[FORMAL\nGREETINGS!]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[On the parade before\nus, in addition to all our excellent participants, there is a contingent of 19\nyoung Vincentians, males and females, who joined the Royal Navy and are here to\ncelebrate with us. We thank them! Further, Dr. Dave Yearwood, the Cadet who\nraised the original independence flag in 1979. \nLove for country is growing massive; appreciation of our independence is\nsimply phenomenal among our people.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today is the fortieth\nanniversary of our nation\u2019s reclamation of independence. On October 27, 1979, 216 years after the\ncommencement of the conquest and settlement of our country, the umbilical cord\nof British colonialism was formally severed, and the nation which we now know\nas St. Vincent and the Grenadines was born. \nImmediately prior to 1763, when Britain assumed suzerainty of this\ncountry, it was a self-governing nation belonging to the indigenous Callinago\nand Garifuna, led astutely by the Right Excellent Joseph Chatoyer, Paramount\nChief, our first and only National Hero, thus far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although European\ncontact with St. Vincent and the Grenadines first occurred in the late 15th<\/sup>\nand early 16th<\/sup> centuries, the rugged nature of our country and the\nresolute fighting spirit of independence and liberty of our indigenous\nforebears, kept European colonialism at bay until the latter decades of the 18th<\/sup>\ncentury. Indeed, it took British colonialism nearly 40 years to defeat and\nfinally subdue the Callinago and the Garifuna who waged a prolonged,\njustifiable guerrilla war to defend their land, their very existence, their\nsovereignty, their patrimony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In establishing a\ncolonial state and a plantation economy in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the\nBritish were ruthless and single-minded. \nIn the process, they carried out a campaign of native genocide and\nforced exile of most of the indigenous people; they instituted the enslavement\nof Africans between 1764 and 1838 \u2014 over 55,000 Africans were disembarked on\nslave ships between then and the end of the slave trade in 1807; and the\nBritish recruited as indentured servants nearly 6,000 \u201cliberated\u201d Africans,\nMadeiran Portuguese, and East Indians between the 1840s and 1881 to supplement\nthe labour of the nearly 23,000 enslaved Africans who were formally freed on\nEmancipation Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, within a\n100-year period after the British colonised St. Vincent and the Grenadines,\nthey remade this country by decimating the indigenous people, and bringing to\nit a ruling class of Anglo-Saxons, enslaved Africans, and indentured\n\u201cliberated\u201d Africans, Madeiran Portuguese, and East Indians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Through the fever of\nhistory and an extraordinary process of creolization, this very population mix\nplus a small number of more recent arrivants particularly from the Middle East\nand China, have fashioned an integrated society, possessed of a core of shared\nvalues, inclusive of our love of independence, liberty, the rule of law, and\nparliamentary democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [Indeed,\nmetaphorically, our St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as a vital part of a\nmagnificent Caribbean civilisation, is akin to a symphony: We are the songs of\nthe indigenous people \u2014 the Callinago and the Garifuna; we are the rhythm of\nAfrica, the melody of Europe, the chords of Asia, and the home-grown lyrics of\nthe Caribbean. To be sure, there are\noccasional dissonances in this integrated whole but these are addressed\nefficaciously through our in-built arrangements, fit for purpose.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amidst all the pain\nand suffering to which British colonialism subjected our country, including the\nlegacy of underdevelopment arising from native genocide, slavery and\nindentureship, it also bequeathed us at least five gifts: The common law, an\nindependent judiciary, parliamentary democracy, a sound public administration\nsystem, and the English language. \nSurely, though, none of these reasonably justifies genocide, slavery and\ntheir legacy of underdevelopment! In\nthat context, we, and the rest of CARICOM, continue to make the just demand for\nreparations for native genocide and the enslavement of our African forbears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In our 40th<\/sup>\nyear of the reclamation of independence \u2014 Renewal at 40! \u2014 it is important that\nwe correctly apply our historical lessons. \nFirst, it is wrong to ignore our history \u2014 it is not bunk; it has shaped\nus. Secondly, we must not sanitise or\nwhite-wash it \u2014 that approach is likely to deny us our very essence, thus\nadding to our burdens. Thirdly, we must\nnot live in history and stylise our sufferings in a permanent victimhood \u2014 that\napproach will hold us back by impossibly looking forward to a past while other\nnations are moving to the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead what we must learn\nfrom our history; let it be a noise in our blood, and echo in our bones, and\nembrace it to uplift ourselves, without rancor, though with sense and\nsensibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of all, we must\ndeepen our understanding of our past so as to avoid the desecration of the\nfuture. We must hold no malice or grudge\nagainst anyone; we are not better than anybody, but nobody is better than us!\nWe resolve differences through dialogue; we are for peace, not war; we embrace\npartnerships and multi-lateral engagements; we reject hegemony and hold aloft\ninternational law, the precepts of justice, and the settled, time-honoured\nprinciples which elevate humanity and the civilised relations within, and\nbetween, nation-states. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At Independence in\n1979, our Founding Fathers secured the following majestic words in the Preamble\nto our Constitution as reflecting the promises of our Independence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhereas\nthe People of the Islands of Saint Vincent, who are known as Vincentians \u2013<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Since 1979 successive\ngovernments, our institutions of State, and our people, have sought assiduously\nto give life and meaning to these very affirmations, freedoms, principles, and\nideals. We thank all our friends and\nallies in the region and globally, including our former colonisers, the British,\nwho have assisted, and are assisting us, in the realization of all this, and\nmore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our National Anthem\nresonates with like sentiments; its celebrated refrain teaches that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat e\u2019er the future brings,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our faith will\nsee us through,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n May peace\nreign from shore to shore,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And God bless\nand keep us true.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We accept in this\nregard, the Pauline teaching that: \u201cFaith is the substance of things hoped for,\nthe evidence of things not seen\u201d. But\nfaith without works is vanity, without deeds it is dead. So, we must do well; and we must not eat the\nbread of idleness. We must think and act\ncreatively and as the folk spiritual enjoins us to \u201cput a little oil in our\nlamp and keep it burning.\u201d We must not bury our talents; they ought always to\nbe developed and utilised for the benefit of the individual, the family, the\ncommunity, and the nation. And we must\nbe caring to our neighbours to whom we owe obligations. The promises of independence will not be\nfulfilled unless each of us does his\/her part in accordance with his\/her\nability and be rewarded justly for his\/her work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the dawn of the\n21st century, your government has embarked upon a quest to build a modern,\ncompetitive, many-sided, post-colonial economy which is at once national,\nregional, and global. Each of these\nwords is pregnant with real meaning. Accordingly,\na bundle of cross-cutting issues for this economic transformation has been\naddressed, including: Education, training, science and technology; poverty\nreduction, renewable energy; airport and seaport development; the physical\ninfrastructure of roads, bridges, and buildings; health and housing;\ninformation communications technology; citizenship security; good governance;\nregional integration; and productive partnerships globally. In the process, the economy has grown; and\nhas been transformed and consolidated, from one in which the production of\ngoods was dominant to one in which services constitute over 80 percent of the\ncountry\u2019s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employ more than three-quarters of\nthe working population. The level of our\nhuman development is high in this middle-income, resource-challenged, small\nisland developing state. There is, evidently, much for us to be thankful, as we\ncount our blessings and name them one by one. Investments are coming more and\nmore; more jobs are being created; the size of the economy is growing; and the\ncondition of people\u2019s lives and living is improving day-by-day; better days are\nhere, and coming ever more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, complex\nchallenges lay ahead arising from our internal weaknesses and limitations and\nfrom the complicated and oft-times dangerous condition of the external\npolitical economy. These compelling\ndifficulties include: the existential threat of climate change,\ndesertification, land degradation, and disruptions of our bio-diversity; a\nscarcity of material resources; youth unemployment, social inequality, and\nintractable pockets of indigence; the aging of the population; incidents of\ncriminality, violence, including sexual violence, and the challenges to citizen\nsecurity; fake news, disinformation, and their negative impact on a functioning\ndemocracy; the adverse economic, social and political fall-out from the new\nmachine age and Artificial Intelligence; the dangers of war, terrorism,\nbig-power hegemony, imperialism, and unrestrained monopoly capitalism; the\ndisruptions and impacts of dangerous global diseases; and the unravelling of\nglobal order, multi-lateralism, and a ruled-based system of international\nrelations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet, these challenges\nand threats do not paralyze us into inaction and learned helplessness or prompt\nus to adopt unsustainable approaches to development or any faddish mirages of\nthe day. In partnership with other\nnations in the region, our hemisphere, our traditional friends, and globally,\nincluding Africa and Asia, we shall overcome our challenges; we shall remain\nfocused and creative; we shall further fortify our hard and smart work; and we\nshall be our brothers\u2019 and sisters\u2019 keepers. \nWe shall uplift further our nation. \nWe shall not be idle or faint-hearted, nor weary in our efforts to exalt\nevery valley, make low every mountain of obstacles, turn the crooked straight,\nand smooth that which is rough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, at this 40th<\/sup>\nanniversary of our reclamation of independence, we renew our strength; we mount\nup with wings as eagles; we shall run and not be weary; we shall walk and not\nfaint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fellow Vincentians,\non January 1st<\/sup>, 2020, St. Vincent and the Grenadines will take its\nseat as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council as the\nsmallest country ever to be so elected by the United Nations General\nAssembly. St. Vincent and the\nGrenadines, our Latin American and Caribbean region and the rest of the world\nrejoiced at our extraordinary, historic electoral triumph on June 07, 2019. Almost\nall of the representatives of the world\u2019s 7.5 billion people, considered our\ncountry and its government worthy of a seat on the highest global council\nentrusted with the consideration of global peace and security, and thus of\nprosperity. Our visionary 10-year\ncampaign for such an elevated seat at the global table succeeded magnificently\ndespite initial, and sustained, derision by unwise detractors at home, who pull\ndown St. Vincent and the Grenadines all the time, and critics abroad. It is the same derision which, at first, met\nour visionary proposals to build a bridge over the vast Rabacca River, to\nconstruct the seemingly impossible Argyle International airport, to carry out the\nsupposedly unreachable Education Revolution, and to reduce poverty and\nundernourishment from 25 percent of the population to under 5 percent in a ten-year\nperiod or thereabouts. Morning by\nmorning new mercies we see; all that we need His hand hath provided; great is His\nfaithfulness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Listening to me today\nis a very special group of 18 Vincentians who turn 40 years; they were born on\nOctober 27, 1979. I call them by name\nand celebrate with them and their families on this their birthday:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fellow Vincentians,\nas usual, I have a few especial announcements to make, actually 20 in all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, from January\n2020, the monthly public assistance paid to poor and vulnerable persons,\nnumbering approximately 4,500, will be increased by $25.00. Thus, recipients who are over 65 years of age\nwill be paid $275 monthly; those under 65 years of age, $250 monthly. Our profound commitment to the poor\ncontinues. I expect that in the new\nyear, too, the minimum pension paid by the National Insurance Services will\nincrease appropriately after the usual review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, some 112\nstaff nurses and nursing assistants in the Community Nursing Services who were\ndue certain on-call and weekend allowances but were not paid for various reasons,\nwill be all paid in full these allowances in their December 2019 pay packet, the\nrate of $250 monthly for the staff nurses and $125 monthly for nursing\nassistants. Individual payments ranging\nfrom $375 to $28,875 will be paid; the aggregate of these payments amount to\n$995,332.56. I thank the nurses who\nbrought this matter to my attention three or so months ago. I am pleased that we are righting this wrong!\nAt the same time, I remind all our nurses and nursing assistants of their\nongoing obligation to deliver the best service possible to the various\ncommunities. Please do not let us down; you are precious to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Third, the final\nbatch of teachers, amounting to just under 100, who obtained university degrees\nbut were not appointed as university graduates, although they receive a\ngraduate allowance, will be appointed as graduate teachers in January\n2020. Henceforth, the appointments will\nproceed as a matter of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fourth, as has been\ndone in respect of the graduate teachers, our government will embark on a\nsimilar process from January 2020 to address the position of the unappointed\nuniversity graduates in the public service, roughly 140 in number, at the\nappropriate grade level. The Education\nRevolution has occasioned a massive increase in university graduates; the\npublic service establishment has to be reformed to accommodate this welcome\ndevelopment in university training. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fifth, in this 40th<\/sup>\nyear of independence, hundreds of outstanding land title issues for grantees of\nstate lands will be resolved to ensure the receipt of proper title; more\ndistribution of housing lots will take place, too, as the land surveys and the\nrequisite infrastructure are done. This\ngovernment has, thus far, distributed, or accorded titles for, housing lots in\nexcess of 4,500. On last Wednesday at Cabinet, nearly 200 titles to state lands\nwere approved; tomorrow at a ceremony at Rabacca, 139 formal letters regarding\nthese land titles will be distributed individually. We shall continue to turn dead property into\nlive property; and we shall assist our nationals, always, in putting a roof\nover their heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sixth, a clean-up\nKingstown Campaign is about to commence. \nThe Minister of Works will make the relevant announcements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seventh, the Public\nAccess for Village Enhancement (PAVE) costing approximately EC $6 million is\nabout to start. All over the country, on\nour rugged terrain, scores of paved footpaths will be built over the next year\nas a 40th<\/sup> anniversary gift to occupiers of their homes, in pursuit\nof the easing of access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eighth, a $3 million\nroad-cleaning programme will be instituted towards the end of next month as a\nfollow-up to the $2.5 million road cleaning in late August-early September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ninth, over the next\nfew months, the Medical Cannabis Authority (MCA) will provide $1.3 million in\nassistance to traditional marijuana growers who have been licenced to\ntransition into the legal medical cannabis industry. The MCA will also provide educational, health,\nand rehabilitative support in the sum of $200,000 to assist drug users who have\na dependency on drugs. Further, the\ngovernment will carry out a land distribution plan on over 200 acres of land on\nthe north western part of St. Vincent for traditional workers and growers who\nare transitioning to medicinal cannabis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tenth, during the\nnext twelve months, 35 housing units will be built by government at the Lowmans\nBay area to accommodate the resettlement of 35 families from the Bay Front at\nRose Place, the site for the Modern Port. \nArrangements are also being made for the relocation of the boats to\nEdinboro. There will be a magnificent transformation, in the people\u2019s interest,\nover the next few years, in the Rose Place area consequent upon the completion\nof the Modern Port Facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eleventh, a shipment\nof 5,160 sacks of fertiliser from Taiwan will be distributed to farmers at\nhighly subsidised prices to boost further agricultural production. A grant,\nfree of cost, of 40 sacks of fertiliser to each of the 16 registered\nagricultural cooperatives will be made. Note the symbolism of 40! Big up the farmers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Twelfth, the physical\ninfrastructure for our judicial system and parliamentary democracy will be\nstrengthened consequent upon the recent decision of the government of the\nRepublic of China (Taiwan) to support a soft-loan of US $20 million from a\nTaiwanese bank to construct a modern Parliament building and Court House\nComplex on two parcels of land almost obliquely opposite the headquarters of\nthe Ministry of Agriculture on Richmond Hill Road. [One of the parcels of land\nwhich was acquired by the government, is still enmeshed in litigation on the\nissue of the extent of the compensation. Our government is anxious to have that\nmatter resolved, if possible through negotiation and mediation.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thirteenth, the\ncommencement date for duty-free Christmas barrels and packages is Monday\nNovember 18, 2019; the duty-free concession will run until December 31,\n2019. This is the 19th<\/sup>\nsuccessive year that this government has offered this concession. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fourteenth, please\nkeep your eyes and ears open for a number of national and community projects,\ninclusive of roads, which will be formally commissioned or launched over the\nnext few weeks and months. There is a\nhuge number of them. One which touches my heart is the impending opening of a\nrehabilitated building and associated structures to accommodate, temporarily,\nour indigent elderly at the Lewis Punnett Home until the construction of a\nmodern geriatric facility at the existing site. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fifteenth, three deserving\nnationals are being accorded the status of Cultural Ambassador: Kingsley \u201cHero\u201d\nRoberts (pan player and arranger, musician, song writer, and calypsonian; Peggy\nCarr (Poet and veritable mother to our students in Taiwan); and Cherry Ince,\nwho currently resides in New York (musician, song writer, musical arranger, and\nmusic producer).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Five Sporting\nAmbassadors are also being appointed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sixteenth, the\nproject for the writing of a comprehensive \u201cHistory of St. Vincent and the\nGrenadines\u201d is being elaborated through the efforts of four Vincentian\nhistorians: Dr. Michael Dennie, Dr. Adrian Fraser, Dr. Cleve Scott, and Dr.\nArnold Thomas. Cabinet has already\napproved the initial budget. The\ngovernment will fund the project fully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seventeenth, during\nthis 40th<\/sup> year of reclaimed independence, a final determination will\nbe made in time for National Heroes Day 2020 for the elevation to the status of\nNational Hero of one or more of the following persons: George Mc Intosh,\nEbenezer Joshua, Robert Milton Cato, and John P. Eustace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Eighteenth, a\nCommittee is being established by Cabinet to examine, review, and engage in\npublic consultation regarding the naming and\/or renaming of various public\nplaces, streets, and buildings. The\noverwhelming number of Vincentians considers that some colonially-named public\nspaces, including streets, ought to be renamed. \nIt is part and parcel of the exercise of remaking ourselves in own image\nto fit our collective sense, and sensibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nineteenth, during\nthe coming twelve months, especial efforts would be made to honour\nappropriately dozens of our citizens, who have excelled in this or that\nuplifting human endeavour. The various\ncommunities will be asked to assist in the elaboration of a permanent Honours\nRoll, as a fitting memory to our exemplars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, the\nactivities under the recently-launched Sport Against Crime and Renewal at 40! will\nbe ramped up over the next twelve months. \nAll hands and minds are needed for these two initiatives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fellow Vincentians,\nas a nation, we have made extraordinary progress, particularly since the onset\nof our people\u2019s social democratic revolution, following the anti-colonial\nuprising of 1935. Seminal tasks of that\nsocial democratic revolution have been accomplished, many others have been\npartially achieved, and yet others are still work-in-progress as the practical\ncircumstances, at home and abroad, undergo alterations, change, and\ntransformation in every material particular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Successive\ngenerations of our people \u2014 men and women \u2014 of all classes, ethnicities,\nstatus, and affiliations, have worked hard and smart to build this magnificent\nnation \u2014 small in size and population \u2014 which we call our home and which is\ncelebrated by right-thinking persons at home and abroad. The names of our political leaders \u2014 Joseph\nChatoyer, George Augustus Mc Intosh, Ebenezer Theodore Joshua, Robert Milton\nCato, James Mitchell, Ralph, and others \u2014 have been accorded the historical and\ncontemporary headlines, but the ordinary men and women of our lands and seas\nhave made St. Vincent and the Grenadines what it is with their daily, unsung\ncontributions. Our families, led by our\nindomitable women who in their daily heroism also fathered us, are our solid\nfoundation stones. We treasure them all;\nwe celebrate them; and pledge to honour them, day-by-day sweet Jesus, with our\nlove, caring, and respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I see today our\nelderly, unadorned, but distinguished; they reckon weather in their heads; they\nwear their ages on their faces and wisdom in their eyes; they feel the keen\ncommitment to their families and native land in their bones; they have survived\nthe sting of the sun and the whip of the rain to deliver a better world for us;\nthey still read the day\u2019s events from the dawn of the morning; and they deserve\ntheir quality days unto the sunset mask of evenings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is blissful for us\nall to be alive but to be young is very heaven. \nOur youths in this their heavenly condition must embrace and feel the\nsunlight of promise glowing on their skins and stirring in their blood; to be\ndeterred by nothing; to be not afraid of their future; and to absorb everything\nthat the daylight of their lives, offers. \nWe lift up our children and young people; we thank God for them; and we\nenvelop them with our love as our blessings, now and forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of us present\nhere today must endeavour to come home to ourselves; in this way we get to know\nour beginning and our end. We are all\ntime; only the future is ours to desecrate; the present is the past; and the\npast our fathers\u2019 mischiefs. As we\nreflect on our history, its hysteria, its pain and suffering, its joys and\ntriumphs, we choose not to lie down innocently and in lethargy like a tired\nriver meeting a turbulent sea. Instead,\nwe make our own story from our history; we do so with a patience and a calm but\nyet with all the energy we can summon, knowing that sun brightens stone and a\nredeeming grace, though not seen is always at hand, the melodies of which when\nheard are sweet, but unheard, yet resonant, are sweeter! By this amazing grace,\nif lost we will be found; if blind we will see! How great thou art!<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the Prophet Micah\nadvises us, we must: do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Happy 40th<\/sup>\nanniversary of independence, SVG!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [FORMAL GREETINGS!] [On the parade before us, in addition to all our excellent participants, there is a contingent of 19 young Vincentians, males and females, who joined the Royal Navy and are here to celebrate with us. We thank them! Further, Dr. Dave Yearwood, the Cadet who raised the original independence flag in 1979. Love<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":344,"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-7384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"\n