Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has advised overseas based sympathizers who want to support friends and relatives in the ongoing La Soufriere explosive eruptions to make use of the locally available money transfer services as they attempt to reach out in solidarity, instead of possibly inundating the local customs with individual care packages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDo not send little individual packages and so on, it creates a lot of problems at the Port at the moment. What you do, you\u2019re overseas [and] you want to help people? Send the money through Western Union \u2026 and we\u2019re going to urge Western Union to keep \u2026 operating their services \u2013 well all [of] the money services because you\u2019d have your ID card with you in the shelter\u2026.\u201d Dr. Gonsalves said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He further exhorted the Vincentian Diaspora \u201cto work in groups,\u201d a movement he said was already underway in New York City. This cooperative approach, PM Gonsalves posited, would provide the necessary \u201cvolume\u201d that would \u201cmake things easier for us.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Vincentian Prime Minister expanded on his proffered counsel while responding to a listener\u2019s query regarding the possible the continuation of his Cabinet\u2019s duty free concessions on imported barrels and packages policy. The initiative was re-introduced in May last year as one measure meant to help cushion the COVID-19 economic fallout. It should have expired on August 31, 2020 and was restricted to three pieces per household.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said, \u201cconcessions continue but I am urging people, \u2018do this thing in a coordinated manner where you\u2019re coming from: in New York or Miami or wherever.\u2019 You don\u2019t want, at this time, where we are having lots of vessels coming with lots of stuff to unload to be dealing with a multiplicity of small quantities with other things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He further highlighted Dominica\u2019s experience following a particularly devastating disaster as one rationale behind his advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019d remember a vessel from Trinidad [carried] a lot of individual packages [from] enthusiastic Dominicans and so on and other Trinidadians; they were waiting for about a week in the harbor in Roseau before they could actually be cleared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome of the stuff even spoilt. Because \u2013 look there are systems and we have to work the systems and your good intentions, we appreciate and your help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“But from a management stand point \u2013 disaster management \u2013 we have to make sure we are efficient at the port. It\u2019s as simple as that in terms of what we are moving.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even as Prime Minister Dr. Gonsalves shared this advice early Monday morning, scores of Vincentians gathered outside two branches of the local Moneygram and Western Union agents. Others have reported using locally developed fin-tech applications Squeeze Cash and PaySwif to digitally manage their local and international money transfer needs using only their mobile phones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
JP.Schwmon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has advised overseas based sympathizers who want to support friends and relatives in the ongoing La Soufriere explosive eruptions to make use of the locally available money transfer services as they attempt to reach out in solidarity, instead of possibly inundating the local customs with individual care packages. \u201cDo not<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":21960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"\n
JP.Schwmon.Vincy@Gmail.Com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"