We might view contemptuously United States President Donald Trump’s attempts to revive the US coal industry against global moves towards cleaner energy, but he gave an enormous boost to the …
July 1, 2020
June 17, 2020
COMMENTARY – Need seen for telecom taskforce
In 1983, Tom Crowe reported enthusiastically to the Virgin Islands government on the prospects for computerisation reducing the territory’s dependence on tourism (see my May 28 commentary titled “‘Commuting home’ …
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June 3, 2020
COMMENTARY — ‘Commuting home’ considered
In May 1986, shortly after being appointed head of the Virgin Islands Library Services Department, I presented a paper to a regional conference on St. Croix, foreseeing a bright future …
May 27, 2020
COMMENTARY — Residents warned to use sanitisers safely
As a former power walker, I sympathise with the runners who are now allowed to exercise outdoors but are expected to wear face masks that obstruct their breathing. However, recent …
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May 20, 2020
COMMENTARY — Residents urged to handle sanitisers, wipes with care
I recently read the subtitles on a video as a bright young girl led viewers round her refugee camp. She took us to a communal standpipe, filled a small jerrycan …
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May 13, 2020
COMMENTARY — Call made to ‘revive our pride’
The shocking way in which a few greedy people took advantage of the efforts of the government and voluntary services to feed the hungry during the recent lockdown reminds us …
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April 29, 2020
COMMENTARY — Cayman’s Covid-19 response considered
I exchanged messages with a distant cousin over Easter, for the first time since Christmas. He told me his family was recovering from Covid-19. He had just been gardening, but …
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April 15, 2020
COMMENTARY — Distancing seen as a ‘moral duty’
A statistical model of the unchecked spread of COVID-19 predicts that 85 percent of the Virgin Islands population would become infected, with more severe symptoms experienced by seniors and people …
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April 8, 2020
COMMENTARY — Amid pandemic, history recalled
While writing the Dec. 19 commentary “VI libraries gone ‘back to the future,’” I rediscovered an article I had written on “Information Technology in the Caribbean” in April 1987. It …
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April 1, 2020
COMMENTARY — VI urged to learn from other responses
As the newscasters on the BBC World Service read out their reports on the campaigns against COVID-19 being fought in various countries, it became apparent that the Virgin Islands would …
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March 25, 2020
COMMENTARY — VI urged to learn from COVID-19
I continue below the timeline I traced verbally in my March 5 commentary “Writer reassured by gov’t responses,” showing the rapidity with which COVID-19 has spread to the Eastern Caribbean …
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March 11, 2020
COMMENTARY — Writer reassured by gov’t response
Naturally, I welcome the comprehensive statement by Health and Social Development Minister Carvin Malone on the government’s response to the rapidly evolving spread of the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19. …
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February 19, 2020
COMMENTARY — VI warned of likely hard Brexit
Since I urged the Virgin Islands government to prepare for Brexit in the Jan. 30 edition of the Beacon, the United Kingdom’s Parliaments Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) has become the …
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February 5, 2020
COMMENTARY — VI urged to prepare for Brexit
The Virgin Islands government would be squandering precious time if it tried to make separate trade deals with the European Union after Brexit, which United Kingdom professor Dr. Peter Clegg …
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December 11, 2019
COMMENTARY — Patient recounts health-care journey in VI, UK
Polls show that most Brits would agree with the European Union leader who “reserved a special place in hell” for whoever invented Brexit, but they strongly differ on their attitudes …
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November 27, 2019
COMMENTARY — VI seen through ‘looking glass’
We recall with amusement how our forefathers entered St. Thomas “through the window,” but Alice’s observations of life in the present-day Virgin Islands through the looking glass (as introduced in …
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November 13, 2019
COMMENTARY — Kenyan author’s VI ties noted
In Pursuit of Peace in Africa: An Autobiography, by retired Kenyan Army Lieutenant General Daniel Opande, was published a few months ago in Nairobi, Kenya, but sharp-eyed readers will spot …
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October 17, 2019
COMMENTARY — Gov’t called out over closed libraries
During my first visit to the United Kingdom since 2012, my first priority was to claim my senior citizen’s benefits, like entitlement to free travel on public transport. However, I …
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July 3, 2019
Commentary — Book on Cornish in Caribbean seen as important to VI history
Over five years ago, I received a “blast from the past:” an email from an organiser of a UNESCO workshop in Antigua in the mid-1980s on the use of mini/micro …
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June 18, 2019
Commentary — VI-Cornwall links explained
A recurring theme throughout more than 100 commentaries I have contributed to the Beacon has been the Virgin Islands’ ties over time with Cornwall, a county in southwest England. Last …
June 11, 2019
Commentary — UK-VI roadmap proposed
Whatever the reasons for the premier’s attempts to fast-track residency and belongership applications, the genie is out of the bottle: The eruption of heated arguments for and against the proposal …
May 14, 2019
COMMENTARY — Decolonisation committee reconsidered
Virgin Islanders living in the United Kingdom who have registered to vote there would serve the territory’s best interests by supporting a Remain party like the Liberal Democrats or Greens …
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April 23, 2019
Commentary — ‘A contrarian view of independence’
The world’s first formal stock exchange was established in Amsterdam in the early 1600s. The two major companies listed on it were the Dutch East India Company (founded in 1602) …
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April 17, 2019
COMMENTARY — Ideas offered for e-gov’t, telecoms
Moves towards e-government are welcome but overdue in an economy dependent on telecommunications to make its tourist product and financial services industry more attractive and efficient. We might emulate Estonia’s …
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April 2, 2019
Commentary — Concerns about hackers linger
I am related to seven different kiwi (New Zealander) families, the first descended from a war bride taken in 1917 to a gold-mining town in South Island, better known for …
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