Local News

The Fifth Annual Teachers’ Appreciation Ceremony 2008, an event by the Department of Education, was held at the Campus B Auditorium on August 29. Two of the distinctive features were a new group of Anguillians entering the teaching profession for the first time and among them an increased number of male teachers but still heavily outnumbered by their female counterparts.

In a flurry of excitement and appreciation at the No-Walls Church of Hope on the evening of Friday, August 29th, some 72 children, primarily students attending the Valley Primary School, were presented with a new supply of bags, books, and miscellaneous school supplies for the new school year.

I heard through the grapevine that the Anguilla Government was planning a salary increase for its workers, and I also learnt through the grapevine that it had difficulty in reaching a consensus in arriving at a percentage increase among the different grades.

In its fourteenth year of innovative educational excellence the Teacher Gloria Omololu Institute continues on its trail blazing path as a leader in education on Anguilla!

The National Bank of Anguilla Ltd today congratulates two of its employees Mrs. Elma Goodridge and Mrs. Marjorie Richardson who have successfully received their Diploma in Banking from the Graduate School of Banking (GSB) at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Mrs. Goodridge and Mrs. Richardson began their studies at GSB in 2006, which consisted of classroom instruction at the Graduate School of Banking during two-week resident sessions for three consecutive summers, along with comprehensive home study and intersession projects between summer resident sessions.

The Health Authority of Anguilla has just completed its bi-annual performance review for January to June 2008 and has set new goals to further develop its services to the people of the island. The review was held at Paradise Cove Resort on August 29 with the Chairman and members of the Board, officials of the Corporate Office and heads of the various health departments in attendance.

Members of the Sixth Anguilla Girl Guide Company at Island Harbour have received various awards as they continue to forge ahead to make their organisation one of the most active and committed youth groups on the island.

In the Anguilla House of Assembly on Tuesday this week, Opposition Member, Edison Baird, requested information on two matters arising from the extension of Wallblake Airport. His questions were directed to the Minister of Finance, Economic Development, Investment, Commerce and Tourism, Victor Banks.
Mr. Baird prefaced his request by recalling that the Government had reached agreement with a number of affected land and/or house owners on certain compensation packages which he understood to involve land exchanges, replacement houses and monetary payments. The Opposition Member requested the following information:

A brilliant Anguillian student, Nashara Webster of Island Harbour, who has the distinction of being the Island’s Scholarship Winner, awarded by the Government, will now be studying in Canada where she is also the proud winner of a scholarship from Trent University at Peterborough, on the outskirts of Toronto.

FirstCaribbean International Bank has provided financing to purchase educational materials for a number of needy and less privileged school children.

The Bank has partnered with the Government of Anguilla Social Welfare Department and presented a cheque for EC$8,440.00 as part of its Adopt-A-Cause Programme.

Adopt-A-Cause is an exciting community programme, being run under the aegis of the FirstCaribbean Foundation, which was established to oversee the Bank’s sponsorship and community relations programme.

While it is becoming increasingly challenging to deal with offenders now being incarcerated at Her Majesty’s Prison in Anguilla, an additional number of Prison Officers have taken up appointments in the service bringing the total to forty-five.

Thirty-one persons, including adults and young people in Anguilla, have now developed skills in soap and candle-making. An exhibition of the attractive-looking and useful products was staged in the lobby of the General Post Office on Tuesday this week and, if the interest of the manufacturers and the support of the public continue, the naturally-made items may appear regularly on the local market.

The Education Department in Anguilla has embarked on a school leadership programme aimed at having a cadre of teachers available so that when the time comes for retirement there will be a list of persons to draw from to fill the vacant posts.

The Rotary District Governor for District 7020 (The Caribbean) visited Anguilla on Thursday, August 21. District Governor Rupert W. Ross, Jr., from the island of St. Croix, took office on July 1 and has started his travels around the 10 distinct countries in this very unique Rotary District.

The term invasive Alien species generally refers to organisms (plants, animals, pathogens) that are non-native to the environment which they are in and are likely to cause economic, social, and/or environmental harm. Invasive species (or introduced species or non-native species as they are sometimes called) have been deliberately or unintentionally introduced to countries.
One of the most common ways by which an invasive species enters a country is through the trade industry. These species can be transported from one environment to another by concealing themselves in cargo or containers. For example, imported goods and material that are not checked thoroughly before and after transportation can result in the introduction of undetected species. Additionally, yachts, cargo ships, and other boats that move between different bodies of water can transport marine organisms from one body or water to another in their ballast water and even on the boat itself.

Opposition Member, Hubert Hughes, moved in a Motion in the Anguilla House of Assembly on Tuesday, August 26, in which he contended that the Government’s road infrastructure programme favoured the eastern end of the island more than the western section.

The Motion, which was debated for some five hours, brought denial by the Government which stressed that its development programme, including roads and various other social projects, was an island-wide undertaking for the welfare and progress of all the people.

Minister of Social Development, Evans Rogers, says there is a need for a united Anguilla and has appealed to his fellow parliamentarians to avoid causing divisions of any kind among the people.

As police in Anguilla continue their investigations into a shooting incident at Rey Hill on the night of August 17, one person, Sheridan Jacob of East End, said to be in his 20s, has been arrested and charged with attempted murder.

Unlike in previous times, the Anguilla House of Assembly is meeting quite frequently and it always appears that there are several matters of general public interest to put forward by both Government and Opposition and to debate. This is good parliamentary practice and should be adhered to so that the elected representatives can discharge the people’s business in a way that will satisfy and enlighten them as the case may be. This has been, and continues to be, the developing trend that the Speaker would like the House to follow. For one thing, it has the advantage of dealing expeditiously with matters of importance to the electorate and to the efficient running of the island’s affairs and thereby prevents a building up and shelving of agenda items which can otherwise be dispensed within record time.
Alas, this is not working out the way it should. It is increasingly becoming the norm for members of the House to deliberately or, to be kind to them, to inadvertently disregard the real substance and subject matter of the Order of Business. The result is that the listening public, who may not be privy to the agenda before the House, can form the opinion that there is really nothing of significance to engage their attention.

The current effort by the Government of Anguilla towards constitutional development is a matter of continuing interest on the island. In view of this, The Anguillian, in cooperation with the Social Security Board, will be publishing, over the coming few weeks, in serial form, a paper delivered by Dame Bernice Lake, DGGN, Q.C. at the 8th Annual Walter G. Hodge Memorial Lecture in June this year. The first installment of that lecture follows:
Throughout the region, which we know as the Eastern Caribbean States, there is a shared evolution from the classification of colonial territory to that of emergent democratic nation states. That process has been evolutionary rather than revolutionary, and, for that reason, our sense of nationalism is not as frenzied and fanatical as those nation states who have come through the cauldron and crucible of armed conflict with their colonial masters.