News

Adult and youth groups from the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Anguilla were the organisers and presenters of one of the religiously-inspiring programmes on the island in run-up to Christmas.

The Christmas Season is depicted at North Side, just outside The Valley, in a most beautiful way that is attracting many people there at night after passing through the lighted and decorated Coronation Avenue.

There appears to be a flurry of social, cultural and religious initiatives these days springing from the imaginative ability of groups and individuals to preserve and revive various traditions, practices and beliefs that have helped to shape the lives of the people of Anguilla in the past and even at present.

Members of the Anguilla House of Assembly have been advised that while they are in a privileged position to say what they wish in parliament, they have to be careful not to repeat certain statements outside the House in public to avoid the possibility of being sued in court for libel or defamation.

The Ministry of Finance of the Government of Anguilla has crafted a budget of 339 million Eastern Caribbean dollars to meet the growing cost of the island’s public services and capital programme for 2009. It is the largest estimated expenditure so far from the island’s Treasury and a far cry from the days of a grossly under-developed public sector when the budget was “a mere drop in the bucket.”

The time is here again when The Valley town centre in Anguilla has brilliantly come alive by what is being called A Christmas Festival of Lights. Not only has he even heralded the season of peace, goodwill and merriment, but has provided a place to go at night from now until the end of the year to enjoy a varied programme of cultural events featuring, in the words of the brochure, An Ole Tyme Christmas. It has come just one week earlier than Festival D’ Noel, another cultural series of events at East End, commencing this Saturday, December 12.

It was exactly 33 years on Tuesday this week, December 2, since Leroy Errol Brooks, a most respected and beloved Anguillian was ordained to the Priesthood in the Ministry of the Anglican Church at St. John’s Cathedral in Antigua. A Thanksgiving Service to mark the anniversary occasion was held at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church on that evening, following the end of the Patronal Festival there.

The special appearance of our bordered front page denotes the silent observance of ten years since The Anguillian has been functioning as the island’s main weekly newspaper. The paper began publication on December 4, 1998. It was printed locally at Max Printing on the Stoney Ground Road for several years following which it was taken to the Daily Herald in St. Maarten for continued production.

Anguilla’s oldest citizen, Victoria Charles, has given admirers a recipe for longevity. “Eat plenty fish and ground provisions,” she told a gathering on the grounds of St. Gerard’s Roman Catholic Church on Sunday, November 30.

The Anguilla Government is concerned that although there has been a reduction in the cost of fuel per barrel on the world market, there has been no real drop price in at the pumps on the island.

Various groups and individuals involved in civil society came together in Anguilla from Tuesday this week in observance of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, at a two-day workshop and rally in condemnation of this violent ill-treatment of women and girls by men.

The National Bank of Anguilla Ltd proudly announced on Tuesday, November 25, that its West End Branch was now operational. The full-service facility was opened to the public on Monday, offering all the services and products currently available at the main branch in The Valley.

Shoal Bay Beach, on the north coast of Anguilla, is one of the island’s thirty-plus beaches which regularly attract many visitors particularly around this time during the tourist season.

Crowds of supporting children and adults stormed onto the fenced playground at Coronation Park on Monday, November 17, where the male members of the young football team from the Adrian T. Hazell Primary School were leaping in the air after winning the National Bank-sponsored Primary Schools Tournament.

Unlike some of the previous events, Anguilla’s 6th Annual Tranquility Jazz Festival, was basically uninterrupted by inclement weather conditions that usually result in rain showers early in November when the musical function gets underway. Thus, with no rain to worry about, the November 6-9 festival, under the regular theme “Straight Jazz No Chaser”, went very well at the locations at which the events were held.

Police in Anguilla now know that the information given to them by a suspicious man found at Little Harbour, on October 28, on the island’s south coast bordering French St. Martin, is entirely false.

Mothers in Anguilla have been told that if they were to nurse their babies for two years and more, they would provide them with the normal nutrition and protection against illness at a time when it is common among other toddlers.

Had it been possible, the late civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., would have leapt from his grave to see the day when an African-American in the person of Senator Barack Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States on Tuesday this week, November 4, 2008. Indeed, he might even acknowledge that we had “reached the mountain top” – a summit he strove for throughout his entire life.

Graduation 2008 at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School was “almost flawless and the school must be highly commended,” the Principal, Mrs. Ingrid Lake, said in a statement.

Faced by the gloomy prospect of a drowning death on March 14th this year when he was hurled overboard, while on a fishing trip east of Anguilla, Sam Webster of Island Harbour lamented that he would die without seeing “Obama become President of the United States”.