Nevis, West Indies. ?A Non-Tourist-Trap? Blog About Nevis.

PM Douglas (l) Receives Key To Caguas
Photo By Erasmus Williams

Caguas, Puerto Rico
September 30, 2009 (CUOPM)

The Puerto Rican Municipality of Caguas Wednesday night recognised St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas for his “services, values and extraordinary efforts and initiatives” that have placed him “in the contemporary history of our Caribbean region in the fields of public service, medicine, civil society and politics.”


Prime Minister Douglas “has been a key figure in the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party and a public servant in your nation, but the integration efforts in the Eastern Caribbean Region have found in you a key ally and supporter,” said Acting Mayor of Caguas, the Hon. Wilfredo Puig as he symbolically presented the Keys to the City.

The Acting Mayor told Prime Minister Douglas at a dinner in his honour in the presence of the cream of the Caguas business community that he has been a “tenacious fighter in the defence of the regional interests in all the international and global forums you have had the opportunity to speak.”

Acting Mayor Puig said that presentation of the key to the city over the centuries has been a symbol of authority, governance and sovereignty.

“It has been given to honorary visitors as an expression of friendship, distinction, hospitality and trust,” said the Acting Mayor who said he was making the presentation on behalf of Mayor, the Hon. William Miranda Marin “as a symbol of our friendship, respect and trust for your work and important role for the whole Caribbean Region.”

He said the key should be regarded as a symbol of the opening of the heart and will of all Puerto Rican nationals and of the economy to welcome the citizens of the different Eastern Caribbean States to Puerto Rico.

“Let’s make this key a symbol of our desire to take our economic, political and cultural relations to a higher level. Let’s make this key a symbol of an open invitation for the Eastern Caribbean to see in Puerto Rico a partner in the challenging journey of finding a competitive and strong position in the context of globalisation,” said the top Caguas official.

He said that the presentation of the key to Prime Minister Douglas is also a “commitment in the process of building a stronger and more democratic Caribbean region in which all of our citizens have more and better opportunities to develop and succeed.”

The Acting Mayor in presenting the key to Prime Minister Douglas, who is also the current Chairman of the OECS Authority, said the key is a symbol of the “strong historical and cultural ties that brig our nations together and a “new era in the relationship between the Eastern Caribbean and Puerto Rico.”

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Students To Receive Training In Trinidad

Charlestown, Nevis
September 30, 2009

Minister of Social Development and Youth on Nevis Hon. Hensley Daniel said the Nevis Island Administration’s (NIA) decision to send young men to pursue technical studies in Trinidad and Tobago, was no accident. He said the move was part of the Nevis Government’s strategic intervention to develop the island’s youth.

Mr Daniel made the comment just before the departure of a second group of 20 young men who left Nevis on Friday for the Metal Industries Company Ltd. in Trinidad to pursue studies in electricity, automotive technology, welding, plumbing, masonry and carpentry.

“This is strategic intervention and this has everything to do with the development of young people; it has everything to do with creating a new kind of mind in a new kind of Nevis. It has everything to do with creating a new platform for the development of young people,” he said.

According to Mr. Daniel, the NIA had the option to allow the facilitators to come to Nevis to administer the courses. However, it was decided that the trainees would be better served if they were given the opportunity to experience another culture, work in an environment where there was technology and to give those who had not, the opportunity to travel.

He explained that Trinidad was the most industrialised island in the Caribbean with its oil based economy and allied industries which created a great opportunity for training.

Mr. Daniel used the opportunity to record the NIA’s gratitude to MIC who had worked with the Administration to ensure the success of the programme.

“I think they [MIC] would tell you that we have surpassed our Caribbean brothers and sisters in so far as this training is concerned.

“We have surpassed the training in the sense that we have connected with the thing that matters most – equipping the young people for the future. We take the view that education and this kind of training, is the way we equip today’s young people for tomorrow’s possibilities,” he said.

The Minister told the trainees that the NIA had provided a great opportunity to them through the MIC programme. He said they should bear in mind, that several governments in the region wished they could afford their youths similar opportunities but were unable to be a part of the programme due to hard economic times.

“We are the smallest island government in the region and we are doing this at a time when all the other countries are cutting programmes for young people. This programme is costing us a tidy sum of money but it is an investment we must do.

We made a commitment to send at least one batch of students per year, we think in good economic times we can send more than one but we are committed to doing one,” he said.

The Minister noted, that the group of 20 young men who were drawn from every parish on the island, would have to make a difference in their various communities on their return.

“We will learn to live together in the same building, you will cook together and you will bond. The idea is on returning to Nevis, you will help us to deal with this rising trend towards anti social behaviour and gang culture.

“We will live together from different parts, we have carefully selected people from every single parish in Nevis and we expect you to go to Trinidad and do your best,” he said.

Mr. Daniel also told the trainees that the training should not be taken lightly and at the end of their stint in Trinidad the NIA would have equipped a total of 37 certified young men, with lifelong skills that would make them marketable.

The youths were accompanied by Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Social Development Mr. Alstead Pemberton to ensure that everything was in place for the students. He is expected to return to Nevis shortly.

Related posts:

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Visual Displays For “Cool Kids Go Green”

Basseterre, St. Kitts – Nevis
September 30, 2009 (SKNIS)

“Cool Kids Go Green” is the slogan being used by a group of young people in St. Kitts, as they try to get peers and the general public more conscious of caring for the environment.

The group was featured on this week’s SKNIS Perspectives, as part of a special edition which highlighted the consequences of climate change and the response of the global community.

“Honestly, I don’t think the message has gone across as strongly as we had hoped,” said group member Zoe Gonsalves, who was supported by Jomo Bacchus and Tuwold Slader during the interview. “We are hoping that we can … continue to send the message and try to get more people involved in keeping the environment clean and reducing their carbon footprint.”

The young people are part of a 12-member group that is affiliated with the international Emerging Global Leaders Programme. Students from Verchild’s and Basseterre High Schools as well as the C.F.B. College make up the local club.

Last Friday, members participated in a beach clean up campaign organized by the Ministry of Sustainable Development. They also held a Fun Day at Independence Square on Saturday, where environmental displays and literature were on hand to educate passersby.

In order to reach more people, the group plans to have similar activities in the future and would like more persons to participate in beach cleanups to get a first hand account of the severe damage that is caused to the coast as well as the sea.

Excerpts of presentations from the United Nations’ September 22 Summit on Climate Change, which drew 100 world leaders to New York, were featured on Perspectives. Segments of a video message by St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Honourable Dr. Denzil Douglas, who urged immediate action by developed countries, were also aired.

The youth were encouraged by recent statement from world leaders including United States President Barack Obama, who has acknowledged the dangers of climate change and pledged to do more to reverse global warming by reducing carbon emissions.

“It’s not going to be just us saying it,” Zoe stressed, “It’s going to be coming from the top [down] so it is definitely going to be helpful to us.”

Tuwold noted that locals should be more conscious about their surroundings as “every little bit contributes to the big picture. Even in our small island, cutting down pollution [does] a great, great deal in saving our planet,” he concluded.

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