Local News

Last weekend the Soroptimist Club of Anguilla celebrated its 27th Anniversary with a dinner and a church service. The dinner was held on Saturday August 16 at the English Rose (upstairs) Restaurant. The church service took place on Sunday August 17 at the Zion Methodist Church at North Hill.
Soroptimist Audrey Rogers chaired the dinner event and welcomed the guests that included His Excellency the Governor Andrew George and Mrs George who is the Patron of the Club, Hon Minister of Finance, Victor Banks, Attorney General Wilhelm Bourne and Mrs Bourne who is a Soroptimist.

On Tuesday 5 August 5 2008, eight members of the Anguilla Youth Association (AYA) travelled to Barbados to attend Caribbean Youth Vibes 2. This five-day conference was held at the Barbados Beach Club and hosted representatives from across the Caribbean. The participating countries included Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and host country Barbados.
Caribbean Youth Vibes was founded by the Caribbean Health Lifestyle Project (C-HLP), which was established in 2000 to increase the involvement of Caribbean young people in physical activity and to promote the value of healthy lifestyle choices. C-HLP aims to combine sports with personal development in an effort to instil a value of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, along with fostering leadership capacity among youths.

One of the main goals of the Anguilla Tennis Academy is to provide educational opportunities through tennis. For that reason, both Vallan Hodge and Denny Derrick are currently in Richmond, Virginia at the Robious Sports, Club trying to impress the various college coaches in attendance. The College Week Tennis Camp is managed by Cris Robinson, Director of Tennis at Robious. He has generously invited Denny and Vallan to be his guests free of charge.

The National Bank of Anguilla, which sponsored the first Annual Business League Basketball Tournament, has presented awards to the winning teams.
The presentation of trophies was made at the closing ceremony held in the Bank’s Board Room on Friday, August 15. The six teams which participated in the tournament represented the National Bank, Caribbean Commercial Bank, the Fire Department, and teams from Boarder Protection, Klem Construction and the Department of Infrastructure.

The staff of the Department of Probation concluded two weeks of training on Core Skills Development on July 18th 2008. The training while hosted by the Department of Probation, invited representatives from the Department of Education, Department of Social Development and HM Prison. Mr. Nigel Miller and Mrs. Lyn Fox of the Wales Training Consortium, part of the National Offender Management Service of London and Wales, conducted the training and commended all of the participants on their successful completion.

A prize giving ceremony was held at the newly opened Sweetest Taboo, in George Hill, for the contestants of the Miss Anguilla show 2008. The members of the Queen Show Organizing Committee, (headed by Rebecca Webster), chaperones, contestants and sponsors joined together for food and drinks to celebrate yet another wonderful show. Ms. Webster said, “This was a wonderful show thanks to everyone here. The turn out was even better than last year and everyone did a wonderful job.”

Officials at the OECS Secretariat say the delivery of social services must be improved in order to effectively implement new legislation on Family Law and Domestic Violence in the OECS.

The Anguilla Male Volleyball team recently participated in the annual OECS Volleyball championships which were held in St.Kitts from the 14th-17th August 2008. The team played with tenacity in their first match as they battled furiously against St. Martin. Unfortunately, after winning the first set and needing only five points to win the second set, Anguilla suffered a monumental collapse which resulted in them loosing the match 3 sets to 1 in favor of French St. Martin. Anguilla also suffered defeats against St.Kitts (3 sets-0 set), St.Lucia (3 sets –0 set) but showed mastery of the game by winning one set from Dominica (3 sets -1 set).

Speaker of The House, The Hon. David Carty, returned from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last week where he attended the 54th Plenary Conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA). The CPA comprises 53 nations, large and small, spanning the globe and is committed to the maintenance and development of Parliamentary practice and Democracy. Mr. Carty was invited by the Secretary General of the CPA to make a presentation on behalf of the Caribbean region to the conference on the world food crisis and the environment. Below is the text of Mr. Carty’s speech which he delivered to the Plenary Conference on August 8th.

The 1st Annual Anguilla Invitational Golf Classic kicked off on Friday night, August 15, with a reception at the Dune Preserve. This fundraising event was well attended and highly successful. Golfers, invitees and organizers shared great company and camaraderie for a good cause. Food and drinks were provided and patrons also had the opportunity to begin bidding on various items in a silent auction. Among the items were a great deal of artwork (done by the students of the school) as well as various hotel stays, dinners and other tangible items.

One of Anguilla’s well-focused young ladies, the Reverend Erica Carty-Lewis, is officially due to take up an appointment as Methodist Superintendent Minister of the Barbados Ebenezer Circuit with effect from September 1. She has been designated to the post there since the last sitting of the Synod of the Methodist Church in the South Caribbean.

Anguilla has the distinction of having contributed more Ministers to the Methodist Church in the Caribbean than anywhere else in the region and one of them is the Reverend Dr. Serchal Wilfred Hodge who has just celebrated fifty years in the ministry. Though now a Supernumerary Minister, he remains actively involved in his home church and is a well-beloved person supported greatly by his wife, Mrs. Jean Hodge, an accomplished musician and a retired educator, and many in church and community life.

It has been confirmed that employees in the Anguilla Public Service, who were awarded a 20% pay increase last year, will receive a further rise following a recent salary revision.

The Anguillian has become aware of a circular letter from Flag Luxury Properties issued to a further number of employees advising them that they were being laid off indefinitely and without pay. The affected workers, in this case, reportedly include office and field personnel (local and from outside the island) and are in addition to the construction workers who were laid off on July 31 by Ashtrom, the Israeli construction company.

The up-market Covecastles Resort, comprising a cluster of elegant villas at Shoal Bay West, closed out the 2007/2008 season with awards to two of its long-serving employees and a sumptuous lunch for its 33-member staff on Friday, August 15. Present at the occasion were the resort’s principals, Myron and June Goldfinger, both of whom were delighted to celebrate the workers.

Mrs Sherille Hughes, the General Manager of Paradise Cove, has been elected as Third Vice President of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), previously known as the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA), at the recent Annual General Meeting.

“This race of ours gave civilization, gave art, gave science, gave literature to the world”
(Jamaican, Marcus Mosiah Garvey born on 17 August 1887)

Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser, at 21 takes Olympic gold in women’s 100m in 10.78 seconds.
Sister Jamaicans, Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart share the silver in dead heat at 10.98 (17 August 2008)
Ethiopians Kenenisa Bekele and Sileshi Sihine took the gold and silver in the men’s 10,000m in 27:1.17 seconds and 9:89 respectively while Micah Kogo of Kenya won the bronze in 27:04.11 (17 August 2008)
Jamaican Usain Bolt at 21, takes Olympic gold in men’s 100m in 9.69 seconds, Richard Thompson of Trinidad & Tobago took the silver in 9.89 seconds (16 August 2008).

Catalina Hawley, one of the main organizers of the 1st Annual Anguilla Golf Classic, sent me an invitation to attend the various festivities surrounding this fundraising event for the Teacher Gloria Omololu Institute. As readers will see in this week’s edition of The Anguillian, there is an article that describes in detail the event as well as highlights various sponsors, organizers and awardees. Once again, like other golf events in the past, there was an outpour of people who not only played but many sponsors who generously gave as well. The Institute is well publicized locally and there would hardly be anyone who has not heard of it. Yet, in reading through the literature given out at the various events, it became more apparent that there is more to this place than just a private school.

Cap Juluca – the award-winning luxury resort on the pristine Caribbean island of Anguilla – has tapped acclaimed classic French chef Rene Bajeux to spearhead its culinary operations.
Cap Juluca’s General Manager Gary Thulander stated that Bajeux will take charge as executive chef for the resort, overseeing three restaurants, as well as in-room dining and catering.

25 July 2008
Honourable Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming
Chief Minister’s Office
Government of Anguilla
P.O. Box 60
The Valley
ANGUILLA
Dear Hon. Chief Minister Fleming,

Re. Sand mining at Windward Point Beach

Over the last two and a half years, the Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School (ALHCS) Environmental and Conservation Club has been monitoring the changes at Windward Point Beach. We have been very concerned about what we have seen and how rapidly the situation has degraded. As mentioned in a previous letter to you, we indicated that this matter would require serious and immediate attention.