When Dr. Nikki Rubaine pulled up to the food fair at the Cyril B. Romney Tortola Pier Park on Friday, she knew exactly what she wanted to eat: gooseberry stew, tamarind stew, and, most of all, cassava bread. Baking cassava bread “is a challenge that...
August 7, 2020
August 5, 2020
As ten-year deadline approaches, Virgin Islands lags on renewable energy goals
Ever since the Virgin Islands government began supplying public electricity in the 1950s, the territory has been powered almost exclusively by diesel fuel even as other countries around the globe have begun transitioning to alternative energy. In 2003, VI leaders devised a plan to catch...
August 2, 2020
Historic sloop back in the water
“Boy, you hear that crispy sound?” Jamel “Fiyah” Davies said with a smile as he stepped off the brightly painted sailboat Youth Instructor. “That the sound of new sails. The sound of money.” He, Dale Durrant, Martin Van Houten and Geoff Brooks were busy preparing...
August 3, 2020
Virtual Emancipation Day service reflects on past, present
Though the Emancipation Day service could not be held in person due to Covid-19 precautions, viewers who tuned in to the virtual event on Sunday still got an up close and personal look at the people and places that played key roles in the emancipation...
August 3, 2020
Businesses can now apply for grants
According to Karia Christopher, director of the Department of Trade, Investment Promotion and Consumer Affairs, “99 percent of businesses that apply will qualify” for the government’s $6.5 million Small Business Sector Grant Programme launched to provide relief to firms struggling due to the Covid-19 pandemic....
August 3, 2020
Discovering your own backyard
With borders tightly restricted due to the Covid-19 pandemic, now is a perfect time for a “staycation,” according to tourism-based businesses that have been promoting a variety of packages to residents. “We’ve found a lot of people who live in the BVI who’ve never even...
August 2, 2020
Jost lockdown lifted as Cuban doctors arrive
With a lockdown of Jost Van Dyke lifted after 335 residents on the island tested negative for Covid-19 and none tested positive, the territory remains under a curfew between midnight and 5 a.m. with no notice of when borders may open to work-permit holders or...
August 1, 2020
A socially distanced festival begins
Once, while abroad in Canada, somebody asked Jadienne Webb where she came from. Leaning into her identity and her accent, Ms. Webb said, “I live where you vacay, you escape your cold winters for my home.” During her performance at Friday night’s poetry slam, which...
July 31, 2020
Festival report sheds light on last year
After the government failed to provide legally mandated annual reports on Festival spending for three years, Education, Culture, Youth Affairs, Fisheries and Agriculture Minister Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley recently broke the streak by laying the 2019 budget breakdown on the table during a recent House...
July 31, 2020
House votes to review 2007 Constitution
As the Virgin Islands prepares to celebrate emancipation, elected leaders also turned to the history books this week before greenlighting a constitutional review. Premier Andrew Fahie referenced the political groundswell that Anegada resident Theodolph Faulkner generated in the late 1940s when petitioning for Virgin Islanders’...
July 31, 2020
Virtual graduation ceremonies continue
Graduates from the Virgin Islands School of Technical Studies showed strength and resilience in completing their studies amidst the ongoing recovery from the 2017 hurricanes, and host Ronn Grant of 284 Media said that fortitude will carry the Class of 2020 forward amid the challenges...
