"The light that comes from wisdom never goes out"
Mark Twain once said that history does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes. In the hurricanes of 2017, we heard echoes of what Virgin Islands residents experienced 150 years …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — 2017 disasters ‘rhymed’ with 1867’s”
In October, we expressed our chagrin after the government allowed Heroes and Foreparents Day to pass without an official in-person celebration. Last week, government did it again. On Nov. 28, …
Tooting our horn Beaconites have big news. Last month the Beacon received one of the premier investigative reporting awards in the hemisphere for its part in a recent cross-border collaboration …
Life is wonderful, Life is unpredictable. Life throws things at us every day. It throws obstacles and opportunities; It gives choices. We cannot rehearse life; We have to deal with …
In today’s highly interconnected and networked world, collaboration prevails over competition. This is despite the pushback against globalisation by a number of authoritarian rulers and states. After leaving the European …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — In Europe, lessons for VI, USVI”
Over the next year, the Constitutional Review Commission will work to produce a report advising the House of Assembly on the way forward toward a stronger Constitution. But first, they …
Continue reading “EDITORIAL: Please weigh in on Constitution”
Society is a complex mix of individuals, groups, institutions and cultures. But it all begins at the base of the family. Every family is important. Every family contributes to the …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — VI urged to support caregivers”
On Aug. 26, 1854, the United Kingdom government replaced the Virgin Islands’ House of Assembly with a Legislative Council of only nine members following the Cattle Tax Riots (as recounted …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — VI’s political history reviewed”
For vulnerable island nations like the Virgin Islands, there were few surprises this year at the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference. Despite some important progress in the right direction …
Continue reading “EDITORIAL: Global climate pledges fall short again”
Order in the court This week saw the announcement of a new, more accessible portal intended to facilitate more efficient court proceedings in the Virgin Islands, and a Beaconite expects …
Recently, I concluded that somewhere over the years we stopped engineering roads and settled for roadways that are cousins to obstacle courses. Potholes, which are the least of the problem, …
supposedly it happened all at one time a quiet revelation that took me there away to a paradise not caught in dream or lost in nostalgia but in the reality …
Your commentator David Jessop may be a good political analyst, but he is not a very good historian. His claim in the Nov. 3 edition that Rishi Sunak, at 42, …
WhatsApp lies. Defamatory Facebook posts. Fake news. The Virgin Islands, like the rest of the world, is facing an epidemic of disinformation, and the entire community must work together to …
Dr. Georges, the poet laureate of the Virgin Islands, delivered this 2022 Laureate Lecture at the opening of Culture and Tourism Month on Nov. 1 at Maria’s by the Sea. …
Continue reading “Laureate Lecture 2022: ‘Stone by Bloody Stone’”
Lit Fest Two Beaconites were thrilled to take part in the BVI Literary Arts Festival last week. Beacon Editor Freeman Rogers, above, hosted a panel with fiction authors Tiphanie Yanique, …
At a time when the Virgin Islands is experiencing a cultural renaissance of sorts, the government and its partners have continued to outdo themselves each November during Culture and Tourism …
Continue reading “EDITORIAL: Three cheers for Virgin Islands culture”
We are impressed by the innovative plan to use drones to track the increasing amount of sargassum washing up on the territory’s shores. However, the growing problem also needs a …
Continue reading “EDITORIAL: Cross-agency strategy needed for sargassum”
UK leadership The recent shakeup in the United Kingdom government has caused all kinds of speculation about the possible impacts here in the Virgin Islands. One political candidate even suggested …
Below is the second part of a two-part commentary, continued from last week. Some of the tourism solutions Jamaica Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett and others have proposed recently have been …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Regional tourism agenda proposed, part two”
Around this time last year, we sang the government’s praises for the decision to replace St. Ursula’s Day with Heroes and Foreparents Day as part of a larger programme of …
Continue reading “EDITORIAL: Heroes, foreparents forgotten?”
In the classroom A Beaconite’s book club joined in this year’s celebration of Reading is Fun Week by reading to students from Ebenezer Thomas Primary School and Eslyn Henley Richiez …
The below is the first part of a two-part commentary. The second part will be published next week. No one should be in doubt. The Caribbean tourism recovery is …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Regional tourism agenda proposed, part one”
This month brought good and bad news as Governor John Rankin and Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley both reported on the first three months of the ongoing Commission of Inquiry …
Continue reading “EDITORIAL: Government, governor must collaborate on reform promises”
Another school closed After everything that primary school students and staff have been through this year, a Beaconite was sad to hear that students from Alexandria Maduro Primary School had …