Good God
God must have been late back from his summer holidays, then? Asked previously if the government would complete the Commission of Inquiry’s recommendations for improving governance by the (already extended) deadline of Aug. 31, Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley had been rather esoteric on the prospects. “There is no need to be nervous. God is in control. We do our best and leave the rest to God,” he reportedly told ZBVI Radio. So a Beaconite can only conclude that the government’s “best” was not good enough, or that God was finding the devil in the detail of the small print, as the government fell short of the deadline by several pieces of promised legislation. Now, to be fair to God, He/She/They have rather a lot to do, what with keeping the universe ticking over and all that. But Dr. Wheatley, perhaps not so much, and he has had more than two years to get the COI reforms over the line. In a press conference he held with Governor Daniel Pruce on Friday, neither man would actually say the deadline failure was a failure. Rather, they’d just been caringly careful about it all (no one blamed God). And now the governor and the premier are planning a nice little mini-break to London next week to go over the whole thing — yet again — with the United Kingdom overseas territories minister. Obviously, God has to be there too as God has a professional obligation to be in all places at all times. Which will hopefully make up for God’s failure to sort the COI stuff out in the first place. And, anyway, where would God even have gone on holiday? After creating everything, it must just feel like: “Oh, another two weeks in my back garden, is it?” Well, don’t bother asking the premier or the governor about that: Besides being unable to say the word “failure,” they also would not discuss anything else during their 90-minute “press conference” apart from the non-failure failure to meet their Saturday COI deadline. The $13 million black hole overspend in public servants’ pay? Nah, we’d rather not get into that, thank you very much. The widespread bank account worry caused by the cyberattack at the BVI Electricity Corporation? Let’s move on, cheers! On this showing, perhaps God really does need to spend much more time trying to sort out the VI after all?
History
While a Beaconite was sitting in her childhood home in Arizona talking to her 12-year-old sister and 8-year-old brother about the recent 70th August Emancipation Festival, she found herself relaying parts of the history of the Virgin Islands. Both siblings were most impressed by pictures of moko jumbies dancing during the August Monday Parade held last month. “That’s so cool,” her sister said, remarking on photos of a troupe of child moko jumbies who seemed to be about her age. Indeed it was. It can be easy to forget — or, at the very least, take for granted — how interesting a community’s culture actually is, the reporter reflected. And so she did not stop with just speaking to her siblings about the Festival. She spoke to them of the wider history of the VI, pulling many of her anecdotes from past conversations with the VI historian Dr. Angel Smith, who is also the director of the Archives and Records Management Unit. Speaking to these children, who have never even visited the Caribbean before, was fulfilling as the reporter felt she was able to impart various parts of VI culture to them. She hopes that they can come visit soon to see the territory’s beauty for themselves.