It’s a sign
A Reporter’s Notebook item published on Oct. 31 highlighted an embarrassing error on a mock street sign then in the Noel Lloyd Positive Action Movement Park. At the time, the sign read “Pasty C. Lake Ln.” That’s right: “Pasty” instead of “Patsy.” On a recent visit to the park, however, the Beaconite was pleased to see that the sign had been replaced with a new one that spelled Ms. Lake’s name correctly. The Beaconite isn’t sure who fixed the sign — or who got it wrong in the first place — but he is glad that someone did the right thing. It’s not a good look for a sign honouring a prominent resident to be misspelled in a public park. In other news, it would seem that any fears that the Beacon doesn’t have readers in high places should now be quelled.
Naughty or nice?
With the Yuletide fast approaching, it looks like the Virgin Islands is experiencing Christmas frost for the first time. There was a definite chill in the air between the territory’s former top political pairing, Premier Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley and the woman he recently dumped as his deputy, now-opposition member Lorna Smith, at a swanky hotel relaunch on Friday. When Ms. Smith took to the podium to heap praise on entrepreneur Mark Vanterpool (who happens to be her brother) at the lavish reopening of Quito’s Luxury Inn as the Cane Garden Bay Beach Hotel, it felt like she wanted to heap something very different over the head of the ever-smiling premier standing a few feet away. Ms. Smith began with a merely caustic comment: “We know that this year there have been good times, but there have been bad times — including my being replaced.” Then she decided against pleasantries and let rip, adding, “Or fired, if you want to call it that!” And perhaps in a pointer to unfinished political business between the two, she concluded, “But I don’t need a title to be bullish and committed to the development and growth of this country. Our best days are yet ahead.” Santa must now decide who has been naughty and who has been nice.
Showing the flag
In recent days, a Beaconite has enjoyed seeing the Virgin Islands flags that were hung along Main Street for last week’s commemoration of the 1949 Great March, where hundreds of residents followed in the footsteps of people who protested for greater political autonomy in the territory 75 years ago. Other residents who spoke with her during the holiday also remarked on the flags, noting the embrace of national pride in the territory. Since the celebration, the flags have remained waving in the breeze. In recent days, while the reporter was walking along Main Street heading to the Beacon office, she observed cruise ship tourists pausing to take photos of the flags as they wandered around Road Town. That was no surprise to the Beaconite. The territorial flags add colour and character to the street. She thinks that it would be nice to see these flags remain up, lining the route some 1,500 Virgin Islanders marched 75 years ago. They could be something that the taxi drivers point out to tourists to share the history of the Great March and the holiday honouring the important demonstration that led to the reinstatement of the Legislative Council in 1950.