Oh How! Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Mankind

As we offer our best wishes for the Christmas season, one which is traditionally considered as bringing glad tidings, we all would have wished that we had much more of the glad tidings to tell. Unfortunately, that is not the case this year and we must face reality. This has been a very harrowing year for residents of Planet Earth. St Vincent and the Grenadines and the many other small-island, underdeveloped and struggling countries like ours continued to face hardships, mainly caused by factors beyond our control.

We have been hearing about, and speaking of climate change for some years now, in our case, since that dramatic Christmas storm of 2013, but if we never fully understood, 2024 forced us to face the facts.

Vincentians have had a full dose going through drought, floods and landslides, storms and hurricanes- all in one year. So, if we were to describe life in SVG, barring our devious criminal side, we could truly say that this has been a year dominated by climate change and our responses to it. There has hardly been a month during which the headlines were not preoccupied by news of NEMO, our efforts at raising funds for relief, recovery, and reconstruction, the allocation of those funds to meet critical needs, while trying to keep the developing ship on course.The Ministries of Agriculture; Housing; and Finance faced special challenges which are ongoing.

These have crowded out much of the positive news such as our expanded international access via air transport, and have also resulted in having to balance priorities. Things were not made any easier by the disappointments in the outcome of COP 29 nor the negative effects of genocide and war on the global stage.

But we have survived, bruised and damaged, but still alive getting ready to face the new challenges of 2025. It is a year expected to be dominated by election politics, and the many often negative experiences endured during a time of political rivalries. But the bigger challenges are not going to disappear to allow us the histrionics of what some call the “silly season”. Nor will our annual promise of changing for the New Year automatically come into effect on January 1, 2025. We have, however, proven to be a resilient people, and can rise to the occasion to adapt as necessary-for the better. The needed changes have to be intentional, and must begin from now. Notwithstanding all the difficulties we have faced this year, we extend very best wishes to all for a Blessed Christmas and New Year to all.

Let us remember to live the eternal pronouncement of “Peace on Earth; Goodwill to all Mankind”.