Local News

Anguilla joined regional and international countries in observing World Statistics Day on Wednesday this week, October 20, at the General Post Office in The Valley. The opportunity was taken by the Statistical Department of the Ministry of Finance to launch Anguilla’s Housing and Population Census due to commence on May 11, 2011.

Now an annual event, the Environmental Health Unit held its annual Spelling Bee at the Rodney MacArthur Auditorium on October 19th. The competition follows the long established intramural format of the five house system in which students belonging to a particular coloured house compete against other students in everything from athletics to academics. This storied competitive spirit was epitomized when Maroon, Orange, Pink, Purple and Yellow houses all competed in the highly touted Environmental Health Unit annual Spelling Bee.

Excited and culturally-attired, young and adult nationals took to the stage in a series of splendid performances at the Rodney MacArthur Rey Auditorium on Monday evening, October 11, for the launching in grand style of the book, Anguilla’s Battle For Freedom 1967-1969. The informative and stimulating book was written by leading historian, Colville Petty, along with Nat Hodge.

St. James School of Medicine, located in The Quarter, Anguilla, is progressing very well with a full student body including two Anguillian students among others from the United States and Canada. In addition to the two nationals, who have been awarded scholarships by the institution, is one Anguillian lecturer in the person of Dr. O. M. Linda Banks, who is teaching Medical Psychology.

Police: more burglaries, more thefts
During the period October 6th to October 13th, three burglaries were reported in South Hill, Blowing Point and The Valley. The items stolen included a flat screen TV, jewelry, DVDs, an IPOD and cash. There were also four thefts reported in Stoney Ground, Blowing Point, Old Ta and North Side. Items stolen included a 750-gallon water tank, bicycles and cash. One robbery took place in South Hill.

The Government of Anguilla, like the People of this island has heard the news item on one of the local broadcasting stations “UPBEAT” which made certain references to possible intentions on the part of the UK Government to declare Anguilla a failed state. The Government of Anguilla however, through its UK representatives made enquiries of the Foreign Office who have confirmed that there is no truth to the story. As such the Government of Anguilla continues to progress its agenda.

I am encouraged by the large turnout this evening, but particularly delighted to see in the audience some of my former history students of the Valley Secondary School of the late 1960s. Iwandai was one of those students, and I am pleased to see how deeply he has become involved in the study of history, and in its dissemination, almost daily, over Upbeat Radio. He has a very good understanding of the role of history in the total development of a people, and for that I applaud him loudly.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has designated a special day called “Senior Citizens Day.” On Saturday October 2, 2010 special services were held at the Mount Fortune and the Long Bay Adventist congregations for affirming senior citizens and recognition of their contributions to Anguilla.

Her Majesty’s Prison and the Church came face to face this week on the issue of caring for those committed to their trust. That was when Prison Officers, other personnel, and those in the Governor’s Office and the Ministry of Social Development, responsible for the operation and administration of the facility respectively, attended the Christian Assembly Church on Sunday, October 10.

A new Minimum Wage Advisory Committee, replacing the one established three years ago, has been set up by the Anguilla Government to protect the unskilled and semi-skilled workers in all sectors of the economy.
In making the announcement at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Minister of Labour, Walcott Richardson, said the minimum wage system was aimed at ensuring that all Anguillians have access to a basic acceptable standard of living.

In these tough economic times, all across the world and certainly here in Anguilla, it is a sad reality that there are many for whom financial security is but a dream. Some perhaps are hesitant, or even afraid, to dream about financial security, as they find it difficult enough to cope with the day-to-day reality of meeting their living expenses, loan repayments and other inescapable commitments.

This week Anguilla is beset by rumours that Anguilla is a “failed state” and that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) intends to suspend the Constitution by Order in Council and put Anguilla under higher supervision. Simply put, to take over the country and run it as now obtains in the Turks and Caicos Islands. A senior “reporter/journalist” from one of the leading radio stations on the island has been credited with releasing a statement to that effect which was picked up by one of the many “AUM sympathetic” talk shows and was spread around the island like wild fire.

On October 17th 2009 I declared to the people of Anguilla that I was going to be a candidate in the 2010 general elections and contest the seat in Valley North. When I took this stand I did so with humility and honor. Moreover, I did so recognizing its significance. In order to contest the general elections of 2010 it required me to give up my job at Cable and Wireless, now Lime. More so, it meant that I was taking a stand to serve the people of my country, a stance that will never waiver.

When I first visited Anguilla in the early Summer of 1967, sent from London by the Daily Telegraph and Daily Express to cover the revolution in what was being dubbed “The Rebel Union Jack Island”, there were but two places to stay, the Rendezvous Bay Hotel and Lloyd’s Guest House, and on various reporting visits over the next 18 months I stayed at one or the other.

A five-day mass casualty management workshop, funded by the Pan American Health Organisation, has been a main focus in Anguilla this week at Masara Resort, Katouche, with a number of participants drawn from key departments in the public sector in attendance.

Thomas Hodge, the Managing Director of ANGLEC, Anguilla’s National Utility, and Beth Barry, Coordinator of the Anguilla Renewable Energy Office, travel this week to represent their country at the 2010 Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum (CREF). CREF is the region’s most significant gathering of policy-makers, utilities, RE developers, development banks, private equity firms, NGOs, and other key stakeholders. It takes place at Atlantis, The Bahamas, on October 14th and 15th.

Colville L. Petty and Nat A. Hodge have again given this island’s people cause to pause to investigate the past, to celebrate the present and to appreciate the obligations to future generations. They have reworked Anguilla’s Battle for Freedom 1967, a book that was first published in 1987 to give tangible print form to the events of The Anguilla Revolution at the occasion of the 20th anniversary of said event. The restyled book appears today in bigger, bolder, better form.

Anguilla’s Chief Minister and Minister of Finance, Hubert Hughes, told reporters at a press conference on Monday this week that various questions relating to financial matters which he was asked by the Minister for the British Overseas Territories, Henry Bellingham, MP, were not for him to answer. One of the questions relates to a note signed by Mr. Hughes in which he instructed the Chairman of the Social Security Board to borrow US$200 million from a bank in Texas.

The cultural and historical launching of Anguilla’s Battle for Freedom 1967-1969, originally planned for Tuesday, October 5, at the Teachers’ Resource Centre, has had to be rescheduled due to inclement weather.

The Atlantic British Overseas Territory of Bermuda has been lauded for assisting Anguilla, its sister territory, with a costly fire truck to replace the island’s main fire and rescue vehicle which was severely damaged when it overturned last year. The replacement truck was handed over at the Clayton Lloyd International Airport on Monday, October 4, at a ceremony at which Government officials from both Anguilla and Bermuda were in attendance.