A Happy New Year to you all!
We usher in a most auspicious year for both the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and The Bahamas, as we both celebrate our 50th Anniversaries.
For our Community, this milestone comes at a time when regional co-operation has never been more urgent and necessary. The shock of and response to the Covid-19 pandemic was a stark illustration of the limitations of working alone.
Working alone, none of us will be able to overcome the existential threat posed by climate change. Working alone, none of us will be able to fully seize the opportunities of the new world order, where old certainties are fast disappearing, and new technologies favour the agile and the clever.
We all share common historiesā trials, traumas, and triumphs. As regional neighbours, we have, through the years, encountered many of the same hurdles, beat down the same walls, and conquered the same challenges. And indeed, we owe it to ourselves and each other to recognize that we are and always have been in this together.
We are at a tipping point, where it is imperative that we build on and strengthen the
foundations of the past 50 years. There is already much on the agenda.
Our Community is making great strides towards ensuring food and nutrition security. And we are on track to reduce our food import bill by 25 percent by 2025.
With the help of international partners, we also want to make further progress on our plans to increase the use of renewable energy. This is not only an alternative to expensive fossil fuel-based energy, but a critical means of reducing carbon in the fight against climate change.
We will also continue to work closely and vigorously with other Small Island and Low-lying Coastal Developing States (SIDS) to continue our advocacy on the many issues relating to climate change, which impact us all. In particular, we will aggressively push for the āLoss and Damage Fundā agreed at COP27 in Egypt, to be made fully operational.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations has assured us of his continuing support for our advocacy to pursue debt relief, reform of International Financial Institutions, and to establish a Multi-Dimensional Vulnerability Index for fairer criterion for access to concessional development funding.
At home, we are determined to help Haiti resolve its challenges. The beleaguered people of Haiti desperately need respite from the political, economic and security crises which have engulfed the country. We will continue to support all stakeholders to craft a Haitian led solution. For CARICOM, the resolution of the immediate crisis will be a first step towards the crafting of a long-term sustainable development plan for Haiti.
My thanks to the President of Suriname, His Excellency Chandrikapersad Santokhi, for his superb stewardship of the Community over the past six months. With the help and support of my colleague Heads of Government, I look forward to building on his legacy.
This New Year holds much promise for our Caribbean Community. Over the next 50
years, we will continue to seek to strengthen our partnership, so that the lives of all of our peoples are made better.
A Prosperous and Productive 2023 to you all!
NEUVA SAYS:
Good morning St. Lucia happy 2023:
Good morning St. Lucia, how are you? Yes, I am your native son, still collecting statistics in a would-be undeveloped St. Lucia, however, the crime rate has not lagged, ask yourself why, itās a combination of bad management, bad ideas, bad debts, and sticky fingers.
Unreliable and thugs going house to house deceiving the sons and daughters and selling them a bill of inaccurate data with their bull shit talk, ask what or where the Island rank in the Human Development Index, in the Gross National Income per capita, poverty is not just mainly rural but rampant, it shows when you are victimized by greedy hungry neighbors, the formal jobs are given to outsiders while your native-born answer to them yes Sir, of course, some live in extreme poverty, to ashame to come forward and be counted.
I doubt if 50% of the Island children attend school, which is the wealth of a nation to stand tall and be counted, and if those who attend would they even make it to third grade, I say that to invoke your consent and God willing you will take back your Island from the degradation it’s heading.
St. Lucia my native St. Lucia, what is your literacy rate at present ranking in the Caribbean Developing Countries, mothers and fathers how is your life expectancy, what is the mortality because of malnourishment do your children die before reaching their first birthday probably.
Yet you boast of being intellectuals with morals and decency you even want to govern my people, fancying yourself adequately qualified.
You who are capable get involved in a country where about 50% of children donāt attend school, you can help make a difference, education can transform communities for justice, yes you can make a difference you can change someoneās life through caring and support, donāt let your charitable spirit diminish there are also many other ways you can help, not through greed and pompous pride, not through name calling and embezzlement, certainly not through trickly.
I doubt if beautiful St. Lucia will or can make it through 2023, due to the constant borrowing from the world bank, from the bank, and into the pockets of the powers be, no wonder they all want to be Prime Ministers and so forth, there is ill-gotten wealth to be gain, may Jehovah intervene and shut the door on those infidels and junkyard dogs.
St. Lucia my St. Lucia, the pitons are welcoming visitors to your shores, the Sulpher Springs are refreshing their spirit, and the lush climate and inviting beaches not to mention the delicious food are part of your god-given wealth, go ahead and share with your neighbors not only to the visitors it is yours and theirs also.
Once upon a time those were our hidden gems, but now they are captivated and sold to foreign nationals for a mere trinket because we have become a nation of beggars, all because of a few bad-minded nasty thugs we call our leaders, in 2023 you need a change, stop being a beggar and grab hold of the wheel stir your Island to greatness.
Editorial