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The National Newspaper of St. Vincent and the Grenadines

FRIDAY,

APRIL 07, 2017

VOLUME 111, No.14

www.thevincentian.com

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Defence attorney Grant Connell sought to highlight a number of inconsistencies in evidence presented by state witnesses.

by HAYDN HUGGINS THE DEFENCE is expected to call its own Firearms Expert in a major gun and ammunition trial at the Serious Offences Court.

Attorney Grant Connell, representing Randy Shallow and his girlfriend Friekesha Douglas, both of Lowmans Leeward, informed the Court of their intention, after Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne overruled his no case submission on Monday.

Connell indicated that he needed time to make the arrangement, and the matter was adjourned to April 24, when the defence is expected to open its case.

Connell has also made a request for entries from the station diary and exhibit book, in relation to the matter.

Basis for charges

Senior Prosecutor Adolphus Delpleche pointed to a single question for the court, i.e. whether the exhibits were found at the defendants abode and in their presence.

Shallow and Douglas are charged jointly with eight counts of possession: a prohibited weapon, to wit, an SMG submachine gun, and having a component part of a prohibited weapon, to wit, a magazine of a AK47 rifle; and a .38 revolver, a glock pistol, 14 rounds of .40

ammunition,42 rounds of 9mm ammunition, one round of .38 ammunition, and one round of 7.62 ammunition, without licences issued under the Firearm Act. The prosecution’s case is based on the discovery of the above items, on a window ledge of a bedroom of an apartment on the lower floor of a house at Lowmans Bay, when a party of police officers executed a search warrant on January 18 this year.

According to the evidence, the couple was renting the apartment from Daniel Johnson, who lived on the upper floor of the 2-storey building, which also had a storeroom on the lower floor, adjacent to where the couple was staying.

A case of inconsistencies When the

prosecution rested its case on Monday, Connell submitted that his clients could not have been in possession of the items, since three police officers — the arresting officer Constable Philbert Chambers, Corporal Kirt King and Constable Asursha Miller — had said in their evidence, that the guns, ammunition and magazines were found on a ledge located on the outside of a bedroom window of the apartment,

and that the burglar bars were fixed outside the window, which was in the storeroom, to which the landlord has access without having to pass through the defendants’ apartment.

Connell argued that the officers gave different versions as to how the items were found, as to who were in the room when they were found, and whether the window was met open or not.

Continued on Page 3.

(L-R): Randy Shallow and Friekesha Douglas had no case submissions on their behalf, overruled by the court.

2. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. THE VINCENTIAN

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THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. 3.

News 3 IRD under reform THE INLAND REVENUE DEPARTMENt (IRD) is currently undergoing some reform.

This according to Comptroller Kelvin Pompey who explained that this year the Department was hoping to see about 75 percent of tax payers file their 2016 taxes electronically.

He said that they were pushing for full 100 percent compliance by 2018.

“We see the need to continue to use technology to offer the best quality service to our tax payers. Internally, it frees up resources that would have had to previously input information; they can now be utilized in other areas,” Pompey said.

“So it’s win-win situation the tax payers can do their filing at their own leisure and also in a more efficient manner, and from our point of view, we wouldn’t have to deal with these thousands of returns.”

And customers can expect to see changes in other areas as well.

By the end of March, the electronic receipt system was expected to be implemented.

This new system is expected

to cut down by at least onethird at the time the public spends to make payments According to Pompey, time taken for customers to receive a receipt after making a payment, is what adds up to the often lengthy times spent in line.

The new system minimizes the risk of errors also, the tax department’s top man explained.

Confident about change And the Department was also exploring ways for persons to make payments using debit or credit cards, this in response, according to Pompey, to the many requests made by members of the public to be able to make payments without having to walk with cash. .

“We have to ensure that we have systems in place to develop and improve our tax systems,” Deputy Comptroller Martina Primus said.

Towards this overall end, the URD has been working with consultants, receiving technical assistance and working closely with various ministries.

“We looking at developing a new organizational structure to better manage the various functional areas,” she said.

But while the department is undergoing this phase of reform, Primus admitted that they are limited with regard to Information and Technology, “so there is where we need to have some significant improvement,” she said.

“What we want to do is to have a tax administration with risk at the core of our operations. So we need to be able to have data that is reliable and we could use that information to do our risk profiling of our tax payers, i.e. to select our audit cases; to score our performance in collecting taxes, to basically look at our reports and develop our own assessments, identify trends and areas of concerns,” Primus continued.

She added that as the system currently exists, tax payer organization has been an area that has not been formerly organized and would be an area that the IRD Inland Revenue would also be looking to improve.

“Internally we are the ones who have to make the process

Martina Primus, Deputy Comptroller of Inland Revenue, is confident that even with its limited and stretched resources, the IRD can implement changes to enhance its operations and service. work. We are looking at our human resources, identifying areas for training and further development.”

New systems would have to be introduced and measurements for

Kelvin Pompey, Comptroller of Inland Revenue, confirmed that the IRD was currently under a process of reform aimed at improving its internal operations and its service to the public. accountability implemented and, according to Primus, change was continuous and they were looking to have a modern tax administration.

Even with the lack of certain resources, she said that she believes they will be able to achieve their goals and objectives. (DD)

Defence to provide expert gun evidence newspaper dated January 20, which What was disturbing, he argued, was highlighted a police that an electronic interview was news conference held donewith his clients on January 19, on January 18, 2017, but an exhibit tag which the during which the arresting officer told the Court he firearms, created after January 19, bears the ammunition, signature of Acting Commissioner of magazines and Police Renold Hadaway, and was masks were dated January 18, 2017. This, Connell displayed. He said said, was physically impossible. the police, The lawyer also noted that two recognizing that masks which were before the Court they were wrong, bore the initials R.H, though, the then sought to Acting COP was clear in his evidence, hastily patch up that he did not initial two ski masks. their mistakes, Connell further proffered that, if the that’s why there The public display of the weapons and ammunition discovered in the raid. were displayed for evidence was to be accepted, then were so many the media. there was no glock pistol before the inconsistencies and Court. He said Corporal King, a questions.

But Senior Prosecutor Adolphus both Judge and Jury. gazetted Firearms Expert, testified “This does not send a good signal for Delpleche in his response, said the The prosecutor also assessed the that glocks are made in Austria, while justice, this cannot be right. You do question the Court had to answer at questions raised about the exhibits as PC Chambers said the one before the not compromise the integrity of this stage was whether the exhibits being trivial. According to him, the Court was made in Italy. Connell exhibits, because you could were found at the defendants’ home important thing was that they were contended that there was nothing on compromise justice,” he argued, and and in their presence. On the examined and marked by the Firearms the gun to show that it was a glock, noted that seven of the nine exhibits evidence of Chambers, King and Expert, along with PC Chambers who adding that an incorrect number was were tainted.

Miller, they were, Delpleche posited. had taken them to him. initially quoted as the serial number of Connell described the situation as a “All of them said they were found on Delpleche reminded the Court that the submachine gun. That number travesty of justice. He lamented that a window ledge. The discrepancy is Sergeant Julian Caine was the only was subsequently amended at a what was before the Court was police whether the ledge is between the witness to have testified as a Firearms previous calling of the matter. confusion, not a case. burglar bar and the window,” he Expert. Other witnesses were also “If this is allowed to happen, what continued. qualified Firearms Experts, but did A travesty of justice else can police do in this country… call He admitted that King said that not give evidence in that capacity. it justice and get away?” he Chambers opened the window while “There is no travesty of Justice. It Connell said that when the couple questioned.

Chambers said the window was met might be the other way around. A had made their first Court appearance open, but described these as minor prima facie case is made out, and the on January 20, he showed the Court No travesty of justice inconsistencies for a jury to decide. In defendants ought to be put on their the front page of THE VINCENTIAN this case (summary), the Magistrate is defence,” he concluded.

Continued from Frontpage.

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4. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. THE VINCENTIAN

Courts

Student’s father respects Court’s decision charged with causing the death of laws, and there is a process when it comes to matters of this nature. the seven students, by an Inspector Hesran Ballantyne, the omission, were cleared of the So far, that process has taken its father of 13-year-old Simonique charges last Friday, March 31, course.”

Ballantyne, one of seven students after Chief Magistrate Rechanne Ballantyne said he and his who perished during the spineBrowne upheld no case family are thankful to those who chilling ‘Rock Gutter’ vehicular submissions by their lawyers have been praying for them and accident at Fancy, January 12, 2015, those who called from time to time Israel Bruce and Grant Connell says he respects the Court’s decision respectively. to find out how they were doing. to uphold no case submissions at the Simonique, Preliminary Inquiry (P.I.) into the the second of matter.

Ballantyne’s “The ruling of the Chief three children, Magistrate is based on the was a student of evidence before her, not what we the Georgetown Inspector believe or what we hear on the Secondary Hesran streets. What we hear on the School at the Ballantyne will streets is not evidence before the time of her have painful Court,” said Ballantyne, a veteran death. detective, currently second in Davanan memories but command of the Eastern Division.

Nanton and respects the DAVANAN NANTON, the driver of the minibus However, Ballantyne is satisfied Ehud Mayers decision of the involved in the January 12, 2015 Rock Gutter that, following the Coroner’s who were both court. vehicular accident which claimed the lives of seven students, has expressed remorse for what happened, and wants the family and relatives of those who perished to know that he loves them all.

The Fancy resident was speaking to THE VINCENTIAN, minutes after he and Ehud Myers, the conductor of the minibus and pastor of the Fancy Apostolic Faith Mission, the church which THE TRAFFIC DEPARTMENT of Providence said, the Henry Providence owned the vehicle, were freed on no case Department is looking the Royal St. Vincent and the of the Traffic submissions at the Serious Offences Court, last Grenadines Police Force forward to the coming on department of the Friday, March 31. Chief Magistrate Rechanne (RSVGPF) is calling on the public stream of the New Traffic Royal SVG Police Browne delivered the decision. to provide the police with any Act which will give the Force reiterated The two were charged on seven counts of information they may have, police the authority to deal that his Department manslaughter by omission. regarding incidents of reckless or with issues such as driving was being vigilant They were accused of, by an omission, causing under the influence of dangerous driving. in its effort to curb the death of Glenroy Michael, Jamal Edwards, “There are laws in place to deal alcohol and narcotic drugs, reckless and Jamalie Edwards, Anique Alexander, Racquel with this type of driving, and we and the playing of lewd dangerous driving.

Ashton, Shanstacia Stay and Simonique continue to be very vigilant in this and excessive music in Ballantyne, all students of various schools who regard,” Sergeant Henry vehicles, especially public service policemen had were occupants of the vehicle at the time of the their driver’s accident. To date, the bodies of Stay and Providence told THE vehicles.

Ballantyne have not been recovered.

VINCENTIAN last Friday, March When asked about the issue of licence suspended by the Commissioner of Police for When the prosecution rested its case at the delinquent police officers, 31. dangerous driving, pending the Preliminary Inquiry (PI) March 22, Attorney But he added that, “The police Providence assured, “One of the outcome of the charges brought Israel Bruce, representing Nanton, and Grant and the public have to work things we do at our Depart-ment Connell, representing Myers, submitted that there together to ensure that our roads is to clean up our backyard first.” against them.

“The Traffic Department is a was no evidence that the accused men caused the He noted that last year two are safe.” highly professional Department, death, by omission, of the seven students. In other words, there was no evidence to show that Nanton but there would always and Myers breached their duty of care for the be room for students, resulting in their death. improvement,” he Nanton told THE VINCENTIAN that it has admitted. been very hard for him since the tragedy. “I lost Two road fatalities even my friends,” he said as he shed tears. have been recorded here “I want to tell the nation and the families of so far for the year. the deceased, that I did nothing wrong. I am very sorry that we have lost the lives of children. I love them with all my heart. If there was anything at all I could have done to save them, God knows I would have done it,” the 37-year-old said, and called for peace, love and unity in the community.

“I have no hatred for anyone. We need not to be pulling and tugging against each other, but to love one another. I have always wanted to reach out to the families because I am a man of love.”

He expressed gratitude to all who have been praying, and urged them to continue to do so..

The charges against Nanton and Myers stemmed from an incident on January 12, 2015 at an area between Fancy and Owia called ‘Rock Gutter’. A minibus travelling from Fancy in the direction of Georgetown, and transporting primarily students, ran off the road and plunged into the sea.

Nanton and Myers were charged along with Colbert Bowens, at the time Principal of the Fancy Government School, and Assistant Pastor of Apostolic Faith Mission.

Accidents like this one However, before the start of the Preliminary could be avoided if Inquiry (PI) on May 4, 2016 Senior Prosecutor drivers practice proper Adolphus Delpleche informed the Court that the use of the roadways, prosecution was withdrawing the charges against including having regard Bowens. for other road users.

Stories by HAYDN HUGGINS

Inquest at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court, the correct decision was made to lay charges in the matter.

Notwithstanding the recent court developments and his sentiments, Ballantyne said that regardless of what decision the court makes, the end product could never heal the wounds. The painful memories of Rock Gutter will never go away.

He is calling on the Fancy community, especially those affected directly by the horrifying incident, to, “let us move forward in love, in an effort to have a united community.”

The experienced police officer added, “I know for a fact that there are some persons who are not satisfied with the outcome of the matter; but we are a country of

Police solicits information on reckless driving

Bus driver expresses love and remorse

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THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. 5.

Regional

Jamaica on high terrorist alert FOR THOSE WHO THINK the CARICOM region is immune from terrorist attack, the Jamaican government has a message for you.

elsewhere,” he said.

The National Security Minister also emphasised the importance of protecting the country’s borders, which he says is being done by the Passport Immigration and Citizenship Agency and immigration officers, who are doing a “phenomenal job.”

Trinidadian on terrorist list Following on the heels of the news of Jamaica’s stepped up security at its ports of entry, news broke that a Trinidadian Jamaica’s National Security (JIS) in a recent interview.

Minister Robert Montague said Montague is reported to have national — Shane Crawford — has been categorised by the last week that his country is on given the assurance as he USA as a global terrorist. constant alert for terrorists. alluded to the recent suspected Crawford, also known as Abu So much so, Jamaican case of terrorism at the British Sa’d at-Trinidadi, Asadullah, immigration and security Parliament in London, England, Shane Asadullah Crawford and officers at the country’s ports of on March 22.

Asad , is believed to be one of entry are using a watch list The Security Minister also provided by the international revealed that between last year close to 100 Trinidadian nationals/citizens who have criminal police organization and February this year, more (INTERPOL), as part of their than 412 travellers were denied joined ISIS, also known as the Islamic State (IS) group. daily routine. entry into the island.

Crawford made headlines “Our immigration officers are “These are persons whose across the region last year, on alert. We have the software names are on the watch list. when he admitted to killings in and backup systems to check There is intelligence, which his homeland, and made an passengers before they land, suggests that they were not open appeal to fellow nationals and when they land we’re cued coming for sun and sea alone, to wage a jihad (Holy War) in into Interpol,” the Minister told but for other things. Some may the twin-island republic. the Jamaica Information Service also have been in transit to go

An image of militants from Trinidad taken from IS’s Dabiq magazine.

Shane Crawford featured in IS’s Dabiq magazine under the name Abu Sa’ad alTrinidadi.

Robert Montague, Jamaica’s National Security Minister, gave the assurance that his government was taking the terrorist threat very seriously.

(Credit: jis.gov.jm) Crawford is “believed to be a foreign terrorist fighter in Syria carrying out terrorist activity on behalf of ISIS, including acting as an English language propagandist for the group,” the US State Department said.

He has, therefore, been declared a real threat to the security and safety of US nationals both home and abroad.

In the face of this announcement by the US government, the government of Trinidad and Tobago has since moved to freeze the assets of Crawford. (Source: jis.gov.jm and Caribbean 360)

Jamaica PM commends Grenada’s fiscal discipline THE DR. KEITH MITCHELL’S New National Party (NNP) government in Grenada, has come in for commendation by Andrew Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica.

Delivering the feature address at last week Sunday’s convention of the NNP, Holness praised Grenada’s fiscal discipline, as it implements a homegrown structural adjustment programme with the support of the

The NNP executive (pictured) had much to celebrate at last week Sunday’s convention.

International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Holness, said further, that reducing the debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio from 108 to 72 per cent in three years is a feat that has to be commended.

“From what I have read, and what has been reported, the Among those present at the fiscal discipline of NNP Convention was Political your government Leader of the NDP and Leader has been exemplary,” he of the Opposition Dr. Godwin told Dr. Mitchell Friday (foreground).

and the large gathering of NNP members and supporters.

The Jamaica Prime Minister also highlighted Grenad’s economic performance saying, “When we see that you are getting five per cent average growth — seven per cent on the high level — and this year it is reported that you will get 4.2 per cent, your economy is doing well and you should be proud.”

The structural adjustment programme, which was backed by the IMF’s Extended Credit Facility (ECC), has just

ended, with the international lending agency complimenting the government on turning the economy around and recognizing growth of 3.9 per cent with a projection of 2.5 in 2017.

The Jamaican leader said it is never easy for any country to go through a structural reform of its economy, but encouraged Grenada not to give up on those reforms.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell agreed that the country’s current economic success did not come on a whim, calling the lowering of the debt to

Grenada Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell (left front) and Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness (centre front) arrive at last week Sunday’s (March 26) NNP Convention. (Credit: CMC) GDP ratio a miracle.

“The growth that we have, did not come about just so. The payment of unpaid claims did not come about just so. It was the sacrifices of a lot of people; and the leadership of the team of the New National Party — your cabinet that you gave us – sisters and brothers.”

“And therefore, sisters and brothers, to move from 108 per cent Debt to GDP ratio to 72 per cent was miraculous,” Mitchell

told party supporters gathered at the St. Andrew’s Anglican Secondary School grounds.

Other regional politicians who attended the convention included Dr. Godwin Friday, political leader of the main opposition New Democratic Party of St Vincent and the Grenadines, and the deputy political leader of the ruling Team Unity of St Kitts and Nevis Jonel Powel. (Source: CMC)

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6. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. THE VINCENTIAN

Diaspora

Vincies walk for Penn Relays Brooklyn-based Club St. Vincent, Inc., at the expansive Marine Park kingnaking210@yahoo.com in the southern tip of US CORRESPONDENT Brooklyn.

“This is a wonderful THE RAIN HELD UP, after thing,” exclaimed James drenching New York Cordice, the mastermind almost non-stop for over of the Vincentian Penn 24 hours, and even though Relays initiative, who it remained cold and trekked from blustery, Vincentians Philadelphia to be part of braved the elements last the event.

Saturday April 1st) The untiring Cordice, morning to demonstrate a Clare Valley native and their fervent support for former president of the national athletes St. Vincent and the participating in this year’s Grenadines Organization Penn Relays. of Pennsylvania Over two dozen (SVGOP), disclosed that nationals, including, for he had returned from St. the first time, some Vincent and the members of the Grenadines a few days Brooklyn-based Garifuna before, where, among Indigenous People of St. other things, he Vincent and the witnessed the annual Grenadines (GIPSVG), Inter-Secondary Schools participated in the fund- Athletic Championship raising Walk-a-ton, at the Arnos Vale organized by the Sporting Complex.

Story and photo by NELSON A. KING naking@verizon.net;

“And I can assure you that the Thomas Saunders Secondary School (TSSS) and the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Grammar School (SVGGS) will be coming to the Penn Relays,” he affirmed.

TSSS was the only Vincentian secondary school to participate in the Penn Relays for the past six years.

Increased Vincy participation Cordice said, after several years of pleading for greater Vincentian secondary schools’ participation in the illustrious games, SVGGS, one of the nation’s older and elite secondary schools, has finally obliged.

The St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Vincentians assemble for photo-shoot after participating in Walk-a-ton at Marine Park in Brooklyn.

Community College (SVGCC) was also expected to participate in the Penn Relays for the first time this year, but that did not materialize, Cordice said.

Cordice said, for the first time, no female team will represent TSSS at the three-day carnival, from April 2729, at the Franklin Field Stadium, at the University of Pennsylvania in

Vincies in Montreal present bursaries IN ITS CONTINUING drive to assist Vincentian students and students of Vincentian heritage with their tertiary level studies, the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Association of Montreal Inc. recently presented bursaries to five such candidates.

The SVGAM used the occasion of its Annual Vincy brunch, held on Sunday 26th March, 2017, at Le Manoir 5319 (L-R): Keldon Brazil, Annabella Burke, Felicia Joseph-Thomas, Maurice N.D.G Ave. in Montreal, Conliffe (Bursary Committee Chairman), Chastitie Greaves, Kenisha to award the following: Sylvester-John and Alfred ‘Jack’ Dear (President- SVGAM Inc.).

Ms. Kenisha SylvesterJohn: the Kane and continuing and increased support to an abundance of Vincy dishes, Fetterly Bursary; Mr. Keldon Brazil: the Louise Jack -Richards from the business community and attendees enjoyed entertainment provided by Ms. Priscilla Findlay SVGAM members.

Bursary; Ms. Chastitie Greaves: and Mr. Dexter Johnson.

The Brunch, made possible the Alfie Roberts Bursary; Ms. Ms. Angela Gurley served as through the kind donations of Felicia Joseph- Thomas: the MC, and DJ Ricardo provided money, food and time of SVGAM Bursary; and Ms. Vincy music for what was members, was described by Annabella Burke: the Noel King President of SVGAM Alfred ‘Jack’ considered a “seamless event.”

Bursary.

In other SVGAM news, the According to a release from the Dear as another overwhelming Association through its President, success.

Association, the five bursaries assisted with making It was attended by over 200 were possible because of the arrangements for a town hall persons, meeting held in Monteal last comprised of week Friday.

SVGAM The meeting accommodated members, Minister of Tourism and Culture Vincentian Cecil Mc Kie, CEO of the SVG citizens and Tourism Authority Glen Beache, well-wishers, and Chairman of the Carnival the latter Development Corporation Ricardo reflecting Adams, who updated the people from gathering on developments in several SVG, and provided detailed Caribbean information on activities to mark states and (L-R): Glen Bleache, Minister Cecil McKie, and the 40th Anniversary of Vincy elsewhere.

Ricardo Adams at the Town Hall meeting in Mas. In addition Montreal. (Credit: Alfred ‘Jack’ Dear)

Philadelphia.

The girls had failed to attain the qualifying time in pre-game championships in the region. The SVGGS is an all-boys secondary school.

TSSS and SVGGS will compete in different categories in the 4x100 and 4x400m in the games. SVGGS will compete in the larger schools’ category, and the TSSS will compete in the smaller schools’ category, because of their respective student body, Cordice said.

“So, we’re looking for your support,” she told the gathering. “If you’re interested, please let us know.”

Three sisters from the DeShong family in Kingstown, the Vincentian capital — Yvette, Evelyn and Rosita — as well as Kingstown native Claudette ThomasButler, have, over the years, collaborated with COSAGO in conducting an annual fundraising Prayer Breakfast in September to assist Vincentian athletes at the Penn Relays.

The Walk-a-ton McDowald-Thompson The Penn Relays, the said the sisters and oldest and largest Thomas-Butler are referred to as “The collegiate athletic meet Friends of COSAGO.” in the United States, is celebrating its 123rd Ava Baptiste, a GIPSVG member, who year this month. hails from Owia, said her “I just want to group was delighted to commend Club St. participate in the WalkVincent, Inc. [one of the a-ton for the very first larger Vincentian cultural and educational time, and to support groups in the US] for the fellow villager, GIPSVG public relations officer, efforts [in hosting the fundraising Walk-a-ton],” Harley Stoddard.

Ancilla Friday, Club said Laverne McDowaldSt. Vincent, Inc.’s public Thompson, president of relations officer, also told the Brooklyn-based THE VINCENTIAN that Council of St. Vincent the group hoped to raise and the Grenadines’ at least US$3,000 from Organizations, U.S.A., the Walk-a-ton, a similar Inc. (COSAGO), the figure to last year’s. umbrella Vincentian “I’m thanking group in the US. everybody who came “We just want you to out,” said Grafton continue to do this,” added the Chateaubelair “Preem” Greaves, president of Club St. native, stating that a Vincent, Inc. in very fund has also been established by COSAGO terse remarks. “Hope to see you next year.” and SVGOP to assist After competing in the Vincentian athletes participating in the Penn Penn Relays on April 29, the Vincentian athletes Relays.

As it has done for the will be among supporters past six years, COSAGO and nationals at a gala reception in the evening will again this year organize a bus-load of at the Vincentian-owned Calabash Restaurant and nationals to take the at Catering House on least two-hour trip, on Lancaster Avenue in the last day of the Philadelphia. The games, Saturday, to cheer on the competing athletes and supporters will also participate in a Vincentian athletes, lavish brunch the next McDowald-Thompson day at the same venue. said.

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THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. 7.

News

LIAT wards off another threat

INDUSTRIAL ACTION BY LIAT employees across its regional market, has been averted.

This is the assurance given by St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, chairman of LIAT’s shareholder governments.

Dr. Gonsalves’ assurance came following a meeting convened in Barbados last Tuesday, involving shareholders, management personnel and trade union representatives of employees of the airline, including the Leeward Islands Airline Pilots Association (LIALPA).

The meeting was hastily convened after workers had threatened industrial action , following another five-month salary referral proposal (late payment of salaries) made by the airline’s management, in early March.

In fact, disruptions — delays and cancellations — had begun to set into LIAT’s schedule on the weekend, and the airline’s acting CEO, Julie ReiferJones, made a desperate call for the shareholders’ intervention, to ward off what was anticipated full-fledged industrial action by workers across the region.

LIAT workers stand firm The CEO’s call was hastened, it appeared, by indication from the Standing Regional Consultative Council of Trade Unions (SRCCTU), a grouping of Trade Unions representing employees from the various LIAT jurisdictions, that it was standing firm in its position against the recent fivemonth salary deferral proposal.

The 11-member SRCCTU, in a letter to management, had said that they “have adopted a position not to agree to any proposal until the company provides a recovery plan detailing how it will be able to return to a state of normalcy within the time frame indicated; present an overall business plan for the company; provide a comprehensive audit of the company, and hold a forum for unions, directors and shareholder governments to critically discuss the current state, and to engage in the creation of a plan for the way forward for the organisation.”

The unions also argued that in 2014, they participated in a salary deferral exercise, which was projected for five months, but lasted for 14, without any tangible results.

When the disruptions (last weekend) set in, LIALP moved quickly to declare, in a statement, that its members (pilots) had nothing to do with the cause of the disruptions.

This followed LIALPA’s

denouncement of the most recent salary deferral proposal, supporting its stance with a statement that said, among other things that, “… we will no longer subsidise the incompetence of management.”

The pilots went one step further and expressed the hope that the Shareholders will “make the only decision that will save LIAT… (to) remove the existing management.”

According to the pilots (LIALPA), “When a company cannot pay salaries on time, then management must accept that they have failed, and they should be removed by the Board of Directors or Shareholders they represent.”

Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, PM of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Chairman of LIAT’s Shareholder Governments grouping, has had to intervene, not for the first time, to address disputes that are typically administrative/management responsibilities.

Left: Julie Reifer-Jones, Acting CEO/LIAT, may have, because of the uncertainty of her position, called for help from the shareholders in averting the latest threat of industrial action by the airline’s employees.

Salaries this month, but ….

But while Tuesday’s meeting recognised that there were more fundamental problems that needed to be addressed going forward, as far as the immediate issue of the salary deferral was concerned, Dr. Gonsalves told reporters on Tuesday, “I think that instructions have gone to the bank for the payments, so, depends on which bank you are in, some persons would get paid tomorrow or the next day.”

He cautioned, though, that there was no guarantee that the airline would not be late with salaries again soon.

And even as Dr. Gonsalves accepted that the issue of salaries was an important one, he pointed to the need to have “several practical questions” addressed, “which are of concern to the staff and the travelling public by extension.”

Towards this end, the Chairman informed that with the intention of addressing these “practical questions,” plans had been drafted for the establishment of a technical committee, to formulate a medium term development plan for the struggling airline.

“What we decided on the way forward is that I would liaise with the president of the Caribbean Development Bank [CDB], who would name someone to draw up terms of reference for a technical committee to study a series of issues affecting operations of LIAT. “This would be fed into a task force appointed by the shareholders, and that task force would hold consultations with all of the relevant stakeholders,” Gonsalves said.

The technical committee and task force are expected to be set up after Easter Monday, and it is anticipated that reports of all the technical and consultative work with which the committee will be tasked, would be ready for submission to LIAT’s shareholder in three months.

LIAT, dubbed ‘The Caribbean’s Airline’, has been plagued with a series of setbacks in recent times, not least being a fleet reduction from 18 to 10; cut backs on flight crew; losses

incurred with the removal of some routes that have since been taken over by competitors; a rapid turnover in top management position and insufficient capitalisation.

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8. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. 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 again!

DOES ANYONE remember an Irish chap named R. Mark Darby? No? Mark Darby was the CEO of LIAT from 2006 until 2009. He had come to the position, highly recommended.

His mandate: to transform “a bankrupt and inefficient regional airline” that was losing EC$80 million a year, and not “to come back for more cash.”

January 2007, Darby proposed a merger with Allen Stanford’s Caribbean Star Airlines, LIAT’s main competition in the regional market. However, the major shareholder governments at the time Barbados, Antigua and St. Vincent and the Grenadines — in their wisdom, gave the go-ahead (instead) to buy out Caribbean Star instead. LIAT did so and an the ‘weight’ of an additional five (Caribbean Star) Bombardier Dash 8-300 aircraft were transferred to LIAT. The information contained in the previous two paragraphs are recorded in the records of the case file, ‘LIAT and former CEO settle termination issues’.

Let’s cut to the chase. Darby was dismissed from LIAT in April 2009, over a dispute surrounding his decision to compensate (US$375US$750 a month) some LIAT workers “for going beyond the call of duty.”

The Board of Directors claimed he had acted above his authority and dismissed him.

Darby sued successfully for unfair dismissal. The matter, in fact, was settled out of court, so to speak. Both sides agreed to withdraw their high court suits, leaving the details of the agreement sealed up to this day.

The court matter now out of the way, Darby gave an interview to Flight Global, a leading airline industry website.

In part off that interview, he alluded to “the lack of focus of the shareholder governments and the board of management as major stumbling blocks to the regional airline moving to higher heights”. He raised concern about three governments owning the airline, which involved conflicting agendas. This, he said, was compounded by “by weak corporate governance,….which operated more like a government department. …

Board members got themselves involved in operational areas.. .”

Since Darby, LIAT has had two contracted CEOs — Captain Ian Brunton and David Evans; one interim CEO, Brian Challenger, and an acting CEO, Julie Reiffer-Jones.

This backdrop of musical chairs at the top, is instructive to LIAT’s current challenge. (And the Lord knows that if LIAT were to have a

middle name it would be ‘Challenges’) The latest saga involving the airline’s proposal of another fivemonth salary deferral system (simply put a late payment scheme), has been met with expected disapproval by the airlines employees across the region.

Trouble brews and the acting CEO calls for help (intervention) from the shareholder governments?

Is there truth in Darby’s assessment?

We cannot, every Monday morning when another batch of bad tasting coffee is brewed in LIAT and it meets with disapproval, that the principal shareholder governments (i.e. PM’s of Antigua, Barbados, Dominica and SVG) are summoned from their otherwise busy schedules of running their respective countries, to attend to a management problem. Yet, those PM’s have agreed to intervene.

Time to smell the ill-brewed coffee and get down to brewing something that taste and smells better.

In the face of blatant reluctance by other Caribbean governments to invest in LIAT given the airline’s business model and ownership structure, ongoing industrial challenges, a still displeasing services across the board, it is time to think outside the box.

Airlines (e.g. BA, Kenya Airways) once owned by governments, have been privatised successfully in recent years.

After decades of modeling itself so that it adheres to a role of maintaining socio-economic cohesion in the region, LIAT has not proved that on its own, it can achieve this and stay financially afloat.

Time, therefore, for a new direction.

This column has before advanced the option of a single regional airline.

What of a possible merger initially between LIAT and Caribbean Airlines?

Admittedly these are two loss-making airlines, but a configuration that mergers the two might just create an airline with a business model and ownership structure that can successfully address the social responsibility with making a profit (e.g. the merger of Air France and KLM).

And if not CAL, has any thought, as extreme as it might sound, been given to say a collaboration with one of the non-regional airlines that have creep successfully into the Caribbean market?

How much longer can we afford to be mired in LIAT’s operational and financial chaos?

Enough distress has been wrought on the region. Time that we accept there is need for a radical change and not simply a new CEO.

Heritage month and recent deaths I WAS PLEASED beyond measure when I read several columnists with three weekly papers that treated adequately some serious topics of which priority naturally fell to appraising St Lucian and Caribbean Nobel Laurette Derek Walcott who passed away at 87 years old.

Adrian Fraser even reminded that tiny St. Lucia had produced two Nobel Prize Winners including Sir Arthur Lewis, testifying that small size was not a hindrance for first-class quality.

Walcott started his dream as a 14year-old school boy. I certainly recall that at 18 years he produced a fantastic poem “Death of a city by fire”, that dealt with the Castries fire of 1948.

Camie King, my contemporary man of letters, won a national prize in Jamaica for a brilliant piece on Walcott while we were students at UWI in 1963.

Camie was also twice a victor ludorum at the Grammar School. As undergraduate staff subsequently we published a magazine, ‘Horizon’ which featured on its four covers: Maurice King, Shake Keane, Cecil Cyrus and Elwyn Iton - a quartet of promising Vincentians.

Shake Keane went on to attain international fame as a poet and fugelhorn jazz player. Maurice King was, at the time, rated second in the Commonwealth weight lifter of the middle class. Today he is cared for at a private institution.

A member of the team of writers of ‘Horizon’, the brilliant Joan Dellimore, died in the USA about a year ago, unsung in her homeland.

From the USA, we read of the funeral of our Sam Debique who had been, among other accomplishments, a sterling performer in soccer where it all started in SVG with his captaincy of Notre Dame.

His brother Raymond was arguably one of the greatest full-backs for the local team Juniors, skippered by Carlton Horne, better known as ‘Red Irons’.

All this information was sweetly passed on by the Eulogist at Sam’s funeral, my life-long friend Paddy Corea, who is our people’s ambassador in the USA. Paddy bears an aggressive and unrelenting love for the rock, and was challenged over the years by two events: Mitchell’s turning the beautiful market square ambience into an ugly Commercial Centre, and Ralph’s whole-sale alienation of land to foreigners, including the Grenadines and Paddy’s patrimony in particular, his beloved Canouan! God’s sea is now protected from the native peril!

To return to Carlton Horne. He is something else. I cannot think of anyone as knowledgeable of the history of politics, sport, and the Grammar School

(which Carlton never attended) seventy years, as Carlton. Ask Andrew Cummings!

That is why about four years ago, I implored a certain radio personality to try and arrange sessions with a team of Carlton, Maurice Lee, George Howard, and myself, to discuss a useful outline of these matters on which interested experts can then work to present a credible version, to start with. It is perhaps too late now, death and alzheimer have done their work, and we too have to call it George, as it were.

In the general field of music, we have suffered two telling blows. First to go was Roland Sardine, a man who appeared difficult to approach, but was actually a very warm and generous person. And more recently, Sam Browne has gone home, taking with him that unforgettable stentorian voice especially suited for dirges and negro spirituals.

Sardine also brought back memories of my classmate at Wesleyan School and BGS, the incomparable Leslie “Monk” Waldron, player of class and supreme master of the keyboard. Leslie passed away a few months ago. I remembered him as a school-boy at Wesley Hall, as a mate at BGS who broke records in the Class 1V 80 and 150 yard races, and later became island champion in table-tennis in his 20s. Leslie, an accomplished player of jazz, toured Europe and returned home in his 60s playing jazz at restaurants on the mainland, but especially in the Grenadines.

Leslie played and lived hard. His health deteriorated, he lost his eyesight and even his shattered nerves. He died lonely and unregretted.

Today, Wednesday March 5th I have just received news of the death of my great friend Carlton Horne and Eardley Baisden, whose home I frequented during my boyhood.

On Saturday next, I hope to travel to Sandy Bay to attend the funeral of Ermine Nero, who had been the first house-helper of my parents when I was a toddler. Ermine Carib, as she was called, in 1942 earned the princely sum of $2.00 per month! She died 93 years old. I last blessed my eyes on her two years ago while returning home after participating in the sad mass burial of five of seven students who perished in the Rock Gutter tragedy. One of the bodies not found was that of Chanstasia Stay, a blood relative of my mother, who had been a childrefugee of Soufriere eruption in 1902.

And so the story unfolds.

V Men are being abused too

THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. 9.

Letters

SOMEHOW, Mr. Editor, your editorial of last week got me thinking along a certain line.

While I accept that there is still too much abuse of our women and children, let us not forget that men too are being abused and maligned.

So often I hear and read advertisements of some seminar or conference that would be

Quick thoughts on our national security ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES is, admittedly, a chain of open islands with many bays and inlets.

In a sense, therefore, it is a perfect location for funding and launching acts of terrorism. This does not mean that we should put our hands up in surrender.

Our coast guard and police force need our fullest support.

But, why is it that there remains such inappropriate security at our two main sea ports? How are we ever going to control the entry of illegal firearms and ammunition when security at our two main ports is so lacking?

One of the biggest loopholes is the manner in which passes are issued for entry to the port. The distance between where the passes are handed out and the port is simply too wide. It is a vacuum asking to be breached.

A recent one —week security workshop held here is a complete fiasco.

National security is a vast and demanding field that must be adequately and regularly funded and upgraded.

Kadmiel Mc Fee

addressing the issue of women and child abuse.

At the end of the discussion, we always hear about the need for counselling of these women and children, by whom I don’t know.

Sorry to say, but sometimes I believe all these seminars and conferences are heading down the wrong road, assuming that men, because they are ‘misguided and unfocused,’ are the

source of the problems that women and children have.

You see, Mr. Editor, men often undergo abuse from women, too, and what happens is that the abuse — like blackmail and a good tongue lashing - that men get, are played out by the actions of the men against women and children. The thing is that the men respond to abuse in different ways from how the women

respond. Men might stay away from home for as long as they can because of this abuse. You see, women’s words can be so heart-breaking that men try to avoid hearing them by staying at the bar or rum shop or anywhere other than home.

Then there are those men who decide they are not backing down from their women, and the confrontation might end up in something tragic.

Thanks Starlift MY THANKS to the Starlift Steel Orchestra for eventually honouring Walton ‘Tanny’ Peters in a special way. Growing up in Kingstown and not too far away from a pan side, I always heard the name ‘Tanny’ Peters spoken about, as far as steelband in SVG was concerned. As a matter of fact, in the early days of Starlift, it was always a case of the other bands wanting to beat ‘Tanny’.

I know there were others who worked with ‘Tanny’ to establish Starlift, but there is no offence meant to these other fellows when I say that it has always been my understanding that ‘Tanny’ was the soul of Starlift.

Nice to read too that the man was

rcognised for his work with some of the leading calypsonians of the day, not least being the great Professor.

Who can ever forget ‘Body Confusion’, ‘De Iron man Come Down’, ‘I am a King’, just a to name a few.

When the real history of steelband and calypso in SVG is written, the name Walton ‘Tanny’ Peters will have a special place. Starlift must ensure that that happens.

And by the way, congrats to Starlift on attaining the milestones of 50 years. When anything can last that long in SVG, it must be celebrated.

Play on, Starlift.

Garnet, NY

Turning off the FLOW WHEN I COMPLAINED about poor cable TV reception and sporadic outages or irregular telephone service, the FLOW technician dispatched indicated I should just turn on the cable box and leave it on, and never sign off the broadband modem.

Getting back on could take hours and be a problem. The telephone problem was diagnosed as a water problem in the ground where their cable links to my house;

if it persists, they will have to replace the cable.

Huh? Why not replace it now, before it rains again?

A number of my acquaintances and associates in Camden Park, and other parts of the island as well, have complained to me of telephone outages lasting for days, and their children not being able to make internet connections, and thus not completing homework assignments,

or being kicked off the internet regularly.

Congratulations to FLOW on one year of deteriorating service and overall poor performance.

Must we look forward to the same in the future?

I AM: Fed up and switching to Digicel and Satellite TV. Customer

I am not supporting abuse by anybody — man or woman. All I am saying is that we have to strike a balance in how we approach this issue about the relationship between men and women.

We have to organise seminars that address helping men to find their right place in society.

That is why we must recognise the Project Men effort, even if it is organised by churches.

Randy B.

Mini-buses and the Cane Garden route WHEN IT WAS announced some time ago that mini-buses will be allowed to use the Cane Garden road to exit Kingstown, we were told that this was a measure that will be reviewed.

It has been almost a year since that measure was put in place, and I, subject to corrections, have not heard of any move to review the practice. What I know, for a fact, is that mini-buses continue to use the Cane Garden Road, on mornings and at rush hour in the afternoon.

There has been no end of worry for us more sedate users of that route since it was open to minibuses. Count the number of accidents. Count the number of times motorists have had to ‘take refuge’ in the drains, just to avoid a collision with a minibus.

In addition to the speeds at which these minibuses use the Cane Garden route, there is the increased noise level caused by the music systems that the buses carry.

I am not saying that some road users have more right than others, but it must be a case of equal right across the board, and the more important issue of safety.

Time to review this measure, Mr Traffic Department, before something terrible happens.

Cane Garden resident

V

10. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. THE VINCENTIAN

Views

Negativism and the Sixteen years of hardship and suffering road to perdition

Introduction THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE’S current longest serving Head of Government, continuously, Dr. The Honourable Ralph E. Gonsalves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, has often used the phrase “learned helplessness” to describe the pernicious negativism of several commentators of Caribbean politics and economics, who clothe their commentaries and opinions in the garb of respectable learning. Comrade Ralph, as he is popularly known, is not the originator of the phrase “learned helplessness”; he has told us more than once that he has borrowed the apt description from a book entitled Up the Down Escalator authored by a British intellectual, Charles Leadbeater. Apt, indeed, given the mountain of negativism emanating from high and low professionals in our region. Nowhere is this negativism more pronounced than on matters relating to St. Vincent and the Grenadines from Ralph-haters, opponents of the ULP government, cynical “enemies” of the people and progress.

Comrade Ralph has memorably put it, seeking to be transformed from the status of “internet crazies” to “Your Excellencies” in diplomatic postings.

Others just cannot help parading their ignorance to the world-at-large.

In any event, they all source their bile from the sewer of negativism and defamation. From one locale of Twitter and Facebook, which locale constitutes the gutters, they spout vitriol at uninterested passers-by.

Learned helplessness

Given the virtual termination of the UK market preferences, our bananas, which the government actively promotes agricultural diversification, the mindless critics scream that St. Vincent would never be competitive, in price and quality, for agricultural produce, without subsidy. An international airport is built as a necessary pre-requisite for The developmental narrative tourism development, the negative ones proclaim that tourism The ULP government, principally opportunities are viable only in the through Comrade Ralph, has Grenadines, not on St. Vincent. The articulated a compelling facilitation of the development of four developmental narrative, a medical schools, the eternal apostles comprehensive National Economic and Social Development Plan (2013 — of “learned helplessness” declare that St. Vincent and the Grenadines has 2025), numerous sectoral and issuemissed the boat in this regard and all specific plans, and detailed policies and programmes. Indeed, there is no that remains for us is “scraps” from previous government in the history of the table. And on and on the negative St. Vincent and the Grenadines which carping goes. This is the road to has so detailed its vision, philosophy, perdition.

These are the very people, who on over-arching economic strategy and all spurious grounds, opposed the programmatic platform as thoroughly Argyle International Airport, the as has the ULP administrative, 2001 to 2017, and continuing. In fact, there Canouan Jet Airport, the Rabacca Bridge, the Education Revolution, the are no credible alternative Housing Revolution, the Health and developmental narrative, strategies, Wellness Revolution, the efforts to policies, and programmes on offer. reduce poverty and indigence, hotel There is thus no “main event” focus by development at Buccama and Mt. the critics; their emphasis is Wynne/Peter’s Hope, our effective and invariably on insubstantial sideprogressive foreign policy, the shows.

Geothermal Project, the Disaster Management project, and other The negativism unnameable programmatic initiatives.

These are the same people, too, who The side-show offerings include oppose the Modern Port Development perpetual negativism on any Project, the borrowing of monies from economic, political or social initiative the Middle East for the road rehab designed to uplift the people’s programme and the city at Arnos livelihood and way of living; untruths Vale. and commess; tittle-tattle and These backward people have no innuendoes, “fake” news and vision. I advise Ralph and the ULP vainglory. Invariably, all of this is government to proceed, as always, to pursued with venom by persons who implement their mandate. The bulk of are possessed of personal agendas the country is absolutely fed up with driven by egos in quest of righting negativism and learned helplessness. imagined wrongs to them personally Let’s not look forward to the past. or of advancing their personal career Opposition Leader Friday is and other interests through a new yesterday’s man with day-beforegovernment. yesterday ideas. His key supporters It is all so sad and sickening to are an embarrassment; they are witness their demeaning of public puerile and stupid. discourse and the abusing of freedom Let’s look enthusiastically to a on the internet. Some are, as promising future under the ULP.

THE UNITY LABOUR PARTY (ULP) has been the worst political party to govern St. Vincent and the Grenadines since conquest and settlement. Its mismanagement of the country’s economy has created severe hardship for the poor and working class.

Victimization and corruption characterize its sixteen (16) years in government. Only the ULP’s members and bigwigs can truly celebrate its sixteenth year in power.

During the seventeen (17) years of the New Democratic Party (NDP) government, the economy was booming to the extent that the International Monetary Fund, in one of its assessments of the country’s economy, said that there was much to please and little to fault. Most Vincentians were doing well. There was a vibrant middle class; businesses were expanding rapidly; employment was at an all time high; tourism was on the rise; agriculture was the main foreign exchange earner; the financial sector was growing, and most Vincentians enjoyed an improved standard of living.

Then in 2000, there was the ‘Road Block Revolution’ and in 2001, the ULP was voted into power. Since then, St. Vincent and the Grenadines has taken a turn for the worse. The economy has been in shambles, the national debt has increased from $500 million to $1.6 billion, and Vincentians have grown accustomed to negative growth and deficit budgets. As a result, there is an increase of unemployment, a record number of businesses have closed their doors and/or downsized, and the middle class has disappeared. As a result, most Vincentians are experiencing severe hardship about which they have never dreamt.

The ULP regime is riddled with allegations of corruption. For instance, in the Ministry of Health, the Director of Audit found that officials managing the Cuban Integrated Health Project bought computer supplies and fast food, and paid monies to the International Airport Development Company (IADC, contrary to government policy. In the Ministry of Agriculture, under the Agriculture Diversification Project, microphone cable was imported at a cost of US $12.14, ($EC32.73) and was sold to the ministry for EC$1499.76, (US$555.46). In the Ministry of Tourism, a senior government official was (is?) involved in a company that was formed to market and promote tourism in this country. In addition, the Audit Report of 2009 and 2010 revealed that at the Mission in Canada, the passport account recorded, a balance of CDN$21,400.66, of which (CDN$5000.00 was withdrawn and deposited into the consulate’s account, yet approval for the withdrawal could not be ascertained. And who could forget the $1 million deposited at the former National Commercial Bank?

Similarly, at the New York Consulate, $8,160.00, representing cost and interest charges paid on behalf of Senior Government Officials, was not reimbursed to the consulate office at the time of the audits. Also, monies collected to defray the cost for postage of passport documents for individuals, were deposited in the consulate’s bank account, and the expenditure incurred for postage of passports to and from St. Vincent and the Grenadines was charged to the

consulate’s communication expenses account, and cleared from the consulate’s advance account.

Vincentians were concerned about those developments. Most Vincentians believe that concerns raised at our consulate in New York about passports, led to the dismissal of the former Deputy Consul General, although the government claimed that he did nothing wrong. And presently, Vincentians are questioning the duty free concession that was given to the company of which the Prime Minister’s wife is part.

Moreover, in its quest to make most Vincentians poorer and to make them dependent on the government so that they can control their votes at election time, the ULP regime deliberately set about to destroy the agricultural sector, more so the banana industry. The first step that was taken by the ULP administration was to take control of the Banana Growers Association - an association which the farmers managed for over fifty years. As if that was not enough punishment to inflict on the poor and hard-working farmers, a vindictive ULP regime then removed the credit system available to farmers. This made it extremely difficult for farmers to purchase fertilizer and other inputs so as to produce the desired quality fruits for export. Those policies by the government had a negative effect on the industry, and led directly to its demise. Thanks to an insensitive ULP administration!

Crime is spiraling out of control. In 2016, this country saw a record number of homicides, although the ULP promised as early as 2001, that they would have been tough on crime and the causes of crime.

Victimization is the order of the day. Early in the life of the ULP administration, over six hundred workers were dismissed from their jobs. The entire management team of VINLEC was fired; Leon ‘Bigger Biggs’ Samuel was forced to close his multimillion dollar business which employed scores of Vincentians; and hundreds of employees are denied promotions and appointments in the public sector because of their perceived party affiliation.

Furthermore, the government’s inability to attract reputable foreign investors, the failure to develop effective economic policies, and the negative approach to private sector development have created serious problems for the ULP administration and the country as a whole.

Therefore, government’s revenue is generated mainly from taxes.

Vincentians have been taxed heavily, and in most people’s opinion, we are over- taxed. We cannot tax our way to economic prosperity.

The ULP regime has failed Vincentians. They have exhausted all the ideas, and their leader is tired.

For sixteen (16) years, they have failed to develop and implement any viable economic programme that would have created sustainable jobs, generate economic growth and develop this country. The NDP has the better team and programme and policies that will create economic growth and development, and put Vincentians back to work as we move forward together as ‘One nation, one people, one Vincy’.

V

THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. 11.

Views

Faith to let go

“Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.” Pauline “Eppie” Lederer née Friedman (1918 - 2002). Better known by the pen name Ann Landers, an American advice columnist and eventually a nationwide media celebrity

Nicole Sobon reminds us that, “Sometimes the hardest part isn’t letting go but rather learning to start over.” This may often appear to be “easier said than done,” as is the case when we may have invested a significant amount of time and money in a relationship or investment.

However, sometimes our analysis of SOMETIMES WE DO need to exhibit a the situation leaves us clearly tremendous amount of faith to hold on understanding that it is a useless when things are rough; when life’s exercise to continue to exert effort and challenges shake us to the core. energy in a lost cause. We often know However, there are times when we also when it is time to get out — to call it need to conjure up faith to let go; when we know that a situation is fruitless and quits. It is then that we need to conjure up the self-confidence (and the outcome doomed for failure. Too faith in God for those who believe) and many persons exist in and create a move on, knowing that the beautiful tremendous amount of misery because journey of today can only begin when they are afraid of letting go. They we learn to let go of yesterday. In continue to be unhappy in a caustic terms of letting go of a relationship, relationship, accept physical and emotional abuse, work on jobs that they Steve Maraboli reminds us that, “Letting go means to come to the hate, hang out with persons that they realization that some people are a part despise (or who despise them), and so on. We often wonder why they remain in of your history, but not part of your destiny.” such emotionally charged and unhappy The story is told of a young man situations for so long. We are baffled to who was taking a journey to a faraway note that they appear like zombies and town where he intended to wed his are immobile, even when their “prison fiancée shortly after getting there. His doors” are open and they have an plan was to walk through the night. opportunity to exit. Why do they stay However, he lost his footing while shackled? What is holding them back? trekking along a rain-drenched path Sometimes they lack the faith to let go. during the wee hours of the morning.

There are times in our lives when things will go wrong; relationships will In his desperation, as he was slipping down the slippery slope, he reached falter and fail; investments will go out and grabbed at a slender brush. “belly-up”; accidents will happen; diseases will invade our bodies; we get Fearing the likely hurt that he will laid off from the job, and so on. Many feel should he fall, he cried out for help. A hermit who lived in the area of these situations demand that we saw the young man’s dilemma and conjure up the will to go on. Like a beckoned him to let go. The traveller vibrant fish, we are often required to refused to do so; imagining the worst swim upstream. We will know when that extra effort and energy is needed and holding on for his dear life. As the sun rose over the nearby mountain, to keep our heads above water. dispelling the darkness, the young However, there are sometimes when man ventured to look below. It was there are clear indications that our then that he discovered that there was efforts will be futile; that we need to a solid ledge of rock just six inches cut our losses and be prepared for below where his feet were dangling in change (and the trauma that often search of support. Had he followed the accompanies it).

Letting go is not always easy to do. voice that had beckoned him to let go, he would have saved himself hours of We sometimes have major challenges needless panic. determining whether it is more Sometimes letting go takes so much valuable to hold on. These are often faith — especially when the possibilities not easy choices. This is especially so appear to be very uncertain or bleak. when we are in a relationship that We can be emotionally tied to involves children. We may ponder someone, or something, or some habit whether it is in the children’s best that we know is bad for us. We know interest to go or to stay. Another (beyond the shadow of a doubt) that common scenario revolves around the person or the situation is toxic. being employed in a job that is not We have no reservations that the fulfilling and/or where there is situation is destructive. And yet, we hostility and resentment among staff. hold on. Why? We can find multiple However, there are bills to be paid or excuses. Fear of what people will say. the traumatised employee may not have an alternate job available, or may Fear of the unknown. Fear of what life will be without the individual or be close to retirement. Should they remain or should they take the risk of the situation. But faith can overcome fear. Our challenge is to develop a leaving? These are difficult choices. spirit of discernment to know if/when There is no stereotypical answer; no it is time to let go … and the courage single response can fit these to do so. With renewed faith, we can situations. Those individuals who accept life’s challenges and have faith in God and the power of disappointments. Sometimes the faith prayer, can find some degree of to let go, to close a door on one of life’s comfort having sought guidance chapters, can be the faith that opens a through prayer. However, even in such situations, there is good cause to new door to a better chapter in our lives. Oh, for faith to let go! be concerned about the likely fall out.

Some consequences can be most Send comments, criticisms & traumatic. It is often quite suggestions to challenging to contemplate starting julesferdinand@gmail.com over.

You can’t half jump a chasm ONE OF MY FAVOURITE MEN of letters, the Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, died on April 1, 2017 in Tulsa Oklahoma in the United States. He was born in Soviet Union and wrote some of his best poems during the tail end of Stalin’s reign, blossomed during the thaw led by Nikita Khrushchev, and was celebrated during the openness brought on by the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Ten years ago, I accidentally met Yevtushenko when I read his breath taking poem Half Measures. Half Measures had a lot of meaning to me and resonated deep in my soul. I adopted it as one of my columns then and I reprint it here because of its continued relevance.

Half Measures Half measures can kill when, chafing at the bit in terror, we twitch our ears, all lathered in foam, on the brink of precipices, because we can’t jump halfway across.

Blind is the one who only half sees the chasm.

Don’t half recoil lost in broad daylight, half rebel, half suppressor of the half insurrection you gave birth to!

With every halfeffective half measure half the people remain half pleased.

The half sated are half hungry The half free are half enslaved.

We are half

afraid, halfway on a rampage . . .

A bit of this, yet also half of that party-line weak-willed “Robin Hood” who half goes to a half execution.

Opposition has lost its resolution By swashbuckling jabs with a flimsy sword you cannot be half a guard for the cardinal and half a king’s musketeer.

Can there be with honour a half motherland and a half conscience?

Half freedom is perilous, and saving the motherland halfway will fail.

Yevtushenko, like most literary, cultural or musical, or sporting personalities, of high calibre, are complicated beings. Therefore I offer what others thought of this outstanding poet, if only to give balance in our search for truth.

It has been asserted that “Yevtushenko’s politics have always been a complicated mixture of bravery, populism, and vulgar accommodation with dictatorship.” Judith Colp of The Washington Times, for example, described Yevtushenko as “his country’s most controversial modern poet, a man whose reputation is poised between courageous behind-the-scenes reformer and failed dissident.” Indeed, “as the Sovietologist and literary critic Robert Conquest put it in a 1974 profile: ‘The writers who had briefly flourished [under Khrushchev’s thaw] went two different ways. Solzhenitsyn and his like into silenced opposition; Yevtushenko and his like, sometimes reluctantly, sometimes in the hope of still influencing matters a little, into well-rewarded collaboration.’

Some argue that before the appearance of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Andrei Sakharov, and the dissident movement in the Soviet Union, Yevtushenko, through his poetry, was the first voice to speak out against Stalinism (although Boris Pasternak is often considered “to have helped give birth to the dissident movement with the publication of his Doctor Zhivago). Colp adds:

“Sovietologist Stephen Cohen of Princeton University contends that Yevtushenko was among those Soviets who didn’t become dissidents but in their own way tried to improve conditions and prepare the way for reform, [saying that] ‘They exhibited a kind of civic courage that many Americans didn’t recognize.’” Kevin O’Connor, in his Intellectuals and Apparatchiks, noted that Yevtushenko was “a popular liberal who never experienced the sort of intimidation that characterized regime’s treatment of dissident writers Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Vladimir Voinovich.”

Brodsky repeatedly criticised Yevtushenko for what he perceived as his “conformism”, especially after the latter was made a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Commenting on this controversy in A Night in the Nabokov Hotel, an anthology of Russian poetry in English translation, Anatoly Kudryavitsky wrote the following: “A few Russian poets enjoyed virtual popstar status, unthinkable if transposed to other parts of Europe. In reality, they were far from any sort of protest against Soviet totalitarianism and therefore could not be regarded as anything else but naughty children of the regime.”

Furthermore, some criticized Yevtushenko regarding Pasternak’s widow, given that “when Pasternak’s widow, Olga Ivinskaya, was imprisoned on trumped-up charges of illegally dealing in foreign currency, Yevtushenko publicly maligned her [and added] that Doctor Zhivago was not worth publishing in the Soviet Union.”

Moreover, “the poet Irina Ratushinskaya, upon her release from prison and arrival in the West, dismissed Yevtushenko as an official poet and the novelist Vasily Aksyonov has also refused contact [with Yevtushenko].” Responding to the criticism, Yevtushenko reportedly said: Who could sanction me to write Babi Yar, or my protests against the (1968) Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia? Only I criticised Khrushchev to his face; not even Solzhenitsyn did that. It is only the envy of people who couldn’t stand against the propaganda machine, and they invented things about my generation, the artists of the ‘60s. Our generation was breaking the Iron Curtain. It was a generation crippled by history, and most of our dreams were doomed to be unfulfilled — but the fight for freedom was not in vain.

Yevtushenko further notes that “in several cases [he] personally rose to the defense of these writers, interceding privately for Ratushinskaya’s release from prison, defending Mr. Aksionov and others who were expelled from the Writers’ Union.”

Critics differ on the stature of Yevtushenko in the literature world, with “most Western intellectuals and many Russian scholars extol[ing] him as the greatest writer of his generation, the voice of Soviet life.” They “acknowledge that his speaking tours have won him converts among audiences impressed with his dramatic readings and charismatic personality.

Tina Tupikina Glaessner (1967) refers to him as “one of the greatest poets of the modern age.” She states that “Bratsk Station” offers the greatest insight into Soviet life of any work in modern Russian literature. Two decades later, in his 1988 article, Michael Pursglove echoes her sentiments, referring to Stanciya Zima as “one of the landmarks of Soviet literature.”

Only he who does nothing avoids criticism.

Send comments, criticisms & suggestions to jomosanga@gmail.com

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12. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. THE VINCENTIAN

Views

No hope for SVG under Gonsalves

problems too. Liat is in a financial mess, and so is the SVG economy.

They both lack cash flow. Is there no limit to the financial incompetence?

When the ULP regime produces fiscal deficits for 17 years, we know ACCORDING to the Leader of SVG Green Economics, Budgeting, Planning and the stupidity of the focus on tourism.

Party, Warrant Officer Ivan O’Neal, BSc Policy from Bradford University, All over the Caribbean, countries focus that it is financially incompetent and unable to manage the public accounts (Hons) MSc, MBA, the ULP regime’s 17England; and a Master’s in Business on tourism, and all are struggling. year term in office has been a failure, as Administration from Leicester Financial and economic profiling is prudently. Gonsalves should do the honourable thing and resign as SVG there is a serious lack of cash flow in our University, England. needed in SVG to create a thorough Minister of Finance. Our country country. Gonsalves is financially According to Warrant Officer Ivan knowledge map of our country’s incompetent.

O’Neal the lack of cash flow is the core profitability sectors. It is vital to know, needs cash flow.

When it comes to finance, Gonsalves The lack of cash flow is killing our cause of the almost dead SVG in detail, where the stimulus is needed is like a carpenter doing the work of a economy and killing SVG businesses. economy. The SVG economy is in its to create the cash flow our country doctor: he is hacking away Many businesses have virtually no worst financial condition in living needs so badly. A cash flow creation everywhere, and there is a ‘bloody’ sales, and many other businesses have memory. The lack of cash flow, is the and forecast spectrum is needed to mess all around. The patient is dying. been forced to close down, pushing up lack of oxygen needed to drive the SVG guide and influence the manner in unemployment and poverty. The lack economy. Our economy needs oxygen which government moves the economy Someone call 911 — our economy has no pulse. of cash flow is a clear indication that so that businesses can flourish and forward. the SVG Minister of Finance, grow.

Gonsalves is involved with Liat and Gonsalves, is a major liability to our We urgently need a multi-variable his financial incompetence is reflected SVG Green Party www.svggreenparty.org country. economy that can successfully replace in the fact that Liat has cash flow Find us on Facebook and Twitter The financial situation in our country is utterly hopeless, with virtually no cash flow.

Warrant Officer Ivan O’Neal is calling for change. Our country urgently needs to replace the financial find MH a competent anecdotal writer MANY ATTEMPTS have been made viable portion of the in house incompetence of the ULP regime with on the bible and, in his perception, 14 at the administrative level of the population that needs the fullness of a group of financially competent or so brilliant examples of areas in Mental Health Centre (MHC) at Glen, outdoors exposure, commensurate to Vincentians, to manage our public which the good book contradicts itself. to make the institution a non-smoking existing conditions inside. Inmates accounts and economy. The ULP facility. As an expert on the subject are starved for exposure to the outside His writing also centred also around regime has shown it is a waste of his perception of patient care. (although a few weeks following the space, and cannot move our country or (smoking), I would like now to He had also become a ‘thousandaire’ present a former non-smoker’s conception of this article there have economy out of fiscal deficits and perspective with respect to the local been a few small group outings, hardly in the cigarette selling business. create an adequate cash flow.

The other cigarette seller, CS, was, a dent in the scheme of things).

The ULP regime has wasted billions situation. of course, critical of his competitor, At Orange Hill, two cigarette sellers In short, the atmosphere is of dollars during their time in office, though technique of selling was less provided the sales service of cigarettes constrictive inside. But introduce a on projects that have not created cigarette into this facade, and there is inclusive, more boisterous, and he revenue or cash flow. The incompetent for patients and also by extension community friends. Profiles on both suddenly camaraderie, laughter, relief often gifted inmates with free ULP regime has failed to invest cigarettes. individuals will follow, after some and pleasure. taxpayers’ money with prudence.

In the few days preceding relocation basic facts about the phenomenon of On immediate return to Glen, an Warrant Officer Ivan O’Neal has a conditions, and smoking at the MHC. attempt was made to enforce a ban on to Glen, both were informed that the BSc (Hons) degree in Accounting, days of cigarette sales were over. CS Security is tight at the MHC - gate smoking. Cigarettes now contraband Finance and Economics from Oxford quit smoking and seemed anxious were smuggled in and both patients Brookes University, England; a Master pass access only. At the time of all the time. composing this article, inmates had who sold cigarettes on the premises of Science Degree in MacroMH still writes, but is looking to a been starved for exposure were told that the practice was to be time when his cigarette selling to the outside. The fact is discontinued. ‘fortune’ will be gone, taking away a the MHC at Glen boasts At Orange Hill, two cigarette a huge yard space. - sure sellers, MH and CS, provided the sales few comforts which you can probably imagine, such as augmentation of the the administration would service of cigarettes for patients and, famed ‘mental home diet’. seem to be addressing the by extension, community friends And what is the situation as per the issue with a few small MH was admitted to the MHC in group outings. The sports 2011. He and I became friends, and I ban on sale of cigarettes at the MHC, programme is slated to be came to know him as convivial, witty, Glen? A couple of the inmates became reintroduced in April, on outspoken, a little vulgar with women, violent in ‘act-outs’ due to the an annual basis. and able to get along with many types. inaccessibility of cigarettes.

However, there is still a I also introduced MH to the concept Harassment of patients who have smokes is endemic. of a cigarette selling Since the percentage of patients business, feeling he had the persona to make a go of it. I who do smoke is high, there is a palpable sense of desperation; encouraged him to compete by introducing variety in his shouting through cell windows in a brands, by selling alongside frenzy at night time to acquire the ‘Iconic’ product. The ban effectively EMPIRE (Pall Mall) fizzled as facts like these became cigarettes, some Indian hemp with matches to round evident.

I have my own views on a off his inventory. I then gave judgmental and not fully educated him a few packs to start.

Then came Orange Hill. I faction of the Vincentian public who demonise cigarettes without all the received an opportunity to facts. Cigarettes are the reason I am live in Kingstown Park and still in one piece and have not ‘killed’ decided to take it. I gifted anyone here (LOL). my friend with a couple of In terms of my spiritual status I Trinpad exercise books, and don’t foresee them being around much introduced him to the concept of keeping a journal. longer in my life as it stands, especially when I exit SVG. A year later, Kingstown In the meantime, smoking Park not having worked out, I returned to the institution continues at the MHC and, who really cares.

— this time Orange Hill - to

The case of the cigarette and the MHC

THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. 13.

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14. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. THE VINCENTIAN

Entertainment (L-R): Dynamite, Abuza and Yaphatoo doing the collaboration ‘We Smokin’.

Vincy cast holds its own

THE BUZZ IS THAT ‘Unplugged’, the second evening, April 1, of the 2017 Roots and Rhythms Festival, surpassed all expectations.

The featured artiste of the night may have been

Jamaica’s Romain Virgo, but the local cast was not to be outdone.

Saturday’s performance got underway a little late, but once Yaphatoo, the first of a trio of local

reggae artistes, took the stage, there was no stopping a flowing show.

Yaphatoo performed some of his hits including the popular ‘Concrete Jungle’ and ‘Wisdom’.

Abuza followed with a collection that included ‘People Today.’

Then it was time for Dynamite, one of the younger artistes making his way around the local music scene. His tracks Featured artiste Romain Virgo had included the ladies taking in his every note the likes of and movement.

‘Geddion’ crowd, which had grown and ‘Still Ah go Mek it’.

The three returned to by this time, was very the stage to perform the appreciative of the wide array of music performed collaboration ‘We

by Small, with Smokin’, which sealed accompaniment by the the deal, and paved the band ‘Silk’. way for what was to Multi-platinum, come for the rest of the international recording night.

The locals kept up the artiste Kevin Lyttle kept the crowd alive. pace. Next up was renowned pannist Rodney Small, fresh off a Continued on Page 15. show in Barbados. The

The ladies tried to get as close as they could to their idol, Romain Virgo.

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THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. 15.

Entertainment cont’d

Vincy cast holds its own

something for the ladies, and entertaining the He did his major hits men as well. to date, including ‘Home There was nothing for Carnival’, and teamed that could be taken away up once again with from the performances Raeon ‘Maddzart’ Primus and impact of the local to end his segment with cast members. They flew ‘Turn me on’, the hit that the Vincentian flag brought him proudly, and showed that international success. there exists a wide array The lone female on the of musical talent in the cast, dancehall artiste land.

Vasita ‘First Lady’ But after all, the Caine, may have raised a majority of patrons had few eyebrows. Known come to hear live, the for her raunchy lyrics, harmonious melodies of she was in that vein on the Jamaican, backed by Saturday night, doing his band The Unit Band.

Once he took the stage and belted his first line, the men had no choice but to give way to the many screaming female fans of all ages, who wanted to get a glimpse of the star of the evening, and be mesmerized by his voice and lyrics.

Virgo did not disappoint, performing a combination of his popular hits including ‘Who Feels it Knows it’, ‘No Money’, First Lady thrilled both men and women with her dancehall numbers. ‘God Inna Continued from page 14

Rodney Small thrilled with his wide repertoire and skill.

me Corner’, ‘Live mi Life’ and ‘Beautiful’.

Another night in the entertainment annals of SVG, an effort that promises and set itself up to become an annual affair. (DD)

Kevin Lyttle (left) returned home to his endearing fans and teamed with his colleague Maddzart to do his monster hit ‘Turn me On’.

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16. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. THE VINCENTIAN

Youth

Bequia dominates

Grade Five Public Speaking

by GLORIAH… KIARA HAZELL of the Paradise Primary School and Jianna Stowe of the Bequia Anglican Primary walked away with trophies and prizes for placing first and third respectively in the Grade Five Public Speaking Competition.

The competition was Overall winner Kiara Hazell (2nd from left) received hosted by the trophies and prizes from SEO Aldia Dyer in the company of Ministry of her teacher (2nd from right) and NIS rep.

Education, in collaboration Kiara Hazell; ‘Caring for Prepared Speech with the National Those in Need’ - Leronique Insurance Services, and Prescott; ‘Choosing The topic for the took place on Friday, 16th Friends’ - Jianna Stowe; Prepared Speech was: March at the Training ‘School rules’ - Jasmine Modern Digital Devices Room of the National Wilson; and ‘How to are Affecting Interactions Insurance Services.

Prepare For a Storm’ in the Home. How far do There were eight Jaelyn Dublin. you agree with this finalists.

Some of the competitors statement?

Bequia proved to be a had the presence of mind Each presentation force to be reckoned with, to make introductions appeared to be well fielding three students in then proceeded to make researched, with the contest. Included in attempts to deal with the competitors using relevant its successes was Kristy topics. statistics, student-centric Ollivierre of the Paget With time still left of scenarios, coupled with Farm Government School, her two minutes, Jasmine real-life family-centric who won the trophy for may just have lost her the Best Prepared Speech. scenarios. way but she had done There were balanced Second place went to enough to win. All in all, arguments pro and con the it was that this segment of Jasmine Wilson of the topic.

Cane End Government free and on-your-feet Ease and comfort also School, who also won the expression that proved to characterized the Best Impromptu Speech. be the mnore troublesome presentations with the Along with those for the students. young exhibiting an already named, the other competitors were Malique awareness of the audience, Judge’s comment Jackson of the Marriaqua poise and stage presence.

While grammatical Government School; In presenting comments Ceronique Mitchell of the issues along with others on the morning’s activity, like pronunciation, diction the judge, Ms. Gloria Buccament Government took the weight off some of Williams, lauded the School; Leronique the presentations, one Prescott, Questelles Ministry of Education and could easily say that the Government School; and the National Insurance Prepared Speech segment Services for continuing to Jaelyn Dublin of the was clearly impressive.

Lowmans Windward recognize the need for Anglican School. fostering free expression Impromptu Speech in school. “It is on the curriculum,” she reminded It was the all, “but with a major Impromptu Speech exam on the horizon, segment that actually many teachers tend to proved the mettle of think that it will take up the students. too much time. But free Following are the expression in speech topics as chosen by fosters free expression in the students on the writing and assists the day of the students’ thought competition: processes, enabling them ‘Qualities of a Good to excel at tasks on their Leader’ - Kristy feet.”

Ollivierre -; ‘Should She encouraged Children be paid to teachers to incorporate it do Chores at Home?’ into everyday teaching, - Malique Jackson; “Make it fun, begin with a ‘Three Things I focus on the student would Change if I speakers and their Jasmine Wilson received her became Prime experiences!” trophy from NIS rep.

Minister of SVG’ -

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THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. 17.

News

Social activist frustrated DESPITE HIS frustration, Mark Sardine said he does not intend to give up on his drive to keep certain social issues on the national agenda.

Sardine has been the team leader on a number of kayak ventures, all done to raise awareness of “social ills.”

His most recent task was kayaking a total of 24 miles back in January, to bring awareness to the situation, as it currently exists at the Lewis Punnett home in Glen.

His original plan to journey to Mustique had to be scrapped due to

adverse weather conditions, causing him and his team to change to a course that took them along the Leeward and then back to Brighton.

Sardine said also that since that effort, he was successful in his effort to secure solar power panels, to allow for the residents of the Lewis Punnett home “to have access to a warm shower.”

But on Tuesday, an emotional Sardine visited the offices of THE VINCENTIAN to express his disgust in the seemingly slow manner in which the authorities were dealing with the issue of the refurbishment of the Home.

Back in January,

Ban on corned beef removed

VINCENTIANS can once again enjoy corned beef originating from Brazil.

Following reports that beef and beef products made in Brazil were contaminated, countries across the globe, inclusive of this country, moved swiftly to ban the importation of these products, and to order the immediate removal of the products from grocery and supermarket The ban on shelves.

But a release dated April 5, corned beef from Brazil was short2017 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Commerce lived. here, notified that effective from that date, the ban on Brazilian corned beef was removed.

The Ministry said that the removal of the ban followed a report from a Jamaican Technical Team which visited manufacturing facilities in Brazil, had determined that the facilities were in compliance with international standards.

There is still no empirical evidence of the extent to which consumers here had complied with the ban, and whether or not all local wholesalers/retailers had removed the products from their shelves as ordered.

Corned beef, though considered a high-priced commodity, is still popular with a large crosssections of people in SVG.

Mark Sardine was emotional about the state of affairs surrounding the Lewis Punnett Home and the persons housed there.

Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves announced that EC$1.1 million had been earmarked for the refurbishment of the existing facility. He went on to say that the Ministry of Health was considering two areas for the temporary relocation of the residents — the facility at Orange Hill that was used to house the residents of the Mental Health Centre and the former nurse’s hostel at New Montrose.

However, a frustrated Sardine said that he and his team were also not pleased with the present situation.

“It’s going nowhere — I mean you out there, you did 24 miles in the hot sun, we did not beg anybody for anything, just for our people to get better living conditions. These are

people who have already paid their dues to the country, they are not animals — and today the filth that they are still living in, the conditions that they are still living in, as a Vincentian I cannot sit down,” he said.

He said that he was told that it was not uncommon practice for female residents to be administered baths in front of their male counterparts, and made a call for these people’s dignity to be restored.

“I will not go away, my people have to get justice,” he said. (DD)

SVG AMP Awards re-scheduled The 4th SVG Association of Music Professionals (SVG AMP0 Awards ceremony has been re-scheduled to Wednesday 19th April, 2017 at the Signature Event Center, located off the Vigie Highway in Arnos vale.

This year’s ceremony will feature additional categories for Best vocal Performance by a Male and Female artiste respectively.

Some categories have also been adjusted to accommodate as many as seven nominees, allowing for the number of nominations to range from between three and seven nominees.

This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient will be distinguished calypsonian Granville ‘Sun Blaze’ Findlay, and Special Honours Awards are to be presented to veteran musician Ken

Isles and The Band X-Adus.

According to a release for SVG AMP, the venue for this year’s ceremony “will provide an opportunity for musicians to gather in an intimate, elegant setting to socialize and show support for each other.“ The ceremony will be preceded by a red carpet arrival of nominees and their guests, other invited personalities and patrons of Vincentian music, as well as

presenters of awards in the various categories.

The SVG AMP Awards are intended to honour outstanding contributions to Vincentian music each year.

Calypsonian Granville ‘Sunblaze’ Findlay is set to rceive one of AMP’s coveted awards.

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18. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. THE VINCENTIAN

News

New home-based health service launched CHERI SEARGEANT observed difficulties patients encountered in getting to and from clinics, when she was on attachments as a student nurse.

She also became acutely aware of the lack of training among those delivering services.

She was moved St. Clair to do something to Stapleton, alleviate the Coordinator of situation. the Service, is Thus was born Allied Health Care, confident that the effort will registered on expand in January 17, 2017, numerical and and introduced to meaningful the media last ways.

Friday, March 31.

Seargeant, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Allied Health Care, and now a Registered Nurse, says the service aims to deliver health care at the home level.

According to Seargeant, it is all about “providing affordable, professional, convenient and flexible home health care services that meet the demands of our clients.”

Allied Health Care expects to reach out to patients anywhere they are, and will do so beginning with a staff of

seven, which is projected to reach twenty by 2018.

Service providers include: private duty Registered and Assistant Nurses; Certified Elder Care Givers; Dietary Aides/Nutritionist; Retirement/Nursing Home Care givers.

Other services will extend to Errands/Pick Up and Drop-Off Services, Doctor referrals and Medication reminders.

St. Clair Stapleton, Coordinator of the enterprise, assured that they were in for the long haul.

He alluded to a situation of limitations in offering complete health care as being the basis for the conceptualisation of Allied Health Care.

All taken, Stapleton envisions that by the year 2020, the service will be catering to Cheri Seargeant, 75 clients. founder of Allied There is also a Health Care, has plan, Stapleton moved to fill a said, to offer void in homeground ambulance based health services. care delivery In terms of services in SVG.

training and accreditation for its staff, Allied Health Care Service has forged linkages with the Adult and Continuing Education Unit and the National Accreditation Board.

Allied Health Care could be considered a new area of undertaking in SVG, but Seargeant has looked at

the current trend where people are living longer, and is convinced about the necessity of the services it proposes to offer.

This business is a response to the need to fill a void in the changing civil structure, Seargeant said. (WKA)

OAS prepares for Summit of the Americas THE APRIL 2018 Eighth Summit of the Americas scheduled for Peru might be one year away, but staff of the Organisation of American States are not leaving anything to chance.

Information regarding that event was highlighted last week Wednesday afternoon at Frenches House, in capital city Kingstown.

The gathering heard about plans from the secretariat based in Washington. The exercise was beamed simultaneously to audiences in Grenada, Dominica, and St. Lucia.

OAS’ Administrative Technician Dianne Browne welcomed the Vincentian delegates, which included representatives from Civil Society Organisations and social activists.

Browne projected on the process leading to the Summit, and assured that recommendations from the member states will be put into the negotiations.

The Summit of the Americas

culminates a threeyear process which is highlighted by a meeting of the Heads of Government of the member territories.

Joseph Burns Bonadie orrepresenting the National Labour Congress; Anesia Baptiste - Thusian Institute for Dianne Browne, Religious Liberty, OAS’ Lawyer Mandela Administrative Campbell, Technician, President of the St. explained the Vincent and the process leading Grenadines up to the Teachers Union Summit.

Oswald Robinson, were among delegates making presentations at the session.

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THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. 19.

Arts

Clifford ‘Prince Swade’ Phillips has his eyes set on making further imprints in the music industry here.

ÂPrince SwadeÊ eyes further success

by KENVILLE HORNE

CLIFFORD ‘Prince Swade’ Phillips is a Layou native who is rapidly making inroads into the music industry here and, if given the right opportunity he is in search of, he could possibly be SVG’s next big thing.

Born to mother Marcia Phillips and father David Hazelwood (deceased) both of Layou, Phillips started music at an early age, singing in class during his primary school years at the Layou Government School.

He would move on to the Barrouallie Secondary School, where he formed a six-person group, appropriately called Acruma Six. The group went on to perform at a Music Festival in 2003, held at the Methodist Church Hall.

Phillips then became the lead vocalist for a Layou-based singing group called Basics. The group performed at church services, weddings and funerals. This experience helped Phillips understand the rudiments of vocalization, especially the importance of harmony.

He also, during this time, developed the A capella style, i.e. singing without instruments.

“This experience also taught me how to be a leader,” the young man said in an exclusive interview with THE VINCENTIAN. It was at this juncture that he assumed the stage name ‘T Swade’.

Once out of secondary school, Phillips, set on a career in music, dug deeper into the art, refining his writing and singing skills.

He would eventually meet music producer Mark Cyrus, and together they peoduced a track ‘Seduce Me’ at Cyrus’ Master Room studio. That track featured another artiste ‘Fullclip’.

It was during his association with

Cyrus that he did the SLR Jingle with the catch phrase ‘We drinking SLR’, that became quite popular and helped to grow that brand.

Over the last three years, Phillips has branched out on his own and has done performances on mainland St. Vincent, Union Island and Mustique.

He has also built up a relationship with a number of African students pursuing courses in medicine here.

Under their influence, he changed his stage name to ‘Prince Swade’, in keeping with his sense of his “Africanness..”

And while he has remained true to his musical roots, including reggae, his work, he admits, has become “slightly more African .. more Afro-centric.”

So much so, he is set to release an Afro-influenced piece that will be produced by Alex Kubiyashi Barnwell.

Meanwhile, he has continued to record, and his video for a number entitled ‘Nah Sell Out’, produced by Rasheed Sutherland of Boss Raw, has been nominated for an AMP Award in the Best Reggae Music Video category.

“I greatly appreciate being nominated by AMP, and I intend to use the moment as a stepping stone for better things,” said Phillips, in reaction to his nomination.

His latest video ‘Jah Clear Dem’ is also making progress on social media, receiving over 6,000 views in just over a day.

“I want to see myself as a megastar in the next 10 years, contributing to our island as music ambassador, among other things,” said the confident young man about his aspirations.

It would serve music enthusiasts here well to keep an ear and an eye out for Cliffford ‘Prince Swade’ Phillips. He is bent on taking music here to another level, and may just do that. You won’t want to be left behind.

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20. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. THE VINCENTIAN

Advice

the A mother’s cry for help Send man packing!! have nowhere to turn.

When I tell people about I AM A MOTHER of 3 children, ages my situation, some say that I am not trying hard ranging from 9 to 14 years. I am enough to find work, and both mother and father to my that I am not the only one children, since the death of my in this situation. People husband a few years ago.

George, many mornings I wake are so uncaring, and it hurts my up and have nothing to give to my heart.

Please help me, George. Please children to eat. I feel guilty when help me find a way out this they can’t attend school because misery, for the sake of my they have nothing to eat or no children at least. money to pay van.

I have got some help from Hurting mother neighbour, but I stopped asking after they started telling others Dear Hurting mother, my business and calling me a shameless beggar. I beg because I Thank you for your letter. What can’t stand seeing my children go hungry. I want to work, but there is good and admirable about you, is that you are willing to exhaust is no work. all possibilities, to the point of I have been to Social Welfare, begging and being called a beggar, but they keep spinning me for the sake of your children. I around, telling me to come back am certain that your children see and come back. I do not have this and admire the sacrifice you money to be paying van from country to town to hear come back are making.

What you need to do tomorrow. immediately is to sit down with George, I write to you because I

Dear George,

Dear George, WHAT DO YOU do when your fiancé sleeps with your friend whom you invited to spend the night at your place? someone who can help you chart a After what happened, I am convinced my fiancé way forward. Towards this end, I deliberately gave me wine to drink at dinner, recommend that you contact The although he knows I do not drink wine, because he Marion House where you will find knew what he was up to. such a person.

I must have passed out after drinking the wine, In addition, begin looking at but I woke up in the wee hours of the morning, to yourself. Try and see if there is hears grunts and groans in the living room. There anything that you are good at, they were, he and my friend, getting down and whether it’s with your hands. You dirty. may be able to to come up with I guessed I passed out again, and when I awoke ideas that can help pave a way they were already dressed and having breakfast. I out of your situation. told them about what I saw, and he said I was It won’t hurt to speak with the seeing things; how I got so drunk that he had to put school principal about the me to bed; that I must have had a dream. situation regarding your children’s What do you with a man who says he loves you, absence from school. Maybe a plan has sex with your friend in front your face, and then can be constructed to assist in tries to convince you that you are crazy? that regard as well.

Let me know how things Sober develop.

George

Dear Sober,

No word from him Dear George, MY (LIVE-IN) BOYFRIEND sent me a text by mistake. It was intended for his other girlfriend, whom he says he does not have. The text included a pic of him having sex with another woman. He was inviting his other girlfriend to join them in a threesome.

I showed him the text, and rather than arguing like he usually does, he just walked out of the house, and I have not seen or heard from him since.

He still has his clothes here, and I am not sure whether or not he is coming back. It has been two weeks since he left.

I want to get on with my life, but he is holding me up. I need to know what he is doing.

Your boyfriend has made his decision. His actions have spoken for him. I take it that he does not like saying goodbyes face to face.

Based on what you saw in that text, his quiet departure from the house and prolonged silence and absence, you can conclude that he is history. There is no need to sit around and wait for a man who has proven that he is not loyal.

Pack his things and let him pick them up when he is ready. Contact the courts to know how long you can keep them before throwing them out.

What do you do with such a man?

You give him the pink slip and send him on his merry disgusting way.

Such a man no longer has the right to be in your life or have access to your body. You are better than that. Do not argue with him because you will get nowhere. He has disrespected you and insulted your intelligence.

And for your own good, the next time someone offers you a drink, and you know you do not drink, you should politely turn them down and stick to your guns.

George

George

Limbo Dear Limbo,

Leisure

Aries (Mar. 21‐ April 20) You can get into self‐awareness groups or look into physical enhancement programs. You may have been trying to do too much, leaving yourself exhausted and open to colds and infections. You can't lock your partner up and if you keep restricting their freedom you may be left out in the cold. Plan your day carefully.

Taurus (Apr. 21‐ May 21) Your ideas are right on the mark and your work com‐ mendable. You may be experiencing emotional turmoil in regard to your mate. Abstain from getting involved with married individuals. Listen to the prob‐ lems of others and offer suggestions where possible.

Gemini (May 22‐June 21) Consider mak‐ ing pleasure trips or participating in entertainment that will require energy.

The existing problems must be dealt with one way or another. Unexpected bills will leave you a little short. Abrupt action will cause difficulties with rela‐ tives.

Cancer (June 22‐July 22) You will be able to catch up on overdue paper work.

You need some help this week. You have a real need to be vocal. You will have a great day if you just say what you feel.

Leo (July 23‐Aug 22) Entertain those who can provide you with valuable infor‐ mation and knowledge. Secret enemies will be eager to spread rumors about you. Hidden matters are likely to surface.

You will be able to work with fine detail this week.

Virgo (Aug. 23 ‐Sept. 23) Let go of the past in order to progress. Think twice before you pursue an unrealistic endeav‐ or. You may want to take a look at your direction in life. You can be sure that any dealing with large institutions should go well.

Libra (Sept. 24 ‐Oct. 23) Try to curb overindulgence this week. You will be in the mood to socialize. You can't do every‐ thing on your own. The emotional state of peers may cause a problem for you.

Scorpio (Oct. 24 ‐ Nov. 22) You can make money if you concentrate on producing services or goods that will make domestic chores easier. Jealousy may get in the way of a good relationship. You may meet that special person if you attend fundrais‐ ing functions. Don't push your luck with your boss.

Sagittarius (Nov. 23 ‐Dec. 21) You can easily wrap up overdue personal legal matters that have caused problems for you. You need some rest. Relationships will be emotional this week. They didn't fully understand what was expected.

Capricorn (Dec 22.‐ Jan. 20) Keep your cash in your pocket and offer them sound advice rather than your financial assis‐ tance. Take the time to do your job cor‐ rectly or you may find yourself looking for a new one. You need to do more things that you enjoy. Channel your energy wisely and you can score points with the boss.

Aquarius (Jan. 21.‐ Feb. 19) Disharmony will result in a lowered vitality. Stress may result in minor illness. Avoid lending or borrowing. Don't sign up for too many extra activities or you'll have trouble ful‐ filling your obligations. Your communica‐ tion skills will bring you popularity and increased self‐esteem.

Pisces (Feb. 20‐Mar. 20) Spend time with youngsters this week. Try to be under‐ standing. Your courage and willpower will enable you to get rid of destructive habits as well. You can evade the issue as usual by being affectionate, fun loving, and far too active for your lover to catch on.

ACROSS

43. Page for viewpoints 1.High mountain (hyph.)

4. Diet Coke’s kin 44. __ about 7. “__ goes (approximately, nothing!”

2 wds.)

11. Evergreen 45. Leslie Caron tree film 12. Got an “A” on 47. Make a a test selection 14. Hockey rink 50. NYC’s __ shape Street 15. Herbal drink 51. Attain 16. Biblical 52. Not against pronoun 53. Halt 17. Cripple 54. Actress Tilly 18. Written 55. Use wings reminder 20. Corrects DOWN 22. __ cords 24. “Peter Pan” 1. It follows pirate morning 25. “__ Ike” (abbr.)

(2 wds.)

2. Tell tales 26. NBC bird 3. Strutting 30. Member of 4. Blab on Congress 5. Pang (abbr.)

6. Honey 31. Give help producer 32. Negative 7. Class also prefix known as 33. White’s “domestic opposite? science” (2 wds.)

(2 wds.)

36. LeBron’s NBA 8. “__ Almighty” home 9. Commando 38. __ Stanley attack Gardner 10. “Slippery” 39. Whether __ trees (2 wds.)

13. Judged 40. Leave

19. Light furniture wood 21. “Tell __ story” (2 wds.)

22. Workshop tool 23. Designer Cassini 24. Large nail 27. Intermittently (3 wds.)

28. Singer Perry 29. Make a sweater 31. Declare 34. Once every 12 months 35. Doggy bag

morsel 36. Pouting 37. Great wrath 40. Swears on a Bible 41. Art course (abbr.)

42. Soda category

LAST WEEK’s SOLUTION

V

THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. 21.

43. Folklore monster 46. “__ the Walrus” (2 wds.)

48. Candidate, for short 49. Endeavor

V GREIGGS MAN MURDERED: 22. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. THE VINCENTIAN

News

Father sad, community rejoices From Backpage.

changing. “He start working with the SVG “People call his name Cocoa Company,” said sayin he tief and all the grieving father, them thing dey. All de adding that besides going tief he ah tief he never to work, Glasgow spent a get ketch yet, but lot of time at home with everything somebody “his fiancée.” On the missing dem ah say is occasions when he did he. He did plenty time in venture out of his yard, prison for what de say he it was to walk his do and way he na do,” girlfriend to her home. said Johnson.

Johnson told THE The father confirmed VINCENTIAN. that his son had recently “And dem say he ah met his girlfriend, and it thief. If he was tiefing appeared that he was and somebody ketch him

and kill him, me na would ah feel like how me feel now,” Johnson confessed.

He also dispelled rumours that his son was killed in a drive-by shooting. “Na no driveby. Watch wey arwe live; drive by what?

People ah spread too much ah news. The man was almost home, he and his woman,” explained Johnson.

It must be noted that the area where Johnson

lived and met his death, cannot accommodate vehicles.

Persons in the community said that the assailant may have hidden, awaiting Glasgow. Some persons recall hearing three gunshots, though reports are that Glasgow showed

signs of having received two gunshot wounds. No autopsy report was available up to press time, to confirm this.

Whoever the assailant was, he/she is said to have made a swift and ‘safe’ escape from the scene.

Glasgow’s relatives

The humble abode of the deceased.

have since held a candlelight vigil at the spot where he lay dead.

The deceased, the sixth homicide for the year, was the father of one boy.

The police are continuing their investigations.

V

THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. 23.

Ten records tumble at ISSAC

TEN RECORDS TOOK FALLS at the recently staged National Lotteries Authority Inter Secondary Schools’ Athletics (Track and Field) Championships (ISSAC).

Responsible for the setting of two new times in the sprints was junior champion Ulanda Lewis of the Barrouallie Secondary School. She broke both the 100 and 200m records.

Her 13.00 seconds in the 100m shaved 0.24 seconds off on the old mark, done by Daria Matthias of the St Joseph’s Convent Kingstown, back in 2013.

Lewis also re-wrote Shaffiqua Maloney’s 200m time of 26.81 seconds, achieved in 2011, by registering 26.13 over that distance.

Maloney, then, was a student of the Thomas

Saunders Secondary.

Like Lewis, emerging distance athlete Zita Vincent, also of the Barrouallie Secondary, left as history, the intermediate females 800m as well as the open 3000m.

Vincent’s new time of 2 minutes 27.89 seconds in the 800m erased that set by the Girls’ High School’s Tamara Woodley in 2015.

Her crowning achievements was her removal of the long standing 3000m time, set by the Bethel High School’s Adelaide Carrington. Vincent reset the time done by Carrington of 11 minutes 16 .31 seconds, to 11 minutes 9.56 seconds.

The other six records that went by the wayside were in the relays and field events.

Replacing the St Joseph’s Convent Kingstown as record holders of the female 4 x 100m intermediate, was the quartet from the Bethel High School. The new record is 51. 60 as opposed to 57.76.

Meanwhile, both 4 x400m senior relays had new record holders.

Establishing the best mark in the female category was the Girls’ High School. Their time of 4 minutes 18.60 seconds displaced that of 4 minutes 18.86 seconds, done by the Thomas Saunders Secondary in 2012.

In the male seniors, the St Martin’s Secondary ran 3 minutes 28.70 seconds to smash the existing 3 minutes 30.83 seconds registered by the St Vincent Grammar School in 2013.

Right: Zita Vincent broke two records, including the long standing 3000m open.

Ken- Lee Clarke of the Dr JP Eustace Memorial claimed the record in the senior males triple jump.

His 14.15, outstripped the Bethel High School’s Akani Slater’s 13.84m, done in 2015.

The Girls’ High School’s Krystal Foster flung 29.24m in the intermediate females Ulanda Lewis has two junior discus. This sprint records in her name. bettered by some distance 8.73m is now in the the mark of 27.07m hands of Clenetta Brudy achieved in 2013.

And, the females Shot of the St Joseph’s Convent Marriaqua. The Put Junior record of

previous best was that of 8.11m, recorded by Becky James of the Emmanuel High School Mesopotamia, two years ago.

The annual ISSAC began using the electronic timing system in 2011.

Year One Arts & Sciences tops College Meet General Studies were joint runners up with 28 points.

Raasikh John of Year Two Technical and Vocational Studies grabbed the Male Meet Champion award with 34 points, winning the 60m, 100m and Long Jump events. Godwyn Roban of Year One Arts, Sciences and General Studies placed second with 29 points.

Nine records were broken. In the Female division, Matthias eclipsed the old 100m mark of 12.74 seconds with a time of 12.12 seconds, while Shantel Williams’ 25.34 seconds bettered the previous 27.44 time in the 200m.

Year One Arts, Sciences and General Studies smashed the 400m relay record time of 56.46 Keitter Bailey - female champion. seconds, as they ran 52.15 seconds in that event.

YEAR ONE ART, Science and taking third spot with 160 The record in the 4 x 100m General Studies are repeat points. also went by the wayside, when champions of the Year One Arts, Sciences and Year Two QuickCash Corp./ National General Studies also walked Technical and Lotteries SVG Community away with the Male and Female Vocational College Track and Field Meet.

Divisional honors. clocked at 4 They reclaimed the title at Keiffer Bailey of Year One minutes 53.89 the recently (March 24) staged Technical and seconds, to 2017 Meet, after amassing a Vocational Studies copped the eclipse the total 297 points. award for the Female previous The Meet was held at the Meet Champion with 38 points, record of 4 Arnos Vale One Playing Field. winning the 800m and 1500m minutes 54.84 Year One Technical and events, and placing second in seconds.

Vocational placed second with a the 400m event. Shantel In the long total of 228 points, with Year Williams and Darria Matthias jump, the Two Technical and Vocational of Year One Arts, Sciences and Male And they’re on

Divisional Champion Raasikh John surpassed the previous record of 5.83 meters with a jump of 6.67 meters.

Javiel Saxon broke the record in the 400m, clocking a time of 50.66 seconds, bettering the previous record of 51.49 seconds.

Joel Thompson broke his own Shot Put record, improving on his previous best of 10.44 meters, with Raasikh a distance of 11.52 meters.

Year One Arts, Sciences and General Studies cruised past the 4x100 relay record time of 46.46 as they ran 45.02 seconds in that event.

The other record to be broken was in Male 4x400m. Year One

John - male champion.

Technical and Vocational got to the finish line in 3 minutes 36.24 seconds to better the previous record of 3 minutes 41.10 seconds.

I.B.A.ALLEN

their way in the 60m female dash.

V

24. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. THE VINCENTIAN

Sports

Sandy Bay takes Senior SchoolsÊ Cricket title from the sponsor.

Sandy Bay batted first and started well, but once the opening partnership was broken, they quickly lost wickets in the middle, to be precariously poised at 80 for 7. But some rearguard action by the lower order cemented the fight back, and the boys from the north eventually got to 149 in 34.1 overs. Karsam Hoyle led the resistance with a patient unbeaten 26. Ronalson Hillocks took 3 for 13 for the boys ‘from town’.

Grammar School sensed that they needed a good start in what Sealroy Williams: top appeared to be a run getter of the challenging wicket for Tournament. batsmen. They, however, lost regularly and were never able to put SANDY BAY Secondary School staged a comeback together the partnerships needed to overhaul the few expected, to capture total. Ziron Walker with the 2017 Edition of the 49 was the only batsman Massy United Insurance Senior Secondary Schools who showed some application, but once he Cricket Competition. was dismissed, defeat They beat the St. Vincent Grammar School was imminent. They were eventually by 56 runs in the finals dismissed for 93 from last Thursday at the Arnos Vale playing field, 28.4 overs. Sealroy Williams with, 3 for 9, and journeyed home in Danron Samson, 3 for 11, jubilation with the and MVP of the finals Championship trophy and five hundred dollars Kaisam Hoyte, 1 for 13,

College, Victors victorious FRENCH Verandah SVG Community Collage and Victors Two chalked up victories in the NLA National Sunday League 50 Overs Cricket tournament, on the weekend.

Community College beat Prime Consulting Marriqua by 10 wickets. Scores: Marriaqua 93 from 30.2 overs - Keimon John 26, Jamali Wales 22 - Jeremy Haywood 4 for 27 and Ronaldo Franklyn 4 for 13; SVG Community College 94 without loss from 14.3 overs - Coby Horne 42 not out and Jaheel Walters 28 not out.

In the other fixture, Victors Two beat Triumph United by 106 runs. Scores: Victors Two 186 from 41.3 overs - Lionel Cumberbatch 52, Gerald Gould 21 and Shamick Roberts 25 - Kanaka Smith 3 for 46, Ahmed Baptiste 2 for 40; Triumph United 80 from 15.5 overs - Rohan Ash hit, 24 - Adinol Richards 6 for 42 and Leon Quashie 3 for 3.

Matches in the NLA Premier Division will be suspended for this weekend to accommodate the 8th round match in the WICB PCL four-day tournament between the Windwards Volcanoes and Jamaica, to be played at the Arnos Vale playing field from today, Friday.

I.B.A.ALLEN

Handel Roban: highest wicket taker. did the damage.

The rural schools dominated in the outstanding individual performances of the Tournament. Off spinner Handel Roban of the Georgetown Secondary took the most wickets. 12 for 160 at an average of 13.33. Sealroy Williams of Sandy Bay

Sandy Bay Secondary School – Inter-Secondary Senior Cricket Champions. (Inset): MVP of the finals Kaisam Hoyte: 26 not out and 1 for 13.

Secondary hit the most runs (351) at an average of 70.00. The best wicket-keeper was Zidun Sutherland of Central Leeward Secondary.

The best all round

performance came from Jadiel Chance of Petit Bordel Secondary with 196 runs at an average of 65.33, and 11 wickets at an average of 8.18.

Stories by I.B.A.ALLEN

Jack shows good all round form SVG’s CORDEL JACK recorded the only century of the last weekend’s Southern Windwards Limited Overs Cricket Series played in Grenada, but could not prevent her team going under 2 games to 1 in the series encounter.

Jack, taking her stunning form (three centuries) from the local cricket tournament, recorded a 153-ball 125, which included 18 fours and two sixes, to help SVG to 236 for 5 from 50 overs, in the opening game. Stacy-Ann Adams lent able support with a knock of 49. Akeria Peters was Grenada’s best bowler with 2 for 40.

Grenada, with a steady approach to their run chase, claimed victory with an innings of 238 for 8, in 44.3 overs. Good scores came from Anisha Thomas

67, captain Afy Fletcher Cordel Jack was 57 and veteran Debbiethe standout player, with both Ann Lewis 27 not out. bat and ball, for Jack copped an SVG in the outstanding all-round recently game with 3 wickets for 43 runs with her off spin, concluded female and Shenezia Daniel had cricket series against Grenada.

3 for 48.

SVG bounced back in SVG’s the second 50 overs to beat raced to Grenada by 8 wickets, due in great measure to Jack’s all-round 148 for 2 from 32 feat.

Grenada were restricted to 146 overs, with in 35.5 overs, thanks, once again, Jack leading the to Jack, who picked up 4 wickets run chase for 16, and Jennisha Hackshaw with an unbeaten 56. and Adams had 2 wickets each, In the lone T20, Grenada beat after contributions from Corena SVG. In a far from flattering show Noel, 32, Akeria Peters, 23, and by the batters, scores in the Holly Peters, 21 to the Grenada match were: SVG 77 and innings.

Grenada replied with 78.

The Northern Windwards Series, featuring St. Lucia and Dominica, began yesterday, Thursday, in Dominica, and will run until tomorrow, Saturday.

Following the completion of the Northern Series, a Windward The SVG Table Tennis Association will hold Islands team will be selected to its second ranking tournament for 2017 take part in the WICB Female tomorrow, Saturday 8th April, at the Limited Overs Tournament, to be Georgetown Secondary School. played here from April 16 to May It is expected that all players ranked from 1 1. to 12 will enter the main draw directly. All

TT ranking tournament this weekend

other players must take part in the qualifying round robin draw.

The top 12 ranked players from 1 to 12, and their points totals are: Robert Ballantyne (134), Damien Dublin (116), Sean Stanley (110), Carlton Daniel (85), Joseph Carrington (80), Romano Spencer (68), Javier Deshong (59), Giles Garraway (38), Jeff Trotman (34), Luc Velox Robert ‘Bob’ Ballantyne will be (32), Nixon Louis (32) and looking to maintain his No. 1 position Deighton King (32). in Table Tennis ranking here.

FOR SALE 1995 Toyota Camry P179 784-494-0179 1992 Suzuki Escudo P940 784-494-0173

V

THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. 25.

Sports

As Caribbean as cricket THERE IS NOTHING that attracts the attention of the average Caribbean citizen as cricket. And once the West Indies is engaged, there is additional interest. The converse may also be true. For within recent years, the fan base has eroded considerably.

Many blame the administrators, none more authoritative than Sir Vivian Richards, who has described them as arrogant.

Sir Viv is the ‘Master Blaster,’ and played his shots without fear, in those days when helmets and other forms of protective gear were not commonplace. So Sir Viv will know how to protect himself.

And having carved out that reputation, he certainly must be aware of conditions.

Cricket has to continue. I can’t swallow the pill that the West Indies Cricket Board is responsible for how the players selected perform. Whether or not they are satisfied with the amount of money they earn, is no reason for under performances on the field of play.

If they are honest, they will realise that, once they have gained selection, their duty is to deliver the goods, and live up to the responsibilities entrusted on them.

Persons can’t be on the West Indies team, complete in outfit, only to be thinking of putting in that moment of eye-catching brilliance so that they may be snapped up for some other League elsewhere.

Players have to make their choices.

Vincentians have been cast aside in regional cricket. no matter how much this country endeavours to enhance the viability of the regional sport.

Phernell Charles was selected to a West Indies Women’s squad which toured India some years ago.

She was selected on the basis of her performances during that tournament when she emerged as having captured the most wickets.

Phernell, however, was denied a single game on that tour. Charles is from the North Leeward village of Spring, the same one as Kesrick Williams who bulldozed his way into the West Indies T/20 squad.

And when the thought was that he would have been an automatic elevation to the One Day International ranks, the selectors have returned to Shannon Gabriel.

Gabriel’s durability is questionable, and other than his speed, which might astound, he does not carry any other traits of note.

Williams appears to be fighting to keep his spot in an environment being drafted to ostracise him.

Just like Phernel Charles, Cordel Jack endured a near similar embarrassment in Trinidad when, having racked up sufficient runs, her fitness was called into question.

Cordel continues her journey and remains a force on the sport’s frontline. It is a matter of curiosity to see how she acquits herself this time around with the regional selectors looking to strengthen a West Indies Women’s squad, which takes part in the ICC World in England June 24 to July 23.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines hosts the regional female tournament starting April 20. Sixteen matches are scheduled to be played here over ten days at three venues.

Spectators at Park Hill will be pleased to welcome another batch of Caribbean citizens and indeed, anyone who is inclined to follow the fortunes of regional women cricket. Sion Hill and Arnos Vale will be the other venues. The regret is that players will not be able to sample the other side of Vincentian ‘folklore’ that the playing field of Cumberland will provide.

The two teams with the most points end up in April 30’s final. Our title of World Champions projects us as regional ambassadors.

Before the spotlight falls on the ladies, the male counterparts get another chance to stake their claim for higher elevation, when Windwards and Jamaica clash in the four day tournament.

If it had been a One Day International, the hype would have been excessive. This will be at the Arnos Vale Sporting Complex.

The West Indies take on Pakistan today in a crucial One Day International, in which an automatic place in the 2019 World Cup is at stake.

The passion with which players approach the game suggests that they have no commitment to West Indies cricket.

They are not embracing the regional cause with the fervour required. What underlying conflicts may be hampering the harmony within the squad have to identified and eliminated.

Players have to take responsibility and make use of the opportunity to represent the region.

By the time the Pakistani tour is over, attention shifts to Afghanistan. They play three T/20 matches in St. Kitts, and three One Day Internationals in St. Lucia.

We ridicule our Caribbean history, smeared by a condensation of events most of a bizarre nature.

Cricket remains the platform of prospect.

We should not use it as a battering ram for individual or territorial gains.

Ian Weakly: „A track is like a hospital‰

Weakly began as a goal-keeper in his native Jamaica, but turned to track and field, with the 400m hurdles eventually becoming his speciality.

The Jamaican is a double time gold medallist Ian Weakly in the 400m hurdles at the Junior Carifta Games (1992 and 1993), as well as a Pan American silver medallist.

A former Jamaica national champion, Weakly has attended the Commonwealth Games on four occasions, and his bronze in the 400m Hurdles and a silver medallist in the 4x 400m at these Games, are reckoned as his major accomplishments.

Since retiring from track and field, Weakly has formed his own company called ‘All Stars Athletics’.

Among those under his ongoing care are World Indoor 60M Champion Barbara Pierre and WorldWeakly considers the Arnos Vale Playing Field as ‘good’, and suggests that at ranked Hurdler Johnny Dutch. least a four-lane track will make it better.

FORMER Jamaican hurdler Ian Weakly likens the significance of a synthetic (athletics) track in a country to that of a hospital.

Weakly, a certified athletes’ agent, made a stopover in St Vincent and the Grenadines last week.

Whilst acknowledging the Arnos Vale facility as relatively “good,” Weakly believes a track is a must. “ … It is like a hospital, it is that important,” he analogised.

“You need, though, to have something, albeit that the ultimate goal is to have a full 400 metres track …I see something even with four lanes …That has to be part of the planning in order to get to the next level,” Weakly suggested, adding that it was important for things to get moving soonest, based on what is unfolding in sports worldwide.

“This stage is the most important stage… When you move on, the technique you learn right now is what will take you through …There needs to be more support… You need more track meets, you need more things going on,” the former athlete said.

Weakly analysed that the procurement of a synthetic track must be viewed as part of the grander scheme of things, as it can assist other sporting disciplines.

He noted that a sports academy is the way to go.

Commenting on his observation of some of the athletics stock available here in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Weakly related: “I have seen the talent; all they have to do is apply themselves; all they want is the opportunity, the opportunity to excel in the same way as others.”

Roban to lead SVG U-15 HANDEL ROBAN will lead a 13man SVG Under 15 team in the Windward Islands Under 15 Tournament, starting on Sunday April 9 in Grenada.

Roban will be looking to use his all-round ability and experience from last year’s tournament, to help his team improve on their performances over the recent past.

“O’Jay Mathias, batsman, and off spinner Luke Wilson and I are the three players from last year’s tournament, and once we play to our ability and potential, and assist the other players and stick to our game plan, we will get results,” Roban said.

Coach of the team, former national fast bowler Jerome Samuel, believes the team’s bowling department is its strongest area, and is confident that, once some key batsmen spend some time at the wicket, the team will perform well.

Samuel whose last stint coaching at this level dated back since 2003 when he led the national team to the championship, has high expectation of the team.

“I am looking forward to the

players competing in every game, and gaining as much experience from this tournament as they look to develop their game. I would also like to see some of the players go on and represent National Under-15 team will be led the Windward

by Handel Roban (4th from left Islands Under standing).

15 team and hopefully the West Indies in Luke Wilson. the future”.

The five The SVG team will come up reserves are against other players around their Ranique Bowens, age group from Dominica, Newton Browne, defending champions St Lucia and Kurtney host Grenada in the tournament. Franklyn, Kyron Jerome The SVG team reads: Handel Samuel coach Lewis, Omarian Robin (Captain), O’Jay Mathews Samuel. of the team.

(Vice Captain), Akeem Alexander, The Soloman Bascombe, Coby Dabreo- Tournament will be played on a Butler, Jarrel Edwards, Dwayne round robin 50 Overs format.

Henry, Randy Joseph, Paulson Mack, Iruel Mathias Irvin I.B.A.ALLEN Warrican Jr, Azar Williams and

26. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. THE VINCENTIAN

V

THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2017. 27.

Classifieds

CAL comes to AIA CARIBBEAN Airlines (CAL) has confirmed that it will begin operating scheduled flights between the Argyle International Airport — SVG, and Piarco International Airport — Trinidad and Tobago, effective April 14, 2017.

The flights, serviced by CAL’s ATR aircraft, are scheduled for Fridays and Saturdays, and are expected to serve travellers with connections to North American destinations.

A release from the Argyle

International Airport authority said, also, that CAL “is working towards opening a Cuban gateway, which will benefit a wide range of travellers, including students who are studying in Cuba.”

CAL’s cargo service is also expected to commence soon, the release added.

CAL ATR aircraft In related news, communication from Coilin Ash, Caribbean region representative for Easy Sky Airlines, notified that that airline had been given approval from the Government of Cuba, to conduct flights to ASt. Vincent.

BARBARA CECILIA CLARKE WALKER

MITCHELL CLOUDEN

MRS. CARMELIA FAITHY LESLIE JOHN

Kingstown Seventh Day Adventist Church Sunday 2nd April 2017 2:00 p.m.

Georgetown Methodist Church Saturday 1st April, 2017 2:00 p.m.

Apostolic Faith Church Sunday 2nd April, 2017 2:30 p.m.

MURIEL JAMES Grace Baptist Church Mt. Greanan Saturday 1st April, 2017 2:00 p.m.

KATHLARON STEPHENS Bethel Gospel Assembly Saturday 1st April, 2017 2:00 p.m.

ARNETH FITZROY WARREN Joyful Praise Tabernacle Richland Park Saturday 1st April, 2017 2:30 p.m.

The National Newspaper of St. Vincent and the Grenadines

FRIDAY,

APRIL 07, 2017

VOLUME 111, No.14

F O R

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www.thevincentian.com

GREIGGS MAN MURDERED:

EC$1.50

Father sad, community rejoices

Amin Glasgow, the latest gunrelated victim.

way home in the company of his girlfriend last Friday night, when he was cornered and shot to death by an unknown assailant. His body was discovered in an alleyway leading to his home. He was the fifth and only son of six children for his father.

In an interview with THE VINCENTIAN at his home in Greiggs, Johnson said that he was a distance away from his home when he learned that his son had been shot.

When he arrived on the spot where his son had fallen, his son was already dead.

“When me come and me see me can’t do nothing, me just watch and see what them do him,” said Johnson, who also took issue with the length of time that elapsed between notifying the police and the arrival of a party of officers.

Johnson continued, “He never get arrested for any violent crime, because if it lef to me alone, I would ha tek action, but he go say no, leave them alone.”

Glasgow had his schooling at the Lowmans Windward Government School, and his father said his son was brought up as a “good boy,” but as he grew older things began to change, and persons started accusing him of being a thief. This led, he said, to his son spending a number of years in jail.

O’Neal Johnson admitted his son had some problems with the law, but Continued on Page 22. is saddened how certain persons rejoiced at his death.

by KENVILLE HORNE

A sense of joy O’NEAL JOHNSON, the father of a Greiggs man who was gunned down within walking distance of his home last week Friday between 10 and 11 p.m, said that, despite the fact that his son served prison time on a number of occasions, he had begun to change his life since finding a partner.

However, Amin Glasgow’s death was met with a sense of relief by many persons in the South Central Windward village.

Amin Glasgow, 31, was making his

Johnson lamented that there was a sense of joy among people in the community, over his son’s death.

He admitted his son had a history of run-ins with the law, but was saddened, “..dat de whole ah Greiggs ah rejoice, and he is not the baddest boy in ya (in the village). If yo’ look at his skin when he was alive, it just as if he was in a war from the ‘mount ah licks people give him and he never do The alleyway leading to Glasgow’s home is not used by vehicles. back somebody anything.”

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