Big ups for organisers Thanks to the Virgin Islands Festivals and Fairs Committee and other organisers, this year’s August Emancipation Festival has already been a brilliant lesson in teamwork. Weeks …
July 31, 2025
July 30, 2025
EDITORIAL: Strategic plan a big step toward better healthcare
It is no secret that the Virgin Islands’ public healthcare system is struggling, with two community clinics shuttered and other facilities across the territory understaffed, under-equipped and under-resourced. This month, …
Continue reading “EDITORIAL: Strategic plan a big step toward better healthcare”
July 24, 2025
EDITORIAL: High and dry in storm season
We are dismayed that the Virgin Islands appears to be facing at least two more hurricane seasons without the long-promised National Emergency Operations Centre building in McNamara. A purpose-built NEOC …
July 24, 2025
COMMENTARY — Father upset over Tortola playgrounds
I never used to think often about the playground in the National Parks Trust’s Queen Elizabeth II Park. However, when I became a parent, things changed. When I first started …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Father upset over Tortola playgrounds”
July 24, 2025
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK (July 24, 2025)
Desert stars Bright, white frangipani flowers caught a Beaconite’s eye last week when he was riding a motorcycle around Anegada. Sprouting from a single stalk, the plant rises a foot …
July 17, 2025
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK (July 17, 2025)
Beacon honoured again Beaconites are proud that another honour has been awarded to a cross-border series on sargassum seaweed published in April 2024 in the Beacon and several other partnering …
July 17, 2025
COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 37
This series of commentaries — begun on July 20, 2023, to celebrate the inauguration of direct flights between Miami and Beef Island — is based on Mabel Wagner’s 2015 book …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 37”
July 10, 2025
EDITORIAL: Happy Virgin Islands Day
Despite our disappointment that the government didn’t host an official Virgin Islands Day celebration this year, we were greatly encouraged by the many activities organised instead by community groups and …
July 10, 2025
COMMENTARY — Villa manager decries VG utility woes
The island of Virgin Gorda is known the world over for its natural beauty, its high-end hotels and villas, and its reputation for barefoot luxury. But there is a growing …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Villa manager decries VG utility woes”
July 10, 2025
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK (July 10, 2025)
Life savers Most everyone hates being in hospitals, but a brush with death left a Beaconite loving the people staffing the one in Road Town. A sudden medical emergency saw …
July 3, 2025
EDITORIAL: Who’s in charge at VIDIC?
After regulators’ surprise announcement on May 29 that they had begun winding down the Bank of Asia, we urged leaders to be fully transparent about the crisis by keeping the …
July 3, 2025
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK (July 3, 2025)
Salty jellies Snorkelling around Tortola on Saturday, a Beaconite saw a translucent jellyfish ahead of him. Then he saw another that was slightly bigger. Then another smaller one. Then another …
July 3, 2025
COMMENTARY — United States’ post-war power analysed
War has always been the driver of history, economics and industry. Western prosperity is a product of the battlefield. The United States became the supreme world power after World War …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — United States’ post-war power analysed”
June 30, 2025
EDITORIAL: We have mixed feelings about water strategy
The water shortages that have plagued the territory for years are a national disgrace, and we are glad the government has rolled out a preliminary strategy to address the situation. …
Continue reading “EDITORIAL: We have mixed feelings about water strategy”
June 26, 2025
EDITORIAL: Kudos to the Class of 2025
The Class of 2025 is graduating into a tumultuous world where the only certainty is uncertainty. But it is also a world of incredible opportunity. On the surface, the picture …
June 26, 2025
COMMENTARY — VI warned of ‘road to World War 3’
There are assertions that this series of commentaries on “the road to war” is of no relevance to the Virgin Islands. This writer begs to differ. These commentaries speak to …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — VI warned of ‘road to World War 3’”
June 26, 2025
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK (June 26, 2026)
Where are you from? A Beaconite is mildly — and increasingly, diplomatically — exasperated by being asked where he’s from. Not just once or twice, but whenever he is in …
June 19, 2025
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK (June 19, 2025)
Joe your own way A Beaconite appreciates that the government is working to ease traffic in Road Town, but he’s not so sure about the recent decision to allow two-way …
June 19, 2025
COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 36
In part 34 of this series on May 22, I explained that Mabel Wagner wrote in her book Lest I Forget — which chronicled her time developing Trellis Bay with …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 36”
June 17, 2025
EDITORIAL: Gov’t must explain $5m Bank of Asia deposit
We were shocked to hear Opposition Leader Myron Walwyn claim convincingly last week that the government deposited more than $5 million in Bank of Asia (BVI) Limited at a time …
Continue reading “EDITORIAL: Gov’t must explain $5m Bank of Asia deposit”
June 12, 2025
EDITORIAL: Help us help you, DPP
Though prosecutors’ recent attack on the media was peculiar and troubling, they got one thing right: Journalists must always maintain an exceedingly high standard of accuracy and fairness when reporting …
June 12, 2025
POEM – Fathers
F is for the Faith you have in me. It’s also for the Fun you bring out in me. A is for all Applause you’ve given me and for the …
June 12, 2025
COMMENTARY — US-China tensions spark concern
The very nature of the modern capitalist model — which has existed from the time of the Industrial Revolution in the 1700s, with markets and profits managed by a bourgeoisie …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — US-China tensions spark concern”
June 12, 2025
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK (June 12, 2025)
Happy birthday, Beacon The BVI Beacon turned 41 on Saturday. Much has changed since the newspaper’s first issue — a 12-page black-and-white affair — was published on June 7, 1984. …
June 5, 2025
EDITORIAL: Hurricane season is here
Have you prepared for this year’s Atlantic Hurricane Season? If not, you’re already behind. The official season started on June 1, meaning that a major storm could form at any …
ADVERTISEMENT
