony Daize. Ms. Daize will serve as Area 19 Director within District 81, for the period July 01, 2020 to June 30, 2021, and will oversee the operations of the four Vincentian clubs: Achievers Toastmasters Club, Creative Thinkers Toastmasters Club, Flow Toastmasters Club and Imperial Champions Toastmasters Club. In accordance with Toastmaster goals, Daize will be responsible for providing support to members’ overall development of communication and leadership skills. As far as her Toastmasters’ credentials are concerned, Ms. Daize holds designations of Advanced Communicator Bronze, Advanced Leadership Bronze and a Level 3 award in Dynamic Leadership. She has been an active Toastmaster since 2016, serving in several executive positions, including the most recent as President of the Creative Thinkers Toastmasters Club. Ms. Daize expressed her commitment as Director towards achieving club growth, enhanced programme quality and President Distinguished Status for the area. The incoming Area Director is a Mechanical Engineer by profession and currently employed at the St.
Vincent and the Grenadines Electricity Services (VINLEC). The Director is expected to work closely with the Area Council that comprises the Presidents, Vice Presidents Education and Vice Presidents Membership of Ms. Xelony Daize, each club. new Toastmasters The current Area 19 Director Presidents are: District 81. Shernell Hadaway Achievers Toastmasters Club; Raheem Hall - Creative Thinkers Toastmasters Club; Nikala Williams - FLOW Toastmasters Club and Natalie Cummings of Imperial Champions Toastmasters Club. Other Council Members include: Jacqui English-Jacobs, Karla Gellizeau, Glenda Matthews, Barbara Soso, St. Clair Stapleton, Leanna Sutherland, Rodika Jones, and Duane Samuel. Toastmasters International is a worldwide nonprofit educational organization that empowers individuals to become more effective communicators and leaders.
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THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. 23.
Commentary
The next general election
PREPARING for the upcoming election and navigating the local political waters can seem not only difficult, but pointless. In our time, leadership has failed in almost every sector of society, e.g. families are broken; schools are in desperate need of aid. Yet, Government ministers, Opposition MP’s, senators and
candidates are all making promises they know they will not keep, and “citizen” journalists and Facebook trolls appears to be replacing the ethical and civilized dialogue we all wish for in our governance and election process. And given the cell phone addiction that leads most older adults to describe the Millennials and
GenXers as anti-social, it is impossible to get a full discussion on issues affecting our country. However, we cannot give up on some of the simple expectations of an old fashion election. We need to see the manifesto of each political party asking for our vote; each candidate must also be willing to articulate their 4000, Flanka, ‘Skarpyon and Problem Child, et la, offered for consumption. And yes, memories of July 2020 will cut deep and severe for street vendors, who would have lost the opportunity to capitalise on the heighted trade usually made possible by returning nationals and tourists. This economic gloom would have also been transferred to our bars and favourite ’watering holes’ as the Social Distancing “ROAD MARCH” takes precedence. It’s almost like the anniversary of the passing of a loved one when only a few take the time to genuinely reflect on the contribution that person would have made when amongst us. The invitation is extended to those reading this article to close your eyes and sing, “I aint Missing ah ting”.
A Commentary: ‘I Ain’t Missing’ ah ting THE SONG ‘I Ain’t Missing’ performed by Orande ‘Bomani’ Charles takes on a special meaning as we ponder on Tuesday July 7, 2020 being ‘just another day’ when, in normal times, it would have been Mardi Gras or Carnival Tuesday, the mass climax of SVG’s premier cultural festival - VINCYMAS. As an aside, there are those who would remember that CTVIEW Multimedia used ‘Bomani’s’ ‘I Ain’t Missing’, with his permission, to promote the THE VINCENTIAN’S 2011 VINCY CARNIVAL SOUVENIR MAGAZINE, a significant
contribution to archiving the richness of our Carnival — an expression of multiple cultural art forms. As this commentary was being penned, one couldn’t help but observe the deafening silence — the lack of local talent filling the airwaves of our radio stations, or erupting from the monster sound systems of our mini vans and privately owned automobiles. Instead, the air was filled, for the most part, with melodies and lyrics of Jamaican Dancehall. There was no artistry of Skinny Fabulous, no Fireman, Luta, Hypa
Carlyle Douglas
position on the party platform as well what are their goals are for their constituency. They must also be ready to speak to some global issues affecting the country like, alternative (green) energy, food security, industrialization, education and taxes. It is not totally unreasonable to expect those who want to lead us in government to be honest and to also be capable of applying common sense and flexibility when warranted. Let’s hold then all to the highest standard possible. Horatio
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24. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. THE VINCENTIAN
Advice
DonÊt be hasty Dear George, MY BOYFRIEND and I have been together for 6 years and he never mentioned the word marriage. He dodges the issue every time it comes up. Unknowing to him, I met this guy who promised to take me to New York to live with him, if he becomes my boyfriend. From the looks of things he is dead. He talks of settling down, and having children, all the things I want. My question: Should I forget about my boyfriend who seems to be just wasting my time?
Wondering heart. Dear Wondering heart,
Your boyfriend’s lack of interest in settling down, is no excuse to jump at the first opportunity to do so. Be woman enough to tell your boyfriend you are not getting what you signed up for and you intend to move on. However, you should take all the time you need to make certain that this guy checks out. You have to take due care to dot your I’s and cross your T’s.
George
„I prefer girls!!‰ Dear George,
Bra.
IS THERE anything wrong with preferring the same sex? I prefer girls than boys. My situation is that the girl I have chosen to be with, a guy at work has his eyes on her. He blames me for taking his girl and now goes around spreading my name, saying that I love girls instead of boys. Yet, he says he is willing to settle with this same girl even though she is with me. I do not want to share. But I am afraid he might get somewhere with my friend since she likes boys as well. Am I reading too much into this, or should I just leave it alone and relax?
Dear Bra, It is your right to choose whom you want to be with. Everyone would not agree with your choice, but at the end of the day, it is you who have to live with your decision. If you are clear and comfortable about your choice of partner, then you need not worry about your work colleague and his behavior. You have to trust your partner to be loyal and committed enough to you and not worry about who may be trying to get her attention.
George
Sex for rent Dear George, MY LANDLORD is demanding sex in lieu of rent, but my boyfriend is objecting to it even though he cannot help me with the rent. I have not worked for a year now and I’m way behind with my rent. I do not want to be evicted, not at this time. I explained to my boyfriend that it will be just sex and nothing else, but he would not hear it. The truth is having sex with my landlord just once would erase 7 months of back rent. I really thought my boyfriend would grasp this, but we are constantly arguing over it. I don’t know how much longer I can go on like this.
Frustrated Dear Frustrated,
Your boyfriend is not asking for too much by asking you to be dignified and not prostitute yourself. There has to be other solutions to this problem including possibly living with your boyfriend temporarily, until you
get back on your feet. Now is a good time to show your boyfriend the depth of your character by not giving into the ridiculous advances of your unscrupulous landlord.
George
Leisure
ARIES (Mar. 21- April 20) Your personal life will be disrupted if you have been too busy with business. Problems with your partner could be reaching a high level of concern. Get back to basics and reevaluate what is important in life.
LIBRA (Sept. 24 -Oct. 23) Consider the source before you believe what you hear. Be aware that a female you work with may be trying to hold you back. Don’t let coworkers get wind of your ideas or they might try to take credit for your hard work.
TAURUS (Apr. 21- May 21) Strong willpower will come to your rescue. Socialize with friends, but don’t overspend on lavish entertainment. Take special care in any home improvement project you work on this week, you’ll be glad you did.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24 - Nov. 22) You will need to do a lot of research if you wish to get to the bottom of things. Try to deal with the problems of those less fortunate; however, don’t allow them to make unreasonable demands.
GEMINI (May 22-June 21) Get the whole family involved in a worthwhile cause or cultural event. Opportunities for romance will develop through group endeavors; however, the association isn’t likely to last.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23 -Dec. 21) Time is money and you must be ready to take action in order to reach your highest potential. You may have a hard time relating to children this week. Avoid overloading your plate.
CANCER (June 22-July 22) Renovations to your domestic scene will pay high rewards. Don’t lament to a friend about any grievance regarding your mate, or it may be hard to rectify your relationship.
CAPRICORN (Dec 22.- Jan. 20) You have your own family to consider as well. Go after your professional goals. Do not sign contracts or get involved in any uncertain financial deals. Listening can be more valuable than being a chatterbox.
LEO (July 23-Aug 22) Dig deep to find out how costly a new venture will be before you sign on the dotted line. Try to calm down and listen to your partner’s complaints. Compromise may be necessary. Direct your energy into physical entertainment.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 21.- Feb. 19) Use your added discipline to get what you want. Escapist tendencies will result in a poor reputation and a lack of confidence. Secret affairs will only lead to heartache.
VIRGO (Aug. 23 -Sept. 23) You may have difficulty trying to get your mate to understand your position. Your talent will be recognized. Don’t delay; go to your physician or dentist and get to the bottom of the discomfort.
PISCES (Feb. 20-Mar. 20) It’s hard to stay mad if the object of the anger refuses to react. Travel will lead you in new directions. Rid yourself of that which is old and no longer of use. Try to be patient and understanding.
ACROSS 1. Dress in 5. Baseball hats 9. Lessen, as energy 12. Besides 13. Kentucky neighbor 14. Green legume 15. Pedaled conveyance 16. Sleight-of-hand pro 18. Arrest 20. Door fasteners 21. Sail supports 24. Greatest amount 26. Forerunner 28. Polka – 31. Hollywood VIP 32. Lovely Lupino 33. Senate worker 34. Take a chair 35. Trustworthy 37. Angling spool 39. Awakened 40. Clean vigorously 43. Snug retreat 44. Hopping beast 47. Connected 51. Feeling unwell 52. Hardly crazy 53. Eternally 54. Sneaky 55. Sheep mothers 56. Contradict (charges) DOWN 1. Natural flytrap 2. Actor Wallach 3. Inquire (of) 4. Come back in
5. Barbering implement 6. Villainous cry 7. Sty dweller 8. Dirties 9. Grand tale 10. Protruding bird feature 11. Prohibits 17. Rollaway bed 19. Braying mammal 21. Assemble 22. Person against 23. Jazz style 24. Strike a pose 25. Mouth-related 27. Grow sleepy 28. Touches lightly 29. Eye amorously
30. Adolescent 33. Emulated Picasso 36. Hot temper 37. Navajo weaving 38. Obliterate 40. Runs a slalom 41. _ up, phone 42. No more than
LAST WEEK’s SOLUTION
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THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. 25.
43. Fawn-bearing critters 45. Cold and damp 46. Eight minus seven 48. “_ seen worse!” 49. Early night, poetically 50. Lacking rain
V Vincymas to showcase in Baltimore 26. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. THE VINCENTIAN
Culture
THE CARNIVAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (CDC) will enjoy the benefit of having the Vincymas brand prominently highlighted at the Baltimore / Maryland One Caribbean Carnival. This Virtual showcase of Caribbean culture features recordings of (virtual) concerts of the carnivals from across the Caribbean. A one-hour segment is accorded St. Vincent and the Grenadines and is scheduled for airing on Sunday 12th July at 4:00 pm. This can be viewed on the Baltimore One Caribbean Carnival Instagram and Facebook pages. The local recording, which was done on Saturday 04th July, featured Saeed Bowman on pan, Reigning Calypso Monarch Shaunelle Mc Kenzie, 2019 Soca Monarch winner Magikal, Ragga Soca Monarch Hance John, Parang and Road March King Luta, and LPank, Sita and Fyah Empress. Costumes displayed were provided by Oxygen Mas Band. The MC was Candyman and the introduction to the event was done by CDC’s Marketing and Development Officer Esworth ‘Ezzie’ Roberts. Videos promoting St. Vincent & The Grenadines were also
included in the final product. Ten Times Soca Monarch winner Fireman Hooper was scheduled to appear at the event, but he was involved in vehicular accident on Friday 03rd July. The Baltimore / Washington One Virtual Carnival is scheduled for July 11th and 12th 2020, starting at 12:00 pm and ending at 6:00 pm. Baltimore celebrates 39 years showcasing the Caribbean Culture of Carnival. Mayor of Baltimore City Bernard ‘Jack’ Young is expected to deliver an address at the opening session along with Dr. Elaine Simon, President Baltimore / Washington One Carnival, and Loughton Sargeant Executive Director DC Caribbean Carnival. Elaine Simon, president of the Baltimore / Maryland One Caribbean Carnival, said in an interview, “We thank St. Vincent and the Grenadines for partnering with us for this momentous experience to showcase our Carnival Virtually. On behalf of our executive members, Band Leaders, Masqueraders, DJs, Shortmus Productions and the Community, we express gratitude and we
Vincymas is more than about the music but there is no denying that it is a fundamental component of the overall carnival package. welcome you.” In response, Esworth Ezzie’ Roberts said, “We have embraced this opportunity to market Vincymas 2021 via this means which allows for the viewing by persons not just in Baltimore but by people around the world.” He continued, “We will like to express much thanks to Vincentian Mr. Kenly “Shortmus” John of Shortmus Productions and President of the Baltimore / Washington One Caribbean Carnival, Dr. Elaine Smith for giving us this opportunity to showcase Vincymas in this way.”
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THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. 27.
Findlay pays tribute to Sir Everton Weekes
worship as a young boy, none was closer to me than Sir Everton.” Findlay recalled, “I first met him (Sir Everton) on an early visit to St Vincent….Through the instrumentality of his countryman and close friend Frank Thomas, I played a weekend cricket match with Sir Everton (centre) with his Three W’s colleagues, their Club, Empire Sir Frank Worrell (left) and Sir Clyde Walcott. in Barbados... Our friendship “represented the to the work of the developed when, in 1965, Committee was best human qualities Michael Findlay remembers he was assigned by the that any West Indian Sir Everton as a person outstanding”, he added. then West Indies Cricket characterised by a wealth of Findlay revealed that could wish for, as Board of Control to be wisdom, tremendous Sir Everton was a wealth they carried the involved in the selection of wisdom which he humility, with and great hopes and of the first Combined humour. aspirations of a made sure that he Windward and Leeward supped whenever he was Caribbean people, matches for the West Islands cricket team, for in his company. separated by miles of Sir Everton Weekes KCMG, GCM, OBE Indies between 1969 and the Shell Shield Regional “I made it my business sea, steeped in (26 February 1925 – 1 July 2020) 1973. He appeared in 1st Class Cricket passionate political to sit at dinner with Sir 110 First Classes Championship...That patriotism, and poisoned Everton each evening... FORMER ST VINCENT AND 1967 at age 42 and 2006 match was played in matches. by deep insularity. He related stories of his THE GRENADINES, at age 80, respectively. He served as West Dominica.” “Farewell my dear playing days and his Windward Islands, Weekes played 48 Test Indies Team Manager, Findlay noted that it friend... May God grant tours, quite different to Combined Islands and matches, scoring 4455 Convenor of Selectors was at that game that he what they are today... He you eternal rest, and West Indies wicket-keeper, runs at an average of and is currently an and Sir Everton became told of his experiences, may you rise in glory to Thaddeus Michael Findlay, 58.61. He was the only independent Director of friends. be with him”, Findlay good and bad, and how remembers the late Sir batsman to have made Cricket West Indies. “Our friendship really they helped to mould him concluded. Everton Weekes. centuries in five developed as a cricket Findlay played 10 Test as a human being... He A member of the successive Test innings. administrator, and in spoke proudly of how his famed Three W’s, Sir In First Class Cricket, he particular, during the cricket ability enabled Everton died 1st July in counted 12010 runs from two years that I served him to come out of the his native Barbados, at 152 matches, at an as Chairman of the West poverty in which he was the age 95. average of 55.24. Indies Cricket Board’s born and grew up, and of He was the last Findlay noted that Cricket Developed his longevity sustained survivor of the renowned while he revered the Committee, of which he by swimming each trio, dubbed the Three “cricketing genius and was a revered member,” morning, eating well and W’s, which he comprised brilliance of the famous Findlay reminisced. holding malice to none... with Sir Frank Worrell ‘Three’, because of my “ Sir Everton brought Those moments were an and Sir Clyde Wallcott, own cricketing to that Committee all the inspiration to me. They who pre-deceased him in aspirations, and hero experience of were special...I shall his many treasure them forever,” years as a Findlay said. World Class After his active life as cricketer, a West Indian cricketer, and shared Sir Everton Weekes the wisdom served as an that God had International Cricket blessed him Council match referee, with to the Barbados and West benefit of Indies Team Manager, a West Indies Coach with the Barbados cricket...He government, and also did so in a worked as an analyst for manner radio and television for characterised the regional first class by and international cricket tremendous matches, played at the Sir Everton received ‘The Immortal Award’ from Sir humility, wit Kensington Oval. Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of The University and great Findlay summed up of the West Indies , which also humour... that the contribution of His the Three W’s as having, honoured Sir Everton in 2003 with the conferment of an honorary Doctorate. Sir Everton Weeks on the go against the English. contribution
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28. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. THE VINCENTIAN
Sports
Team Athletics SVG supports Summer Camps KEITH JOSEPH - President of Team Athletics SVG, the governing body for Track and Field in this country, said that his body continues to endorse and support the feeder programmes – camps, academies, etc., - , which he sees as benefiting the national set up, especially in this period when sporting activities have been suspended indefinitely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Joseph, having coaches and
athletes involved in summer camp is critical to the continuity of the sports and its development. “Last year, Team Athletics SVG agreed to sponsor a series of summer coaching camps which we are continuing to do this year. The camps involve Michael Ollivierre with his ITDAT Academy, Godfrey Harry with X-Ceed, Rawlson Morgan with Excel, and Chester Morgan with High
Table tennis coaching ongoing ORVILLE HASLAM, OD President of the SVG Table Tennis Association (SVGTTA) continues to keep a positive mindset amidst the suspension of competitive activities in the sport, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting crisis. “As you are aware, table tennis has taken a serious blow for 2020. But our international Orville Haslam, body — the International Table OD, President of Tennis Federation (ITTF) — has the SVG Table set some guidelines for Tennis continuing training,” Haslam Association, told THE VINCENTIAN. spoke to how He explained: “One of the the ITTF is guidelines is that affiliates like guiding the the SVGTTA can hold training process through for a maximum of seven persons the COVID-19 period. in a hall, with one coach.” Protocols like washing hands as often as possible during sessions, sanitizing hands and equipment before and after sessions, using separate boards, Haslam said, were also being encouraged by the ITTF, who, apparently purports that the virus could be transmitted from the ball to an opponent. “Additionally, the ITTF has been having monthly meetings via Zoom, keeping us -English speaking Caribbean — abreast of development,” Haslam added. As it relates to the SVGTTA’s progrqamme for 2020, Haslam admitted that it has been severely curtailed to the point of it not panning out as planned. “Unfortunately, locally our table tennis has not progressed since the advent of COVID-19 in March. We are looking to 2021 to continue where we left off. “All the coaches in St Vincent and the Grenadines and the region are aware of what is going on and they have been concentrating as best as they can, on the recommended training sessions for up to seven persons. We have to keep that going for the rest of 2020,” Haslam said.
Performance. They are our major coaching groups and clubs and they have feeder programmes. “To give credit to Michael Ollivierre, he is always looking to capture those who coming out of the primary school system and that has prompted other coaches to do likewise. So, there is now a more concerted effort on the part of our coaches to go after athletes from the primary school system.” This mentality among the coaches, Joseph believes, will not only develop the individual athletes but will rebound in favour of growth and development of the overall athletics school programme. “The Inter Primary School Championship is now seen as a major feeder for athletes going into the secondary schools, so we are like Jamaica in the sense that our coaches are now looking at recruiting
athletes from primary schools into their secondary school. Interestingly, Jamaica has now started looking at us for our athletes from our secondary schools system,” Joseph expounded. He continued, “So what we are doing in terms of the summer programmes, is not about training in terms of sheer athletics. It is about the human, personal development, sports physiology, communication skills trying to make the athletes understand that to be an athlete, it’s no longer sufficient for them to run, jump or throw; it has to be that there must be a complete package; there must be a relationship with their academic work, so that relation between academic and athletics sports performance is now more than ever, seen as a relationship that must go together while broadening
Keith Joseph, President of Team Athletics SVG, and Michael Ollivierre, Director and Head Coach of IT-DAT Academy, at the IT-DAT Summer Camp currently in progress. education.” And with these programmes that are already on stream and will continue to turn our track and field athletes, the Team Athletics SVG President is looking forward with great anticipation to the commissioning of the synthetic track at Diamond. “We are happy we are having an athletics
track, even though we will continue to use the grass at some period still, but certainly, once we have a national team in training for premier meets in the height of the competitive phase of their development, we will certainly need that track and that is important for us,” Joseph went on record as saying. Stories I.B.A.ALLEN
SVG moves up in world netball rankings ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES has moved up two places in the latest world rankings issued by the International Netball Federation. The country moved from 23rd to 21st to be among six Caribbean countries in the first 30 places. Jamaica slipped one place from 3rd to 4th; Trinidad and Tobago maintained 10th; Barbados sits in 13th position, with Grenada at 22nd and the Cayman Islands at 26th, up two places. Antigua and Barbuda sits just outside the top 30 in the 31st position. As far as the top five positions go, Australia maintains its position at the top of world netball, followed by New Zealand. England sits in 3rd, having nudged Jamaica from that position into 4th. South Africa completes the top five and are joined by two other African countries in the top ten netball-playing nations of the world. The two are Malawi, up one place to sixth, and Uganda dropping to seventh. The latest rankings update
Netballers here will be pleased to learn that SVG has moved up the ranking but will admit there is still a lot of work to be done to reclaim former glory. does not include matches played before July 2017. Matches between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2019 now have a 50 per cent weighting, while those contested from July 1, 2019 onwards have full 100 per cent weighting.
The INF opted to reduce the number of matches required to obtain a ranking from eight to six. This is because of the postponement of games caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
(Source: insidethegames.biz)
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THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. 29.
Sports
Black Lives Matter THE DATES for next year’s Vincy Mas have been decided. This after there was no festival this year, and the people know why. You still have the option of pursuing that aspect, but if lessons of the ongoing saga are anything to go by, one might as well not plan anything. That might be reckless and irresponsible. But there must be attention to some sense of priority. A practical approach is to be thankful, for anytime, we could be gone forever. The adjustments induced by a world in transition makes room for inner perspective. There will not be any sporting arena filled to capacity in the near future. Even if there is “open doors” normalcy, the sense of awareness will impose requirements. So there might be more family stadia where accommodation may be provided whereby a test match becomes a new form of reunion. People will have to get used to the scenario, for there is little else but to fight for your own survival. Caribbean people, burdened by years of oppression, have adopted to the stages of liberty with a tendency of living it up” in a quest to shrug off the effects of slavery. In these times when the complexities of a racist agenda have overwhelmed the conscience of the world, the term Black lives matter is a rally cause. Some will argue that all lives matter. I run the risk of losing credibility if you mention that the biggest crime against black people is black people killing their own. They might just be getting help from the Police. In fact, the original scourge of slavery had to do with the winner taking it all in the euphoria of victory. Those sold into slavery were inevitably the spoils of war. Throughout my years, I cherished the thought of “going back to my roots,” and reconnecting with Africa. Times were when the battle against apartheid in South Africa served as a rallying cause for all people of dignity. Unfortunately, subsequent events have left you appalled with the level of intolerance shown to black people from outside South Africa. Violence between black people is also a cause of concern, and South Africa is not isolated in that regard. People like Marcus Garvey, Walter Rodney, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh will morn with the direction that some African nations have taken. Once there is bickering, the vehicle for progress stalls. Given the legacy of rivalry in the Caribbean, and the attempt at Federation, there is an engrained culture of scepticism or indeed cynicism. But there are people who still hold the dream of meaningful upliftment under one banner. One may try to be as patriotic as it gets. The size of any nation is not going to have any impact globally, except here and there through an individual athlete of team of athletes. While attempts continue to stop the frequency of sporting activity, one has to be cautious in ensuring a measured approach. There will have to be compromises, and the level of tolerance and patience will be stretched. In the midst of a potential paradox, we must stand strong and chart a course suitable to the times that exists.
Mercury happy to resume training KENDALE MERCURY – Head Coach of the National Senior Male Football Team – is delighted to resume training with his team, after a few months break due to the COVID19 pandemic. “We have been back in training about a month now focusing mainly on gym work and technical work in two groups of 12-15 players each, three days a week at the Arnos Vale Playing Field,” Mercury explained. The Coach said that the aim at this time is to keep the players physically and National footballers train in Kendale Mercury, mentally attuned. groups. Head Coach of the As far as National Senior regional/international Male Football Team. admitted. “We qualifiers, but competition is concerned, he have had some more so looking noted that FIFA and challenges before, some are still to get into the CONCACAF have already closed alive like the financial situation of 2026 World Kevin the September window, so SVG some of the players.” Cup, so Richardson, will not be playing World Cup As far as that was concerned, players from Qualifiers this year. National Goalthe Coach said that the Football the U15, U17, keeping Coach, Mercury, though, is hopeful Administration was addressing U20 will be that with the October window still doing some involved in open, there could be some activity the issue, including looking at a recording at a semi-pro league. our training. for the national team, hence “the “We want to see players being “We have to training current training so that we will session. secured enough to chart lifestyle start early to not be caught off guard.” changes, something we have foster change And as he looks back at his begun to see from some players,” of the mind set for the younger recent successes, he is happy with Mercury said. age groups, so as to ensure a the players coming through the Whatever, Mercury is brighter future,” Mercury system. optimistic and is looking for reasoned. “I have every confidence in this success in the coming years. group of players,” Mercury “We have high hopes for the I.B.A.ALLEN
Standardised coaching methods for Goal-keeping THE TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation (SVGFF) has initiated a weekly training programme, geared at standardising the coaching methodologies among goal keeper coaches, assigned to the various national teams. The initiative involves coaches meeting on Tuesdays at the SVGFF’s Conference Room, in an each one teach format. Former St Vincent and the Grenadines goal keeper- John Hinds, welcomed the training, noting that it is good that there is a common ground for everyone. Hinds said that whilst they are moving towards standardised coaching, there will be slight adjustments made according to the age
John Hinds making his presentation last Tuesday. Left: Fellow national goal keeper coaches paying attention to Hinds’ presentation. group and the gender of the goal-keepers. He, however, underscored that the attributes of “bravery, vision and ability to make decisions quickly” are universal. During his presentation last Tuesday, Hinds made the comparison of goalkeeping in his time to what is required today, stating that the goalkeeper of today, is not a “shot stopper”, but has to
operate as the last defender. Employing power point presentations and reviews of matches in which there were goalkeeping errors, Hinds sought to highlight the relative corrective coaching measures. The weekly sessions are used as a precursor to a wider intent, in which all clubs under the aegis of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation, are
to have two goal-keeper coaches, one for the male team and one for the females. The Technical Committee will, in the very near future, engage clubs in training sessions involving their goalkeepers, with the national goal-keeping coaches being the resource personnel. These training sessions would take place before the restart of the National Club Championships, later this month.
30. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020 . THE VINCENTIAN
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THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020. 31.
Classifieds
SHAMATH RODENE THOMAS KEIL Barrouallie Seventh Day Adventist Church Sunday, 5th July, 2020 Viewing: 1:00 p.m. Service: 2:30 p.m.
ANTONIA QUASHIE Church of God of Prophecy Shekinah Worship Center Kingstown Sunday, 5th July, 2020 Viewing: 2:00 p.m. Service: 3:00 p.m.
ANNE ANDERSON
LEONORA KING
Cathedral of the Assumption Kingstown Saturday, 4th July, 2020 Viewing: 1:00 p.m. Service: 2:00 p.m.
Revival Centre Ministries Murray Village Monday, 6th July, 2020 Viewing: 1:00 p.m. Service: 2:00 p.m.
HENRY COLLIN NEVERSON
JEREMY GRANT
New Testament Church of God Wilson Hill Saturday, 4th July, 2020 Viewing: 1:00 p.m. Service: 2:00 p.m.
6W 3DXO¶V Anglican Church Calliaqua Saturday, 4th July, 2020 Viewing: 2:00 p.m. Service: 3:00 p.m.
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FRIDAY JULY
10, 2020
VOLUME 114, No.28
www.thevincentian.com
EC$1.50
TEMPORARY BAN
ON MUSIC LIFTED
Commissioner of Police Colin John assured that each application for the staging of an activity involving amplified music will be given its due consideration.
music and attracting large crowds. THE VINCENTIAN. And in response to indication He referenced an event as recent A BAN ON AMPLIFIED MUSIC that persons requesting permission as last Monday in Clare Valley imposed by the Royal St Vincent and when residents of that community to hold events have had their the Grenadines Police Force was proceeded to stage a mini Carnival applications denied, he said that expected to be lifted by the end of after consultations with the jump-up. this week. authorities it should be a case now The police, according to John, of those applications receiving due moved in quickly, confiscated the Commissioner of Police Colin consideration. John told THE VINCENTIAN in an musical equipment and dispersed John cautioned, though, that “we the crowd. interview on Wednesday, that the This police action was similar to are not out of the woods yet. One he has been in dialogue with the case (of COVID-19) can generate a that taken against other breaches relevant authorities from the lot; we have to be mindful of that.” of the temporary ban. Ministry of Health on the issue, And while he confirmed that the and intimated that he expected to ‘Not out of the woods’ Police was involving receive the official notice from the in framing the Chief Medical Officer, which was While acknowledging that there protocols that would expected to include the established were no active cases of COVID-19 guide the process protocols to be implemented. in the country at present, John said from here on, he did that the authorities could not not provide any “We, the officers, realize that it afford to be complacent and “throw details, save and (the ban) cannot be sustained and caution to the wind. except to say that we cannot close the country “We have to try and strike the the requirements indefinitely to entertainment,” right balance; hence we are seeking will vary as per John said. indoor and outdoor the advice from the Ministry of The temporary ban was put in health in this regard,” the CoP told activity. place in March following the outbreak of the coronavirus, with the police issuing a release indicating, inter alia, that ‘all permission to play amplified music in any public place or in any private premises is cancelled until further notice, by authority vested in the Commissioner of Police under Section 17 of the Noise Act of the Revised Laws of St Vincent and THIS IS HOW Mr. LeRoy Providence referred to this pole in his article, ‘The grass in the drains of Kingstown the Grenadines’. gives testimony’, carried on page 12 of THE As a result, a number of annual VINCENTIAN of Friday 3rd July, 2020: activities were cancelled, including “That almost derelict pole — standing valiantly in the the Bequia Easter Regatta, drain next to our noble Parliament Building and on Easterval in Union Island and the which is displayed a bold COVID-19 sign, speaks Vincymas 2020. volumes of the quality of management in our capital. Despite the appearance that the pole can fall at any Reports of breaches time, because one-third of its circumference at the base The Commissioner disclosed that has already been eaten away, the good pole stands defiant,…. . On this pole there are clusters of wires there have been reports to the which lead to the Parliament Building where the people’s police of persons disregarding the representatives meet to direct the business of the state.” ban, holding events with amplified by DAYLE DA SILVA
ATTENTION PLEASE!!!!!
Published by The VINCENTIAN Publishing Co. Ltd, St. Vincent and the Grenadines;
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