After a short parade in Cruz Bay’s Franklin Powell Park in St. John, a crowd gathered a few miles away at the Annaberg Sugar Plantation Saturday afternoon to celebrate the 39th annual USVI/BVI Friendship Day.
“We know how close these islands are geographically,” acting VI Governor Inez Archibald told a crowd of about 100. “But I must say that as I was coming over in the boat this morning it hit me that we are only a stone’s throw away.”
Ms. Archibald said the relationship between the two territories has grown by “leaps and bounds” in the past few years, adding that the two governments have shown cooperation in the fight against drug and human trafficking in the region — not to mention working together to promote Carnival and August Emancipation Festival celebrations.
“We dance to the music of the steel pan, we eat roast pork and rice and peas, we make coconut tart and fish and fungi,” Ms. Archibald said, “All of which, I believe, speaks to our shared roots and reminds us that we are one people.”
See the Oct. 25, 2012 edition for full coverage.
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