‘Officer Willis’
In a Beaconite’s opinion, one of the lighter-hearted moments of the trial of two men for allegedly failing to declare currency came during Customs officer Darwin Scatliffe’s testimony.
The K9 handler confused Magistrate Dr. Velon John when he referred to his search dog as “Officer Willis.” Dr. John apparently thought Mr. Scatliffe was referring to another human until he said that Officer Willis started “aggressively pulling his leash and wagging his tail.” The magistrate stopped the testimony to ask who Officer Willis was. When Mr. Scatliffe explained that it was his dog, a bemused Dr. John said he should refer to the animal by another name. “There should be a different designation,” he said. “You’re putting the dog on the same level as yourself, Officer Scatliffe.” Defence attorney Jamal Smith explained to Dr. John that K9s are technically designated as officers under the Customs Management and Duties Act, but from then on Mr. Scatliffe obliged the judge and referred to the dog as “K9 Willis.”
Insta-sailing
A Beaconite who dabbles in social media loved seeing how BVI Spring Regatta officials and participants used the mobile photo- and video-sharing platform Instagram last week. On their website and on social media platforms, event organisers encouraged participants to use the hashtag #BVISR, allowing anyone with an interest to easily find photos from the event. The variety of shots was great to see, too. They included professional-looking aerials; phone-photo classics like the cocktail pictured with sand and sea in the background; images of cats; and, of course, heavily filtered selfies. The mobile platform is owned by social networking giant Facebook, and has already surpassed its parent company in popularity among teens, so the Beaconite can also congratulate the 45-year-old BVISR for keeping up with the technological times.
Alternative energy
It’s often difficult to draw clear lines between geopolitical events and concrete developments that affect people’s everyday lives. But for residents of the Caribbean, there’s a growing likelihood that further political instability in Venezuela could cause the country to discontinue its programme to provide cheap oil to the region. And that could spur governments to do a lot more, and quickly, about finding alternative sources of energy such as wind and solar, according to a recent article in the Christian Science Monitor. The newspaper reported that that the Venezuelan government’s Petrocaribe programme offered 17 countries the chance to receive cheap oil and pay for it over 20 years, while using the savings to develop renewable energy plans. But, the newspaper reported, several countries, such as the Dominican Republic, instead took the cheap oil, refined it and sold it at market prices, pocketing the difference as government revenue. With ongoing protests in Venezuela over living conditions there, it appears likely that the country will stop the Petrocaribe pact and start charging market prices for everyone. And that could provide further incentive for Caribbean leaders to invest in renewables, the CSM suggested. A Beaconite who attended a recent renewable energy summit on Sir Richard Branson’s Mosquito Island hopes that this speculation will prove true.
Brewers Bay seawall
You can’t fight the ocean. That much is obvious when viewing the remnants of a seawall that was constructed years ago on Brewers Bay beach. Despite subsequent repair attempts, much of the wall has been knocked down by the ocean, and its remains now litter the sand. Beaconites hope that government will carry out a cleanup effort soon, and that leaders will recognise the futility of most manmade structures designed to hold back the natural forces of the ocean. The seawall is not the only such project, after all: Other attempts at preventing erosion on Virgin Islands beaches have met with a similar fate. The territory’s beaches are among its most precious assets, and unnecessary attempts to alter them — which rarely, if ever, succeed in the long term — should be avoided.
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